It was a while later that I had come home with a bag of snacks and sweets since this family was pretty lacking in unhealthy foods other than potato chips. However, when I walked in, I immediately felt like there was something off, but did my best not to act oddly. I took my sweets up to my room and noticed the mechanical pencil lead I had in the hinge was broken, but the paper was still in place. Not to mention the handle was all the way up instead of at a downward angle. I just opened the door, set down the bag, and sighed as I started digging through it to grab a chocolate bar to munch on as I sat down on my bed and absently stared at the door. All while ignoring the bored shinigami who was trying to get my attention.
After eating the chocolate bar and throwing out the wrapper, I started rifling through my bag in an act I had planned while I was eating the chocolate bar. After sighing with disappointment, I hid the bag under my desk and went to my closet to change out of my school uniform and into some actual pants and a hoodie before grabbing my jacket and leaving my closet. I dug in my jacket pocket to pull out my wallet and start counting the money I had in there. Shoving it back in, I left my room, only putting the paper back how I had had it in my door, then proceeded to leave the house again.
Once I was off my street, I checked my clothes, but like I expected, there were no bugs on them. Ryuk was now waving his arms and legs in an attempt to get me to talk to him.
"Someone was in my room today. There's wire taps and probably surveillance cameras hidden in my house." I told him.
"Really? But that piece of paper was still in your door wasn't it?"
"The paper was the obvious thing. If it was my mom or sister, they probably wouldn't've put it back. Besides, the handle of my door wasn't at an angle. And the mechanical pencil lead I had on the hinge was broken, so I know someone was in my room and they went through the effort of attempting to hide it."
"Now that you mention it…" Ryuk said thoughtfully.
I entered a store and went straight for the video game section. Trying to remember which ones I already had, I picked a kind of interesting looking one up and headed for the checkout counter.
"What's this all about? Are you buying something that'll help you figure this mess out?"
I ignored the shinigami as I paid for the thing and left the store. As I was walking, I tucked the video game into my jacket to hide it as I held it under my arm.
"By the way Ryuk, what about your apples?" I brought up the issue that I would use to manipulate the shinigami.
"Apples?" He gasped as he realized what I meant. "That's right! Surveillance cameras! Once the apple's in my mouth no one can see it, but while I'm holding it it looks like it's floating."
"I thought so." I replied. "You know shinigami can't die, so I guess it won't kill you to stop eating apples for a while."
"Don't you think that's a bit much?! Come on!" Ryuk complained. "I never told you this, but apples are to me what cigarettes and alcohol are to humans. Do you see what I'm saying? I even get withdrawal symptoms!"
"Oh yeah? Well, the only way you can continue eating apples is if you find a blind spot. Otherwise, my hint to L about shinigami loving apples will be made obvious if they start floating and disappearing in my house. You know what that means, right? You have to find out where all the cameras are hidden." I stopped in front of my house, then continued again. "Alright, let's go."
"Yeah! A camera search!" Ryuk flew into the house as I went to open the door.
When I got to my room, I retrieved my game console from it's hiding place and put in my new game. I threw myself down on my bed, laying on my stomach as I started playing one of my guilty pleasure genre games. It was a dating sim. Or an otome game. Whatever you want to call it, it's still freaking embarrassing to play. Even when I'm by myself and without cameras watching me.
"I found a camera in the air conditioner!" Ryuk called after a while.
"Dang, Ryouta's totally going to have the hardest flags." I muttered, sitting up to sit criss-cross as I continued reading the mushy crap on the screen.
After about an hour, I was getting frustrated with the game.
"The description was so misleading." I sighed, turning it off and getting up to go put the game into my hiding spot on the bookshelf. "Next time I'm getting an RPG. Screw these things." I huffed as I put the book cover back in place.
"Hey, Light!" Sayu called from downstairs. "Come on! Dinner's ready!"
I went and sat down to eat, but when I saw what had Sayu so interested in the T.V. I started choking and had to take a drink of water.
"Hideki Ryuuga. I swear he's perfect!" Sayu gushed.
"Seriously Sayu? That guy again?" I whined. "Why can't you just watch anime or something?"
"You only say that because he's a drama star and doesn't do as many romcoms!" She responded.
