Disclaimer- I don't own Death Note

Chapter 21

The First Crack

Some say seeing is believing,

But what if the truth cannot be seen.

Light clicked his phone shut as an arrogant smile made its way to his lips.

"Just as I'm trying to find a way in they call me," he said. "Talk about good timing."

He made his way to his closet and pulled out a cream colored jacket."Damn, Noriko is supposed to be released today though." He shrugged the coat on as he spoke. "She says that she already has a ride lined up, but I don't know what she's up to. She said that a friend of her father's had arranged for a place for her to stay, but she was lying. Noriko has never been good lying."

Frustrated, Light stood before his desk for a moment and thought about calling her to see just where it was she was going, but knew if he pressed her too hard she might think he was being too possessive. Although he didn't care if he seemed possessive, she was his, and that's all there was to that. He figured he would talk to her later and she could explain herself then.

"I need to get as much information as I can about this fake Kira, not to mention I need to make sure that the investigation team doesn't find out about the Death Notes. Noriko will be fine, if not I'll kill anyone who touches her."

Noriko walked down the hall and to the door that Watari had pointed out to her. The elderly man had told her she would be staying in that particular room and that some of her belongings had already been brought and placed in the bedroom.

She was on the top floor of one of the nicest hotels in the prefecture. It could actually rival the hotel she had been placed in after Katsuo's escape. Eyeing the key to the room wearily, Noriko hesitated before dipping the card into the mechanism on the door. The little light flashed green and she turned the handle and stepped inside.

Shutting the door behind herself, Noriko suddenly felt a very strange sensation on the back of her neck, as if the hairs there were standing up on end. Blinking, she slowly turned around and...

Froze.

"Oh crap," she muttered.

The room was eerily quiet as five sets of eyes turned to stare at her.

She swallowed, now fully understanding the phrase 'a deer caught in the headlights'.

"Noriko, what are you doing here?"

Noriko chuckled nervously as she looked at Light who was standing besides his father who was standing besides a seated Ryuga. She also noticed Matsuda was there as was another man she didn't know.

"I, umm, I," she scratched at the back of her head and glared at Ryuga who had turned to look at her, his hands on his raised knees before him.

Light walked towards her after casting a rather pissed off glare in Ryuga's direction and clenching a fist. Ryuga didn't so much as look at him, only at Noriko who was silently begging him to come to her rescue, but of course the detective remained silent as he waited for her or Light to speak.

"Noriko, what are you doing here," he asked her again, a little quieter this time but the look in his eyes was telling her to answer and to do so quickly.

"I...Well, I, um, you see..." she stuttered nervously as she rubbed at her arms.

Light continued to stare at her but when he knew she wasn't going to be able to answer him he turned back to Ryuga.

"What is she doing here Ryuga," he asked barely able to keep the edge of anger out of his voice.

"Hmm," the dark eyed detective mused when he took his eyes from the uncomfortable Noriko to the angry Light. "Oh, I invited her to live here with me. I also think she might be quite beneficial to the investigation. After all, if you are Kira I'm sure she'd like to know."

"You told her you thought I was Kira," Light asked the anger quite evident now as he spoke.

"Yes, I did," Ryuga replied easily.

Light turned back to Noriko who tried not to jump and run away as his angry eyes met hers. "So do you think I'm Kira too?"

Noriko was utterly shocked, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she stared at Light. Sure she had had her suspicions before, but she no longer believed him to be Kira. On top of that, the messages sent to Sakura by Kira, weren't sent by him, her dad had said as much. Even though her dreams pointed her in the direction that he was Kira, she knew that dreams were fickle things, one thing could very well mean something completely different from how it was presented.

"You know Ryuga I don't appreciate you turning my own fiance against me," Light snapped, looking away from Noriko again.

"Light, I-"

"Noriko, why didn't you just tell me you were planning on helping in this investigation and that you thought I was Kira," Light asked.

Noriko shook her head frantically, she was beginning to lose control of her breathing and her chest was rising and falling rapidly as she struggled to not let tears form in her eyes. "I don't think you're Kira Light, I want to prove that to him," she said. She pointed at Ryuga with a shaking hand, her voice was on the edge of panic, rising with each word she spoke.

"Ryuga this is just low, trying to use Noriko against me. I won't let you though," Light said. "Come on, Noriko."

Noriko shook her head again. "I'm not leaving."

"Noriko, he's trying to use you to prove I'm Kira," Light argued.

"I know that," Noriko half shouted at him. "I agreed to let him use me, Light. I want to help with this case, I want to prove you aren't Kira. I can help, Light."

