The next morning, Light has to force himself out of bed. He doesn't truly understand what happened last night. He remembers everything clearly up until drinking the blue cocktail from then on his memories felt oddly foggy, though he still remembered. Misa had received a phone call from… someone. She had then left him with the director of some TV station. The man had then taken him upstairs and…

Rushing to the bathroom, Light had emptied the contents of his stomach into the toilet. There wasn't much to throw up so he ended up mostly dry heaving. As the realization of last night's events hit, Light found himself curling into himself around the toilet while he cried. He didn't move from his position on the floor until after he felt that he was done both crying and vomiting.

Standing in front of the sink, Light looked into the mirror. His eyes were red and swollen; his make-up from last night had run and was now flaking. Looking down he saw that his clothes were ripped in several areas as well as being wrinkled. He had truly loved these clothes mere hours ago and now he hated them with a passion.

I need to get clean, thought Light. I have to at least look as though I'm still perfect.

Light then quickly stripped down with rough, shaky movements before hopping in the shower. He scrubbed at his skin thoroughly with scalding hot water; he felt so disgusting. He wanted that feeling to go away, but he knew it'd be a long time before it did; if it did.

Getting out of the shower, he wrapped a towel around himself and picked up his dirty clothes before head back up to his room. He cached the clothes into the back of his closet; he wanted to burn them, but he couldn't exactly do that discretely. He didn't have any plans to tell anyone; his father would be so displeased with him if he knew.

He had a little more than an hour before he was expected at school. For the first time in his life, Light wanted to skip school. Unfortunately, today that wasn't an option; it was the To-Oh entrance exams. So now he had to go take his exam and pretend everything was alright.

Using some eye-drops to reduce the redness and swelling around his eyes, Light headed down for breakfast. Sayu was already half-way through her toast and grapefruit. He could tell that she was wearing that perfume Misa had given her; he really didn't like the smell, which was some strange combination grapes and cinnamon oatmeal.

"Good morning, Sayu," said Light, forcing a smile. "I can't stay for long or else I'll be late for the exams."

"Aren't you going eat first?" asked Sayu, through a mouthful of toast.

"I'm not hungry," replied Light. And that was the truth; he felt too sick to his stomach to be hungry.

"Here," said Sayu, handing him a quarter of her unfinished grapefruit half. "Eat that at least."

Light decided to oblige her request, forcing down that little bit of food, which settled uneasily in his stomach. Sayu kept looking at him with poorly concealed sympathy. He knew he should ask what was bothering her, but he honestly didn't have the emotional energy to deal with her problems right now. Light took the awkward silence as a cue to leave.

Twenty minutes later, Light walked on the university campus towards room designated for the entrance exams. They weren't allowed to enter the room immediately, so he was forced to mingle with the rest of his classmates. Not that he had to talk much, since the only thing that was on everyone's mind had nothing to do with the exams.

It was amazing how everyone was so fixated on the Kira murders; his school-mates were lauding him as a hero. Light himself considered Kira to be a well-intentioned vigilante when he was only murdering murderers and rapists, but then he had begun to murder petty criminals and law enforcement officers. That was when Kira became an irredeemable monster, though Light's father would argue he must have always been an irredeemable monster.

Light was seriously worried about his father's safety. I should be working on the case with him like he promised, thought Light bitterly. But no, I instead I'm a suspect. Aren't they at least going to do a follow-up?

The overseer of the exams finally announced that they may enter sit down at their pre-assigned seat; if Light was truly paying attention he may found the overseer to have quite the resemblance Shōko Maki. The exam sheets were already laid out on the desks. Light had sat down at his assign seat and prepared to ace this damn test as soon as the overseer signaled for them to begin.

"You have sixty-five minutes to complete the test; your time begins now," instructed the teacher, standing at the front of the large classroom. Nine minutes in Light had completed three pages of the test with ease and was working on the fourth.

"Student 162, please sit normally," reprimanded the teacher.

