Ok, guess I don't need to repeat myself yet again, but I will anyway: THANK YOU so much for reviewing and helping me out! I honestly wish I could answer all your reviews! If I don't, I don't do it out of snobbishness, but because I am using that time to write the story that you reviewed!

I promise that once the story is finished, I shall take the time to answer all your reviews, and thank you for having cared enough to help me out! Thank you!!

Also, please mind any grammatical errors/ repetitions that you'll surely see in this chapter. You must be sick of hearing this already, but I'm just saying it to keep my conscience clear!

I hope you enjoy this extra-long chappie! If you detect any OOC anywhere, please inform me, and I shall revise my approach to the story! Thank you for your help!

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Limitless Silence

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

They were standing side by side, staring upwards at the imposing dark structure. At times like these, Raito felt every bit the tourist in a foreign country. Despite the silence and bizarreness of his surroundings, nothing could dull the sheer grandiose aura that accompanied some of the most prominent buildings of Mu.

Like this one.

It was amazing to think that a construction like this had been wrecked to ruins in the living world, when here it was just as imposing, huge and subtly terrifying as it must have been in the mind of the architect who conjured it.

Gigantic and inapproachable, the Cathedral stretched in front of them, the vast flat surfaces of its walls contrasting sharply with the blade-sharp edges of its pillars. It was its unusual decorative details that served as the telltale sign of its Gothic style.

And it truly was every bit the Gothic temple. The most striking thing about it was the dark graphite colour of its marble surfaces, which when combined with its massive height, created the illusion of omen. Raito believed that this building must have been destroyed a long time ago in the real world, since it simply looked too classic and too elaborate for something the New Age would have had the capacity to conserve.

When surrounded by all these Victorian houses in the nearby streets, this cathedral did not look as misplaced as one may have expected. Raito noticed that there were blurry orange lights coming from inside the black windows. But if he stared too long at the occult illumination, he thought he could hear the sounds of pelting rain, so he avoided doing so.

It was a dreary evening in Mu, the sun hiding behind endless layers of dark grey clouds, which stubbornly refused to erupt in rain. Ryuuzaki was, as always, at Raito's left. It seems that even when not wearing the handcuffs, they liked to abide to the arrangement of placement that they'd become so accustomed to during their lives. Raito let his eyes linger on the back of L's black head for a moment, a bit absently, before turning back to stare at the church, challenging himself to look as far upwards as he could.

Finally, after nearly ten minutes of having stood here, combating his own curiosity, he gave in and asked the question.

"Do you know this building?"

Ryuuzaki kept silent for nearly an entire minute. He didn't turn around or give any indication of having heard what Raito had just said, so Raito closed his hanging jaw and decided to ignore L in return. He wasn't in the mood for Ryuuzaki's drawn out silences, he thought in annoyance. But just as he was trying to work out what the Latin inscription on top of the cathedral's main entrance was referring to, L spoke.

"Not as such." Ryuuzaki answered, and Raito didn't bother saying anything about the quizzical nature of that statement, scanning the windows of the church and trying to memorize the complex architecture of it. He knew that L would soon elaborate on what he'd just said, anyway.

And indeed, a few moments later: "But I reckon I have seen it before."

Raito's eyes turned to fix on the back of L's head. L turned around, showing his profile to the other man.

"Isn't it the original St. Paul's Cathedral?"

Raito squeezed the limitless information databases in his brain. St. Paul's…what did that remind him of…? And since L said that this was the original one, then could there possibly be another…? Raito could vaguely remember that it was associated with Royalty of some sort, so…

"You mean the massive church in London?" Raito finally asked, remembering the short trip Misa had forced him to go on, a few years after L's death.

L turned around, a small tilt in his eyebrows and a swell of humour in his voice "There are many massive churches in London, Yagami-kun, the Abbey being the principal one."

"Don't patronize me." Raito answered, but there was no real bite, or even annoyance in his voice. It was just a bored drawl. "You know which one I'm talking about….where all the Jubilees take place."

"I'm surprised, Kira." L commented lightly, turning back away from the other man, just in time to miss the way Raito gritted his teeth at the appellation "Most non-British people know it because of Princess Diana's wedding ceremony." Raito thought he detected a sly undertone of scorn in the detective's voice, although he couldn't really understand whether it was the affixation with the People's Princess or the public's general lack of knowledge that Ryuuzaki did not appreciate.

"I'm not like most non-British people. L." Raito's tone was clipped, in response to the name Ryuuzaki had used. The detective didn't seem to mind, however, as he trod on to continue the history lesson.

"This was the original St. Paul's Cathedral, built from scratch in medieval times. Burnt down and completely destroyed during the fire of London, only to be rebuilt into a slightly smaller, more modern counterpart."

Raito noticed that, judging by his tone, L probably didn't much like the modern counterpart. He chose to keep these thoughts to himself, however, opting to stare at the building a bit more carefully, now that he knew that it had been wiped off the face of the earth for centuries.

"There's a maquette representation of this building in the crypt of the modern St. Paul's, which is how I recognized it. I had visited the cathedral on several occasions, interested as I was in-"

"Humour me, Ryuuzaki." Raito started, in a mock disbelieving voice "Are you going to talk to me about God, now?"

"I could, if you want to." L said, his voice deadly serious, to the extent that Raito thought of it as a joke. The chestnut haired man had realized, eventually, that these ill-aimed sarcastic attempts constituted L's idea of being funny. "I can recite parts of the Holy Scriptures by heart. Oh, but I can't say the same about sutras and Buddist teachings. I don't know them quite so well..."

"You? Organized religion?" Raito smirked privately turning away from Ryuuzaki as they walked "Hell would sooner freeze over." He just couldn't see L associated with this kind of thing in any way.

Then again, a small voice chipped in Raito's mind, it would be typical of L to be telling the truth, knowing that Raito would never believe him.

Ryuuzaki gave a smirk of his own, which was completely lost on Raito, who was busy looking elsewhere "I suppose If it did," The detective said quietly, a tint of something like thoughtfulness lacing his tone "we'd be the first to know."

Raito did not respond, although his spirits decidedly dampened after considering the truth in that statement. Instead, he decided to ask something that would distract him from thinking about it at all.

"Is the marble really dark, or is this grey colour an effect of the fire of London?" The Japanese man wondered aloud, realizing he had spoken to L only after having finished the sentence. "I mean-" he thought he should clarify, but L seemed to have caught the gist of the question.

