*8 Years Later*
[Shade POV]
As I sat on a chair in my temporary apartment, I couldn't help but feel like it was so long ago when everything went to hell, but that was just the beginning of the chaos. Beyond and I were now 24 years of age, L is 22, Matt's 16, Mello's 17, and Near is 15. Everyone here at Wammy's House are getting older, I could still vividly remember when I just came to this place.
All of the people in Wammy's House have been so nice to me and I couldn't ask for anything more from Watari. I'm pretty sure if he hadn't of gotten me on that day, I would probably end up in the same—or worse—situation. I made sure that I counted my blessings for someone as kind as Watari, in a way he's my father figure. Even if he wants to shower me with various cases, he does it because he believes I can handle being put under pressure.
Beyond and I's relationship had put me in a brighter mood to where my nightmares started to fade slowly. This also made me stop seeing various Shinigami, and Kurai disappeared from my sight after my attempted suicide, after adding a rule into his death note. I knew though that wouldn't be the last time I'll be seeing him however.
Kurai explained to me before his disappearance that these eyes I was given are able to foresee a person's lifespan and I have the potential opportunity to save that person. It would have been nice for him to have told me that before A's death but I knew that was a lesson for me to learn on my own.
I haven't had much of a need save anyone from their death because everyone's lifespans in this orphanage were very long surprisingly. I knew that someday my power would be useful, I just wasn't sure of when or what.
As I was lost in thought, my phone began ringing, and my piano music flooded the room I was in.
Preparing myself for the worse, I take a deep breath, and answer the phone.
"Yes, L?" I ask, already knowing that it was him because of what time it was. Reflecting on all of those times we'd work on cases till the morning brought a small smile to my face.
"There was another murder and I need you at my hotel, now." L says in a clear voice, knowing he had no need to decrypt it and because of it, I can hear the frantic tone in his voice, although it was very faint.
Letting out a sigh, I stood from my chair, and went over to my closet to pull out my black leather jacket, listening to L speak with my bluetooth in my ear.
"I'm on my way, L." I say to him, thus ending the call, and once I grabbed my motorcycle keys, I was out of my apartment door.
"Damn it B, you're really not making this easy for me…" I huff out in frustration, vaulting myself onto my motorbike, and jerking my keys into my ignition.
Just last year, Beyond jokingly mentioned that we could become serial killers with our eye powers, and serve our own form of justice. I instantly denied his 'request' but what I didn't realize was that my answer would change his views permanently. I could still vividly remember it all so very much….
"Shade, you know with our eye powers, we could become serial killers." Beyond said while laying his head on my lap, I was absentmindedly running my hand through his soft locks.
"Hm, I don't think I want to do that…." I said hesitantly and he looked up at me with a surprised look.
"Why, we could be partners in crime. With my brute power and your genius, we'd be unstoppable! Think about it." He says, picking up a singular lock of my pink hair, and twirling it between his fingers.
"B, I'm on the path of justice. I don't think that it's justified to kill people at all. Even if they're going to die anyway…" I said and he rose up from my lap, glaring at me heatedly.
"You know, I thought you of all people would understand...Why did you have to take L's side?!" He screamed at me and my eyes widened in surprise.
"I'm not on L's side, I'm just on the side of justice. I see to it that justice is served and the person is put behind bars, not the other way around." I say calmly and put a hand on his shoulder to calm him which he eases into lightly.
We sat in comfortable silence once more until Beyond sat face to face with me, his eyes holding a determined glint in his red irises. I stared at him, confused at his sudden actions until he got closer.
"Shade...what if I told you I was leaving today? That I was going to give L a run for his money." Beyond questions me and my eyebrows furrow at the thought of it.
"Beyond, what could you possibly do….you wouldn't…" My voice was filled with uncertainty and fear struck me when I saw that maddening glint return into his eyes.
