Chapter 10: School

AN: There is quite a bit of a waiting period between Misa's videos and the two Kiras meeting in person. Therefore, I thought it prudent to add at least one chapter showing the dynamics between L and Rae.

By the way, I don't think I ever confirmed/mentioned that L speaks in an English accent. In canon he had no problem divulging to Light, his archenemy, that he had lived in England for 5 years, so I don't think he's worried about concealing his English accent.

April 28, 2004; 08 30

Rui kept pace with Ryuzaki, auburn wig intact, long skirt fluttering around her as she skipped along happily. She was going to school with Ryuzaki! Albeit, she was wearing the scratchy auburn wig and mori girl style that was the exact opposite of her preferred style, but she was just glad for the change in scenery. Even if her red-framed plastic glasses kept slipping down her nose. Plus, now she'd get to see what L was like if he'd been a student.

Ryuzaki had elected for everyone to take a week off the investigation, ostensibly to recharge and reconvene with the goal of re-examining the evidence with fresh eyes. They'd have to wait for Misa's diary entry anyway.

Ryuzaki had allowed himself to sleep for the next two days. Rui had been off duty the first day, during which she had ridden almost all the trains in Tokyo to no avail. Out of curiosity, she visited the place of her first employment, only to find that they had moved away. A dodgy-looking host club had taken its place, and no familiar face worked there. The handsome male touts outside the club had reminded her painfully of Ouran High School Host Club, one of the animes she had watched back before adulting became a necessity for her. It had been awkward when they caught her staring.

Watari was off duty the second day, and so Rui had been forced to stay in all day in case of L needing some assistance. She spent the entire day restless in her formal wear, practicing Japanese and doing some basic housekeeping for their suites. The hotel's housekeeping service had been instructed to avoid their rooms, and so the rooms' upkeep had to be done by her or Watari. L dropped sugar and crumbs EVERYWHERE.

On the third day, Ryuzaki had awoken, and had decided to go to Todai for once. He was still a student there, after all, and he also wanted to observe Light in his natural habitat. In canon, it was never mentioned which classes Light and Ryuzaki took, but it turns out it was a combination of criminal psychology, forensics, advanced life sciences, advanced chemistry and vernacular/journalism/interpersonal communication classes. Ryuzaki had deliberately picked almost the same combination as Light's, though he'd skipped advanced chemistry.

When Rui heard of this, she excitedly requested for L to take her, so that she could sit in on these classes, even if she couldn't fully comprehend them. Canon showed too little of these scenes for her liking, and forensics and criminal psychology sure sounded interesting. The class was huge anyway, so they figured it'd be unlikely that an extra presence would be noticed.

As it turned out, Ryuzaki could be inconspicuous if he wanted to. They sat to the right of the lecture theatre, a few seats away from the exit, and a few rows from the front. Not quite far away enough that they would be called upon, but not too much to the front where they couldn't observe Yagami Light undetected.

Yagami Light was a perfect student and classmate. He spoke up in class where appropriate, just enough to be noticed, but not so often that he would be resented for his capability. He chatted with different peers before and after class, but he mostly kept to himself during the lesson, the quintessential eager student. He sure spent a lot of energy on maintaining his pristine image, didn't he? She'd have been tuckered out three hours in if she were him.

Ryuzaki spent most of his time on his laptop, reviewing case evidence and solving random puzzles. Sometimes, he passed handwritten notes to Rui soliciting her opinion on different topics which ranged from her opinion of Hideki Ryuuga and the pop culture in her world, to the feasibility of supplementing Watari's services with robots and the most politically-correct stances taken in her world. He never supplied his own thoughts on these topics, which made the interactions less fun than they could've been. His handwriting was the crappiest she'd ever seen, kind of pointed and narrow, going horizontally across the page, but with a barely restrained dynamism, if that made any sense.

If Ryuzaki was an aspie* as many DN fans suspected, he must be a high-functioning one, for he proved himself fully capable of going about daily life, even if it was because he went under the radar and interacted with no one. Plus, he showed a very profound understanding of emotional profiling. Near, in contrast, was dependent on support and care from his team to function. Was that why he had avoided choosing a successor? Perhaps he knew that either one of them alone would not cut it. She wondered about his education. He'd probably been homeschooled, but was it by Watari alone? If so, then was Watari's intellectual capacity on par with L's? Stuff like criminal psychology was specialized knowledge – how did L learn? Or was it self-taught?

Her gaze slid down to his long, slim fingers, which were currently engaged in typing on his laptop keyboard. She'd once read that L could have Marfan Syndrome, which would explain his bent posture and underweight appearance. Seeing him in person, she doubted that was the case, for in the absence of Yagami Light's direct scrutiny, he did not slouch as much. On a side note, neither had he bothered to have his eyebrows shaved today.

