AN: A teeny bit of canon divergence here. This ship needs further building, but it'll set sail one day, you'll see.

I'm wondering if I should give up on having chapter names lol.

Chapter 13: Watch

May 12, 2004; 14 00

"The Second Kira sent another package to Sakura TV. This time it's a video tape and diary. Please get here as soon as you can," Yagami Sr. told his son over the phone.

As the task force discussed among themselves, Rui surreptitiously examined the screen that was showing the diary entry Misa sent. In particular, two statements stood out to her:

22nd: Met with friend in Aoyama and exchanged notes.

30th: Saw God of Death at the Giants game in the Tokyo Dome.

She had no doubt Ryuzaki had already come to the same conclusion.

"What do you think, Raito-kun?" Ryuzaki asked, having gotten out of his owl-like perch to stand with his hands in his pocket. All the better to watch you with, my dear. Banishing that random thought, she watched as Ryuzaki stared intently at Light, waiting for his response.

"Right now… I have to say that he is an idiot…" Light said, an exasperated expression on his face. Where was Ryuk? Rui looked around.

"Yeah. If he wants the diary on TV, then it must be a message to Kira," Matsuda agreed. "Even though the diary is from last year, the Giants are also playing in the dome this year on 05/30, so it's obvious that he wants to meet Kira there." No. Rui didn't remember much about this part of the story, but she knew Misa had seen Light in a café. Besides, the Giants game was far too obvious.

"If this is shown on TV, people will panic," Yagami Sr. mused. "The game may even be postponed."

"Yes, there'll be a major panic," Matsuda agreed. "Those media folk will probably exaggerate the story saying that everyone at the game will die."

But L's eyes were already fixed on the box of chocolates. In particular, one with apricot cream filling. "The truth is… I think he is a real idiot…" Oh, Ryuzaki. You don't really think that? Misa's methods were not very inventive but she always got what she set out to do. "…So much so that I'm not sure how to deal with this." He chewed, putting his thoughts together.

"If we show the diary, we'll have to cancel the game on the 30th. If we don't show it, the Second Kira won't move out of the shadows…"

"Yeah, and we may even anger him if we don't show it…" Matsuda added.

"That shouldn't be a problem," Ryuzaki corrected. "The Second Kira worships Kira. He has agreed not to kill innocent people in response to our fake Kira tape and I think we can hold him to that. First, we have to air the diary. Then, we have to cancel the game on the 30th and prepare to set up a perimeter around the Tokyo Dome on that day. Please ask the policemen who helped during the Sakura TV incident. They should be willing to assist us again. After that, we'll make another Kira tape for an 'understood, see you then' reply."

Yagami Sr. was a little skeptical. "Do you think that they'll actually go ahead and meet, knowing that we'll be watching for them?"

"The real Kira probably won't, but… the Second Kira seems rather foolish and rash, his actions are unpredictable… We have to at least check out all the locations on the respective dates that they are mentioned."

He looked at Yagami Sr. "Please set up as much of a surveillance perimeter around Aoyama and Shibuya as you can. We need to send some disguised investigators there on these dates." Rui understood that Ryuzaki didn't want to show his hand this early, but she worried that there wouldn't be enough investigators to catch Misa in Aoyama. "We have to do some field work in Aoyama and Shibuya and look for possibly suspicious people holding notes and buying clothes."

"But if Kira or the Second Kira discover us, they may kill us," Yagami Sr. said. "It's too dangerous."

"If the Second Kira is so stupid as to go to the Dome knowing that it'll be crawling with police, then we'll catch him easily," replied Ryuzaki, already fixing himself another cup of coffee. Misa would have had no choice but to go to Aoyama.

"Catch him easily…? Lots of people will die in the process…" Matsuda wondered, puzzled. Ryuzaki really needed to work on saying things more directly. But then again, even geniuses had their little flaws, right?