Light took a moment to discreetly look back at the other students. And sure enough, a few rows back, there was student 162. He was a fairly tall individual with eerily pale skin and dark hair. He was sitting in what looked to be a rather uncomfortable position; both his feet were on the seat in an almost crouching position with his legs touching his chest and his shoulders hunched. As the other adolescence man reluctantly adjusted his sitting position, he and Light briefly made eye-contact.

Those dark eyes had studied him in a way that made Light feel nervous. He immediately went back to completing the test and tried to ignore the eyes that would occasionally look up to stare at him. Luckily, after twenty-six minutes Light was finished. He immediately handed in his exam and nearly bolted out of the classroom. L followed mere moments afterward.

/Six Days Later/

It was time for the entrance celebration to begin. The school officials, and new students along with their parents were all gathered in the auditorium. Everyone was dressed in what could be considered business attire; all except student 162. He was wearing a baggy, long-sleeved, white shirt with a pair of ripped jeans.

Light was starting to feel a little bit unnerved by this strange man; he had been consistently looking over at him. Light honestly wouldn't like this at the best of time, but since the incident at the nightclub he'd become more irritable and defensive. After finishing the entrance exams the previous week he had called Misa and told her to cancel any meetings/interviews with Sakura TV; he may not love the girl, but he didn't want to chance her getting violated.

As Light sat there trying to remain calm student 162 wouldn't stop staring. Why was this causing him to feel scared; threatened? Light wasn't sure whether those feelings were validated.

Light hated having to question his own thoughts, but he knew he wasn't handling things well. He was much more emotionally sensitive and had a noticeable aversion to touch. He had nearly hit his sister the other day when she had snuck on him while he was cooking breakfast to hug him. Light also wasn't sleeping well and when he did sleep he was plagued by nightmares, and even more recently, sleepwalking; it was beginning to worry him, since the other night he had awoke in the neighbor's yard.

Flashback; Last Night

Start of Light's Dream

Light knew he was in a dream; still even knowing that did nothing to help him control it. The dream started him waking up in the Kasumigaseki water fountain. He had then immediately encountered some kind of deform monster; it was about seven ft. tall, had the head of a lioness with the teeth and ears of a donkey, the body was hairy and the feet were like that of a bird's with extremely sharp talons. The creature also had wings and was currently flying after him with a set of engraved hand-cuffs clutch in one of its talons.

Running away as fast as he could Light was certain after several hours of not seeing the creature that it had lost track of him. Slowing down he took a moment to observe his surroundings; he was at the Shibuya crosswalk. There were no people just shadows of them. It was night-time, but everything seemed to glow with bright colours; the sky was a deep purple, the buildings neon orange, and even Light's hair had turn a vivid candy red. He was also wear a set of fox ears.

Suddenly a blue and white coloured panda approached him. The panda was 5' 10" in height (not including the ears) and was wearing a white sweater (pooh bear style).

"If want to continue play this game you better follow me," said the panda before grabbing Light's hand and heading east. "I want you to observe something for me."

As they were running their surroundings began to fall apart before reforming into an entire different location. Light only had enough time to read the address before pulled inside by some unknown source.

The panda hadn't fallen like he did, so he was probably still up on the surface. There were more moving shadows down here and they appeared to be performing specific tasks; moving things around, sitting at a computer, etc. Lounging on the couch was a young teenager; he was probably about fourteen, maybe fifteen years old. The teenager was deformed in a similar manner that Light was, except he had a wolf's snout instead of fox ears.

The teen was short in height and had shoulder length blond hair; Sayu would probably say he was cute in an effeminate sort of way. As Light focused his attention on the teen certain other aspects of the dream became clearer, but were still duller in colour then everything else. Some instinct was telling Light these were parts of Mello's subconscious; Light was confused by that since he had no clue who the hell Mello was.

"That thing burnt Neylon's eyes out," muttered Mello, looking as though he was in deep thought as he took a bite of chocolate. "Matt, what are your thoughts about what happened?"

Light then watched as one of the shadows became more solid and filled with colours. Matt appeared to be a rather ordinary boy, which wasere obscured from view by the goggles he was wearing.

"Well, Mello. For starters, I don't think people should read aloud from books written in Latin," said Matt, only half-joking as he lit a cigarette. "Especially those that are bound in human skin."

