Programmed to be Pragmatic
Light looked up at the camera and smiled. "I hope so too, Ryuzaki. Too bad I'm locked in a cell right now though, huh?" It was difficult to tell whether or not the smile reached his eyes. "Maybe you should let me out."
Ryuzaki's thumb rubbed over his lip. You know I wouldn't do that, Light Yagami. "If that was an attempt at humor, it was a poor one," he said. "Are you sure you should be making such jests?"
Light shrugged slightly, as much as he could with his wrists cuffed behind him, letting the smile fall away as he leaned his head back against the cot. "How else am I supposed to cope with the stress of being detained in a cell with nothing to do but wonder if I'm a mass murderer?" he asked. "Humor helps in coping with emotional distress, you know." His eyes found the camera again, and Ryuzaki found it odd how he almost felt as if Light could actually see him through the monitor. "You should try it, Ryuzaki. You shouldn't take everything so seriously."
Ryuzaki's thumb rubbed over is lip. "I'll make an attempt."
"Speaking of people who take things too seriously," Light said. "How is my father? Knowing him, he probably asked to be detained as well. I'm guessing he's also in a cell, then, and that he refuses to leave without me."
Ryuzaki's thumb rubbed over his lip. "…You are correct. And he's doing about as well as could be expected."
"That badly, huh?" Light said, with a sigh. "Have you told him that you're now under suspect for being Kira as well?"
"Aizawa and Matsuda decided that it would be better not to."
"Yes, I agree," said Light. "After all, there's no reason to seriously suspect you unless the killings start up again."
Ryuzaki's thumb rubbed over his lip. "Indeed."
Light was silent for several moments, curling up further, head down, hair obscuring his face. "What will become of me, Ryuzaki?" he said finally, softly. "Am I a dead man?" It was a subdued voice.
Ryuzaki's thumb rubbed over his lip. "It's difficult to determine."
Light was quiet for another several moments. "If I'm going to be executed," he started, somber, "I'd like to at least be allowed to create a will… could you do that for me, Ryuzaki? I'd like all my school notes to go to my sister, since I won't be able to help her with her homework anymore… my mom can have all my awards, medals, trophies… my dad can have my computer—I left some documents on there with notes about a few other cases the police have been having some trouble with recently… but I'd like to be buried with the watch my dad gave me, if that's okay… and I'd like for my diary with my notes on the Kira case to be burned, since they'd just make a mockery of me… the magazines hidden on my bookshelf should be sold, and the profit donated to a charity…"
Ryuzaki's thumb rubbed over his lip. "Light-kun. You know very well that I can't execute you without evidence."
"There will never be any evidence, Ryuzaki," said Light, head down. "Because I wasn't Kira. Or, if I was, I would not have left any evidence. Will you keep me locked up forever, then? You realize that's just condemning me to a slow death, as well… I'm not going to last like this, Ryuzaki…" he hunched further in on himself, and still did not look up at the camera. "It's so maddeningly boring in here…"
Ryuzaki's thumb rubbed over his lip. "I'm sorry, Light-kun. Please just hold on for a little while longer."
Light was quiet for another several moments. "If I die from boredom-induced insanity," he said, tone despondent, "and if Misa is ever let free, she can have all the photos taken of me from the last year… also, you should probably put her on suicide watch… I wouldn't want her to kill herself because of my death, even if I were Kira… actually, I probably would want her to die, if I were Kira… I'm sure the Second Kira caused the original Kira a great amount of strife…"
Ryuaki's thumb rubbed over his lip. Light Yagami… you're either being needlessly melodramatic, purposefully obnoxious, or you're actually starting to lose it… given that you've only been detained for seven days, though, it's probably the first two.
He could hear Aizawa and Matsuda shifting behind them, no doubt discomforted by Light's ostensible dying wishes.
"You know, Light may have many people who could potentially vouch for him, but we don't actually have any statements from them," Ryuzaki said, lowering his hand to his knee. "We don't know whether they'd actually vouch for him or not. Maybe they'd actually incriminate him."
There was a pause, but the mood in the room had changed.
"I could get some statements from them!" Matsuda said, excited. "I know a few of them from Aoyama, after all."
"How would you explain why you were inquiring about him, though?" Aizawa said, less enthusiastic. "Wasn't your alias in Aoyama that you were Light's cousin?"
"Ah… I could pretend to be a budding journalist writing an article on To-Oh University's most brilliant!" said Matsuda.
