Narroch: It's been a while... I do believe this is the longest we have ever waited before releasing chapters...? O.o We just needed a bit of a hiatus, life happens and such. Also, we wanted to wait for this special date!
RobinRocks: Nyes, indeed! As I am sure many of you know, today – 24th August – is Near's birthday. :) Let's see, he was born in 1991, same year as my brother, and my brother is 17, so that makes Near, as of today, 17 too. Aww, bless. And best of all, Near is actually in this chapter (he wasn't in the last one, I don't think…)! Aww, I love him – he's soooooooo cute (just kind of evil…)!
Narroch: I don't understand Near haters... I really don't. He is just trying his best, like a lil gimp train engine that thought it could. Happy birthday gimp. (I am in SUCH a mood right now, it is quite fantastic to watch :P)
RobinRocks: What kind of mood, dear? Bad mood, happy mood, odd mood…? O.o
Anyway, BIG thanks to: Lostpharoah, blondevil, Scripta Lexicona, CheeseFaerieXXL, Tobi Tortue, Tikaani, BakayaroManiac, anja-chan, Nardaviel, Candy Apple Heart Attack, PhoebeGilmore, Synonymous Brian, WhiteWolfCub, Cween Almond, MiaoShou, Yaro, Gtimes3, TheQueenOfMediocrity, Perdue, NightPredator, Mask of Mirage, OneWhoSitsWithTheTurtles, Kaze Kimizu, Skyhe, recipe for insanity, MeEksiNs, Deus3xMachina, Bobertha, shad0wform, Nyx-Zephyrus, Kaiji, rain angst, Spider-e, Pluto, Olynara Sedai, Jungle John, Serpent's Redemption, Chron, PikaNecoMico, Skitts, Layalas, Anna P.T, phoenix of hell, Tarshil, Lawliet's Angel, InkHeart17, xxdeejadoodlexx, Liviania, narni4eva, The Sacred Pandapuff, Rin Cho, Phaenilix, daxterandboxer, shouldbeasleep, Audball, Star Jinin, leesoca, shirosunday, Tanny-san, Ekoaleko, Shakuhachi Jade, joutsenlauluja, AccordingToMel, pandafoot105, Chocolatier-Mihael, next big thing12 (and we updated in time for your birthday after all!), Anonymous, Shikirou, V. V. Kiri, narutoclaymorelove4eva, Celeste Goodchild, aaatttackkkkk, Imperial Mint and hellishlygood! Whew! Hope I didn't miss anyone…
Oh, one more thing, BTW: During the time between this update and the last one, we have accumulated TWO Poison Apple-inspired AMVs!!11!!11! Ah, they're both so awesome! Byakko Ta created a movie-like trailer for Poison Apple and RileyKitsune made a music video to Demon Hunter's Carry Me Down. Thankyou both so much! Everyone, you should check them out! There are links at the top of my profile if you're interested in seeing them (and while you're there, you should also check out the link to Spoil by Sayan Visual Studios (The Last Firstborn by Celldweller) – a truly amazing Death Note AMV).
Narroch: Enjoy!
(RobinRocks: And happy birthday to Near! :D Incidentally, out of interest… how many of you predicted that we would update today? Ha, we're so lame…)
Shattered Symphony
The silence of the room was a tangible force, heavy with the weight of negative space. It actively gathered the residual white noise and neutralized it between brick and plaster, until the only audible motion within the room was a passive pulse emanating from the small shell of a boy curled in the corner. He was idly moving chess pieces across a board, the action no more noticeable than the motion on the face of a clock. He melded to the silence, and added no personal life to the room, no trace of human spark.
If anyone else had been observing the room, he would not have been able to suppress the knee jerk reaction of surprise brought about when the boy suddenly spoke. But since there was no-one, and he was completely alone, to him it only seemed as though his internal thoughts had gained vibrational flight through the air; instead of the idea that he was talking to himself.
"None of them really get it, L," Near said conversationally, the words doing nothing more than accentuating the absolute silence surrounding them. He daintily picked up the white king – upon which he had carefully painted a capital 'L'. "Mello, Matt… and most especially Light Yagami."
He put the white king back, one finger still poised over its crown and gazed across the board from his position behind the white army.
"It's not a race," he went on mildly. "It's not a competition. It's about strategy, method, the most efficient route to victory… and if you lose sight of that, then you will fail."
He picked up the two white knights, upon each a neat 'M'.
"Your drive is admirable," he addressed them, "but foolhardy. I cannot make you accept me as L wished, nor can I make you listen to me, but…"
Near didn't finish, putting them back into position. Glancing again across the board at the black king and queen – 'Kira' painted on each in white-out.
"I'm sure you'd choose white for yourself, if I was to play you at this game, Light Yagami," Near murmured, "but… if you're going to kill off your own queen to save yourself…"
Near flicked the black queen off the board; then slowly dragged his baggy sleeve across the board and swept off every single other black piece. The king was left all by himself on his own side, facing an entirely white battalion; a lone spire standing against a white capped wave.
"Still…" Near tilted his head; then lifted up the white king once more, as though to allow him to observe the board too. "…You'd think this easy, wouldn't you? He's all by himself, but… as long as Mello and Matt are at odds with me, their efforts cannot be focused one hundred per cent on the catching of Kira. Don't you think that's worrying? If you aren't one hundred per cent determined to catch him, then you won't."
Still clutching the L-adorned white king, Near rested his head in his hands.
"What am I going to do, L?" He wondered aloud, glancing up at the hotel room ceiling. "What am I going to do…?"
"L said not to go back there," Matt said idly, glancing up from his computer, screens gleaming across his goggles.
"He said for you not to go back there."
"Actually, he made me promise that neither of us would go back there."
"Exactly." Mello finished lacing up his right boot against the hotel room dresser and straightened up. "He made you promise. I haven't promised him a damn thing."
"Can't argue with that." Matt went back to his work. He knew that the argument didn't have even a sliver of a chance stopping Mello, especially not when he was this worked up. Mello was stubborn, and once he sank his teeth into a lead, it was like trying to shake off a dog; using the taboo subject of L as bait, the single keystone to an internal avalanche, and Matt knew there would be no holding him back.
Unless he physically tied Mello down to the bed, (not an entirely unappealing scenario…) he would not be able to stop him from going to confirm what he had said earlier. Matt simply didn't have the mental energy to put up with Mello's verbal abuse even if he did manage to get the jump on him. And so, just a warning to Mello, and he felt that his duty to L's promise was fulfilled. He looked back up, a twinge of worry making his fingers pause. How would Mello react to this cold foreign L? How would L react to Mello?