"That not what I meant," complained Mello, as he propped one of his legs up on the couch. "I questioned BB before he escaped cell. He said that shinigami are real and that he and L were sired by one. BB also said that he briefly encountered one prior to becoming a murderer, and told things about rule 39, shinigami eyes and the Death Note," Mello paused, scooted closer to Matt. "The mention of shinigami caught my attention; it was in a hidden message Kira sent L. And a notebook of death sounds like the only reasonable murder weapon given the situation. But I don't think we have the right book; it nothing like how BB described."

"No, instead we manage to find the Necronicon," teased Matt, taking deep drag off his cigarette.

Mello picked the book in question up off the coffee table. The title read 'Libro Incantationem' , which was 'Book of Enchantments' when translated into English from Latin. Light was confused; these men searching for a killer notebook was strange enough, but them finding the wrong one and it causing grievous harm as well. Really, how many supernatural beings and objects does his imagination think there are out in the world?

Of course, this is just a dream, Light reminded himself. These events don't have to obey any sort of reality.

Taking a step closer Light tripped over some cables. The noise alerted the others to his presence.

"Who's there?" shouted Mello, teeth bared.

"Hi, I'm Light," greeted Light, emerging from the shadows. He wasn't really worried, he was in a dream after all, but this Mello fellow was kind of scary. He was also curious on what else his mind could conjure up.

Matt disappeared back into shadow as soon as Mello's attention diverted from him to Light; Light took a moment to absorb the weirdness that was dream logic. Mello seemed to be evaluating him with eyes that were filled with suspicion and bafflement.

"How did you break in? Who sent you?" asked Mello, in rapid succession before eying his ears and continued with. "Where did you even come from?"

"I fell asleep, a panda, and Japan," answered Light, bluntly. Light then continued to explain with a little annoyance at Mello, who eyed him with complete disbelief. "You certainly seem to like rationalizing things especially since you're nothing but a manifestation of my imagination. If you refuse to believe this is a dream then you may what to look at your face."

"Wha-" started Mello as he felt his face, which began to contort in horror. "How? It's not that time of the month yet."

Before Light could ask 'what the hell does that mean', an oddly concerned looking shadow, that was (used to be) Matt, gently shook Mello's shoulder. At that moment the dream world appeared to shatter before disappearing with a blinding white light.

End of Light's Dream

Light briefly felt as though he falling before waking abruptly in a cold sweat. He let out a scream of pain; he didn't understand why he was in pain, but it felt as though a piece of him had been ripped out and then placed back in him haphazardly. The pain disappeared quickly though and left him wondering if he just imagined it.

Then when he observed his surrounding he realized he was in his room anymore. He was sitting in the back garden of his neighbor's house in nothing but his underwear; this was actually how he gone to bed, so that part wasn't a huge shock, it was just embarrassing.

Light realized that he must have been sleepwalking. Given the extremely upsetting and stressful circumstances he's been going through, sleepwalking didn't really come as a huge surprise either.

End Flashback

Light released an irritated groan. He already had enough problems, he didn't need to add sleep issues to all the other's that seemed to be exponentially growing.

The principal's voice coming out from the overhead speakers broke Light out of his troubled thoughts as he tried to concentrate on the ceremony.

"For this year's To-Oh freshman commencement ceremony, we will be having two freshman representatives. On the entrance examinations, both of them had achieved perfect scores. And so, if you could come to the stage as your name is called, freshman representatives; Yagami Light and Ryuuga Hideki," announced the principal. Afterwards the noise level in auditorium went up drastically. The crowds were gossiping amongst themselves. Some were questioning the strangeness of one person achieving a perfect score let alone two. But most were questioning student 162's name, it was same name as the pop idol soon to be movie. Everyone was wondering if the real Hideki Ryuuga had managed to get into To-Oh University.

That last snippet of gossip almost made him laugh and it had nothing to do with Hideki's perceived stupidity; the man was no genius, but he had a good level of common sense. No, the humour of the situation was derived by the fact that Light had met Hideki and student 162 looked nothing like him. Regardless, it seemed that things like appearances weren't enough to deter the rumour mill.