"I'm going to give L the most difficult case he's ever had. I will prove to him that I'm better." Beyond began to ramble and my concern skyrockets.
"Beyond, I don't think that's a good ide—" I begin to say but he pressed his finger to my lips, successfully silencing me.
"Shh, Shade...it's better if you don't see my reasoning. I'm going to have the time of my life with this, and even you won't be able to stop me." Beyond says, hopping off of my bed, and pulling out some already packed bags.
After he spoke his words, I just stood there, completely examining him.
'Ah… his numbers. They're decreasing slightly." I watch as the numbers went down to where he only had a couple of months left. Fear began to rise into my heart, making my eyes dilate as I could only focus on the figures above his head.
'You've failed him…' Resounded through my head the more I stared at him. I clench my hands into fists and shake my head to rid my mind of my failure.
He ended up chasing after L in the end, an attempt to show L that he was more than his doppelganger. That he was an individual person, so that's why he believes he must become a criminal.
If that's how it's supposed to be then...
"Fine, I won't hinder you but just know I'll stop you before things get out of hand. I won't let you go too far off of the deep end. Because I'm not ready to let you go yet." I tell him, doing my best to put on a brave face, giving him a false smile.
He returns my grin, clearly knowing that it was fake as well, but doing it anyways just to ease the pain slowly seeping into my heart as he walked towards the door.
I grip my hand tightly to my chest to help ease my anxiety of this situation, trying my best to keep staring into his eyes. But out of guilt, I hastily turn around, taking one hand to wipe away a stray tear.
But before I could shout at him to get him to leave, I could hear his bag drop, and he came to wrap his arms around my waist.
"Beyond-" I start to say but he quiets me, but his embrace became tighter.
"This is not goodbye, Shade. I promise that I'll come back to you in the end. So please, don't cry for me?" He asks, giving me a light peck on the cheek, and a soft smile that I haven't seen since we were children.
Letting out a sigh to ease my inner turmoil, I turn around to give him a serious glare to which he flinches in our embrace, slightly loosening it.
"If you're to be the perfect criminal then I'll make sure that I save you from execution." I tell him, trying my best to hide my tears from his gaze that still lingered on me.
And that's how I come to currently stand in front of a deceased woman's house, staring at her front porch, and analyzing a way for me to get in.
I was allowed entry but there was no telling when Naomi Misora would enter, but I still should have some time because I was the first to know about the murder.
"Ah, I should enter the top floor window." I say calmly to myself, easily climbing the pillar from the side of the house, and placing myself on her hallway window sill.
"Now what kind of murder do you have for us now, B?" I mutter to myself, easily unlocking the window's lock that Bottomslash had on the outside of her window which was a simple mistake.
Hastily sliding in through the window, I hoped the cover of night would keep me from being discovered, which it did. If I did get found out, I just needed to show my ID that Watari had made for me.
I put on my rubber gloves, taking out multiple pins that I use to pick lock doors of this caliber.
I managed to pick the lock of the bedroom door, edging it open slightly in case he was still around. The door made a small creaking noise and I sweared under my breath, going ahead and pushing it open.
Luckily he wasn't in the room because I know he would have wanted to avoid confrontation is his 'perfect' murder. Quickly taking pictures of things that stood out, I had very little time to properly examine the room and the banker's decapitated body.
"From what I can see, he's ruptured many organs in her body considering how bruised her body appears, and he took her left arm with him." I say, doing my best to analyze without touching anything.
Just as I finished jotting everything down in my notebook, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket once more, and I knew I had to answer.
"This is S." I say, deciding that it was unfair for L to always have the first word in the conversation.
"Naomi Misora is on her way to the house with the private investigator, make sure that you leave everything back to where it was." L says, but I sense the hesitance in his voice. I decide that I will question it later because I need to clean my tracks.
My training as an assassin hasn't been for nothing after all, how else do you think I'm still on the other side of the bars.
