Kaguya's Secret

by Melda Burke

One year later and the new L has taken over his predecessor's job seamlessly. However, people in hospitals have begun to die off at an alarming rate. The cause? Heart attacks. It appears that a new Kira has arisen, and is perhaps more crazed than the last.

2. Chapter 2

AN:3/ I own nothing!

Ryuk:You own an apple. Gimme!

Gimme, Gimme never gets! *Is tackled by apple-crazed shinigami*

Kaguya was immersed in a pleasent warmth and her body was light as she floated on the wings of fanciful dreams.

There was a weight on her chest.

Her eyes fluttered open.

"Hello." Teeth. Very sharp teeth very close to biting off her nose.

"GYAH!" She rolled out of bed, her limbs tangled in her bedcovers. "Son of a mother-" Her pillow came down and fopped her on the head. "oof..fucker." She growled and freed herself after a few minutes of scrambling around.

"Hahahah!" Her newly acquired shinigami bowled over mid-air with mirth. "You..you should have seen your face!"

"That was terribly mean, Ryuk." She spat at him and crossed her arms petulently.

"You've got to go to school, Kaguya." He mocked her mother's voice all too well in a falsetto that was utterly unsuited to him. "Get up, now, Kaguya!" He smirked. "You're gonna be late." He teased. "You didn't wake up when the alarm went off."

"I don't go to school on Sundays, Ryuk." She rushed to her closet and yanked on a pastel green blouse and a modest black pencil skirt. Her usual black leather and plaid were not to be worn at church. Well, there wasn't an outright rule against it, but she would get dirty looks from all of the grandmothers and snobby prudes. "I teach it."

"I don't get it." He munched an apple he'd raided from downstairs before the human inhabitants had risen.

"I thought you'd been following me around for weeks, Ryuk." She said as she tugged on her mary janes. "Gasp, there's something you don't know!" He rolled his eyes and she giggled. "Well, you'll find out eventually because you'll end up following me there."

"Where are we going? Do they have apples there?" She refused to tell him anything about this mysterious place. So he did as she said and flew along the road just a few feet above her parents' car. He began to have an ominous feeling about this nameless spot where Kaguya 'taught'.

Turns out, his instincts were spot-on. Inside of a squat and square stone building, humans sat on benches that they referred to as 'pee-you's which were lined up in three rows of six. The benches faced a podium draped with a red cloth and a slightly raised platform that stood behind it. The walls were white and bunches of fake dusty flowers hung in bunches like torches. A man dressed in black with a white square at his neck called for all of the children to get up and follow their teacher into the back room.

Then all of the adults got up and began to sing, regardless of ability, which led to Ryuk's hurried escape into the back room. Here things were a bit less irritating, drawings covered the bareness of the walls and kids were laughing quietly, chasing each other around with broken toys. He took a place over the toy chest to watch the goings on. Kaguya finally managed to calm them down and then told them a few stories which, from their content, he supposed were stories from the Bible that had been censored into cute tales better suited to innocents.

Hours later, she was back home and he lounged around her room while complaining about the strange human ritual. "Humans, you guys are usually so interesting!" He grumbled, doing some sort of languid backstroke that mimicked pacing. "That...what went on in that building.." He shuddered. "It was the epitome of boredom."

"It's better than having to listen to the singing. I wish we had an actual choir. Maybe then the psalms wouldn't sound like choked weasels and dying walruses were singing praises, I'm pretty even God would like to hand some of them a tuning fork." She snickered to herself.

"Hey, that's pretty good, hyuk, hyuk!"

"Oh my gosh," She said around her laughter. "You're laughing like Goofy! That's adorable!"

"What's a Goofy?" He inquired, cocking his head to the side.

Now that she'd spent a little bit of time around him, Ryuk wasn't so bad. Of course, there was the whole creepy god of death thing, but he wasn't so frightening once she got used to him. He didn't act specifically menacing, especially now that she was teaching him about different ways to prepare apples. Ryuk was also company for her because she wasn't above admitting she was lonely before he came along.