"No… I think Ryuzaki is saying that the Second Kira won't be so stupid as to still go to the Dome…" Atta boy, Yagami Sr.! Rui was starting to like him more and more, and she fixed him a nice cup of coffee.

"No… If anyone joins the investigation, he has to be prepared to make the sacrifice," Ryuzaki stated, glancing quickly at Light. "But for Aoyama and Shibuya, Kira and the Second Kira probably won't attack recklessly, so there'll be no danger to our field agents if they just blend in as innocent agents and look around. Though, in the case of finding anyone suspicious, report back and don't act on your own."

"Anyways, someone like Asahi-san, whose eyes radiate justice and valor," Ryuzaki added dryly, causing Rui to choke on her saliva, "should definitely not go." He eyed Matsuda, who was sniggering, and Rui, who was trying desperately not to cough, with a gleam in his dark gaze.

"So then, I'll go check out Aoyama and Shibuya alone!" Matsuda volunteered cheerfully, unheeding of the dubious expression Aizawa was shooting him.

"I'll go, too," Light announced, stepping forwardly valiantly, brushing off his father's protests. "It's fine, dad. I go to Aoyama and Shibuya sometimes, too. I'll blend right in. Plus, the Second Kira will be too busy looking for Kira to notice me." As expected of someone with an 8/10 willingness to act! So... Neither Light nor Matsuda radiated honor and valor? Well, neither would Rui, she supposed.

"Alright, then we'll air this tomorrow," Ryuzaki decided, finally looking away from Light. "Asahi-san, can you make an appointment with the executives before the news broadcasts tomorrow?"

"Okay, I'll try," acceded Yagami Sr.

Ryuzaki's cautiousness was top-notch, and Rui was saying this with only the highest esteem for him. He reminded the task force members to avoid going out as policemen and to destroy all photos of themselves. Rui wondered if that included family photos. They were lucky they weren't living in the social media age. How did Ryuzaki avoid leaving his photo on his student ID?

Unfortunately, this reminded the Chief of another issue. "You still suspect my son?!" he demanded. Rui prayed that Ryuzaki didn't choose this time to be honest.

"… We simply have to take precautions in case the Second Kira can really kill by seeing a person's face only," the detective in question replied smoothly.

Old Light stepped in, too. "Like Ryuzaki said… No, your actions are steps ahead of mine. Very impressive." Did it almost kill him to give that compliment? There was a faint look in Light's eyes like he'd been made to sniff sewage. The best part was that Ryuzaki hadn't even acknowledged or appeared to notice it.

"I believed that 'Kira needs the name and face of his victims to kill'. But the situation is different now…" Ryuzaki replied. "It's possible that the Second Kira, and maybe Kira himself, can kill by looking only at a person's face. We can't leave ourselves vulnerable, and we have to catch the Second Kira as soon as possible."

Yagami Sr. was too sharp to be truly mollified by what Ryuzaki had said, but at least he didn't seem quite so agitated this time.

Ryuzaki watched unblinkingly as Light got into a taxi, with Matsuda seeing him off. He immediately took out his phone.

"This is Ryuzaki," he said, as soon as the line picked up. "When you are in Aoyama and Shibuya, please work together with Raito-kun. I would also like a report of yours and his every move, particularly the locations and times at which you investigated. Make it a secret, please." Was he planning to make Rui and himself sit through hours of Aoyama footage based on this? Sigh.

Matsuda looked pretty downcast as he left the hotel, his posture almost resembling Ryuzaki's.

May 12, 2004; 18 05

Ryuzaki and Rui watched in silence as the video made by the task force played onscreen.

"The Second Kira's definitely in Aoyama," Rui stated, testing the waters. She tilted her body a little to peer at him from where she'd been standing right behind his chair.

"It would be ideal if we prevented the Kiras meeting at all," Ryuzaki replied, turning so that he was now crouching and facing the side. "It was my understanding that Shinigami haunt the users of the Death Note?"

