Sorry this took so long again. I blame it on a combination of midterms and writer's block. Let me just say that this chapter was freaking IMPOSSIBLE to write. Well, I wrote it so it's not impossible, but it was VERY VERY hard, trying to imagine L in this situation. But I think I actually like this chapter. I thought I would hate it when it was done.
I have all the major events of UnFB planned out. I know how the climax will end, at least. It should be good. It certainly sounds good in my head.
And chapter 11 has already been started so you won't have to wait too long for it
-Nir
I own neither Bleach nor Death Note.
Ch 10. Welcome3:19 pm, Rukon District
Voices murmured in the background.
"Who is he? Did he just get here?"
"Mama, is he dead?"
"What's he wearing? Don't tell me he's…"
"No, he can't be. Nobody starts out as one."
"So why…?"
The dirt against L's cheek was warm. The shifting light made red and black patterns on the inside of his eyelids. He opened his eyes and found he was in a grove of thick-trunked trees with wide, spreading branches. Sunlight streamed through their leaves. There was a small crowd of people standing around him, all looking different degrees of shocked.
Blood. Broken glass. Rage fed by a vicious, starving hunger. Those were the last things he remembered.
He hadn't been able to control himself, and so had impaled himself on the Death God Ichigo Kurosaki's zanpaktou during his last moment of sane thought. So that must mean this place was…
"Soul Society…" L said to himself. What had he expected to see when he'd arrived here? It was a lovely bunch of trees, but it didn't bear any resemblance to Heaven as L had pictured it. The people standing around him, his fellow souls, looked so wary of him. It was unnerving.
He stood up. A few of the spectators took a step back. They looked ready to run at any moment. This did not seem right. It did not seem natural. Soul Society was the equivalent of 'Heaven,' and as Ichigo had said, 'eternal peace and all that crap.' The current residents should not have any fear of new arrivals if they were good enough to get here in the first place. So why were they all so nervous?
L tried to think of the most non-threatening way to introduce himself. He hadn't had a lot of experience with situations like this. In his profession he had always hidden behind a computer screen and voice scrambler. This entire incident with Kira and the Death Note had forced him to break many of the guidelines he had set for himself as a detective. He supposed it didn't matter now. He wasn't a detective anymore. He was dead.
Dead… what did that word even mean? 'Dead' signified that you were gone forever, never to come back. Never to do what you used to do. Never to see those you knew and loved again. Beyond saving or even being thought about. But this didn't feel like death. It didn't feel like peaceful, eternal rest. It felt exactly like life.
Others in Soul Society might have felt cheated, had they been having the same thoughts as L. But L felt oddly optimistic. Maybe his talents could be put to use here. But first he had to let these people know he meant them no harm.
"My name is L." He said. "I… just got here." He held out his hands, showing he was unarmed.
"Mommy, he's not gonna try to hurt us like that other man, is he?" Asked a little boy who was clinging to his mother's skirts. She shushed him, her eyes distrustfully locked on L.
"Please," L said. "I don't mean any of you harm-"
"Oh yeah?" Someone behind L called out. "Then did the Death God give up his uniform willingly? Huh?"
Uniform? What was he…? L hadn't noticed the slight weight around his shoulders until now. He reached over to his side and felt something hanging there. He grabbed it and held it in front of him. It was a sleeve, black fabric with a white trim around the cuff. Part of a Shinigami uniform.
"So?" The angry voice demanded. It belonged to a young man standing in the circle of onlookers. He was holding a plank of wood, gripping it like he intended to use it as a weapon. "Did you kill him? Cut him up and bury him in the woods? Huh?!"
The little boy started crying.
"Calm down, man…" Someone said to the board-wielding firebrand. "We don't know if he's one of them…"
"I don't know why I'm wearing this." L told them. "Really, I mean no harm. Could you please tell me where-"
"He is one!" The man with the plank yelled. "One that the Gates didn't accept! He has no right to be here!" The entire crowd was murmuring amongst itself. The sound was ominous. Mob mentality was taking over. Another situation in which L had had very little experience. He began to back away from the angriest-looking part of the mob. This place seemed to be a small forest. It would not be hard to loose anybody who tried to pursue him.
Several of the onlookers, including the man with the plank, broke away and began to move toward L. As they got closer, L recognized one of them. He was one of Kira's victims. As L remembered, he had been relatively unknown burglar whose name had been announced on the news one day, and the next he had dropped dead. He was a criminal, but he was in Soul Society where all the supposed 'good' souls went. Why?
After a few seconds of careful analysis, L did something he had never done before. He turned around and ran.
