chapter two. heart attack.
It's a miracle, the day Hideki Ryuga doesn't visit the Moon Cafe.
It's probably the most peaceful day of work Light has had since the man's appearance. It's not that he's a direct distraction, of course he isn't, he just quietly sits at his table. He's an indirect distraction, one that fills Light with annoyance and irrational agitation. It's nice, not having that.
Light visits his family that evening, or rather, he visits his mother and sister because his father ends up being too busy working on a 'super secret case,' as Sayu put it. She winks dramatically and then informs Light that she had accurately guessed what case it was and Soichiro had made her promise not to tell anyone. So she didn't tell anyone and Light is well aware that the case is the string of assaults in downtown Tokyo.
"So, how's school?" Sachiko asks. Most people would only see her smiling, friendly face and not suspect anything is wrong, but Light (and likely Sayu, as well) know that she's very disappointed in her husband's absence. His increasing work hours have taken a toll on her and, according to Sayu, there's apparently some tension at home.
So, because of all this, Light puts on a smile more genuine than his customer service smile, but just as wide, and tells his mother that all is good.
"Still top of your classes?"
Light nods. "They're not very hard, or at least, not as hard as everyone makes them out to be."
"Yeah, but you're a genius," Sayu says. "Of course one of the country's most intensive medical programs isn't 'that hard' for you. I'm surprised you haven't somehow managed to land a job yet."
"I have a job."
"I mean a job job."
"I just started the program, Sayu, of course I don't have a-" Light sighs "- 'job job' yet. I doubt any hospitals or the NPA would want to hire someone who hasn't even finished their degree."
She shrugs. "Well, if anyone could manage it, you could." She then turns to their mother and says, "You know, Light's gotten really good at cooking! He made four separate meals last week for one dinner!"
"Well if you three weren't so picky-"
"Oh, you enjoyed it," Sayu interrupts him with a wave of her hand.
"Well isn't that nice," Sachiko says. "You used to hate cooking so much, I'm glad you've grown into it. I'm sure you will too, eventually, Sayu."
Sayu sticks her tongue out. "Doubt it."
"It's actually quite fun. You said Light likes it, why not you?"
"Because Light likes tedious things."
"I do not like tedious things," Light says harshly over the instance of his mother that cooking isn't tedious. His phone begins buzzing in his pocket and a quick check of the number shows that it's Seiko and she very rarely calls, so he knows it must be urgent. The oncoming inane argument is avoided when he stands and excuses himself from the room to take it.
He's immediately greeted by the sound of a clattering bus.
"Seiko?"
"Hey, Light," Seiko says, her voice seemingly calm but laced with tenseness and anxiety. "Just letting you know, I'm not going to be home tonight. Something's happened with Misa. I'll explain later."
"Oh, is Misa okay?"
There's a pause, the sound of shuffling around and bright blue hair moving against the speaker. "Yeah, she's - well, she's fine, given the circumstances. You might be hearing about it, actually."
"What do you mean?" Light demands.
"I'll explain later," she repeats. "Tell your mom hi from me."
"Uh, right."
"Yeah... remember to get back to the apartment by seven, Kuro needs dinner."
"Right, yeah, I'll do that," Light says with a nod that no one can see. "Tell Misa whatever it is she needs to hear right now."
Seiko laughs weakly. "Yeah, I'll do that. Well, bye, Light."
"Bye."
Light pockets his phone and returns to the dinner table. Sayu and Sachiko seem to have picked up on the general tone of the call and are quick to ask what had happened.
He shakes his head. "I'm not sure, Seiko wouldn't explain. Something with Misa - she said she's fine considering the circumstances, so don't worry, Sayu."
Sayu nods, but continues anxiously chewing at her bottom lip.
"Well, send her my best wishes," Sachiko says. "I hope Misa's alright."
Light nods. "I'll tell her you said that."
Conversation moves to lighter topics, but it seems stilted and half hearted. Soichiro calls Sachiko at one point to tell her he's going to be even later than expected. Light wonders if it has something to do with Misa, considering Seiko's suggestion that he might hear about what had happened.
Light leaves earlier than he had originally planned to, with Sayu in tow as she insists on going to make sure Light takes proper care of Kuroko.
Sayu leaves early in the morning to make sure she gets to class on time, so, for about thirty minutes, Light is left alone in the apartment he so rarely gets alone time in with nothing to do but look over his physiology essay one last time before turning it in and keep an eye on Kuroko.
Classes go by in a horribly slow manner with Light thoughtlessly checking the time on his phone every few minutes. Slowly, physiology turns into quantitative reasoning, which turns into a slow lunch in the Moon Cafe (still no sign of Hideki Ryuga), which turns into criminal law, which turns into his working hours (again, no sign of Hideki Ryuga).