Her parents left soon after dropping her back at the house. They were gone most of the time; busy with errands, work, Hiroshi's martial arts classes and other things. It wasn't that they were unwilling to spend time with her, but they just didn't have the time. She understood this, but she did long for someone to talk to. As long as Ryuk was around, then she was not alone.

In spite of this, she could not deny that something was once again stirring up trouble in the world. During the weeks after she first met Ryuk, the news reports had come streaming in like mad. Hospitals all over the world were reporting the deaths of people who were either on life-support, dying of terminal illnesses, or even living in miserable poverty. Such activity had caused the media to dub the newest Kira incarnation The Angel of Mercy.

She couldn't ignore what was happening. She was part of this secret now. "Ryuk, do you think that another shinigami has been playing in the human world?" She was currently showing him the proper way to bake an apple pie (for the third time, actually, he'd been unable to restrain himself from eating the filling for the previous attempts). She'd brought the question up out of the blue, hoping to surprise an answer out of him.

His eyes flashed red for a second and she remembered him telling her about shinigami eyes yesterday. Enormously unnerving to know that someone knew the exact day you would perish, but she worked around it. "Yeah, not sure who though. Why should we care?"

"It looks like a Kira copycat, you know that." She reminded him with frustration. "We have to do something."

"I don't have to do anything, Miss Boss." He popped a stray apple slice into his mouth. "You can bribe me with apples, but don't think that a shinigami is at your beck and call. I don't have to give the answer to every single question."

Having pushed the pie into the oven, she set the timer. "Well, you've already helped me get this far. Although, you have to remember that you're stuck with me for the duration of my life. I can let you kill me and you would be without entertainment and without apples until you found a suitable replacement."

"Hmm..good point." He mused whilst chowing down on a bowl full of apple sauce. "I'm still not going to give you all the answers, hyuk. It's not much fun that way."

"Alright, but while I play detective I expect you to be on your best behavior. This Kira is bound to be just as ruthless as the last one and I have no idea what I'm doing." She scrubbed the dishes fiercely. "How in the hell am I going to take this on? It's not as if I can just pick up the phone and call the person who took the original Kira down." Her eyes closed in defeat. "I need to think." She sat down at the dining room table and put her head on her arms. There were loads of things that she had to consider.

She knew next to nothing about the previous Kiras besides the snippets that were splattered all over the newspapers and tv. The only thing she had was that the mysterious L had been the one to take care of it all. Ryuk sure as heck wasn't going to tell her anything, so how was she going to get into touch with this guy? Since he'd solved the case he'd know about the Death Note and he'd want to get in touch with someone like her.

Then again, perhaps he'd take her for another Kira and she'd end up in jail and he'd try to destroy the Death Note again. He probably wouldn't listen to her if she tried to tell him that such an action would do more harm than good. In order to muddle her way through this perhaps she could examine this mysterious detective's behavior. His face was never shown and his voice was run through a synthesizer. Obviously, he was well-respected with authority figures and government leaders. That was the extent of her knowledge.

However, what if she did go the direct route? Surely the police force would not hesitate to bring forth a witness (of sorts) and since she was the one who was volunteering she'd have the power to make conditions on her information. Including how she obtained it...

She glanced up at Ryuk, who was checking on the pie, and smiled a little. Sure, the shinigami was a pain at times, and he'd threatened to kill her off, but there was an innate charm that lay below the creepy exterior. Though, those eyes could definitely put her off her lunch if she happened to get sushi or sashimi. Blech.

"Does smoke mean that it's done?"

And there went the charm right out the window like a little butterfly. A tendril of smoke crept out of the oven and she yanked it open to find that the pie had simply dripped a bit of filling onto the bottom. Which was, in a way, worse than if the pie had actually caught on fire because this meant she would have to scrub out the oven. She pulled the pie out and turned off the oven. "Open a window, Ryuk, I don't want my parents to come home thinking that I set the place on fire."