"Girls, just eat your dinner." Mom said tiredly.
"Yeah, in a minute." Sayu replied, looking back at the T.V. "Huh? What's this? ICPO?" Sayu said suddenly. "They're saying that in response to the Kira murders, Interpol has decided to dispatch a force of 1500 investigators to Japan. The investigators were drawn from the law enforcement agencies of its member nations." She read. "1500 investigators? Woah."
I set down my utensils, looking over at the T.V. in thought before I decided to do something risky. I readjusted myself into a crouch on the chair and smiled.
"The ICPO sure is stupid."
"Huh?" Sayu looked at me in confusion.
"There's no point in telling everyone that. They should probably keep the investigators they're sending here a secret. Even the FBI agents that were investigating in secret were killed. I wouldn't be surprised if Kira sees through that ploy there."
"Light, why are you sitting like that?" Sayu asked suddenly, changing the subject.
"Hm? Oh, I don't know. Just felt like it." I shrugged, then got up to put my plate in the sink and went over to the cupboard to grab the bag of chips I had prepared. "Thanks for dinner, Mom."
"Huh? You're eating a bag of chips? You just had dinner." Sayu said in surprise. "You're going to get fat if you keep that up."
I laughed and also started making myself some hot chocolate. "It's for later while I'm studying."
I got back to my room and found an exhausted Ryuk laying on my bed as I walked over to my desk.
"I think that's it Light. I found every camera in the house. I guess shinigami get tired when they work hard." He said as I sat down and opened some of my books. "Now, let me explain where they all are. It's a little bit complicated, so listen up. There's nothing I hate more than explaining something twice."
"Alright, time for me to start studying." I said, pulling up my right sleeve to below my elbow.
"There sure are a lot of cameras in this room. I counted sixty-four in total. I guess whoever put them here expected you to at least find some of them."
That's kind of creepy.
"What I wanna know is how am I gonna be able to eat apples." Ryuk said.
You're not going to. Not in this house, at least.
"Oh, yeah, I guess you can't talk in here." He said when I kept my mouth shut and my eyes on my paper. "But we better discuss this outside tomorrow."
I glared at the math problems on the page, then grabbed the chip bag to open and set everything up. So, I was doing math problems with my right hand and somehow secretly writing names with my left when I was grabbing chips. It was a bit difficult to ignore the shinigami doing handstands, but I kind of missed out on being all dramatic about studying and eating potato chips. Still, once I had finished the chips, it was a little hard to throw away that damn expensive tiny T.V. with the bag. After that was thrown out, my instinctual intelligence started failing me and I started to get frustrated with the math. I probably shouldn't've let it get to the point I snapped and swiped everything math-related off my desk at midnight in a fit of rage.
"God dammit! I hate math!" I yelled, my head pounding as I stared down at the papers and calculator by my feet. Once I calmed down, I sighed and picked them up. "I think I need to stop for tonight."
After putting that stuff away and changing into an oversized plain white t-shirt to sleep in, I went and grabbed an RPG and laid down on my bed as I started playing it. It was probably two in the morning when I finally stopped that and was actually able to sleep.
"Light, are you up yet?" Mom's voice startled me awake and I fell off my bed onto my head, which had been hanging off the side, and then flipped over to sit up on the floor and hold my throbbing head.
"Y-Yeah! I'm up!" I called, rubbing the forming bump. "Ow…"
"Today's garbage day, so if you've got any bring it down with you, okay?" She called.
"What a pain." I muttered as I grabbed my jeans from the floor, pulled them on, and then grabbed the garbage can before going downstairs.
"What're you talking about? You usually say "There's no need to remind me, Mom."." She responded as I dumped my can's contents into the bag she was holding.
"Yeah, yeah." I said, going back to my room.
I cringed at the sunlight and pulled the curtains closed before I stretched and yawned.
"Well, I can't say for sure whether you're extremely generous or just a spoiled brat, but didn't that mini LCD T.V. cost you four-hundred bucks?" Ryuk asked.
I twitched while holding a bent arm over my head in a stretch, cringing before bringing it down to rub my eyes.
"Tired." I mumbled, walking over to my desk and sitting down before putting my forehead down to the cool wood.