It's been forever and day and I'm so sorry! But I haven't been idle, nor did I give up this story. It just kicked my ass. I must have re-written this from scratch at least 3 times, not to mention all the times I simply tried to make what I had work. It ended up...Well, I let you be the judge of that.
This chapter was brought to you in part by my beta FreakShowCentral. Thanks to him it made it out to you guys this fast. I was planning on keeping it locked away to work on some more...
As compensation for the long wait this chapter is almost double the word count of the previous chapters combined...
I hope you enjoy it!


The final bell rang harshly through the prep-school's empty halls, though to his own ears Raito's strained breathing surely matched it. He'd been running through the damn school like a freshman fool trying to make it to class on time.

Ryuuzaki... That bastard… Raito didn't know his inner voice could growl, but there it was.

He was simply standing there buying time, and I let him! He meant for this to happen! No problem, calm down. This is still workable. I can still make it. Just around the corner. Almost there.

Raito turned the corner in a mad rush only to watch in dismay how the door to his first class was already in motion, about to swing shut. With two quick successive steps and agility honed by many years of tennis, he lunged for the door. Fingertips brushed against cold metal, followed by his palm. Quickly, closed his hand to wrap around the doorknob just in time to stop the blasted thing dead in its track before it had the chance to lock him out.

Made it! Ha, better luck next time, Ryuuzaki! His breath caught up with him and a palpable relief slowly spread out from his core. He was on time; that bastard could suck it.

Though the echoes of the bell still rang through the corridor, the cracked door revealed that his classmates had already quieted down, a few drifting whispers the only sound left. One didn't need genius to know those were most likely on his account.

Slowly the classroom door opened. Raito's eyes swung up to look at the man behind it and connected with fierce blue eyes. Eyes that, contrary to their hue, shot nothing but pure fire. A lesser person would have mumbled a string of apologies at their onslaught.

"Please excuse my tardiness, Kheel-sensei," Raito said instead. "I ran into a new student and attempted to acquaint them with our school."

"How dutiful, Yagami-san," Kheel droned impassively, followed by a vague hand gesture towards the room. "Please, take your seat."

An uncomfortable silence hovered over the class and a few students nervously shifted in their seats or rustled through notebooks to fill it.

Unperturbed by all the eyes now glued to him, Raito stepped in and quickly perused the classroom for a suitable desk. The surprisingly average room was filled with 5 rows of desks and had a far wall entirely comprised of tall windows. The only thing belying the school's funds was the teacher's desk upfront, which would have looked more in place in an old English mansion. It was a deep red, cherry wood desk, covered with a dark chocolate leather top. Undoubtedly as antique and refined as Daikoku Academy.

As always, the rows in front of the desk were taken up by the Mihael Kheel League. His homeroom teacher was somewhat of a celebrity and had a fan-base to prove it.

Raito found a desk on the far wall by a window, and weaved through the first rows to claim it.
A contented sigh threatened to bubble up. On with the day and away from that thing.

On the other side of the classroom, Kheel was striding casually from the door to his desk with slow but purposeful steps, in what appeared to be another tailor made suit that was expertly crafted to fit as close to the body as it could. The rhythmic taps of his shoes hitting hardwood commanded the attention of everyone in the room. All eyes shifted to the teacher making his way across the front of their class.

With each fluid step, the suit's fabric followed in an easy flow that accentuated both Kheel's slender built as well as the near feline grace he was known for. A silk and wool blend, if Raito had to guess, made in an elegant charcoal grey with rough, black leather details peaking from inside the slacks pockets and around the cuffs. Good quality, he surmised. Already he could hear the appreciative coo's coming from the first rows.

"A new student you said, Yagami-san?" Kheel asked in a low voice. He reached his desk, leaned one hand on the top and shot a probing look at Raito. His eyes gleamed with subdued amusement.

Really? Today of all days Kheel-sensei decides to dig deeper? Raito folded his hands thoughtfully on top of his desk, looking every part the perfect student. Ugh, this day just continues to get better.

Despite his severe disinclination to discuss the topic of Ryuuzaki, years of practice still allowed him to manage a rather convincing, easy smile.

"Yes, Kheel-sensei, and I apologize for being late," he started off. " I met a new student on the stairs who introduced himself as Ryuuzaki. He seemed lost so I stopped to make sure he was ok."

"Ah, I see. Ryuuzaki-san, the new transfer student. What was your impression of him?"

My impression? Well, I'm impressed the infuriating and clueless creature has enough brainpower to walk, for one. Let alone that he's able to use his limited resources to apparently stalk me. It's all quite impressive, really.

Raito thickly swallowed the venomous reply back and tried to focus on being in the role of Top Student and all around congenial Light Yagami. It would be so much easier if people would simply let me move on from that monstrosity of a person.