Once everything was aired out, scrubbed, and a piece of homemade pie had been eaten by each, Kaguya worked out the details of her plan. It was quite simple actually, but it involved a bit of acting and a lot of emotional manipulating. "Hello. This is Kanto Region Police Station number 1, how may we assist you?"

"Yes, I'd like to volunteer as a witness. I have information on the hospital killings." She batted at Ryuk,.who had found her cat Mistofelees and was tormenting it. He giggled wildly as she shushed him with her hand clamped over the reciever.

"Oh!" The woman on the other end was silent for a long time. "Erm...very well...give me your name and address. W-would you like a police escort from your home?" Funny how the possible re-emergence of Kira sent people into shock. Well, it was an understandable reaction to the most fiercesome and ruthless serial murderer in history.

"No, thank you." She smiled. This was her chance to borrow her father's bike. Because she preferred to walk most places she hadn't bothered with driving even after getting her license, but he had given her permission to ride it occasionally. It was beautiful and chromed-up to the extreme. She ran her fingers along the handle. "Ryuk, think you can keep up?" She snapped the helmet into place and shrugged into her father's leather duster.

"I should be asking you that." He effortlessly kept pace with her as they raced down the highway.

Upon her arrival, she noticed a host of squad cars swarming in. A young officer immediately confronted her."Excuse me, miss, but I've just been handed orders to not allow anyone in." A static buzz sounded on his walkie and he moved off to the side, mumbling into it for a few minutes before returning. "Is your name Kaguya Nakahara, miss?" She nodded. "Follow me, then please."

She groaned to herself as the officer pushed another paper release form towards her. "I doubt," She muttered under her breath so that only Ryuk could hear, "that there will be anything that they don't know about me after reading these forms." He only poked her in the back and made fun of Officer Shatou by mimicking his movements dramatically.

If you have led the police force to believe a statement that you know to be false, you will be put on trial as a menace to society and an inhibitor of justice. Do you understand these terms?

She checked yes and moved on to the second of fifty questions. How much more of this before her fingers fell off, she wondered as she checked off boxes like mad. She'd already given them her name, address, phone (cell and home), email, pm, facebook, yahoo and gmail, social contact numbers, her parents' names, her grandparents' names, her brother's name, and provided a copy of her driver's license. She frowned, thank heaven she didn't have a car yet because that would set off a new form! They would have to document her ownership, which would mean a three day waiting period as the paperwork returned from wherever they sent it.

One thing was for sure, she was never going to be a secretary.

"Finished." She slid the form away with a sigh of relief. "Now, when do I get to make a statement so that I can go home?"

Officer Shatou appeared hesitant. "Well, I apologize, but you will not be going home tonight, Miss Nakahara." Her jaw practically dropped, but really she should have expected this after all of that paperwork and the two hour waiting in the front room. "It's mostly for security, Miss Nakahara. There's evidence that this is a new Kira, after all, and-"

He was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a dapper elderly gentleman that reminded Kaguya of her grandfather vaguely. He was smiling kindly and she rose politely to acknowledge her elder. "Good afternoon." He bowed and she did the same.

"Good afternoon." She replied. Ryuk was doing something weird around the gentleman. He was staring at him with a wide-eyed look, an unfathomable depth of excitement plastered all over his face. He pointed at the stranger and smirked knowningly. She schooled her features. "My name is-" He abruptly cut her off.

"From now on, you must not speak your name aloud. You may call me Watari and I will call you..." He paused. "What would you like to be called?

"Like an alias?" She went over several possibilities, but only one kept resurfacing. It was the name she used while clubbing at Black Veil in Osaka. "Ai Mori, please."

"Alright then, Ai. If you would please accompany me to the meeting room, we will begin." She followed him down a long hallway where she could see suited men and women typing away, enjoying a cup of coffee or looking tired and over-worked while hunched around a glowing blue screen. She was led past all of these to enter a relatively large spacious place with multiple rows of desks and computers facing a humongous flat screen television. A strange symbol bounced around the screen. Somehow, it was familiar.

