49. Me % You [Part I]

Yomotsu woke up in darkness. It was not that he could "see" darkness; rather, he was instantly aware that his vision was gone again. The reality was easy for him to accept. He had gone his whole life like this, and what happened last night felt like a strange fantasy. He was eternally thankful for having been able to actually see his friends, but he was not the least surprised when all he could do was hear them.

"He's waking up!"

That had to be Rocco. Gauging from the distance of the voice, Rocco was close by.

"Once again, I have performed another successful reboot…"

Wi-Fi Man was in the room.

"With plenty of help from Misora."

Anemone was right by his side. She was practically talking straight into his ear.

"Ah, Yomotsu-kun… Can you hear us?"

He gave a thumbs up. "Loud and clear, Akise."

"Awesome!" said Rocco. "Not that I ever, y'know, thought you weren't gonna make it or anything."

"So you're hearing is okay… How are your other senses doing? Can you… Still see us?"

Yomotsu shook his head. His head felt heavy on the pillow. "Natalie, I must confess that I'm back to being blind."

"Oh."

"That's quite alright!" Yomotsu said quickly. "I'm just glad to be in one piece. I can move my fingers and wriggle my toes… And I don't feel like I'm still bleeding out from my neck, so I'm in considerably better shape. What day is it?"

"Uhhh… July 7th."

"Cool, thanks… So as long as it's still the same year, that isn't half as bad as I expected! I thought I might wake up and months have gone by and the government has been taken over by lizards or something crazy like that."

"No, just the same snakes as usual."

"Oh, good one—whichever one of you said that!"

"The author isn't putting names after quotes right now, so I guess that would be pretty hard to determine."

"He should go back to doing that," Yomotsu said.

"At any rate, my data suggests that you're recovering excellently," Wi-Fi Man started up. "This analysis backs up what Meilag told us. Olivia used her powers to prevent your shut down. Yuri is in perfect condition as well, although that is not as surprising—your information was ripped much more critically than his… With a scythe, even."

"What even happened?" Yomotsu asked. "I remember what happened, so it's not like I have memory loss, but I mean… Maybe I'm just foggy on whatever drugs monitor-head has pumping through me right now, but what ended up actually happening?"

"I can answer that," Akise started. His voice came from the other side of the bed. As Yomotsu pictured things, he was back in the bed where Wi-Fi Man had treated him following the Dry Spell incident. He was likely hooked up to the same machines. Anemone and Rocco were sitting to his left, while Akise was sitting to his right. Wi-Fi Man's voice was the most distant, implying that he was probably by the door.

Akise continued, "Meilag explained the situation to us, from Olivia's point of view. It appears that the Future Diary's limitation is that it can only predict activity related to causality in the human world. The Diary cannot account for divine intervention or sudden and unintentional actions. Meilag never knew what was going to happen. When Meilag ran in with a bomb inside of himself, he did not know that Olivia was going to save him. Olivia whisked him away right when the bomb was to go off, and she triggered another explosion to mask the fact that Meilag had never actually blown up. She then had Meilag return at a later time and remain in wait until the perfect moment to destroy Light's Diary. The Diary never predicted this, and once the Diary was destroyed, Light's life went with it. Just as Light's Death Note could be used against him, this time the Justice Diary was his downfall."

Yomotsu wriggled under the sheets. He tried to find a comfortable spot, but he ached all over. "Makes sense," he said. "So Kira really is gone… I see…"

"We're gonna throw a big party after the meeting today," Rocco said rather excitedly. "I don't think you have the slightest idea how pumped I am."

"My records indicate that I was informed there would be 'perfume' at this party. I am uncertain what that has to do with anything," Wi-Fi Man further explained.

"A meeting, huh?" Yomotsu mumbled.

"L wants to talk with everyone involved in this," Anemone briefed him. "That is, everyone who is ready…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yomotsu asked. "Why, I've never felt better."

There were a few seconds of silence.

"Okay, okay! I know I am not going to be doing any partying or meeting up with L anytime soon," Yomotsu said. "Olivia might have prevented me from dying, but she certainly did not prevent me from feeling like death."

"Glad you're so understanding, Yomotsu-kun," Akise said. "I hope you understand also, then, why once you've recovered, we're going to have a proposition for you."

Yomotsu expressed his curiosity on his face.

