Utopia
Tokyo was a beautiful city, full of lights and brightly colored billboards proclaiming all types of things to the population. The streets were as familiar to Light as his own house, since he had lived there all his life, so when he stepped through the door and onto a busy street, he knew exactly where he was.
He turned around, puzzled, and realized that the door he had just come from now lead back into a small grocery store. There was no sign of the small, dim room where L was waiting for him. Beyond Birthday and Naomi Misora had said that in every challenge, he had to find the door, but could it be any door in the city? It could take decades to check every single door.
He wondered why the Trial would send him blindly into the streets of Tokyo, with no direction whatsoever. He knew Tokyo like the back of his hand, but he had been under the impression that there was something specific that he had to do in each challenge. Roaming the streets looking for one door was not a fair task, in his opinion.
He walked out, arbitrarily turning left, and began to make his way down the street. As he walked, he noticed how subdued everyone seemed. People didn't make eye contact with each other, no one really stopped to speak, and everyone was extraordinarily careful in their movements and actions, like they were afraid.
Light walked for a while, wondering what was going on. He had never heard Tokyo so quiet in his entire life. There was always noise, action, and chatter, blending together into the cacophonous symphony that made up the city. He stopped a man who was walking by with his head down, and shook him.
"What's the matter with you? What's going on?"
The man looked terrified, looking around frantically as if for help, and a low, musical voice from behind Light said cheerfully. "Well. You're not from around here, are you?"
Light released the man, who scurried away immediately, and turned to face the newcomer. It was the only person he had seen who had willingly tried to speak to him. A slender boy with curly black hair was standing there, green eyes infinitely amused with what he was seeing. He swept a mocking bow, saying quietly, "My name is Noir. Noir Rosewood. And you are...?"
"Light Yagami." Light said warily. He wasn't sure what to make of this boy, who looked only a year or so older than Light himself. Noir had frozen at the name, and stared at him blankly.
"Are you kidding?" he asked. "You're definitely not from here, if you're trying to get by with that name."
"It's... It's my name." Light said uncertainly.
Noir blinked. "Well, the Light Yagami that I know looks nothing like you. And it's forbidden to speak that name anyway. You would best be careful, or Kira will find your real name and kill you."
"Kira?!" Light gasped. "What's going on? Where am I?"
Noir stared at him a moment, then said quietly, "You're really not lying." He grabbed Light by the upper arm and steered him into the nearest cafe, saying only, "Come here, and we'll talk."
Light recognized the place. It was the cafe he had visited with L, so long ago when he was truly Kira. Noir even took him to the same booth, the one in the back where no one can overhear you. The decor of the cafe had changed, but Light would know it anywhere. Noir forced him to sit down, and said, "You have no idea what's going on, do you?"
"All I know is that everyone seems terrified, and you won't believe me when I tell you my name. Why?" Light demanded.
Noir frowned. "Light Yagami is the name that used to belong to the man known as Kira. The man who now rules the world with an impartial and intolerant fist. Any crime, no matter how small, the perpetrator is brought before Kira to be tried and executed. Very few are freed. You have to be careful, with everything you do or say, because people are all too willing to turn in 'criminals'. They've fallen into the trap of Kira's promised 'utopia'."
"But I..." Light whispered, unable to believe what he was hearing.
"Look, and tell me what you see." Noir said quietly. Light blinked, then turned to look in the large mirror hanging on the wall above the table. The young man who looked back at him was brunet, roughly built, and had green eyes and the beginnings of a beard. He made a small sound of surprise, and Noir said gently, "You wear someone else's guise for this challenge."
"You're one of my guides!" Light cried, realization filling his being. Noir nodded, but before he could say more, a girl with long brown hair raced into the cafe, scouted around, and ran to Noir's side.
"We have to go, Noir! Or else we'll miss the changing of the guards!"
"This is Light Yagami, Aki-chan." Noir said. "He's the one who needs our help."
Aki gazed appraisingly at Light, and said firmly, "He'll hate us later if we don't do this. You know the challenge, Noir. He needs us later, not now." She bowed to Light, then grabbed the curly-headed boy and dragged him from the cafe, leaving Light confused and worried. Now what was he supposed to do?
A twenty-dollar bill had fallen from Aki's pocket, resting innocently on the tiled floor of the cafe, near the entrance. Light walked over and picked it up, pocketing it and thinking that he would give it to her later. He assumed he would see the two again, since they were the two who knew that the world was an illusion. How did that work, anyway? Was it just like playing a giant role-play game to them? Light decided that it didn't really matter, in the grand scheme of things, and walked out of the cafe. Time to start trying doors.
"Thief!" someone shrieked behind him. Light turned back, startled, to see the girl behind the counter pointing at him. "Thief!" she cried again, and to his horror he saw police running towards him from down the street. He put his hands up, and they surrounded him when they reached him.