"Still, he was fairly adamant that it was dangerous for me to be there – for either of us to be there."
"Hence the safety precaution." Mello checked the bullets in his gun, spinning the cylinder in a blur before snapping it shut and clicking on the safety catch. "I doubt I'll be lucky enough for Yagami to be out for the count the way he was for you, but if the little fucker comes anywhere near me he's getting a bullet through the back of his head."
Matt let a smirk tug at his mouth, amused by the thought, and the deadly seriousness surrounding it. Mello was willing to skip steps when it came to L's murderer.
"What are we going to do about arresting him?"
Mello paused with a grimace, irrationally angry at the missing details of protocol. "Nothing yet." He sighed, as if the thought pained him. "We don't have anything on him except for what L wrote in that blue notebook, and that's useless; it was only meant to give us the suspect, not the arrest warrant. And at the moment we can't even do that unless we prove the notebook you took is real. I mean… from what we've seen, Yagami is very, very meticulous. He might have planned for this eventuality."
"You… think it might be a fake?"
"Well, it doesn't look like the one in police photos, that's for sure." Mello tucked the gun into his pants and folded his arms. "Besides, from what I've gathered from the fragmented case files Roger sent to Near and I, on touching a true Death Note, you should be able to see the Shinigami attached to it. And you said you didn't see anything, right?"
"Nope, no Shinigami." Matt frowned. "Unless it was hiding."
"That's always a possibility." Mello glanced at the inconspicuous black notebook sitting on the desk next to Matt's laptop as he worked. "Regardless of whether it's real or not, make you sure you look after it, Matt."
Matt half-saluted him with a wry smile.
"Aye-aye, captain."
"Good." Mello threw on his jacket and headed for the door.
"…You know," Matt observed blandly as Mello's hand touched the door handle, "I don't think L expected you to keep that promise, at least."
Mello turned, profile suddenly stark against the opened doorway.
"He's mad if he actually believed that I would."
Matt gave an absent little shake of his head.
"He's mad anyway," he muttered. "Always was."
The words followed after Mello as he closed the door, and stayed in his mind as he strolled down the hall.
L mad? He certainly had his quirks and oddities, but he was not mad. His mind was the farthest-reaching, clearest-seeing, and deepest-delving, following logic like a personal religion. He did not act on impulse or emotion as Mello sometimes did. His intelligence was too potently pure for that.
Or so Mello thought.
Matt's description of a literally and figuratively cold L was something Mello's mind could not wrap around. Just the fact that he was somehow alive, or at least existing in some form, was an idea too foreign for Mello to even grab ahold of. It was too good to be true, and even though Mello believed Matt (how could he not believe him? Pale and shaking, telling him every detail of his meeting with L as if it was a disturbingly percipient dream…), he almost did not want to.
L was Justice. He always held that symbolic place in Mello's eyes, and so the fact that he was staying with Kira, within the same walls as the mass murderer, and yet criminals were still piling up on the news, was the most disturbing thing Matt could have told him. It frightened him, that at worst, his sole role model might have been corrupted, and at best, he might have simply stopped caring. At least in death, his memory of L had been incorrigible.
Now things were… strange. Things were changing, and he did not know how to hang onto his beliefs as they swirled out of control. He did not know what to expect, and that looming variable frightened him terribly.
He pulled his jacket tighter around himself, taking comfort in the soft creak of leather around his frame as he stepped out of the lobby doors and into the street.
There was only one way to fix things, only one way to be sure:
He had to go back to the source, and get his answers firsthand.
"Another one?" Ryuk inquired gleefully from where he was floating beside the bedroom window.
L, still curled up miserably on the bed, lifted his head; unfolding himself and stepping down to come and observe whatever it was that Ryuk was snickering at.
His black lifeless eyes widened a little and he swept away without a word.
Ryuk indulged in a few moments more of sniggering, before floating lazily in the same direction as L, out through the bedroom door and down the corridor.
He came across Light at the kitchen table; dressed, though with his hair mussed, and overall looking pale and exhausted as he slowly, uninterestedly nibbled at the toast he'd made himself.
"Another one," Ryuk told him cryptically, plucking out an apple from the paper bag on the side.
Light glanced at him wearily.
"Ryuk, when they're gone, there won't be anymore," he said.
Ryuk cackled as he took off through the wall, clutching his crimson prize.
"That's what you think…"
—
L was able to silence Mello's startled yell with his hand as he grabbed him from behind; he turned him around and pushed him against the wall, still with his cold, pale hand over the blonde's mouth.
Mello's eyes widened, drawing in an exhilarated breath on seeing the identity of his ambusher; L put a finger to his own lips to signal him to be quiet before letting his hand drop to instead take Mello's wrist. Checking over his shoulder, he started off quickly down the corridor, dragging his heir after him.
Only several floors up, pulling Mello into the unused bathroom he had ventured into only once before, did he deign it safe to speak. He turned, focusing his ominous black void eyes on Mello, who was still in a flustered transitional state. The blonde straightened up under L's unblinking gaze, his face suddenly tightly reined, veiling all emotion.
"I suppose it was too much to hope that Matt would keep his mouth shut," L said dryly.
"Of course it was." Mello was rubbing his wrist where L had been clutching it. "Fuck, you're cold."
"Mello, please don't use language like that. Neither Watari nor Roger would have approved of it."
Mello blinked; then smiled, allowing the veil to drop and reveal the vulnerable hope he had been hiding.
"It is you," he said softly.
L shrugged.
"Of sorts." He eyed Mello coldly. "I told Matt that both of you were not to—"
"Never mind about Matt," Mello interrupted waving his hand flippantly to the side; he gazed at L in silence for a moment, eyes dragging eagerly over his lanky frame, drinking in the slouch, the simple clothes and wild dark hair, a questioning pause on the dull eyes reflective as coal. He didn't comment however, satisfied with simply absorbing and verifying L's image before doing something incredibly uncharacteristic for both parties involved.
He embraced him.
Gripping him fiercely about the middle, tight enough to hold him back from death itself, he hissed his words into L's chest.
"Oh, god, L, I missed you so fucking much," he whispered, not seeming to care about the iciness of L's body against his own, ignoring the coldness that wormed into him with tendrils of chilled trepidation. "I don't care what you made Matt promise – did you really think I was going to stay away after he'd told me that you'd come back?"
