Author's Notes:

Based on the comments I'm getting from everyone, I hope this isn't too boring. I promise, it slowly gets more interesting, starting in the next chapter ...At least, if I was reading it, I would think it was more interesting. I mean, come on: you get to see L back and everything, but at this point the story isn't that unusual or exciting.
Geez, if you think this is exciting, then you're in for a treat later. Just be patient.

Also, in this chapter, there is a lot of medical stuff explained. I imagined it all totally on my own, with the assistance of Wikipedia.

Keep reviewing!

February 6, 2011
10:54 AM

L had been sitting in the hospital for a week.

Figuring out what had happened to Kira was his first priority, obviously. He had done everything within his power to discover information about Light, but with no luck at all. For several days he scanned the Japanese metropolitan newspapers, the local newspapers, and papers from other regions of the country.

He found nothing.

Mido, in an attempt to help L, managed to find editions of prominent and regional papers that were published days, weeks, and even months before.

There was still nothing.

As a last resort, L convinced Mido to get him several newspapers from across the world: from England, America, Mexico, Argentina, Russia, Iran, Egypt, China, India, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Uganda, South Africa, France, Pakistan, Germany, Canada, Australia, Columbia, the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean Islands, and--in a final international attempt--he even had the doctor get information from underground news wires that were only available to a very exclusive few. (L was one of the exclusive few, of course. The best detective in the world had access to many exclusive things.)

Nothing.

Zip. Zilch. Nada.

L was getting frustrated.

And, since he'd ran out of papers to read, he was getting bored.

To his credit, Mido tried to entertain L as well as he possibly could. On the fourth day of February, after L had looked through all the newspapers he could find, Mido bought him a book of extremely difficult word puzzles. L took it gratefully, but he knew the instant he received it that he would finish it within the hour. His estimate was close: it took him 56 minutes and 39 seconds.

In another attempt at keeping him amused, the doctor got him several physical kinds of puzzles the next day. For the most part, they were the standard "get the ring off of the whatchamacallit" and "uncouple the two bizarrely twisted thingumabobs" sorts of puzzles. L had finished all ten of them in exactly 22 minutes and 18 seconds.

So on that day, February 6, Mido had tried to distract him with numbers. An American book of sudoku puzzles might have seemed challenging to the doctor, but not to L. At this point, L realized that perhaps he was hurting Mido's feelings slightly because these puzzles were all supposed to be very hard. So, when doing these sudokus, he tried to go much slower then he would have liked to. In theory, it would make it seem as though he was having a more difficult time, but Mido wasn't fooled.

"Ryuzaki," he said an hour and a half after he'd given L the book, "you could go a lot faster if you tried."

"...I believe that is my own personal choice, Mido-san." L was only halfway through the puzzles, and it was killing him.

Mido sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Look, it might frustrate me that you go through these things like crazy, but its clearly frustrating you more to try and go slow to make me feel better. You're not."

L looked at Mido with his wide eyes, trying to appear innocent. "Not what?"

"Making me feel better. For God's sake man, I'm a doctor: its my responsibility to make you comfortable. Your feelings come before mine."

L shrugged. It seemed like a good enough reason to go faster. "Well, when you explain it like that..."

He finished the book half an hour later.

By this point, L had a good idea of what the daily routine was around here. Mido seemed to be there 24/7, probably almost every day of the year. There was a room down the hallway that was apparently some sort of living quarters, and that was where he slept and relaxed.

As far as L could tell, only three other people were ever around this secret hospital. There was the doctor's aide, a blond man in his late twenties who secretly smuggled L Twinkies when the doctor wasn't looking (Mido held the opinion that Twinkies and other American "junk foods" would eventually kill everyone who ate them; L, however, figured that if he died--or just went into a sugar coma--the doctor could revive him again); there was a woman in about her thirties that L figured to be some kind of secretarial/paperwork/cleaning sort of person, as she came in his room late every night to pick up whatever Mido left lying around; and then there was a man who seemed to deliver supplies to the hospital--L never actually saw him, but he heard his voice coming from down the hall approximately every other night. From what L figured, chances of others visiting this hospital hung at 2%...

And then there was Mido. Because he was around L more then L was around any other person during the week, they both had a good idea of the other's personality. To L, the doctor seemed clever enough, and very few things seemed to be hidden from him. If there were any secrets kept from him, it either meant that they were extremely well hidden, or he realized there was something he didn't know and simply chose not to learn more about it. It was obvious that Mido was in charge, too, and he seemed to like it that way. L learned quickly that asking too many questions annoyed him greatly, and although this bugged L, he tried to restrain his nature as a detective and not bother Mido too much. There was this, plus the doctor was almost freakishly obsessed with eating healthy foods (this was why the aide had to sneek L the Twinkies). Amazingly, those were the only two ways that L's personality clashed with Mido's. Otherwise, the doctor appeared to be a good-natured man: he seemed to find humor in everything, didn't take things for granted, and tried to keep everyone as happy as possible.

