Akemi awoke again a few hours later. The sun was up now and she could hear voices conversing in the main room. She couldn't make out what they were saying but one sounded like Ryuzaki and one of the others was Watari. For a moment, she thought she had heard her name and hoped that if they were talking about her, it was in regard to something good.
A knock at her door snapped her out of her dazed contemplation and she said as loud as she could through her cracking voice, "Come in."
The door opened and Watari stepped inside, wheeling in a cart with a few dishes of food on it. "Good morning, Miss Yoru. Are you hungry?"
"Mhmm." Akemi slowly sat up so she could eat her breakfast. Once she was ready, Watari rested a folding tray over her lap and then set her food on it for her.
"Is Ryuzaki here?" Akemi wondered. "I thought I heard him talking in the other room." She could never forget that voice for the rest of her life.
Watari smiled kindly. "He is. I'll get him." He stepped into the main room and found L staring out one of the windows, thinking silently to himself. "Ryuzaki, Miss Yoru would like to see you."
L turned around slowly to face him. "Is something wrong?"
"Not at all."
"Then why does she want to see me if nothing's wrong?"
"I think she just wants to say good morning to you."
L looked a little confused but went into Akemi's room to see what she wanted. When she watched him step in, her face lit up a bit and he noticed. 'Why is she smiling at me like that again…?' he couldn't help thinking. "Yes, Miss Yoru?" he asked, standing beside her bed. "What did you need?" L didn't think she'd want to only say hello to him. He assumed there had to have been more than that.
"Good morning, Ryuzaki," she greeted, still smiling.
'So, Watari was right…' L thought to himself. "Oh. Good morning, Miss Yoru. Is that all you needed to say?" he asked before he took a bite into a breakfast pastry Akemi somehow didn't even notice he was holding until now. L couldn't possibly imagine anything else she could want from him at this time.
Akemi couldn't really explain why she wanted to see him again. Basically, she just wanted to make sure he was real and wasn't just something she had dreamed up during the night. "Yeah," she sighed. "I think so…"
Maybe Akemi couldn't think of anything else to say but L could. "How are you feeling?"
"A little better," she replied. "You might not want to get too close though, I may be contagious…"
L wasn't even concerned with that and kept eating. "It's okay, I don't get sick."
Akemi was surprised to hear him say that. "Really? Never?"
"I don't recall ever feeling ill before," he admitted. He noticed she was giving him a strange look and he figured it was because he was eating something sweet in front of her. "And Watari inoculated all of us just in case so there's no need for you to worry."
That was a relief for Akemi. She would have felt incredibly guilty if someone else had gotten sick because of her.
"I'll be going to To-Oh University today," L informed her, stuffing the last bit of the pastry into his mouth. "That's the same school you attend, correct?"
Akemi nodded. "Yeah."
"How are you enjoying it?"
"It's my fourth year so I'm ready to leave, honestly…"
"Wouldn't you miss your friends? Surely, you would have some."
Akemi wasn't sure of what to think of that assumption. Was he saying an indirect compliment to her? Did he mean she was a likable person so he figured she'd have a lot of friends? Or was he just making conversation? She had no idea. But she decided to just tell him the truth. "I just spend a lot of time reading. I don't have any friends…"
L was silent for a long moment. Then he said softly, "Just like me."
Both of them exchanged empathetic gazes, as if they were reading the sadness in each other's eyes. They felt more sorry for each other than they did for themselves, unaware the other chose to not have friends for their own reasons.
Akemi broke the long silence. "I feel bad for missing classes like this…"
"You don't need to worry about attending classes while you are here, Miss Yoru," L assured her. "It can be arranged so you may study here at your leisure if that is what you wish to do."
"That would be wonderful, thank you," Akemi replied, smiling appreciatively.
"You are also free to accompany me to the university if you wish once you fully recover from your illness," he added as he unexpectedly turned and walked out of the room. "Whatever you choose will be acceptable…"
Akemi figured he had left her alone to eat so she lifted her fork when L came back into the room with a small plate in his hand and then he handed it to her. She didn't expect this at all. He had given her one of his breakfast pastries. Her gaze lifted from the plate back up to his face and he watched her smile at him. "I had an extra one…" he said softly. "I thought maybe you would like it. That is, if you were feeling up to it."
Akemi's smile grew wider. "That's really sweet."
L reached for the plate and said, "Well, if it's too sweet for you, you don't have to eat it, I can just-"
"No, it's okay," Akemi chuckled and he drew back his hand, then put both of them in his pockets. "I meant that it's really nice of you to think of me, Ryuzaki. Thank you."
"You're welcome, Miss Yoru." Akemi just watched as he appeared to be studying her again with those large, dark, tired eyes. "You sure do smile at me a lot," he observed. Of course, hearing that just made her smile once again.
"Is there a reason I shouldn't?" she laughed. "Does it bother you?"
"No," he uttered, bringing his thumb to his lips and then bit on his thumbnail as he was pondering. "I suppose I'm simply not used to it yet." Their gazes met for a long moment but then he snapped out of it. "Well, I guess I'm off to To-Oh…."