"I had hoped that you might take my wishes to heart," L responded flatly; although he put his hand gently at the back of Mello's head. "They were for the safety of the both of you."
"I won't stay long. I only came to see you. I had to, L – I had to see you."
"Mm." L finally became uncomfortable with being in Mello's grasp and squirmed loose, turning away from him with downcast eyes. "I'm sorry… that you all grew so attached to me. That wasn't the point."
He placed his hands on the row of marble sinks; an unwanted memory of the only other time he'd been in this bathroom clawing its way to the front of his mind.
He'd been with Light, not Mello; a Light chained to his wrist, a Light free of the curse of Kira. It had been in the aurora stages of their relationship, the morning after his retaliation against Light, which in turn had been Light's retaliation against his constant "You-are-Kira" abuse.
He supposed, dimly looking back on it and knowing now what he hadn't then, that there was probably only so much accusation someone who believed himself innocent could take; only so far you could push percentages onto someone before a lashing out.
This bathroom was still unused, all these years later; but dusty, with a damp, rusted smell. Light hadn't cleaned it, hadn't ventured anywhere near it, and cameras had never been installed in this section of the building, so L knew it was a safe haven in which he could talk with Mello.
He distractedly rubbed the dust from the row of mirrors in front of him on his sleeve, cutting a swathe of reflection across them with Mello lingering in the wake of awkward silence.
"What did you expect?" Mello finally asked quietly. "Our admiration of you was bred into us. That's what Wammy's House is all about – aspiration to become the next L."
"It's idiotic," L muttered blackly. "It's nothing but a death knell."
"How can you say that—?" Mello started desperately.
"Because I'm dead!" L snapped. "A's dead, B's dead—!" He cut himself off; he could say no more to this Mello – the Mello of a time reversed. Instead he took a deep breath. "…I don't know what Watari thought he was playing at—"
"But it's all we have!" Mello burst out. "None of us chose to go to Wammy's House – it's a freaking orphanage! How can you think we wouldn't grow attached to you when you're the only thing any of us had?"
"Attachments blind you, connections smother you…" L muttered, neither truly listening to nor addressing Mello. "That's why you should be on your own – because nobody can hurt you… You don't owe anyone a thing."
"No!" Mello snapped. "Don't say that either! I don't agree with that, I can't, and…" Mello's voice lowered considerably, a challenge rising up from his hackles. "…I don't think you agree with that either."
"Of course I do."
"Then why fall in love with Light Yagami?! If you believe—"
Mello cut himself off sharply with a choked gasp as every single one of the five mirrors rowed along the wall before them suddenly seized up and cracked, slinging fractures across their surfaces like inverted lightening – as though all simultaneously struck with something blunt.
L didn't blink; but turned to Mello, ignoring the mirrors, now spiderwebbed by the force of his otherworldly anger.
"Don't you get it?" L snapped. "Who killed me? Light Yagami. Why did he kill me? Because he's Kira. How did he kill me?" The dead detective forced out a bitter little laugh. "Because I as good as let him, Mello!" He gave a sudden deep sigh and looked away from the blonde. "Yes, I loved him. It was stupid and wrong. I knew that, and Watari warned me, but… well, we all know the ending to that little love story…"
"Look, I'm sorry your boyfriend turned out to be a lying, murdering bastard, but—"
"It doesn't matter anymore, Mello."
"Of course it matters. You thought love was worthless, and then when you finally felt it, the person you loved killed you, so now you've come back with exactly the same philosophy, just with proof to boot."
"No." L shook his head. "I don't think love is worthless. I think it's wonderful. And this will be hard for you to understand, but even though he killed me, Light loved me. He still does."
"And do you love him?" Mello ground out, nearly growling.
L was very quiet for a long time.
"Yes," he answered eventually, "but, again, in a way that you cannot understand."
Now it was Mello's turn to remain silent for a while.
"You've changed, L," he said eventually, the only thing he could say at that juncture. A statement to confirm his own fears.
L gave a small nod.
"Yes." He tilted his head. "That's exactly my point."
Mello kicked at the floor uncomfortably.
"Matt stole a notebook," he said, unsubtly changing the subject. "But… we can't be sure if it's a real Death Note."
"Light has no fakes that I know of." L paused. "What does it look like?"
"Plain black. It has nothing on the covers at all, not even on the inside. The one in police photographs says 'Death Note' on the front and has instructions inside the front and back covers in English. Matt says he didn't see any Shinigamis either."
"No?"
"Well…" Mello frowned. "I think he'd have remembered that."
"Probably."
"Do you know if it's real?"
L nodded.
"Yes. It is real. What Matt has stolen was once the notebook of the Shinigami Rem, who was attached, at different points, to both Misa Amane and Light Yagami. She died when she killed Watari and I because she lengthened Amane's lifespan, and Light inherited her notebook."
"Then there is more than one notebook," Mello said, more to himself.
"There are three on the Earth that are known of. The one in police custody, with instructions written on it, was the original one to be dropped and picked up by Light. The second – the one Light is still in possession of – was originally Misa Amane's Death Note. The third, as I said, was Rem's personal notebook until the event of her death."
"Another one?" Mello scowled. "So if Yagami still has one, that means he can still kill people."
"That is correct."
Mello pulled his gun out of his belt, snapping off the safety.
"I'm going to go and get it."
"No." L very calmly stepped in front of him. "You are going to leave."
"What?" Mello stared at him, lowering his gun. "You're… you're stopping me from confronting Kira?"
"At this present time, yes." L's eyes narrowed. "I had this facility built. It's rigged with camera feeds that Light has no doubt managed to get up and running. Believe me, you will not get near him."
"You don't need to be near someone to blast a hole through them," Mello spat.
"You will not shoot Light Yagami, do I make myself clear?" L hissed. "All these years of work – yours, the NPA's, the FBI's, Interpol's, mine… Listen, if you believe you have the evidence to successfully have Light convicted as Kira, then you must contact both the chairman of the NPA and the head of Interpol and obtain arrest warrants from both. Charging in at gunpoint and tying him up will be regarded as kidnap and that will make things very messy. Despite the fact that Light killed off the actual Kira Task Force, the NPA will almost certainly supply you with an equipped team so that you can make an arrest. The fact that Light "killed" L a few days ago makes this that much more difficult."
L paused for a moment, thinking.
"I think at this point the only thing that is going to work is to cash in, so to speak, on your Wammy's House credentials. Are you and Matt in contact with Near?"
