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Chapter seven
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The stain of Harry's predecessor could be traced by its distinct odorous stench. No words could indefinitely define the putrid stench of a sullied soul.
An empty devil.
Late one evening, Harry disembarked himself from Light's side. The young man left in a peaceful dream despite committing heinous acts that was currently turning the worlds' governments upside down. Inciting civil wars and social reckoning.
Harry's incorporeal body drifted through and above the modest Yagami household. Below, the cold darkened street outside Ray Penber stood. Droopy gaze sated on the dark window of Light's bedroom. He had been tailing the Death Note user into the new year. The man should have died by now. A lot of people should have.
Higher and higher Harry ascended. Senses reaching out and snatching the putrid smell.
"Got you."
Glimmering city lights of Tokyo fazed past like a shot - through China then Iran. Across a blinding bright Ocean, Harry's body calmed to stop atop an ocean cliff that cradled a lonely, dreary prison somewhere off Portugal. Below the cliff face, monstrous choppy waves slammed along. Rain pelted down in heavy sheets. Harry drifted down to the prison's entrance gate. Body shimmering into a formal suit and tie.
Flicking an umbrella open into life and razing it above, he waved to the drowsy security guard at the check in box. The man startled and ran out to meet him, hand on pistol and gaze wary despite the blasting of icy rain.
"Sorry sir," the man had to shout over the storm, "visitations aren't allowed until -"
"L sent me." The softly spoken words immediately silenced the man. For a second, all they heard were waves against rocks, rain meeting earth, and the ghoulish whispering wind. The man approached calmer and asked to see his identification. "You don't need it." He casted a silent imperio.
"I don't need it," he nodded and escorted Harry past the gate and to the reception where they met a professional and horn-rimmed lady. "One of L's men," the security guard reported. This worked better than a spell ever could, Harry decided as he was immediately treated like VIP.
"Which subject are you here for, sir?" The lady asked.
"B."
"Sorry sir, we understood that the subject was to be kept from contact. He can be very persuasive."
"Would I have gone to the trouble of traveling all the way here if L's intrusions were wrong? Have you ever known L to be wrong, girl?"
Jaw constructing, the lady picked up the reception desk phone and went to dial L's number. He snatched her wrist and met her panicked gaze.
"Take me to B."
Her face slackened. Smile curving into a polite smile. "I will take you to B. Excuse me for that, sir. I don't know what's overcame me."
Harry grinned, and patted her head. "Forgotten already," he extended an arm, "If you would, dear girl?"
Through metal hallways, five security gates and down a buttonless elevator, Harry was escorted to a door.
"The subject is just through that door. A security officer will be monitoring your conversation incase anything goes wrong. And sir, take care."
She opened the door, let him in and shut it quickly behind. Harry took in the padded room, separated from him by a glass wall, and the figure squatted in the middle. The man had sometime managed to release himself of the straight jacket and was twirling a hazardously cut piece of hair in a finger. Harry glanced to a security camera, eyebrow arched. Apparently they had given up with the straight jacket wearing, seeing as B wore it in obvious pride.
"Wow," B said, burn scars peaking out around his neck to slither around his left eye. The Shinigami eyes rolled over him appreciatively. "I'd say I'm pleased to meet you but I'd be lying. Where'd the other guy go?"
Harry strode as close he could get to the glass wall and stooped to sit. "Left me in charge. You knew the creep?"
"Frankenstein's monster knew Frankenstein," B shrugged, buckles jangled. "Pity. He enjoyed my work. It's nice having a fan, and what a fan he was."
One guess as to what B's work was.
After a wistful sigh, he rested his head against the glass. Red eyes burned. "How'd you find me?"
Harry tapped his nose, "Everyone leaves a trail."
This made B grin a grotesque sight, "Oh, L is going to be pissed," he squinted in approval, "which is your plan. Good. With me gone there'll be nobody left to give the guy Hell."
"You're under the assumption I'm here to kill you."
"When it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck," B drawled, "it's a God damn duck."
The right corner of Harry's mouth tugged up. And not in a nice way. "Laying to rest and killing are two entirely seperate things, dear aberration. You are confused. It's understandable, you're only human."
"Time has done an awful number on you, dear assassin," B sighed theatrics. Head rocking so his cheek and scarred eye pressed against the glass. The red eyes studied Harry's numbers above his head in awe. They didn't count down, they counted up. "Contempt and boredom doesn't lead you to fun times, take my word for it," he slapped a hand in gesture to his padded prison. "You're just here to kill some time 'till that boy of yours entertains you some more." A gruelling laugh choked upon entry. Explosions of glass sprayed the room in dangerous confetti, and Harry's hand around B's throat clenched. Arms raised. Not indicating a single move to stop him.