When he finally returns to the apartment, Seiko is in the kitchen. Light suspects Misa is somewhere in the apartment -likely Seiko's room- because when left to her own devices, the most Seiko does by way of cooking is grabbing a bag of chips unless Misa is sick and then she tries her best to cook. Misa and Light are both well aware that any food she makes somehow manages to teeter on the line of 'how the fuck is this so spicy' and 'there is absolutely no taste here' while also managing to dive into both. Her cooking is genuinely and extremely unpleasant.
"Oh, thank god," she says in relief when she notices Light. She is well aware that she is as talented a chef as Kuroko is a tailor. She shoves a cookbook into Light's hands. "This is Misa's favourite food, help me make it."
"Not even a please?" Light sighs as she sets the book down, takes off his bag and then his jacket, and walks into the kitchen area.
"No, fuck you."
Light quickly surveys what progress Seiko has already managed to make and decides that it's useless before tossing it all out. He wordlessly starts cooking and Seiko retreats to her room.
She emerges a few minutes later with an empty cup. Light is using the sink when she gets to the kitchen, so she has to wait for him to finish until she can refill it.
"So, what happened?" Light asks as he moves aside.
"Oh, so I guess you didn't hear." The sink thrums as water rushes through the pipes. Light doesn't think Seiko has showered today.
Light shakes his head. "I'm assuming this is something my father should have some information about?" She nods. "I didn't see him yesterday, he had to work late."
"Oh." Seiko shuts off the tap and fidgets. "I'll be back in a minute."
A few moments later, the door to her room opens and closes. When it's open, Light can hear the laugh track of a shitty sitcom.
Seiko comes back and leans against what little counter is left uncovered by bowls and ingredients. "Her parents died," she says without preamble.
Light stops stirring, only for a moment, before resuming and saying, "Oh, that's - how?"
"Well, you know those attacks we were talking about last time Sayu was over?"
Light nods.
"I don't know all the details, obviously, but the police seem to think that the guy who did those is the guy who killed them - Renta Matsuura." She spits the name out like it alone leaves a foul taste in her mouth.
"How do they know?"
"Oddly enough, the guy just up and died of a heart attack right there in front of Misa, they double checked his DNA or whatever with some left behind after those attacks and it matched."
"He had a heart attack?" Light asks. He puts down the bowl he'd been mixing up and sets the soup on the stove to warm. "How old was he?"
Seiko shrugs. "Not old. Not even thirty, from what I hear. It's pretty odd, isn't it?"
"Yeah."
They're both silent for several more minutes until Seiko sighs and says, "I never met them, you know. Misa's parents. We were supposed to have dinner with them next month. Me and Misa and her parents and mine." She brings a hand to her face and groans. "God, mom and dad don't know what's happened yet."
Light isn't entirely sure how to respond to this. He pauses and blinks and is saved by the gentle gurgling of the soup. He shuts off the stove and pours a serving into a bowl. Seiko has already gone back to her room by the time he's finished.
He goes to her room, bowl of soup in hand, and opens the door. Misa is sitting in Seiko's bed, knees pulled up as she leans into her girlfriend's side, Kuroko is sitting beside her, purring. A sitcom is playing on Seiko's computer, which she has set up at the foot of the bed.
"Oh, thank you, Light," Misa says when she notices him. Seiko takes the bowl and hands it to her.
"It's no problem," he says. "I'm sorry about what happened."
Misa nods and sticks a spoonful of the soup into her mouth.
Light spends the rest of the night in his room working on homework. He thinks Misa wants to be alone with Seiko for the time being, so he leaves them be.
Light hums as he scrolls through his new feed. It's the same day after day, has been for weeks - a bombardment of repetition. Normally, Light would hate it, be extremely annoyed by the unchanging tone and message of countless news websites and channels, but this is different. This is interesting.
Criminals have been dying from heart attacks.
It makes no sense whatsoever because there certainly seems to be a pattern - all the apparent victims have committed horrible crimes and all are dying of heart attacks. It's impossible for someone to be killing them without slipping them all some type of poison. But that can't be what's happening because people on opposite sides of the world will die at the same time and if it was a poison, there would probably be some people who didn't die from it, either because it just didn't react properly or because people don't always die from heart attacks. But the experience is uniform between everyone.
It's perplexing to say the least and what's more is that this had started happening not long before Renta Matsuura died in the exact same manner. He, like many of the other so called victims, had been perfectly healthy and no one could figure out how he had died. No one had officially connected Matsuura to the rest of the deaths, but it's timing and the details of it line up with it. The only outlying fact is that Matsuura's crimes were less than the other victims.
He doesn't bring this up to anyone, especially not Misa, who, after a week of mourning has just started to force herself to get back to work.
Something else that Light doesn't tell anyone is that, somewhere in the back of his head, he thinks Misa might be involved. It's ridiculous, he knows, the girl is hardly the murderous type, but he can't help thinking about the fact that Matsuura had just killed her parents and had turned on her and he just so happens to drop dead without leaving a scratch on Misa? It's suspicious to say the least, but he brushes it aside. How could Misa Amane have possibly killed a man with a heart attack? How could anyone kill anyone with a heart attack?
