Part Five:

"Bonds"

"No!" Light shouted.

But he was too late. He failed to act quickly enough, putting out his arms in front of him to stop the attacking blur. Light staggered back, and held his face, grabbing hold of the attacker—as the black Persian cat, claws extended, held on to him, scratching his face with intent to maim him.

Ritchie tried to yanked it off Light, but the cat must have sensed him, and jumped away. Light clutched his face and screamed bloody murder, cursing at the attempted felinecide!

The cat was a pet to the other members of his immediate family, friendly and affectionate, but it was forever a thorn in Light's side. It was always knocking things, but only in his presence. Never, of course, when anyone else was around. It would jump on his office desk in the Study while he was working or jump at him without provocation, biting him—with sinister purpose.

Light clenched his teeth and looked at his hands. He saw blood. The cat, aptly named, 'Kira', let out a contemptuous meow, as if an animal with such limited intelligence could. Ritchie reached out to try to grab a hold of Kira, but the cat swatted at him with its claws extended. Ritchie pulled back just in time. Kira then bolted when Light went to kick it. But the damage had been done.

"Goddamn cat! I should have it euthanized!" Light decried. "Bloody menace!"

He stopped his raving when Asumi Satou, his girlfriend, came around the corner with a tea towel in her hands, coming out from the kitchen. She had dark brown hair that dropped over her shoulders, at the moment slung over her left one. She was as tall as Light with a thin healthy build. She had obviously heard the scream. With her, shortly after, came Riki (Hiro Yamamoto), Light's unofficial ward.

After the Yukaza Affair, as he referred to it, whereby Riki and Asumi, supposedly died at the hands of the hands of Nazareth, the Dragon Sect's enforcer under its leader Terrance Claw, they were resurrected thanks to divine intervention, after Nazareth had crushed their necks because they both had attacked the big man in attempt to save Light after he had been temporarily knocked down for the count.

The Yukaza had kidnapped Light and tortured him for NPA secrets after a surveillance operation went horribly wrong. It was also the very first time he had encountered the supernatural Imp Morph, whom Light found out had been the catalyst to the Death Note falling to earth where Light could pick it up. Morph was also the owner of a book called the "Life Note" aiding in their recovery. It was Light's quick thinking with writing precise instructions into a piece of the Death Note Ryuk had brought him to kill Nazareth in quick succession without the forty-second wait saving the pair from death after Morph reversed time slightly so their deaths would not happen.

Asumi later became Light's girlfriend and lover in secret. Riki, despite his troubles, kidnapped by the Yukaza at a young age, and forced to become a slave in a sex den under Asumi at that time—Asumi was its Mistress—was rescued and returned to his only living relatives, his grandparents. But when they learned what Riki had been doing for the years he had been missing, he was seventeen when he emerged, he was disowned, and cast out of his grandparents religious home. It had not been Riki's fault. In a moment of compassion, Light then took Riki in—while he was still a member of the Kira Task Force.

After Light was exposed, Riki and Asumi went underground, until they reemerged when Light made contact with them after his own resurrection, neither of them knew that he had died. It had been such a short period between when he had and when he opened his eyes again in the morgue, where he escaped from, and found Demetre, who nursed him back to health, and helped him build and also expand the Tsuku-Yoki Corporation under the masked guise of Shinto Izanagi.

"Master Light?"

Riki was a short, young man, with black hair and a pigtail. He was almost twenty now, but had a disease that prevented natural growth, a type of dwarfism, so he always looked younger—thirteen, under five feet tall. He wore a sleeveless shirt that exposed a Dragon tattoo on his right arm, it proved that he had once belonged to the Dragon Sect. It reached partially up his neck.

He asked, "What's wrong?" Kira ran and jumped into Riki's arms. He looked perplexed. But when he saw the scratches on Light's face, then he clued it. He gasped. "Oh my god! Not again! Bad Kira!"

"Why does that cat keep attacking you?" Asumi eyed Riki, whereby Riki returned a sorrowful glance, as she passed them, handing Light the tea towel to put to his face. It was a little damp, so it would soak up the blood. She looked at the marks. "They're not deep, so they'll heal."