Cleaning off the doorknob with a clean cloth, I make my way over to the window in the hallway, and angle the lock to where it won't seem like there's a breach to Naomi's eyes.
Naomi Misora has always been a respectable person in my eyes, and I'm sure she'd understand my reason for being here but I want to avoid explanation.
Hopping onto my motorbike, I manage to speed off, and right after I make a turn down the block towards L's temporary housing.
[3rd POV]
"This must be the place." The black haired FBI agent uttered, getting out of her car, and enters the house with the private detective at her side.
Her stomach began to tighten in anticipation with each step she took through the house. She'd experienced worse cases than this but for some reason, they got to her every time.
Especially that child…
She shook her head to rid herself of those haunting thoughts, she had to face the present in order to move on from her guilt.
When she finally organized her thoughts, she looked down the hallway to see Rue inspecting something, it was clear that he was lost in thought.
"Did you find something odd, Ryuzaki?" She spoke, making her way towards the mysterious male to see that he was staring out the window, when he was really inspecting the lock on the window.
"Hm? Oh no, nothing odd in the slightest. I was just wondering how a banker could get such a expensive house." He said quickly covering any suspicion that Naomi may have had of him.
When in truth, his thoughts were on the pink haired female that he knew came to investigate the scene under L's direct order. Turning away from Naomi, he let a grin grace itself across his features.
'Well played L, sending the person who knows me the most after me. But she knows how important this is to me, so she won't interfere…' He thought to himself, forcing down the chuckle that threatened to rise in his throat.
To mask his odd behavior, he looked over to Naomi who was examining the body of Backyard Bottomslash, and laid flat on the floor.
"Um, Ryuzaki?" He hears Naomi question him, glad the the victim's room was spacious because his long hair would have gotten in the blood.
"I'm a corpse." He bluntly says, positioning himself the same way Bottomslash was.
"Huh?" She questions, adding this to her list of odd occurrences with the private—un-private—detective.
"I have become a corpse. I cannot answer you, I am dead." He responds dully, staring up at the ceiling, the feeling of anticipation rose inside of him when his eyes caught sight of the two Wara Ningyo dolls.
'The finale is getting closer…' He thinks to himself, waiting for Naomi to follow along with his intentions of becoming a corpse.
"I see, thank you for going over there undetected Shade." L said to me after hearing my full synopsis of the current murder and a grin appeared upon my features.
"Oh, what's this? The almighty L has said thank you? That's really a surprise." I say jokingly, walking over to his hunched over form on the couch, and plucking the plate of vanilla cake he had from his hands, to which he gave a small pout, but reached for another slice.
"I'm just kidding, L. You know I do my job with my eyes only on completion, or at least that's how I was taught to be." I say, taking a forkful of cake, and putting it in my mouth. Did I forget to mention how much I love vanilla cake?
"I am well aware Shade, why you chose that of all professions still amazes me, but none the less." He says, plucking the strawberry from the top of his cake, and taking a huge bite out of it.
"It's what I do best now, and besides, I make up for it by assisting you. And it's not like you need my help majority of the time." I say, thanking Watari for the glass of water that he offered me, and I took a sip of it.
"I feel that you are unaware of how much I depend on you Shade. Because I have to fear for my life constantly, I am glad that you have been my eyes and my ears since we've started this path of justice. You were the first one that I had given the title of friend." He says and my eyes widened at his words, crossing my legs on the couch.
"Wow, L. That's one of the more heartfelt things I've ever heard come from you." I laughed, placing my half eaten plate of cake onto the coffee table. I look over to him to see that he was directly staring at me, and I give him a pat on the head to show him how much that meant to me.
But when I stared into his eyes, somehow, that deep and serious stare kind of reminded me of B, which made my heart flutter.
'I wonder what he's doing now…' I think to myself, although I can deduce that he's preparing for the final murder, I'm just not sure of who it may be.
