10. HEARTBREAK
A/N: So, I think I'm going to go back and delete most of the author's notes I've made (including this one eventually) throughout this story because the vast majority of them are trivial and disruptive. Beyond this point, I will only comment if there's necessary information I'd like to share with you guys.
It's nostalgic, practically surreal. Misa Amane standing before him with only a few bars in between. Though bars alone can't keep her subdued for long. Anything in her way to him perishes. Anyone perishes. Perhaps that would explain the graveyard of Shinigami bones surrounding them. Light doesn't know whether to laugh or cry at the sight of her. She's as she's always been; beautiful, colorful, gothic, and innocent, but only by appearance alone. It would be a crime to think any corruption has reached her exterior self.
"Misa," he breathes. "How did—?"
"Kira?" Her blue eyes widen, and she rushes to the cell door, slamming into it. "Kira, is that really you, my love?"
She reaches for him, waving her hand blindly in the air, but he's wary of what stands before him. He has to consider this might be another apparition come to haunt him like in the desert.
"Kira." Tears well in her eyes. "Why did you reject me?"
"What?"
"You said you had no need of me. You said you couldn't make use of a stupid girl like myself." Her head dips. "You said you'd rather I die than be a part of your world."
This has to be another apparition. "That's not true. I never said such lies. You're not Misa Amane." Light's eyes wander around the brig. Kami, enough with your petty hallucinations. "Come find me if you wish to break me," he challenges.
But nothing happens.
Misa raises her head. "Who are you talking to, Kira?"
Light's jaw tightens. "Nobody." He turns away.
"Wait," Misa cries. "Is that it? Is that all I am to you? You wish to throw me aside yet again after all this time?"
"Sorry, but you're not the Misa Amane I knew," Light explains. "The real Misa had worked for me. She was the Second Kira. We were even engaged. She would have remembered my true name."
"But isn't Kira your true name?" She watches him with genuine shock, and Light can't help but trust that she truly believes what she is saying. Her ocean eyes continue to form tears, and a knot grows in his chest that he initially excuses as false sympathy.
He folds his arms and furrows his brow. "Who is Kira to you?"
"Kira is everything," she cries. "Kira is my heart. My soul mate. My savior. My reason for living. Kira is absolute."
She sounds like the Misa Amane at their first meeting when she begged him to let her serve him in exchange for his love, which he gave to her in sparse, fragile amounts. Sexual attraction had always been Light's prerogative. He could flick on the charm, and girls would be drawn to him like stray cats to milk. That much was never an issue for Light, even in the most desperate situations. But romance—love, affection, compassion for another—were all foreigners. He'd known love for his family, concern for when Mello had kidnapped his sister, Sayu, but he always considered a Plan B. Sacrifice his sister, or sacrifice his perfect world? Thankfully, he never had to choose.
Even though this can very well be a different Misa than the one he endured and lived with for longer than desired, a window of opportunity creaks open, and an idea comes to mind.
"Is that so?" Light reaches up and touches her hand on the cell door. Misa flinches but doesn't recoil. His expression softens to evoke a sense of admiration. "How would you feel if I told you I needed you now?"
Her lips part, and he wipes away the tears in her eyes generously, careful not to irritate their blue hue. Her skin is soft and porcelain as it always has been. If an apparition stands before him, Kami has done his work well.
"Kira," she says, almost breathless.
He shushes her. "You still haven't answered my question." Though it comes across as a demand, Light keeps his intonation soft and low, absent any trill. The look he gives her is both encouraging and authoritative. An expression he's perfected over time.
Her face flushes. "I would feel—"
"What are you doing?"
Light jerks his head toward the brig's entrance where Ryuzaki leans against the wall. His eyes hide beneath his thick bangs, but Light feels them wander from him to Misa with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity.
Light drops his hand and pockets it. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough to question your intentions with…" He tilts his head and purses his lips. "This pretty creature."
"Are you a friend of Kira's?" Misa asks.
"Are you?" Ryuzaki replies.