Akise chuckled. "It should come as no surprise that we want you to join The League. Wi-Fi Man has graciously decided to continue working with us, and along with myself and Anemone, he is currently awaiting his next orders. We will only have a little bit of time to celebrate. Things will get complicated again—the world can never be perfect for too long. Rocco is understandably going to return to his regular life, because it sounds like he already has a team of his own he has to remain loyal to."

Yomotsu was not sure what that implied, but he was delirious enough to just accept it at face value.

"Just please consider it," Anemone encouraged him. "The world really needs more 12th."

Yomotsu managed a smile. "I don't know how much of me there's left to pour out," he said. "I've felt every variety of up and every variety of down all within 24 hours. I've felt the weight of emotion and the void of neutrality. I will need some time to think this over… And not just a few days, I'm afraid."

"That's understandable," Akise said.

Yomotsu heard Anemone rise from her chair.

"I'll be right back," she said. "I just want to check on how Yuri is doing."

"Oh." Yomotsu cleared his throat. "Can you pass something onto him, for me?"

"Of course," Anemone promised.

Yomotsu leaned to his left and whispered into her ear, so no one else in the room could possibly overhear.

"Understood," Anemone said. "I'll make sure to pass that on."

Yuri sipped his tea slowly. He did not even have to request to have honey with it. Kaede remembered the detail, and Yuri silently thanked her by showing her father the pleasure on his face as he drank the warm offering. He did not mind that the tea had been served in a coffee mug, but he did mind that the coffee mug had Wild Tiger's logo and face on it.

"Don't you own anything that isn't advertisement?" Yuri raised the mug slightly before taking another sip.

Kotetsu slid his hands into his pockets. "The League is trying to use its funds for more constructive purposes than buying new mugs," he explained. The veteran hero leaned against the table in the center of the room. "And since I'm the main financial contributor, I can't say I mind."

"Can't you say you mind that they are being careful with their money… or that your face is plastered all over their stuff?" Yuri teased.

He took another sip. Lavender and chamomile. Fuzzy-warm. He looked around the room. The reality that this might be his last time in this room was on his mind. He was going to put away the Lunatic mask and suit. Those days were over, but he did not know what he would do even a week from now.

"What do you want to drink, dad?" Kaede yelled from behind the yellow door.

"Beer!" Kotetsu shouted. "A Kaburagi brew!"

Yuri lifted his mug and used his free hand to pull back his sleeve. He eyed his silver wristwatch. "It's only 1 in the afternoon."

"Well, I have to support the family business!" Kotetsu started. He chuckled. "To tell you the truth, I was so stressed out last night, worrying about what was going to happen to Kaede and you and Yomotsu… To everybody."

"You didn't think we'd win," Yuri surmised with a smile.

Kotetsu waved his arms. "No, no! I never doubted you would win, it's just—"

"I'm only kidding," Yuri reassured him. "You can relax."

Kotetsu chuckled. They both turned and saw Kaede approach. She was carrying a Kaburagi Liquors beer bottle and two glasses. Yuri thought it was a comical sight—she was not old enough to drink yet, but he would not have objected to her having a drink after what they just went through.

Kaede set the beer and two glasses down on the table. She looked up at her father. She was wearing a dark red turtleneck sweater that might have seemed unusual for July if the basement had not been frigid. Wi-Fi Man said he liked the chilly temperature, and the others had not put up too much of a fight about it.

"I know you just started on your tea, but want me to pour you a glass?"

Yuri looked thoughtfully into the darkness of the tea. "I don't drink, but thank you."

Kotetsu nodded. "I understand." He shrugged and turned to the task at hand. "But that's not going to stop me from drinking, just so you know!" He grabbed the bottle and admired the Kaburagi Liquors logo.

"It is not because of my father," Yuri clarified. While he paused, Kotetsu was held in suspension. "Although he was an alcoholic, that is not the reason. I occasionally drink wine, but that is just that, on occasion…"

When Kotetsu was sure that Yuri was not going to say more, he poured himself a glass. Kaede poked her father's arm. "I'm going to go help Murmur with her memoir," Kaede announced.

Kotetsu nodded. "Be done by 3," he said. "L wants you both at the meeting."

"Sure thing!" Kaede said. She ran off to the green door. Yuri looked back at Kotetsu.

"…A memoir?" He inquired.

"Yeah," Kotetsu said with a sigh. "Murmur has been human for about 12 hours, and she's already decided that she wants to write a memoir of some sort. She's working with the title, Memories of Being a Demon: The Magnificent Murmur Story. She said she'd cut Kaede 10% of the profits if she helps her."

"That sounds like it's going to work out," Yuri remarked.