"Yes," Rui agreed. Was Ryuzaki… thinking about having her go scout Aoyama? She was confident enough that she could spot Rem, at least. The Shinigami was what, 2 metres tall? If she were in Aoyama, Rui would spot her.

"We'll set up surveillance in Aoyama on the 22nd," Ryuzaki said. "Speaking of which…" He turned his laptop screen towards her, to show a club's website. Note Blue, it was announced, was having an event on the 22nd, and it was located in Aoyama. "We'll start from here and trace back to the stations in Aoyama."

Rui approved of this 100%. Studying the photo of the club's exterior, she couldn't tell if it was the place Misa had spotted Light. She wondered, "Ryuzaki, couldn't you just hack the surveillance feed from existing cameras?" But perhaps he couldn't? They were probably government property, or perhaps they just weren't advanced enough for hacking. Or maybe they didn't allow live feed. Rui didn't know much about CCTV technology. "Or maybe it's easier just to set up our own."

He actually flashed a rather cute little smirk at her. "We'll need our own cameras for live feed. You will be monitoring these on that day, of course. The probability that we'll be successful in this is approximately 2%, so we have to take it into account."

May 22, 2004; 08 00

Two walls of a hotel room had been taken up by monitors displaying live feed from outside various café locations in Aoyama, the direct result of her toiling for 7 entire days to set it up. She couldn't complain though – Watari, the incredible old coot, had assembled and set up these cameras by himself.

Ryuzaki had brought his armchair in beside her, a side table between them. Rui kept her eyes fixed on the screens. This meeting between Misa and Light could not happen, and she would do everything in her power to make it so. Of course, it would have been easier if Ryuzaki had prevented Light from going with Matsuda in the first place, but he was no doubt hoping that either of the Kiras would make an incriminating move. That, and the task force's outcry would be horrible. The moment she spotted Rem, Matsuda would be alerted to stall Light and a plainclothes agent stationed closest to where the sighting was would be called to investigate.

She set her jaw and planted her tush into the armchair determinedly. She didn't have eyes that saw as deeply as Ryuzaki's, but she wouldn't let herself miss anything.

Rui didn't know how long she'd been sitting there, eyes rapidly flicking back and forth across all screens. At one point, she dimly noted that Watari had come in with some sort of dish each for them, but she'd not looked at it. Afraid of getting distracted, she had taken only a couple of bites before abandoning it. Her temples throbbed a little, there was a burning sensation behind her eyelids, and she felt nauseated, somehow. Probably radiation poisoning, if that was a thing.

Aoyama certainly was a place filled with beautiful people, hip, cutting-edge and refined, with tons of interesting-looking shops and art spots. She watched as couples strolled past, hand in hand, and youth in groups sauntered by, chatting, pointing at things they found of interest, and laughing. It was like she'd been granted a window into a different life that she'd never known, and it felt both incredible but also… lonely. She didn't think she'd ever had the opportunity to laugh that freely in a group before. Even in her old life, it had sometimes seemed to her like she had only been allowed to watch from the outside as others advanced in their lives while she remained stationary, unheard and unseen. Sometimes, she fancied that everyone else had been born with a manual to life and she'd lost hers. Or maybe they'd forgotten to give her one.

Ryuzaki grunted, the weight of his strange gaze resting on her palpably. Had she said that out loud? She didn't remember. But if she did… Her face felt hot. Here was someone who'd been alone almost as long as he could remember, both because of the singularity of his intellect and the circumstances of his chosen profession. He was someone who was perpetually in danger and couldn't afford to be seen. Therefore, he was always hiding in the shadows of society's peripherals, and he certainly didn't complain. In contrast, here she was, complaining like an ungrateful brat. In comparison to his situation, her unhappiness felt paltry, petty, and insignificant. It wasn't like it couldn't be resolved; she'd been making progress in her old life. Here, she just had to be patient with herself and with the situation she was currently in.

Gosh, she really hoped she hadn't said anything out loud.