It was an L! The detective really was informed as she had expected. "As soon as your call was taken, I was notified." Watari handed her a sleek silver laptop. When she opened it, the same letter was bouncing merrily off the edges. "Speak clearly."

"Umm..." She stared at it for a moment, unsure what to think or say. "Hi?"

She nearly dropped the laptop when the speakers blasted a sythsized voice. "Hello, I am N."

"Call me Ai Mori." She stammered out in awe.

"Tell me everything you know, Ai Mori. I will know if you are lying or making anything up. We have set up thermal cameras in the room and they are focused on you. If you were to lie, your heartbeat would increase, your blood pressure would spike, and your temperature would either drop or increase."

She was sure that was an illegal move on this his part, but what the hell? She'd signed all of that damned paperwork saying she'd conform to their whims. Her hand was still sore.."Right, well, it's not so much that I know anything, but that I have connections which would be vital to this case."

"Go on."

"First of all, you know that the original Death Note that Kira possessed was destroyed by the famous L. However, Death Notes are as immortal as Shi-shinigami." She stuttered a little. "It reappeared in the shinigami realm and has been distributed once again."

" I wonder how you came by all of this information, Ai Mori, but that is a question best suited for later. So you believe the same Note to belong to this new Kira?"

"No, as it isn't the original Note." Several burly men in uniform were circled around her now and she began to feel somewhat threatened. However, she rationalized, the only thing she had to fear was being relieved of her Death Note which was currently concealed neatly within another notebook inside her pack. She kept her eyes on the ground. "Hey, could you guys back up and give me some room? You're smothering me."

"Would everyone besides Watari and the Task Force please vacate the room?" Three quarters of the room left, but not without grumbles and suspicious glances in her direction. "Is that better?"

"Uh, yeah. Thanks." She cleared her throat. "Well, the truth is-"

"You're not going to tell them about me are you?" Hissed Ryuk. "They'll take it away!"

Officer Shatou tapped her shoulder. "Ai, we don't have all day."

"I have it, I have the original Note!" She blurted out, then clapped her hands over her mouth, her eyes going wide. Everyone reacted with great shock and disbelief except for Watari and there was no distorted gasp from the laptop she held. She began talking a mile a minute, expecting them to pounce on her any moment. "I mean, I haven't used it or anything. Oh, man, I didn't mean for it to come out like I'm some kind of sadistic killer! It just...kinda flopped in front of me on my floor and I picked it up. I swear I haven't written any names in it." She grabbed the Note out of her tote and desperately showed it to the screen. "Only, please don't take it away. I don't want it to fall in the wrong hands and I really don't have the heart to hurt anyone, honest!"

"How can we trust anyone, especially a volatile teenage girl, to hold such a dangerous artifact?" Asked a lady to her right whose long bangs kept slipping in front of her eyes. "Adolescents don't have a very good history with that Note."

"Neither do mature adults, Officer Takama." Reminded L solumnly. "Miss Mori's records are in my very hands, Watari sent me a copy only twenty-six minutes ago. While she may be a teenager, she has no violent history, makes average marks, and is generally very social. Previous experience has led me to believe that the majority of psychotic possible serial murders possess either extremely high or below average marks, are reclusive or introverted, and in some cases have demonstrated previous instances of violence. Although, one could make an argument that a great deal of serial killers seem normal, but-"

"So I'm too nice and dumb to use the Death Note?" Kaguya muttered, feeling offended. "Thanks a lot." Ryuk cackled and she wished she could shut him up, but didn't dare reveal his presence.

"What exactly does that prove?" Officer Takama challanged.

"Nothing, and that is exactly the point. Names do tend to lingure in a Note once written in, so an examination of the Note will be necessary to affirm the truth of her previous claim of innocence of murder. Other than that, I see an advantage to allowing her possession of the Death Note while under close observation, of course. Watari, would you please glance through the Note?"