Mello's expression darkened.
"Not at this present time, no," he said through gritted teeth.
"Where is he? Still in Winchester?"
Mello shrugged sulkily.
"No idea. I don't keep tabs on him," he muttered blackly.
"Well, I suggest you get in contact with him." L wasn't even looking at his heir now. "Wherever he is, I suspect he will have evidence of his own – and the work of three Wammy's House prodigies will be a stronger case than two."
"What the fuck?!" Mello demanded, completely forgetting about his language. "You want us to share our victory with Near when he hasn't done any of the work?!"
"This is not a game!" L blazed, making Mello shut up again. "I don't care what issues you and Matt have with Near, or vice versa – I'm sick of this constant squabbling between you. How old are you, Mello?"
"But that's not fair—"
"Of course it's not fair," L snapped. "Nothing about this case is fair – don't you think Kira has always had an extremely unfair advantage over his victims? Don't you think it was unfair of me to take away Light's freedom when he truly believed himself innocent? Don't you think it was unfair that he killed me after everything we'd shared? Even though none of those things were fair at all, they don't matter to the final conclusion – your job as my heir is to catch Kira, no matter how you do it or who you work with."
Mello looked at the filthy floor, simmering.
"But he's Number One," he finally murmured, his voice heavy with a sulky rage. "He was your first choice…"
"How dare you say that," L replied icily. "Near wasn't my first choice – A was. And out of the three of you – Near, Matt and yourself – there was no specific order in which you were chosen. You were a unit put together to succeed me in the event of my death. I had no idea the relations between you were so poisoned…"
Mello's gaze went back to the floor. He had mentioned the phone call from Near last night to no-one, not even Matt. It still made his blood boil just thinking about it, and yet…
Near had spoken about what L would have wanted – as in, L would have wanted them all to work together.
And here was L now, restored from his grave, right in front of him… demanding exactly that.
But still, even as he pushed himself, tried to force himself to say that he had had contact with Near, that he was in Japan, that he wanted to meet and exchange information…
He couldn't; under the icy gaze of this strange, different L, his nerve failed him.
"I'm sorry," he sighed finally, stealing a glance upwards at L through his gold hair.
"Don't apologize," L replied blandly. "Just go – go and do what you must."
Mello put the safety back on his gun and slid it back into his belt.
"I will, L."
"Good. Now leave."
Mello headed for the door; then paused, looking at the cracked mirrors.
"Matt said all the mirrors in the other bathroom were broken too," he said softly. "Just like this."
"I broke them," L replied lifelessly. "Just like this."
"Why?"
"I hate them."
Mello gave a small nod which indicated nothing and started to leave again.
"Mello," L said; making the blonde lean back into the bathroom.
"What, L?"
"…Promise me," L went on, his gaze, as with Matt, on his own distorted reflection and not on his heir, "that no matter what happens… you will not write Light's name down in that notebook."
Mello blinked.
"What the—?"
"Promise me, Mello." L glanced at him with his black, endless eyes. "No good will come of it, so please promise."
"Alright, alright, I promise." Mello still looked rather perplexed, but L seemed satisfied.
"Thankyou." He said nothing more, and Mello left amidst the following awkward silence, just as Matt had.
"Jeez, I take it back," Ryuk said, coming through the broken mirrors like a freed spirit once encased within the glass. "You are pretty fun."
"Why do you keep following me?" L spat, glaring at him before walking abruptly away towards the door.
"Like I said, you're fun. I'm never quite sure what you're going to do next – kind of like Light, except you're less of a drama queen."
"What's that supposed to mean, you damned Shinigami?" L hissed venomously, leaving the bathroom.
"It means…" Ryuk floated in front of the dead detective, grinning. "…That I'm still not quite sure whose side you're on, L Lawliet."
"I'm on the side I'm always on," L replied, sidestepping him and walking away. "Mine."
"Huh." Ryuk hung back, watching him go. "…What a Light-like thing to say."
The morning sky was grey; and the streets deserted this early in the day.
As before, when his phone went off in his pocket, Mello presumed that the only person calling him could be Matt.
He was unpleasantly surprised.
"M, don't hang up on me," was Near's greeting.
"N," Mello replied icily. "Funny, I was just talking about you."
"I'm sure it was nothing good. Regardless, I'm going to ask again if you would be interested in joining forces under the name of a second L. Light Yagami has made things very complicated for us by "killing" L – I feel that the only way we can achieve anything against him is together."
…Exactly what L had said.
Mello was almost too unnerved by the practically-identical wording to argue. If he hadn't just seen L himself, he might have been tempted to think that Near had been possessed by the detective's ghost.
"I…" Mello cleared his throat, gripping a handful of his hair in frustration. "Well… we might—"
"Not Matt. Just you."
Mello faltered, feeling yet another one of his nerves be stripped by the calm words.
"Why? What the fuck is your problem with Matt?" He demanded.
"I have no problem whatsoever with Matt," Near replied calmly. "I am merely thinking of the safety of all three of us. It might be risky to have all three of us together in one place. We cannot be certain that Light Yagami does not already know of our existence."
Ugh, he had a point. This was exactly why Mello hated him.
"Have you informed Matt of our… conversation last night?" Near went on.
"…No, not yet."
"Good. Please keep it that way for now." Near paused for a moment. "Will you meet me, then?"
"Alright." Mello almost groaned it, already annoyed with himself for agreeing. "For like five minutes."
"Thankyou. I won't tell you where I am over the phone, but I will get the information to you."
"Hey, when do you want to meet?" Mello snapped.
"Tonight?"
"Okay, okay." Mello heaved an exaggerated sigh. "I'm sure a few minutes in your presence won't kill me…"
"You're too kind."
Near hung up and Mello did the same, folding his phone and jamming it back into his pocket.
Well, if nothing else, L sure as hell couldn't complain now.
—
"How did you enjoy the 'L-is-back-from-the-dead Experience'?" Matt asked dryly from exactly the same place he'd been when Mello had left – at the desk on his laptop, typing speedily – as the blonde closed the hotel room door and leaned up against it, closing his eyes wearily.
"It was… strange," Mello replied, not opening his eyes. "I can't describe it. It was wonderful to see him again, but… he wasn't…"
"He's not very pleasant, is he?" Matt finished flatly. He gave a shrug. "Still, he asked me what I expected from him, and… I guess he has a point. He did die, after all."
