A/N: Since I got too frustrated to keep staring at my computer yesterday, I sat down and sketched out a cover image for this story than ran it through photoshop later. So this fic now has a cover. ^_^ Anywho, shout out to Murderous Phantom, somethingblue, and LadyTeldra! Thank you for reviewing. Now, onto the story.
Fool's Gambit
By Catsitta
4.
"Good luck, make me proud!"
It was just another test. An entrance exam instead of an exit this time around. She was already accepted into the university and the odds of her failing this one was quite unlikely. Light grabbed an apple on her way through the door, silent in the wake of her family's cheers. Neither of them knew that she was on a divine quest, that these tests would be obsolete once she arose from the shackles of oppression and brought forth a new age. Trimmed nails bit into the dainty skin of the fruit as she fought back the urge to grin. Light was a serious, stoic son. He did not laugh, or smile or jest.
Right now, that was the role she needed to play.
A few blocks later, a voice floated by her ear.
"So you gonna give me that apple or leave me hanging, Light?"
Consciously aware of the exact locations of the city cameras, Light stepped casually into a blind spot, her body hid between a wall and its heavy shadow. She pretended to check her watch, gaze sliding beneath hooded lids. They were alone. Lifting the apple aloft, testing its weight with a negligent bob of the wrist, Light watched as a monstrous creature materialized from above. It was huge and heavy, limbs thin and exaggerated, with distorted human features and bulging eyes. From its back protruded fragile black wings that somehow kept it aloft. Eagerly, with teeth like that of a sharks, it devoured the apple from Light's palm.
A week prior, Ryuuk descended from the Shinigami realm in search of the notebook he dropped for his amusement. When he found Light, death god and human found common ground. He was bored. Light wanted change. And if the world burned around them, then they would happily stand amongst the smoldering ashes, alive and conquering.
Ryuuk explained the rules of the Death Note in more detail when he arrived, even offered to gift Light the ability to see the names of his enemies for the cost half her lifespan.
Her refusal made the creature laugh wildly.
She amused him. He annoyed her. But they were unstoppable together.
"Eat the core," Light said, tossing the last remnants of the apple into the air. Ryuuk gulped it down and wiped his mouth with the back of a skeletal palm.
"So what'cha up to today?"
"Entrance exam to the most prestigious universities in the country," Light adjusted her backpack. "Nothing difficult. Though you will have to entertain yourself for the next few hours. I do not need you hovering above my shoulder while I concentrate."
The shinigami cackled before soaring skywards. Light would have her peace, for now. The bothersome creature would return and lurk at her shoulder soon enough. Taking a brief moment to swipe a few strands of hair behind her ear, Light returned to her journey, stepping into the street. All around were people, each hurrying quickly to their destination, heads bowed, eyes adverted. No one milled around in lazy crowds, laughing and discussing. This was a population living in fear. Living in defeat.
She could hear the faint buzz of propaganda filtering through the speakers hidden away from sight. Black uniformed enforcers stood at every street corner, stark sentinels of doom. Wearing tinted visors and holding sleek guns, they were fearsome in their singularity. Passing beneath a cherry blossom tree, Light took a moment to simply observe. There was a mother ushering two small children into a shop, her hair tied up into a severe knot, all her skin, save for that on her face, covered in an oversized duster. Two businessmen walked in identical strides, suits pressed to standard, the dark circles heavy beneath their eyes betraying the falsehood behind their forced smiles.
The flutter of bird wings brought Light's attention up.
Thin clouds lazily drifted across a watercolor sky, sunlight filtering weakly through the hazy swirls. A black V scuttled across the vast blue, hurried in their flight. Light frowned sadly. There were days in her youth where she wished she was a bird. Then she could fly away, unnoticed.
"KIRA IS JUSTICE! DOWN WITH THE OLIGARCHY!"
She inhaled sharply, brows slanting down with confusion. It was a single individual, an old man. He was a frail looking sort, hunched and white-bearded. Perhaps he was alive to know a world before the corruption, when Japan was free and proud. Light's hand clenched tight as she watched an enforcer turn, noticing the commotion.
Suddenly, chaos broke out in the stagnant street.
The enforcer took a step towards the old man, and suddenly, the people who were scampering away, stopped to turn, to watch. He was a few feet from the elder, and then, someone threw a rock. It struck with a CLANG off the enforcer's helmet. He jerked in the direction of the assault.
A boy, no more than four, with the look of a street urchin about him, bent to pick up another stone and gave it a willful toss, the focus of every eye. The enforcer sidestepped the rock. CLANG! This time, it was a soda can. A pair of teenagers stood defiantly by the old man, faces full of fire.
There was the thunder of feet and within seconds, what was a protest of a single man was the uproar of a community. No less than twenty people clustered together and began to shout praises for Kira.
Kira. Derived from the english word killer, it was what the people called the one who brought them justice. It was what they called Light.
"I assume you support Kira?"
Light jerked her head in the direction of a low, monotone voice. Perched oddly on a nearby bench was the strangest man she had ever seen-with skin the color of sheetrock, dead black eyes and hair that looked like he'd stuck a fork in a socket. He was dressed in a baggy white shirt and oversized jeans, and...was he barefoot? He was clean, but bedraggled, like he simply left the house after waking up without thought to a change of clothes or a comb. That is, if he had slept in the past week.
"W-what?" Dazed by the situation, Light took a second to recover her wits. "Of course not, to support a murderer like Kira is treason. I am a loyal citizen of the Oligarchy."
Those dead eyes glittered in a passing beam of light, and he slowly blinked, like an owl ogling its future prey with lazy interest. "Hm. Your ability to lie is quite impressive," the man stated blandly. "I almost believed you."
Who is this guy?Light wondered as she frowned blackly at the stranger. He did not seem phased by her expression and merely shrugged, scratching the top of one foot with the toes of the other, head tilted to limply to the side in a palatable boredom.
"I need to go," she told him sharply, careful to keep her voice quiet lest she betray her gender in her frustration.
BANG!
Both she and the strange man looked back at the crowd as screams erupted. There were more enforcers now. People fled the scene. A few were caught by the police, thrown roughly to the ground by the men who were supposed to protect them. Someone was crying. Another person was shouting profanities.
BANG!
In morbid fascination, Light watched helplessly as the innocent fell dead, crimson blood gushing out onto the concrete in a gruesome river. Her hands shook, itching to reach for a pen and the Death Note page she had sewn into her wallet. But without names or faces, she was powerless, just a weak bystander to the gory reality called life. This was why the government needed to fall. Why the world needed Kira. To protect the innocent! To bring the corrupt to justice!
"I believe the entrance exams begin in five minutes, you should hurry."
Light blinked and found the strange man staring at her. He seemed uninterested in the scene, as if this were just a casual springtime event. Without questioning the man on how he knew she was going to the exams, Light pulled her blazer a little tighter around her body an hurried down the street, head bowed, face hidden, a mouse at the jaws of hounds once more.
tbc
A/N: (Light meets L but doesn't know it yet. Events won't happen quite the same in the anime, so don't be surprised when my timeline deviates haphazardly from it quite frequently. Also, hope yall don't mind it too bad that I skipped over the meeting between Light and Ryuuk and the rehashing of the rules. The rules will get hinted at, but I felt it was more fluid just to segway ahead a few weeks without breaking away to talk about the tests and all that. Anywho~Like it, love it, hate it? Leave a review!)