Chapter 40

Alright folks this is the last one I have prewritten for now After this I gotta work on my KH fic for a chap and then Ebony and Fire and then I'll be back. But if you wanna entertain yourself until then go ahead and check those out, they also feature Suzuki/Samn. Here we go!

"What I'm trying to say is that your life isn't something you can just throw away, you need to learn to fight for it because, dammit, you're important, Ryuzaki. Important to the team and important to me. Besides; you said before that we should value our lives…so maybe you should try taking your own advice for once…or something."

"Thank you, Suzuki, I will try to remember that from now on."

April 23rd

After my little show of affection, we split off for dinner and I took mine in my room, seeing as how I completely and utterly embarrassed myself.

When I finally decided it was safe to come out everyone was gone and Ryuzaki's mood had changed severely. When I came out into the room he was at the window, as per usual, but his stance was different, he was more hunched than normal. As I approached he spoke in a soft voice that only I could have interpreted as his version of fear.

"The heads of state have seen the video and they're setting ready to gather for deliberation."

Realizing what this meant I sat on the couch, he came to join me not long after. We sat there for a while, my head on his shoulder, with nothing to do but wait, because no matter what heart-felt-motivational-bullshit I had spouted, nothing would change the verdict.

. . .

It's lunchtime and as usual we're all huddled around our respective piles of paper, today Watari has perfected a homemade ramen that is way better than that packaged stuff I used to eat back home in Cali, I tell you what. He had the courtesy to ask me if I was okay with fish, eggs, and or mushrooms in mine and since I am not okay with any of that, kindly left them out. HE seems to have hand breaded the chicken in a super flavorful panko, and the veggies are also lightly fried in what seems to be a light soy sauce. (He's seemed to pick up what veggies I like because normal ramen doesn't have green beans in it, but it's oh so good.) The noodles themselves are perfectly al dente, if you can even say that about Asian noodles…but they are, they're not mushy like the noodles in can soup at home or too hard as if they haven't been cooked at all. As for the broth? Oh man the broth…it's probably the best part. It's so flavorful and seasoned just like the chicken. Having not seen how he made it I can only imagine that he boiled the chicken in the pot and seasoned it while it was in there and used the pot water as brother, it is soo good.

My jaw aches as I slurp my noodles. (Which by the way is apparently a compliment here, when at home it was considered rude.) I put my bowl down and take a sip od Dew as Watari comes back into the room.

Jeez is he gonna ask if we want more already? I haven't even finished the first bow…no…wait, his face…something's wrong.

Ryuzaki seems to read him the same way. "What is it, Watari?"

"Several countries have weighed in, and it seems they're in favor of the real L appearing on T.V." My heart drops to the floor as Ryuzaki sighs.

"Well, as I said before; I don't blame them. Given the current circumstances it's the most appropriate choice, however we still have some time before I absolutely have to do that so perhaps we can find dome sort of counter measure…As Suzuki pointed out…we should value our lives, so I'm not about to walk to my death. Besides, it would really annoy me to be killed by the first person to jump on the Kira bandwagon." Ryuzaki begins to stir sugar cubes into his coffee. I glance around and notice that the Chief has a strange look on his face, as if he's confused.

Did Ryuzaki not tell them about our conversation?

"Ryuzaki, what do you mean by that?"

Annnddd of course he didn't mention a single word. Why am I even surprised? It's like he enjoys watching the looks on their faces when he just pops out of nowhere with new information or a new hypothesis.

He sighs, takes a sip of coffee and looks back at us. "Well, Suzuki and I talked it over and we believe that there's a strong possibility that this Kira is fake-" I clear my throat to get his attention and shake my head 'no'. "Err…my apologies, not fake; we should think of him more as a second Kira."

They all stare at me like I have six heads, I sigh and point a finger at my chest. "As. Smart. As. Ryuzaki."

Matsuda recovers the fastest and looks back to Ryuzaki. "A second Kira?"

Watari seems to return from who knows where and sets a piece of vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and a strawberry on top, in front of our fearless sugar induced leader.

Hey that looks like the cake I made him for Valentine's day, come to think of it, he has been eating this kinda a lot recently. Wonder if it's his new favorite.