"I believe the marble was dark all along. At the time it was built…"

And this was how today's educational visit begun. The chestnut haired man was sorely tempted to say that L sounded ecstatic as he talked about it, but, seeing as he was rather interested in this sort of thing himself, he didn't bother with making small talk and just contented himself with absorbing the freely offered information.

At times like these, Raito couldn't wait until they'd leave the Anglo-Saxon and enter the Japanese section of Mu, where he'd have the chance to overwhelm L with his limitless knowledge of Japanese feudal history, much like L was doing now with Europeans. But even though he couldn't wait to flaunt his own knowledge, and prove he knew an equal amount of information as L – if not more – he was still intrigued by learning about these things about foreigners, which he had never thought – or cared – to think about when he was still alive.

But after almost an hour of talking about it, and watching L's eyes dart to the corner's of the dark building almost wistfully, Raito thought that there might be some other reason – beyond scholar interest – which was making Ryuuzaki so excited about this whole thing.

They'd been walking around the building to observe it from different angles for some time now. If Raito didn't know any better, he'd say that the detective was looking at the building as though it were a piece of candy. Finally, against his better judgment, if only to observe the other man's reaction, he decided to ask:

"…you want to go inside?"

But when Raito suggested they enter it, L, who'd been walking silently a few feet forward, turned around suddenly, as though electrocuted.

"…" He didn't say anything, just looked at Raito with that persistent thoughtful stare. Then, his black eyes started darting around back and forth, like they did whenever he was thinking intensely. Raito wondered if, perhaps, L was actually considering it, despite never willing to enter buildings in Mu.

But, finally, Ryuuzaki spoke again after a few minutes.

"Let's…leave it for now. We can't afford to lose time. Each moment we waste not searching for our respective partners can have a great impact…" Ah, so the cold, calculating detective was back. Whenever L spoke like that, he reminded Raito extremely of the person he'd learned to identify as Ryuuzaki during his life: the person who calculated each and every situation – except perhaps when it came to confectionaries – with emotionless precision.

But Raito knew better than to believe this.

There must be some reason why Ryuuzaki was making these excuses in order not to enter the church, when he so obviously wanted to visit it. But it couldn't be fear, since Raito had realized early on that it was no longer fear that drove L's actions. Of course it was unpleasant to enter the buildings, but, if he really wanted to, L would probably ignore the danger and do it. There was probably some other reason, some explanation as to why L avoided entering any of these buildings together with Raito…Perhaps he didn't want to stay close to Raito for too long…? Perhaps he really did consider it a waste of time, or a procrastination of their mission?

Perhaps, like Raito himself, L didn't want to be with the other when the apparitions would start appearing, for fear that he might lose face.

"Fair enough." The chestnut haired man opted to answer, pulling his white pinstripe shirt over his cotton black t-shirt. He'd gotten these clothes – including his beige trousers – from one of the houses, which he'd visited the day before yesterday. He'd asked L if he wanted to be brought any new clothes, but, predictably, the detective had refused. He said he preferred washing and rewashing the clothes he was usually wearing than finding new ones here and there. Raito did not agree with this strategy, seeing as he considered it the proverbial signpost of a tousled, filthy slob.

However, strangely, as he looked at the back of L's trousers, he noticed that they didn't look even half as dirty, or even disgusting, as he'd expected. They were less than pristinely clean, of course…and the edges were half torn as L walked…but, strangely, Raito did not find this as irritating or repulsive as he once had. In fact, if he wanted to be honest with himself, he felt rather envious of L's apparent ability to not care at all about his appearance. How did he do it? How could he just say: 'to hell with it' and content himself with dressing like that? This was something that Raito simply couldn't – did not have the capacity – to do!

"It's getting quite dark." Raito simply said, and that was all L needed to hear.

The weeks they'd stayed together, strangely, seemed to be much shorter and pass much more quickly than when Raito had walked alone, with only the shadows of strangers for company. During this time, they seemed to have developed something of a code. They didn't need to talk much – just a few words would suffice, and they'd understand each other. Except for the times they were seeing buildings or watching hallucinations – like today – they didn't really talk much. Which was rather strange, Raito thought, considering that talking and communicating was supposed to be what human comradeship in Mu was all about, as opposed to the obligatory silence of walking alone…right?

'But we're not comrades.' Raito reminded himself for the umpteenth time, as he relied on L to find a comfortable dark place for them to spend the night. He'd noticed, with a bit of trepidation, that he'd started to think of L more and more as a comrade as the days went by. Which was not good, seeing as, one day, surely, L would find Watari and Raito would inevitably be left alone once again. 'Besides, this is Ryuuzaki we're talking about. Ryuuzaki. Remember what an ostentatious moron he is, how he made you waste the best years of your life being chased by cameras, how-'

And yet, the more Raito tried to force himself to remember all of it, the more he came to forget why any of it mattered, any more. The duel was already over, he thought. Now it was time for a bow, not a rematch.

This situation was strange, however. It wasn't exactly that Raito was trying, aspiring or even wishing to gain a friend in Ryuuzaki. He supposed it was just the natural predisposition which came with walking with a person every day for the last month. The same had happened to them when they'd be tied to each other during life, at that sort time during which – that very short time – Raito had felt somehow…reluctant…about killing L.

Then again, there was this constant nibble in Raito's brain, the objective and logical reminder that this was L, and that Raito simply didn't like the kind of person L was, not because they'd been rivals in life, but simply because Raito had never liked unkempt, candy-obsessed, arrogant, cowardly, immoral, hypocritical and blind fools who couldn't even stand properly.

The only contradiction in that statement was that L didn't seem to be much of any of those things anymore. Or if he still was, then perhaps it was Raito who'd stopped being annoyed by all these things, at some point.

L found a place, behind what looked like a decrepit baker shop. They walked around the small, old-fashioned building, squeezing through the crowd in order to fit through the narrow alleyway. Raito felt the touch of others' clothing against his own, and tried to keep himself from flinching. Oh how it aggravated him, being forced to collide with people on such a regular basis, being obliged to rub against their bodies, hear the sound of their breathing.

