May 28, 2011
8:26:54 PM

After the gunshot, for just a moment... it was completely silent.

A few seconds later, the spell was broken. L slumped to the floor with a small groan. "Kira... You...!"

"Shot you? Very observant." He put the gun away. A random towel was sitting on the counter; Light grabbed it and tossed it to L on the floor. "You might want to cover that bullet wound up - you might live a few minutes longer."

Grudgingly, since Light was correct, L pressed the towel to his stomach.

Why couldn't he have just shot me in the damned head?

But L knew the answer. It was because Light wanted to make him suffer. A bullet in his skull would have gotten the job done, but it wouldn't have been any fun. This way, with a shot to the stomach, it would take L an agonizing fifteen minutes to die as his stomach acid slowly killed him. He probably wouldn't lose conciousness for about five minutes, and until then the pain would be almost unbearable.

It was only intended to rub it in his face that he had lost.

If he'd had the chance, L would have done the same to Light.

"Come on, Ryuk," Light said as he motioned out the door. "We're getting out of here before-"

As he spoke, Mido's assistant showed up in the doorway, looking scared. "Light? What the bloody hell are-"

Light retrieved the gun, and another shot rang out.

Unlike L, he at least had the luxury of dying instantly.

"I don't think the doctor will be too happy about that," Light murmured, unfazed by the blood and small bits of cerebral organs on the wall. He'd shot the man square through his left eye, and he didn't look the least bit remorseful.

Not that L had expected him to be, of course.

"Damn straight I'm not happy."

With an expression that definitely qualified as "not happy," Mido appeared in the doorway.

No! Run! Get away from Kira! He's going to-

"Mido!" Light said, exasperated. "Don't give me an excuse to kill you too!"

"Oh, so you need an excuse to kill me? What about him?" He jabbed his finger at his assistant's body in the middle of the hallway. "What did he ever do to you?"

Light's face hardened. "He would have stopped me from leaving. I knew outright that he didn't support what Kira was doing, so I killed him."

"And what about me? Do my values seem that questionable to you?"

Light paused and thought about that for a moment. "...No," he admitted, "but I do think that some people's values change when they are faced with death." He lifted his gun again. "So, Doctor Takeshi Mido. Your first step as a Kira follower will be to apologize for questioning me. Say it and you're forgiven."

Light didn't bother to list the other alternative.

8:28:12 PM

The entire time, L had been sitting three on the floor behind Light. Mido hadn't noticed him, and frankly that was alright because L figured the doctor was having a hard time handling the situation as it was.

Besides, L was in pain. The kind of pain that almost made him wish he had a gun to blow his own brains out. Coming from L, that was a huge deal, because never before in his twenty-odd years of life had he ever condoned suicide.

But the pain... It was as much of a hell as he could possibly imagine...

In that second, though, he forgot the pain.

Mido was about to be shot.

L had to attempt to save him, at least.

"Mido-san," he said.

Or at least, he tried to say that. It probably came out a bit more garbled then he intended.

It did, however, get the doctor's attention. Mido's eyes got extrordinarily wide. "Ryuzaki? Are you-" He tried to step closer to L, but Light pointedly stopped him by waving the gun in his face.

"Mido-san..." he began again. He spoke in a voice so full of pain that it barely registered as his own, "I won't blame you... for wanting to live."

Light looked almost as though he had been preparing to kick L, but when he heard that sentence his expression became... softer, almost. As though he suddenly realized that, at some point, L had had the potential to be an awesome ally if he hadn't been Light's opposition. And for that, L was downright glad he was dying. But the doctor has a real choice...

Mido only stared; he was to dumbfounded to answer.

Three seconds passed.

"Well?" Light asked.

Three more seconds.

The doctor clenched his fist, and Light's grip tightened on his gun.

But half of a second later, the doctor exhaled and hung his head. His hand opened in a gesture of surrender.

"I'm... sorry," he said softly.

Remorsefully.

He will make a good supporter, L thought with regret.