"Well if you keep doubting your importance, expect more in the future Shade." He finally comments, probably taking notice of how quickly my mood dropped. Shaking myself from thoughts of him,
"Hey!" I shout, feeling flustered at his words, and lightly jab him in his side. He knows that I don't take compliments well, so why would he say something like that.
"Sigh, I guess I'll try to go to bed now because I know tomorrow's going to be a long day. Goodnight L, Watari." I say after finishing the last bit of my cake, and passing the dish to Watari to wash.
Heading into the single room of the hotel, I go to the bathroom first to go wash my hands, and tie up my hair. Slowly combing my hair through my hands, I manage to pull it up into a nice bun, with my eyes closed in relaxation.
It's not like L really uses the actual room because he rarely gets any sleep, so I have as much bed space as I want.
When I reopened my eyes as I entered the bedroom, I noticed that a pen was lying on the ground.
"This must have fell from my jacket pocket." I say, familiarizing myself with the pen. But when I refocused my attention on the floor, I jumped back slightly when I saw blood splattered on the floor, with my eyes widened.
"...Its not there...not there…" I try to tell myself, taking deep breaths when I realized that it was the exact same blood splatters from Backyard Bottomslash's crime scene.
Taking multiple deep breaths, I let out one big sigh, before dropping myself onto my bed, getting comfortable. I continued to have a deep breathing pattern so that I can calm my tensed body.
"Try to get some sleep…" I whisper to myself, honing my hearing to hear the silent typing coming from the other room. The fact that there was another presence that I felt comfortable with helped me drift off to sleep.
[3rd POV]
"Does Shade's direction of her attention bother you L?" Watari spoke, looking over at L whose typing ceased.
"What has given you a reason to assume something like that, Watari? I'm not bothered by something like that in the slightest." He says, biting his thumb nail.
"Oh nothing, I'm just glad that you let her on the case. I know you thought that previously that her personal relationship with him would have gotten in the way, but it clearly hasn't." He says, cutting L another slice of cake.
"I just don't understand why he would go as far as ending another person's life to get my attention, Watari." L says, taking another bite from his cake.
"I can see why Shade is trying so hard to end this case so that she can stop him from self-destruction." Watari said, staring out of the window.
As I was getting prepared to end Beyond's crime, L stood in the doorway, leaning uncomfortably against the doorframe until I invited him in.
"So, what have I done or what am I about to do that made L grace his presence upon me?" I say teasingly and he has the nerve to roll his eyes at my antics.
"Nothing is of the matter. I just wanted to see you off and make sure all of your bags were packed because after his case is over, we're departing." He says and I feel a twinge of pain in my heart at that.
"Yeah, I know. Just make sure you keep my side of the deal about sending him to Florida's prison because that one also has psychiatric help." I say to him and he nods.
"The preparations for Beyond's imprisonment have already been made. All we need to do now is capture him." L says and I give a small smile at that.
"Thank you. You have no idea just how important this is for me…" I say, walking towards my phone because my phone went off.
"Oh, looks like my special chocolate chip cookies are done." I say and L's eyes brightened at the thought of my sweets, but then turned to a look of confusion.
"Not that I have no reason to accept this dessert but when did you have the time to make cookies?" He asked, following me into the mini kitchen where Watari sat with a coffee in hand.
"Morning Watari." I say to him and he nods at my greeting.
"A pleasant morning it is, Shade." He responds, giving me a light pat on the arm as he observes my movements.
Once I take the cookies onto the cooling rack, I give L a warning look.
"Now we don't want the greatest detective getting fat on us, so Watari, make sure he eats these in moderation." I say to Watari, diverting my attention from L who was attempting to take a hot cookie from the rack, and I hit his hand for doing so.
"Now, I'm going to save that big idiot, and there better be some cookies left for me." I say, pulling my rucksack of supplies onto my back, and walking out of the door.
