chapter one. subtle changes.
It's cold outside - colder than mid January usually is, which is saying something, because it usually gets quite cold. Light is bundled up in a soft jacket -a present from his mother- and a coat that's slightly more worse for wear than he would like. He has his hands tucked into his pockets, wishing he had thought to bring gloves with him on this little stroll around the university neighborhood.
It's one of the better university neighborhoods, but it's still student housing, so the apartments are all small and perfectly uniform beige blocks. Walking among the neighborhood is exceptionally boring with nothing for the eyes to latch on to or find interest in, even the plant life is minimal and disappointing at best.
It's a shame, really, but Light will take this boring, boring walk over having to deal with his roommate and her horrible girlfriend.
Seiko Momonoe is usually a decent person, a bit odd and annoying, but decent. That changes when Misa Amane enters the picture as she immediately turns into the most insufferable lovey-dovey person Light has ever met and that's including Misa, who he, quite coincidentally, had had the displeasure of dating in his senior year of high school.
They're, quite honestly, disgusting together.
A short gust of wind cuts into Light's exposed skin and he burrows his face as deep as he can into the high neck of his coat. He exhales in frustration and a cloud of white breath appears and then dissipates before he's even able to walk through it.
Light does not consider himself paranoid, but this night, there seems to be something off. Like something or someone is following him. Maybe it's all the news about that assailant going around leaving people half dead in the middle of the night. His mother did always say all this morbid news would start getting to him sooner or later.
He shoots a discrete glance over his shoulder. Nothing but sidewalk, road and large, beige apartment blocks. He sets his gaze firmly ahead of him. He's being ridiculous - stupid, even.
And then he hears something that sounds suspiciously like someone rattling along the alley between two buildings.
Light stops in his tracks.
He hears nothing.
He starts walking again.
And he hears it again.
Light stops again and looks towards the noise.
There's a strained, high pitched meow and a thud! and he lets out a sigh of relief. It's just a cat.
He walks towards the continued sound of mewling and finds a small, brown cat squirming in an open trash can. Why the top has been removed and is nowhere to be seen in the first place is beyond Light, but the trash can seems clean enough -mostly empty and mostly consisting of crumpled papers- so he reaches in and picks up the cat.
It continues to squirm in his grip and nips at his hand as he tries to untangle it from the cord it's gotten tied up in.
Light sets the cat down, tells it to be careful in a tone that's probably too stern to be using on a cat, and resumes his walk.
He checks his watch - it should probably be safe to start looping back to the apartment now, either Seiko has gone out with Misa, or they've both retreated to Seiko's room to watch those shitty romcoms they both like to watch for some reason.
The cat follows him.
He stops outside his door and glares at the little brown ball of fur. It stares back up at him, eyes wide and pleading.
Light sighs and brings a hand to his forehead. He must be going soft if he's about to let a cat into his no-pets-allowed apartment. But it's extremely cold out and it just feels wrong to leave it out to fend for itself. It's so small and doesn't even have a collar. He reasons with himself that it's probably for the best if he just lets the cat in until it warms up or he finds either it's owner or someone to take it.
"Light's back!"
Misa's voice trails through the apartment in a high pitched trill. She prances her way out of the little kitchen area and stands in front of Light, hands clasped behind her back as she lean forwards.
"Light," she says in an exaggeratedly simpering voice, "will you help me make some milkshakes for me and Seichi? She's picking out a movie and we need refreshments!"
Light sighs and Misa lets out a loud squeal. It seems that she has just noticed the cat.
"Oh my god! Seichi, come out here!"
Seiko sticks her head of bright blue -done originally to help with one of her classmate's projects and then just ended up sticking around- out of her door. "What is it?" she asks curiously.
The door is closed now and Misa is crouching with her arms outstretched in the hopes of the cat coming to her. It does and she happily swipes it up into her arms and jumps up to her feet. "Cat!" she declares.
Seiko immediately bolts from her room to join her girlfriend in fawning over the little creature. Light can't help rolling his eyes. He may have been the one to let the animal in, but at least he wasn't cooing over it like some sort of squealing preteen.
Light retreats to his room. At least the chances of them bothering him for the rest of the night are almost zero, even if they're loud, which they are, he'll still be able to do some homework.
Light isn't entirely sure why he's in the position he's in and he has no idea how he's supposed to feel about it.
Seiko and Misa are holding the cat, now named Kuroko, between them with the most pleading, puppy-dog eyes they can manage. Lips drawn into pouts and eyebrows drawn to complete the picture of two adult women begging a slightly younger man to please let them keep the kitten in their arms.
"Animals aren't allowed in the apartments," he responds flatly.
"You're the one who brought him here, idiot," Seiko says, abandoning her pout for a slightly more typical sneer. It's a good natured sneer, which is odd. Light has never before met someone who can sneer and make it seem friendly. He's also never before met someone who called him an idiot so frequently.
"Oh, be nice, Seichi," Misa says as she shifts her hold on Kuroko. "So can we keep him, Light?"
