After years and months and decades and seconds, I have returned for the epilogue!! Yay!! Now everyone do a happy dance… and we're good. On with the FINAL CHAPTER!
Disclaimer: And everything winds down with the final chapter of my Death Note fanfic, which is a fanfic, which means FICTION by FANS.
All in the Past – Epilogue
"So, Dad, where are we going?" Riku asked Ryuuzaki as she stared out the window to see trees fly by her. It had been a long ride, from Japan to England, and now in a car to a place she still did not know. She had contented herself by chewing a full pack of gum, but her supply was running low, and the scenery was not changing. Mitsuki had contented herself to stare out the window. She had no idea where they were going, but she was excited about seeing England. Ryuuzaki sat in the passenger seat, and Watari drove the car.
"You will see when we get here," Ryuuzaki told the girl who could die of boredom soon. She heaved a large sigh and collapsed back into the seat. Mitsuki laughed at her, but said nothing. A lot has happened in the past few months. It started when she burned the Death Note, and became friends with Riku, sort of. Mitsuki lived with Ryuuzaki and Riku, since she had no family and was getting by on college tuition. The task force was disbanded since there was no more Kira, and Ryuuzaki had become a "regular" detective again.
"Hey, Riku, would you like to play Ghost?" Mitsuki asked. Ghost was a verbal word game, where the object was to string together letters, but if you spelled a word you were out. The catch is that the one player could "challenge" another player to make a word with the string of letters, and if they failed to make a word, they lost. It was a game they played often when they were bored. It went fine for a while, before one of them challenged the other, and then it fell into a debate on whether or not a word existed. Ryuuzaki never intervened; he just let them fight it out.
"L," Riku began, accepting the game, since she had nothing else to do, except chew gum.
"O," Mitsuki countered.
"B," Riku said thinking of trying to get Mitsuki to spell "LOBSTER."
"B." Riku frowned.
"I."
"E."
"Challenge," Riku requested, not knowing what Mitsuki could be spelling.
"Lobbies, the plural of lobby," Mitsuki replied, but Riku insisted that that was not the spelling of the word. Mitsuki glared and replied that it was. And soon enough, the argument exploded. Ryuuzaki and Watari smiled and let them go. As long as they were not going to be dragged into their fight, the two girls could battle it out.
They battled it out all the way to their destination, and only stopped when Ryuuzaki told them that they had arrived. Riku jumped out of the car and grabbed her bags from the trunk. It was undecided how long they would stay, so she packed one large suitcase and a travel bag. Mitsuki stepped out of the care and grabbed her bags as well; one medium suitcase and a travel bag as well. Ryuuzaki and Watari retrieved their bags and began leading the girls inside Wammy's House, through the large wrought iron gate.
The first impression of Wammy's House was a large mansion owned by rich people. The house was well kept, but it was ornate. You could tell that it had seen good times and bad times and had lived through them all. The grass was freshly cut, and there few weeds seen. Riku and Mitsuki noticed some kids playing outside, but as soon as they saw the visitors, rushed back inside. Both girls thought they were scared and shrugged it off.
They were proved wrong, though, when the children plus others were seen running out towards them. Riku watched as her dad dropped his bags and stooped low to greet the children and Watari greeted them warmly as well. Some talked excitedly of their day, the younger ones mainly, and others stood in the background smiling. A few were staring at Riku and Mitsuki, wondering what they were doing at Wammy's House, but shrugged it off for a moment.
After many greetings, the crowd moved inside the house. Ryuuzaki explained briefly that this was an orphanage for gifted children, and the place that he grew up, which is why he said that he wanted to come to visit. Riku could see why you would want to visit a place as elaborate as this. The banister was oak and the floor was polished wood. Paintings hung around the main room, decorating it. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, many lights shining down on the crowd.
