So I had two entrants in the contest...yeah, well I suppose that is something for me XP.
Thanks to everyone who alerted and added this story to their favorites last chapter and special thanks to my reviewers:
Lil Enchantress, KageMori, Guardian of Courage, watergoddesskasey, gemenin001928, Hentai-Otaku, Light love L Lawliet, deathnoteno1fan-codegeasslover, frnight, aquastreak243, MoonlessRoad, .Sailor.L and BondSlave.
Special thanks to Aoishii for entering the contest.
Chapter Eight: Discussion
Memory.
Psychologist's describe it as the mental ability to store, retain and recall information. Some people have better memories then others.
There are many different ways to remember, some people retain information learned from pictures, others from things they've heard, things they do etc.
The memory is function that can either help or hinder anyone.
Memories can be fleeting though and at the same time they can be regained or lost, they can haunt people.
They can cause people to act strangely or do odd things.
If there was one problem Raito was having with his second chance it was that some people seemed to retain partial memories of events from before and it was becoming difficult for him.
There had to be a way to either make them forget completely or to regain all previous memories.
What could he do though?
*****
A few days had passed since Raito had stormed out of the hotel room that contained the current headquarters for the case.
He had returned to the case the day after but he had carefully avoided the Detective and L had done the same with him, no one had questioned the fact.
They all just assumed they were too different, which in many ways was true-they were similar in many ways also but both would refuse to admit that fact-and the police officers had decided that though both bounced off each other when it came to theories, with no new evidence the pair would just annoy each other.
At that moment in time, Raito had just finished school for the day and was walking across the grounds when a surprisingly familiar sight caught his eye.
Standing beside the gates was a teenage girl with perfectly styled brunette hair, it was a little longer then he had ever remembered her having with it reaching her shoulders but it was still cut close to her face.
Her hazel eyes still had a sharp glint to them and with her shoulders held high she appeared to be as confident as ever.
One other thing that was different though was that she was in a school uniform. The skirt and collar were a burgundy color and the ribbon black, she wore matching black socks which reached her knees and she wore ballet flats.
The girl turned her head when she heard his footsteps and smile grew on her lips as she nodded at him in greeting.
Takada Kiyomi.
Why was she here though? She had no reason to come meet him, she shouldn't even know him yet. They met in college.
The thoughts whirled around his head as the girl walked over to him,
"Yagami Raito, I assume you recognize me?"
Recognize...did she somehow have memories of her past life?
The girl watched him, he seemed a lot less impressive then she remembered but then again it appeared that he was confused. Was she not supposed to have those memories...the shinigami had told her and that man-what was his name...oh, Mikami-that they had been important in Raito's former life after touching them with that notebook of his.
Something seemed amiss though, she felt like there was something missing so she'd came to find him.
Now a man that she was so sure she had been in love with didn't seem to know what was going on when he'd always had a plan before.
It was unusual, almost out of character.
"Yes, of course I do, look we can go to this café I know and talk."
He seemed to return to normal as he nodded at the girl and started to walk out of the gates but not before he was stopped by two giggling freshmen girls, one of them seemed almost timid and she was blushing as she avoided looking Raito in the face as the other just grinned and giggled openly.
"Yagami-senpai, Reiko here was hoping you would come to her house party this weekend, it's not going to be a big one sadly but she really wants you to come if ya catch my drift," she exclaimed as she squeezed her quiet friend's arm.
As the brunet was letting the girl's down gently Takada analyzed them, the brash one wore her skirt too short and was wearing far too much make up. It looked like she was model for a dirty magazine.
Most girls had no dignity in this day and age but Takada was different, she was more intelligent, more mature and more refined. You would never catch her selling herself out in such a way.
She would get along fine in life without having to resort to such low tactics.
The black haired woman found herself lost in her thoughts and hid her surprise as Raito mentioned that they had arrived as she took a seat in a booth at the back of the café. They waited for the waitress to take their order and bring their drinks over in silence but as soon as the young woman-who had been making painfully obvious looks at the male- had moved on, Raito got to business.
"How much do you know?"
"I know that in what has to be another life-for there is no explanation-you were exacting justice on criminals, that you were going to be a god and that you claimed I would be your goddess but that is all, and something seems to be different this time."
