CHAPTER 34:
"Blind Benevolence"

Light's face turned as white as his hair the moment he received the call from Hiro about Demetre.

When he was told the details, he sat in disbelief. But then an anger quickly fumed inside him and his face began to change colours to mimic his emotions—from pale white shock to anger red. Once again, Tsuku-Yoki Tower had been invaded and this time Demetre had been attacked and wounded.

"Light, what's wrong?" Takada repeated her worry when he refused to answer the first time.

"Something's happened," he said with a scowl. "My best friend Demetre Draycott, whom I've partnered with in the Grand Agenda—and the rebirth of Kira—has been seriously hurt."

"Demetre Draycott? You've mentioned him before, and he attended our university, too. But didn't he try to kill you?"

"That was in the past. We've mended our differences." He took her closest hand in his and looked into her face, and when she looked back, she figured what he was about say next. Her nakedness a moot point. "I need to go," he then said. "I need to see if he's okay. He's like a brother to me. Kiyomi, please come with me."

"Of course," Takada said, then she cupped his face in support. "I love you, Light Yagami. And whatever troubles we may face now, I'll always be here to support you; for us." She put a hand to her stomach.

He looked down, then back at her sweet face. "And I will always protect you from harm, for better or for worse."

Takada smiled with a short laugh. "Did we just recite our vows?"

Light smiled back. "I think so. Let's go."

As they dressed, Light remembered the gift he had brought with him to give to Takada. But he would give it to her later.

After Takada was given a clean bill of health by Dr. Lovecraft, Light/Shinto, with his mask back on, asked Xena to come back with them to Tsuku-Yoki Tower, telling the doctor that Tréy Cottré had been hurt in an assault on the building by two alleged assailants, who wished to do harm to the company, and then fled.
Ritchie drove them all to Tsuku-Yoki Tower, where they parked in the underground, and took the private elevator up to Light's penthouse in the building. Ritchie stayed with the car.

Immediately after seeing the sight of his best friend laying unconscious in his bed, in Light's own private bedroom, with a large bandage wrapped around Demetre's head and left eye, Light mentally gasped. Asumi had some medical training and she had aided Demetre. Dr. Lovecraft was here now. The police had not been called. Everything was to be dealt internally Light had said in the car. The last thing he wanted was a police investigation.

Light stood shocked in disbelief. Things were worse than Hiro had described on the phone.

Dr. Lovecraft asked for details and Asumi gave them to her. She had not been present for the attack by the two assailants, but she was told everything by Hiro, and Demetre's personal bodyguard, Honda, whom Light knew was really Geist in his human disguise, much like Ryuk, as Ryu. Hiro and Honda were not present in the room.

Dr. Lovecraft unwrapped Tréy Cottré's bandages, he was unconscious, so he wouldn't feel it, and took a look underneath. Asumi had washed and sanitized the area, but the damage was bad. She opened the eyelid and looked into Demetre's left eye, then shook her head. It was already white and the pupil was heavily scratched. From what she had been told, a stray bullet had skimmed his eyeball in mid-flight. He would forever be blind in the eye.

Light went over to Demetre and stood over him on his left side. He then leaned over and placed a hand on his friend's hand in friendship and comfort.

He then looked at Geist, Demetre's Shinigami. Geist had dropped his human disguise as Honda, but was still in the room. The god of death was standing nearby and looking almost sombre at his handler—although no one but Light could see him. Only those that touched a god's of death notebook could see them.

Distracted, the Shinigami didn't see Light's quick slight-of-hand when he slipped the Death Ring off Demetre's finger and put it in his pants pocket. He then casually placed the bed sheet over Demmy's hand to hide what he did. It was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. He would give the ring to Takada, now that Demetre was out of commission.

He knew it would be a better that Takada had it anyway, for her to be his queen in the new world, she needed power. The ring that he had had brought to the condo as a gift to give her was insufficient now. He wanted to propose to her, now he could do it properly, giving her the power she most rightly deserved.

"Doctor Lovecraft, will he be okay?" Light finally asked.

Dr. Xena Lovecraft nodded. "But he'll need plenty of bed rest. Asumi was quick and did an excellent job on cleaning and bandaging the wound, so the only thing that he needs now is a new bandages, since I removed this one."

"I'll take care of it," Asumi said.

"However," Lovecraft went on. "I'm sad to say that there is too much damage to the renal of the eye for any chance of repair. I'm sorry, Mr. Izanagi. Just by external observation alone, the bullet did a lot of damage. Mr. Cottré should count himself lucky that the bullet didn't penetrate the eye and merely skimmed the surface. If it had been a direct hit, and entered the brain, he'd be dead, or worse, suffered severe brain damage. But I won't know the full extent of the damage until he wakes up and ask him a first standard questions for a mental cognitive evaluation."

