Disclaimer: My name is King, I go though four eyeliners and a jar of coffee in one month and I do not own Death Note.
Devil's Trill
I: The Problem of Evil
CH3
Finger-Pointing
Something as dreary as brushing teeth in the morning was nothing to pay particular mind to, Light knew this. And yet for the entire course of the previous day he engaged in the activity whooping twenty-six times.
His gums of course bled; his mouth tasted of metal and Extra-Strong Minty Fresh toothpaste and he couldn't really mask the taste with food because any food he tried eating didn't stay down for long: vomiting was followed by more teeth-brushing activity, and thus the taste.
In any case, Light found that the obnoxiously-fresh taste of toothpaste kept him alert and distracted, so he figured why not. Every half an hour he would brush his teeth. In a way, for someone depressed Light's 'brushing teeth' would equal to cutting, but this was Light, and Light brushed his teeth.
So it was no wonder that the day after Sunday at seven in the morning, Light was vigorously brushing his teeth for the twenty-seventh time. He really didn't need to wake up that early: his first lecture and midterm of ironically, Psychology didn't start until afternoon.
He should have really at least tried getting more sleep, Light's reflection in the bathroom mirror told him this, but in truth he knew there was no way he could sleep even if he confined himself to bed for twenty-four hours. Wouldn't fly for three simple reasons: he couldn't fall asleep, too paranoid though Mogi told him they'd put two street cops around the building for surveillance just to make sure, if he did fall asleep he would be woken less then an hour later by very nightmarish eyes as the previous day proved, and three, well he was regularly phoned by his father's underlings to make sure he was fine.
Every five fucking minutes.
That's what really got Light's wheels turning.
It seemed the universe was taking a new shape entirely, one where everything was flipping out on Light.
Hey look, his toothpaste just ran out.
Yesterday he was sulking, jumping at any random noise and walking around his own house with a kitchen knife tucked in his belt.
Just in case.
Because, well, regular calls form either Matsuda or Mogi the bold and obvious purpose of which was to check if he was still alive did much to ease his paranoia, really.
But nohoho, not Aizawa, never Aizawa. Aizawa took a firm stand behind his father when it came to Light and Soichiro messy relationship which wasn't that surprising considering the man had a family. Aizawa had yet to speak to Light.
Stupid toothpaste, not coming out...
Light rolled the empty tube, tried wringing it and even went as far as trying to force the gel out with his teeth, but with no avail. Realizing he was fighting a losing battle, Light tossed the offensive thing against the bathroom wall.
It bounced and hit the mirror, splattering its very last precious contents onto Light's reflection.
Wow.
Light shot the damned thing one last glare before retreating without as much as bothering to pick it up.
It was too early to do anything and normally at this time, Light would be scooping up his oatmeal and reading last night's paper... He tried that, but on his third spoon-full he had to dart to the bathroom and greet the toilet.
Fucking hell, if Light didn't know better, he swore to god his logical move would've been to run down to the local drugstore and buy some pregnancy tests. Come on, he knew he was stronger then that! Why was his body reacting so violently? Not that throwing up due to severe stress was all that uncommon; on the contrary it was typical... for teenage female population.
Light angrily slammed his fists against the cold tiles.
Oh, this was pathetic and hopeless.
Screw Mogi and his suggestion to go through counseling. Screw him! Light knew he was fine; he could deal with this himself.
...and he would have been just fine right now had Ryuzaki Rue never existed. That man, that asshole absolutely wiped Light dry of self-centered excuses and made him feel guilty, worthless, weak. Yagami Light did that to people, not the other way around! Arg, how much did he want to find that man and just punch him in the face...
Somehow, Ryuzaki Rue was directly responsible for everything, Light just knew it.
So when Matsuda called to 'see how Light was doing', Light didn't spare the poor detective's ears from yet another rant of how Ryuzaki Rue should die in a fire.
"...and that's why the bastard should die in a fire. Has he even called back yet?"
