Yagami Light

"I'm so glad. I think we've finally found someone who will really be able to help her."

"That puts my heart at ease, mother. I wish I could be the one to be there for Sayu, but-" I sighed. "No. it doesn't matter. You don't want to hear my excuses."

"I don't mind, Light. I understand. You come home whenever you can alright? And if you can't, don't worry about it."

"I won't, mother. By the way, you said her name was Mary Oldsman, correct?"

"Yes." Mother tittered. "If you weren't already seeing someone, I'd have recommended her to you. She's quite the woman. When are you and that Amane Misa going to get married anyway?

"Like I've said. Something like that would not be good for Misa's career. We're not certain yet."

A voice interrupted the conversation. "Light, who are you talking to?"

"One moment." I put a hand over the phone and give Matsuda Touta a glance. "It's my mother, Matsuda."

"Oh! Your mother! Haha!" Matsuda laughed. "Well I just finished reading the files and I'll put my summary right here." The man, my underling, placed a small stack onto my desk.

I nodded. "Thank you Matsuda. I'll take a look at it in a moment."

"Any time, Light."

I give him a smile and put the phone back to my ear. "Sorry mother."

"Oh nonono. I can see you're busy. Should I call another time?"

I glanced toward Touta Matsuda again. "Yes. I would appreciate that. Thank you, mother."

"Alright. Well. I love you, Light. Come home soon."

*click*

I blink and stow my phone away. "Is there anything else, Matsuda?"

"Huh?" Matsuda managed to enhance the usual look of confusion that he wore on his face. Interesting. "Oh. Yes. Uh. I was just wondering and I hope you don't mind me asking, but-" Matsuda ran a hand through his hair sheepishly, like a buffoon picking at its hair. "How's your sister doing?"

I peer into Matsuda's eyes for a moment. We breathed. There was silence. "She's as well as she can be. Thank you for your concern, Matsuda."

The man smiled. Ingratiating. Nervous. "O-Of course. Well… if there's anything I can do to help-"

"If you have time to worry over my sister, Matsuda, then you have time to review some of these cases." I gesture to the folders stored behind me. "I'll send you a memo."

Matsuda frowned. "Yes. of course, sir." he dropped his hand from his head and stood perfectly straight. Then turning on his feet, he made to leave my office.

"Matsuda, wait." I called. Matsuda stopped.

"Yes sir? Is there anything else?" He turned to look at me. I knew that look.

I give my longtime acquaintance the smile that had taken me years of practice to perfect. "I hope you understand. It hurts to have the subject brought up. We've tried everything from psychiatrists to- to magic healers. There was a doctor who even started torturing her to see if she'd respond."

Matsuda cringed at the mention of Kurotsuchi Mayuri. "I know. I know, Light. It was rude of me to presume that I could've done anything. Sorry for bringing it up."

"No. If anything, I should be thanking you for caring." I smiled again, and I could see Matsuda's spirit relax. Good. "Well, I have work to do. As do you."

Matsuda sighed, something he was always prone to do in the proximity of a conversation where Sayu was brought up. "Don't work too hard, Light."

I don't say a word as Matsuda departs.

I went to my computer and pulled open the global personnel database that I'd inherited from L. Mary Oldsman. The search narrowed down to two individuals, one was a fifty-two year old woman who lived in England and the other...

Twenty-six years old. Born in Japan. Flies out of the country at sixteen to attend a university in Canada. Finishes her doctorate in language and linguistic studies at twenty-two. Holds minor degrees in mathematics and computer science. Works for a small, no-name company. Probably self-employed. Her academic record was pristine; a genius by normal standards. Eight months ago, Mary Oldsman receives a large sum of money,

And now she was here, studying Sayu in the name of some organization that hadn't existed prior to her moving to Japan and doing work completely unrelated to the fields she had been studying all her life. Quite an abrupt change. There was no rhyme or reason to it. I performed another search and found that she had deleted her social media account, forcing me to waste a few minutes of my time to extract the information from the website's hidden database.

We've always been friends through good times and bad. Let me be a friend to you now. Mary. Talk to me. Call me. - Bennett Gustiano

We miss you. I miss you. Come back soon. - Jessica Deneuve

I know my son was very important to you. Losing him was like losing a part of ourselves. I know it's the same for you. If you need to talk, we're here. - Jihoon "Eric" Song

It wasn't long before I stumbled upon a familiar name and face: the son of Korean immigrants and a journalist.

Interesting.

At the end of the day, I gathered all the people who worked at my facility and made my announcement.

"I hate to do this, but some matters have come up at home; I will be taking a leave tomorrow to attend to them."

Matsuda had smiled at that. So did a few of my father's old colleagues.

I knew exactly what they were thinking.

"We can do fine without you for a day or two." "Go see your family" "About time you took a break."

"Thank you, everyone, for understanding." I bowed and the sheep were happy.

-Intermission-

"Ryuk."

There was a long moment of silence. I looked up at Ryuk who was floating above my head and he stared back down at me with the same ever-present grin.

"I have a question." I said after another long moment during which Ryuk remained entirely silent.

He was playing some sort of game with me. I looked back towards my monitor where a number of news articles were opened and the names of the latest criminals were written. "Is it possible for a human being to be born with knowledge of the death note?"

Ryuk did not answer me, but he was still there, floating above my head and staring down at me from his place at the ceiling. I decided to try another tact.

"Ryuk. Do you want an apple?"

"Eh?" The Death God rasped. "Sure. How kind of you to offer, Light."

"Hm. Kind." I chewed the word around in my mouth. Standing to my feet, I went to the kitchen to grab my pet Death God his snack. It was always interesting to see Ryuk's amazing manual dexterity. It didn't matter how I tossed the apple. Ryuk almost always caught it. The exceptions were when I did things like deliberately tossing the apples straight down.

Watching Ryuk lick the apple off the floor was almost worth having to waste my time mopping up the remaining mess. Almost.

"Nope." Ryuk said as he ate his apple. "That's impossible."

"I see." I stared down at my death note. I'd filled only a single page today. One hundred and twenty names. It wasn't enough. They were hiding names from me. There was dissent in the press against Kira, and they were hiding criminals. Either that or crime was so nonexistent that there was nothing to report. It didn't matter. Better to err on the side of caution, to quash any and all resistance to Kira, then to risk there being injustices left unattended.

I'd begun tearing pages out of the Death Note so that it'd replenish itself. The pages were burnt, their purposes served. The names of those I've deleted had crumbled to nothing. It wasn't enough.