"…Yeah," Mello sighed, shrugging off his jacket as he finally pushed away from the door and crossed the room; putting the gun down on the dresser as he passed it. "Points for effort there, I suppose."
"Find anything out from him?"
"Yeah." Mello pointed at the Death Note, still safe on the desk next to Matt. "That's real."
"It is?"
Mello nodded gravely; leaning over Matt to look at the computer screen.
"What are you working on?"
"Oh, I'm still trying to hack into the mainframe of the computer system in that old HQ building our favorite little serial killer is holed up in." Matt gave a sigh. "I know I can get in, but it's taking forever. I mean, I expected this from a system designed by Watari, encrypted by L and now being used by Mr Top-Score-in-all-of-Japan, a.k.a Insane God-Complexed Mass Murderer, but I feel like I've aged about a decade in the time I've been sitting here…"
"What would I do without you, Matt?" Mello sighed, a trace of a laugh tinting his voice as he trailed away. "Want some coffee?"
"I would love some." Matt frowned at the blonde went over to the work surface next to the desk. "You okay, Mello?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Mello offered him a tired smile. "I guess seeing someone come back from the dead kind of takes a lot out of you."
"Tell me about it."
"It's just…" Mello paused, leaning on the surface as the kettle started to boil. "…I've spent all the time since I heard about his death thinking 'If only L hadn't died' or 'If only there was some way for L to come back to life'… I've thought that every time I've read the paper or watched TV and seen a report about yet more victims of Kira. I guess… I always thought that if only L were here, Kira wouldn't be. And yet… by some miracle he has come back, but…"
"I know what you mean," Matt replied quietly. "From where we're standing, it kind of looks like he's… helping Yagami."
"…Maybe he is," Mello said miserably. "Love… is a strange thing, isn't it? And we know that he loved Light Yagami – that he loved Kira…"
"And he told you the notebook was a real Death Note?"
"Yeah. Said it belonged to a Shinigami called Rem, but Yagami inherited it after she died."
They both went silent, looking at the plain black notebook sitting unassumingly on the desk beside Matt's laptop.
"…Do you think we should test it?" Mello asked finally. "Just to make sure…?"
Matt looked at the thing in distaste.
"Gotta say, Mello… you have a good point, but that's not something I'm overly keen on."
"Me neither, really. Probably cursed or something. Still…" Mello gave a sudden frustrated sigh. "Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with us? Can't even trust L…"
"But he's not L anymore," Matt replied quietly, looking intently at his computer screen. "…At least… he's not our L."
"But that's not his fault."
"No, I know." Matt looked up again at Mello, finishing up with the coffee over at the work surface. "…So what's our next move?"
"A complicated one." Mello brought over the coffee. "I'll explain later, when my brain is less screwed over by the fact that L miraculously managed to claw his way back out of his grave three years after his death…"
"Amen to that."
"…Jeez, Matt, we must all be mad. The world's greatest detective gets murdered and we're all tripping over ourselves to queue up to replace him. It's like sending a fucking "Kill Me" invitation to that Yagami bastard…"
"Well," Matt observed, "if you're considering a career change, Mello, you could always work in Starbucks." He sipped at his coffee appreciatively. "You make a mean cup of caffeine."
Mello flipped him off.
"Shut the hell up."
Matt merely grinned.
"Love ya."
It was the only logical conclusion he could come to.
Light leaned back in his chair and gazed unseeingly up at the ceiling; news channel blaring off to his left and Death Note open in front of him, pen held limply in his hand. None of this registered on his senses however, consumed as he was by the tarnished peeling strip of dream that he was replaying over and over in his mind's eye, honing in on the single clear image of a face, carefully holding it there and tracing its features like the facets of a precious stone.
Near. His eyes. His smile.
The creeping familiarity that hung about him in a cloud of deja vu, haunting him more than the actual detective's physical presence did. The deep wells he had for eyes, the inverted colors, even the way he curled onto the floor… They were L's – he was a reincarnation, yet a twisted variant of such, one born before the death of the previous version.
Of course, Light would kill him. Near and Mello – both of them were going to die.
But L…
He was more complicated, always was more complicated. A simple murder would not suffice; not for him. And even if Light had that ability, he would not employ it. Because there was a piece missing to that puzzle. A loophole needed to exist for life in the same way that it existed for death. There must be a way to restore him to life for good. If he had bent the logic of the world already by coming back from the dead, and then, by a further romantic rule of the Death Note, another's heart would become his for twenty-three days…
There must be a once-and-for-all way to give him life once more – a way to sever the bridge between the living and the dead he stood upon so precariously.
A way to awaken him from his sleeping death forever.
And, logically, the only conclusion he could come to was this:
Near's heart.
The heart of a reincarnation born before the death of the original.
So that would be it, then. The grand scheme flowed out before him like a great majestic river, slow and yet unstoppable; a global wave that would turn red with death, killing and cleansing as it went. Once Mello and Near were gone, there would be no-one left to oppose him. Kira would finally be victorious, and when the time came – when the entire world had accepted Kira as Justice and Law – he would drop the masks of both Coil and Deneuve and emerge as God.
And during that time, once he reached that all-seeing peak, he would perform the alchemic formula upon L one last time – he would have to go through the agony of crossing realms only once more, and then…
He would be free.
All of the pain that weighed him down would be lifted; the bitter betrayal he felt would dissipate like hot sea spray – he would never have to know the awful truth that Light had ever killed him. And although Light would no longer be able to hide the deaths of the task force from him, he figured, if he was to rule as Kira and have L back once and for all…
He would simply have to tell him the truth of Kira sooner or later. But it would not be given as a guilty confession, instead it would be a proud declaration. He would show him everything, explain his beliefs, and the fruition of his plans. And in that position – with L publicly declared dead, with no Watari, with no heirs… L would still be utterly powerless to do anything against him.
He would have nothing left in this world to cling to but Light.
And he would see that it was Good.
That was it – all it would take.
Light smiled, his gaze still unseeing as his mind went back to stroking the creepily familiar features of Near's face.
His heart would be the awakening kiss—
And they could finally have the happily ever after they both so badly wanted.
The AC in their hotel room seemed twice as effective after sex, when their combined body warmth rolled off them in steamy waves of spent panting and sweating, and the frigid air settled over their heated forms causing an uncomfortable juxtaposition. Not much for cuddling, they enjoyed the sated silence for as long as they could stand it before their shivering won out and forced them to get up. Matt was the first to break, muttering about the usefulness of a blanket shoved to the floor as he stood up to rummage around for clothes.
