AN: I am now officially on the run from those of you that wish to kill me.

May 28, 2011
6:56 PM

Mido frowned, as though L had said something he couldn't understand. "Bring him... What?"

"Bring him back," L repeated. "Bring Near back to life."

Mido raised an eyebrow but didn't manage to look at all intimidating. "R-Ryuzaki," the doctor stammered, "I don't think you have the situation in perspective. When somebody dies, their body goes through a series of phases--"

"I know full well," L interrupted, "what happens to the human body when it dies. And I don't care. I don't care how long it takes, but I want him brought back to life."

The doctor appeared almost speechless. "...You're absolutely certain?"

L glanced at Near, still lying dead on the bed. "We need him to catch Kira," he whispered.

He lied.

Maybe, if Mido brought Near back quickly enough, he could indeed help them catch the owner of the Death Note and bring him to justice, but it wasn't likely.

L was just being selfish.

He didn't want to live with the fact that Near was really gone.

But Mido didn't know that. Slowly, after several seconds of thought, he nodded his head. "It'll take me maybe... two months, if I work overtime," he estimated.

L didn't want to admit it, but that was an impressively short amount of time. "Only two months?"

Mido shrugged. "I've had practice."

L slowly nodded and forced himself to walk away.

But for the third time within the past few minutes, his thought process completely halted.

Wait.

"Practice?" L inquired, turning around to face the doctor. "Bringing people back to life?"

"Well, yeah," Mido said as he shrugged. "On your body, mostly."

L frowned. "I wouldn't be so cocky as to consider one person 'practice,' Mido-san," he murmured.

"...Ah." Now the doctor was also frowning. "I suppose one body isn't much practice..."

L would have turned and left the basement with that as a satisfactory answer. He would have assumed it was entirely truthful coming from the doctor.

...Until he realized that Mido's nose was twitching.

His naturally large eyes got ever-so-slightly wider.

Oh no.

"Were you lying," L asked slowly, "when you told me that I was the only person you'd ever brought back from the dead?"

The doctor's frown deepened. "No," Mido said evenly, "it was the truth."

The twitching was gone.

So... it was true...

It was...!!

"It was the truth??" L questioned. "As in, it's not the truth anymore??"

Mido's frown disappeared as he thought over his response. "Erm... well..."

The doctor hesitated too long.

"Mido-san," L asked in a softer voice, "did you bring anyone else back to life after me?"

With a bit of a deliberate pause, the doctor swallowed.

"...Perhaps," he allowed meekly.

!!!

"Who??" L asked with just a hint of desperation.

Mido, as he generally did when L began asking sneaky questions, didn't give him a satisfying answer. "I can't tell you that. Patient confidentiality, you know."

L closed his eyes for a moment in thought.

Dammit.

He opened his eyes as he got a vague idea.

"Mido-san," L tried again, "the person with Kira's powers needs a name and a face to kill. Near died from cardiac arrest, so we can rationally assume that Kira killed him... correct?"

With a raised eyebrow, the doctor nodded. "Was that a trick question?"

"No," L responded simply. "But Mido-san, only eight living people in the entire world knew Near's name: myself and all the members of the investigation team except Yamamoto. However," L subconsciously leaned in towards the doctor, "that would be eight living people. Or rather, people that should not be dead." L leaned back again. "If you include the people that should be dead, that makes ten people with the potential to use Kira's power to kill Near. And the problem with all of this is that it only takes one doctor to bring the wrong person back to life."

Mido was clearly trying to hide any reaction, but what L had said made him squirm. "Who...?!" he breathed. "Were the two people that died somehow related to Kira?"

Not that easily you don't. "I don't think I should tell you," L said. Had he not been so serious about the subject, he probably would have been smug about it. "Case confidentiality, you know."

The doctor groaned out of frustration. "Ryuzaki!!"

"Just tell me who you brought back," L continued, "and perhaps I'll tell you more about Kira."

Clearly the doctor was going through a mental game of tug-of-war as he decided whether to tell L or keep the information to himself. After thirty-four seconds of mental debating, he gave a defeated sigh and began staring at his shoes. "He... couldn't be Kira!" Mido said determinedly. "He's just a kid that got mixed up in this Kira business and thought he could save the whole damn world!!"

Oh no.

"A... kid?" L asked, some of his monotone slipping away. "As in, how old?"

Mido grimaced as he heard L's voice change, but still didn't look up. "His mid-twenties."

Desperation was beginning to set in. "And he got mixed up with Kira because he--"

"Because his dad worked at the NPA," Mido interrupted with a mutter.

This wasn't happening.

This was NOT. HAPPENING.

"What was his name?" L asked halfheartedly.

Mido finally glanced at him. "By the look on your face, I would say that you know."

L's stomach tightened as he thought of the person that killed him.

"Light Yagami."

Mido closed his eyes. He didn't nod, or give any sign that L was right. He just quietly asked another question.

"I screwed up big time, didn't I?"

AN: YAY. Real plot. Finally.