Tilting her head, she watched as he traced his thumb along his lips. He did not eat as much sugary food as he was portrayed to in the anime, although he did bring out sugar packets that he would guzzle nearly every couple hours. Some white sugar granules remained on his cracked lips, giving them an even paler appearance.

With a start, she realized that his eyes were looking sideways, directly at her, in an intense but completely unreadable stare. How long had he been watching her watch him?

A few uncomfortable seconds passed between them, before she blinked and took out a tube of lip balm and some wet tissue paper. Holding it out to him with a hasty smile, she indicated that he should use them. He continued to stare. This was the same guy who needed her to dress him. Did he want her to do it for him?

"Excuse me," she muttered, uneasily, very slowly reaching out with the tissue paper to give him ample time to react. She wiped gently at his lips, noting that they were actually fuller than they appeared.

As she reached out with the lip balm, he unexpectedly caught her wrist, narrowing his eyes at her. His grip was hard enough to bruise. In that moment, a chill went down her spine. Had she overstepped his boundaries? How could she have forgotten? This was the same guy who sacrificed Ukita for the sake of an experiment. Given an absolute choice between someone else's welfare and his paranoia, Ryuzaki would almost always choose to pacify his paranoia.

The only way to be by L was to become one of his people, the way Watari was. He had already proven himself capable and willing to neutralize perceived threats to him - it was said that imposters claiming to be L often met unfortunate ends.

"I-It's, uh, safe," she forced herself to reply, uncertainly, watching as he applied the lip balm himself, holding her gaze the entire time. With shaky hands she moved to take it back, but he simply put it into his pocket and turned his attention back to his laptop.

Ryuzaki frightened her, and she would do well not to forget that. She'd already screwed up once. Would he get rid of her if she proved useless, or was she overthinking this?

"You don't remember how the two Kiras met?" Ryuzaki's voice had been more chilling, more demanding than she had ever heard it.

"I'm sorry, Ryuzaki," Rui demurred quietly, eyes lowered to his collarbone instead of his eyes. "All I remember is that she saw him from a café."

He did not say anything in reply, but she got the feeling that she'd failed an expectation, somehow. She did not sleep well that night.

April 28, 2004; 12 30

Ryuzaki and Rui were seated in the booth just behind Light's and Kiyomi's, eating shortcake and listening in to the soon-to-be couple's conversation. The Prince and Princess of the campus were debating something from their global politics course. Ryuk wasn't around.

Seiso Takada had been a side character in DN, and Rui had never paid much attention to her. However, grace was her calling card. Grace was inherent in every movement Kiyomi made, every shift in her expression, and in every word softly spoken. Her skin was snow-like, her hair like silky ebony, and her dark grey eyes like precious pearls from the ocean. She carried herself with the expectation that she would be the centre of attention, and she was. Kiyomi was also already a Kira supporter.

"Kiyomi-san," Light suddenly said. "Please go out with me." She would normally have made some wisecracking comment on this to amuse herself, but Ryuzaki and her sat in tense silence.

His persistent silence after the lip gloss stunt was wearing on her, along with her worries of his intentions. Her continued failure to find a way home wore on her, too, exacerbated by the heartache that arose every time she saw little reminders of her old life.

She caught sight of some bone broth soup a schoolmate was carrying on her tray.

"Rae! Here is Mom's special collagen soup!" exclaimed her mother. "Us ladies need to take care of ourselves! Drink this to keep beautiful and young!"

A sudden pang of crippling homesickness hit her, and in that moment, Rui really wanted her mother.

"…Hey, Ryuzaki," she began timidly, almost not wanting to hear the answer. "Where is my old passport?"

He took his time eating his cake, only looking up at her when he had finished. "Our mutual friend needs only a face. I thought it prudent to dispose of them to ensure your safety."

Setting her jaw, she pushed her half-eaten cake away, well aware of his observation of her, but too sick at the destruction of her last link to her old identity to really care. She understood his rationale, she really did. If she were never to return to her world, no one could know of the circumstances surrounding her existence here, ever. If she were able to return, she could always have a new passport made. But still…still…

"Are you going to eat that?" Ryuzaki gestured to her cake with his fork, his mouth still full with his own.

She blinked. "No," she replied dazedly, pushing it towards him. "No, you can have it, Ryuzaki."

That was the last conversation they had for the entire day.

*Aspie: Informal way of referring to someone with Asperger's Syndrome. It's used as a self-description by aspies on Quora, so I don't think it's offensive, but please, do let me know if you would prefer I change it.

AN: L does almost everything with the intention to manipulate. He is unpredictable.