"H-how? You're dead!"

The woman, not his first innocent victim (and yet, somehow she was), seemed melancholy, turning back to the skies, a perfect reflection of Ryuuzaki on that day, on the day everything had changed.

"If I'm dead, I suppose you are too."

Light's breath caught in his throat. "No, I'm not."

"You are. You expended all of the energy in your body on the revival of Fred Weasley. You are expended. You are dead."

The rain was too cold on his skin, they felt like bullets peppering him. "I-I can't be dead. Not so soon. I still have…I have plans. I have things to do. The Horcrux…Harry…Ryuuzaki. I…I can't leave Ryuuzaki." It struck him, the horror of it all. "I can't be dead, not yet!"

Naomi gave him an expressionless once-over. "Do you think repeating that will bring you back to life?"

His teeth chattered in the cold. He wrapped his arms tighter around himself. "Misora-san, please, I have to go back. I have to get back to him, I can't leave him now. It's all my fault, everything, I brought him here. Please, at least let me take him back home, then you can do whatever you want. You can g-get your revenge in this purgatory or wherever it is, I won't stop you. Please."

The woman gave him a condescending smirk. "You think I have brought you here?"

Light swallowed. "You haven't?"

She tilted her head back and laughed. "Oh, no, I haven't. You see, I'm in your head. I'm not real."

Light shivered. This was getting worse. "T-then I'm stuck here?"

She raised her eyebrows. "That would be an appropriate punishment, wouldn't it? Stuck in the rain, cold to the bone, alone forever. It would be very fitting." She smiled. "Do you know how I killed myself?"

Light ducked his head, the tears stinging his eyes. "No."

She walked over to him, her heavy shoes clacking on the slippery tile. "What an appropriate revenge it could have been. Suicide, body never found. How very thorough of you. Cold and alone."

Light shut his eyes. "I-I had to kill you, you were going to expose me."

"Yes, you are right. I was going to expose you." Her lips were centimetres from his ear. "I was going to expose you, and so was my fiancé and the twelve other FBI agents you murdered in cold blood."

Light nodded, his chin lowered and eyes squeezed against the tears that had started to worm their way out. "I had to protect myself. I had no choice."

Her breath was hot against his chilled skin. "I never had a burial, because my body was never found. I am probably still hanging there, birds pecking out my eyes, weathering the sun, the rain, the wind. My shoes may still be there where I took them off." She smiled humourlessly.

Light finally looked up at her. "Misora-san…"

"I want my revenge, Yagami Raito. I want revenge for my life and my fiancé's."

The teenager looked away. "I'm sorry, Misora-san. I repent for it, truly. I wish I didn't have to kill you. I really wish I didn't, but your fiancé could have incriminated me. I killed in self-defence."

"Self-defence? I trusted you! I-"

Light clenched his jaw, swallowing a strangled sob. "I get it! I get it, I'm a murderer, I'm a terrible person, but I had good intentions! I wanted to make the world a better place, and I'm sorry I used the wrong methods, but you're dead and if I'm stuck here I'd rather you just get out of my head and leave me to it!"

Misora stared at him, her face impassive. To Light's absolute disbelief, her lips slowly curved up and she let out the softest laugh he had ever heard. The guilt stabbed him, as it did every time he thought about her…but that soft laugh, that giggle muffled behind her hand, it tore at him. It reminded him of his sister, Sayu, distinctly. He missed Sayu terribly. He never thought he would, but having not seen her for almost a year now…

"You really are like him." She laughed breathily. "Underneath all that...manipulation, vileness, deceit, you're just like him."

Light swallowed the lump in his throat, opting not to reply.

When he looked back at her, she was looking up again, and there was a small upward turn to her lips. "Yagami Raito, you are not trapped here."

Light didn't say anything, tilting his head forward. He had never felt so ashamed, so sickened by himself. He had killed Misora in cold blood. He had left Ryuuzaki all alone. All he caused was pain.

"You may return, if you wish. You are connected to the Sword of Gryffindor. The Sword is a magical object of immense power, it can easily replenish you. All you need to do is ask, and it shall obey, especially since you died sacrificing yourself for a Gryffindor."

Light felt numb. The rain soaked him, his hair dripping over his face.

"All you need to do is ask, Yagami Raito. If you believe you do not deserve to stay here, to do your penance."

Do you deserve anything but a painful, humiliating death?

The shadow of a smile appeared on Light's lips. "Penance? Do you really think my ambitions are so low?"

And because Naomi Misora was only in his head, she understood. Her smile was sad. She looked heavenly in the rain, a parody of an angel, in her black trench coat, her long black hair plastered to her in the rain, her lips lily-white, a vampire returned to life.

"Underneath all of that, Yagami-kun, you are a good man. Sacrificing yourself for somebody you don't know is a good way to die. Dying a murderer is not. You have managed both."

"I suppose it's all the same, in the end."

Naomi Misora gave him another of those heartbreakingly soft laughs. "Now I know you don't believe that. You are responsible for your actions, Yagami Raito. Do not let there be another Naomi Misora."

Light nodded. "I swear to you that I won't."

"Harry Potter will try to get himself killed. L will tell him that he is a Horcrux. You must stop him before he sacrifices himself."

Light shuttered his eyes. "But then…how do we kill Voldemort?"

"There is a way. I know you are smart enough to think of it." She gave him a tiny smile. "I forgive you, Yagami Raito. You were in over your head. I do not blame you any longer."

Light, despite everything, managed a grin. "You're saying that because you're a figment of my imagination. Of course you'd forgive me in my head."

Naomi walked over, her heavy shoes clacking loudly, and placed her small hand on his shoulder. "Yes, this is all in your head. But why on Earth should that mean that it is not real?"

The world began to fade away around him. He took one last desperate glance at Naomi Misora's bright smile. "Goodbye, Yagami Raito."

"Goodbye, Misora Naomi-san." He whispered, and the stormy rooftop faded away.