Disclaimer: Otaku-Sage-of-Llamas does not claim to own Death Note and its characters. Rather that privilege belongs to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.

Warnings: There is AUness, OCCness, clichés, and yaoi. Also, beware of spoilers (for the anime/manga AND the Another Note novel) and the authoress' sad attempt at writing.

Genre: Drama/Romance and a tad bit of Humor

Pairings: Raito x L and implications of past BB x L

Rating: M


Contusa Persona

by Otaku-Sage-of-Llamas


Act 8

- Promovens -

Once breakfast was finished, which Raito had stayed pretty quiet for the rest of the time, L led him around the first floor until they arrived at a library.

"There are various books of fiction and non-fiction. However, the section that you would want to go through is the records section, which contains detailed information about all the children that have lived here and currently are," he handed Raito a small gold key out of the back pocket of his jeans.

"Don't lose it, only the adults here are given a key to the record section," L said as he left the library for Raito to start his investigation.


Hours later, L returned to the library where Raito sat at a table with a pile of books and files.

"Have you found anything yet, Raito-kun?" the detective asked as he placed a lollipop, cherry flavored, in his mouth.

"It's hard finding any relevant information when I know little about the case," Raito sighed while L came closer so that he stood behind the younger man.

"Do you want to take a break? I promised that I would let you meet my successors."

"Didn't I see them at breakfast?" Raito thought of the only two children that did not ask him or L any questions during breakfast. The detective had said that their names were Mello and Near, which were obviously an alias just like L was for the detective.

"Yes but you haven't really been able to talk to them," L moved to the doorway of the library, expecting Raito to follow.


Onyx eyes, strikingly similar to the detective's, silently greeted him before the boy turned his attention to the toys he had laid about before him on the floor. He took a model airplane into his right hand and lifted it above his head pretending it was in flight.

"This is Near," L said to Raito avoiding the fact that the boy was ignoring him.

"What is your purpose, Raito Yagami?" the boy said softly, looking straight into honey eyes.

"Of what?" Raito replied, unsure of what Near meant.

"…of being here, of course," Near retorted condescendingly as if his words had been clear as day.

"Are you saying that there is something wrong with my presence here?" his eyes narrowed.

"Weren't you under suspicion by L of being Kira?"

"Near, that's enough!" L shouted and the boy turned his attention away from Raito to the detective.

"Why?" Near said, not raising his voice once. He placed the model plane he was playing with on the ground and took up a stack of tarot cards from underneath his bed. His hands shuffled the cards.

"You are hiding something, L." Near stopped his hand movements and pulled out the top card with the tips of his fingers. The detective turned around to face the door and left the room without another word, leaving Raito behind with Near. Raito noticed that the boy appeared to be unaffected by the departure of his mentor from the room.

An awkward silence remained until Near finally spoke up," I will find the truth about you." Honey eyes deepened to auburn and gleamed with an unusual crimson glint at the boy. It was unusual in the way that the detective was normally the one to bear such a malicious glint when the demon inside came out. Shaking his head to clear out his evil thoughts, Raito left the room to search for the detective.

At the same time, Near pulled out The Death card from the tarot deck. A faint smirk formed at the edge of his mouth which went unnoticed by Raito.


After thirty minutes, Raito gave up on tracking down L and instead decided to continue with his investigation. Finding relevant information was like finding a needle in a haystack and the detective had insisted that he would have to figure it out on his own.

Raito had rise to challenge but he didn't realize it would be this hard.


Sighing himself out of his daydreams, Raito focused his attention down on the file in his hand. The former student of the Wammy's House was called Beyond Birthday…

…and out of all the files he looked at so far, the only one to have known Latin.

Sirens rang in his head as he remembered L mentioning that the culprit sent a note in Latin. This could be the one!

But, he realized that he would still need proof to convince the detective.

Raito took a closer look at the file. There was an evaluation sheet where he saw the scribbles of very messy handwriting. All he could decipher was the name of the Los Angeles city.

Disappointed, Raito sighed and took the file back with him to the bedroom. There, the detective was sound asleep upon the bed. At the foot of the bed sat a blue hamper with Raito's clothes nicely folded in it.


To be continued…


Authoress' Notes:

As always, I want to thank those that take their time to read and/or review my fanfic. It is much appreciated!

And please forgive me for updating so late! I have been terribly busy but now I got the major projects of the school year done, I should be good to go.

Also, I had a hard time writing this chapter because I wasn't really interested in it…even though it's necessary. Sorry, if the words sound….forced…I don't know how else to describe it. Hopefully, the next chapter will be better.

If all goes according to plan, there are only two more chapters and an epilogue to go.

Nota Bene: A cookie goes to those that can find the subtle references to the Death Note oneshot manga special in this chapter. (Hint: There's two)

In next chapter, another heart attack! And Raito is left to figure out why this is all happening.