"You know what strikes me as strangest about it?" Matt said, pulling on his striped top.
Mello was still lying on his back on the bed, feebly attempting to conserve body heat by curling up beneath the thin sheets, naked but for his rosary. Mello turned his heavy lidded gaze towards the redhead.
"About what?"
"L and his little love affair with Yagami."
"Hn. What about it?"
"They're so opposite. I mean, personally…" Matt stood up, hitching up his cargo pants and buckling his belt. "…I think that whole "opposites attract" stuff is bullshit. I mean, look at us – sure, we have different likes and dislikes and stuff, but fundamentally, we're pretty similar, and that's what makes us compatible, right? But we know what L was like – I don't mean to sound disrespectful to the guy, because he was a fucking genius, but… he was kind of a slob. And then you have that Yagami guy – extremely handsome, very well-spoken and polite and with a designer wardrobe. Makes you wonder what the hell attracted them to each other."
Mello gave a shrug.
"Who knows? Guess it doesn't really matter."
"No, guess not…"
Mello frowned, sitting up in bed, sheets pooling at his lap.
"Where are you going, anyway?" He asked, suddenly aware that the redhead was pulling on his boots.
"Going to get that other notebook." Matt sat on the edge of the bed and pulled on the laces. "The more evidence we have the better, right? Not to mention he could be using it right this second to take out more criminals, which is what we are trying to stop. And after all…" He glanced up at Mello, eyes gleaming wickedly. "…L told you not to go and get it – not me."
"Okay, good plan." Mello scratched at his blonde hair, looking at the bedside clock. "Guess it's kind of early to be in bed, anyway. It's only ten-thirty…"
Matt shrugged amicably, adjusting the finishing touch at his forehead – his goggles.
"Hey, I got urges." He grinned. "I'm only human."
"Says you." This was actually perfect – now Mello could go and meet Near without Matt inquiring where he was going. "Take the gun, anyway. L keeps going on about it "being dangerous" for us to be there…"
"Way ahead of you." Matt twirled the gun around his forefinger idly, then added as an afterthought- "…Hey, you think I should kidnap L while I'm there?"
Mello paused, seriously weighing the words. It was something he had been considering. But thinking back to how adamant L was about not shooting Yagami, or using the Death Note on Yagami, and most disquieting, the admission of loving Yagami in a way he wouldn't understand…
And L was right. Mello didn't understand, and that was why it gnawed at him. But even if he couldn't comprehend the reasons for L's love, he knew the effects of it, how powerful an emotion it could be, since he had felt it himself. It could change anyone, make them defy their most sacredly held beliefs for the sake of maintaining that bond.
It was an untrustworthiness he couldn't risk. Even if the admission of it concerning L, his sole role model, made him feel slightly queasy.
"I can't see him cooperating with that. He seems pretty set on staying there with Yagami, even though… he also seems pretty set on us exposing him as Kira."
"See? He's mad. Always has been."
"I don't know, it's…" Mello frowned. "There's something… I just can't puzzle out there…"
Matt shrugged.
"Eh, I don't think it would be much fun having him here, anyway. He has a major "disturbed vengeful spirit" vibe, and that aside, it would make the sex a little awkward."
"Jesus, is that all you think about?"
"Kind of hard not to, when you're lying naked in bed like that."
"The only reason for that is because you already—"
Matt cut him off by leaning across the bed and kissing him; Mello pressed upwards into it, and, as he did so, lifted the beaded thread of his rosary off over his own head and transferred it over Matt's. Matt pulled away from the kiss in surprise, looking down at the tiny crucifix now stark against his black and white stripes.
"For luck," Mello supplied, answering an unasked question.
"…What's with the rosary, Mello?" Matt asked.
Again.
"Because…" Mello paused, looking down at the bedsheets. "…Because it's a symbol of the fact that I do not accept Kira as God."
"Heh." Matt smiled. "You're funny, Mello."
He started to laugh; and, after a moment of being pissed off, Mello laughed with him.
"—What the hell?!"
Light bolted up, knocking his chair over; as he strained up to glance at one of the many monitor screens sprawled before him. His nostrils flared indignantly and his eyes were wide as they followed the movement of a small figure strolling languidly across the lobby.
Those same eyes that told him that the trespasser was named 'Mail Jeevas'.
He couldn't see the figure's face, though – the image was too small, and these cameras were temperamental and grainy after being left abandoned for three years. Zooming in wasn't an option.
"How the hell did he get past the security code?" Light hissed, more to himself, grinding his teeth together in irritation; as Ryuk floated over to look at the screen. "Is it down, or did he somehow override it…?"
"What, this guy again?" Ryuk exclaimed, doing a double-take.
Light's head snapped up, whipping around to pin the Shinigami with an accusatory glare.
"What do you mean by "again"?!" He snapped.
"Oh, he was wandering around in here last night too." Ryuk snickered. "You were asleep."
"And you didn't think to tell me?!" Light blazed, suddenly reeling at the thought of someone inside his previously safe fortress.
Ryuk grinned his Great White grin.
"Now why would I have done that?"
Light swore under his breath and snatched up his Death Note and a pen, storming out of the office; Ryuk soared after him like a kite.
"Stop following me!" Light spat at him.
"No way – I have to see this."
Light ignored this, pushing his hair out of his eyes. This had unnerved him badly – he didn't know if it was safe to kill this guy, but he also couldn't let him roam around in here as he pleased, most especially if this was in fact the second time he'd been in here.
Did that mean he was looking for something specific?
And who was he? Who was he working with? Did L have something to do with this?
L…
L!
Damn it, he couldn't just leave L wandering around freely either with this "visitor" exploring the place – L, either living or dead, had a nasty habit of making things worse for Light when there was really no call for it…
That was his priority – finding L. He could find and kill this guy after he'd locked L into a storage closet…
He ran through the quarters he was presently inhabiting, checking every room, Ryuk fluttering after him.
"Ryuk, where is he?" Light panted, coming to the last corridor. "You must have… seen him today…"
"Last I saw him, he was in the bedroom," Ryuk sniggered.
Light didn't know if he could believe this or not, but it was true that he still hadn't looked for the dead detective in either the bathroom or the bedroom.
The bathroom was empty but for its array of broken mirrors, leaving the bedroom as his last hope. He didn't have time to check every single other room in the building…
L was sprawled upside down the bed, his position somehow reminiscent of a dead bird, killed after flying headlong into a glass door. He turned his icy, baleful gaze on Light as the younger man burst in through the door, breathing heavily.
