Excuse me. May I take the time to talk a little about why I like Death Note?
Death Note is an amalgam of all the best things in the world. It's manga. It has gothic elements. It combines subtle humour with a serious plot. It has seriously screwed up characters. It's both utterly believable and completely unfeasible. Almost all of the characters are likeable to a degree (excepting, in my opinion – Kyosuke Higuchi and Kiyomi Takada (she just gets to me). And, finally – almost amazingly – if you think about it hard enough, the only truly bad thing in the entire story is Kira.
Not Light Yagami, you understand. Light Yagami is actually a rather respectable young man. He's very nice. He cares about people. I'm talking about Kira.
In my mind, practically from the offset, Light Yagami and Kira have always been separate. Light uses the Death Note for the good of mankind. Kira uses the Death Note to attain power. From the very first time Light kills someone, he develops a dual personality, until – eventually – one consumes the other. In my opinion, Light Yagami really dies in volume 7 of the manga. Light Yagami dies as soon as he regains his memories of Kira.
Like Misa, I am pro-Light Yagami. Unlike Misa, I am anti-Kira. I would be interested to know where anyone else stands on this.
…
I've been talking for far too long, haven't I? How the hell did I get onto that topic anyway?
Let's just get on with the story, shall we?
DISCLAIMER: Death Note. Not mine.
--
Chapter Nine: Sacrifice
"Misa knows something fun we can do! Come with me!"
Light followed her willingly. The terror he would have felt if she had said this only a few hours ago had almost completely dissipated. It had merely become an undesirable stage in his plan: amuse Misa for a few hours, then preoccupy her with getting a date for L…
She led him by the wrist into town, and appeared – or so it seemed to Light, at least – to be heading in much the same direction he had gone only yesterday when going to buy Sayu's present; towards the shopping mall. A little apprehensive to allow Misa anywhere near any more clothes, he asked politely, "… Misa? Where exactly are we headed?"
She wasn't about to stop just to talk. Misa just ploughed forward, her hand clasped tightly around his. "What do you mean?" she said, sounding genuinely puzzled at his question.
"… Where are we going?"
"Do you mean where are we going NOW, or where are we GOING?" she said.
Light sighed. "Both, preferably."
"W-e-l-l… First, Misa is going to the mall. We need to buy some things for our trip. As for where we're going after…" she giggled. "… That's a surprise!!"
Light groaned. If it was a surprise, even he wouldn't be able to get anything out of her. Misa was stubborn about certain things, as he knew all too well. He decided against pressing the issue any further, and instead merely allowed himself to be dragged along by the tiny, determined model.
As they arrived at the mall, Misa removed the handcuff from her wrist. "Misa needs Light to stay outside so his surprise isn't ruined." Unfortunately, she latched the chain onto a nearby lamp post before Light had any chance to argue against this. "Don't go anywhere – Misa won't take too long!!"
"I don't have much of a choice, do I?"
Misa smiled. "Oh. I guess you don't! Umm… be back soon!" she dashed into the mall, leaving Light completely alone, attached to a piece of urban street furniture.
About an hour later, Misa returned. By this time, Light had become distinctly aware that her idea of 'being back soon' was less than entirely accurate. Saying that Misa took an unbearably long time shopping was something of an understatement, if that were possible.
"I'm finished!" She waved cheerfully in his direction, an abnormally small plastic bag dangling from her fingertips. "We're all ready to go to now – and look! This nice guy offered to help Misa bring all the stuff I bought out here. Shopping sure is hard work sometimes…"
Behind her, a mountain of boxes and bags followed obediently. Light watched in terror as the ponderous mound was lowered somewhat precariously to the floor by what must have been an extremely strong shopping assistant. "Is this where you want them, Misa-Misa?" he asked, a little breathlessly.
"Yup! That's okay. Misa and her boyfriend can handle it from here, mister!"
The shop assistant glared enviously at Light. "I don't know… Your boyfriend doesn't look like he's up to it. I can take a little time off work if you'd like me to take them for you, Misa-Misa…"
She shook her head, much to Light's dismay. "No… that's okay! Thanks for offering though!"
Begrudgingly, the assistant conceded, made his goodbyes and eventually prised himself away from Misa. As he turned back towards the mall, Light began to wonder exactly how anyone would be expected to carry even half of the unfeasible amount of shopping Misa had bought. What worried him most, however, wasn't the fact that there was so many things that he was inevitably going to be expected to carry; rather, it was the thought that whatever activity she had planned was apparently going to require every single item.
He tried not to think about what this surprise of Misa's would be.
"Were you lonely when I was gone, Light?" she said, unfastening him from the lamp post and attaching the handcuff back to her wrist. "Misa missed you!"
"I guess I was getting rather lonely," he replied. He wasn't technically lying.
"So Light missed Misa too?" Misa wrapped her arms tightly around him. "Aww… But don't worry – Misa won't leave you alone another minute today. Misa doesn't want Light to feel lonely…"
Light forced a smile. "That's… great. So, where are we going again?"
"It's a surprise, silly!" she said, tapping him playfully on the nose. "I'll just phone a taxi, and then we'll be on our way! I hope you like your surprise!"
She took out her phone, and to make sure that Light didn't overhear her telling the taxi service their destination, she busied him with the daunting task of picking up the shopping and carrying it to the corner of the street.
Light eventually managed to heave the mountain of bags into his arms, and somehow staggered alongside Misa to the corner. At several intervals he could actually feel the joints in his back popping. What the hell had she bought?
When the taxi arrived, and he and the driver had finally loaded everything into the vehicle, Misa and Light clambered inside and set off.
"Okay. Now, because this is a surprise, Misa is going to make sure Light doesn't know where we're going. Which is why," Misa smiled ominously as she rummaged through the tiny bag she had insisted on carrying, "Misa brought these!!" She withdrew her hand, and tossed something into Light's lap.
He looked down. A blindfold and set of earplugs met his gaze. "Is this… really necessary?"
"Put them on!" she said in her most authoritative voice. "You don't want to spoil the surprise!!"
He sighed, and obliged. At least he wouldn't have to endure another 'love chat' like he had last night.
Almost an hour of silent darkness.
…
Light was jerked awake by something tugging at his arm.
Clumsily, he removed his blindfold. Misa's face smiled back at him, and mouthed something completely inaudible due to the earplugs still in his ears. Light much preferred it this way. In fact, he imagined he would get on rather well with her if she was mute.
Unfortunately, this privilege lasted only a few fleeting seconds before her slim fingers invaded his ears and returned his sense of hearing to him. "There!" she grinned. "Is Light ready for his surprise now?"
"… I suppose so."
Grasping his hand, she practically yanked him out of the taxi. She pointed excitedly out across the stretch of sand and surf that lay before them. "What do you think?"
Kujukuri Beach. Light was less than impressed; there were far more exciting places she could have chosen, not to mention more romantic. He assumed that Misa had, depressingly, chosen the beach for three base reasons: one, it was a prime place get a suntan; two, there was water to splash him with; and three, she had an excuse to see him wearing very little.
He gave her a withering glance.
"We're at the BEACH!!" she exclaimed, apparently ignorant of Light's expression. "This is going to be so fun! We can go paddling, and… get suntans and do beach things! Isn't it great, Light?"
"Great," said Light.
"YAY!!"
As the shopping was unloaded by Light and the driver, Misa danced about on tiptoes, giggling almost hysterically. At one point, it almost looked as though she was hyperventilating out of sheer excitement. The bags and boxes were dumped in a pile at the edge of the beach, and the taxi finally drove away.
Light looked disinterestedly out at the sea far before them. "So," he said. "Do you have anything you want to do first?"
"Well… really it's your surprise, so you should decide what we do. But…" she smirked, "the first thing we have to do is get changed into our swimming things. Everybody knows you can't really go to beach if you're not in your swimming things."
He narrowed his eyes at her. "I haven't brought any swimming things, Misa."
"That's why Misa came prepared!" she again rummaged through the tiny bag she had brought and took out possibly the smallest pair of shiny black Speedos known to mankind. "The shop assistants kept on telling me I should go for these other ones, but I liked these best," she said, waggling her eyebrows suggestively.
Light made an involuntary squeaking noise at the back of his throat, and coughed. "I… see. That's very… kind of you, Misa."
"I thought they'd suit you," she smiled, and giggled a little.
"… Anyway, erm, I imagine you got yourself something to wear too."
"Mm-hmm," Misa nodded slowly, and took a step closer to him. "I hope you like it. Misa chose it just for you…" She handed him his own tiny outfit, and removed the last contents from the bag – an equally microscopic, bright pink bikini set.
Light tried to imagine how anyone, let alone himself, would manage to get into a pair of trunks as ridiculously small as these. This thought also raised a rather pertinent question in his mind. "Misa – how do you propose we actually get changed? It isn't as though there's any amenity around here we could use as a changing room."
Misa pointed to the shopping bags. "We have windbreakers so other people don't see and – if Light's feeling a little shy – Misa brought some towels we can use to cover ourselves up with. See? Misa came prepared! Aren't you proud of me, Light?"
He looked at the Speedos. It appeared, unfortunately, that Misa had indeed been very well prepared. There didn't look as though there was any way out of putting that… thing on. That is, if it even fit him.
"I have to admit," he sighed, "you certainly did think of everything."
"So does that mean Light is happy now?"
He paused for a moment, decided against getting her unnecessarily upset, and said, "I guess you could say that."
"Yay! Light is happy with Misa!" she hugged him once again. "Now let's get those windbreakers out so we can get changed!!"
"Yes," Light mumbled, "do let's."
--
Author's Note: Apologies to those readers who were expecting something special to make up for the delayed update. I had a touch of the writer's block, due to the fact that my head is too full of lots of things. This entire chapter seems to me to be a bit of a 'set up' filler.
… Well, at least I've managed to set up something, erm, interesting for Light and Misa to do.
I solemnly swear that I will update sooner next time. And… better.
A random bit of information about this chapter: it happens to be the only one I've done research for (that is, outside of reading Death Note). I wanted them to go to a beach, so I made absolute sure that they could. This is another reason why I took a little longer to upload this chapter.
A little Sims update: as I recreated Light and Misa (I have a very short attention span when it comes to certain things), I decided to try and get them to get along once again. Misa happened to propose to Light. Light said yes. Light took Misa's surname…
From this point on, I will never be able to look at Light Amane in the same way again.
I would also like to take this chance to recommend to any reader the works (or, currently, work singular) of FFYP-Det-Lawliet. This is, of course, a shameless plug for one of my friends, but seeing as their stuff is actually good, that – I think – makes it okay.
Once again, thanks go to the readers and reviewers of this story. Also once again, you're free – in fact, you're invited – to write suggestions for future escapades of Misa and Light, or review. I really appreciate any input given to me by you guys.
Please, stay tuned.