Beyond shuffled through the grocery store, looking for the preserved fruit aisle. It had been two days since he had made any progress, and he hoped that more jam would help. The day he had sent L the riddle, he had found out that 12 FBI agents had died. If he had to guess, he thought that L had had them tail the police working with him in order to check if anything was suspicious. Well, turns out one of them must have been. Or, more likely, a family member of one of them. He also theorized that Kira could kill with more than just heart attacks. The recent bus-jacking held some evidence to this. The guy had robbed a bank, yes, but his subsequent hallucination didn't add up to his history. He was more or less mentally sound, and at his age schizophrenia would have already manifested. He took no medications, and had shown no indication of mental illness his entire life. The worst thing was aggression. Plus, if Kira could control his victim's actions before they died, as he did with the three prisoners who wrote messages on their cell walls with their blood, there was no reason he couldn't kill with methods other than heart attacks. It would also make sense if he had found the name of one agent, and used them to get the names and faces of the others before killing them.
Beyond reached the aisle he was looking for, and walked down it. Once he reached the jam, he stood and looked at it, trying to decide which one he would get. He knew he wanted strawberry, but he also kind of wanted raspberry for once. Not only that, but there were several different brands. Did he want the normal? Or the organic? The organic tasted better, but was more expensive. He had enough money at the moment, but he also didn't want to burn through it too quickly. As he stood there, pondering, another person came up behind him.
"Excuse me, I just need a jar of blueberry."
Beyond turned around and looked at the person. Light Yagami, huh? He thought. However, his attention was quickly drawn a little lower. Light Yagami had no death date. Beyond's mind raced through the possibilities, and most involved this guy being Kira. He smiled darkly before catching himself, moving to the side so Light could access the jams.
"Of course, I apologize for getting in your way." He responded.
Light just smiled and took a jar of blueberry. Beyond continued staring, and Light started feeling uncomfortable. After an awkward wave goodbye, Light left to continue his shopping. Beyond's gaze followed him until he was out of sight, and he grabbed a jar of strawberry jam before heading to the checkout. Looks like the jam did help, even if not in the way he intended. He now had a suspect. A very viable one, at that. Beyond had a lot of surveillance to do, now.
Light was walking down the street with his groceries in hand. His mother had sent him out to get her things for dinner, as well as a pie. Poor woman was looking for anything to distract herself with, at this point. She was worried about his father all the time, now, since he was working on the Kira case. Light himself knew that his father wasn't in any immediate danger at the moment, but only because he had no intention of killing his own father unless absolutely necessary for him to go on with his duties as God. He rolled his eyes as Ryuk laughed again. Damn, his laugh got annoying. It reminded him of the sound of bones grinding against each other. It sounded like death. Which, given that Ryuk was a shinigami, was appropriate. Ryuk leaned down to speak in Light's ear.
"Hey, Light, you sure are popular, aren't you?" he asked.
Light was struggling to tolerate the annoying shinigami. "What do you mean?" he asked quietly.
Ryuk laughed again. "Remember when you were being followed by that agent? Well, another guy's following you, now."
Light stiffened as he walked. Another person was following him? He didn't dare look behind him, since that would be suspicious, but simply kept walking. He made a couple of detours before getting to his house, to try and shake the man. He had no idea if it worked, so he quickly entered his house and locked the door behind him. Looking out the window, he saw no one. Was Ryuk just messing with him? No, Ryuk may not take a side in this war of justice, but he had been right about the FBI agent tailing him, and had expressed discomfort over it. Light's eyes darkened. He'd have to be more careful, if there was someone following him. He turned back to the kitchen, and put the bag down on the table.
"I got the food, mom. You didn't say what kind of pie you were making, so I just got blueberry jam. Is that okay?" he called out.
His mother poked her head around the corner. "Yes, Light! Of course that's okay! Sorry, I forgot to tell you!" she said.
Light smiled. "It's okay, mom. I'm just gonna go up to my room and study."
"Okay, sweetheart!"
Light headed up the stairs to his room, making sure to check his little 'trap'. The door handle was how it was supposed to be, and the paper was still there, too. Good. He opened the door and entered his room, closing and locking the door behind him. He took out the death note from it's hiding spot in his desk drawer. Sitting down, he pulled up the police database and began writing.
Beyond watched the house for a moment before turning around and heading back to his own 'home'. Light was quite suspicious, in his eyes. Especially since he had clearly noticed soeone following him, but didn't turn to find out who it was. Instead, Yagami had made three small detours in an attempt to shake him off. There was also the strange shadow following him. It wasn't his own, that much was clear, but Beyond didn't know what it was. If he looked directly at it, he couldn't see it. He only saw it when focusing on something else, and even then it was barely there. He also thought he had heard another person speaking, but it felt like static in the background of a radio station. It was maddening. What managed to convince him that he wasn't hallucinating, however, was the behavior of Light. When Beyond had heard the static, Light's demeanor had noticeably changed. It seemed that Light was perfectly well aware of the strange spectre following him, and that it had notified him of Beyond's presence. Beyond would have to continue following Light, to try to get to the bottom of this.