"She barely even knows how to write!" Kotetsu went on. "Kaede is first going to try to get her to learn how to work the laptop, but with Murmur's attention span right now, this might be a long process…"

"I can't even imagine how she must be feeling," Yuri admitted. "To say this is a big change for her is an understatement. And I also can't imagine how you must be feeling."

"Me?" Kotetsu asked. He took a drink.

"Your daughter seems to be destined to be friends with the imp who nearly destroyed the world just last night," Yuri clarified.

"No need to remind me," Kotetsu said. "But so far, she's harmless. The moment she causes trouble for Kaede, I'll act. Right now… She's just another human girl. She's a really strange one, admittedly, but she's young and not even a NEXT. Much as I hate to admit it, Kaede can take care of herself in this situation."

Yuri nodded. He sipped more of his tea, and Kotetsu savored his drink. Through their silence, Yuri could hear Rocco's loud laughter coming from the other room.

"Are we sure it wasn't a dream?" Yuri asked. His mouth hovered over the warm drink.

"Which part?" Kotetsu asked wryly. "The fight against Kira, or everything in life apart from that?"

Yuri closed his eyes. "You're more of a philosopher than I would have expected you to be… But you're still an amateur."

Kotetsu went back to the original question. "If it was a dream, then we've all shared the fantasy. The cameras caught it, too. Once you walk out of this headquarters, everyone is going to know your face and Yomotsu's. They are going to know that you're the ones who stopped Kira. So, dream or not—it's a dream that we're all going to be living in for some time, and it has real consequences."

Yuri finished his tea and concluded, "Then we dreamers must stick together."

There was a sinister laugh from elsewhere in the room. Yuri turned to see Meilag standing on the other side of the table. How he had managed to sneak around without them noticing and how long he had been there would remain mysteries.

"Well spoken, Yuri," Meilag said. "I will add: At times, dreamers must suffer being branded as criminals or even called insane. But we suffer such burdens gladly."

Kotetsu finished his glass and put it back on the table with heavy satisfaction. He crossed his arms and eyed Meilag. "Are you going to be attending the meeting in two hours?" He asked in a professional tone.

Meilag cocked his head to the side and grinned. "You know I'd love to…" His eyes got really wide. "But I have plans… Many times, I'll have you know, I've felt that if people knew exactly what I'm thinking, they'd throw me in jail… But this time, it's different. You might even call what I'm going to do 'honorable.' It's incredible how I can do things or give advice I don't fully believe in—it sort of makes me likeable, doesn't it? Like Hannibal Lector, without the cannibalism."

Kotetsu stared blankly at Meilag. Yuri was more used to this and was able to more quickly give a response. "So you took Olivia's offer, I'm presuming?" The judge asked.

Meilag straightened his posture. "With delicious pleasure," he answered. "This is my last day on earth as a mortal, and I have a few more tasks to attend to before I make this transition. This meeting is not on my list."

"I can already tell you one of the questions L is going to ask you," Kotetsu said suddenly. His tone was still serious. "And I want to hear an answer I can report back, even if just for my sake. Before we went on this mission, you expressed the most sympathy with Kira's cause. Now that everything is said and done, you were the one who actually stopped Light. Do you still support what Kira was trying to do?"

Yuri watched Meilag closely from across the table. Olivia's new ambassador ran his tongue across his upper lip before answering, "Kira's goals were high-minded… But he used actions that, although I see no problem with, you people do. It's one of the great problems of the world, something that most people can't seem to or are unwilling to understand. Something that I do. Something that Light did— That salvation comes with a cost, and thus we should not be judged by our methods, but by what we seek to accomplish."

"Olivia is going to try to straighten out your means with your ends," Yuri warned. "You won't work for her unchanged."

"If she can convince me of error, I will accept the change," Meilag stated. "I'm not so arrogant as to ignore facts when I see them. I just hardly ever see facts come from your kind. To explain where I stand, let me just say that if I had obtained the Death Note instead of Light, you have seen the same things Kira did start to happen. The world would have been a much better place if I had received the Death Note, or at least, a much different place…"

"So you still believe in killing criminals," Kotetsu interrupted.

Meilag exposed his teeth in a wide grin. "I don't romanticize killing," he clarified. "I just realize that other options often don't seem to work as well or at all. Will I kill even if I see other alternatives as a valid solution? No, of course not. But would I hesitate to kill if there was no other option? Again, no. I do believe that, to a degree, killing can be a waste. That was perhaps Kira's biggest mistake—he became reckless, even if his goal was to rid this world of all the useless and disgusting people. You never know if you're eliminating a future resource or if that person had critical information that could help you. He should have realized that you never know how these things can play out. He was too lost in his 'god' fantasy."