"No."

"She has already made the decision, Light-kun, are you really going to take away her free will," Ryuga asked.

Light clenched his fist as he turned to look at Ryuga,."Of course not," he snapped.

"Then what's the problem," Ryuga asked.

"The problem is that she's my fiance and you are trying use her like some kind of pawn in your game to prove I'm Kira," Light retorted.

"I have to agree with my son," Mr Yagami said, speaking for the first time. "Using her the way you are trying to Ryuzaki is wrong. I knew her father and I made a promise to look after her, I won't let you-"

"I am still here you know," Noriko shouted. "I am capable of making my own decisions. I've been doing it for years you know. I'm staying."

The entire room quieted, everyone turned to Noriko who was shaking with the effort to control the sobs that threatened to consume her body, tears trailed down her face as she stared at the floor before her.

"Nori," Light said softly, stepping towards her. "You shouldn't be here, this isn't a safe place for you."

Noriko smacked Light's hand away when he tried to put a comforting arm around her shoulder. "Where's my room?"

"The door on the left," Ryuga answered immediately.

"I'm staying. It's my choice, I knew what I was getting myself into when I agreed to this. I am capable of taking care of myself Light. I am doing this for you, for us, but it's obvious you don't trust me-"

"Nori-"

"Shut up, Light," Noriko ordered wearily, wiping away a few of the tears that were leaking from her bright green eyes. "I'm sorry I didn't speak with you about it, but it really wasn't any of your concern. Besides if you're here helping as well, what's the problem? You'll be here, you'll be able to keep an eye on me since you don't seem to trust me."

"The problem is this is dangerous, I don't want you involved. I do trust you Noriko, I'd rather you stayed out of this though," Light replied.

"Why? Because he's only trying to use me to prove you're Kira or is there another reason?"

"I love you Noriko, that's the only reason. I don't want you to get hurt," Light replied.

"It's a little late for that," Noriko said as she turned away from a shocked Light and disappeared through the door on her left.

After closing the door behind her, Noriko sank to the floor and brought her knees up to her chest. Resting her warm forehead against her knees, she let out a soft sigh as the tears continued to trickle from her eyes.

Wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand, Noriko stood up and looked around the room. It was a fairly large room with a queen sized bed pressed up against the wall opposite the door, it was draped in fluffy cream colored sheets and had a red comforter that was pulled back to the edge of the bed. The walls of the room were a dark beige and the two nightstands on either side of the bed as well as the dresser to the left were all made of a very fine dark wood. She noted two doors on the right wall, one led into what seemed to be her own bathroom while the other slid open to reveal a spacious closet that had some of her clothing neatly hung up inside.

Setting her bag down on the dresser, she opened the drawers to find more of her belongings neatly folded into the drawers.

Grabbing a few things, she made her way to the bathroom and turned on the hot water. After undressing she had to peel off the bandages that were wrapped around her abdomen before peeling away the gauze that was over the actual wound.

She grimaced at what she saw. There were black stitches holding together very red and raised skin that was still very sore. The skin was beginning to knit itself back together, but it was still healing and parts of the wound were scabbed over.

Showering carefully, Noriko washed her hair and body before turning the shower off and standing motionlessly in the stall for several minutes as water dripped from her hair and rolled down her naked body.

Sighing and shaking her head, she grabbed the towel from the rack and dried herself off before slipping into a pair of wide legged, black yoga pants and a loose fitting black t-shirt. She stepped into the bedroom to retrieve the bag she had set on the dresser, she needed to re-wrap the wound and the bandages she needed were in the bag.

After several failed attempts to wrap the bandages around herself, Noriko frowned and dropped all the supplies on to the bed before standing and walking over to the door. She cracked it open a few centimeters to look out, but couldn't really see anything so she opened it fully and stepped in to the room.

Light looked up from the chair that Ryuga had been sitting in earlier, he was writing something down, but dropped the pencil and stood up when she stepped towards him.

"I'm sorry, Noriko," he admitted, looking at her downcast face.

The four other occupants in the room, who were scattered about doing different things all turned away as Light pulled Noriko into a hug.

She winced, and pulled back slightly.

"Sorry, I didn't hurt you, did I," he asked in concern as he looked down at her side.

She shook her head. "No, but I need your help, I can't re-bandage it on my own."

"Oh, ok. Hold on just a second. Ryuzaki, I'm done with this. What do you think," Light asked, handing the dark haired man the paper he had been writing.

Noticing Noriko's confused expression, Light spoke up again. "Here everyone calls him Ryuzaki."

"Oh," Noriko replied.

