V. Empathy
Raito had come across a little bird. It had fallen out of its nest, several feet above, still in its shell. The feeble yellow beak beat in and out of a silvery membrane, struggling for breath. Raito promptly crushed the peeping little creature, despising the weakness and frailty. It was Misa who crashed to the grass on her knees, scooping up the little creature gingerly, sharp with fragments of shattered shell. "I put it out of its misery", Raito explained patiently to her, as if she were a child.
Later that same day it was Raito who crashed to his knees to gather the fallen L in his arms, that pale and peaked body mercifully intact. Initial elation took a tailspin as Raito watched the life finally drain from his opponent's features, his beating heart loud in his ears. There was an awful symmetry between L and that mangled little aviator. His guileless dark eyes were wide and penetrating, even in death.