Something suddenly came back to Akemi. "Ryuzaki, wait…"
"Yes, Miss Yoru?"
"Were you at the entrance ceremony?" she wondered, recalling what Hema and Doran had said about one of the freshman representatives. She realized the person they had described sounded very much like him.
L didn't even try to lie. "I was. Why? Were you there too?"
"No, I missed it," she replied. "I just heard about it."
"I gave a speech in front of everyone," he told her. "With another student."
"That means you scored highest on the entrance exams," Akemi said, impressed.
"That is correct," L confirmed as he pulled a small lollipop out of his pocket and unwrapped it, then stuck it in his mouth. "Perfect score."
"Wow…" It was difficult enough for Akemi to pass her exams, she couldn't imagine how smart someone had to be in order to accomplish something like that. "I could definitely use your help studying for my exams…" She was mostly joking but honestly wouldn't mind it if he decided to help her. But she knew that probably was out of the question given how busy he must have been with working on cases and now attending classes.
"Well, I've never helped anyone study before but…" L thought about it as he turned his lollipop stick back and forth with his thumb and index finger. "I suppose I could." He knew time was slipping by and he couldn't stand there chatting all day long. "I should get going. Watari and I will be out for the day but a few of the other officers will check in on you from time to time." He reached into his pocket and handed her a cell phone. "Should you need any of us, our numbers are programmed in this phone. Take care, Miss Yoru."
"Thank you, Ryuzaki," Akemi replied and just like that, he was gone. Akemi felt a little lonely now, which rarely happened since she usually liked being alone but for some reason, she actually wanted company at this time. Maybe she missed her father or maybe actually found herself connecting with Ryuzaki somehow. She couldn't explain it but she just wanted to talk to him some more, even if she couldn't think of much to converse about. There was just something about him that made her want to know him. It could have been because he seemed different and secretive and mysterious and she could never guess what he was thinking behind those strong stares whenever his tired eyes studied her. She wanted to be able to read him as easily as he could read her.
"I'll be going to To-Oh University today," L told the other task force members in the main room, quietly enough so Akemi couldn't hear him. "I'll just tell you all up front that I plan on interacting with Light Yagami and observing him myself, as well as testing his investigative skills."
Soichiro, Light's father, appeared desolate. It never pleased him to hear his son was under suspicion of being Kira. L found no joy in bringing it up around him either but it was one thing he just couldn't lie about.
L continued. "In the mean time, I would like some of you to follow up on Kurai Yoru and try to find his current location. You can do whatever is necessary except publicly inform the media that he's been involved in criminal activity. Oh, and also…" All eyes went to L. "I know you all wouldn't leak any information deliberately but if any of you happen to speak with Light Yagami, please do not tell him about Miss Yoru. And if he happens to come here at some point, we will have to move her to another room. I don't want him to go near her or even see her. He is not to know she's here or her reasons for being here. He doesn't need to know about her father either. I hope that is understood."
"Okay, but what happens if he does happen to see her?" Matsuda wondered. "What should we say to him?"
"Hopefully, that never occurs so we won't have to worry about it," L told him. "But…should he become wise, I suppose you'll just have to make something up. In summation, as long as I suspect him, he doesn't go near Miss Yoru. I want him to be completely unaware of her name and face, as well as her father's."
Matsuda had more questions. "Ryuzaki, don't they go to the same school? What if he does learn their names or already knows-"
"Mister Matsui, if you keep asking me these questions, we're going to be here all day," L sassed. Matsuda just stayed quiet and listened. "If he does know her already, they wouldn't be friends. Miss Yoru told me she doesn't have any. We just need to keep her out of his sight while she's here so he doesn't pry into the case concerning her father. But if it comes to that point, we will take necessary action. We will just have to do everything we can to prevent anything of the sort from happening. For the time being, we will just focus our concerns on keeping Light Yagami as far away from Miss Yoru as possible while he's still a suspect. And we will not discuss Kira matters in front of Miss Yoru."
"Ryuzaki, if you're so concerned about this girl's safety, then why don't you just send her to a safe house or keep her somewhere else?" Aizawa asked him. "I mean, this doesn't really make sense-"
"Because there are few people I can trust right now and I'm not going to leave her in a location where we can't get to her should she need us," L explained. "I apologize if this is an inconvenience for any of you. But I made a promise to protect her and her father and I am going to do everything I can to keep it while solving these cases. Please understand. I cannot fail them."
The other task force members wondered if his reasoning was deeper than that. But they didn't ask any more questions. Instead, they got to work while L and Watari were on their way out of the hotel for the day.
"Watari, we'll need to get something to eat on the way," L suggested as they walked out of the room. "I'm craving sugar again…"
"What happened to that last pastry I left for you, Ryuzaki?" Watari asked, knowing exactly what he did with it. He just wanted to see how L would react. "Didn't you eat it?"
L just stared up at him while he tried to think of a way to explain his actions. His eyes shifted as he wondered what to say. He decided not to lie and just said through a faint smile, "I may have given it to a friend."