Light sighed and ran a hand through his brown hair. "Come on let's get the bandages redone. Ryuzaki, I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Hmm, oh yes. This is very well done, I'm not sure about this 'you can kill L' part though," Ryuzaki replied as he held the paper before his face.

Noriko blinked. "What?"

"He asked me to write a script to air in response to the message that was broadcast by Kira. You can remove that part, it was just a joke, I figured that if the real Kira didn't encourage it, it might be viewed as fake," Light replied.

"The real Kira," Noriko asked in confusion. "You mean the one who sent those tapes to Sakura wasn't the real Kira?"

"No, it was a second Kira," Ryuzaki replied casually though he continued to read over the paper he held before his face.

"So now there's two people in this world who can kill by just seeing names and faces," Noriko asked without really thinking.

"No, this one is different, they don't seem to need a name, just a face," Ryuzaki answered.

"I see," Noriko replied.

"You don't sound like you're surprised someone else has gained this power," Ryuzaki said as he looked to Noriko who was staring blankly off into space.

Noriko turned her head to him and shrugged. "There are things in this world that can't be explained, who am I to question them?"

"Yes, I suppose that's true," Ryuzaki replied, but he continued to stare at Noriko with his big, dark eyes.

"Come on, Noriko," Light said, gently taking her elbow so that he could guide her back to her room, shutting the door behind them once inside.

"All the band-"

"You can't just say stuff like that in front of him," Light whispered fiercely.

"Huh?"

"I saw the way he was looking at you, he thinks you know more than you're saying, Noriko."

Noriko tweaked a brow at him. "And what if I do?"

"What do you mean," Light asked, his shock and confusion clearly written on his face.

"Nothing," Noriko sighed.

"I know you better than that, Noriko, what do you mean?"

"I mean I already knew he was L and I know you don't actually trust him. You think of him as an enemy, I just don't know why," Noriko replied angrily.

"How did-"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"What's gotten into you, Noriko? Of course I trust him, why wouldn't I?"

"Maybe because he's hell bent on proving you're Kira and he's using your fiance, I don't know Light. But from the moment you met him, you didn't like him. Speaking of which, just how long have you known he was L," Noriko was practically yelling by now and her anger was evident in her face and narrowed eyes.

"Since the entrance ceremony, he told me then," Light replied.

"So have you known this whole time that he suspected you of being Kira?"

"Yeah, he-"

"And you didn't think that telling your fiance was a good idea, why?!"

"Look who's talking. You just walked in to a hotel room to live with another guy," Light argued.

"Yeah, well were you planning on telling me you joined the task force, or was that just going to conveniently slip your mind," Noriko shot back.

"My dad called me earlier today and told me that L wanted my help on the case-"

"And you didn't think about calling me first to see if I'd be okay with it, did you," Noriko interrupted.

"I've helped on cases before, I didn't know I needed your permission to-"

"Exactly, Light," Noriko shouted. "I didn't know I needed your permission. And on top of that this was all his idea," she said as she cast a hand towards the door. "I didn't have much choice."

"You said it was your choice."

"To help with the investigation, yes. I made him agree to let me help since he wanted to provide me with a place to stay. I know he's only trying to piss you off and create a rift between us because he figures if you are Kira you'll do something drastic. Right now he's doing very well at pissing the both of us off, we're doing just what he wants Light," Noriko said angrily.

"Except I'm not Kira. I really want to kill him right now though."

"See now that would be something drastic," Noriko replied sarcastically.

"I was joking."

"I know."

The two stood staring at each other for a few minutes not speaking just trying to get the other to back down. Neither would though, they were both too proud to back down.

"Never mind Light," Noriko sighed as she shook her head. "Please just go. We've never fought like this, we've never fought in general really. I don't like it, but it seems we aren't going to see eye to eye on this, so please just go."

"Noriko-"

"Go."

"Fine," Light sighed. "I love you Noriko, but I don't agree with you being here. I want you to go home."

"I don't have a home remember," she shot back angrily.

"Yes you do, you belong with me, Noriko. You'll always have a place to call home as long as I'm around."

Noriko snorted and crossed her arms over her chest as she glared at Light who sighed and walked out of the room.

"Stupid men," she mumbled under her breath.

She turned back to the bed and rolled her eyes when she saw all the bandages.

"Crap," she said before turning to walk to her door. "Ryuzaki," she called.

She saw him hunched up in the same chair he had been in earlier, a cherry dangling between his fingertips as he raised it to his mouth, but stopped to turn and look at her, the cherry poised in the air.

"Yes," he asked.