"No Light, he didn't call back. He didn't doom the whole department yet though, so that's kinda good news, we're still getting our helicopter." Matsuda's squeaky exited voice reminded Light of his sister who was currently fourteen and obsessed with Twilight – and for a police officer, that was positively bad.
"Oh yeah? Well he should go and see what he's paying for, maybe he'd die of a heart attack when he sees what you've turned the office into."
"Haha, you don't know the half of it. It got even crazier, Ukita, you know the hot one? She yelled at Yagami-san yesterday, all threatening to quit and stuff. He let her move to that far desk by the phones, you know the one that's least cluttered... We're not getting even close though, all the old stuff... We had a two hundred and fourteen-page fax yesterday, can you believe that? A two hundred and fourteen-page fax..."
-
Light left for To-oh four hours later, somewhat content that he managed to finish his oatmeal after ranting about Ryuzaki Rue and listening to Matsuda's streaming rubbish in turn; Matsuda-talk was always so uplifting that it managed to make Light feel somewhat better, so he could eat.
But that lasted only until he left the safety of his shitty apartment and joined people on their regular morning commute.
In the crowd, Light spotted a tall crazy-looking man with black hair, who was wearing jeans. He nearly jumped and screamed. The man didn't seem to notice him and merrily kept walking the direction that just happened to be towards Light.
Light took a few anxious steps back and bumped into someone.
"Watch where you going!" The guy behind him yelled, and much to Light's horror, this man also had gelled-up black hair and was wearing jeans.
"Hey, you okay kid?" But Light just kept staring and backing away... before turning around and darting towards the middle of the living mass, only to stand right next to another man about his height who was also wearing jeans and had black shoulder-length hair.
Light stopped altogether, disrupting the overall flow of the crowd and provoking some angry comments. Several of which came from several other men that were wearing jeans and had black hair.
"Gah!" And Light bolted right out of the hellish circle of psychotic murderers in the general direction of the To-oh and did not once stop until he reached the building. Panting and horrified, he slumped on one of the many benches and took his head in his heads.
...not that much of an uncommon sight because after all, this was a very prestigious university on the day of a very important mid-term Psychology exam.
In other words, students were bumping into each other because they were walk-reading their textbooks. Some were franticly pacing around the entrance of the exam hall, waiting to be let in. Some, as Light appeared to be doing, just gave up, sat on a bench and held their heads in their palms, calculating their possible grade drop should they (eminently) fail.
Although Light was rather thinking of crazy killers stalking him, nobody could read his mind so they assumed that Yagami Light was finally cracking under the pressure along with the rest of the world.
Later on came the undeniable proof that the world was really cracking.
Light stared at his test paper. Particularly at the answer he just wrote. It was wrong. Though he managed to catch his own mistake, it was already written down, and it was dead wrong. And there it was, in Light's own writing, a wrong answer.
Light stared at it for another minute, unable to comprehend. Still unsure of what the hell just happened, Light erased the wrong answer and proceeded to stare blankly at the eraser shavings. Eraser shavings on his test paper, evidence that he erased. Yagami Light never erased anything either, especially not on a test because everything he did was perfect and right and it never gave him a reason to erase.
Yet here were tiny dirty rubber bits, proof that he was wrong.
When Light finally snapped out of it and proceeded to correct the answer, he spotted another one on the page. And then another one. And another.
Before he could catch himself, he was correcting the entire exam and though there was more than one correct answer for each question, it seemed to Light he picked all the wrong ones. At the end, he ended up barely finishing the test on time and walked out with the crowd (of generally black-haired male students in jeans) as the test ended and not an hour before, as he usually would have finished way early.
Another wondrous thing was that he was unsure how he did, which itself wasn't at all different from incorrect answers and eraser shavings.
...Damn you Ryuzaki Rue!
This was directly the bastard's fault: it was he who initially made Light doubt himself and think himself less then he really was. Damn you, Ryuzaki Rue.