"He was... different. He didn't wear a uniform and made no attempt to find his classes. He simply stood quietly on the stairs and looked out of a window. That's why I thought he might have been lost."

"Ryuuzaki-san is the school's latest prize acquisition," Kheel heavily dripped disdain and sarcasm on those last few words. It was no secret he hated school politics. He continued on a lighter tone with a peculiar quirk in his brow. "You know he challenges even your academic scores, Yagami-san?"

He... wait, what?

Raito was sure he actually heard some part of his mind splinter off in fragments likely never to be retrieved. There was no way, no way that that anemic, socially stunted bastard could be a match for himself. Somewhere in the midst of him trying to reconcile his disbelieved and cracking mind, Raito realized that Kheel had continued talking.

"…reputed to have an incredibly gifted student. That's why he moved here from the U.K.; England, to be precise. Very near to where I lived, as a matter of fact." The teacher's eyes trailed off as if lost in thought for a moment before coming back to the point at hand. "I was warned he was rather set in his way concerning both his unusual behavior and his most casual apparel. Quite against uniforms, it seems. "

He chuckled at that and shot Raito a meaningful look.

"That aside, I can't help but imagine it will be very interesting to see two minds such as yours challenge each other. After all, everyone needs a rival, don't they?"

Kheel looked at Raito expectantly, with a small upturned corner of his lips.

The ghoul was a match for Raito's intelligence, was he? And he wanted a challenge, did he? Well, Raito always aimed to please and had never lost a match before in his life. Ryuuzaki may have gotten the upper hand this morning, but that was simply because he'd had time to assess the situation and apparently do some research. As it stood, they were back on even footing and there was no reason Light needed to feel threatened by some socially awkward idiot savant.

Raito held Kheel's stare while a smirk crept up his face and, for once, he didn't care to fight it.

This could become very interesting, indeed, Kheel-sensei.


By lunch time, word of the new genius student had made its way around the school three times on a bullet train. It was the talk of every teacher and student alike and the cafeteria was a teeming anthill of excitement when Raito entered.

"Hey, Raito-kun!" Someone called out when Raito forced his way through the crowd to join the lunch queue, empty tray in hand.

He turned around and spotted Matsuda making his way clumsily toward him, leaving complete mayhem in his oddly apologetic and cheerful, but no less destructive wake. Unsuspecting students' white shirts were stained with their own chocolate milk and toes were mercilessly trampled on as he made his way through the crowd with a smile, only stopping every now and then to add a, "Did I do that? So-sorry about that, really!'
Matsuda was a rather ditzy but well-meaning classmate Raito shared Chemistry classes with. They'd been partnered once before and ever since then Matsuda took it to mean they were friends.

"Is it true, have you heard?" Matsuda started when he finally caught up with Raito, leaving a crowd of people behind glaring at the back of his head. "There's a new student," he continued in a rush, still completely unaware of the silent death threats being shot at him. "He's English and strange and a genius. Just as smart as…"

"As me?" Raito finished for him. He pushed his tray forward to keep up with the line. And if the push was a little abrasive, neither he nor Matsuda cared to mention it.

Matsuda turned red. "That's what they say!" he exclaimed. "You know.." Matsuda leaned closer in a conspiratorial way, while Raito took this as a prime moment to turn to the side and pick up a vanilla pudding.

He didn't want the pudding, in truth. It was just the most natural way to dodge Matsuda; unfortunately, now he'd have to walk home just to work off the calories. It should have come as no surprise to Raito, considering how the rest of the day had been, that his ruse failed. Instead, Matsuda managed to grab Raito and pulled him closer.

"They say he's from the same place Kheel-Sensei is. They say that he got his genius from the experiments Kheel-Sensei ran at the lab he got banned from before teaching here," he stage whispered at Raito.

Raito struggled free and put the pudding back. Damned thing was useless... both of them. No, make that all three of them.

Not a full day in school yet and already people have made up the most ridiculous things about this guy, Raito thought.

He for one couldn't see what would make everybody so very interested. Clearly Ryuuzaki was just hype. Once he got knocked down a peg everything would return to normal. Raito picked up a whole wheat sandwich with mostly veggies on them, then ran his hand through his hair in exasperation.

"At least one part of that's correct, Matsuda-san. I suppose that that's more than you could say of most rumors," Raito replied in a tone that had weariness heavily lined around the edges. This day was starting to have real effects on him. "He is from the same place as Kheel-sensei. The rest you'd be better off disregarding."

"How do you know that? Is it true then?! Have you met him?" Matsuda nearly bounced out of his skin like an over excited puppy on his first walk.

Raito contemplated whether to feed the boy-puppy to the chocolate milk stained sharks still lurking nearby, then exhaled. They were nearing the end of the line and Matsuda hadn't picked up anything yet.