"Certainly." She held up the Note and he flicked through a few pages, then glanced up and raised an eyebrow. "Good afternoon, Shinigami Ryuk." He said pleasently and returned to his task. Kaguya looked where he had and found Ryuk silently (for once!) watching over her shoulder. His breath was ice cold on her shoulder. "Everything is clear."

"Good. Now, we must arrange for Ai Mori's accomodations, shall we? Goodbye, everyone and thank you for your efforts." There was a bloop and the television went black. Watari closed the laptop.

"Wait, hold on here." Did they honestly expect her to come along with them? She couldn't do that! Perhaps she should have thought this through a little more. They were obviously going to keep her under lock and key. "Why can't I just be under house arrest or something?"

The man did not answer her question and instead chose to lead her gently outside. "Where is your vehicle?"

"What about my family?" She squeaked pleadingly. "I can't just disappear. It would kill them!" Stepping to the side, she noticed that a handful of officers froze with their hands on their weapons. "Oh, please, relax. I'm not going to assault an old man or try to run away. I just want some answers. After all, I'm too much of an idiot to figure everything out by myself." She added the last bit with a huff. Okay, so she'd let her math grades slip a little bit and her rank wasn't even in the first thirty or maybe even the first fifty. That didn't mean she was unintelligent! She was just very easily distracted. "Ooo!" She made a grab for a strange little coin on the ground. She held it up for Watari to see. "I've heard about these. It's a lucky penny! Oh, and it's shiny, I'll bet some American dropped it-" Realizing that everyone was staring at her, she stopped her gleeful ramble. "What? Come on, guys, it's a lucky penny!"

"You are stupid." The rude officer Takama laughed and shook her head.

Kaguya made a face at her. "You're just upset that you'll be unlucky for the rest of your miserable day." She played contentedly with the penny, flipping it heads and tails.

"Ahem, excuse me, Ai, but please get into the car." Watari opened the door of a newly arrived limousine. "Your motorcycle will be returned to your parents." Acknowledging she had no choice, she obeyed. Ryuk slipped in through the back of the limo and settled down. His wings stuck halfway through the door and he was partially inside the seat. The sight was more than a little disturbing.

"Oh, and miss Mori, I will contact your parents shortly after we arrive in Shinjuku. I'm afraid that we mayn't tell them the whole truth and you must not either. If you are caught, and you will be if you do, trying to send secret messages explaining the situation, then you will have terminated the privelege to speak with them at all." He brought out a thin cell. "While we're out, sir, stop by the candy shop. We must restock." He turned to face her. "Would you like anything?"

"A slice of chocolate cake and a cherry soda, please. Thanks for asking." She replied, flipping her lucky penny over and over again with a smile. She wasn't sure what kind of investigation allowed potential suspects and/or police informants to get free sweets, but she sure as heck wouldn't question it. One must never question free cake, she thought, it will anger the cake gods. Ryuk made a noise. "Oh, and some apple pie, too, please."

The rest of the day was uneventful. Watari ordered a room on short notice from an extremely nice hotel and she was given a large amount of cash. Apparently, money was thrown around with a great ease of mind. The money was specifically for clothing and necessary toiletries because she was under a restriction. In order to not draw attention to her family, she wasn't allowed to go back and retrieve her things. Copies of her schoolbooks were ordered and she was given a temporary absence excuse that was good for several months.

Her family was notified of some details, such as the fact that Kaguya was an important witness to a dangerous case. Mostly, though, they were in the dark about what was truly going excuse given to those curious about her absence, she'd been told, was very simple. She'd had a fight with her parents and decided to take a break. Supposedly, she was now in America with her aunt Sakura.

Amazing how easy it was to disappear, she mused while sipping her soda. Almost eerie how uncomplicated a proceedure it was to create fake documents, and to start rumours about her 'secret' rebellion against her parents. "The neighbor lady won't be surprised. Silly, nosey woman was always telling my mother stories about my wayward attitude. Now that I'm a delinquent, she'll be saying 'I told you so' and patting my mom sympathetically on the shoulder." She complained goodnaturedly to Ryuk. "Too late to regret any of this now." She turned on the tv. "This place is pretty decent, too. There's 300 channels. A shopping network!" She stopped there for a few seconds. "I wonder if Watari'll care if I ask him for Harkujira fashion?"