"What did I do?" he asked, trying his best to be self-rightious, turning on the charm he had used so often with teachers and other adults.
"He took money that this girl had dropped in here!" the counter girl cried.
The police shook Light. "He matches the description we got earlier of a guy who assaulted a man in the street. We'll take him in."
"Wait!" Light shouted. "I was going to return the money to Aki, and I didn't assault that guy! I just shook him a little, like you're doing to me now!"
"Shut up, criminal." They began to march him away, despite all of his protests, deep into the city. To stand trial before Kira.
xXx
It was a familiar mirror-windowed building that the police brought Light to. He stared up at the top of the building, twenty-three stories above the ground, remembering the times that he and L had gone up there, after Light's protests and demands for fresh air. He couldn't see the helicopter pads from the ground, but he knew they were there. This was L's investigation building, turned into Kira's palace.
Light missed what floor he was brought to. Probably one of the residential floors, converted into an audience room. And in a chair at the head of the room, he saw himself.
Was that what he had looked like? A smile like sweet poison, eyes gleaming with power? Kira was very clearly a king, if not a mortal god. Light saw a facsimile Ryuk hovering over Kira's left shoulder. He locked eyes with the illusory copy, and Ryuk stared at him a moment before laughing hysterically.
"What is his crime?" Kira asked in a regal voice, sounding almost bored.
The police explained briefly, including both the 'theft' and 'assault'. Kira listened absently, head resting on one hand, and sighed when they were finished.
"When will people learn that these petty crimes are a pointless reason to die?" he sighed. "But I cannot accept such base crimes in my perfect world." He turned to a dark-headed man seated to his right and asked, "Mikami, what is his name?"
The bookish-looking man glanced up at Light through his glasses, and Light saw his eyes flash red. Shinigami eyes. He was finished. He wondered briefly if dying counted as failing the Trial.
"Kami-sama..." Mikami began. He stood up and spoke quietly in Kira's ear for a moment, and Kira's eyes widened.
"What?!"
"It is true, my lord. The eyes do not lie." Mikami said, bowing before sitting back down. Kira fumed silently for a second, and Light, knowing his own face perfectly, could see him swallow his anger and return to his regal bearing.
"Lock the criminal in the dungeons." he decreed, the paused. "What is that? Bring it to me."
A police officer grabbed the necklace that Light had forgotten he was wearing. The one with the black stone on the end that Ryuk had given him. No! They couldn't take that! He needed that to get home with L! But the stone was delivered into Kira's hands, and Light was helpless to get it back.
"What is this? It gives off the sense of the Shinigami, as the Note does." Kira asked. Light stared at him defiantly, refusing to answer, and Kira scowled. "Take him away!"
xXx
The cell that they locked him in was one of the ones in the basement. He had never thought he would see them again, after being freed from his confinement, memoryless and innocent. He sat down on the narrow cot, unrestrained this time, and wondered what to do. There was very little hope of sweet-talking his way out of this one, and who knew how long Kira planned to keep him locked up.
He noticed a brick, usually just a part of the nondescript grey wall, wiggling slightly, sending tiny particles of dust raining to the floor. It was moving slowly but steadily out of the wall, into the cell next to him. Light got up curiously, going over and pushing on the brick to help it along. It finally came free, and a whisper came through the wall. "Who are you?"
"My name is Light Yagami." Light said.
"Truly?" The whisper came again, sounding puzzled. "I see... That is why you are imprisoned for your crime. He cannot kill you, because the face he associates with that name is his own."
"I'm not a criminal!" Light said vehemently. He told the story of how he ended up in the cell, and the whisper laughed.
"Only more proof that Kira's 'judgment' has gone too far."
Light frowned, and then asked softly, "Why are you in here?"
"He will not kill me. I am his prize, his trophy. Eight years ago I fought him, knowing that either he would be caught, or I would die. I underestimated the streak of sadism in him."
Light gasped as the story sounded all too familiar. He leaned closer to the hole, asking, "You fought Kira?"
"He killed my task force... the closest thing to a father that I had. The only hope that I have is that my family was able to evacuate and flee before he got to them too." The whisper now sounded sad. "He keeps me here as a game, because he knows my name now. His minion will have told him that."
"I want to see your face." Light said, leaning down to see through the hole. For a moment, he saw nothing but white fabric, but then the figure knelt. Like looking into the blackness of space, obsidian eyes stared back at him, and he couldn't hold back the startled cry.
"L!"
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Recognize anyone? :D
Sorry, guys. I was at the beach for a week and a half, and had to get the whole chapter written after I got back. Geh. Anyway, this is so much fun to write! I can cram so many different situations into one story. XD Noir and Aki won't be the only people appearing either, but we'll get to that later. Enjoy the chapter!
Hugs!
Li