yvonna: Even though I'm fairly certain that everyone knows who the "bad man" is, I won't officially reveal it until later :)
Sakura02: Nah, they're getting home schooled by Sachiko-san. Would you trust those two in public school? And I never have seen a cat walking on a power line, but they apparently do it.
Thanks: Rachael Hyuuga, Usagi323, randomkidinthecorner, NijiNoNeko, and gaaraofthefunk13 for reviewing.
"Girls, it's time to wake up." Sachiko cooed to the two girls curled up beside each other. She smiled as Naoko simply turned to face the other way while Hiroko buried herself deeper under the covers. "It's time to start your lessons. Soichiro doesn't want you two going to public school so I'm going to be teaching you from now on. Come on. Wake up."
Naoko yawned as she sat up and looked sleepily around. She looked over where Hiroko was still sound asleep and promptly threw herself on top of Hiroko. "Wake up, Hiroko!"
Hiroko yelped and thrashed about before finally emerging from beneath the blankets. She did her best to glare angrily at her twin but due to her still being half asleep, the glare wasn't near as threatening as she would have liked. "It's too early." She whined.
Sachiko chuckled and left the room. "Hurry up and get dressed or your breakfast will get cold."
Naoko smiled as her twin frantically ran about getting dressed. She followed her sister's example and changed. She had barely pulled her shirt over her head when Hiroko grabbed her hand and dragged her downstairs.
Light smiled at the two girls as they sat across from him. "Good morning, Hiroko, Naoko. Did you two sleep well?"
Both girls eyed the shinigami cackling behind Light warily. Hiroko was the first to snap out of it and smile at Light. "Yeah. Are you going to school again? Can't you stay and play with us?"
Light chuckled as he stood up. He went to the two girls and kissed the tops of their heads. "We'll play this weekend; I promise. Besides, you two get to start your own school today. Isn't that fun?"
Hiroko huffed and crosses her arms over her chest. "No. I hate school. The kids always picked on me and Naoko 'cause…" She abruptly stopped when Naoko kicked her under the table. "…'cause they were mean." Hiroko finished lamely.
Light raised an eyebrow and looked at both girls. Both Naoko and Hiroko had gone silent and refused to meet his gaze. He sighed and hugged the two girls. "Well, you won't have to worry about mean kids here. It'll just be the two of you and mom. Be good girls."
Sachiko smiled as she came back into the room, her arms filled with school books. "Shall we get started?"
"You two are amazing!" Sachiko squealed in delight as she looked over the review tests she had given the girls. "You're both only in second grade yet you're able to do seventh grade level work!" She had begun giving the girls harder tests when she saw how easily the girls finished off all of the second grade level work.
Hiroko grinned and puffed her chest out. "Mommy always told us we were geniuses."
"Just wait until Soichiro gets home." Sachiko smiled as she hugged the two girls. "Maybe we can get you two of you into private school…"
"No!" Naoko and Hiroko cried in unison. At Sachiko's shocked face, Naoko continued. "We like staying here with you, Sachiko-san. We don't want to leave."
Sachiko's smile returned and she hugged the girls tightly. "You two are so sweet." She looked up when Light entered. "Light, we have two more geniuses in this house!"
Light smiled as the twins rushed over and hugged him. "Is that so? I better watch my back or you two might steal my number one spot." He laughed as the two girls quickly shook their heads.
"Welcome home, Light-san!" Naoko said happily.
"We won't steal your spot, Light!" Hiroko said. "Light's the smartest person in the whole world!"
Sachiko chuckled as Light attempted to dislodge himself from the two children. "Girls, Light has to study. Why don't you two watch some TV while I get dinner ready."
The girls reluctantly released Light and allowed him to go upstairs. They looked around but couldn't see the shinigami anywhere. They hoped that perhaps he had simply grown bored and left.
"Wow, more criminals have died again…" Hiroko said as she and Naoko turned the television to the news.
Naoko was about to respond when suddenly the news cut off and a man sitting at a desk appeared. He had a nameplate in front of him that read 'Lind L. Taylor'. "I wonder what's going on."
"Maybe it's a special or something…" Hiroko answered.
"My name is Lind L. Taylor, more commonly known as 'L'." The man on the screen announced.
Both girls looked at each other curiously. They had heard their mother talking to someone on the phone about a person named L. They wondered if this could be the same man their mother had been trying to find. The two remembered clearly how frantically their mother had asked the other person on the phone on how she could contact L. Their mother had made that call a few months before the bad man had killed her.
The man on the screen continued to speak. "To the perpetrator of these atrocious serial murders, you have committed the most horrendous act in all of history. I will personally catch Kira, the person responsible for these murders, at any cost."
"Who's Kira?" Hiroko asked, her eyes never leaving the screen.
Naoko shrugged. "I don't know. I've never heard of him before. I guess he's the reason all those bad people have been dying lately…"
Sachiko clucked her tongue disapprovingly as she came into the living room. "This isn't something you girls should be watching."
"I think I know why you are doing this," the man on the screen continued. "But, Kira, what you are doing, is evil!"
Hiroko waved her hand. "Don't change the channel!"
Sachiko was about to protest when the man clutched his chest and suddenly slumped forward. "Oh my!"
The twins watched in shock as people dragged the man off the screen. "Did Kira just kill him!" Hiroko yelped out.
Naoko was about to respond when a distorted voice began speaking from the TV. "This is unbelievable. I did this on the off-chance that you would kill 'me'. So, Kira, you can kill anyone without even being nearby…" A giant 'L' suddenly appeared on the screen. "I am the real L, so why don't you kill me!"
"Wow, this is exciting!" Hiroko grinned as L continued yelling at Kira through the TV to kill him.
"Hiroko, this is serious!" Naoko said. "What if that L person really does get killed?"