Light sighs. "Misa, can't you keep him at your house?"
"I don't spend enough time there! Kuroki is a growing kitty who needs lots of love and attention!"
"And what if we get kicked out for having an animal?" he demands.
"Then you can both come live with me, there's plenty of room. And Kuroki would love it, wouldn't you Kuroki?" She lifts the cat up with both hands and childishly rubs her nose against his.
"Come on, Light," Seiko says. "He's so cute and little, we can't just let him go back to fending for himself on the harsh streets of Tokyo. Besides, I've heard that there's a cat killer out and about. He's going around killing defenseless cats."
"Seiko, you're not a good liar."
"Not true! I frequently fool people who don't have a lie detector programmed into their functioning."
"Are you implying that I'm a robot now? Because I don't think we should keep a cat in our apartment that doesn't allow cats?"
"I have a lot of reasons for thinking you might be a robot," she replies seriously.
Light pinches the bridge of his nose, then removes his hand and checks his watch. "I have class. We're not keeping that cat."
Seiko and Misa in unison, in a very mature manner, stick their tongues out at him as he grabs his bag and heads for the door.
Light has work after his classes, so he makes his way to the Moon Cafe, hoping that business will be slow so he can get started on his physiology paper. He knows, however, that the hours just after most classes end is a very busy time and he will likely be forced to run around grabbing confectioneries and making coffees.
As it turns out, he's absolutely right and is even visited by his favourite customer, one of the banes of his existence, the so called Hideki Ryuga. No, not the famous pop star turned actor, but a strange, slouching man who, for some unknown reason, insists on using an obviously fake name.
'Hideki Ryuga' insists on ordering half the entire stock of cakes, cookies and brownies every single day as well as a coffee with twenty-two sugars and three creams. He's mostly inoffensive other than that as he just sits at an otherwise unoccupied table and works on his laptop like any other customer but Light seems to always notice something new about him to be irritated by.
Today, it's the fact that he doesn't wear fucking socks.
Usually, this is not something Light would be able to notice, but today, amidst all the bustling about, he sees that Ryuga's heel is popping out of his shoe from the ridiculous way the man sits - his feet up on the chair, knees hugging his chest. Light used to try to get him to keep his feet off the cafe furniture, but that was only met upon deaf ears and claims of something, something, forty percent.
Light does not like this Hideki Ryuga. Seiko, despite never having met him as she has a strong distaste for all things coffee and social and would never set foot in a cafe unless dragged there by Misa, finds every story about him to be endlessly amusing. Just about every day that Light works she demands to know what he's done that day. Light tries not to tell her, as he knows it only leads to laughter and teasing, but sometimes he just really needs someone to vent to about this infuriating man.
Misa is only interested in him because of his name and has stopped by the Moon Cafe on multiple occasions in an attempt to meet him. She has never succeeded in arriving at the right time and always leaves disappointed, a brownie for Seiko in hand.
This day, however, Misa does arrive while Ryuga is there, sitting at one of the little two-person tables with his laptop out, chewing on a quadruple chocolate cookie. The second she realizes who the strange man in the disheveled clothes, with the messy hair, with his feet sticking halfway out of his shoes is, she prances over to him and begins chatting.
Another customer comes up, so Light is unable to listen in on their conversation or watch either's body language, though he can easily enough guess what Misa's saying. Oh my god, Light has told me so much about you. You're Hideki Ryuga aren't you? You know, I've worked with the pop star Hideki Ryuga, he wasn't nice at all and he's a horrible kisser!
Misa is unrepentant in her distaste for the real Hideki Ryuga and whenever she speaks of him she speaks of the time she appeared on his show and had to have a kiss scene with him. Most people take the inclusion of this as an attempt at flirting, but the fact is that she simply finds his kissing prowess that awful.
Light wonders if Ryuga will think of this as flirting or if he will simply brush it off.
Actually, he had expected the conversation to end rather quickly. Ryuga doesn't seem like the type for conversation outside of talking about which sweet is the best, which Light doubts is the subject of conversation between the two of them as Misa generally avoids overly sugary things.
"Ruho," Light says, his customer service smile plastered on as a woman walks up to collect her order.
Eleven more customers come in and order before Misa returns, a bounce in her step and a smile on her face.
"That Hideki isn't nearly as bad as you make him out to be," she says.
"Is that so," Light replies, only half listening as she talks and he gets started on the physiology essay. Half is actually probably a bit too much as, by the time she's finished talking and is ordering the quadruple chocolate cookie to take to Seiko, he hasn't the faintest clue as to what she had said.
As she leaves, she says, "Bye Light!" with an energetic wave, as usual, and then, "Bye Hideki!"
Ryuga responds with a half hearted raise of his hand. Not that Light blames him, he seems to be deeply immersed in whatever it is he's doing on his computer. Work of some sort, probably. Maybe he's a journalist or some sort of writer, that's usually the type that comes in to type away on their computers.