Aizawa looks shocked as he leans forward in the couch he's been sharing with Matsuda, catching my attention. Today our seating chart is a little bit different; the Chief and I are sharing a couch, then to my right is Ryuzaki in his chair and then to the right of him is Matsuda and Aizawa sharing another couch. Since the passing of Ukita, Mogi has been staying at Task Force Headquarters, fielding calls. He's actually quite good at it. Anyway, Aizawa is so shocked that when he goes to speak he stutters.

"W-what? I don't understand why you think there's a copycat. What made you come to that conclusion?"

Ryuzaki point to me with his fork, his mouth full of cake. I roll my eyes and take the hint. "Well; we took a look at this new Kira's victims, the one's he did to prove that he was Kira. Now for one, our Kira didn't seem to ever think that he had to prove himself when it came to the media. When Ryuzaki challenged him he just did it, no notice given, no talking. Two, this Kira doesn't seem to care about killing the innocent, while Kira before didn't kill anyone who 'didn't deserve it' without being provoked. This Kira seems almost vindictive, like anyone who opposes them or stands in their way is dead no matter what. Actually, now that I say me theory out loud, and think about them as two separate people it's entirely possible that this Kira pulled the Sakura T.V. stunt to get the attention of the first Kira, I'll call him, 1.0…" I glance to Ryuzaki who nods.

"It's a possibility, yes,"

"Ryuzaki," My head turns to the Chief beside me. "If you had to put a number on it, what's the probability of a second Kira?" Ryuzaki eats another bite of cake and sips his coffee before responding, leaving us quiet and awkwardly staring at him.

"This time I'd have to say it's more than 70%" The team gasps as Watari appears and takes away my bowl of forgotten ramen. "I just really don't like the way he operates, it's not like Kira."

"Not like him?" Masuda is an everlasting stare of confusion, so I butt in.

"To put it simply, Kira has always avoided innocent victims, but now he's killing T.V. hosts." Ryuzaki nods and takes over.

"And I believe that if there are two Kira's catching one might provide insight on how to catch the other." He looks past me and addresses the Chief. "Mr. Yagami, I'd like your permission to ask your son to cooperate with us in this investigation." They all gasp again as if it's not obvious as to why he would bring Light here.

"If you want my son to join the task force does that mean you no longer suspect him?"

FUCK NO!

"No…I can't say he's completely cleared, but his deductive abilities would be invaluable to us right now." The Chief looks down and seems to understand the real reason Ryuzaki wants him here.

"If my son wants to cooperate with you then I have no reason to prevent it."

"I appreciate that." Ryuzaki glances to me then back. "However, don't tell him that the latest Kira might be a fake. I don't want him to know that just yet. We want to make it appear to him that we're chasing the same Kira." I sigh, not completely looking forward to having to pretend not to see Ryuk. "Mr. Yagami, would you kindly call your son and bring him here? Everyone else, you're dismissed until Light arrives." He doesn't give anyone a chance to respond before standing and going to his window.

The Chief excuses himself to call Light and I join Ryuzaki at the window. "I hope you know you're inviting a snake into our den." The side of his mouth rises into a smirk.

"Yes, but what animals dwell in this den are up to us. He might think us rabbits, but perhaps awaiting him are badgers." I chuckle slightly.

"Yes Ryuzaki, a den full of badgers."

Well that's it for now folks, but when I return Light will be back and we'll be that much closer to Misa. Y'know what else you have to look forward too? That part about Aoyama and the 'Blue Note'. I have some decent dialogue in mind for that. But I hope to see you soon ^^' I've already started writing the KH chapter and since it's a rewrite of an old one I have something to work from, and as far as Ebony and Fire goes, I have a little note for myself to write a nightmare so starting shouldn't be too bad. Hopped you enjoyed this chapter, I do apologize that they were so short but, they made up one big one. (My stuff is usually 3000 words, but these last 3 chaps were 1000 words each) Alright, c ya!

Edited: 2/2/18 about 9pm- I've been getting a lot of emails tonight about a special viewer who seem's to be binge reading and leaving a comment on every chapter and i just want to say thank you Leah. I know you'll get to 40 eventually but i wanted to make a note for you to come up to so you could read it when you got here. It means the world that you and my other readers take the time to comment. I know exactly when each and every one of you do, and i literally wanted to cry i was so touched. You made me get up off my ass and start the second drafting process of my new chaps for my other fics so that i can come right back to DNTOS so thank you so much. *bows* In the next chapter i'll respond to all your questions 3 come find me on tumblr UnluckyKitty41