The brunet nodded as he thought things over, it was good that she hadn't realised that he had been the one to kill her, that would have made things difficult. Still, he had no use for her now, he didn't need a camouflage girlfriend and he most certainly didn't need media coverage or anyone to kill.
"Well that would be because there is no death note in human hands, this is a second chance for us all if you will, you can live your life how you wish."
The girl remained quiet as she sipped at her tea for a few minutes, her sharp gaze locked on his face unblinkingly-reminiscent of L the boy couldn't help but muse.
"You have given up on your dream? I have to admit, I am slightly disappointed."
Her comment caused the teenage male to frown,
"Of course I haven't, I still wish for a crime free world, I just have to find a better way to create it and the death note wasn't the way after all."
With a sigh, Takada nodded in agreement before she finished her tea, fishing out of her bag a small sheet of paper with her address and number on,
"Well, let's stay in contact then...if you're a great man as I remember then I wish to keep in contact with you...I shall see you another time," she responded, placing her half of the bill down on the table before she left with a glare at the waitress as she sauntered back over to the brunet.
How pathetic.
Raito remained seated for a little while longer, putting his portion of the bill on the table for the waitress to take before he finished off his coffee.
Well, that had been interesting. Takada was still interested in him and his ideals and she obviously still wished to help him.
He had to admit that though he had never been interested in her, that she had been slightly better company then Misa with her more mature out look on everything and her slightly over average intelligence. She hadn't been his ideal partner though and he wouldn't be placing that idea in her head this time.
Still, he may find some use for her in the future.
With that thought he left the building and headed for the nearby hotel which held the investigation headquarters for the moment.
*****
"Yagami-kun, we have had a development in the case."
Those were the words that Raito was greeted with as he entered the investigation room, the only people in the room at that moment in time were L, Watari, Matsuda and himself so it must have been important.
"What is it?" He asked, unable to help a hint of his excitement seeping through.
"This may not seem very important but it could be extremely helpful, we have had the original of the letter published in the newspaper handed in and we now know what newspapers the individual letters come from and they are all from broad sheets that are only statistically read by the middle class," L explained as he turned his head to monitor the other's expression.
"Which means that it isn't likely to be an angry customer or pimp," Raito muttered as he took a seat on the sofa opposite of L.
The black haired man nodded,
"Yes, your father insisted on passing the letter back onto forensics for more thorough research and the others have gone to get a list of names of those in the city who regularly buy those papers."
That was definitely something to go on and though the fact the killer was middle class probably raised the percentage of him being the killer, the two newspapers could lower it as the only one in the family who ever brought newspapers was his father and he only ever read one so he couldn't have sent the letter.
"Well it's definitely something to go on."
Matsuda who had been reading through an earlier report they had been given looked up at the pair of them,
"Does this mean the pair of you are going to start getting along again? The atmosphere is usually so tense when you're ignoring each other," he asked.
Black and hazel eyes met.
"There are some issues that you don't need to be aware of Matsuda but they aren't going to affect our work on the case so if getting along means you and the others can get on better with the case then we shall during work hours," L answered.
Matsuda sighed with a small grin,
"Okay then. Well I'm going to go take a break now if you don't mind...I'm sure you two will get along fine with the case alone," the officer commented before he left, humming to himself.
That was when Watari struck though,
"Matsuda had a point, I do not see why you two have been so cold towards each other recently, it all started that night you two were left alone...Ryuzaki, Yagami-kun, what happened?"
The old man was getting frustrated with his ward, he had avoided asking him what had happened as it had obviously disgruntled him, had been sure that L would come to him and explain it when he was ready but he hadn't.
Though it hadn't affected L's work on the case, it had affected his attitude and he had been colder then average to Raito and he wanted to know what had happened already.
Watari was determined to get to the bottom of it.
___________
Yeah, the ending wasn't linked to the rest of the chapter but trust me, both parts shall make sense later on.
So I hope you enjoyed and please review!
Oh and though you guys probably don't care I have now finished high school! I now just have to go back to exams and okay, I'll be going back to sixth form but still, I've finished high school woot!
So once again please review!