[3rd POV]
'I never got to truly scar her. I guess I failed in keeping her happy as well….' Beyond thought to himself, dumping loads of gasoline onto the carpet floor, watching with widened eyes as the liquid seeped into the floor.
His mind was filled with nothing but thoughts of the things he should have done for Shade, and wondering how much his relationship with her really meant to her.
"Let's get this show started." Beyond whispered, adding fuel to his own body for extra measure. He didn't want a single spec of his body to remain after this…
And so, he lit the room on fire, setting everything into a heated blaze. He closed his eyes and stood there patiently as the smoke made it harder for him to inhale, until the flames finally began licking at his feet with it's fiery embrace.
"Ah… if only I could see the death of the world." He muttered to himself, his consciousness fading to the darkest corners of his mind. He felt his body hit the floor with a loud thud, and the flames began licking at his clothes. He heard a loud crash and used the last bit of his strength to direct his gaze at the broken window to spot a lock of pink hair from the corner of his field of vision.
"...B….ond!" He could hear her voice cry out to him and a feeling of complete happiness filled him, making a smile ghost his pained features.
'Shade, she came for me like she said she would...Maybe she… was my world all along…' He thought to himself, finally closing his eye, and feeling his body relax.
When Shade arrived into the room, the sight of Beyond burning himself was almost devastating to her. She couldn't believe that this is what he wanted to do as his final murder. But then again, it made sense because that would make his case closed, but she wouldn't let that happen to him, not to a person that she's cared for. She saw his numbers fall rapidly the longer she stood there until she couldn't take it anymore.
'I won't let you die here, Beyond. No… you won't leave me like this.' Shade thinks to herself and she quickly hauled him up, and ran into Naomi Misora as she was trying to make an escape.
"Ms. Kitagawa, what are you doing here?" She asks but Shade shakes her head, ignoring her question.
"That's not important right now, please call an ambulance after you extinguish the flames with that fire extinguisher over there." She said calmly, letting out a sigh of relief when she noticed his numbers return to their original state, and this would be her proof of being able to save a person before their death.
"Right away." Naomi said, racing to grab the extinguisher, and began to put out the rapidly growing flames.
Once they were gone, Naomi turned back around to see her superior nowhere to be seen.
She decided to ignore it for now, but had a feeling that she would see her again soon...
"And you're sure it's a good idea to meet her like this?" I ask, turning to the man who absolutely hates going outside, but made this a special occasion to properly give Naomi her payment himself, even though he could have sent me himself.
"This is something I must do. Besides, Watari insisted that I do this myself, and not send you." He said, a small pout appearing on his face and she grinned at him.
"Aw, the fledgling has begun to leave the nest. I bet that-" I begun to tease him but I stopped myself to allow myself to fully concentrate on the quickened footsteps from the south of me.
"Hyah!" I hear a feminine voice shout above us, and the next thing I know, Naomi Misora appears, trying to land a high kick on L's head to subdue him.
Tensing up one arm, I use my jacket covered arm to assist in blocking her kick, wrapping an arm around it to throw her down to the ground.
"Ms. Kitagawa, stand aside. The man who is beside you is dangerous." Naomi says and I begin to laugh aloud at the thought of L being hostile. He's as hostile as a hibernating bear.
"Oh please, that's L in the flesh to give you your rightfully earned money." I whisper into her ear and she looks back and forth between us multiple of times. Seeing that she was no longer a threat, I release her from my hold.
"I'm so sorry, sir." She said once she properly situated herself, bowing to him in apology which makes me begin to laugh again.
"She's a true guard dog, L. I can see why you've hired her." I tell him to which he pulls out her money which was placed in an envelope.
As they began to talk, a thought passed in my mind, causing me to reach for my phone in my jacket pocket.
Dialing the correct number, I begin to walk away from the pair, and go through the automated settings to seek a operator.
"Hello operator, give me patient number 84." I whisper to where no one can hear me and I can practically hear the grin in his voice over the receiver.