**Note to readers: New chapter every day. Feel free to let me know your thoughts and suggestions!**
When Sukiro returned to her English class, tailored by a floating God of Death, there was still one hour of class-time left. Despite this, the classroom was completely vacant. No, not completely vacant, Sukiro realized as she noticed the flowers carefully placed on two specific desks. Sukiro walked to Suni's desk. It didn't have nearly as many flowers as Gina's did. The flowers weren't as pretty, either. For some reason, this angered Sukiro. And for an even less fathomable reason, Sukiro found herself dropping her backpack next to Suni's desk and leaving the room. A very confused Yuuko followed her human partner as she went to the garden outside the building and began cutting some flowers.
"What in the world are you doing?" The Shinigami asked, but didn't receive an answer. Instead, Sukiro returned to her English classroom with a handful of flowers, the most beautiful flowers she found. It hadn't been hard, since the To-Oh University had really beautiful flowers in its gardens. If there was something Sukiro truly liked, were beautiful flowers.
Sukiro placed the flowers carefully on Suni's desk, smiling in approval as she saw how beautiful it now looked.
"You are truly something," Yuuko said in amusement. "Could that be guilt what you have just shown?"
Sukiro looked back at the Shinigami and smiled a smile that was neither evil nor kind, but just as she was about to answer, she noticed someone leaning against the entrance door, staring at Sukiro with eyes that seemed to have never met sleep in their lives. Her heart fell to her stomach at that moment. For a second, Sukiro felt as if she had been busted. Even if that was an impossible probability.
"Those were beautiful flowers you chose," The young man said with an amused voice. He kept staring at her while chewing on his thumb, and it almost felt as though he was staring into her soul.
Sukiro chose it was better not to respond. She was the kind of person that, when feeling need to speak to someone, simply kept quiet. The young man had a very lousy appearance, and just by looking at him, she knew he was all but interesting. He could compliment the flowers all he wanted once she was gone. After all, she had very important things to do. Thus, Sukiro picked up her bag and headed to the door, not even looking at the young man as she walked toward him. However, as he saw Sukiro's intention of leaving the room, the young man placed himself right in front of the door, obstructing Sukiro's way. He had a particular way of standing, Sukiro noticed. Slouched, as though gravity was too much for his lazy body. Still, even if he was slouched, he towered Sukiro enough to make her take a step back and finally look up at him, her legs beginning to tremble.
Sukiro hated confrontations. She didn't understand what the young man could possibly want to confront her about, but she didn't like it nonetheless. Even if she knew she had the power to kill him, Sukiro couldn't help feeling small at that moment. No, she realized. I don' know his name. I couldn't kill him even if I wanted to.
The Shinigami noticed Sukiro's sudden change in humor. She no longer had the confidence that she had had a few minutes ago, when she Sukiro had realized she had the power of killing. Yuuko didn't know what the boy intended to do, but Sukiro's discomfort was nearly palpable to the Shinigami. What an interesting human, Yuuko thought. A killer who felt the thrill of murder, compassion to her victims, and cowardice all the same day.
The young man must have also noticed the sudden fear in Sukiro's eyes because he raised a curious eyebrow at her.
"Forgive my insolence, I didn't mean to scare you," He said, failing in his attempt to give Sukiro a reassuring smile. "I'm interested in talking with you. You wouldn't mind, would you?"
Sukiro didn't know what to respond. Was he giving her an option?
"Umm..." She began, but of course he didn't let her finish.
"Perhaps at the University's park? I find that it is pleasingly quiet today, and there are beautiful flowers, too," He offered, and again she had the feeling that he wouldn't take no as an answer.
She thought about telling him that she needed to attend another class, but figured that since the class had ended early today, that wouldn't be an acceptable excuse. Also, it was most likely that a lot of her classes, if not all, would be suspended today. Everyone in her class was probably already back in their houses, some mourning over their two dead classmates, others celebrating about the free day they were given.
Sukiro sighed. "Alright."
"You haven't told me your name," Sukiro said shyly as they found a bench where to seat at the park. He had been right, she realized. The park was fairly quiet today, and the flowers were truly beautiful. Sukiro hadn't been at this part of the University before, since she never wandered through its buildings, and only went to where she had to go and then directly back to her house.
After a second of silence, Sukiro turned to look at him in confusion, only to realize that ever since Kira became common knowledge, asking someone's name was a little more delicate than it had used to be. Of course, she understood just why. Especially now that she could also kill with a name and a face. Even so, it hadn't occurred to her that her question would be taken the wrong way.
"Ryuzaki Hideki," he answered anyway, turning back to looking straight ahead at the scenery before them. "And you must be Sukiro, am I wrong?"