"Who are they?" a blonde haired boy, about the age of Riku and Mitsuki, asked Ryuuzaki. Others murmured their assent, also wondering who they were. Riku knew that this would be a fun time, explaining that Ryuuzaki was her father and that she was born when he was sixteen. (If I get around to it, I will do a small series on Ryuuzaki and Minna, Riku's mom. Minna learned that she was pregnant when Ryuuzaki was fifteen, but at the time of Riku's birth, he was sixteen. If you want a better explanation, tell me. If I get enough reviews, I'll write a short series about them.)
"This is my daughter, Riku," Ryuuzaki said pointing out Riku, who was in her favorite purple leotard, black skirt, and black leather jacket, "and her friend, Mitsuki," Mitsuki smiled and fidgeted nervously with the hem of her red styled shirt and stared at her blue jeans. The entire crowd became utterly silent. A pin drop would have caused every person to jump and the noise that it would make. Riku knew she had to do something if this silence was going to end.
"Yeah, my name's Riku and I am currently thirteen. I like to say that I'm pretty smart, at least smarter than Mitsuki over here," Riku said pointing to her friend. Mitsuki glared and knew that a fight had been issued.
"This is coming from the person who thinks that 'lobbies' is not a word." Now it was time for Riku to glare. The argument from earlier threatened to rise, but Ryuuzaki quelled it by telling them to go to the third floor and take the back room. Both girls continued to glare, but left anyway. The blonde boy from earlier, as well as one of his friends, a red-headed boy the same age, followed them back to their room.
"Is there something that you want?" Riku asked impatiently turning around before opening her door to face her followers. The blonde boy smirked and took out a chocolate bar and took a bite before he answered her question. This seemed to confuse Mitsuki, but she said nothing.
"Are you really his daughter?" he questioned, not truly believing it. He figured that Ryuuzaki would have had to be not much older than them for her to be their age. Riku verified that she was indeed his daughter and was about to huff off when the red head spoke up.
"We don't mean to be rude, it is just hard to believe," and when Riku nodded her okay that she understood, the red head continued, "I'm Matt, and this is Mello."
"I'm Riku and this is Mitsuki, if you didn't get that before," Riku introduced themselves. Mello nodded, and when he turned to look at Mitsuki, he found her already staring at him.
"Is something wrong?" Mello inquired with a hint of acidity in his voice. Mitsuki blinked and almost laughed. She thought it was so funny how he was chewing chocolate and speaking. It looked so awkward to her. This infuriated Mello even more, and made his face even funnier. Soon enough, Mitsuki was laughing, full out laughing.
"I'm sorry; it's just that your face is funny when you chew chocolate." Riku looked closer when Mitsuki stated this and she began laughing, too. Mello was so dumbfounded that he was not even angry. They were laughing at him for a reason like that? No one has ever made any comment about how he looks, since here at Wammy's House, all that matters is your intelligence. For her to comment on how he looked startled him.
"Wow Mello, your face looks hilarious right now!" Matt commented at Mello's jaw drop. Mello came out of his stupor then and glared at his friend.
"Just shut up, Matt," Mello said before he stormed off. Matt was not worried about hurting his feelings, though, and followed behind his fried still laughing. Mitsuki and Riku stopped laughing a minute later and finally entered their room. They put some stuff away, but left soon afterwards, eager to see if there were any other people like Mello around that they could tease.
It did not take them long to find their next target. Watari introduced him to them as the most intelligent person in the school, Near. Neither girl thought much of him. He was a short boy of thirteen and constantly wore white. Both girls assumed that he did this due to his white hair. He also twirled his white hair a lot, which amused Mitsuki and forced Riku to hold in her laughs. Near could tell that she wanted to laugh and glared at her for it. Watari left the room on some matters, which gave the trio time to talk.
"Why do you twirl your hair?" Riku asked trying hard not to laugh still. Mitsuki thought it was funny as well, but she did not find this as funny as Mello's face when he ate chocolate, so she did not feel the need to laugh. Near was not amused by this.
"Why do you find it funny?" he challenged. Riku blanked at the question. She had no reason; it was simply funny.
"It just is, so why do you twirl your hair?"