B was smarter than that. Death had come. It was time to die.
His clock had stopped ticking.
Sirens blared and the white light darkened to red. Behind him the door was slammed with fists and batons. Useless. Harry won't allow anyone in unless he wanted.
"Seems you're more gifted than I thought," Harry scowled to B's smile. A manic ugly thing. "Whatever my predecessor bestowed you with shouldn't be in the hands of humanity, it messes with my peace. Makes me have to fix shit and get involved. I don't like being bothered."
"Hah - hypocrite," B gasped, "your boy's doing exactly that - gahgk! - he's doing…whatever he wants….and getting - haack! - you involved…"
The taunting false words bothered him more than he appreciated. Yagami Light was doing exactly what Harry was allowing, the man had it wrong. He simply wanted to see where these reckless decisions would take Light - would he die like he was supposed to in a spray of bullets or rule the world? It was more interesting than half the worlds he's watched destroy themselves.
"You're human, nobody would expect you to understand a God's boredom," and with that he snapped B's neck.
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Among relatives and close friends, Harry sat in the first row behind newly admitted students. Ignoring the curious stares he garnered for his sophisticated attire. Not unlike others he had dressed up for the Touou Commencement Ceremony. What got attention was not the startling resemblance to a popular Idol, it was how he had dressed up. Red velvet suits and satin dress slippers was a foreign statement. Spoke of wealth and sophistication. It got people wondering, who was he? And what did that otherworldly pendant that shone so bright signify exactly?
"And now a few words from the freshmen representatives, Yagami Light and Ryuuga Hideki."
Harry clapped, loud and sudden. Making the hall shiver in shock. Walking up the podium stairs, Light glanced to him. Something akin to a warning in his eyes.
"Still thinks he's the boss," Harry muttered to himself in a chuckle, slightly vicious at the edge. B's words hung around him like stale bread.
Politely, Harry grinned to the families around him who turned red at being caught.
Fanfare of terrible speeches over with, Harry sauntered out the Hall to meet Sachiko near the doorway. The lovely lady had waved over when he had clapped, overjoyed to see a close friend of her son's supporting him into his future.
"Oh! - " she went to say his name, then realised she had never once gotten it.
"Ryusei Ryo," he came up with on the spot. Charm overspilling her confusion into gratification. "Some speech Light gave. Incredibly uplifting," and incredibly dull.
"He came up with it last night," Sachiko stage whispered behind a hand. "We were given such short notice from the University."
"Really, now?" He marvelled at Light's lie. He hadn't been working on his speech, he had been killing overseas criminals he had managed to get the names and photographs ahold of from a leak online. Kira followers were populating at rapid speed. Light was becoming a God of his own on this little planet. "He's always been the busy body."
"A quality he inherited from his father," she said.
"Where is Mr Yagami, by the way?" Harry knew exactly where. Nearing the end of last year, L had set up an exclusive Taskforce focused on catching Kira. Light's father had been recruited. Not for his proficiency, for his relation to Light.
"At work," Sachiko sighed and glanced to the empty space by her side. Harry placed a comforting hand on her arm.
"You're an amazing mother, Mrs Yagami. Truly."
Warmth visibly flowed through the worn woman, she would have responded had she not caught sight of her son strolling out of the hall behind his fellow future classmates. L accompanied. The detective caught sight of him, and tensed. Dark, coal eyes rattled in hidden grief he didn't allow himself to entertain. Not having the privileged of time.
Harry winked and followed the mother as she caught and dragged her son and his new 'friend' off for family photos. No sooner was the Harbinger of Death given the vital assignment of snapping pictures of mother and son near cherry blossom trees lining the school. No sooner was he dragged into some. L stood next to Sachiko, answering questions the woman rolled off like canon fodder.
Arm around Light's shoulder, personifying the mentor character he had enrolled himself in, Harry sparked a bright proud grin.
"I'm getting a picture with Death under a cherry blossom tree. While my arch nemesis chats up my mother," Light giggled from utter astonishment. "This is ridiculous."
"Smile," Harry cooed and nudged the boy with his knee, "You could say this is a once in a lifetime opportunity."
Now Light truly did laugh. Sheer absurdity that it was. Not once questioning how Harry knew without being told who 'Hideki Ryuuga' was.
"I'll see you around on campus, Light," L shook Light's hand in parting. "Will I also be seeing you, I'm sorry - what was it again?" He asked, blinking in the feigned curiosity that masked a hungry wolf.
"Ryusei Ryo," Harry didn't wait for the offer and gripped L's hand. "And you'll be seeing me. A friend of Light's and a friend of mine."
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L wanted the man dead.
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Thoughts? feelings? (: