Raito transitioned into the daily life at Wammy's like flowing molasses in the dead of an Arctic winter. Very slowly. Wammy and Roger avoided him like the plague, and the children did the same, likely due to the urgings of their caregivers. L stuck to the young Shinigami like an epoxy resin in his waking moments, which seemed to not help matters at all. Raito didn't mind it so much though, because L didn't needle him about the Death Notes or Shinigami.
"Hey, Light, I have something for you to work on." L gave him things to do instead. Things like puzzles, equations, riddles, multi-level labyrinths and whatnot.
Raito took the proffered piece of paper that was mostly blank. There was a set of numbers on the papers. They looked familiar, somehow. 6489700. Under that was a single five. "L…" This was a lifespan, and the single five meant five years. Did L understand how to convert a lifespan?
"Divide the large number by three thousand five hundred fifty-six, and then divide it again by three hundred sixty-five to receive the answer to the equation." L was pale, something he hadn't noticed about the detective until just now.
"How did you come up with this equation, L?" Raito dropped the paper, as it was meaningless, and stood up to confront L. Only the detective was more than just pale. He was also trembling.
"I…" His hands fluttered about almost nervously while he seemed to be searching for what to say. "The Note."
Raito himself went white as a sheet, because the only conclusion he could come to was that L had tested the White Note. He had used it, and it was adversely affecting him. Raito didn't even know how using the White Note would affect a human like L, but they were likely going to find out. "L, tell me what happened," he demanded in a gentle tone while he lightly gripped the detective by his forearms. A spark passed through him at the contact, along with the familiar sensation of gaining life energy.
L shuddered outright at the interaction, his reaction a visceral one as opposed to being done consciously. His trembling seemed to lessen immediately and he was no longer as pale. "I… What just happened?" The detective blinked, his eyes wide while he stared at Raito. Then his gaze flicked upwards to the space above Raito's head. "It's going up?"
Holy shit. L could see his lifespan. How could L see his lifespan? How did he know the lifespan conversion equation? "Tell me what happened to you first. What did you do, Lawliet?"
"I used your Note," L started in a harsh whisper, his gaze snapping back to Raito's face. "One of my old solved cases. I had to be sure it worked." The test subject had been someone in prison, already scheduled to die in a few years' time. Five years to be precise. "As soon as I put the pen down I suddenly knew how to…" He didn't have words to describe it, but he knew how to determine how many years a person had left. "And then I could see the names and the numbers." And he had felt so terrible, like he was physically ill, until Raito had touched him.
Raito frowned as he listened, his gaze flicking up at L's frozen lifespan for a second. Then he looked up at it again, this time his mouth going slack. The numbers had gone up. L's lifespan had impossibly increased by two and a half years. The numbers were still not ticking down.
"Light? Is something wrong?" L was looking up now, only he couldn't see his own lifespan like this.
"It went up." It was all Raito had to say, his voice thick with disbelief. This wasn't supposed to happen. L wasn't supposed to see names and lifespans, and he wasn't supposed to be able to increase his own lifespan by using the… Oh god. It was because he had used the White Note. Where the hell was Ryuk when he needed him?
"Hey, Raito-sama! Guess what I…" Ryuk phased through the wall directly behind them, only to stop and stare at the two of them. More decidedly at L. "His lifespan went up, Raito-sama!" And now they had a third person to muse on the impossibility that L was quickly becoming.
"He used my Note, Ryuk." Raito looked in Ryuk's direction, a frown on his face that only deepened. Behind Ryuk was the Ryuk of this time, and he was staring at Raito. Wonderful. First L doing impossible things, and now he had two Ryuks to deal with. "But we can talk about that once you tell me why your other self is here." And God, he couldn't call both of them Ryuk. That would only make things more confusing.
The grotesquely formed Ryuk looked utterly confused at the fact that the more angel-like Ryuk was being addressed by a name that should have only been his. His stare was starting to border on creepy.
"L, will you be okay for a moment?" Raito asked, suddenly realizing that he was still holding on to the detective's forearms. He loosened his hold, only for L to grasp onto him in return. "Just for a moment. I need to figure out our…Ryuk situation, and then we can figure out what's going on with you." Hopefully.
L reluctantly released Raito and moved to sit down on the chair the young Shinigami vacated. He watched listlessly as Raito went over to the pair of Ryuks, which he wasn't even in the mood to begin to question.
Raito, meanwhile, had expected the Ryuk of this time to eventually show up, but this was before the five day grace period he'd been given in his own past. Things were different though, and he needed to find out how this Ryuk knew to seek him out sooner. Whatever method was used to track him down could be used by other Shinigami as well. "Do you know who I am?" It was the most important question for the time being.
Ryuk of the past looked to his future self, who was watching the other human with a curious expression on his face, then to the person called Raito. His future self had added the suffix sama to this person's name, and there was only one person worthy of being addressed in such a way in his book. It was also important to note that in no way was he stupid. "You are the true King of the Shinigami."
"What makes you say that, Shinigami Ryuk?" Raito had felt an odd mix of relief and concern at the answer he was given, so he needed to press for more information before he would decide on what to do with the Lesser Shinigami.
"That is me from the future," Ryuk answered, pointing to his future self. He could kinda see it now that he was looking the angel-like creature over. "He called you Raito-sama," he added, stressing the suffix as way of explanation.
"And you deduced that I'm the true Shinigami King just from that?" It was a redundant question, to which Ryuk nodded anyways. Raito was thankful that Ryuk was quite simple, though, because it made things easier. They were the same despite their difference in appearance. "Do you swear your loyalty to me?"
"You already have it, my King." Ryuk gave a toothy grin before a strange feeling passed over him. It seemed to affect his future self as well, because he gave a peculiar shudder.
Raito watched as the equivalent of what he'd gone through happened to the two Ryuks. They quite suddenly flew at each other and then merged. Well, more the past Ryuk was pulled into the future one and then it was just the one.
"That felt horrible." Ryuk scrunched his face up then looked down at himself.
"Figure yourself out later, Ryuk." Raito very quickly went back over to L, the detective still his number one priority. "He used-"
"The White Note. You already mentioned that, Raito-sama. Unfortunately even I don't know what it will do to him." Ryuk slowly wandered over, cracking his neck and popping every joint he was able to. "His lifespan froze as soon as he touched it. It increased when he used it, and somehow you were able to draw some of that extra life energy into yourself." That was all they knew.
"He can see lifespans and names too," Raito added, which made Ryuk look at him with a sudden frown.
"Are you sure about that?" Ryuk returned his gaze to L and studied the detective a bit more. Gaining that ability from using a Death Note was impossible. Only Shinigami… Oh. L had used the White Note, which wasn't a regular Death Note. "He's turning into a Shinigami."