"How do you know my name?" Sukiro asked, surprised. She had never seen him before, nor did she talk to many people either. She doubted there were many people at the university that knew her name.
"We share several classes in common," He said simply. "And I'm somewhat good with names too, you could say."
Sukiro nodded, although she was still not convinced. She decided that she would write his name down tonight, even if there was a high possibility that he had merely given her an alias. For some reason, she felt like his death would bring her more peace.
"Why don't you try killing him now?" The Shinigami suggested behind her with a little chuckle, making her jump a little. Ryuzaki placed his curious raccoon eyes on her, and Sukiro mentally cursed at Yuuko.
"He wouldn't notice," Yuuko continued. "You could pretend to write something trivial down in your death note, and he would think nothing about it. I wonder what would happen."
Sukiro truly wanted to kill her Shinigami then, even if she did find some sense in her words. But there was something about its laugh that told her that not even the Shinigami believed its words.
"Please kill my curiosity," Ryuzaki said suddenly, making Sukiro jump a little again at the word kill. "Why did you run away from class earlier today?"
Sukiro looked away and pretended to be submerged in the beauty of the flowers to buy herself some time to come up with an adequate response. However, Ryuzaki began to talk again before she could even pronounce a word.
"You weren't present when Mr. Hikari announced the death of two of our classmates. Yet all it took for you to react the way you did was one glance to their empty desks." Ryuzaki chewed on his thumb for a second before continuing with his amused analysis of Sukiro's actions. "It was almost as if you had already known that they would die...although you would have to be Kira if that were the case."
This time Sukiro really jumped. "What?"
Ryuzaki chuckled. "You're right, it couldn't have been Kira who killed both Gina-san and Suni-San, and you clearly aren't Kira. Forgive my erroneous speculations."
Sukiro looked at Ryuzaki perplexed, thinking what strange guy he was. "Why couldn't I be Kira? According to your theory, if I had truly already known about the deaths without being told, then I must have something to do with their deaths. But then since they..." Sukiro was about to state their cause of death, which had most likely been a heart attack if the rules of the death note were completely legit, but refrained herself. Her saying that would definitely put suspicion in her.
"Since they?" Ryuzaki probed, looking at her with great interest. Curiosity. Looking almost anxious for her to slip and admit that she indeed killed the two girls.
"Since they died just yesterday, and I didn't know about their deaths nor had any kind of relationship with them, then it was definitely not me who killed them."
"You could be right," said, not sounding completely convinced yet, which made Sukiro bite her lower lip. "However it couldn't have been Kira, either," he concluded, "Since Kira only kills criminals and people who oppose him. It would be very unlike him to kill two innocent girls."
Innocent girls, Sukiro repeated in her mind. Where they truly innocent? Why did innocence of any crime determine that someone should keep living? They were useless. That is all what should matter.
"Careful," Yuuko muttered behind Sukiro, surprising her a little, but Sukiro managed to not react noticeably to her partner's words. "Say the wrong thing and you might get into trouble, Sukiro."
Sukiro didn't understand why the Shinigami was even warning her. Yuuko had made it more than clear that she would find her death amusing, so it didn't make sense for it to worry about her. Although its warning didn't necessarily imply that the Shinigami cared about her in the least.
"You're right," Sukiro said, both to the Shinigami as well as to Ryuzaki. "It probably wasn't Kira. And anyway, why does it matter that I ran away? How does that imply that I had anything to do with their deaths? As a matter of fact, I don't even know how or why they died. I only came to suspect their deaths once I saw the flowers, and also now that you are letting me know." Sukiro thought for a second. "And anyway, I have no reason to tell you why I ran away today. It's something personal that has absolutely nothing to do with you or anyone at this University. And so you shouldn't stick your nose on other people's businesses."
Even Sukiro was surprised at what she had just said. She had never thought herself capable of speaking with such conviction, let along speaking up for herself. She was suddenly afraid that her words would lead up to an argument or a fight and went back to staring at the flowers, her upper teeth further bruising her lower lip.
"I'm sorry if I gave off that impression," Ryuzaki said flatly, not sounding the least sincere. "I'm not used to leaving my curiosities unattended. But you are most definitely right, you probably had nothing to do with the deaths of those girls."
Ryuzaki stood up and slipped his hands into his pockets, once again adopting that slouched posture of his. "One word of advice," he said, looking up at the sky, as though in thought. "Avoid doing things that may be interpreted the wrong way. It will save you trouble." Without looking back at her, he began to walk away. However he only took a few steps before coming to a halt.
"One more thing," he said, this time looking at her with wide, amused eyes. "Even if I said you probably had nothing to do with their deaths, it doesn't mean I actually think so. So I hope you don't mind, Sukiro-san, but I think I'll have to keep an eye on you."