Of course he had physically run before, but he had never fled from a situation where he might have a chance to come out as the victor. But victory wasn't important right now. At the moment, L knew he had to contact whatever authorities presided over this area. Was it the Shinigami he was looking for? Some other law enforcement? L didn't know, but he did not want to increase these people's fear of him by using force.
Maybe it was the disorientation of an entirely new place and an entirely new situation, coupled with a rare hint of fear and confusion, but L had failed to notice the mob had circled completely around him. The first few steps he took in his failed dash to safety brought him face first into the murderous arms of the thugs standing behind him. One of them seized him around the shoulders. L retaliated by kneeing his captor in the stomach. Unfortunately, said captor did not let go and L was pulled down with him as he fell to his knees. L tried to pull away, but the man's grip was tight. A frantic glace over his shoulder told L that the angry mob was circling right behind him, too close to escape from. He tried to tug his arms from the man's grip once again, but to no avail.
Something hit him hard across the back of his head, then again across his back. L kneeled on the dusty ground, his vision swimming. It was not supposed to be like this… this was supposed to be a peaceful place… A warm rivulet of blood oozed down his cheek. What has gone wrong… the balance… the balance is upset… that's why…
The blood-splattered ground between his bare feet was all he saw as darkness enveloped him.
------------------------
"This is out of control. There are just too many of them."
"Well, what do you want? It's not like we can just go around slaughtering people that seem suspicious."
"There's rape, theft, assault… all of it's going unchecked. And the Death Gods think we should be grateful that they lent us a little security. Bah, they barely do anything!"
"It'd be a lot worse if they weren't there."
"Yeah, yeah…"
"If you want to blame someone, blame whoever's down in the Living World, killing 'em all."
"God, if I knew who that was, I'd…"
It was just as it had been before. Lying in darkness, listening to quiet voices, so nearby and yet so far at the same time. L tried to remember again. The Balance… what was The Balance? Why had it been the last thing he had thought of before he'd blacked out?
L opened his eyes, just a crack. Three rectangles of light glowed softly on the opposite wall, which was made of some sort of sandy yellow-orange stone. He seemed to be in a small room. A cell. And the rectangles were the sunlight streaming in through a small, barred window above where he had previously been lying unconscious.
So he had been knocked out. That explained the throbbing headache. L gingerly touched the back of his head where he had been hit. It was roughly bandaged. He gave a small mental prayer for all the poor brain cells that had been killed on impact.
"Hey, hey! It lives! Glad to see you're not dead, kid." One of the men, whose conversation had woken L, was looking in through the wall of bars that separated the cell from the main part of the building. It seemed this place was a temporary prison of some sort. Which meant the people who worked here might have contact with the main authorities, possibly the Shinigami.
L struggled into a sitting position. His back and shoulders were bruised and tender. He rubbed his left arm. It hurt just to touch it.
"Yeah, you were pretty beat-up when we found you." The jailer explained. "Those guys… they're suspicious of any new arrivals."
"Suspicous…" L murmured, massaging his arm. "They intended to kill me."
"No, no, they've never killed anyone… I think." The jailer said. "It's just some of the tough guys feel the only way to protect their way of life is to totally eliminate anyone they don't like."
"They said the Gates didn't accept me." L said, remembering the angry man with the plank of wood. "What does that mean?"
"Oh, Gates. That'd be the Gates of Hell." The jailer explained. "They're supposed to show up when a real bad guy gets killed and drag him off to the fiery depths. But lately the Gates haven't been doing a real good job of that and a lot of bad guys are ending up here."
"Upsetting The Balance…" L drew his legs up in front of his chest, wincing at the pain in his back muscles. "The Gates are being selective because of the balance of souls in Soul Society and the Living World…"
"Exactly." The jailer took a ring of keys out from his pocket and flipping through them, his thick fingers moving deftly. "By the way, there's someone here to see you. He's been waiting since we brought you in."
Someone to see him? L tried to see past the man in the doorway into the room beyond. Could it possibly be Watari? He hadn't seen his old friend in so long…
The jailer unlocked the door and swung it open. "Go on, don't leave the man waiting." He told L. "He's the reason you're not being interrogated right now."
L stepped out of the cell, his eyes taking a second to adjust to the bright sunlight that fell in large squares across the floor. This was the man the jailer had been talking to. L wondered how he hadn't recognized his voice.
"Hello, Hollow-san!" Urahara greeted L. "Though you don't look much like a Hollow anymore."
"But… you… how did you know I would be here?" Asked L, perplexed.
"Sorry, no time for questions now." Urahara said. "I've got to show you something. And please keep it down. I'm a bit exiled from this place. Now come with me, L-san. We've got to unlock those Death God powers of yours."