Light pretended that a random unfortunate rock on the sidewalk was actually Ryuzaki Rue's face just for the sake of kicking it. He aimed, drew back his foot and closed almost half the distance between his shoed toes and the rock when his phone vibrated violently, causing Light to miss the rock and instead drive his foot painfully into the very solid pavement.
Light performed a very impressive maneuver of pulling the phone out of his pocket and plopping on the nearby bench all while gracefully hopping on his uninjured foot.
"Yes, hello Misa".
"Ra-i-to! You meanie, you! Raito had to call Misa-Misa on Saturday, but he didn't! You know what the councilor said don't you! Regular calls and civil c-conv-converze... " Misa took a second the re-group her mind, "conversations! And Raito totally didn't call when he was supposed to! But Misa knows Raito doesn't like it when Misa calls him not on the scheduled time, so Misa didn't! But Misa's time is today so Misa called!"
"…" Light really didn't have the energy for this right now; especially when 'this' meant dealing with a recognized queen of speed-talking.
"Hi!"
"Yes. Hello Misa. Sorry I didn't call. I was busy."
"Busy? Busy, yay! Good for you! Raito was on a daaate? With a new giiirlfied? Is she preeety?"
"No Misa, I wasn't on a date. I was studying," Light lied.
"Hmm, studying again? Well that's no fun" Misa puffed her cheeks over the phone, "No wonder Raito sounds so... like, dead. But that's okay! Misa's gonna cheer you up! Did you see the Pink!GOstar Magazine this morning, did you? It's all true! Misa went on a date with Ryuga Hideki! 'Superstar Model Misa-Misa went on a date with movie star Ryuga Hideki!' It was sooo amazing! Ryuga-san took Misa to..."
"Misa."
"Raito doesn't want Misa to tell him about her amazing date?"
"Misa, I'm sorry I'm really tired right-"
"But Raito can listen, can't he? Or maybe he doesn't want to?"
"Misa, it's not that I don't care, I really do, but I-"
"Aha! Misa knows! Raito won't listen because. Raito. Is. Jealous!"
This wasn't getting him far.
"See! Acceptance is the first step now that we established that you're totally jealous, let me tell you about my amazing date with Ryuga Hide-"
Light hung up.
"So what exactly is it that changed so drastically in past two hours that I have to be delivered to the headquarters?"
Light, who was currently seated at the back of a street police car, did not appreciate Aizawa's presence one bit, and Aizawa in turn was more agreeable only by so much.
Five minutes ago, Light's brilliant plan to get home and blissfully sulk for the rest of the day (and preferably stop by a kitchen utensil store to purchase a nice big butcher knife, just in case) were interrupted by Aizawa in a car, who was to take Light back to the investigation quarters.
With no forewarning, mind you.
The evil man was probably supposed to give him a forewarning, but he probably purposely forgot.
Just to get the kicks out of watching Light nearly wet his panties when he honked the car right behind the unfortunate student as the later was spacing out.
Spacing out whilst imagining equipping his tiny shithole-home Home Alone style, by the way – but this wasn't the point.
The point was, Light did not appreciate Aizawa's presence one bit.
"Rue, that's what changed"
Light's blood went cold at the implication of having to talk to Ryuzaki Rue again. He wanted to kick the bastard in the balls, not have another psychologically-scrutinizing conversation with him.
"He wants something from me again?"
"He wants to talk to you. Again. And by the way, this... questioning may not end the way it did last time."
"I can't hang up on him again."
"Not exactly. You will be questioned in the interrogating room as you were, though by him personally this time. You may not insult him of refuse to talk to him, seeing as no phones are involved."
"I have to talk to Ryuzaki Rue in person."
"Yes."
"I thought he was a paranoid freak; he's willing to show his face to someone known to have encountered L?"
"He will be behind a one-way glass."
"Oh. Of course."
The rest of the ride would have passed in awkward silence if the ride itself wasn't just under two hours. Light's iPod battery died quickly seeing as he paid no mind to charging it over the weekend, and a mile-an-hour speed of a traffic jam did little to make the time go faster.