But that morning, L couldn't resist. He was sitting in bed eating ice cream, and Mido was in a chair next to the bed. They weren't talking much, although L perceived that the doctor was slightly irritated because of all the sugar ice cream contained. Well, he has to learn to live with it, L thought, because I am not giving up sweets. If he really wants to know, I value that event as having a less than 0% possibility of occurring. But eating the ice cream wasn't what he figured would annoy the doctor most.

"Mido-san," L began, "I've tried not to ask too many questions, but I need to know some things."

To himself, Mido muttered, "Curiosity killed the cat."

L cocked his head. "What cat? I'm curious."

Mido knew L's joke was intentional, and he chuckled. "There is no specific cat, Ryuzaki. It's just another silly expression people use."

"...I don't use it." L had another spoonful of ice cream.

The doctor shook his head. "Never mind. What do you want to know?"

L thought for a moment on how to phrase his question. "Well, first I should like to know: how does one bring someone back from the dead?"

"Ah." Mido thought about his response. "The process and answer is... rather long and complicated."

L shrugged. "I have time."

The doctor considered this. "True. I guess I'm more worried about you not understanding it."

L held back a rather large smirk. "Mido-san, these past few days I've been reading newspapers in countless languages, solving extremely difficult crosswords, taking puzzles apart and putting them back together within seconds, and doing sudokus that most people would consider nearly impossible. Yet you think that I am not capable of understanding?"

Mido shook his head. "Forgive me. That was a stupid thing to worry about."

L had some more ice cream. "I forgive you. Please, do explain this process to me."

Slowly at first, Mido began explaining everything that physically happens when a person dies. How all cell activity stops, how the body stiffens, how blood slowly sinks into bodily tissues, so on and so forth. Although L already knew almost everything the doctor was describing, he remained silent and absorbed all the information.

Then, of course, Mido began to explain how to reverse all these symptoms. This took him a great deal of time to tell L, because the body is such a complicated thing. By far, the most difficult thing to adequately explain was the brain. In great detail, he described how brain cells have to be created and stimulated to restart all bodily functions. He told him how electrical shocks had to be carefully applied to certain lobes of the brain, because otherwise L could have literally lost all his memories and been forced to learn everything again from the same levels as an infant. But brain cells were not the only thing Mido had to grow back: every organ of the body had its own specific kinds of cells that needed to grow again. Some could be stimulated to multiply, but others had to be transplanted through countless surgeries and operations. And, through a miracle of modern science, L had every single drop of blood in his body removed and then replaced again. A certain kind of IV fluid had to be applied in his veins during the process, and though Mido was a bit sketchy on the details, L generally understood what he was talking about. The final detail of this entire procedure was the restarting of L's heart, which Mido said occurred at approximately 4:05 AM on January 31, 2011.

Through the explaination, L sat quietly. He was surprised by how much of the process he could have deduced on his own, yet the doctor had come up with some very clever operation tecniques by himself.

But when Mido finished and sat back in his chair, L realized something was missing.

"Mido-san," he began, "I think I have the idea of what you are describing to me. Yet, I feel as though you are keeping one important detail to yourself."

The doctor frowned. "Ryuzaki?"

"If you got any individual's body to work again, there is a 100% chance that you have a perfectly functioning corpse...but not a living one."

It made perfect sense to L, and Mido got his hint.

Death, though normal, is still a supernatural thing, and it would be physically impossible to make the dead live again without supernatural means.

"...Not much escapes you, does it Ryuzaki?" Mido sighed. "Let me say this:

"There is a single thing that I did to your body that would be considered rather... unorthodox. This final treatment was, indeed, the key to bringing you back to life. If I keep this process a secret, I would never have to worry about any sort of terrible consequences coming from my actions. But if I told the wrong person this secret and it were to fall into the wrong hands, it could very easily be used to bring chaos upon the world as we know it."

The doctor looked L straight in the eyes. "Right now, you are the only person besides me to know it even exists, and I am determined that I will ever be the only one who ever plays God and learns its full potential."

Slowly L nodded. "I respect that decision very much, Mido-san. Perhaps it is better that you keep it to yourself."

"...Right. Was there anything else you wanted to ask me?"

L paused. "Yes. One other thing, but I'm afraid that your answer for this question will be even longer then the answer for the last one."

The doctor sighed again. "You might as well ask away." Then he chuckled. "If I don't answer you now, I guess you would just ask me some other time anyway."

L shrugged. It was true. "Could you tell me how you...obtained my body? I realize you already told me, but it barely satisfied my curiosity."

"...You mean...tell you in greater detail?"

"Yes. Begin from the beginning."

Slowly Mido nodded. "This is going to take awhile."

He took a deep breath and began speaking.