Light sighs and continues to work on his essay until the next customer comes in.
Whenever Sayu stops by the apartment when Misa is there, it always turns into a big event. Misa and Sayu get along scarily well and Light always, always somehow gets shoved into the kitchen to cook dinner. It's not so bad, he generally likes cooking, it's just that he has to juggle everyone's taste from Sayu's sweet tooth, to Seiko's ridiculously picky palate, to whatever Misa happens to be into at the moment.
While he cooks, Seiko will occasionally stop by to double, triple and quadruple check to make sure that he's making something that she'll eat. Otherwise, the girls all crowd together on the couch to play video games and watch TV.
They're never able to play video games for very long because they all tend to get loud and start yelling in the excitement of what is apparently the event of Sayu visiting. This loudness always, inevitably, causes the next door neighbor, Kiyomi Takada, to knock on the door and demand silence because she's working very hard on her criminal justice degree and can't afford to have shoddy work just because two girls who don't even live here decided to get loud.
Light understands this, of course, he's just resigned to the fact that when it's Sayu and Misa there is very little he can do.
So when there's a loud, furious knock at the door Light puts aside his cooking, steps around Kuroko, who is still there and with no sign of leaving, and gestures at the girls to shut up for a few minutes while he talks to Takada. Honestly, is it so hard to keep quiet while playing racing games? Yelling isn't going to get you to go faster.
Light opens the door and is immediately greeted by Takada's scowling face. Her arms are crossed, her face scrunches in annoyance.
"Again, Yagami?" she demands. "This is the third time this month and I have a very important test coming up in my History of the Japanese Legal System class."
"Trust me, Miss Takada, I'm not happy with this either," he replies with a weary sigh.
Sayu leans her head over the back of the couch and frowns at Light. "What d'you mean you're not happy about this?" she demands, mostly playful in attitude.
"I have classes," he replies as his answer.
"As do I," Takada adds.
Misa turns around on the couch and leans so her arms are dangling over the back. "Aw, why so serious, you two? Take a break once in a while! Kiyoyo, come play with us, you'll relax!"
"Hah! Suck it!" Seiko exclaims as the winning screen shows on the TV.
"No," Takada replies stiffly, then seems to relax only marginally and brings a hand to her head as if trying to quell a headache. "No, just, I'm working on something important, and I would like to focus without distraction - is that a cat?"
Light follows Takada's gaze and grimaces when he spots Kuroko. Right, she's just as rule abiding as Light but lacks the influence of two very not rule abiding people. She will most definitely use this against them somehow. Well, it's certainly what Light would do, anyway.
"You're not supposed to have pets, you know."
"He's just a baby," Misa says, pouting ever so slightly. "You can't just turn away a baby like that, Kiyoyo. He needs a home." Sayu and Seiko mimic her expression.
"He can find a home elsewhere," Takada replies flatly. Kuroko butts his head up against Light's leg and meows. Takada's expression tightens and her lips purse. "Just - just shut up for the night and I won't go telling the landlord."
Light sighs in relief. That's much less to manage than he would have made anyone deal with, if the situations were reversed. "I'll keep them quiet, Miss Takada, thank you."
She nods and leaves.
Light walks over to the TV and switches it over to Sayu's favourite channel. The three of them groan and Sayu and Misa try to protest, but Light is quick to remind them about the threat that Takada had just given them.
While they eat the separate things Light had prepared for them, because he had found it impossible to balance sugar, cantaloupe and whatever Seiko's taste can be considered in a singular meal, Sayu ends up talking about something that is very interesting to Light.
"Dad says that those assaults that've been happening, you know the ones?"
Light nods and urges Sayu to continue.
"Right, well, it turns out they brought in some outside help for it. Some really famous detective guy."
"Which one?" Light asks. He doubts it's who he really hopes it is, but maybe it's Deneuve, he's impressive as well.
"Hmm," Sayu hums in thought as she stuffs a spoonful of rice into her mouth. She swallows and says, "I'm not sure - he had a weird name, though. Something short, maybe a letter?"
"L?"
"Yeah, that's it."
"Ooh, I think I've heard of him," Misa says excitedly. It's not surprising, really. Misa has always had a strange repertoire of knowledge where she really only knows things that could never possibly be of use to her.
"Dad says he might get to work with him," Sayu says. "Apparently it's a pretty big deal."
"Of course it's a big deal," Light says, hiding the excitement he feels. "L is the best detective in the world, if dad gets to work with him that's important!"
Seiko smirks and murmurs, "I've never seen you so excited about anything, Light." She lifts her cup to her mouth to drink several gulps of her water.
Sayu grins and opens her mouth, likely to say something deeply embarrassing at Light's expense, and is interrupted by Kuroko jumping up onto the table and meowing loudly.
"Aw, Kuroki wants some attention!" Misa coos and starts scratching behind his ears, to which he purrs loudly and plops down. Seiko and Sayu immediately reach out to start petting him as well. That cat is a master manipulator.