…………………………………………………………………………………………
Lawliet
…………………………………………………………………………………………
The world, this physical world as it came to be known, experienced, and understood by human race was quite a remarkable thing. This dark expanse of universe of star clouds and revolving planets, following a precise path dictated by the mysterious force of nature. Truly remarkable, when you picture it – the graceful dance of those enormous rocks, in an endless elliptic loop, in a swoop of hyperbolic escape, all describable with a simple notation of just a few symbols. Simply elegant.
Then, on a small patch of this vast space, occupied the human civilization, like a swarm of tiny insects. An ant colony. A beehive.
These creatures busily carried on within the clumsily erected structure that was society, billions of tiny lives composed of irrationality and inefficiency, blissfully unaware of the majestic absolute.
Kira's perfect world consisted of "kind-hearted" people. In Lawliet's perfect world – the occasion for such idle daydream was extremely rare but it did exist – the only non-inorganic constituent would be of pure consciousness, without the cumbersome skin, this biological system that humans had no choice but wearing 24/7, every single grueling day of entire lifespan, full of inconsistencies and ridiculous amount of repetitive catabolic and anabolic mechanism that made him shudder. A body that fed, farted, and shat.
What was even more ridiculous was the human nature that made such pointless activities into a respectable custom – take the daily ritual of having a meal, for example. Three times a day right on the clock, you sat around the table for the activity of simple eating, and heaven forbid, with the expectation of meaningless idle conversation.
He simply took care of energy intake as a sideline activity while he occupied himself with what he deemed more purposeful. His sweet tooth was not a petty indulgence that people made it out to be but rather, a precisely calculated intake of glucose. He understood well the bodily process of digestion and absorption to know how much sugar he needed and how often.
The repertoire of simple sugar items was not, by any means, out of his consideration for the digestive tract to unburden its task of breaking down carbohydrates. He simply liked the sweetness. Among the little joys and pleasures that physical body offered, this was one of the few things he simply enjoyed without wondering about the purpose. Sex was great too, sure. It was just that copulation – or… ahem… masturbation – was messy, not to mention impossible to multi-task. Sugar was clean and simple. Orgasmic ecstasy on the tip of the tongue.
Of course, he also understood the pathoetiology of various physical ailments, but change of life-style never crossed his mind. Diabetes was a chronic disease. His life did not require notions that involved "long-term" consideration.
Which was one of the reasons why various medical observations on the negative impact of sleep deprivation did not motivate him into more regular sleep pattern.
He dreaded the process of falling asleep – the suspended moment that the mind hesitated between levels of consciousness. Those few minutes of waiting, lying down, counting sheep, was a horrible waste, and yet you could not avoid it, had no choice but wait it out. Even worse, it was during that small window of opportunity that the mind tended to open its can of worms – idle thoughts that inevitably led to unpredictable emotional swirl. Not that he could not handle it. It was just… unpleasant. No need to go through the ritual every single night.
And so he kept his mind busy, maintained the comfortably ordered processes of information analysis. Only when he detected sluggishness, a decline in his reasoning – normally of lightning speed – that was not due to a lack of sugar or caffeine, did he close his eyes for rest… on a chair, on a floor, in a bathtub, etc. Mattress was fine too, if that was where he happened to be.
It was unfortunate for individuals within the vicinity of Lawliet when he neared this stage, for he did exhibit the typical human tendency of irritability when fatigued, and… unlike the typical sociable human beings, Lawliet did not restrain from showing the said irritability to his hapless companions. Normally this would not be a problem since it was not often that he found himself in the company of others. This Kira case was unusual in many ways. And it was very unfortunate indeed for one Yagami Light.
He was considerate enough to apologize to Chief Yagami, who seemed unsettled about the situation even more than Light, but he had no qualms about using this unorthodox, or even bizarre, method. Anything that might offer any clues in his investigation… To say that he was dedicated to his job was an understatement. It was his sole purpose, the greatest joy of his life. He relished in the victory. He fed off of it. Criminals he dealt with were the garbage of human beings that caused the most despicable mess, disruption of order, in the society that was already plagued with frustrating abundance of inconsistency. As for Kira, the audacity to assume the right of arbitrary punishment was even a greater abomination than the criminals that have been killed.
Justice.
Now that was a notion sweeter than shortcake.
Mercy had no place in Lawliet's ideal world. Only justice. An eye for an eye. It was clean and simple. And that was what Kira would be served with. Even if it turned out to be, with the finality of a hundred percent, this Yagami boy who was no doubt conniving but nonetheless quite likable, as he came to realize during the last few days.
He figured he needed to sleep, as he found his mind wandering to the undesirable regions of thought. Likableness… had no place in the profiling of a criminal. He attempted closing his eyes and awaited the quick descent of oblivion.
Too slow. He raised his chin back up from his knees in irritation and let his lethargic gaze drift over to the window.
He wished it were raining. Millions of big fat drops of water like tiny razorblades hitting his skin with satisfying momentum would leave him rejuvenated like the after-feeling of a hard scrub by one of those black-bikini clad Amazon ladies of Korean bathhouses. Regrettably, the day was bright and that damned sunlight was casting insistent rays into the room, reflecting off tiny dusts floating in the air with plankton-like movements that made him dizzy.