Light seethed internally that this had happened, but he thanked the doctor kindly for her report.

After the information was given, Takada introduced herself to Asumi as an old friend of Shinto's from university, for whom he had just become re-acquainted with.

"She just happens to be an employee in the building which he had no clue about," he said. "She works in their communications division." Except for knowing him in the past, the rest was all a lie.

As the they spoke, Takada carrying the lie, Light excused himself, and left the bedroom, leaving them all within.

He then entered his office. Scared, but waiting for him was Hiro, he was sitting silently to himself on the couch in the lounge area. He looked lost in thought, worried, with his hands folded between his knees, nervously.

But the moment he saw Light/Shinto, wearing his mask, the young man jumped to his feet, and he began to apologize profusely. He even got on his knees and clasped his hands together in utter forgiveness, tears in his eyes. If he remembered who Light Yagami really was, Kira—his memory erased of it when he witnessed both Light and Demetre attack Matsuda and Aizawa in this very office with the Death Note's—he would begging for his life.

"I am so sorry, Master Light, I mean, Master Shinto, I had no idea that that the bullet would bounce off Honda like that," he said. "I don't know how such a thing could even happen? It must've hit something I didn't notice. Please, please, forgive my actions. I didn't mean to shoot Mr. Cottré, Mr. Draycott, your best friend, in the eye."

Hiro didn't know Honda was really Geist, a Shinigami.

"I'm afraid, it was my doing," Geist said, as he walked through the wall from Light's penthouse suite, and into his office, a bit melancholy for a Shinigami. Hiro did not see nor hear him.

Light didn't look back at him, only listened to him. He felt angry and frustrated. "I was holding my bone club," Geist continued. "The bullet must have bounced off its hardshell and went into Demetre's eye. It was not the boy's fault."

"You were supposed to protect him!"

Light looked down at Hiro.

He then delivered a hard backhanded slap to Hiro's face since he couldn't hit Geist. Hiro recoiled. "Your actions have cost my friend partial sight. You were stupid to wield a weapon indoors." That was for both of them. "I should have you punished. But tell me, who were the assailants who infiltrated Tsuku-Yoki Tower?"

"I don't know," it was Hiro who answered, apologetically. "But one acted like a cop, actually manhandling your friend with an arm lock, and the other one was extremely nimble. I never caught their names."

"Raye Penber and Jasper Yuta were their names," Geist answered.

Light's eyes bulged in hearing their names. He felt like he was going to scream. Raye Penber he knew was alive already by some abnormality that Morph had explained, but now Jasper Yuta, another old enemy, was alive, too?

He hadn't seen Jasper Yuta die at the hands of the Third Kira at the time: Higuchi Kyosuke. Only when he regained consciousness after finding himself bleeding and shot in a room in this very building when it belonged to L, did he learn what happened—after he made his way to the main surveillance area.

Jasper Yuta died like his friends, all from heart attacks.

And that Morph had also been involved in that escapade as well, he was later told. (Ref: The Case of Jasper Yuta)

Light was furious and he clenched fists at his side, his nails digging into the skin of his palms.

L had said there was a five percent chance that Light was Kira when they met in that cafe during the original Kira investigation. Now Light felt there was that much of a chance that L, himself, may be alive. And it made him angry.

He needed to prepare.

But Demmy was his main concern at the moment.

Light was angry, he wanted to kill someone. He could easily punish Hiro severely for his actions by using the Death Ring, now that he had it. Hiro was already subjected to its influence. But what would it truly serve?

Hiro was loyal, and people like that were hard to find. He knew about Light's old life, just not about being Kira, and he knew how to keep a secret. He needed to keep Hiro alive. Someday that loyalty may be beneficial.

He would be benevolent for now.

"Go! Leave me, Hiro."

"Thank you, sir. Once again, I'm very sorry. I'll make it up to you, and Mr. Draycott, someday, for my failure. I promise!" Hiro got to his feet, bowed, and then quickly left the office.

Light then turned to Geist, and Geist looked at him strangely, almost confused.

"What? Do you think I was too lenient on him for what he did? You don't make the decisions, Geist. And why didn't you protect Demmy? Where were you during all the fighting? Jasper Yuta and Raye Penber were nothing. You could have easily taken them out easily. But you were arrogant, and stupid, and look what it cost!"