"Oh, no," she says, and grabs Light's arm through the bars. "Kira and I are lovers. He's my world."
Ryuzaki falls silent and then steps forward. "Yagami-kun."
Light tenses. "What?"
"I'm interested to know how scum like you could acquire such beauty like this."
"Kira isn't scum!"
Ryuzaki blinks. "Beauty and boldness. Shame she's wasted on you. Unless…you care to share, Yagami-kun?"
"Huh?" Light and Misa say in unison.
"You heard me."
Misa scrunches her nose. "Pervert."
"Pervert?" Ryuzaki sounds genuinely shocked. "I'm a pervert?"
"Enough," Light interjects, turning back to Misa. "I'm getting you out, and you're coming with us." He fiddles with the cell's hinges. It won't budge. His eyes search for a key in the vicinity, but he can't find one. "Ryuzaki, can you help me break this?"
Ryuzaki taps his finger to his chin. "Oh? And what do I get out of this?" His eyes linger on Misa.
Light considers his options. Only one plausible solution comes to mind. "If you help, Misa will give you a kiss."
"What? No way, I—"
The glare he shoots her shuts her up instantly.
"A kiss?" Ryuzaki presses his finger to his bottom lip, forming an indent in his pale skin with his nail. "That sounds…enticing." He takes the scythe and clenches it firmly between his fingers. With a gesture of his head, he says, "You two better move unless you want a few fingers off."
Light moves aside, and Misa presses her back against the cell wall. Ryuzaki lifts the scythe above his head and strikes the door handle. A loud ringing pierces everyone's ears and sparks fly between the blade and the metal. When the ringing stops, the handle remains.
"Interesting," Ryuzaki says with a quizzical cock of the head. He attempts another strike but receives the same result.
Light's excitement sinks. "What do you mean 'interesting'? Why won't it come off?"
Ryuzaki shrugs. "Yes, yes, of course I would know. That's why I tried to break it twice," he retorts.
"I know."
They both turn to Misa, whose head dips, shadowing most of her face with her blonde bangs. Her back rests against the cell wall, leaving a sufficient amount of space between herself and the two men.
"Ever since I found out Kira killed the one who murdered my parents, I had wanted to serve him. I wanted to help him build a perfect world, no matter the risks. I thought that if I went to his house and met him in person, he would have use of me. But Kira turned me away. Without Kira, I was nothing. I was just a silly girl filled with silly dreams. In what perfect world could a fool like me find reason?" Her head rises. The light in her eyes has extinguished. "There was no place for me, so I erased myself from the world."
A sickness builds in Light's stomach—one that he cannot subdue. It expands like branches on a tree and reaches his throat. "I need you now. Come with me. I'll make use of you."
She shakes her head. "I'm sorry Kira. I'm sorry for being a disappointment. I'm sorry for being born."
"Misa, I—" Light begins to say but notices something out of the corner of his eye. It appears as if the wall behind her has started crumbling. Upon closer inspection, he realizes it's her hand turning to dust.
Tears pour down her cheeks. "Goodbye, Kira-kun."
Light opens his mouth to say something, but her form shatters like glass and sprinkles to the floor in a million pieces.
"Shame," Ryuzaki says. "I was really looking forward to that kiss."
Light hesitates. "It's strange."
"What?"
He turns to Ryuzaki. "Though I may have used her for my own needs and found her personality rather revolting, I've always admired her loyalty. She'd put her own safety in jeopardy to ensure my plans were met. It's strange to think that even now, even when she didn't know my real name, she never accused me of anything. She always loved me."
"And you played her like a fiddle. You sure are a dick, Yagami-kun."
Light stifles a laugh that causes Ryuzaki's brow to rise. "Yeah, I sure am, aren't I?"
"And she's a stupid girl for loving a beast like you."
"Love makes us blind to many things," Light agrees. "Sometimes the most obvious lies can be overlooked."
Ryuzaki studies his face. "You told her you loved her back?"
Light nods.