"Good thing you wear those masks, huh, boss?" The moment Ritchie said, he knew he had regretted it, as Light gave him a nasty look.

"I could swear it hates me." Light cursed it. "And that it's out for my blood. A Vampire cat!"

Asumi let out a small chuckle. "I doubt that," she said. "Cats don't have the capacity for hate."

"Unless it's an evil cat that crawled out from a pet cemetery?" Ritchie joked. Light gave him another look. Ritchie cleared his throat, then walked away, and left the couple alone.

Asumi cupped Light's right cheek. He flinched. "If you keep saying hurtful things like that, no wonder Kira doesn't like you. Why did you name the cat Kira anyway, Riki?"

"A spur of the moment thing when I found it wandering the streets before Master Light found me and took me in," Riki said. "It became attached to me. When Light took him me in as his ward during those early years when he was on the Kira Task Force, I had to bing him with me."

"And if I recall, it was a menace then, too." Light looked at the cat with narrowed eyes. 'Kira' looked back at him with an equal stare. "I could swear the thing is possessed and that it knows exactly what it's doing."

Asumi rolled her eyes.

Ritchie had the notion to go to the bathroom and bring back the first aid kit. Asumi then used it. Asumi dabbed Light's face with the small cloth and disinfectant alcohol.

Light winced. "I wonder if Kira has a death wish?"

Asumi looked at him with raised eyebrows. "If you mean to write that cat's name down in a Death Note, Light, I'd like to see you try?"

"No! You can't kill Kira!" Riki protested. Kira hissed at Light.

Light found it ironic that they were even having this conversion. But he knew animals were unaffected by the Death Note. He knew children under 780 days—under two years were also—as per the rules. Not to say he had ever tried to test it. He had killed others to save the world from itself, but never a child. "If there was a way, I would've already done it," he said about the cat. "Keep that thing away from me and out of the Study, my office, or I'll investigate the validity whether or not cats do indeed have nine lives!"

Riki gulped, then walked back from whence he had come with Kira, disappearing from sight. But before he left, he looked back with sorrowful eyes like a wounded animal.

Asumi shoved Light in the shoulder and Light staggered back. "That wasn't very nice," she said upset. "He loves you, remember that. He thinks of you like a father, or at the very least, an other brother. You care for him when no one else cares. He tries hard to help you out the best he can. He's had a difficult life, you know that. You saved him from the Yukaza. All he wants to do is be loved."

Light felt a pang of guilt. Funny how he didn't feel such when he killed people with the Death Note, but when it came to someone like Riki, who's life had been wronged by evil at an early start, he did. Even with his genetic affliction, Light accepted him. He felt bad for Riki, and that was one of the reasons why he accepted him into his life—to give him hope! I'm not a total bastard!

When Riki had turned the corner to exit into another room from apart from this one, Light caught the young boy's gaze as he looked back. He had been looking at him with eyes of forgiveness. Light rolled his eyes. Despite the issues with 'Kira', Riki and the cat had indeed bonded. He wasn't going to take it away from him. And it hadn't been the first time he had threatened to discard the animal.

"She's right, Light," Ritchie said. "You're not a cruel person. You want what's best for everyone, and when you took us all in, you showed compassion. We're all broken in some way or another. You care about the world and want to make it in your image, a bright and good place. We all want that, too."

Light sighed. Asumi dabbed his face again with the disinfectant alcohol, and Light hissed, not expecting the sting again. The cat had scratched him deeper than he thought. Asumi wanted to put two bandages on, but Light declined. The scratches would heal better if it was left out in the open air.

"He acts like a child sometimes," Light started.

"That's because he is one, despite what he did in the den," Asumi said. "The Yukaza wanted him to remain 'child-like', so he could do what Terrance Claw wanted. I seriously believe the drugs he was given stunted his growth. He lost his childhood because of the things he had to endure. But now he wants one again, per se, as your spawn. Sometimes, you need to remember that, Light."

My spawn, Light mused with some amusement. If I ever had a child, he or she would be much smarter and more devious that anyone would imagine.

Light nodded, his anger about the cat attack faded. "I'll get Ryuk to play with him," he said. "They seem to get along well together, each with their own adolescent minds."

To be continued...