Light fell four seconds short of starting a Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament with himself when Aizawa, equally bored with equal iPod battery remaining, broke first.
"So what happened to your leg?"
"...I fell."
"Raito, you seem to be losing your brilliant ability to lie."
"Hn."
"..."
"..."
"...well than."
"...Rue should be scared, L is gonna go after him," Light finally exploded seemingly out of nowhere.
Interested, Aizawa tuned from the driver's seat to look at Light.
"How do you figure?"
"Well, Rue's scared out of his wits by now. We know L goes after rich bastards if they cheat, lie, kill and steal for their wealth. Rue wouldn't be scared if he didn't fall into that category."
"I see..."
"I find it a lot easier to just trial the bastard ourselves so he can rot in prison, he'll be safe from L in prison, won't he. Or maybe L should get him, that'd be a lot easier also."
"Yes. Mogi warned me about this..."
"What?"
"Ranting and Rue-bashing. You've been doing that a lot lately, he tells me."
"Hn."
Light really wouldn't want anyone to be dealt in a way he saw L deal with his victim. No one, not even the worst enemy of humanity. Right now however, he needed a scapegoat, and harmless exaggerating won't cause much harm. Ryuzaki Rue was more likely to be guilty then not.
Besides, Light physically injured his foot because of the bastard. He totally deserved bashing.
Aizawa backtracked the conversation to where it was still a good one.
"L does not limit himself only to the guilty, by far not. We got a fax about it yesterday... well, more like a literally essay written by four FBI agents who had been on the case for two years. With notes, evidence and possible intent. Two hundred and fourteen pages of it. Not just Rue, everybody should be afraid."
Light considered this. Though news and internet labeled all L victims as innocent, it was obvious they were not. Rich bastards were the minority of the victims, actually. L also 'liked' rapists, serial killers and vegetarians.
Some of the fallen were children under sixteen, though those were dealt with in much less of a grotesque manner.
Quite a few had been guilty of nothing more then cheating on their spouse.
Many had done nothing wrong at all. No connections between the victims. Hundreds of victims around the world. From rooms full of butchered to single incidents of poisoning, the way of killings varied greatly. Many times all that pointed to L was the business card.
Hundreds of victims. Not as much as a hair for evidence.
Hundreds of victims no restrictions, all completely random.
Why was Light still alive?
"..."
"Ryuzaki Rue is also known to be a coward and hide like a coward and run from danger at first whiff of it."
That was one thing that bothered Light the most.
He knew this; Rue was the king of cowards.
Then why was Ryuzaki Rue in the lair of the beast when the beast was hungry?
"Like I told you eight last times, I don't remember what he looked like."
"General details please, Yagami-san. How tall is he? Are you certain about 'his' gender? Hair? What is his nationality? Any identifying articles of clothing? Horns and a tail, perhaps?"
Light was begging to lose his composure the minute he walked into the interrogating room. Half an hour later, he was drained.
Ryuzaki Rue's voice, coming from the speakers managed to be calm and at the same time aggressive and demanding. Just like last time. It made Light feel naked, exposed.
"About my height. Male. Black hair. He had light skin. Blue jeans and a shirt. No tail, don't know about horns."
"Those details are too general, Yagami-san. Please be more specific."
Light let out a long and heavy sigh as he took his face into his hands.
For fuck's sake.
He couldn't take this much longer.
"Alright, let us start from the begging, Yagami-san. Please describe the manner in which this man proceeded to skin the victim's left arm..."
-
Behind the one-way glass, Soichiro Yagami could not take it much longer either. Light, his only son who should be in mental rehab right now among comfort and non-stress and other things that helped one's mental recovery, instead of sitting in the interrogation room and being drilled with questions answers to which will haunt him for the rest of his life.
On the other side of the mirror, Light sat alone in a small room, feeble and wretched to his core. Poor boy looked just about ready to cry.
Soichiro's fists tightened and his nails dug deeper into his palms. Here he was, helplessly watching this... thing that was Ryuzaki Rue, destroy his son.