"It helps me think," he replied. Mitsuki soon realized that this conversation would go on for a while, and decided to go and find Mello and bug him some more. Oh, if only she knew.
"Ooh, ooh, I know! It's like you're trying to wrap your mind about a topic, but instead wrapping your finger around your hair!"
"It is NOTHING like that, Riku. And do not expect me to treat you nicely because you are the current L's daughter." Riku wondered why he said current before remembering that he was L's successor. She then had a thought, why couldn't SHE be L's successor. She was his daughter, so it would be perfect. She was a genius and could easily beat out a punk like Near.
"So you think you really are going to be L's successor, huh?" Near frowned at what she was implying. Was she trying to imply that MELLO could be L's successor, or did she even know about him? Near scowled when he saw Riku smirk. He knew what she was thinking then, and a war had begun.
"I really do think that I will be L's successor, unless you think someone else is more capable. Perhaps you are thinking of yourself?" Near spoke with venom dripping from his words. Riku got excited about this battle. Even though it was not the teasing that she had with Mello, she liked the challenge better. Testing her wits against someone else was such a fun thing to do.
"You also think highly of yourself, or did you not just say that you would be L's successor? I propose a contest of wits. I propose that we create a puzzle for the other person to solve, and whoever solves it first is the winner." Near found what she proposed intriguing. A puzzle could mean anything; a word puzzle, a math puzzle, or a literal puzzle. So Near accepted the challenge and told her to leave so he could make his. Riku agreed and went to find what Mitsuki was doing.
Mitsuki tracked down Mello, who was eating chocolate, and found him and Matt playing a racing game in Matt's room. She said nothing at first and watched them for a bit, trying to find out how to play the game. Mitsuki never had much video game experience, the one system she had her dad threw out the window in a fit when she was nine. Mitsuki had watched them play two races before she asked if she could join in.
"Why would I let you play?" Mello countered, snapping off a piece of chocolate. This girl laughed at him, so he found no reason to be courteous with her. Mitsuki stared at him for a second, and opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it.
"Alright, don't let me play," Mitsuki responded. Mello sighed chewing on his chocolate and went back to the screen, but Mitsuki reached over and stole Matt's controller. He was pissed off, but he was curious at what she was going to do next, so he decided to make her pay for it later. "But I'll force my way in then."
Mello triumphed in the first race and then in the second. He laughed at her, trying to get payback for earlier, but she seemed unfazed by it. He looked over at her during the third race and saw how completely absorbed she was. He almost went off the course before Matt smacked him on the back of the head. Mello chortled and went back to the race, and came out victorious in the end. (a/n can you imagine Mello CHORTLING? I find that funny.)
"You really suck at this," Mello commented. Mitsuki had come here meaning to tease him, but that seemed unlikely. Mitsuki went over in her mind what she and Mello were doing, compared them, and realized that there was only one difference. He simply had better video game experience.
"I know, I've never played this game, or this system for that matter," Mitsuki explained, but to no avail. Mello snorted and stalked off, happy that he beat her in video games. Matt was about to follow when Mitsuki tugged on his sleeve.
"Can you teach me how to be better at this?" Mitsuki pleaded. Matt smirked. This was his chance to show off in video games, being the video game master and all.
"Why certainly. Let the video game master show you what it's all about," Matt introduced himself and he began to teach her about the basics of video gaming. Mitsuki thought that this was unnecessary, but let him because he wanted to. He only explained for five minutes before he played the racing game with her. He beat her easily each time, but he saw her get better. She was definitely improving.
"You feel ready for a rematch with Mello?" Matt asked her when she came in second behind him. He knew she would never beat him; it was just impossible. However, he felt that she stands a chance against Mello. He may even forgive her for stealing his precious gaming time for she gave it back to him. Nah.
"Hey, Mell," Matt asked entering Mello's room to tell him of Mitsuki's rematch, "Mitsuki's been practicing, and she, hey, what's wrong?" Matt asked when he saw that Mello was unresponsive. He just stared at the wall; no, he glared at the wall chewing on his chocolate.