And infuriatingly enough, Ryuuzaki, who was supposed to be the introverted out of the both of them, didn't seem all that phased about this constant situation, in the same way that he had never seemed shy or reluctant to talk about the most perverted or immoral of crimes. The detective seemed a bit disgruntled at best, but not even half as annoyed as Raito. In fact, now that Raito thought about it, L had proved to be quite the contrary from what anyone would expect.

When a person who had never met L first saw the detective, they'd probably think: 'He's one of those quiet, shy, intelligent types. He looks like a little child, scared and alone, folded in two. He probably doesn't like being around people.'

But strangely, only half of that impression was true. L quizzical silence was not an indication of coy shyness or poor social skills, as people often thought. It was a camouflage for suspicion. In fact, Raito knew that, if L ever wanted to be social, he had rather good elements at his disposal, like his intelligence and ready wit.

Secondly, Ryuuzaki's usual stance, with his knees drawn to his chest, was not proof of loneliness and submission, but mistrustfulness and calculation. And finally, the reason why L didn't like being around people was nothing as romantic as being inhibited, and reserved: it had been the fear of being discovered that had always made him stay away from public places. And as for his awkwardness…well Raito supposed that there could be some truth in the supposition that L might have always been a bit dysfunctional when it came to proper interpersonal relations.

"I wonder." Raito suddenly said aloud, and clamped his mouth shut when he realized that, for the second time in the same evening, he'd spoken his thoughts aloud without realizing it. He'd being doing that more and more often lately, something which worried him.

L, who'd just turned around the corner behind the building, walked backward slowly to stare at the other. And Raito, after staring back at the crow haired man for a few minutes, shook his head a bit, as though to indicate that nothing was wrong.

Ryuuzaki must have been tired, since he apparently couldn't even be bothered with investigating the 'suspect's' strange behaviour. Raito had also noticed over the last month, with slight relief, that L had stopped being overly suspicious or observant of Raito's every move. The Japanese man supposed that it had to do with the detective's newfound lack of fear. Part of Raito – the part that had been Kira – was insulted. But overall, Raito supposed, he felt rather…glad.

L, predictably, proceeded to find a comfortable looking, nest-shaped space in the corner between the small baker shop building and a wooden fence. He bent his knees, sat still for a few moments, and then fell backwards to recline there silently. He set his forearm over his eyes, as though dismissing the other.

With this motion, Raito remembered that it was his turn to run the drills today. So, without making a fuss about being tired, even though he certainly was as exhausted as the other, he picked up the bucket from where Ryuuzaki had left it.

He walked a few paces forward, coming to tower directly above the other's supine form. Ryuuzaki pulled his arm away from his eyes to look at Raito.

"Will you stay here?" Raito asked.

Every night, he would ask that same question, refusing to wonder why he felt like asking it. Even so, L didn't seem to mind, giving the same answer, every night. He nodded curtly – as much as he could nod, given his position.

Raito wondered what would happen the night after they found Watari. What would it feel like, he wondered, not having anyone to ask if they'll 'stay here'? He didn't know why he kept thinking about it, about the way Watari would always answer questions on L's behalf, as though he knew what the detective was thinking. Perhaps worse than that, thought, was the fact that L would never stop the old man. That impenetrable L, who would never tolerate anyone…he would always let Watari do his bidding…

If they found Watari, Ryuuzaki would definitely follow the old geezer.

Suddenly, a pang of something shot through Raito's chest.

"Then I'll just leave these." Raito said rather roughly, dumping the two coats next to L's torso, one above the other. L made no responsive movement, so Raito turned around, walking away, his heart thumping in his chest.

He stopped slightly, at some point, turning back to look at L's knees, which were folded upwards as the detective lay, supine, on the ground. Through his unexplainable, sudden anger, Raito watched L's long, knobby fingers tapping on the ground, and was suddenly overcome by some kind of…some kind of…of…

"Be careful…"

But just as he said it, Raito realized what it sounded like, and noisily shut his mouth.

He noticed that, as he said the dreaded words, the long pale fingers stopped tapping immediately. Ryuuzaki's legs shuffled, as though the other was preparing to sit up and look at Raito. The chestnut haired man turned away immediately, presenting his back to the other. He gritted his teeth, and didn't realize why he felt so angry and anxious at the same time. He didn't even realize his heart was hammering in his chest.

His palm was sweaty as he gripped the plastic handle of the bucket.

"…not to fall asleep and get robbed, because we need the coats." He added, and there was suddenly this huge knot in his throat. Before the alien weakness in his knees intensified, or even before L would get the chance to say anything in return, he walked away.

After a few moments, he heard a distant drawl float from the distance behind him.

"Likewise."

His heartbeat became harder yet, as he realized that he couldn't understand what L was agreeing to. He thought that he felt so unsettled because this situation reminded him of when they were both alive, and Ryuuzaki would interrogate him.

In fact, to be perfectly honest, he didn't want to think about why he was suddenly feeling so tense.

So he did himself a favour and stopped thinking about anything, except the bucket of water he was supposed to fill.

-

After all, just because they were dead men did not mean they would have to behave like cave men. This is what Raito kept telling himself, trying to remind himself the important reasons why he let himself undergo this humiliation every day.

There was silence for a few seconds, as L pulled the water upwards from the well, the bucket completely full once more. Raito turned to watch over his shoulder, briefly catching Ryuuzaki's eyes as the detective moved towards him, with the bucket suspended in his hands.

Raito smoothed his wet dark tresses away from his face, preparing for the next heavenly splash of clear liquid against his head.

They had made the discovery a few weeks ago: it had been that fatal and completely confusing morning, that moment of complete exasperation, which had been the precursor of all this.

Raito let out a drawn-out sigh as L tipped the bucket over his head, wetting his head slightly. Then, the detective quietly brought the water above Raito's shoulders, emptying it and drenching Raito's body from head to toe.

They had realized unexpectedly, that morning, that Mu was even more sadistic than they had first believed it to be. Apparently, whenever a person in Mu tried to touch the water, they would be ambushed by some form of…of…hallucination, or monster, which would not allow them to enjoy the water quietly. However, when another person handled the water, then everything was all right, and there were no hallucinations.

In Raito's case, he'd been suffering from the hellish cockroaches all along. Whenever he'd tried to use or drink water here, he'd been assaulted by visions of hostile insects when his skin would come in close proximity with the water. But if Ryuuzaki – or probably any other person – was the one to shed the water on Raito's body, then the water did not transform into anything, and Raito could enjoy it blissfully.