"That's enough of that." Sachiko said firmly as she shut the TV off. "You two are going to have nightmares now, I just know it."
"I'm home!" Sayu sang as she skipped into the house.
"Sayu-oneechan!" The two girls leapt off of the couch and rushed over to the middle school girl. The two hugged her and grinned up at her. "Welcome home, Sayu-oneechan!"
Sayu grinned and hugged the two girls back. "How are my cute little imouto-chan's doing? Hey, Mom, I'm going upstairs to do my homework."
"You mean you're going to get Light to help you." Hiroko said mischievously.
"Hush you." Sayu stuck her tongue playfully out at Hiroko. "If you don't tell Mom, I'll let you come up with me and play in Light's room."
"You two need to take a bath before Soichiro gets home." Sachiko said firmly. "Go on upstairs."
The twins pouted but did as they were told. The bath was already drawn and Sachiko had even put bubbles in the water. The two splashed around for a while before finally cleaning themselves.
"I wonder if that L is the same L Mommy wanted to find." Hiroko said thoughtfully.
"I don't know." Naoko sighed.
Hiroko's eyes suddenly lit up. "If it is, maybe we can find him! I bet he'll be able to catch the bad man!"
"How are we going to find L? Mommy couldn't even find him and she's a grown up." Naoko answered.
Hiroko was silent for a moment. She grinned triumphantly and clapped her hands together. "We can ask Soichiro! If L is a good guy, I bet Soichiro knows him!"
"That's a great idea!" Naoko grinned as well.
"All right you two," Light entered the room, a mock stern look on his face. "Mom has been calling for you two for the past ten minutes now about dinner being ready. He plucked a towel off the bathroom counter and lunged forward to wrap Hiroko in it.
Hiroko squealed as she was lifted out of the water and roughly dried off. "I'm not a puppy, Light!" She whined as she managed to poke her head out.
Light bit back a laugh at how her hair was in such a disarray and still dripping with water. The angry pout she gave him didn't help. "Are you sure?" He put her down and ushered her back to Sachiko and Soichiro's room to change. "Your turn." He grinned at Naoko as he scooped her up as well.
Naoko giggled as he dried her off. She blinked up at him. "Light-san, does Soichiro-san know L?"
"Why?" Light asked, tensing slightly.
"Because our mommy was trying to find L before…before the bad man killed her." Naoko said softly. "We thought maybe L could help me and Hiroko find the bad man."
Light carried Naoko back into his parents room and sat her on the floor. "I don't think he knows L personally but the police sometimes work with L. Maybe he can find a way to contact him for the two of you."
Naoko's face lit up. "Really?" As Light nodded, Naoko spun around to go get changed. Both her and Hiroko missed the dark look that crossed Light's face as he left the room.
"All right, I hear we have two new geniuses in this house."
Both girls whipped around as they finished changing and grinned. "Soichiro!" The two cried as they tackled Soichiro to the ground.
Soichiro chuckled as he hugged the two girls. "It shouldn't surprise me that you two are so smart. After all, your mother…" He trailed off at the sad looks on the two girls faces. "Dinner is ready. Let's go eat."
Both girls held onto Soichiro's hands as they skipped down the stairs. "Are we having salmon?" Hiroko asked hopefully.
"We had salmon last night." Sachiko smiled as the two girls sat beside each other at the table.
The two girls listened as the Yagami family spoke. Naoko frowned at how quiet Soichiro was. Now that she looked at him closer, she could see dark circles under his eyes. "Soichiro-san, are you okay?"
Soichiro smiled reassuringly at the two girls. "This new case is rather exhausting. It's like trying to catch a ghost. The big boss suggested today that we may be looking for a student as a possible suspect…"
Hiroko glanced over and saw the shinigami hovering behind Light. She glared over at it while it simply stared at her. Could the shinigami be the one behind the murders? Why was it attached to Light?
"All right," Soichiro stood up. "I think it's time for two little girls to go to bed."
"Aw, do we have to?" Hiroko whined, though she didn't protest as Soichiro picked up both her and Naoko and carried them upstairs.
Soichiro tucked the two girls in. "Get a good night sleep girls." He smiled as he quietly turned off the lights and left the room.
Naoko sat up in her bed and looked frantically around. She could hear a noise from downstairs. She looked over and shook Hiroko's shoulder. "Hiroko, wake up."
Hiroko groggily sat up. She tensed as she too heard the noise. "What if it's that shinigami again?" She stood up and took her sister's hand in hers. "Let's go check it out."
"Shouldn't we wake up, Soichiro-san?" Naoko whispered as the two tiptoed down the hallway towards the stairs.
"Nah. If it's the shinigami, they won't be able to see him." Hiroko whispered. Neither girl dared to mention the possibility of it being the bad man.
The two girls crept down the stairs and peered around the corner into the kitchen. Both tensed when they saw it was indeed the shinigami. Hiroko bravely stepped forward, still holding Naoko's hand. "Hey, shinigami, what are you doing here?"
The shinigami turned around, an apple in its mouth. It cackled when it saw the girls. "Well, fancy seeing you two here. I'm surprised you two can see me right now. I guess the seal is breaking." He swallowed an apple and smacked his lips.
"What seal?" Naoko asked. "What are you talking about?"
Both girls yelped as the shinigami was suddenly in front of them, one hand covering each of their faces. The shinigami cackled. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt either of you. But, it'll be bad news if the seal breaks right now. I'll fix it for now. You won't remember seeing me or anything." A light flashed from his hands and the two girls collapsed to the floor.
Ryuk crouched down next to the girls. "It's not time yet. It'll be interesting when you two finally grow up, though." He cackled as he went back upstairs to Light's room, leaving the two girls unconscious on the floor.
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