"Then you'd have to inquire after me as well," Ryuzaki pointed out, though he didn't turn to look at them, keeping his gaze on the monitor. He had the inexplicable feeling that as soon as he moved his eyes away, Light would look up at the camera and smile.
"…I couldn't get in contact with you?" Matsuda suggested.
"…Yes," Ryuzaki said, keeping his gaze on the monitor, "I suppose that might work."
"I'll get right on that, then!" Matsuda was excited.
"Make sure you don't give anything away, Matsuda-san," Ryuzaki said, as Matsuda's footsteps started to move away.
The footsteps paused. "Do you not trust me at all?" Matsuda asked, whining slightly.
"Just making sure," Ryuzaki said. "You'll be conducting research on your own, after all, without back-up. You're the one people are most likely to feel comfortable talking to, and the least suspicious of. If anyone Aizawa-san or Mogi-san went with you, the interviewees might not be as honest."
"Totally unsuspicious, that's me!" Matsuda said brightly, sounding pleased, and then his footsteps retreated from the room.
"Aizawa-san, you should also stay here to keep tabs on me," Ryuzaki continued, after a pause. "It wouldn't make sense to leave me alone here, when I'm a suspect. And Watari can't necessarily be relied on to keep tabs on me for suspicious behavior, given that he likely has a bias in regards to me, and if I was Kira previously, he didn't notice. We should probably call Mogi-san in so you can take shifts." He paused, pressing closer to his legs, thumb rising back up to his lips again. But he didn't look away from the screen. He didn't want to give Light the chance to smile at him without him knowing. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience of this, Aizawa-san, but I'm sure you understand why it's necessary."
"Yeah," Aizawa said, "I wouldn't be comfortable letting you go unsupervised."
Ryuzaki glanced up at the ceiling, thumb rubbing over his lip. "It's like kindergarten all over again," he remarked.
There was a pause, and then a ground-out, "Ryuzaki" from Aizawa.
"What?" Ryuzaki said, finally turning to look at the police officer, because if Light hadn't looked up at the camera with a complacent smile yet, then he probably wasn't going to. "Light said that I should try showing a sense of humor."
Aizawa was glaring at him, fists clenched. "I'd prefer it if you didn't take the advice of someone who's been suspected of mass murder, Ryuzaki."
"But I'm suspected of mass murder as well, aren't I?" Ryuzaki pointed out.
"But if you believe that you weren't Kira, then you shouldn't take advice from the only other person who could be Kira!" Aizawa said, only a few decibels lower than a shout.
Ryuzaki blinked, eyes wide,, thumb at the corner of his mouth. "You really are taking this quite seriously…"
"This is a serious case!" Aizawa was definitely shouting now. "Hundreds of people have been killed, if not thousands by this point!"
"Indeed," Ryuzaki said, lowering his hand. "I agree that it's gravely serious." He looked away, and his voice lowered, hands moving down to wrap around his ankles. "But Light-kun was right when he said that being suspected of killing hundreds of people is rather stressful, you know."
There were several moments of silence.
"I've called in Mogi," Watari said, stepping back into the room. "He should be arriving shortly."
"Thank you, Watari," Ryuzaki said. "Would you like to handle the explanation, Aizawa-san?"
"Yeah," Aizawa said, sounding tired again, "sure."
"I truly apologize for making you do this, Aizawa-san," Ryuzaki said.
"It's not your fault, Ryuzaki," Aizawa said, sighing. "Unless it is, of course."
Ryuzaki looked back up at the monitor, where Light was still sitting hunched on the floor, head down. Maybe Light's complacent smile was hidden behind his hair.
"Indeed," Ryuzaki agreed.
When Mogi entered the hotel room, carefully shutting the door behind him, he turned around to find Aizawa and Watari looking at him. Aizawa looked angry. Watari looked neutral, in that way where it was hard to tell if his eyes were even open. Ryuzaki was crouched in the armchair, not looking at him. He was just looking at the monitor.
It was oddly silent. Maybe because Matsuda wasn't present. Mogi stood there, shifting his weight from foot to foot, waiting. Nobody said anything. Maybe they were waiting for something for him. What that could be, though, he didn't know. Was he supposed to have done something when he entered the room?
"I'm here," he said, finally. He didn't know why there was an air of expectancy in the room. He thought that they'd called him there because they wanted to tell him something.
"Aizawa-san, if you would inform Mogi-san of the situation," Ryuzaki said, not looking away from the monitor.