Heart attacks continue to happen.
Classes carry on.
Rumors spread.
Hideki Ryuga does not come back to the Moon Cafe.
And then there's Kira.
It's all at once, when Kira comes into the public consciousness.
Seiko, who is a bit more savvy when it comes to navigating online communities, mentions Kira a few days before the news starts reporting about them. It's only in passing that she mentions it, a quick, "Oh, have you heard of this?" Apparently she doesn't actually know much about it and had only heard of it mentioned a few times online.
Misa, unsurprisingly, is an aficionado of information on Kira from the get-go, but Light doesn't find this out until the news sites are already posting about it. She's been very busy, throwing herself into her work, scheduling modeling shoots for every hour and getting her agent to talk to other agents about acting opportunities. Light doesn't talk to her much anymore.
Sayu, for her part, doesn't know very much about Kira either, but from the way she talks about them it almost makes Light think she has a corkboard full of pictures and notes and draping red string in her room. She doesn't, of course, but she speaks with such an air of confidence that it makes it seem as if she does.
They start talking about Kira in Light's criminal law class. Apparently Takada believes that Kira is doing the right thing and leads that side of the argument in the classroom. Light isn't nearly as confident in his view on the otherwise unknown figure. In fact, his opinions on the whole thing seem to fluctuate and shift each time he thinks about it.
Mostly, Light doesn't think Kira is real. It's much more likely that this is some sort of freak event rather than a powerful being striking righteous retribution on the scum that rots the earth.
No, this is not the result of a person, or deity or what have you. This is simply some sort of bizarre epidemic concentrated within prison populations.
It infuriates him that there hasn't been a single person to even think to examine the corpses. Light's fingers itch to get into one and see what exactly is causing these heart attacks. The likelihood of that actually happening, however, is depressingly low.
Light knows that his father is working on the Kira case and that the Matsuura attacks, as they're now being called, followed this closely by another intense high profile case is getting to him. According to Sayu, he sometimes doesn't come home for days. She's worried about him and about their mother. Light is too.
There's a broadcast by the ICPO that interrupts every channel for the message. L, the greatest detective in the world, is revealing himself and Light can't help but feel disappointed. This seems like too big of a risk - it's too much right at the beginning of an investigation. L - Lind L Tailor, he's - the only word that can adequately explain what Light feels is disappointing.
The plan is stupid, it's as simple as that.
And then Lind L Tailor chokes and wheezes and clutches at his chest, clawing at his suit. He goes limp and collapses. Two men come onto screen and begin pulling Lind L Tailor away from the desk.
The screen goes blank.
An L in fancy script shows itself on the screen and the next voice is one that's heavily modified.
"Ah. I had to test this, just in case, but I-I never thought it would actually happen. Kira... it seems you can kill people without having to be there in person. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't just witnessed it. Listen to me, Kira. If you did, indeed, kill Lind L Tailor, the man who you just saw die on television, I should tell you that he was an inmate whose execution was scheduled for today. That was not me."
Light watches the screen in fascination. L explains that Lind L Tailor had been arrested in complete secrecy - no one knew about it. So Kira, if there is a Kira, isn't omnipotent.
"But I assure you, L is real. I do exist. Now... try to kill me!"
Nothing happens, L is demanding that he be killed.
"So there are some people you can't kill. You've given me a useful hint," L says. "I'll tell you something that I think you'll find interesting. Although this was announced as a worldwide broadcast, the truth is, we are only broadcasting in the Kanto region of Japan. I had planned to broadcast this message around the world until we found you, but it looks like that won't be necessary. I know now where you are."
Light has to admit that this is impressive. If there really is a Kira, which certainly does seem more likely now - the chances of this being random or some sort of disease seem extremely low now, not that it wasn't already absurdly low. Every possibility seems absurd.
Light watches with rapt attention until the broadcast ends and the TV returns to the news.
He sighs. That was interesting and all, but now he's got to get back to his homework. His tedious, easy homework. He thought med school was supposed to be challenging. Maybe if he had gone into some sort of surgery it would be harder.
Seiko opens her door, splashes of paint decorating her arms and legs and a phone in hand. It seems she's either doing something for her two-dimensional art class or is working on the tiled mural project she's doing with her drawing instructor - something to raise funds for some animal shelter. "Was there like... a weird broadcast thing?"
"I - yeah, I guess you could call it that."
"Ah."
She stands in the doorway for several more moments.
"Why?"
"A bunch of people are talking about it online," she shrugs. "They aren't making much sense. It's all 'blah blah blah L blah blah blah Kira blah blah blah dead guy.'"
"Are you wondering what happened?"
"...Yes."
Light sighs and quickly tells her what happened. She hums, then nods and retreats back to her room. Light goes back to his homework, only to be interrupted by Kuroko leaping up onto his papers and plops himself down, looking quite happy with himself as he rolls onto his back.
With another sigh, Light reaches out and begins petting the cat.