"And now you're going to be working for the same Goddess he opposed," Yuri said.

Meilag shrugged. "I can't blame people for biting the hand that feeds them," he explained. "Once in a while, a person realizes that he or she has actually outgrown that hand and is able to surpass it. I think that is part of the essence of humanity: the Lucifer impulse, if you will. Whether that's a good thing or an evil thing, I'll leave for someone else to decide."

Kotetsu and Yuri turned to the sound of a door opening. Anemone emerged from the room where Yomotsu was being monitored. This was the first time Yuri had ever seen her without her sparkling red ballroom mask—and he was startled by how much of her mother he saw in her. He might not have seen it so clearly, but having just recently seen Olivia's youthful form, Natalie Walkins looked like almost like a copy.

The differences were few but significant. Natalie's skin was a bit darker, both because she spent more time in the sun than her elderly mother and because her mother had developed this strange glow upon becoming Goddess. Natalie had green eyes and darker brown hair. Today Natalie was wearing her hair in a ponytail. She was in blue jeans and a pink Breast Cancer Awareness t-shirt. She walked up to them.

"Hey," she said quietly.

"How's he doing?" Kotetsu asked.

"He's good," she answered. "Loopy, but only a little more than his usual self."

She was looking down at her own feet, which were in sandals.

"And how are you?" Yuri asked.

Natalie looked up at him. She held his gaze for a while and then answered with a smile, "I'm fine. I mean, I'm great—we really did it, you know? We stopped Kira! I wish we could have saved Light, but in order to kill Kira, we had to kill Light too… By the end there, there wasn't much of Light left to save…"

Natalie would have started to trail off, but Meilag prevented her from doing so. "You dole out judgments and emotions without understanding," Meilag interrupted. "Light was Kira. I don't mean that in the accusatory that most would take it. I mean that, at the core, the identities of Light Yagami and Kira were one and the same, indistinguishable from each other. Kira has existed as long as Light Yagami has. And vice-versa. To name one is to name the other. And to pity one is to pity the other."

Natalie looked back at her feet. "What if I pity both of them?"

Meilag scoffed. "Then you pity far too many things."

Kotetsu must have been wary of the tension and direction of the conversation, because he suddenly changed the subject. "So, if Kaede and I are going back to Sternbild and Meilag is going to join Olivia," Kotetsu began. "Where are you going to go, Yuri?"

All eyes were on the judge. Yuri looked toward the door Natalie had come from, past which was the recovering Yomotsu. "I don't know," Yuri answered. He let that be that.

"The League could use someone like you," Kotetsu suggested plainly. "L is going to say the same thing, so I'm just going to come out and say it: We'd really like to have you with us. I know you want to give up on Lunatic, but you don't have to be him to help us. You just have to be Yuri Petrov. You don't even have to fight if you don't want to. You could help our organization in a multitude of ways."

Yuri looked at Kotetsu. "I don't know if I am going to be a hero again. I don't know what I'm going to be, but I know who I am going to be. Everything will follow in time. I'll know after I have enough time to think it over."

"Listen," Kotetsu insisted. "You might think you don't want to be a hero anymore, but I'm telling you this from experience: you are a hero forever. You'll never let yourself give up on that dream, and you'll never let yourself be passive toward the evil in the world. We still need you."

"I need you," Natalie pleaded. "Yomotsu needs you, too! And Mercy—"

Yuri held her gaze. Natalie had her hands tightened into fists, which she pressed knuckle-to-knuckle against each other over her chest. Her eyes widened when she recognized her own words, but she pressed on in a quiet assurance, "We all need you here. You don't have to go where you're most needed, but if you don't go there… You'll never let yourself rest. You'll only be happy if you go where you are needed."

The heroine called Anemone looked so much like her mother that Yuri had to look away. He could hardly say no to Olivia, but right now, he would not commit to an answer. He looked toward the salmon-colored door. He saw a light flicker underneath.

"Olivia mentioned having plans for you," Meilag said, tugging Yuri's attention back to their conversation. The judge glanced back at him. "But of course, she will never force you to take part… She is stubbornly insisting that humans have free will."

"Just don't forget my offer," Kotetsu reminded.

"Yuri…" Natalie was looking past him, however. She was looking at the door too.