Such was human nature to feel like a toddler throwing a tantrum when the desired is beyond reach. There was nothing he could do about the weather, and now he really wanted the refreshing sensation against his skin. He decided to go for the next best thing.
He jumped without a warning out of the plush chair in which he had been cocooned for the previous hour, the chain mercilessly yanking taut in the space between the two individuals it connected.
"Hey!"
Startled Light grabbed his aching wrist with his free hand, the laptop sliding off his lap to the floor with a clang. Like the countless times in the span of past few days, he had no choice but stumble after him.
"Where are you going?"
Ryuuzaki rudely dragged the clueless boy behind him without providing an answer. The need for a cool shower of water was too urgent to explain his behavior to this person who was, at the moment, only an inconvenient accessory attached to his wrist. He hurried to the nearest bathroom, slid open the glass door. Light stood speechless as fully clothed Ryuuzaki walked into the shower stall.
"Shit!"
Light jumped, only so far as the chain would allow, as a sudden barrage of cold stream of water descended upon them. He was thankfully out of the way to remain relatively dry but the splashing water drops were quickly soaking his hair and shirt.
Ryuuzaki, on the other hand, was completely ignoring his companion's predicament, mind blank with the blissful coldness numbing his face under the stream. That was, until it suddenly stopped as the hand of angry Light reached in and turned the faucet close. He turned his head, finally acknowledging the presence of the boy, with an annoyed frown.
Before he could decide on a most suitable response for the situation, he found himself slammed against the tile wall, a pair of furious eyes close enough to touch his hair.
"What's the matter with you?"
"Calm down," he replied simply, pushing Light's hands away from his front.
The brown eyes flashed.
"Calm down? Calm down?" The trembling hands in righteous anger grabbed his shirt again, yanking him off the wall.
"I've had enough! What the hell's wrong with you, Ryuuzaki? This is ridiculous, fucking ridiculous! I've fucking had it!"
Ryuuzaki grinned at such uncharacteristic torrent of expletives spewing off the mouth of this pissed-off teenager. He personally never used such foul words. Swearing was a futile expression of uncontrolled human weakness that carried no meaning, served no purpose other than revealing the indignation of the speaker. When he felt the necessity of antagonizing someone, he used a precise vocabulary in a meaningful sentence that would actually serve the purpose of antagonizing.
At the moment, however, he definitely did not want to antagonize this boy. Now that he thought about it, Light had shown an admirable patience with him so far considering how often he had just dragged off the poor boy to the kitchen, to the bathroom, to the roof… whereas Light, ever so polite and well behaved, had asked his consent before going anywhere. Now he felt bad.
But trying to think of a suitable response to placate this raging boy was quite difficult when your head was being shaken back and forth. Giving up on a verbal response, he shook off the offending hands and pushed Light off… maybe a little too hard than intended, as the boy lost his balance and started to fall. Pulled by the chain, Ryuuzaki lost his footing as well. Light struck the floor first on his back only to have Ryuuzaki's falling body slam into his stomach, air whooshing out of his lungs.
Oops.
"Fuck you!"
The fist connected to Ryuuzaki's jaw, sending him rolling off to one side. Even though his head was reeling, the fighter's instinct took over and he swiped one foot under Light, who was just beginning to clamber to his feet, and threw a punch of his own at Light's face.
Light was thrown to his side but deftly shot up and immediately climbed on top of Ryuuzaki's torso, grabbing at his shirt while the other hand raised in the air, ready to throw another punch.
Ryuuzaki could not help a grin, feeling the idiocy of the situation. He let out a chuckle. And saw the raging fire in Light's eyes subside. A frustrated sigh escaped from the boy's lips.
"What's gotten into you?" Light asked reproachfully, lifting his weight off Ryuuzaki's sprawled form.
"I'm sorry."
Well, that came out more deadpan than he intended. He knew sincerity when he heard it, but how did one express it? At least Yagami boy seemed calmed down. He would have to be more mindful of his presence from now on. The Kira case was certainly unusual… it was forcing him to do many things differently.
He felt the coldness of his wet hair clinging to his scalp and forehead. The chill, together with the soreness in his jaw, was strangely soothing, and he closed his eyes in content.
"I can't believe I've gotten all wet for no apparent reason. This must be the stupidest… Hey… hey!"
He cracked open one eye in annoyance and swatted at Light's hand that was shaking his shoulder.
"I need to sleep, Yagami-kun."
Light threw up his hands in the air.
"Oh, for fuck's sake! Will you get the hell up?"
The boy seriously needed to mind precision of words. Would Kira lose his calm like this in such a situation? He vaguely wondered as Light pulled him off the floor and led him to the bedroom.
His body was pleasantly tired and the mental fog was descending on him with a satisfying speed that promised no sheep to count. He absentmindedly took off his wet articles with Light's prompt and dropped to the bed, not caring his still wet hair soaking the pillow. Yes, it was going to be a nice restful sleep, which he had not had in a while.
"I don't believe this. I don't fucking believe this…"
The spring of the mattress rippled from the agitated movements of his companion toweling off his hair, and the unhappy mutter jabbed annoyingly at his fast receding consciousness.
"Shut up, Yagami."
"Fuck you."
Tsk tsk. Such imprecise words.
……………………………………………………………………………………