Mogi couldn't help look over at the monitor as well, to see if something interesting was happening, and that was why Ryuzaki was watching it so intently. But it was immediately obvious that nothing was happening. Chief Yagami, Light, and Misa were all neither moving nor talking.
Ryuzaki probably just didn't want to miss anything, if something did happen. He hardly seemed to even sleep, lest he miss something important.
Mogi turned his attention back to Aizawa, who was taking a deep breath and still looking angry.
Mogi prepared himself for whatever was coming. There was an air in the room as if something terrible had happened, and people seemed to like to vent their anger and frustration in his presence. He wasn't sure why, but it didn't really bother him much. He supposed that they let off steam towards him since they knew he could take it. It was probably similar to punching a brick wall.
He was surprised, therefore, when all Aizawa told him was that either Light Yagami was Kira, or Ryuzaki was Kira, but there was no evidence against either.
When Aizawa finished his explanation, Mogi just stood there, wondering if that was really it, or if there was more coming. Surely that couldn't have been what had solely caused the stifling air in the room. Criminal pyschologits had been suggesting that perhaps L and Kira were the same person since the Lind L. Taylor episode on television, after all. And he already knew that they had no hard evidence against Light Yagami; just Ryuzaki's suspicion, and the fact that when Light was detained, the criminals had stopped dying. So if Light were Kira, then it would make sense. And if Ryuzaki were Kira, that would make sense, too.
Either way, though, Mogi figured there wasn't much to worry about. The truth would be revealed eventually. And if he and the other task members were going to be killed, Kira would have done it already, since both Light and Ryuzaki knew their names and faces. So if they hadn't killed them yet, then they probably weren't planning on killing them. He did not feel in danger of dying.
However, Aizawa was looking at him expectantly. Even Watari, who's expression hadn't changed, and Ryuzaki, who wasn't looking at him, both seemed to be expectant, as well. As if they were waiting for something from him.
He didn't know what they were waiting for. But the silence stretched on for a duration that Mogi suspected had become awkward.
"I see," he said, eventually. He wanted to ask if that was all, but thought that it might be inappropriate, so he didn't.
The tension in the room seemed to ease slightly, so Mogi figured he'd said the correct thing. Aizawa still looked angry, though. But then again, Aizawa almost always looked angry. Matsuda said that Aizawa wasn't actually angry all the time, though, but that his face only looked that way. but Matsuda also said that Mogi always looked like Japan had just declared war on another country, and Mogi had no idea where he got that impression.
Aizawa started explaining the schedule for their shifts during which they'd supervise Ryuzaki to make sure he was not acting like Kira, and Mogi nodded once he had a good idea of his new tasks and work schedule.
He much preferred it when people outlined exactly what was expected of him, rather than expecting him to guess. He didn't know why people always seemed to expect him to guess what they were thinking. He wasn't a mind-reader, after all.
It seemed to him that people tended to waste an awful lot of time trying to guess things, or waiting for people to guess things. It wasn't very efficient.
Aizawa finished his explanation, and Mogi thought that it didn't sound like too bad of a task, staying there and watching Ryuzaki to make sure he didn't do anything suspicious. Mogi was just still glad he didn't have to pretend to be L towards Deputy Director General Kitamura's daughter anymore.
That had been stressful.
"I'm sure the Second Kira caused the original Kira a great amount of strife…" Light had said, trailing off, waiting, but Ryuzaki had not answered.
Ryuzaki had no doubt seen through him, then. Well, he'd been supposed to—Light had, after all, been rubbing it in Ryuzaki's face that he couldn't actually execute him, and he'd been quite blatant about it.
Light kept his head down so the camera wouldn't catch the way his lips curled upwards.
Whether I'm Kira or you are, Ryuzaki, it doesn't matter—either way, I'm not going to let you win.
The smile lingered for a few moments, feeling bright, exhilarating, dangerous, before it started to decay, a half-life of only a few seconds.
There really is nothing to do in here, though… absolutely nothing…
(the nails were scratching ceaselessly at the edges of his mind, the beginnings of a scream rising like bile in his throat, acidic and burning, smile it back down, smile it back down—)
The smile on his lips felt stiff and wrong, dead on his face, but he refused to let it fall away lest all his sense of self-possession fall away with it, and he didn't look up at the camera lest Ryuzaki realize exactly how much he'd been lying, and how much he hadn't.
I'm not going to let you win, Ryuzaki, he thought, and smiled the dead smile harder, gritted teeth and twinging cheeks.
I'm not going to let you win.
I'm not going to let you win.
I'm not going to let you—