The same thing stood for L himself, apparently, who'd been seeing mousetraps every time he'd tried using the water here. But when Raito was the one to splash water on Ryuuzaki's body, L would obviously enjoy the benefits of the natural, mousetrap–free liquid of life.

Raito didn't much like the connotations of this situation, not fond of being dependent on other people for anything, much less something as vital and biologically necessary as this. It annoyed him how everything in this world was connected to his relations with other people, since this was the only sector of his life where he'd never overwhelmingly succeeded, unlike in intelligence and decisiveness.

As he sat there, on the large rock, with nothing but a scant blue piece of fabric covering his private parts, he trembled a bit. The morning air was rather chilly, and combined with the freezing water, the surface of his skin was suffering. Ryuuzaki walked back to the well, to get more water. Raito looked downwards, studying his toenails. Cold, clear water droplets fell from his nose to the damp ground. There was nothing that could be done about the temperature of the water…but it was a fact that cold water was better than none at all, Raito begrudgingly supposed.

He heard the ropes rattling and turned to watch L, as the detective pulled the bucket upwards with startling strength and force.

He didn't think that this situation had anything to do with Ryuuzaki in particular. Now that Raito noticed it, he realized that, whenever he saw other people in Mu handling water, the composition of the water looked perfectly normal. However, as Ryuuzaki had proved, each person saw something unpleasant in the water, and could not enjoy it by himself. They all needed someone else to help them. What Raito could not understand is how he'd missed this before.

Even now, three women came toward the well that L was, waiting to use the water after the detective was finished. How could Raito have missed this before? Most people here in Mu seemed to know of this crucial secret!

Had he truly been lost in his own world for so long so as not to notice?…Or perhaps, he had noticed it but opted not to accept it, having thought that he'd never find another person willing to help him deal with this problem, at least until he could find Misa and get away from this sad place.

L took the newly filled bucket, handing the rope to one of the women who had queued up behind him. She got to work immediately, tying up her own water container and lowering it in the well. At times, living with this needlessly primitive equipment, Raito felt as though he was back to medieval times.

Then he noticed that one of the women – she seemed to be the youngest, not more than fifteen years of age – was staring at him with a look of bashful wonder. He internally groaned as he realized that there were dark red blotches on her cheeks, and that she seemed to be unsuccessfully trying to pull her eyes away from him. Judging by the irrepressible awe in her expression, she probably hadn't seen an adult man naked – except, perhaps, her father – in her entire life.

Soon enough, it wasn't just her. As they were waiting, all three of them had turned around slightly, trying to hide their surreptitious gazes. Raito unconsciously pressed his thighs together.

Oh fantastic. It was bad enough that he'd had to combat his fear of stripping to his birthday suit with Ryuuzaki present. As if he didn't feel like an exhibitionist already, now he had to deal with the prying, inexperienced eyes of a teenage girl, which lingered on his scantily covered crotch a bit too long for com-

Luckily, at that moment Ryuuzaki appeared, his body hovering in front of Raito and obstructing the woman's view. Raito was introduced to the genuinely new experience of being pleased to see the unnecessary slackness of Ryuuzaki's clothes. In order not to let L realize what had been happening before he appeared – although Raito was sure the detective already knew – the chestnut haired man tried to seem completely disinterested.

And as if that wasn't enough, Raito had caught the eyes of more than a few men, who'd come to the well to get some water. It was impossible to find privacy anywhere in Mu, especially in the wee hours of the morning, when everyone was getting ready. And even though none of them had paid him any mind, the mere remembrance of…of the last time he'd been naked with a man…and…

He felt a tremble shoot through his spine, and realized he wanted to be done with this, quickly.

L moved as though to dump the water on Raito's chest, but Raito batted his hands away, indicating he wanted L to wash his back. When his hand came in contact with L's digits, however, he felt a slight chill up his spine.

He didn't like being naked in front of this person. It felt horrible – it was like –

The wet man bent his head forward and pointed backwards with his hand. Ryuuzaki, after days of doing this, caught the drift and moved behind Raito. He shed the water on the chestnut haired man's shoulder blades, careful not to lay even a single finger on Raito's skin. Raito rubbed his back with his own hands as best as he could, cleaning himself while stubbornly looking at the ground.

Until finally, when there was no more water, the man was left there, shivering slightly, shaking his head and refusing to think of himself as a dog who was trying to dry up. The blue fabric lying above his crotch was completely wet, so it couldn't serve as a towel. Raito would have to make do without such a commodity today, seeing as he'd forgotten to pick one up the last time he'd visited a house.

So he stayed there for a few moments, waiting to dry up as best as the cold air would allow him, whilst Ryuuzaki moved near the well, waiting for the women to fill their containers before he could refill his bucket.

And thus, Raito was reminded of what would happen next, which was perhaps the most humiliating part of every morning, even more humiliating than being washed by Ryuuzaki.

After a few minutes had passed, Raito turned his head around furtively, trying to make sure no one was looking. The women had thankfully left by now and Ryuuzaki was at the well, his head turned intentionally away. Raito quickly grabbed his pants and trousers, putting them on in lightning speed and scrunching up the blue fabric – which had been covering his private area all this time – in order to rid it of excess moisture, and then stretching it on a nearby large rock to dry up.

He didn't bother with putting on a shirt yet, seeing as his torso was already wet and he didn't fancy the idea of wearing clothes over wet skin unless it was absolutely necessary. His legs already felt sticky in his trousers. And he knew that soon, it would feel as though he'd never washed them at all. But it wasn't so much the matter of feeling, or being clean, Raito reasoned. In Mu, no matter what you did, you'd eventually get dirty anyway.

It was the action: the routine notion of 'cleaning and grooming oneself' that mattered. It was this action that reminded them all of something they used to have when they were still alive, when they still felt like humans and not filthy animals. It was the will to stay human. To not turn into a ghoul. To not lose touch with civilization.

There were people in Mu, of course, who did not have this concept of honour. Those were the ones who had stopped being considered humans, and had become only…ghosts of what once was.

Ryuuzaki's footsteps distracted Raito from his thoughts, and he moved his eyes away from the horizon, which he'd been staring at which rapt attention for the last few moments. He turned around, extending his hands to grab the bucketful of water that L had just handed him. And then, L moved aside, turning his back to the chestnut haired man.

