July 20, 2004
2 years, 4 months, 3 days prior to Incident
Beyond Birthday had barely knocked on the heavy wooden door when it flew open in a rush, creating a small vacuum that tugged lightly at his hair and clothes. To his confusion, little Fuyuno Sakura stood in the door, eyes wild and teeth bared in a snarl - even the tips of her hair seemed to spark with frantic energy. In marked contrast were her numbers, which quivered in suspended animation, neither increasing nor decreasing.
"What did you do?"
"I," he told her, a carefully measured amount of cheer injected into his voice, "have no idea what you're talking about, chibi-chan."
He curved his eyes into happy crescents so that he could watch her from under his lashes.
She didn't know. There was no way she could know. In fact, there was no real reason for her to be this suspicious, but she seemed to really, truly believe that he had Done Something, rather than merely doubting him out of principle, which unnerved him.
Still, she didn't know.
"That - fruit! That pomegranate! What was wrong with it, what did you do to it?"
She had eaten it. Satisfaction threatened to deepen the curve of his lips, but he tempered the glee with the reminder that her wary glare would definitely catch such an obvious action.
"Fruit? There was nothing wrong with the fruit. I didn't even steal it." He injected an adequate amount of confusion into his bearing, his brows twisted into a baffled frown, his lips turned downwards, his head canted ever so slightly forward and eight degrees to the right.
Left was for attractiveness. Right was for trustworthiness.
There was a tense silence, and the girl stared at him long and hard, as if her soul-searching glare would compel him to suddenly expose the truth. Perhaps it would have worked on a hothead like Mihael, or that spineless Mail, but Beyond was more than comfortable under her suspicion, superior to other humans in that he didn't bother with the weakness called 'guilt'. As long as his lie wasn't caught, he didn't see the problem with it.
And it wouldn't be. The extent of the initial symptoms would be a phantom itchiness that could easily be passed off as a brush of air across the fine hairs on her body, a hypersensitivity that she would believe to be caused by her own paranoia... And even that much was because he'd even decided to forego the numbing agent after overhearing her telling Mihael that medications didn't work on her, and merely made her feel uncomfortable.
He'd tested this, of course, had paid some worthless maggot to put a fast-acting laxative into her drink before serving it to her. She'd only looked momentarily disquieted before her expression cleared and she finished the rest of her meal without incident. Though he watched her like a hawk for the rest of the day, she didn't complain of stomach pains and didn't visit the restroom until long after the effects would have worn off; even then, it had only been for 3 minutes and 41 seconds, not nearly enough for the literal shit storm that should have happened.
In any case, after the initial hyperstimulation, her body would feel no other effects from this. She would know nothing. There was nothing concrete to blame him for.
But then again, one did not need proof for paranoia - so in the end, it really fell onto whether or not the tiny anomaly trusted him to not hurt her.
And seeing as how her animosity seemed to falter, her eyes betraying the beginnings of self-doubt, it seemed that the kitten did trust him enough for that, if nothing else - particularly since she didn't know what he had done, or whether he had done anything at all.
Unwise. Very unwise.
Dangerously unwise, in fact.
But when his cute little anomaly suffered from her occasional moments of wide-eyed naïveté, it usually worked to his favour, so he had no complaints.
"There really wasn't anything wrong with the pomegranate that I ate? No drugs, no poison, no bugs, no tampering at all? Tell me the truth, Beatus." She grabbed his wrist with an earnest expression, but he could tell what she was doing when her thumb slid across his wrist. A finger on his pulse, green eyes studying his own for pupil dilation or change in blinking patterns, ears cocked for stammering or swallowing or the sounds of fidgeting, and a specifically targeted question so he couldn't evade lying with omission instead: the girl knew what she was doing. But it was foolish of her to think that he could be held to the standards of ordinary humans.
"There was nothing wrong with the pomegranate you ate," he told her, calmly, confidently. "No bugs. No drugs. No poison. It has not been tampered with, not by me, and not by anyone else. Nothing but the fruit itself in its purest form."
She scrutinized him for several moments, scouring his face and body for something that he knew she wouldn't find, before letting go of his wrist and leaning back.
"Come in," she told him, stepping back and allowing him access into her home. "Where are the other two today?"
Did she have any inkling of how vulnerable she was, he wondered. Did she know that he could just reach across and slice her throat with the knife in his pocket, make her wretch up her own blood, if he were so inclined? Did she know that he could set the entire building ablaze right now, make her burn with pain until she screamed and screamed and screamed, and no one would be the wiser? Most of all, he wondered, would that even kill her? And, oh, this, he wondered and wondered and wondered this, he wanted to know, he itched to know, he needed to know, how those infernal numbers of hers worked, how death worked, on this little anomaly.
But everything had its time. Even he, even those who transcended humanity, knew the importance of patience.
"I don't care," he said bluntly, passing through the threshold into her home without incident. He knew exactly where they were, but that was inconsequential information. The only reason he allowed those insects so close to his anomaly in the first place was because she was so adamant about suspecting his every action, and the younger boys were so easily manipulatable: the stunt yesterday was a clear indication of their value to him, however witless they were.