"I have met him, yeah," Raito mentioned as he picked through the apples to find a nice red one. "But we didn't have much of a conversation. Actually, it was Kheel-sensei who mentioned that the two of them were from the same place, or near enough."

He presented his pickings to the overly cheerful lunch lady, whose attitude was far too bright for his current circumstances.

"That'll be 435 yen," she happily chirped.

Raito handed over the money before turning to Matsuda and attempted to relieve himself from at least one headache. "Have you already eaten or..?" he asked, looking pointedly at Matsuda's empty hands.

" What?" Matsuda followed Raito's eyes and noticed at last that his own hands were empty. "Crap! I can't believe I forgot! I'll… I'll have to go back, now. See you later Raito!" The boy stumbled and ran off with all the delicacy of an earthquake.

" Yeah, see ya."

At least Raito would be able to eat lunch in peace. Some days, you just had to take the small blessings.


Through sheer force of will and, might he add, impeccable composure, Light was able to make it through the rest of the day. The last bell had rung only a few moments ago and the halls were a streaming mass of high school students.

Raito's normally formidable stride had lost much of its vigor over the course of this hellish day, what with every other word being "Ryuuzaki." He hadn't been able to leave that apparition behind all day. But things were about to change. Today, the chess club meets and Raito had never been happier about it.

When he turned the corner to the clubroom entrance, he felt his slightly slumped shoulders automatically draw back in cheerful anticipation. The non-descript white door with its simple sign that stated "Chess Club" promised a clean slate, something pure and undefiled. He turned the brass knob and pushed. The door swung to midway point and beyond, a mimic of his own smile that he couldn't stop from growing wider and wider.

The tension eased off of him as he took his first few joyful steps into the room, when his eyes drew to the center…. and the whole world stopped. His smile dropped and for a second he stood frozen, his arms limp, useless weight against the sides of his body, his mouth hanging open; barely doing any better.

THERE! Sitting in the center of the room perched on a chair like some demented owl was…

Ryuuzaki! That bastard…


"Oh, what's this? Do we have a potential new member?" Raito's eyes spoke of brotherly kindness and happy, amicable chess games under spring's new blossoms.

L knew better and had to cut short the bud of his own blossoming amusement before it had the chance to spread from his eyes to the rest of his face. He'd noticed Raito's initial shock at seeing him here. The kid was not so different from all the other supposed genii he had met; utterly convinced of their superiority and exceedingly easy to agitate with reminders of their own fallacy. Oh, and had he mentioned desperate to keep up appearances? Yes, Raito certainly was that, too.

Greg was the one to finally respond to Raito's inquiry, which elicited a sharp turn of the head and a slightly tight upper lip in the latter. Curiouser and curiouser, L thought.

Greg was a gruff sort of boy; tall, slightly overweight, the type that seems to permanently wear clothes with some stain or another on them, but certainly a clever guy. By common standards in any case. Most importantly, however, he was decidedly not Raito's favorite member of the club. L found he liked Greg already.

"Yeah, maybe. Right, Ryuuzaki?" Greg answered, while slapping L on the shoulder like an old friend and leaving his hand there.

L shuddered. Well, perhaps L could understand Raito's stance at least in this one regard.


"Hmm," was the only reply out of Ryuuzaki, who quickly scooted to the opposite end of his chair, while remaining in his crouch, legs pulled up even tighter.

Raito likened him to a baboon, uninterested in the entire procedure of introduction but seemingly waiting on someone to sit in front of him so he could pick flees out of their hair. This time, however, Raito chose to take his rudeness in stride, shake off the previous hours and be who he always was. Perhaps Raito's brilliance would put It to shame and send him scurrying off to join his doubtlessly homeless comrades in a sewage drain pipe somewhere, or so he hoped.

He smiled brightly and turned to greet the great, unwelcomed guest. "No kidding," he said. "That's great! We can definitely use some new blood in our humble little band of chess players."

The room went bright with jubilation at the prospect as only a room filled with socially awkward, chess loving teenage boys could. The other boys' voices rose beyond their normally hushed murmurs to a great chorus of "That's really cool!" and "Yeah, you should join us!"

That is, until Greg raised his hand solemnly above his head to silence everyone before he graced them with the sound of his voice.

"Well," he started, and for the briefest moment both L and Raito's mind synchronized on the same thought: What the hell do you want, Greg?!

"Before he joins the club, we should find out on what level he plays, shouldn't we?"

Raito and L locked eyes instantly; they knew exactly what Greg meant.


A/N

THE GAME, MRS HUDSON, IS ON!

Next part up will be the chess game. God help me. This is the sole reason I started this fic, just to have L and Light play a believable chess game together.

P.S The line breaks are a &^*(%((&^ here. FF keeps swallowing them up, so sorry if it looks pushed together and weird. If you have any ideas to help me fix this let me know please!