And what a thing it was.
At first glance, Ryuzaki Rue looked filthy. His old jeans were tattered and the bottom rim was torn and threaded from extensive use. Smears decorated its sides and there were patches everywhere. Old jeans hung loosely around the man's hips, revealing a patch of very pale belly-skin.
The v-neck shirt Ryuzaki Rue wore was surprisingly bleach-clean.
Soichiro wondered if Rue decided to wear a clean shirt for the sake of the occasion.
Physically, the man looked shabby; his skin and bones gave impression that they could easily be snapped like twigs. His skin was pale, sickly and yet smooth and flawless, porcelain almost.
Rue's face was something else entirely.
Thin, white lips, pointy nose and deep, large black eyes. Ryuzaki Rue only seemed to have large black pupils for eyes as if no color was ever present there to begin with. Huge black bags framed his eyes, and his overall features made him look intelligent and experienced despite his age.
Which Soichiro placed to be somewhere between sixteen and thirty.
No, really.
The chief of Japanese National Police, Kanto Region, whose specialty was profiling and description adaptation, could not place age or race to the creature sitting beside him.
Ryuzaki's inky and wild hair made Soichiro guess Asian heritage at first, but then he reconsidered, seeing as the man's cheekbones were much too low to be Asian. Caucasian? No white male could have such a small build and large eyes. Slavic? Native American?
An in-bread mix of everything?
Rue's hair looked like it hadn't been washed for weeks, though that appeared to be not the case when Chief Yagami walked by Rue and nearly chocked on the overwhelming smell of very strong soap.
Simply put, the vile thing that was driving his handsome son up a wall and into an early grave took a bath in laundry detergent this morning.
Every time Rue opened his mouth, out came nothing but demands, orders and some inside mockery only Rue himself could understand.
He sat crouched in his chair, leaning over the microphone. He was eating cake with tea.
With his knees pressed tightly against his chest, as if he was protecting himself from something.
Soichiro Yagami, despite everything, felt sympathy for the little hermit.
Rue looked... sad and lonely.
Still though, he couldn't help but get mixed feelings about Ryuzaki Rue.
And it disturbed him. It all did. Behind shabby clothing, sickly appearance and kicked puppy behind a wall look, lurked intelligence. The kind of sick intelligence that made Soichiro uneasy.
The same kind of sick intelligence that lurked in Rue's black eyes when he asked Light specific details of the ugly murder.
Sick, intelligent pleasure. This creature was getting the kicks out of this.
Soichiro could take this no more.
"Stop this, Ryuzaki-san, right now, stop this."
'Ryuzaki' did not move his eyes away from Light (who by the way was begging to fidget in his chair), but stopped his line questioning.
"You had enough time with him," Soichiro continued. "Leave him be, he obviously can't remember anything about L."
Ryuzaki said nothing but made no sign of complying.
Watari, Ryuzaki's 'personal assistant' that looked more like a battler but Soichiro knew better and labeled the man 'Ryuzaki Rue's Caretaker' approached the young man from behind and quietly said a few words in English.
Ryuzaki still did not move.
The ever-present team of four, as Soichiro called Matsuda, Aizawa, Mogi and Ide held their breath. Well, three of them did, anyway.
"Come on, Rue-san, please let him go now, he's really stressed and he won't remember anything anyway, like last time we questioned him. He was drunk that day to I think, so he won't know..."
"Matsuda-san."
Rue spoke and Matsuda snapped military-style.
"Yes sir!"
"I will determine when I have finished interrogating my witness, thank you."
"But... but! He obviously can't remember L!"
"He was there and he is not dim-whittled. He should be able to answer simple questions like how tall L is!"
"But he was drunk! Besides, he said he was about as tall himself!"
"Shut your mouth, Matsuda!" Aizawa pitched in.
"I apologize for incompetence of our witness; however Rue-san was warned that Raito would be next to useless in identifying L. This is clear now. Please end this."