Raito moved his eyes away for a few seconds, then turned to watch L's back. The only thing he saw was the image of a pale spine, wriggling out of a white shirt, before he turned around completely and stared at the back of the buildings near them. It was only polite not to watch the other undress, after all.

Truly, the feeling of this moment could redefine 'uncomfortable', Raito thought.

There were a few people passing by and going to the well, who looked at the spectacle behind Raito. Raito himself was almost tempted to turn back around, but decided not to make this even more uncomfortable and plain wrong than it already was. He knew, of course, that usually men did not have a problem with bathing together, or seeing each other naked, or…whatever, really.

But Raito was a very private person when it came to this kind of thing. He'd always despised the pompousness and collision of team sports, which is why he preferred solitary action, like tennis, running or swimming. Not to mention that he never wanted to bring himself in a position where he'd be forced to change in those horrid locker rooms. It wasn't that he was jumpy around other men – at least he'd never been before…before…what had happened in his trial, he thought with a small shudder – but he just…didn't like seeing other people.

Even Misa, who was a woman, and who had supposedly been his…girlfriend? Whatever… He had never really liked…seeing her. He just didn't like exhibition – mental of physical. He didn't like exhibition of any kind, be it for him or for someone he was close to. Exhibition just made things harder…it symbolized, for him, a precursor of emotional involvement. It was a weakness that Raito did not enjoy seeing, except in the face of his enemies.

And since L had always been an enemy, Raito should be glad at seeing him at a time of weakness, correct?

But it wasn't quite like that.

Because Raito knew very well that Ryuuzaki was rather a private person himself.

"All right" a quiet voice echoed from behind him, as though the whisper could compensate for the extreme, uncomfortable, forced intimacy of this necessary routine. Raito was almost shaking from the wrongness of it. Reassured that he could now turn around without being traumatized for afterlife by seeing something he would not want to see, Raito proceeded to grip the bucket a bit harder and suppress his irrational nervousness.

He tried not to look as he approached Ryuuzaki's figure, the shoulders of which were shaking slightly from the cold. But it was impossible to look at something without seeing it, especially when trying purposely not to see it.

And besides, to Raito's defense, it was just impossible not to notice it: the overwhelming presence of that skin, which looked so soft to the touch.

Too soft for a man. But on the other hand, sculpted in perfect male physique.

It seemed, even here, the detective was controversial. Ryuuzaki's facial lack of masculinity did not extend to the rest of his body in the way one would expect. The torso, which Raito had seen in various occasions but had never had the chance – or excuse – to study so closely, did have the shape and musculature of any man. The hairless pectorals were tight, and the ribs jutted out pleasantly next to the abdominals – probably the result of martial arts or tennis training over the years. But the skin…the skin was just too white, too pure. Too…unlike Raito's. Raito's joints had always been covered with sinews, fibrous and hard to the touch – unbendable. Ryuuzaki seemed…pliable, somehow…Like some kind of…of…toddler.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, his legs seemed to carry the same trend as his hands and fingers – long, white, spidery. With only the barest trace of hair running down the calves, and a thin black line leading from the navel downwards. Raito froze, noticing that, across L's thighs was stretched the very same cloth…the very same blue cloth that…

Unexplainably, completely beyond his control, something jolted in Raito's chest, and the muscles in his cheeks started pumping frantically, as he tightened and loosened his jaw.

In the chilly, dewy air of the morning, the pores on the skin of L's preposterously white arms became taut. His dark brown nipples – which Raito was unconsciously looking at – were pebbled.

"Yagami-kun?"

Raito didn't know what the hell he was thinking. He hadn't realized he'd actually been staring openly…! He felt the blood rush to his head and ears, and tried to make himself calm down. This didn't mean anything, he repeated in his head. And, already traumatized with the concept of any kind of intimate interaction with males, he refused to accept that he'd been…he'd been…studying...

It was just natural curiosity, because he'd never seen L act this way before. He realized by the way L crossed his one hand across his chest, grabbing his shoulder, that he'd made the other man uncomfortable as well. L was hunched more than usual already, as though trying to become assimilated to the rock, or perhaps, in more of a cliché, wishing the earth would open up and swallow him.

Without thinking about it anymore, lest he embarrass himself further, Raito poised the bucket above the other's head. L unraveled his hands and bent forward. Raito began the process, reminding himself that he should be doing little to no thinking as he helped L bathe. And yet, it was impossible not to watch, not to notice the water make the surface of the skin slick. He watched the liquid drench the black hair he'd spent so much time hating, and noted the way Ryuuzaki's fingers ran through the tresses in a futile attempt to clean them.

All of these mannerisms…It was impossible to think that a person he'd thought he'd known so well could have so many new aspects. This was a part of L's existence that…Raito had never seen before.

The detective raised his arm, and Raito noticed, once again, the fact that the dark hair in L's armpit inversely accentuated the androgynous quality of his soft skin.

And then, suddenly, L tilted his head backwards, eyes closed, face directly under the bucket. From where Raito was standing, towering above the other, he could see every little detail of L's face, as it was pelted by the water. The closed eyes… the thick, black eyelashes. The first few times he'd helped Ryuuzaki wash, he hadn't recognized that face, since he'd been too accustomed to seeing Ryuuzaki's forehead covered by black bangs. But, actually, L had kept quite the forehead beneath that black bush of his, and it was perfectly visible now…

This was just too much, Raito thought, feeling a most irrational, uncalled for anger assault his senses. He couldn't take this! It was just….too much!

And yet, he continued holding the bucket in place.

In fact, Raito was looking at the unusual arrangement of the face so intently that he hadn't realized he hadn't been paying attention to the bucket. He let it tip forward a bit too much, and, before he knew it, the water was all used up.

Ryuuzaki opened his eyes, just in time to see Raito sighing slightly and muttering "Refill." Then, the chestnut haired man walked lethargically to the well, to start the process all over again. As he stood there, pulling the bucket downward and upward again, his eyes surreptitiously slithered back to the boulder-sized rock. Without moving his head, lest L notice that he was being stared at, Raito held his gaze in place. He still couldn't believe that L had used that same cloth…Raito didn't know if he should be repulsed or indifferent. He opted for the latter, if only to preserve his sanity. Besides, if he'd been in L's shoes and had nothing to cover himself up with, he would have probably done the same thing.

