ANTI-CHLOROBENZENE

"And then I come to a realization, that I should not create anything after all... It's a foolish deed that we do, unaware to ourselves, as we whirl to a stop."

004

For a time, Narutaki was silent, not saying anything unless she was asked about her opinion concerning the case. True, she manage to balance both her daily life as a college student and as someone who works for the Investigation team, but day by day her weariness grew and her parents seem quite worried about her sudden change of lifestyle, mostly coming home late from work and becoming so stressed that she would immediately fall asleep as soon as she hit the bed.

The rest of the team seems to notice these small changes to their young 'intern', some showing signs of concern about her and suggesting about letting her off the hook for real, giving her some credit about it. But L would reply that it's to keep her silent about the investigation after seeing it with her own eyes on what they are really up against. And, yet, he seem to show a small hint of concern whenever he would take a peek at the female who would take every chance she could get to take a quick nap whenever she was not doing anything or if she was left idle for a long time. The Kira case is still at large as he stubbornly did not let himself loose to Kira, but he would feel a small pang in his chest whenever he would notice Narutaki, nodding on and off consciousness as she sits in the chair with a notepad at hand, nearly falling off if it weren't for Matsuda's generous offer of coffee to the young female.

She kept doing this despite knowing that, at any time, she can quit and forget all about this. Instead, Narutaki stayed; she knew there's nothing for her to do to return the normalcy of her life she used to have. She decided to just focus on what she is doing now, and why she is doing this. There is no reason why, there's nothing for her to expect. So, if Kira got caught what will happen to her? Her life won't be the same still, and once the case is solved, it's too late for her to return the lost time she has wasted.

And, yet, she tried to keep that small weight she calls 'life'. She refuses to give up on living, so she'll just make the best out of this even though she's not sure what for.

Deeper and deeper she got herself involved with the Kira case, finding out more about this unusual case and it didn't took a bit long before she, too, was given freedom to state at least what she thinks about the case.

Is she with Kira? Is she against Kira? She, still, couldn't decide; but she did not hold grudge or hate Kira even though she would think what he does is never good.

Aihara Narutaki kept this charade of acting normal despite the obvious hint of stress, trying not to loose concentration and focus. It's not evident but he is worried for her; the stress might be too much for her to actually loose her sanity and this could be troublesome for him and the Investigation team.

"Miss Narutaki," L would call her after she have written enough and laid the pad on the table. "Would you like to have some cake with me?"

"Huh...?"

L gave a gesture as Watari brought in a seemingly large chocolate cake, two plates, a knife and some fork as he laid the platter down and made two slices of cakes, one in each cake, before handling each place to the two of them. A smile formed on the pale man's face as he scooped a piece with his fork and started eating the treat while keeping his eye contact to her as if telling her if she would be eating hers.

"Uhm... I suppose so."

With that, the young detective would occasionally ask her if she would want to share some cake with him after work, smiling at the observation on how her stress seems to becoming less frequent after his rare gesture of both consideration and concern.


Guess you can say L trusts her but he anticipated that any normal person worked under stress would mostly end up more troublesome than Kira itself. Anything could happen so they have to make every move as pinpoint and smooth as possible.

We're almost at the conclusion of the Anti-Chlorobenzene segment. Afterwards, we'll go to the other side of the story; the PARADICHLOROBENZENE Case. And, in there, you might probably find out what's the connection of this story to the title/segment of the mini-series.

DISCLAIMER:

I don't own Death Note, its characters or anything within its universe; Tsugumi Obha and Takeshi Obata owns them. Also, the title and the first line of the lyrics are based on a song of the same title by Kagamine Rin of the software VOCALOID.

The only thing I claim here is my own character and this fanfiction. Read, Review and Message would be much appreciated.