Light and 'Hideki Ryuuga' walked up onto the stage. Before making their respective speeches the other boy moved very close to Light. It made Light feel a bit uneasy; there was something strange going on here. 'Hideki' leaned in so close to Light's ear, he could feel the man's warm breath hitting the side of his neck. The sensation sending shivers down his spine.

"I am L," whispered 'Hideki' or rather 'L'. Was this really the world's greatest detective? Light wondered.

Light had no way of knowing whether this young man was lying or not. But if he is who he says he is then why is he here? thought Light, feeling confused. Does he think I'm Kira?

And if he isn't who he says he is? Light wondered. Then he might be Kira trying to extract information from the son of the NPA police chief.

As Light pondered the new information, 'L' walked past him and up to the microphone and began his speech.

It was a few hours later that Light was in the tennis court, practicing. Or at least that's what his excuse was; he felt like he had all this excess energy and anxiety that he needed to burn off. Sweat was pouring off him and his muscles were screaming for him to stop. Yamamoto had agreed to practice with him, but had given up all too soon.

"Nothing like a good tennis match to make friends, is there?" asked 'L', as he entered the court, gripping the racket oddly; by the very end with only his finger-tips. "I hear that you are rather good the sport, Light-kun. Personally, I was once the junior champion in England."

Light remained silent. He really didn't know what to think of this guy. He only knew that he should be very weary and very careful until all the facts were in.

"But even with that information," continued 'L', smugly. "You won't be able to find my real name."

"You said your name is 'L'," explained Light, bouncing the ball a few times before serving. "Fine it's 'L'. Whether you're the famous detective or not remains to be seen."

The game went several on several minutes before anyone managed to score. It was 'L' who had scored that first point.

"How about a little wager, Light-kun?" asked 'L', attempting a smile he probably shouldn't have attempted; oddly enough the semi-creepy smile made him feel a bit more relaxed. "If I win you have to do me a favour, if you win I have to do the same."

"Alright then," agreed Light, preparing for 'L's' returning serve. "I'm ready, 'L'."

Truthfully, the game had started of innocently enough, but then it got rough. Light was fueling all his anger into the game and 'L' was matching his aggression. There was a lot of movement and heavy hits and no breaks.

Their brutal game had drawn a sizeable crowd, some of whom had formed their own gambling rings. It seemed as though 'Hideki Ryuuga', 'L's' apparent student alias, had an awful lot of fans. Some of the girls were even gushing over how cute he was; and now that Light took an opportunity to really look at the man objectively he actually couldn't really deny that man rather good-looking in an eerie sort of way.

Light had then roughly shook his head in an attempt to clear it; this 'L' person is a potential murderer and if he isn't then he thought Light was. Well, at least he didn't seem to be a rapist, thought Light. A spike of anger ran through him at the memory of that event; it was not even a week ago. This caused him to fuck up and allowed 'L' score two points, but then as he regained focus he managed to catch back up with only a bit of difficulty.

It was finally the last round of the game and it was 'L's' serve. Suddenly a thought came to Light; he figured he could likely glean more information from hearing the sort of favour 'L' would request than he could doing anything else. Now all he had to do was lose; still missing on the first swing wounded his pride a little, but he didn't want to risk possibly winning now that he had a plan.

"So, Hideki, what is the favour that I must grant?" asked Light, using 'L's' student alias since they were still surrounded by other students.

"Well, how about you clean-up first," requested 'L', tilting head an awkward angle. "Because quite frankly, Light-kun, you stink."

"Ohhhhhh," said some of the surrounding students that had heard that. Then there was that one kid that had yelled, "Burn!" like he was Michael Kelso from That 70's Show. Light had to fight the urge to roll his eyes; unfortunately that was a battle he didn't stand a chance in.

"Fine," agreed Light, not really taking 'L's' comment to heart too much. "We can continue our discussion in the locker room."

"Alright then," replied 'L', a hint of surprise by the lack of offense towards his insult; Kira is supposed to be very childish and hates losing. So why isn't he upset over the defeat? Or the insult following his defeat?