"It clear that he was not interrogated enough. Please sit down and I will end questioning him in his due time."
"He can't take it! Just look at him, he's about to go into like... a panic attack!.."
"Matsuda-san, please shut your mouth."
-
Light was obviously unaware of the argument commencing behind the one-way mirror. All he knew was that Ryuzaki Rue's microphone was dead for quite a while now.
"Hello? Anyone there? What's going on?"
No response.
Huh.
Maybe this Ryuzaki decided to end his interrogation mid-sentence? Unlikely, but possible. He could always hope because all he wanted right now was to go home, or at least make it to the nearest bathroom and throw up and then cry. He felt dead inside.
"Hello? Am I free to go now?"
Still nothing.
Odd.
Light looked at the door. Might as well, it shouldn't be locked. They were wasting his time anyway.
He would get up from his chair, reach for the knob, open it, leave...
The door burst open before he could even mentally reach it.
First thing he saw was his father, almost physically blocking the way of another person, trying to prevent him from entering...
Person...
One glimpse was all it took...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
With his hands high in the air, Light fell out of his chair and continued to scream.
Behind the one-way mirror, the remaining team chuckled at the thought of Ryuzaki Rue being able to scare a grown child with his horrid appearance alone.
Soichiro stilled because he had never seen his son raise his voice, let alone cry out like that.
Ryuzaki Rue leaned against the door frame and locked his eyes with Light.
Light let out another terrified cry. Slowly he raised his violently trebling hand and pointed a shaky finger at Rue and screamed again.
The team of four made it out from the back room to try to calm him down.
His father was saying something...
He heard nothing, he could not understand or make out words or see...
All Light Yagami saw was black eyes, those black eyes, he'd seen those eyes once before.
Once.
He continued to scream.
Breath left him, he started to choke and he felt his heart go haywire.
He kept screaming.
Hands were on him trying to force him up, tell him something...
He felt and heard and saw nothing but the man.
"YOU! YOU! I SAW YOU! IT WAS YOU! YOU!"
--
By the time Light was hurled into the headquarters' Med Room and injected with some mild tranquilizers, he himself realized he'd had a panic attack.
The realization though came empty and as more of a by-the-way thought than anything else. Just like everything that was entering and exiting his circle of thoughts. Nothing really had a meaning, nothing felt too important to pay much thought to, and nothing really mattered.
Everything was empty, shallow and unimportant, so Light sat on his med cot and stared blankly at the opposing wall as if the wall was the sole important thing in the universe. His breathing was on autopilot; unfortunately his blinking was not, so his retinas were quickly drying out.
"Raito-kun! Raito-kun, can you hear me? Raito-kun, you have to blink..."
Light absently did as he was told. Once. Then the function was forgotten again.
"Raito-kun..."
"He's in shock"
"Son, son can you hear me? Come on Raito snap out of it, we'll give you meds and then I'll take you home to see your mother and Sayu, just lie back down..."
Light could hear the door crack open, but he regarded it as something also unimportant; nobody in the room noticed it either.
"Shiba-sensei, give him something already!"
"You can't just stuff the boy full of meds; poor thing's scared out of his wits. I gave him all I could already, he needs rest and therapy like I told Yagami-san he should be getting four days ago! Really, nobody listens to the doctor anymore."
"I know it's my fault Takako-san. He can come home with me, I'll get him some therapy, I was too hard on him those few months I know it... what else can I do for him?"
"Rest, peace and loving atmosphere. The usual. He was under so much stress already, then the whole event and the aftermath... A grown man can't handle this, but a teenage boy..."
"How long'll he be like that?"
"You should be familiar with shock Matsuda, don't ask stupid questions."
"But it's Raito-kun..."
"He can snap out of it somewhere between the next few minutes and a few months. Matsuda, don't ask stupid questions. What triggered this?"
"We're not... sure. Ryuzaki Rue did I think, well Raito was pointing and screaming at him so we're sure Ryuzaki Rue triggered this, but I don't see..."
