Chapter Two:
"Breadcrumbs"
Waiting for a minute, he remained where he was for everyone to leave the area. Once empty, he left his hiding space and went to the gravestone of L and looked down. It was unnamed. But it did have a large crucifix on the face of stone slab. Demetre figured this was done purposely to prevent anyone from learning his real name.
He knew L's real name. Geist had told him, but he kept it a secret. It wasn't against the rules for a Shinigami to tell its handler the name of a person, it only hindered their fun if a handler wanted to go to the effort of targeting them like Light did. Obviously, Ryuk didn't want to ruin any entertainment value when it came to Light and L's battle. Geist was the opposite. He didn't care for rules and often broken them. He was rebel in that respect.
A more gusty wind began to blow as Demetre stood at the base of the gravestone.
Geist came out of hiding since Ryuk was now gone. He came to stand next to Demetre.
Then the Shinigami suddenly bent down on his hands and knees, and because he was a spectre in his own rite, ostentatiously, stuck his head through the gravestone, and looked inside.
Demetre was shocked and appalled.
"Yup, he's in there all right," Geist said.
"Geist, get your head out of there right now!"
The punk-rocker looking Shinigami with his brown, wavy hair, and skeletal face, chuckled despite the desecration of the act he just committed, and removed his head. He stood back up next to Demetre.
The Shinigami stood close to ten feet tall compared to Demetre's height of nearly six feet.
"Sorry Demmy," he said. "But you know how these things go sometimes, the dead do not always stay dead. I was just checking. You never know, someday, he may come back to life?"
Demetre rolled his eyes. "Once a person who is dead, they can never come back to life, no matter how much one hopes. There is nothing in this world, or beyond, that can bring the dead person back to life."
"Are you so sure of that?"
"Death is absolute, just like my belief in God."
Demetre put his hand to his heart. His crucifix was underneath attached to a chain, placed against his skin. He was given it at a young age by his parents and he cherished it. He was a devoted Christian. He always put his faith in God whenever he felt sorrow. In the darkest of times, the light of the Lord always guided him through.
"This is boring," Geist said. Demetre eyed him. "C'mon! Why not just settle things once and for all with Light Yagami? You gave him a bloody nose with a head butt to his face the last time you saw him. That was great!" He chuckled with the recall. "You had a perfect opportunity to take your revenge and to make Yagami pay for killing your grandfather, but you let him live. To tell you the truth, I kind of like that side of you—that raw emotion that doesn't hide behind religious platitudes. That's why I dropped my Death Note to the Human World. Well, that, and to alter a precarious future. I can't get back to my realm anymore, I've tried. The timeline has been changed."
"It was a huge sacrifice, Geist," Demetre said. "But now that Light has killed L, someone has to watch him. Death is too good for him. He has to pay, but he also has to be outsmarted at his own game. Only then will Light truly lose."
"But you won't use the Death Note. What good is it if you won't write any names in it? Any threat you pose against Light Yagami when it comes to the Death Note, he knows you won't follow through with it because you are afraid of the consequences. That's where he has you. He's not afraid of killing anyone who stands in his way. You may have protected yourself with that little trick written in your Death Note, the Infinity Rule, but it only protects you from anyone trying to kill you with another Death Note. You're still at risk from other methods of harm."
"I know. But Light knows I can harm him in other ways. So, he's treading lightly with me, so to speak."
"You are two letters away from finishing his name in your Death Note. When you first heard that Light was Kira, you immediately took out the Death Note and began writing his name because he had killed your grandfather. But you stopped short because killing was wrong to you and he was your friend. You have only written down one other name and that was the man who tried to mug you, where you originally found the notebook in the alley. You believe God has forgiven you for that killing because it was in self-defence. However, you know that Light Yagami will eventually go on and kill hundreds of more people later. You can stop him right here."
"You're posing a philosophical premise that people have been debating about for centuries. If you had the power to stop a ruthless dictator from murdering millions of people, would you? But, here is a counter-argument. What if your actions give rise to in even greater evil? There are many examples of people that have committed horrendous crimes, but if they weren't done, future generations would not have learned from the mistakes of those atrocities and larger ones may be done. And even if Light was taken out of the picture, there is still the League of Darkness to content with, and I believe they are worse. I believe Light is serving a worthy purpose in being Kira right now. It's terrible to say, but I think he has created a buffer to slow down the epidemiological viral spread of the LOD upon the world. And now with us out in the field hunting them down, the League of Darkness has multiple enemies to content with."
"And yet, history keeps repeating itself in your world. New powers keep trying to dominant over others. When the old generations die out and the new generations rise, the old lessons die with them and new mistakes which are the old mistakes are forgotten, and are repeated. You're in the midst of yet another war for the battle of the planet, but far from the public eye. But you humans never learn. You're on an endless cycle of death and destruction and you're always on the brink of annihilation. Take for example your religious wars…"
Demetre put up a hand to stop him. "Okay Geist, you've made your point." The winds began to blow more ferociously and Demetre hair whipped wildly. He pushed his hair out of his eyes. "Trust me, Light deserved a hell of a lot more than what I gave him," he said. "And I'm not finished with him yet. Revenge is not God's way, not my way, but I can't forgive him for what he's done. And I will bring Zurn Wellington to justice for what he did."
"Don't you mean you can't forgive yourself for what happened? You blame yourself for Dana's death. You said it yourself, you said you should not have brought her with you when you confronted Light Yagami."
Demetre was silent for a moment. That wound, he feared, would never heal. He did blame himself.
"Ever since we left the Savant Society, and when you are feeling exceptionally sad and lonely, you drown your sorrows in booze," Geist said. "You're not one for self-pity, Demmy. Dana's death was not your fault."
Demetre frowned, grit his teeth. "Don't tell me what to feel! Shinigami eat apples, we humans have other vices to help us like sugar or coffee or alcohol. So, shut up! It doesn't hurt anyone."
"It hurts you," Geist said earnestly.
Demetre looked at the Shinigami. He knew that Geist cared for him. Shinigami we're not supposed to have any emotions about or towards their handlers. If they killed for their handler, they died. Over the last year, they had formed a strong kinship and Demetre enjoyed Geist's company. Geist remained at his side much like a loyal dog.
Demetre chuckled at the thought, but he considered Geist not merely a companion, but also a friend, and one he enjoyed being with. Geist had a sense of humour and one that reminded him sometimes of the old Light. Light used to joke and even prank others when he was younger in middle school before Dana left and be become a recluse.
Demetre unbuttoned two buttons of his trench coat and reached inside. He carefully took out two flowers wrapped in protected plastic, purple Gladiolus flowers with a long dark stem. Then he laid each down, one of L's grave and the other on Watari's.
Geist asked, "What're they for?"
"When paying your respects to the dead, it is customary to lay a flower upon the grave. The Gladiolus flower is a symbol of honour and remembrance. I respect L and Watari for their dedication. I would like to learn more about them. I know more about Watari than I know about L. Watari owns this land where the orphanage sits and many others like it around the world. He was quite a wealthy philanthropist. He gave away a lot of money to worthy causes and give kids like those who live here a second chance. Men like Qullish Wammy (Watari) are Saints."
"But L is dead. So what is the reason to dive into his history? I heard he was a pretty secretive guy."
"No one can completely hide their past. There's always breadcrumbs to follow."
"Maybe you can ask something here? This is where he grew up as an orphan, after all."
"Interesting thought."
To be continued...