Beyond opened the now quiet door to his warehouse. He shuffled across the floor to his room, where he opened a jar of jam and started eating. He should probably find a way to get into the Yagami household without appearing suspicious. However, Light would automatically be suspicious. He was very intelligent, that much was clear from what he had seen so far, so would give away no clues to Beyond, even by accident. Beyond could possibly pretend to be a Kira supporter, to try to gain favor, but unless he did it perfectly, he would be suspected. He could possibly just break in to circumvent this, but he wouldn't get to know Light that way. Beyond decided that he would have to follow Light for a little while longer, learn his daily routine. Then he could come to a solution. He put his hand in the jar again, only to come up empty. He had already eaten all of it. He frowned slightly and put the now empty jar to the side. He laid down on his mat, and started to fall asleep. Even as he was starting to fall asleep, his mind raced through the case. Light was a student, and with how intelligent he seemed to be, he would most likely be going to a university. The easiest way to keep an eye on Light would be to enroll in school. This would certainly be interesting.
Beyond had been following Light for five days now, and he was beginning the sixth. Light never yielded anything, and everything he did was normal and inauspicious. Which is exactly why he was the number one suspect for Beyond. Light Yagami was too perfect. There was also the fact that he had no life span, but that wouldn't exactly be admissible in court. Beyond decided that he needed to get into the house that day, as he needed more information. He didn't know which university Light was planning on going to, and that was crucial to Beyond's plan on getting close to Light. Based on what he had observed so far, Light would definitely be going to a high-end school, like Touou. However, he needed to know for sure. Plus it would help to take a peek into his private life, possibly find some information he could use to his advantage.
He arrived at his destination, but stayed hidden in the bushes across the street. There was a large van in front of the household, and several government-types carrying things in and out. Looking closer, Beyond saw that they were cameras and microphones. Looks like L has the same suspect. He thought. He grimaced. This wasn't good for him at all, really. He wouldn't be able to hack into the camera system himself, as he neither had the necessary materials nor the technological capabilities. He could hack into police databases, sure, but he couldn't hack into bigger sites, like, say, interpol, or MI6, or L.
Beyond turned and left. Well, there goes his plan. Now he'd have to take several entrance exams, and just hope he saw Light at at least one of them. L just HAD to do that today, didn't he? Now Beyond had to keep following Light in a desperate attempt to find more information. He walked until he found where Light usually was; the library. Guy was always studying for one thing other. Beyond walked in, and grabbed a random book, sitting down a little ways away from Light. Looking at his book, he saw that that strange shadow was still there in the corner of his vision. He really wasn't paying attention to the book, and turned a page every couple of minutes.
Eventually, a person went up to Light and sat down across from him. He seemed cheery, must be an acquaintance from school.
"Hey, Light! Still studying for Touou, I see?" He greeted.
Light looked up, smiling. "Yeah, I really want to do as well as I can. It's the only school I'm really interested in, and I want to get in."
"Man, you already know you have it in the bag! You'll probably get a perfect score, the way you always do! Why not take a break, have fun with some friends, get a girlfriend!"
Light just kept smiling. "You're probably right, but I can't take a break. I don't want to take any chances."
The other kid frowned; looking at his face, Beyond saw that his name was Ryuji. "Light, you're cool and all, but you really need to cut loose every once in a while. I've gotta go, I'm going out with Shiro. Bye."
He left. Light simply went back to his studies, not caring in the least about the other boy's opinion. Beyond was quite happy with the results of that conversation. He now knew that Light was going to Touou, so now Beyond only had to take one test. Beyond got up, placing his book back. He now had to hack into Touou, and place himself in the entrance exams. Hopefully this case would be over soon.
As he walked, he wondered about his decision to catch Kira. It certainly wasn't due to a sense of justice, or moral superiority, as he himself had killed several people. He wasn't frightened of Kira, as his name and face were never released to the public, and weren't even in police files. The only file on him with his name and face belonged to L, and were most likely kept in Winchester at Wammy's. He thought the whole way home about this. Why did he want to catch Kira? As he sat down, opening a jar of jam, he came to a simple conclusion that should have been obvious from the start. He still wanted to beat L. If he could solve the Kira case, the most DIFFICULT case ever for L, he would beat him. He would prove his superiority once and for all. The copy would be superior to the original. Beyond smiled, and laughed as he took another handful of jam. It wasn't his practiced laugh, it was his true laugh. The one that sounded like bones scraping against one another. The laugh of a god of death.
A/N: yaaaaay! Chapter three! I really appreciate the good attention and reviews I've gotten. I never thought this would be so popular! I hope you all like this, and continue to enjoy it. Happy reading! :3