Light visibly cringed at the name.
"Mogi don't say his name! Calm down Raito, its okay..."
"Raito really doesn't like that guy though; he was ranting about him all weekend."
"Hm?"
"Oh you don't know, he was all like 'Rue sucks, Rue's a buttshole, blah blah!'. He has the right to though; Rue's not a pleasant person. Not that pretty to look at, probably scared Raito-kun with his looks..."
"It wasn't his clothes."
Light said this, his voice monotone and quiet. The room went silent.
"I'm alright, and it wasn't his clothes. Ryuzaki Rue is the man I saw at the Koi Pond four nights ago."
For a while nobody said a word.
"Raito, I know this is stressful for you, you may think things that didn't happen and your mind is playing tricks on you..."
"No. Ryuzaki Rue is the man I saw at the Koi Pond four nights ago. I'm sure of it. It was Ryuzaki Rue."
"Alright, let's get you home now..."
"No dad. I'm not crazy and I can think perfectly. No, just listen to me," he said as Mogi was trying to approach him.
The little wheels and screws that turned the delicate mechanism of his brain were working at their full capacity. Everything that was screwing with his brain up until now was gone.
Light Yagami could finally think again, his mind was clear and he saw things he'd missed before. Everything clicked in its place, every little piece fit perfectly, and the fault of not recognizing it for what it all really meant fell on his disturbed mindset.
Not now though. His genius came back.
When he was sure he had everyone's complete attention, he elaborated.
"Ryuzaki Rue is L. There is no doubt he's the man I saw. It explains how he knew there was a witness. There was no leak, everyone on this investigation team are faithful to the investigation and would leak nothing. Ryuzaki Rue knew there was a witness because he left a witness."
"He insisted on interrogating me himself to see if I remembered him. When that failed, he decided to test if I would recognize him when I saw his person. I did. Ryuzaki Rue is L."
When nobody interrupted him, he went on.
"Ryuzaki Rue, and I mean the real one, is likely dead. The real Ryuzaki Rue is a rich bastard that falls into the category of L's targets; this makes it easier for L to kill him. Ryuzaki Rue is also an antisocial freak that nobody's seen before. It was easy as hell for L to assume his identity. Think about it, why would Ryuzaki Rue suddenly show himself to us when he successfully avoided the world his entire life?"
Even Matsuda assumed a thinking expression.
"Raito... let's get you home, alright?"
"Dad you can't be serious!"
"Raito, look... you've been though a lot. How about this, I take you home, your mother will make you a nice cup of tea and we all go to bed. I want you to come home with me, no more of the living alone business, we'll move your things back tomorrow morning. None of the L business for you either, not until you're feeling better, alright?"
"Dad!"
"No Raito, listen to me. You make a good point, but you can't walk around accusing people on no grounds. I know you think things are real but they are not, do you understand?"
"I'm telling you, Ryuzaki Rue is the-"
"Raito-kun, please listen to your dad, okay? Like five minutes ago you couldn't remember what L looked like and now you suddenly recognize him, and then you say Rue is L, and then you had a panic attack just now! You need to be healthy, we need you to be healthy, you're gonna join police in a few years and we need you badly, so please calm down and take it easy!"
Light couldn't believe this. Even Matsuda..?
"I know it makes sense in your head, it totally makes sense in my head too, but..."
"Matsuda's right, Raito. It's more than clear that you dislike Ryuzaki Rue. It's not that we're accusing you of anything kid, but you have to understand this doesn't look too good for you; you were accusing Rue of random crimes all weekend and now this is just-"
"I'm not making this up!"
"Son, we know you're not, it's the stress tricking your brain. You were almost crying in the interrogation room. Trauma and pressure can do that to you. What you need to do right now is calm down and go home-"
"Dad I'm not making this up! Rue's a person you know when you see him! I swear I saw him that night, I'm telling you-"
"Enough of this please!"
The door that cracked open earlier now burst open completely, revealing Ryuzaki Rue in all his shabby glory.