"Nothing, what's up?" Mello asked as if Matt had just walked in. Matt stared at Mello who stared at the wall, trying to discern what was wrong. Matt thought back to the video gaming, seeing as how Mitsuki could be the only variable, and wondered about Mello's reactions. Matt then remembered that he saw Mello see them practicing and then stormed off. Did he not like the idea of his best friends being stolen away, or…?
"You like her, don't you?" Matt asked. Mello snapped up to Matt. His look was not the look of teasing he expected to see; it was stoic. Mello could deny that he liked Mitsuki, but he knew that it was false. Matt knew it was false. Mello was not head over heels for the girl, but he would be. He was smart enough to realize that the more he was around her, the more fun he had. Therefore, it hurt him when he saw his best friend with the girl he liked.
"Yeah, but I'm not in love with her, Matt. We've had other friends that were girls, right?" Mello tried to appease. Matt shook his head.
"This time's different, Mell. I saw the way you looked at her, and you don't try to tease her like others." Both knew this was true. Matt knew he was going to lose his best friend. Maybe not right now, but later, when Mitsuki found that she liked Mello, too. Matt never really believed in all of that love-at-first-sight stuff, but this was it.
"Matt, okay, I like her, but I still need you," Mello reminded him, "who else will get me chocolate when I need it?" Matt glared at him, but laughed.
"Yeah, about that, why don't you get your own chocolate?" Matt asked, not for the first time, and things fell back to where they were supposed to be. Matt lead Mello back to his room and he explained how Mitsuki was waiting for a rematch. Matt then proposed a new idea to Mello, to put something at stake. Mello thought about it on the way and came up with the perfect thing.
"So, what do you want the stakes to be?" Mitsuki asked when Mello explained that they should make some kind of bet. Mitsuki agreed, being a competitive person, and waited for Mello to answer. They were ready to play; all they had to do was settle this
"If I win, you have to buy me chocolate every week for a year," Mello declared. Mitsuki did not know how she would do this when she went back to Japan, maybe she could send chocolate, but she agreed.
"Well, I have something, too," Mitsuki said, "if I win, you can't touch chocolate for the rest of the day. You can still eat it, if you can pick it up without touching it, and gloves don't count." Mello glared. One day without chocolate might as well be a day in hell. However, the thought of chocolate for a year, along with the chocolate Matt gets him, sounded really nice. Moreover, how good could she have gotten in the past half hour?
"Fine, let's go!" Mello declared. The race started out pretty close. Mello was ahead, but Mitsuki was catching up. She then saw a short cut that she could take a little more than halfway through the course, courtesy of Matt showing it to her. Matt laughed when Mello saw Mitsuki ahead of him. Mello looked so furious that he might not have chocolate for a day without degrading himself. He also cursed Matt for not showing him this shortcut.
"Aha! I win!" Mitsuki shouted at the end of it. Mello thought of cheating, like kicking her, but decided against it and lost. He blamed Matt for showing her a short cut.
"Why didn't you tell me there was a short cut, Matt?!" Mello yelled at his friend.
"You never asked. She did. She really wanted to beat you and thought of all the tricks," Matt replied and Mello groaned. He wondered if he could eat chocolate without his hands. He probably could, but it would not be fun. Matt laughed at him and left because he knew Mello would be in a bad mood for the rest of the day. He advised Mitsuki to leave as well, but she refused. She wanted to see the consequences of her actions.
"Are you happy? Now I'm without chocolate for the entire day!" Mello grumbled. He started chewing on his tongue and glared at the TV screen. Mitsuki watched him amused before she answered his question.
"Actually, I am happy," Mitsuki replied in a singsong voice. Mello whipped his head around to face her.
"Why are you so-" Mello was cut off in mid scream. Mitsuki popped a piece of chocolate in his mouth. He started chewing the chocolate happily, but he glared at Mitsuki. Why was she doing something like this? He got his answer when she just smiled at him. She was not patronizing him, she was just happy. Mello snickered when he realized that she felt the same way he did. She liked him, and that was it.