Raito watched from afar L's hunched figure, the black hair arranged at strange angles – that is, stranger than usual – as L kept leaning forward. Unable to pull his knees to his chest for obvious reasons, L was forced to sit like a normal person. His reasoning ability had probably dropped now that he couldn't be comfortable, Raito thought, and was attacked by a sharp keen memory of living in that body, breathing in it. Understanding its deficiencies.

'Damn, I'd almost forgotten about that.' Raito thought, as he grabbed the bucket and headed back to the rock the other was sitting on. He noticed Ryuuzaki's long fingers kneading the stone on L's sides, and remembered what it had felt like when he'd been the one to operate those long fingers. When he'd been the one to-

The next batch of water fell of L's chest. Raito neutralized his mind completely. He knew that if he tried to think of anything else, his gut would tighten again, and he'd become angry for no reason.

It took one more bucket of water for L to complete his morning shower. Raito saved the last few drops, having learned after two weeks of doing this, that the last thing Ryuuzaki liked to wash was his hair.

-

"Misa!!" Raito suddenly exclaimed, catching sight of a woman with the appropriate height and hair colour. Ryuuzaki, who'd been walking on the other man's left, slowed his pace along with Raito, looking at the direction of the girl. But the woman herself didn't stop her sauntering, which could only imply that she was not the right one.

'False alarm.' Raito thought to himself, and was less aggravated than he would have expected. He resumed striding forward with renewed vigor, determined to reach a place where he could find some decent fruit – at least better than the sickening usual – to eat today.

Ryuuzaki kept looking around as well, his black-covered head searching around for signs of the old man's face.

It annoyed Raito for no reason, the way Ryuuzaki always had that eager, observant expression on his face when looking for the grandpa. Unconsciously, the auburn haired man tried to take revenge on the detective, for flaunting his search for Watari.

"I have to think up an idea." Raito muttered to himself, conveniently forgetting at times like these, that he'd been travelling with someone else for more than a month and a half. He kept his voice hostile, aiming it at Ryuuzaki even though he wasn't looking directly at the other. "I can't keep sleeping in the street."

"If by 'idea' you are connoting to the houses on the sides of the street, then I assure you, for about the sixth time, that it's a bad one." Ryuuzaki's voice, laced with uncontained sarcasm, sounded from the side.

Raito felt his blood pressure augment, and his veins started a low, humming pounding against his temples.

L aggravated him.

The Japanese man restrained himself from giving a scathing remark to that understatement, and rather devoted himself to thinking of something useful. Anything to distract himself from the constant fury that appeared to be following him everywhere ever since earlier that morning, when they'd taken a shower together once more, and L's skin had glistened irritatingly again.

Suffice it to say, Raito's movements were jerky, and his fingers kept tightening in a fist. 'This situation can't go on' he thought to himself in pure annoyance 'I hate this! This is where I draw the line! I just can't keep doing this…the humiliation of it!'

However, he hadn't come closer to finding his ideal solution not even ten hours later, when they headed, as always, to the side of the street for a shelter. The only difference with before was that, by now, even more so than at noon, Raito felt as though he would explode in ire. Ryuuzaki, in typical fashion, had said nothing concerning Raito's erratic behaviour.

They had considered continuing to walk during the night, but it didn't seem like a prudent solution. For one thing, most of the people in Mu went hiding during the darkness, so there was a good chance that they would miss Watari and Misa. Besides that, Mu was not most popular for its nightlife. The hallucinations were not as intense at night as during the day, but those that existed were perturbing enough, and, when combined with the dark sky, created rather unpleasant visions for the regular passerby.

In contrast, Raito's arguments were also right. The nights were becoming colder and colder, and they could not enter a house together, lest they be presented with an array of ghost apparitions. And even though Raito was extremely curious to see for himself some scenes from the past, he didn't think his pride would ever stomach it if he were forced to display any embarrassing reactions of fear in front of L. It was horrible enough that he had to endure the daily humiliation of washing procedures…this would plain be too much.

"Think of it, Raito-kun. If this were a huge industrial market" Ryuuzaki suddenly said, completely out of the blue, motioning around at both the buildings and the people of Mu. Raito's shoulders tensed up immediately, realizing that the detective was in the mood for small talk "and a company owned all of this…'death industry', think of what money could be made. The customers are guaranteed" he started tipping his fingers backwards as though to number his arguments "the market is global. The Trial of Souls a mandatory process. And now this place, Mu, where each one of us is almost guaranteed to stay in for more than a year. If there were multinationals running this place, it would look very, very different."

Raito walked as the detective explained, scanning the faces around him as he walked, searching for Misa – or even, for that matter, Watari. He had become so used to being with a person who was looking for Watari that he'd now started looking for the old man as well. He suspected it was the same for L and Misa.

And speaking of Ryuuzaki, after his small comment had not been answered, he had resumed walking quietly next to Raito, standing beneath the icy grey sky and listening rather idly to the hallucinations around them. Finally, a few minutes after L had finished speaking, Raito answered, trusting himself not to sound overly angry, or anxious.

"I don't think it would be better if humans were running this place. Probably worse, actually." He concluded, staring at a tall, African-looking man for a few moments before turning to scan the crowd again.

"So you think that something else, not humans, is running this place." L stated, speaking more out of idleness and boredom than any actual interest. He probably also thought the same as Raito, of course, but he was in the mood for starting a debate with the other. Therefore, no matter what thesis Raito took in the next sentence, Ryuuzaki was probably prepared to take the opposite one.

Raito supposed that this kind of attitude rather defeated the purpose of an adult discussion. But on the other hand, discussions in this place didn't really matter did they? He could say whatever he wanted today, and whatever he wanted tomorrow…and nobody would care. Not even Ryuuzaki, since Ryuuzaki was playing the same game.

Under normal circumstances, this familiar game – the pleasant oblivion of philosophical conversations – would feel exceptionally good. But not today. Not when Raito's tendons were so high strung, and his heart constantly hammering in his chest. He walked toward a small alleyway, intent on getting away from the High Street and into a nocturnal shelter. He tried to forget L's presence.

"Not necessarily." Raito ground out of grinding teeth.

"You of all people should have learned to believe in the metaphysical, Kira-kun" The chestnut haired man started to wonder if L was doing it on purpose, knowing Raito wasn't in the mood for conversation. Maybe L was trying to probe Raito's reasons for being so annoyed. The very notion of being interrogated started grating on Raito's already agitated nerves, perhaps a bit more than it would have under ordinary circumstances.