Light cowered away to the far side of his cot while his father and Matsuda both stood up.
"Rue-san..."
"You may call me Ryuzaki."
He must've been spying...
"I have been spying on this conversation," Ryuzaki declared.
No shit huh.
"...and I encourage the Japanese Task Force to regard any accusations moved forward by Yagami Raito-san in regards to me as completely untrue manifestations of troubled imagination."
And that's how you talk, do you.
Now that Light got over the initial shock, he finally could get a good look at this 'Ryuzaki', and he was getting quite an eyeful.
The tall, slouching creature in tattered jeans and a clean three-quarter sleeve shirt stood good five and a half feet above the ground; should he stand up to his full height he would be Light's even.
Long black hair framed his face, the pure black and shiny, the kind of black hair Asian people dyed their hair to have and yet the hair Ryuzaki had was obviously not dyed. In fact, it looked like it hadn't received a good brushing in years and the last haircut Ryuzaki got was done by a blind person with plastic safety scissors.
His facial features were... odd. Light couldn't call the man before him ugly in any way because he certainly was not. His skin was pale and grayish, sickly-looking but very even and smooth. The kind of skin that was tanned by the cold glow of a monitor for years.
Thin lips, pointy sharp nose. But it were the eyes that Light recognized above all else. The large, round black eyes that looked though you should you be of no importance, the eyes that ate your soul out should their owner look at you with interest. Very intelligent eyes.
And of course the ever-prominent bags under those eyes indicated that Ryuzaki hadn't had a minute of sleep in his whole entire life.
A creepy-looking person otherwise. Not that hard to believe that the man before him was a violent mass-murderer.
Minus of course the totally random pink lollipop Ryuzaki was happily lapping at.
"Right, Ryuzaki-san I don't believe it's a good idea for you to be in my son's presence right now. He obviously is not in his... correct state of mind at the moment."
"Yes, that much is apparent." Ryuzaki made no move to leave whatsoever.
"I'm in my right mind, father."
"No Yagami Raito-san, I am afraid you are not. I am unsure of what the intentions behind your accusations are, but I assure you nothing this ridiculous would hold true, especially considering your obvious dislike of me-"
"A witness is a witness and I saw you-"
"Also," apparently Ryuzaki did not like to be interrupted, "whatever credibility Yagami Raito-san had is now completely destroyed, considering his repeated outbursts of dislike towards me, is that correct Yagami-san?"
Light's father nodded.
"Dad, you can't just-"
For the first time, Ryuzaki wasn't addressing everyone in the room; he directly locked his eyes with Light's and Light lost his words.
"It is not up to Yagami Raito-san's father, it is up to the law. Also, should Yagami Raito-san choose to pursue me with the accusations he had laid on me, I would like to inform him that he should be holding sold proof in one hand, a warrant in his other hand and a government court order in his foot before he can approach me with the mentioned."
"So you're saying-"
"What I am saying is, unfortunately I have way too much money for Yagami Raito-san to point an accusing finger at me without any solid evidence, so I suggest against it, Raito-san."
"You sick bastard! I won't drop this so easily!"
Ryuzaki stared at Light icily.
"Well then, I supposethe gam-"
Somebody's phone rang cut Ryuzaki off.
"For crying out loud Matsuda you're supposed to turn your phone off!"
"Sorry, sorry..."
Matsuda reached in his pocket for the phone but didn't hand up when he saw the caller ID.
"Chief, it's director Takimura..."
"Damn it, our phones were off..."
"Chief, it's for you..."
His father took the phone. Within the minute he was listening to Takimura, his expression went from frustrated, to concerned, to angry, to the pale disturbed expression he had that day at the crime scene.
"There had been another L murder. Yotsuba this time," his father said gravely after hanging up.
The overcrowded medical room fell silent, and everyone was looking at Light and Ryuzaki.
Light himself was looking at Ryuzaki.
The game is on, isn't it? That's what you wanted to say, you bastard, wasn't it?