"Oh, I didn't mean to say anything aloud, if I did. Did you want to say something, Ryuzaki?" she smiled, her eyes flicking briefly to him to let him know she was listening before returning to the screens. She hoped her blush had gone down.

"Rui is… easy to get along with. I would be surprised if anyone had a bad opinion involving Rui," Ryuzaki stated in a monotone. He passed her something and she took it without looking. Huh, it was a full cup of tea, probably sweetened to instantly give diabetes.

His words registered just as she took a sip and this time she couldn't stop the flush that spread up her neck like wildfire. That was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her and she couldn't help the delicate, warm joy that rose in her chest. She could feel Ryuzaki staring. She'd stare, too. Even her ears felt hot.

Gosh, the sugar in his tea must be making her jittery, for her hands shook terribly as she tried to put it down. He took it from her and slurped from it in his customary manner before placing it down on the table between them.

"Th-thank you, Ryuzaki, that's really sweet of you to say so," she stammered. It felt like her head was full of bees. Why was she so flustered? She took in a deep breath and let it out audibly, anything to regain her sense of equanimity.

"Oh, by the way, what time is it?" she continued, a little more calmly this time. Thank heavens. In any case, the sunlight was turning orange and the shadows were getting longer, lending an ethereal charm to the scene she was viewing through the screens. The day had to end soon. She frowned. She hadn't seen Rem at all in any of the screens. They had been pretty sure that Shinigami had to be capturable on screens, simply because their voices were audible through transmitters. Had they been wrong, or had Rem somehow not accompanied Misa to Aoyama? She blinked hard, trying to get rid of her blurry vision.

"It is 18 00. I think we can cease surveillance and henceforth operate on the assumption that the Second Kira has seen Raito-kun," Ryuzaki replied.

Rui scowled deeply, a sense of failure settling in her being. Making to stand up, they were both surprised as she lost her sense of balance and toppled backward along with her armchair, her sense of spatial awareness having been screwed up from watching the screens for too long. Ryuzaki made to catch her wrist, but he must've tripped over a chair leg, for he went tumbling down with her, knocking the breath out of her and hitting his bony chin against her forehead as he landed heavily on her.

Ole Coon Eyes was heavier than he looked, and her forehead probably now had a chin-shaped bruise courtesy of his efforts. Perhaps she should be embarrassed or more nervous at having a man on top of her like this, but her eyes felt like they'd been sandpapered, and her headache had spread in earnest. She just didn't have the energy to do anything but lie there. At least he was warm, and the carpet beneath was rather plush.

"How much water have you consumed in total today?" Ryuzaki queried. "It seems as if you are mildly dehydrated." He seemed content to lie there, too. Didn't he dislike people touching him? Perhaps it's different if he's the one touching others?

"I don't really remember," Rui croaked, suddenly registering her parched throat. Her breath probably smelled bad, too. "You're incredible, you know that, Ryuzaki? I don't know how you can sit there the entire day watching surveillance without having your eyes crumble to dust or something. You even have larger eyes than mine."

Ryuzaki opened his mouth to reply, but Watari, who must have just entered the room, beat him to it.

"What on God's green earth is going on here?" Watari demanded, though gentle in his tone. What a sight they must have made, if he was reacting in this manner. He was usually more gentlemanly, belying his true badassery.

Ryuzaki calmly climbed off to crouch right beside her. "I believe Rui is dehydrated and unused to looking at surveillance screens for this long. Please accord her the necessary care."

Rui weakly grabbed onto Watari's hand as he pulled her up, leaning on him heavily as he escorted her to her room, then gave her some water.

"I'll have porridge brought over as soon as I can," he told her, leaving her to wash up.

Thankfully, Ryuzaki didn't try to talk to her this night, and she collapsed in bed immediately after her meal.

AN: Knowledge of canon isn't infallible here.

And yes, those two legit lay there shamelessly because they were too lazy to move. They would have continued talking like that forever if Watari hadn't come in.

How much do you believe in an inevitable fate? That is, how much can fate be changed, if it exists to you?