Raito had given up after the first few days on asking L not to call him 'Kira'. He suspected that L rather liked it, in some sort of twisted personal way, so Raito tried to bypass the matter as often as he could. In the same way that he tried to bypass the general subject of the Death Note, and anything that could potentially lead to discussing L's murder. But now, in light of his constant, underlying ire, the immature anger started to become rejuvenated inside him once more.

"I have asked you many times" he started, his voice not trying to be soft or inoffensive, as it usually did. He stopped walking suddenly, and, with one rough, rigid motion turned around to glare straight at L. He was almost thrown off by L's complete unperturbed visage, but steeled himself and continued his hostile approach "Not to call me by that name."

They stared at each other, without speaking. L's eyes did not grow sharp, but retained their bottomless, blank unblinking stare, which was perhaps much more offensive than any glare could be considered. As they stared at each other, standing behind the small building they'd found as a shelter, away from the prying eyes of the High Street.

Minutes passed. Raito's eyes did not waver, nor did Ryuuzaki's. It felt like…the first time they'd ever met.

"Why?" the curt voice and sharp word cut through the silence like a knife. Raito felt as though he'd been slapped by the suddenness of it. "Isn't that what you are…? 'Killer'?" Ryuuzaki ground out the words, his eyes refusing to blink or move away from Raito's.

But if Raito had not been so blinded by anger, or so unreasonably infuriated, he would have realized that they'd had this exact same conversation before, many, many times.

"Not anymore." He answered, and was shocked to detect the vague remorse in his own voice. But it was too late to draw it back now, since L had noticed it as well.

"Disappointed that you can't be Kira any longer, then?" the detective asked, his eyes widening impossibly, in the customary way they did whenever he was probing a suspect for a particularly crucial bit of information. But it was that very psychoanalytical intent behind the other's words that fueled Raito's ire most of all.

"I hate you." Raito spat venomously.. Right after he'd said it, he shut his jaw noisily and blinked a few times. Where on earth had that come from? He hadn't planned to say anything of the sort…and yet, as he opened his mouth again, the words seemed to flow out of him on their own volition, like a torrential river he'd kept bottled up inside, which was now coming forth. "I'm sick of you. What do you think you're trying to do, you idiot?" Raito disgustedly said, delighting in how Ryuuzaki's eyes narrowed down to slits "Make me feel guilty at this late date?"

"Do not call me 'idiot'." L spelled out, and Raito could feel the pressure building between them, as it always did before a fight. There was some kind of joy inside him, upon seeing the profound effect that his words seemed to have on Ryuuzaki. And oh, how wonderful a fight sounded right now. The unadulterated pleasure of slamming his fist against Ryuuzaki's head…of hearing the crack of L's joints as they'd snap.

But Raito was too much of an intellectual to realize that, despite having hated various people at different stages of his existence, not once had he felt as motivated as he currently did to physically express that hatred. He actually wanted to touch the other man, to grab his shoulders and wring them, to soil all the planes of skin he'd seen exposed in front of the well that morning. And the more he thought about wanting to do it, the more his want increased.

Until, soon enough, he hadn't even realized he'd taken a step forward, toward the other. L stood his ground, glaring.

"You are an idiot" Raito repeated, in his ire not aware of how absolutely childish he had started to sound "who can't see beyond his own nose. As though you're not the one who wants me to be Kira. You can't stomach it, can you? To walk around with your own murderer, licking his boots?"

L took a step forward of his own, saying nothing. His eyes said it all. He wasn't beling playful any more.

But Raito did not stop there, the angry glint in L's black orbs urging him to take the decisive plunder.

"Or perhaps, you don't like to call people by their real names." The chestnut haired man let the tone of his voice trickle to poisonous sweetness – the kind of think he knew was sure to infuriate the other "You're jealous. Because you have no name of your own."

L was breathing heavily. Even Raito could see it.

"Is that why you guard the information so desperately? Because you don't want discovered that there is none? Of course, your kind of person is the only one able to stay unharmed with Kira." Raito said, just as L finally made the spiral movement of a kick. Raito brought his hand upwards, to ward off L's attack. Then, he barked out the next few words. "A man with no name!"

The fight was not as long as other times, but much more brutal. Raito panted openly, not caring. At some point, L's fingers fisted in the fabric of his flimsy black t-shirt, ripping it noisily apart.

In return, Raito grabbed a fistful of the detective's hair, yanking it. Ryuuzaki's sharp cry of pain was like something out of a fairytale – so completely unexpected that it seemed like an element of fiction. Raito kept pulling the black tresses, not realizing that the more yells he elicited, the harder his heart kept pounding. As though these pained cries and the unbelievable expression of torture on Ryuuzaki's face – black eyes shut tightly, mouth open and wanton – reminded him of something completely different. An expression he'd been denied so fervently whilst they were alive.

"What's your name?" Raito nearly growled in L's ear, not realizing how animalistic he was being until Ryuuzaki managed to bang him against a wall, at which moment Raito lost his concentration, and became dizzy enough to loosen his hold on the other man. Ryuuzaki took his chance and pelted Raito's stomach with punches, until Raito was on his hands and knees, coughing blood on the ground.

Then, Ryuuzaki's kick came sudden and sharp – like most aspects of his personality – at Raito's waist. The chestnut haired man collapsed prostate, completely exhausted and immobilized. He heard Ryuuzaki's heavy, desperate panting above him, and privately grinned to himself, with his cracked lips.

Then, after a few moments, he heard the sound of a body falling near him, like the sound of a sack hitting the ground. He didn't turn to look, even though he knew that Ryuuzaki was sitting near him, leaning against the wall, face turned upwards.

What seemed like an eternity passed in the span of a few minutes. The tension, which had been tormenting them since that morning's shower, slowly started to fade, until finally, it died. Raito's wounds gradually recovered, but he stayed there nonetheless, prostate, suddenly feeling unexplainably embarrassed. He didn't want to speak to L, or acknowledge what they'd just….what Raito himself had just…

"If not Shinigami, what is controlling this world?" L's voice sounded, a low drawl. Raito bit his lower lip, forcing himself not to answer.

Instead, he waited a few more minutes, and then opened his mouth.

"Misa?" he spoke again, keeping his voice intentionally low, although he already knew that the girl he was looking for could not possibly be anywhere near them.