Light had never been so pleased to see this version of him.
"There you are…!" He almost stumbled to the bed, grabbing L by his wrist. "Come on, get up."
"Don't pull so hard, Light-kun," L replied blandly, sitting up and trying to tug his wrist back. "You'll snap my arm again."
"Get off the bed!" Light seethed, ignoring him. "Come on, I need you to move!"
"Why could that be?" L mused flatly. "Could it be that Light-kun has perhaps sought the services of a prostitute? Is that why I cannot be on the bed?"
"Off!" Light grabbed him around the chest and dragged him onto the floor; and had just begun to haul him up under his arms—
When the bedroom door swung open.
Light let go of L, straightening slowly, clutching at his Death Note; he knew this boy. He recognized him – memories buried beginning to unearth themselves again.
Matt blinked at him – clearly he hadn't expected Light to actually be in here.
"Mail Jeevas." Light smiled sickly at him. "…L's third heir."
He glanced down at L, who was still on the floor; his eyes wide as he gazed at Matt, but his entire form motionless.
"Now," Light said, opening his Death Note to a nice clean page. "…You work with Mello, don't you…?"
Matt, still frozen, was silent a few moments more, apparently stunned too that Light knew his true name; the hush punctuated by a harsh laughter that the redhead could not hear.
Ryuk, cackling behind Light as he poised his pen.
"No?" Light asked politely. "No final words?"
"Sure." Matt suddenly composed himself, sliding out the gun and aiming right at Light's forehead. "Drop it, Yagami."
Light's eyes widened – and though he did not drop the Death Note, he did stop writing.
"What?" Now it was Matt's turn to smile. "Think I won't shoot you? Have to tell you – being chased by L spoiled you. He's more of a gentleman than me and Mello put together." He cocked the gun. "Now drop it, before I blast a hole right through your skull."
Light backed up against the dresser, still clutching the notebook.
"Oh dear, the tables have turned," Ryuk commentated gleefully, yellow eyes darting between Matt and Light.
"I'll give you until three," Matt drawled. "If that notebook's not on the floor without my name in it by the time I get there, I'll redecorate your lovely bedroom here with your brains – and I hear you quite a lot of them, incidentally."
"Matt, please put the gun away." L had risen; and now stepped in front of Light, obscuring Matt's line of fire.
"Wh…?" Matt did lower the gun a little, stunned. "L… what are you…?"
"English," Ryuk observed with a grin, taking note of the language switch.
"Matt," L said again levelly, "put the gun away and get out."
Matt raised the gun again, his eyes narrowing.
"I don't know what the fuck you think you're doing, L, but I'm not leaving here without that notebook," he spat.
L said nothing; only spread his arms to completely shield Light.
"Why are you protecting him?!" Matt cried desperately. "He's a murderer – and he's your murderer!"
"It is no more your place to kill him than it is his place to kill criminals."
"I won't kill him if he just gives me the fucking notebook!"
"Matt, get out!"
"But—" Matt's eyes darted towards Light – finding that, shielded by L, he was writing again. "Jesus Christ, he's writing my name down! Is that what you fucking want, L—?!"
Matt leapt to the side, attempting to get around L as he squeezed the trigger, firing at Light in a desperate attempt to save himself—
It was a clear shot, the bullet streaming through unhindered air straight towards Light, until reality suddenly tripped over itself, slowing down with timeshift amnesia as seconds became minutes. L had moved, faster than Matt's eyes could follow, faster than humanly possible, so fast that the bullet seemed to slow down as it sank into his gut as he deliberately took the shot to save Light.
All three of them were silent, motionless, waiting for reality to catch up with itself again and fix the horror that had supplanted itself in its wake.
Matt was the first to take a breath.
"What are you doing? What are you doing?!" he screeched, panicking. His voice triggered Light back into action and he began feverishly writing in the Death Note once again. Matt let out an enraged roar, still trying to aim past L in order to shoot – but as the bullet left the barrel, L was suddenly there to block it with his own body, taking the shot without a sound.
Light was still writing, each little stroke driving the fear of death into Matt until he screamed again, this time terrified. He raised the gun and shot L, not even trying to get around him, firing again and again, lodging six bullets into him, perhaps hoping that he'd collapse and thus be no longer protecting Light from harm…
Light raised the pen and then his eyes, glancing at Matt, who was breathing heavily, the hand holding the smoking gun still shaking. There were tears in his eyes, maybe because he'd just shot L—
L was still gazing at him impassively; his torso now riddled with bullet holes that didn't bleed.
"What are you doing, L?" Matt whispered a third time.
L said nothing; and, after a long moment, Matt's eyes suddenly widened and glazed over, and the arm holding the gun dropped limply to his side. He turned on his heel and walked out of the room without another word or a backwards glance.
L dropped to the floor with the dull sound of his knees hitting the carpet. He fell forward, as if suddenly boneless right before catching himself with his hands. His head hung down hidden, cradled on the floor, still weighed down with bullets, and even more subdued than before.
Light closed the Death Note, holding it tightly to his chest as though clutching it so possessively was the only thing that could keep him going. He approached the detective.
"You saved me," he said softly. "…L?"
"If you don't get out of the room this second I will rip you apart," L replied, his tone blank ; he said it towards the floor, his voice a little muffled.
Light was pretty certain he didn't just mean that as a figure of speech. He gathered his frayed nerves into a bundle and left the bedroom, closing the door behind him; Ryuk followed a few moments later.
"I don't understand why he saved me," Light murmured numbly, starting off down the corridor. "Why he… let me kill his own heir."
Ryuk shrugged.
"Who knows?" He smirked. "I reckon he's crying right now, though."
Light stopped for a moment, blinking as the words sunk in.
"I didn't think he could cry," was his quiet, devastatingly sincere reply.
"Well?" Mello eyed Near warily as the small pale boy pawed over the blank-covered Death Note with immense interest. "What do you make of it?"
"Are you sure it's real?"
"Of course I'm fucking sure!"
Near glanced up, eyes gleaming.
"How can you be? Have you… tested it?"
"No."
"Then—"
"Look, just take my fucking word for it, okay?"
Near tilted his head, smiling lazily.
"Alright, I'll take your word for it. I suppose this is hardly a fair trade of information, at any rate. I have nothing to offer you in exchange for this."
