Chapter Four:

"The Butterfly Effect"

Demetre paused. It was an innocent question from a child. But if Matt knew of his relationship with Kira/Light, then things would become complicated. But for simplicity, he said, "Yes, I do."

"So do I. Did you like L when you met him?"

"I didn't have any negative feelings about him."

"Would you have considered L a friend if you got to know him more?"

"I think so," Demetre replied, no sure where Matt was going with this.

"Good," Matt smiled. "Then it is nice to meet you, Demetre. Any friend of L is a friend of mine. You know the old saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. If you like L, then you hate Kira. You are welcome here at Wammy House anytime."

Demetre noticed the contrast from when he met Matt, crying and sad, to now, happy and smiling. Obviously the distraction in this chance meeting made Matt forget his sorrow. He was glad he do that for the boy.

"I'm honoured," Demetre replied. "And thank you."

Matt extended his left hand out and extended his pinky finger. "I do this with all my friends: Mello, Near, and others at Wammy House—now you. It's called a 'Pinky Friendship' shake; kind of a variation on the 'Pinky Swear'."

Demetre hesitated. Matt looked at him with bright, happy eyes, and waited for him to reciprocate the pinky shake.

"Better do it, Demmy," Geist said chuckling. "The kid likes ya. And he wants you to be his friend. Better not say no, or he may scream at the top of his lungs." Geist chuckled again.

Even without Geist's mockery, Demetre was going to reciprocate. It was obvious Matt was left handed, so Demetre used his left hand, and shook the boy's pinky—pinky to pinky.

Matt was animated when he shook, lifting his arms up and down.

When the shake ended, Matt said, "When I'm grown up, and later down the line, whenever you need help, just look me up. I'm fourteen now, but I'll be old enough to strike out on my own soon. I can get out of here in a year or two. I'm a little short right now, but Sister tells me I'll have a major growth spurt any day now. Friends always help friends out. And I made a new friend in you today, Demetre. My real name is Mail Jeevas, pronounced Mile. But swear to me you'll keep it a secret. I only tell others my real name if I can trust them. We only just met, but I believe you are a very trustworthy person. I can see it in your eyes. And the eyes are the window to the soul, Sister says."

Demetre knew the 'Sister' Matt mentioned twice was probably the Councillor of the orphanage.

Demetre produced a smile. "Then call me Demmy, all my friends do," he said.

Matt/Mail Jeevas smiled back, then ran off. Demetre watched him. Matt actually skipped happily along the walkway through the cemetery, no longer unhappy.

Demetre doubted he would ever call on Matt for anything, but he appreciated the offer.

He was much too young to get involved in things that involved espionage or the like, the types of things that Demetre was now involved in now with Kira, the Savant Society, and the League of Darkness. And he hoped Matt never got pulled into any situation involving Kira. He hoped Matt lived a happy life.

When Demetre first came to the cemetery to watch the funeral session, he felt sad and angry. But now his mood was lifted. Matt reminded Demetre of himself at that age. Little did he know that he would get involved any events that would change his life traumatically. He didn't wish that upon Matt.

"You mede a new friend today, Demmy, I'm happy for you." Geist chuckled.

"Time to go, Geist," he said. "Open up a spacial portal, so we join the others. We may have missed Zurn here in Winchester. But I bet Adam has a lot more leads for us to follow. One day, we'll catch up to Zurn, and make him pay for all the pain he's caused others. We all have a stake in capturing Zurn and stopping the League of Darkness."

"Don't go all dark on me now, Demmy," Geist said with a snorted laugh. "Think happy thoughts."

The Shinigami suddenly looked back. Matt was gone, but Geist had a peculiar look on his boney face. If a Shinigami could exhibit emotion without facial muscles, he was expressing one now.

Demmy looked back. He couldn't see what the Shinigami was looking at. Perhaps he wasn't looking at anything at all and just staring blankly into the distance. But he seemed to be looking at something.

"What is it?" Demetre asked curiously.

"Mail Jeevas," Geist said. "Do you believe in luck, Demmy?"

"Not particularly," Demetre replied. "I believe everything happens for a reason. God is the divine organizer."

"Well, believe in what you will, but I believe you just changed that boy's destiny. Things may still go the way the timeline has presented itself so far when it comes to his fate, however, not everything is written in stone, including the adventure of one's life. And life has a way of altering things in ways you never would have imagined."

"And what do you mean by that?"

Geist smiled. "We Shinigami get hunches, we don't always need to use our 'crystal ball' to see the future."

"As long as the boy stays out of trouble, he'll be fine. He seems like a good kid and has good friends. We know that Near later heads up the Second Kira Task Force, or the 'Special Provision for Kira', the SPK, but I'm not sure about the others. I know Mello gets involved, but I'll have to review the timeline again to see in what way."

"I believe Mello kidnaps Light Yagami's sister and holds her hostage for the Death Note. She suffers severe mental trauma from the incident and is rendered to a wheelchair for an indeterminate amount of time."

"Yes, now I recall. You showed me mostly the battle between Light and L and a few important snippets from later on when I reviewed the 'Kira Incident'. Is there something we can do to prevent that from happening?"

"Not if you really want to screw with the timeline? In fact, it may have already changed again. You humans have an interesting term for it: 'The Butterfly Effect'."

"What are you saying? That this chance encounter could have altered Matt's future? Or, even restored the previous timeline from here on out? How? For better or for worse?"

Geist shrugged. "Dunno, we have to look and see," he said. "You may have changed the timeline slightly when you picked up a Death Note. You were never involved in the original 'Kira Incident'. This encounter may have unknowingly changed things back to what they were going to be originally going forward. But who knows, the universe always have a way of ironing things out."

This concerned Demetre a bit, but he couldn't let it bother him or deter him from what needed to be done.

They moved to a more recluse location, deep within a large brush of foliage and into a small clearing where no one would see them. Geist then opened up a spatial aperture. The spatial eddies electrified the surrounding area, creating a warp in the space-time continuum, and a sudden gust of wind that blew at the surround trees.

All Shinigami had the ability to make such portals to quickly get from place to place. It was also their method to cross from realm to realm and from the Shinigami Realm to the Human World. Travel through it took seconds, like watching through a door. But anyone not used to it, it could create disorientation, even cause them to faint.

Demetre was used it, having travelled through the portal several times.

They entered the vortex and it shut behind them.

To be continued...