"I'm borrrrrrrreeeeedddd." Moaned Ryuk. "This is soooo booooorrrring!"

She rolled her eyes. "Wanna make-out?" She giggled when he scrambled to the other side of the room. "Just kidding. That's just something my friend Yuki would say whenever I told him I was bored. He's got a boyfriend, so it was hilarious." Her smile faded. "I miss him and Gauge."

"Gauge?"

She raised a sceptical eyebrow. "You wanna know about my friends?"

"I could wander around, but I don't wanna miss any action." He pouted like his circumstance was a true tragedy. "I will do anything to fend off the boredom, even listen to you."

Annoyed, but strangely flattered, she replied with, "Well, I absolutely love how I'm your second choice of entertainment." She ran over to her tote, where she kept absolutely everything that held meaning to her. The Death Note, no longer hidden inside the other note, along with an assortment of buttons, cosmetics, a favorite book or two, her pens, a pretty blue feather she intended to attach to her top hat, a romance manga, a bunch of photos, and her wallet. She brought out the photos for him to see.

In most of the pictures, four people were the main focus. One was of a young man with spiked green hair, aviator goggles, and a white leather trench coat. He was making a strange symbol with his fingers and grinning broadly, his somewhat predatory gaze was focused off-camera into a crowd of humans frozen in the act of gyrating against one another. "That's Yuki, he's my best male friend. How we met is the funniest story! Yuki was new about six years ago and the first day he came, he didn't realize that his pet rat Soto had stowed away in his pack. Soto escaped and ran around the school. I met Yuki after I caught Soto, who had just finished relieving himself on my favorite pair of boots."

Ryuk was sure he'd be snoring if he could sleep. "Interesting, very interesting."

The next photo was of a well-built girl with huge discs stretching out her earlobes. "This is Gauge, I guess you can figure out why we call her that. I met her at the mall when I was going through my piercing phase. When I got my nose pierced, she was the only other one in the shop and she held my hand." She pointed to a nearly indescernable little hole just above her nostril. "She's an aspiring tattoo artist, too. I hope she gets through school. Her father used to beat her, you see, and she got mixed in with some drug addicts, but she's better now. She calls me when..." Ryuk saw Kaguya blink her eyes a few times. She was obviously trying not to cry. "..when she relapses..what if she relapses while I'm stuck here, Ryuk?"

He shrugged. "She'll just have to stop relying on you and learn to prop herself up."

"That's terrible," She said quietly, "but..maybe you're right that it'll be good for her to try on her own." She automatically brightened when she flipped to another, darker scene. It was shot in a graveyard and a tall boy in shirtsleeves holding a cane was leaning on the graveyard's wrought-iron fence. He was pale and his hair was grey. "He's Marcus. I've known him since we were in nappies." Smiling a little, she traced the shape of his face. "One day, we're going to visit America together. He's been there many times. His mother is American and he goes there to stay with her in the summer when she has custody."

The final picture was of the entire group. Yuki was hanging off of her, his arm crooked around her neck while the other encircled Gauge, who was making a peace symbol. Marcus stood slightly off to the side, smiling amusedly at the other three. An unknown person stood closer to the camera and was holding onto Marcus's hand, her hair was bright pink and done in dreads, her blouse and pants were neon pink and baggy. She looked extremely unwell and tired, but happy. "Who's that?"

"Madeline." Ryuk heard the catch in Kaguya's voice. "She was my best friend ever."

"What happened?" He asked, examining the girl closer. Madeline in the picture was nearly skeletal, her eyes a bit sunken, and her skin deathly pale. It was a wonder she could stand on her own.