Geist's eyes glowered red with anger. "I did everything I could!"

Light snorted anger. "You're a god of death! Think about that for a moment!"

Geist growled angrily under his breath, then asked, "Where's Ryuk? I haven't seen him in a while, he could've helped me, you know. His laziness is unfathomable!"

"After he brought Matt back to be tortured for information, I then sent him on a little errand, a personal project," Light said. Geist asked him what it was, but Light was silent. "Now, I wish to see Demmy, my friend. Move!"

Light walked past Geist and said nothing more, ignoring him. He knew the god of death could do nothing to him. He was protected from the Death Note, his name written in Morph's Life Note. That insured that he could not be killed by any Death Note. He was Kira, protected by other deities. He was truly a god now.

The moment he stepped back into the bedroom, Light was surprised to see Demetre awake. Asumi had not yet put on another bandage over Demetre's eye, and Light could see his friend's blinded, white eye, and it saddened him.

The roles had been reversed now.

When Light first awoke in his friend's bed in Demetre's condo, he awoke with white hair, a side effect of his resurrection—or Marie Antoinette syndrome, caused by a fright, he was told. He had to admit, he was afraid of dying. Demetre helped him to re-orientate himself back into the Human World.

Now, Demetre awoke with a white eye, a side effect of being shot.

It was Light's turn to comfort his friend, to help him re-orientate to this new way of living, as legally blind.

But then he saw it. Demetre and Asumi were holding hands on the bed, their fingers clasped. Asumi sat in a chair next to the bed. No words were said, only a nod of acknowledgement. In fact, now that he had Takada, this worked out perfectly. But he was surprised that the two of them had been having an affair without him knowing.

"Dr. Lovecraft, would you excuse us for a few minutes?" She agreed, and then left, closing the bedroom door. Light turned back to Demetre. He took off his mask, then gave his friend a soft smile. "How are you feeling, Demmy?"

"As good as I can be, half-blind," he said, almost facetiously. "Raye Penber and Jasper Yuta are alive."

He gave his friend a cautious look, giving a sideways glance to Asumi.

"She knows everything, Light. About you, the Shinigami, the Death Note's, your death, Morph, her re-birth, Hiro, and your resurrection from Quindecim," Demetre revealed. "She figured some on her own-I seem to talk in my sleep-and when she pressed me, I told her everything. She can be a very persuasive woman." He turned his head to her and smiled at Asumi.

"I can see that," Light said.

Takada took a step forward. "I know everything, as well. Light told me it all. And we're sorry for lying to you earlier about how we became re-acquainted. I was also re-born, Light asking Morph specifically for me to come back."

"Really?" Demetre said. "That's news to me, but, of course, Light enjoys like keeping little secrets. Don't you?"

Light eyed him curiously.

Asumi looked at Takada, then said, "I don't know everything about your story, Kiyomi, only what I have been told, but I do know Light has always loved you. He spoke about your several times when we were together."

Takada crossed his arms. "Oh, really now?" She eyed him suspiciously. "And what did he say about me exactly?" But then she broke in a smile and grabbed Light's hand. "I love him, too. I'm glad you two found each other."

"So are we," Demetre answered. Light watched Demetre lift up Asumi's mouth to kiss it. Then said, "Too bad Misa Amane wasn't here, then the entire gang would be present."

Light frowned. "Please don't ever evoke the name of that she-devil in my presence ever again, I want to stay positive right now after everything that's happened."

Demetre laughed. Light smiled, it was good to see his friend laughing after everything.

Demetre then said, "Oh, by the way, Light. Where's my ring?"

Light's smiled faded. His friend looked at him with an eerie and unnerving stare from his blind eye. Light reached into his pants pocket and gave it back to him. Demetre put it back on the third finger of his left hand.

"Thank you, I trust you were just keeping it safe," Demetre said, with a thin smile.

"Yes, of course," Light replied.

Dr. Lovecraft then knocked, Light put his mask back on. She was the only one out of the immediate group that didn't know the worth truth, only what she was allowed to know. She had learned the truth about Light's face once, but then her memory was erased about it, even though she was his private doctor.

She was given permission to enter.

"Okay, I believe it's time for Mr. Cottré to get some rest," she ordered. "Is it okay for him to stay here, sir?"

Light nodded. "I'll just use the my other apartment," he said. "Take care, Demmy—" He caught himself, and Demetre looked at him with a raised brow. "Um, Tréy." Light swallowed. "Get plenty of rest."

Asumi quickly re-bandaged Demetre's injury. Then Light left the room, with everyone in tow.

To be continued...