Ryuzaki's jaw tightens. "Lying to a lovestruck girl in order to carry on with your nefarious plans unchallenged. Very wise and also very malicious. No true bringer of justice could commit such unlawfulness and expect a perfect world. You've broken a young girl's heart. Who's to say you wouldn't have broken a lot more hearts had your plan succeeded?"
The words sink into him like a tattoo. Light finds an answer after sifting through a web of egotistical retorts he has saved. "Perhaps there is some good in knowing that I failed the first time."
"The first time?" Ryuzaki has caught him. "Do you think you can repeat the same cycle over? You don't have any power here. You don't have a homicidal notebook to command. You don't have followers or worshippers. You have nothing, Light Yagami."
Light clenches his hands into fists and fights back his pride from getting the best of him. "Didn't I ask you before not to insult me?"
"Am I insulting you? If I were, I'd tell you you're an arrogant fool attempting to play God all over again. I'm not insulting you, I'm only stating what's true—your predicament now is the complete opposite of what you were in life. In life, you had all the wealth of knowledge, popularity, and deception at your disposal. Slide in a dash of luck by finding the Death Note, and you were on your way to becoming the most powerful being in the mortal world. Here, the most luck you've acquired is being resurrected because of your past self's achievements."
Before Light can have his say, the floor below them shudders and jerks, sending them both off balance.
Light's cheek hits the wall, but he recovers. "What happened?"
"I think we've stopped," Ryuzaki says, recovering. "Let's head up."
Light takes one final look at the cell where Misa had stood not too long ago and then follows the pale man.
Back on the deck, the two scope their surroundings. The fog has lifted enough to see a large rock formation in their ship's path. The anchor has set itself down into the black water. Light leans over the edge of the vessel and sees what appears to be a dock made out of bones.
"I think we're here," he says.
Ryuzaki jumps off and lands softly on the dock, about thirty feet below. Unsure of how fragile his bones are, Light finds rope, tosses it over, and belays down until his feet touch the dock. Ryuzaki has already created some space between them, standing atop a nearby hill. He faces away from Light, but his head doesn't move. Maybe he has found something.
Light joins him.
What he sees is perhaps the most disturbing sight thus far. Across a barren plain of bones and mud, a line of Shinigami, all chained together, limp, crawl, and trudge through thick mud as a whip cracks behind them, snapping against their backs on occasion and releasing a cry or a wail from their mouths. The sounds of their agony peel away at Light's conscience. In what world, even an immortal world, does slavery have a right to exist? He presses his lips together and turns his head. No, this is not his place to decide. Not until he's successfully freed himself from his own enslavement. Once he's taken care of his misfortune, he'll return to this and see what can be done.
One Shinigami slave stumbles, causing a rift in the line. A slaver hops down from a perch and gives it three lashes, and pieces of its flesh fly into the air. The brand on Light's shoulder blade aches. The ache rises in severity until its starts to burn, making him wince.
Only one being is capable of causing this...
Light looks to his left but doesn't find Ryuzaki standing there. Panic washes over him, and he vehemently searches for the pale-skinned manifestation. His eyes lock onto a figure rushing across the plain toward the slavers and their chained prisoners. His throat tightens, but he holds back from screaming Ryuzaki's name. His voice won't be enough to stop his charge. Light has no choice but to make a break for him before the slavers take notice.
Ryuzaki has his scythe out at the ready.
That fucking idiot!
Light makes strides, but he knows he's still too far away by the time Ryuzaki reaches the nearest slaver.
He chops the Shinigami's head off its shoulders, reducing the rest of its body to a pile of dust. The three remaining slavers instantly take notice, raise their whips over their heads, and toss them out like fishing lines. The ropes wrap around Ryuzaki's right arm, neck, and left leg. The scythe slips from his grip. The slavers pull, sending him to the ground in a ball of struggling defeat. One slaver tosses a net over him that sticks to his body and muffles his protests.
Light is too late.
"Oi, we've got two of 'em!"
In his peripheral vision, a whip reaches for him.