Beyond fingered the controller in the pocket of his black coat, and when he was faced fully away from the anomaly, her closing the door as he stepped into the living room, he allowed himself a large, satisfied, smirk.
Fuyuno Sakura - age 14, 1st year high school
Beyond Birthday - age 17, education unknown
Super Long AN
Because Beyond, just like L, just like Near and Light, is a man very much in his own head, more than he is out of it.
Actually, I considered not writing this scene at all, and just have you guys wondering whether that stupid pomegranate really was important, or if Sakura was just being paranoid. I was going to skip ahead to a future date, and drive you guys crazy with curiosity. But then I realized I've probably been cruel enough, not posting for so long after spoiling you with quick updates, so I had to give you some sort of relief. (Though now you are plagued with the thought of "WTF did was wrong with it?!", for which I will give NO ANSWER HAHA.)
And yes, he mostly calls her the Anomaly in his mind, as well as some other pet names. He doesn't fully believe that her actual name is Fuyuno Sakura (and why should he? just look at those letters!) so he doesn't much bother with that name.
It took me so long to get this thing up, and for that I apologize. Also, there are some potential or definite future scenes (pictures, not words; I'll be posting more later), as well as how I imagine BB to look like without his L makeup, etc., that I've uploaded onto my deviantart account, so if you want to check those out, the link can be found on my profile. I can't draw very well, so I used a manga creator and approximated as best as I could, so it's not quite an exact fit, but close enough.
Important Announcement:
Right, I've been getting a few questions about this, so I'll address it now…
Death Note: Another Note is definitely going to happen. For sure. And during those events, BB will reveal his serial killer tendencies more clearly towards Sakura. Right now, she thinks, 'What a creep,' but once that gets started, she'll really see 'Holy shit, I've been letting a crazy killer dude into my home.' I adore Beyond because he's a sadistic crackpot, and I really don't think I've been showcasing that aspect of him sufficiently, mostly because I've been showing him through the view of other characters, and the only one who truly understands and acknowledges the danger of B is Matt (since Mello is in denial and Near's viewpoint hasn't been shown). Sure, I've shown you that he's a bit unbalanced, but I'm not doing justice to the absolute mind-fuckery that is his brain.
So I will. Do that. I am determined to do it. I hope I can showcase his crackpotness sufficiently with my abilities!
However, I have decided that that arc is much too long, and not everyone is interested in Beyond, so that will therefore occur in another posted story. I'm sure there are some people who either don't know or don't care about Beyond, and I've been giving him quite a lot of attention in FnS despite him not actually being part of the Death Note anime/manga (he has even more screen time than L, though that will change). He is canon, so I included him in the story, but some readers wouldn't have read the prequel novel and they might be confused.
So I'll include Another Note: Commence - chapter title speaks for itself - in another character's POV and the concluding chapter of the Another Note arc into FnS, since they'll blend in well enough to the rest of the story, and so you know where the heck BB is and what's happened to him. But when the time comes, the rest of it will be in another story: just go to the list of my stories as soon as 'June 13, 2005' comes around. It'll be there. This is so I can progress FnS towards the beginning of the anime more quickly (I'm already taking too long, boooo) while simultaneously going into the events of the LABB Murders. btw, the answer to the pomegranates will only be shown there, and not in FnS. So if you're so curious you want to die, you have to read it (when it comes out), or you'll never know what was in those damn things.
Review Responses:
JUCHKO: I'M SORRY. You were helping me with this thing, and then I didn't reply for ages and asddlkgj. Actually I wrote out this super long essay/explanation for what was going to happen, but then I had to do more research into it to see if it was viable, and then I got so busy that I forgot to send the damn thing. You really helped me to write this chapter, though I'm not sure if you can see it (since I completely disregarded your statement that he wouldn't do anything illegal to her yet, my reasoning being that since he's a crazy genius future serial killer, he really couldn't care less about society's laws). But you really helped! Thank you! Also, I read the newest chapter of Kindred Spirits but haven't had chance to think up a review. I'll probably forget later, so don't hesitate to remind me if you want me to review/want to talk to me about anything!
Haru: Nope, not at all. I'll expound on that next chapter. Next chapter will have Light! "What? Light during the summer?" Yes, yes, Light during the summer. Hohoho~
I Believe In Fairytales 606: WHY DO YOU ASK ME DIFFICULT QUESTIONS? T^T Haha, I'm not quite sure myself. The girl is getting rather complacent…
sweetchill: Thank you! The new story's up! :D
rosiekitsune1: (Did I already respond to you? Don't remember...) HAHAHAHA I LAUGH AT YOUR BEWILDERMENT..
ResidingDarkness: I'm rather more fond of Sai as well, but you can't deny Sasuke's importance to canon Sakura. As for the martial arting female friend, does Naomi count? Though there won't be much of her in FnS, there will be a lot if her in the Another Note side story. Misa will be important, though not a fighter.
And thank you everyone who reviewed (but did not ask questions), alerted, and favourited me and/or this story! I appreciate that so many people like this small piece of fiction, which I created out of idly imagining a single scene involving both Light and Sakura (which will appear later). It wasn't much but I really fell in love with writing it, even though I didn't expect anyone else to like it. So thank you guys, for loving this with me!