"She died of terminal cancer." He didn't press the issue. Kaguya was chewing rather viciously on her lip and her eyes were tightly shut. "You're a shinigami, though, so I guess death doesn't really affect you much. Hell, you use it as entertainment." She rubbed her thumb over Madeline's face.

She jumped when a hidden intercom screeched out static. "Ai Mori, please come to room 240."

Inside that room, she was met with a shadowy figure crouched in a corner. He was backlit with the blue glow of several television screens and a laptop. The overall effect creeped her out a bit. She checked out the rest of the room and saw Watari emerging from a bedroom carrying linens to be placed on a trolley. "Ai Mori, welcome." The figure raised his head slightly and his features were brought into stark relief by the angle.

Like a bleached sheet, he was snow-white from hair to toe. Even his pajama clothes were a pristine white. His irises were the only color in his face, they were violet and a vital clue to this boy's condition. The albino boy stood, his gaze zeroed in on her. "Thanks." She hadn't noticed the mound of sweets heaped next to him, but her attention was drawn as he plucked one from the pile.

"Do you have a shinigami yet?" Seeing no reason to lie, she told him she did. "And is this shinigami's name Ryuk?"

"Yeah." She handed the Death Note over, but not without hesitation. He flipped through it quickly and nodded at Ryuk, who was peering down at him with a disapproving frown.

He nibbled his finger silently. "It is as I predicted then, your helpful appearance has confirmed my suspicions. A different shinigami dropped a notebook into the life of this new Kira, whom the public has dubbed Angel of Mercy, and the shinigami Ryuk has returned to make some competition. He could not stand to see being one-upped at his own game, so he chose a someone who appeared to be everything he could hope for." L pointed at her. "A person who had many reasons to be feared and hated, which would fuel discrimnation against said person. Thus the person was bound to have some sort of inner turmoil and would bear a grudge."

In some way, Kaguya felt betrayed. She struggled with that strange emotion and faced down the shinigami. He was fidgeting with an apple core and attempting to look anywhere else. "Is that true?" Now that L had revealed his motivation, she knew exactly what those 'reasons to be feared and hated' were. "You chose me because I looked..scary..didn't you? You told me that you'd watched me, so you saw how people react when I walk down the street."

L continued on, interrupting her unconcernedly. "Fortunately for us, Ryuk's judgements are hit-and-miss. Sort of like battleship." He held up the boardgame and began to play against himself whilst he talked. "Strange and ironic, isn't it? Someone like you, Ai Mori, who appears to be a personification of the potential killer is actually the exact opposite. While the former Kira was simply an everyday college student if one discounts his I.Q. and strong, yet severely misguided sense of justice."

She fumed and Ryuk wondered if she was about to blow smoke out of her ears. "So, I just came here to be insulted?" She spat. "I am not a killer! So I listen to strange music and I dress a bit different. And sure, I'll admit I've gotten drunk underage once or twice, but I've never, ever hurt anyone." She snatched back the Death Note and threw it at Ryuk, but it simply passed right through him and hit the wall. "You know what? I've had it. If standing around here means that my reputation is being tested, not to mention my intelligence questioned, then I'd rather not have a Death Note at all." She knew this was childish, but didn't really care at this point. She was so fed up with this sort of behavior that she couldn't stop the pent-up explosion. "Find another fucking person to play your game, Ryuk."

She whipped around and was about to march out the door when L caught her hand and threw her bodily to the floor. "Please excuse me, Mori," He said as nonchalantly as if he were stating the weather and hadn't just assaulted her. "But I can't allow you to quit now. You see, it will be much easier to find this Kira if we are to challange him. And in order to challange him, we must create competition." She struggled under his heavy foot. For such a boney guy, this L felt like he weighed three hundred pounds. Perhaps that was mostly brain-weight, she thought grudgingly.

"I'm not going to kill people!" She shouted up at him from her awkward position. "How could you, a figure of justice, propose that?"

He smiled and bit into a chocolate bar. "You'll see." Was his enlightening answer. "Watari, please escort Mori back to her room along with the Death Note. I will call when I have need of her again."

"Of course, sir."