Riku had been watching everything for a while, but did not feel like interrupting. It was so easy to tell that they liked each other, as Mitsuki fed him chocolate, sometimes taking it away at the last minute. Riku watched as Mello almost bit off Mitsuki's hand in the process of trying to get the chocolate back.
She then wondered if something like this would happen with her and Near. She liked Near, but she was clueless as to the extent of that. She thought that he would make a good friend because they could challenge each other with puzzles. This reminded her that she needed to get her puzzle ready.
Near waited for Riku to come. He had his puzzle ready for her. It was a riddle and it went as such:
"A man was to be sentenced, and the judge told him, "You may make a statement. If it is true, I'll sentence you to four years in prison. If it is false, I'll sentence you to six years in prison." After the man made his statement, the judge decided to let him go free. What did the man say?" (a/n not my riddle, it came from ., hehe, but I do like it!)
Near felt confident that it would take Riku a while to figure out this one. He could figure out her puzzle before she could figure out his and he would win. The door opened and Riku came in with a small box. He began to wonder if he had to open the box or something like that when he saw Riku dump its contents onto the floor. Near frowned at what he saw.
"This is just shredded pieces of paper," Near concluded. Riku nodded and smiled.
"That is also your puzzle," Riku told him and took the piece of paper from his hands, "Ooh, a riddle. I love riddles." Riku sat down and began to work on deciphering the riddle. Near continued to frown at his puzzle. Was it really to put all of these pieces together? Therefore, although Near did not lie, it, he began sorting the shredded paper into categories.
Both worked silently, except for Riku who began chewing gum, and neither got very far. Near tried putting pieces together but none fit. Near's thoughts were interrupted when the chewing stopped. He looked up to see Riku smiling.
"The answer is that the man said, 'You'll sentence me to six years,' right?" Riku told the albino boy. He nodded reluctantly. He knew that if her puzzle was not a real puzzle, he could have solved it ten minutes ago, but no it was a puzzle with puzzle pieces. He saw her start to laugh when she looked at his progress.
"Do you find something funny?" Near asked. He did not appreciate her laughing for no reason.
"For a genius, you really are an idiot, or maybe just stubborn?" Riku laughed and was about to walk off, when Near stopped her.
"What do you mean by that?" Riku turned back and laughed. He looked so serious.
"When you solve the puzzle you'll know," Riku replied. When he solves the puzzle, but the puzzle was pieces, or was it? Instantly, he got the answer. He really had been stubborn, trying to get a round peg into a square hole two sizes too small.
"The puzzle is impossible isn't it?" he asked as she opened the door to leave. Riku turned back again and smiled. Near heard the door shut and glowered at the pieces of paper. He had lost, so simply. She had outsmarted him. He was so focused on winning he only thought of one possibility. Near realized that she was a good opponent, and realized that this is how Mello must feel; thinking that if he just got another chance he could win.
"Riku, where's Mitsuki?" Ryuuzaki asked when he bumped into Riku, who was just on her way to find Mitsuki. Before she could answer, footsteps padded down the stairs and Mitsuki appeared.
"I'm right here, Ryuuzaki, why?" Mitsuki asked. She had run out of chocolate and was going to get more for Mello.
"Well, actually, I was thinking of moving in here. Watari has been working on setting up a system here for me to continue my job as a detective, and I thought that I would like to move back here, where I grew up, so what do you girls think?" Ryuuzaki explained. This had been his original intention, moving in here. Both girls thought about their new friends and a quick look at the other person's smile told them that the answer was unanimous.
"We'd love it."
OMG I am finally done, unless people want me to write a small story, not under "all in the past," about Minna and Ryuuzaki, then I might. Tell me in a review and if I get enough of them, I'll do it. This is the FINAL CHAPTER of "all in the past," though, so goodbye, unless people want me to write the Minna and Ryuuzaki story. I'm thinking of calling it, "Of geniuses, lunatics, and somewhere in between." Lolz. Tell me, if I haven't said it enough times already!!
C ya l8r! (Maybe).