"You're not keeping it!" Mello snatched it back, shoving it roughly into his jacket pocket. "And yeah – I don't know why I agreed to this. Your piece of information was merely 'Light Yagami is Kira and is probably still alive'? Yeah, way ahead of you."
"Well, at least now I know where I stand." Near looked at the ceiling. "So Matt has gone back to this Kira HQ building again?"
"To get the other notebook."
"Sounds risky."
"Matt can handle himself," Mello snapped.
"Hm." Near paused. "…You know, I must admit, Mello, I was surprised you changed your mind and agreed to meet me. I didn't expect you to."
Mello shrugged offishly, glancing about the hotel room; his attention was caught by the chess board set up under the desk lamp.
A full army of white faced off against a single black piece – the king.
"Still into your stupid toys and games?" The blonde sneered, crossing to the board.
"Yes," Near replied pleasantly from the chair he was perched in, twisting his hair around his finger.
Mello tilted the black king, glancing at the word 'Kira' painted on its shiny lacquer black surface.
"Cute," he said venomously. "What the hell is this, your little Kira-catching strategy game?"
"Something like that."
"Oh, and I suppose you regard Matt and I as your fucking pawns!" Mello spat, rounding on him.
"Not at all." Near nodded towards the board. "Look for yourself."
Mello glared at the board again, gaze darting around until—
"Knights, eh?" The sneer was still present in his voice, but his overall demeanor was less aggressive as he picked up the two pieces to look at them more closely. "Just a whim?"
"No, I thought about it. Knights are powerful frontliners."
"Right." Mello put them back; then lifted the white king.
"L," he murmured.
"Yes." Near brushed some of his snow-white hair back from his eyes. "…What's the matter?"
"I… L, he…" Mello took a sharp breath; then put the king back down again. "Nothing. It's nothing."
"You were going to say something about L," Near said, his voice suddenly more urgent.
"I said it was nothing," Mello snapped. He glanced again at the board. "…You haven't got a piece with your own code letter on it."
"I couldn't decide which piece would suit me best."
"Here." Mello smirked and picked up the slender white piece next the king. "How about the queen?"
"The queen is the most powerful piece on the board," Near replied expressionlessly. "That is very kind of you to say, however, Mello."
Mello slammed the queen back down, glaring at Near balefully.
"I'm leaving," he announced abruptly.
"Of course." Near got down from his chair and padded across the room towards the hotel room door, brushing past Mello as he did so. "Thankyou for coming at all."
"There's no need to show me out."
"It's only polite." Near opened the door for him. "Goodbye, Mello."
Mello only snorted as he stalked out; Near waited until he was down the hotel corridor before letting the door swing shut again.
"Stealing this from you," he murmured, slipping the Death Note out from his own pocket, "was less polite, but… I really would like to have a better look at it."
Of course, Mello hadn't even noticed him taking it as he'd brushed up against him on his way to the door – but the fact was that Near had learned more from L than even L himself had realized.
"Matt?" Mello called the redhead's name as he pulled the hotel room door shut behind him. "Are you back? I went out to the store a few blocks over to get us some snacks and stuff. I got you some more cigarettes."
Mello put the paper bag down on the desk next to Matt's dormant laptop, frowning. Wasn't he back yet? Mello had been gone quite a while, and he'd left after Matt had, so he'd expected him to have returned before him. He shrugged off his leather jacket and tossed it down over the desk, heading towards the door that led to the bedroom area.
"Matt?" Mello pushed down the door handle and leaned into the bedroom. "Are you h…?"
Mello trailed off as an electric bolt of horror sluiced through him, dissolving him from the inside as his eyes widened and pupils retracted to tiny trembling dots at the sight before him.
Matt was lying on the bed, eyes closed, perfectly still; he looked as though he had just accidentally fallen asleep.
Except for the dark oily crimson stain that drenched both himself and the bedsheets, scenting the room with a sickly combination of salt and metal. The air was heavy with spilt blood, humid with lost life, tinting even Mello's vision with a hazy red fog that seemed to boil inside him, bucking fear, disbelief, and absolute horror through him in merciless waves that snatched away all of his preciously guarded self-control. His muscles trembled violently, his breath snagged on the nausea swirling in his throat, and his brain had broken free of its organic mooring and was now tripping and screaming within his skull, unable to register the sight before him.
Matt had cut both of his wrists, presumably with the large shard of broken mirror still clutched in his right hand. The mirror at the dresser had been smashed out, smaller slivers scattered over both the dresser surface and the floor like strewn silver coins.
But none of these – not even Matt himself – was what grabbed Mello's attention and held it in a lethal, deathlike chokehold.
It was the words, smeared on the wall by Matt in bleeding red script before he'd died:
You're next, Mello
Narroch: Oh dear... What just happened...
RobinRocks: She knows what happened – as do all of you. Oh, yes, we went there:
WE KILLED MATT.
O.o
Narroch: I love Matt, really I do. But I am not too attached to him. I don't understand how you could be since he was only in the show for like a minute and a half. I mean, the coolest thing he did was die. And even that was a punk way to go, sorry to say. With this... we are just keeping it canon; we don't want to steal his single moment of glory from the series by not killing him. (Robinrocks probably disagrees...XD)
RobinRocks: Well… I love Matt. Everyone loves Matt. I'll never understand why because of the whole minute-and-a-half thing. Is it the goggles? The Tim Burton stripes? The "Yeah-sure-whatever-you-say-Mello" attitude? Every other well-loved DN character had to work to be loved, it seems – L, for example, had to pay his quirky dues for seven whole volumes before anyone would cry over his death (and, in some cases, refuse to watch/read the latter half of Death Note). Matt, on the other hand, is in the grand total of about seven panels…
So why do we all love Matt?!
Uh… anyway, my point is that I love Matt and didn't want to kill him off – but at the same time I am going to confess to the fact that it was actually idea to kill him. It would have been nice for him to avoided his canon fate, but… he had to die. He really, really did.
Narroch: No really... his death has a very important purpose, and it was splashy too! So fun to write...
RobinRocks: So, yeah… Apologies to all Major Matt Fans. Please don't stop reading! If nothing else, you can guarantee Mello isn't going to forgive this…
You're really in trouble now, Light… O.o
Narroch: Once again, thankyouthankyouTHANKYOU for all the encouraging/critical/random reviews! Your feedback really encourages us and helps keep this story alive! We love each and every reviewer, you are all lovely!
- RobinRocks and Narroch