"Would you come here please," she asked, trying to sound sweet, but failing miserably.

"I'd rather not," he muttered.

"I'll bake you a cake," Noriko sang.

A thin, dark eyebrow rose in thought for a moment before he stood from the chair stuffing the cherry in his mouth and tossing the stem on to the table. He shoved his hands in his pocket as he walked over to her.

Light watched with narrowed eyes as Ryuzaki went into Noriko's room and the door was shut behind them.

"Don't worry about Noriko, Light. I may not agree with her being here either, but she's made up her mind, all we can do is let her be, and make sure she stays safe. Ryuzaki won't let anything happen to her, I actually think he kind of likes her," Mr Yagami said.

"Yeah, well he better keep his hands off her," Light mumbled angrily.

"Noriko wouldn't allow that, Light," Mr Yagami stated.

'She better not,' Light thought as he stared at the door to her bedroom, 'L is dead as soon as I can find this second Kira.'

"Do you have to hold everything like that," Noriko asked in annoyance as Ryuzaki held the bandages that he was slowly winding around her with just his thumb and pointer finger.

"Is there a problem with how I hold things," he asked.

"You look like a freak," Noriko replied. "Ow!"

"Sorry."

Noriko glared at the man that was crouched beside her as they wrapped the wound back up.

"Do that again and I won't bake you a cake," Noriko muttered. "Ow!"

"Sorry, Watari is better at these thing than I am."

"Yeah well he isn't here at the moment."

"Are you going to be able to help with the case knowing that Light-kun doesn't want you here," Ryuzaki asked.

"Yes, of course," she replied indignantly.

"Even though I believe he's Kira and I've never been wrong before," he asked.

"You're unusually talkative," Noriko muttered. "But yes, I...Well a part of me can understand why you think he's Kira."

"Really," he mused, as he stood up to face her, shoving his hands back into his pockets.

Noriko looked at the bandages and shrugged, they weren't perfect but, she pulled her shirt over them and sighed.

"I'd rather not explain myself right now, I'm tired and quite honestly I don't feel very good," she said.

"Of course. I do have one question though. What really happened to your arm," Ryuzaki asked.

"Huh," Noriko asked, cocking her head at him in confusion, he was looking at the scar from the bus incident. "Oh, I already told you."

"Yes, but you told the Yagami's something different."

Noriko blinked at him. "What are you talking about?"

"You told Mrs Yagami that you had cut it while making coffee and you dropped the pot and slipped. You told Watari-"

"I know what I said, but how do you," Noriko cut in.

Ryuzaki looked a little irritated at having been cut off, but answered anyways. "There were cameras in the Yagami household. I heard you say it and I saw the way you fidgeted, you were lying. You also glanced at Light for help, what happened?"

"I...I wasn't in my right mind and tried to slice my wrist alright, I'd really rather not talk about it," Noriko replied haughtily.

"That's a lie."

Noriko glared at him, why was he pushing the matter, what did it matter.

"If you had tried to kill yourself, I think someone as smart as you would have done a better job. The cut is too uneven and crooked," Ryuzaki replied.

"Is there a reason why you're interrogating me," she asked.

"You're hiding something. I want to know what."

Noriko swallowed, the look in his dark eyes was determined and calculating as he stared at her. "Light and I were on the bus that was hijacked by the guy who had killed people in Shinjuku. He blasted out the back window and a piece of the glass cut my arm," Noriko said a little unwillingly.

"I see, why didn't you stay and speak with the police?"

"I was a little more than freaked out at the time and Light wanted to get me far away from the sight of the guy's dead body. I watched the guy get run over, I wasn't in any condition to answer a bunch of questions. Not so soon after the whole thing with Katsuo at least," Noriko answered.

"Did you meet anyone on the bus, an F.B.I agent perhaps," Ryuzaki asked.

Noriko started slightly and stared at the raven haired detective.

'Do I tell him that we met that one man, Raye Pember, I think it was? Or do I lie?' Noriko asked.

'She's trying to think of an answer, the way she's hesitating leads me to believe that she and Light may have come into contact with an agent. If that's the case that may be the missing link I need to prove Light is Kira. Although the only proof is her word and that may not be enough, especially if she doesn't know anything else. But...No she's still hiding something. She wasn't surprised when I told her I was L and suspected her fiance. You would think a female who learned that her fiance was possibly a mass murderer would freak out, but she was calm, too calm. Not to mention she seemed to easily accept the idea of another Kira without hesitation saying that there were things that couldn't be explained in the world...What else does she know?' Ryuzaki thought as he stared at Noriko and chewed on the tip of his thumb.

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