L did not speak again that night.

-

"We should go."

A few minutes passed. There had been a hallucination right in front of them, featuring a girl being horribly beaten by her alcoholic mother. The hallucination had been resolved by a person in the crowd, who had tried to reason with the alcoholic mother. When that strategy had not worked, they had tried to talk to the little girl. Apparently, that had been the correct 'solution' for that hallucination: the girl had needed someone to talk to; that was all. Raito was amazed by the sheer number of hallucinations which shared this simple – and yet so difficult – solution.

Finally, jarred back to reality by Ryuuzaki's voice, Raito proceeded to walk forward, away from the rapidly dispersing crowd and to the direction they had been moving in before becoming immersed in the hallucination. He submerged himself in his thoughts once again, losing himself in a sea of questions about his own reactions. Ever since that time they'd last fought, Raito would have thought that relations between him and L would have become much worse. But instead, it seemed that they remained as they always had: begrudging acceptance was the sentiment that prevailed between them, most of the time.

And that confused Raito more than anything. Because even though his volcanic fury had faded, compared to before…there was still that lingering annoyance, emulated every time he was forced to help Ryuuzaki have a shower, which tortured his every waking moment.

Perhaps it would have been better to part ways with Ryuuzaki after a-

Suddenly, as they were walking in the pronounced silence of the crowd, a loud voice was heard, rising above all others, jarring them both out of their thoughts.

"MARIA!!" a woman nearby positively shrieked. Although for a change, it was not a scream of terror, or anxiety. It was joy.

The crowd around Raito stopped moving, everyone stopping to stare at what was happening. The woman they'd seen, a relatively short brunette, ran forward, only to be enveloped in the arms of a seemingly younger woman of the same stature.

"Sister!!" the younger woman, Maria, shouted, before being suffocated by her sister's embrace. Raito and L didn't say a word, opting just to keep staring. It was another reunion they were witnessing: obviously, these two sisters had been searching for each other all along…

"Where have you been – I looked everywhere for you – I've been so scared that you-" the woman was crying as she spoke, her voice shivering. Raito clenched his jaw as he watched the exchange, feeling L tense beside him.

"Me too – I've been everywhere in this place, but I – have you seen Mom and Dad? Do you know if-"

They both spoke Spanish, only a bit of which Raito could understand. But what he could translate proved his initial theories correct – they were sisters who'd been looking for each other all along, to the extent that-

Suddenly, however, as they were watching, before the eyes of the aghast crowd, the figures of the two women began to glow slightly. And as they talked animatedly, their eyes never leaving each other in their excitement at finally having found each other, they didn't seem to notice that…that…

"Is that….?" Raito started, his eyes rounder than usual and mouth hanging slightly open.

"…paradise?" Ryuuzaki finished for him, and the way he uttered the word reminded Raito of the way he'd always spoken about Shinigami: as though he didn't believe it truly existed, and was surprised to see it with his own eyes.

Then, slowly, the bodies of the two women started to become blurrier and blurrier, until finally…no one could see them anymore. The only thing that was left was a flowing outline, and then…nothing.

In all the time Raito had been here, he had never seen it happen so rapidly. He'd seen a few reunions of people who he'd thought had been searching for each other, but he'd never seen them …disappear quite so quickly. He'd seen it happen a few more times, but never so automatically upon the reunion of two people. It usually took a few more minutes.

Did this mean that…that when one finds the person who's looking for them…they leave forever…? They…die? They are wiped out? What kind of…Raito could never understand it clearly. The only thing he could gather, with this new information, was that the speed at which two people would go to paradise together depended on the eagerness that they originally had to find each other.

Which must mean that those two sisters had been truly longing to find each other all along. Some part of him – the very small, subconscious part that he was not aware of – reminded him unnecessarily that he'd been walking with L for a month.

L was most obviously not the person searching for Raito, then.

So many questions! And just when Raito had thought that, having come this far, he ought to be able to discover some answers. But the truth was….he probably wasn't. He was no more clairvoyant than a blind man with glasses, he thought in irritation, staring at the blank space that had once been the two happy sisters.

Spending eternity with your sister. How boring, he couldn't help but think.

But then he remembered Sayu, and decided he had rather stop thinking about sisters altogether. Thinking about Sayu, along with thinking about…certain other things, had strictly been banned from his mind.

He'd been so distracted with his own thoughts that he almost got trampled by a child that came running down the street, squeezing between the adults. It didn't happen so often, but when one did see a child in Mu, one's insides always cramped rather painfully, since the child's presence meant the death of a young life.

Even so, Raito had been jerked back to reality from his trance, only to realize that the crowd had started moving again. He turned to Ryuuzaki, intent on asking the other what he thought of the whole ordeal.

"Ryuuzaki-"

He wasn't expecting what he saw, however.

L was still staring at the place the two women had been standing, his eyes a bit blank, as though he wasn't really seeing anything, but was lost in thought. There was this expression on his face…this strange expression. It was...

The moment Raito saw it, it struck a nerve somewhere. It reminded him of a picture he didn't want to see.

"…Ryuuzaki…?"

It took perhaps an entire minute for L to return to reality. It was probably Raito's persistent stare rather than his words which made the detective finally turn around. His eyes didn't have their usual spark of genius, however. They were dull.

"What?" the former investigator asked, in a rather unusually rude, grumpy way. Raito tried not to be surprised, thinking he ought to be used to this expressiveness, by now.

"Want to go?"

L looked at him.

They started walking. And for once, they were quite content to walk along with the flow of the crowd, not trying to bypass, squeeze between or involve themselves with anyone. Ryuuzaki was deadly quiet, his head permanently turned away from the other man. There was some part of Raito that felt good about knowing his eternal rival and antagonist was experiencing such plight. Although he would have preferred it, perhaps, if L had decided he wanted to brawl physically.

It was amazing, now that Raito thought about it. This creature, L, despite his refusal to care or occupy himself with emotions, had the ability to display the most powerful expressions at the most unexpected moments. Not even a thousand words from Raito's advanced vocabulary could express with more clarity than L's face, at that moment, the mixture of jealousy and desperation one feels when seeing the reunion of two others.

And even though some old, dark part of Raito felt justified in knowing that L was suffering, he couldn't find it in himself to rub it in Ryuuzaki's face. That would be hypocritical of him after all, wouldn't it? Since he was in the exact same predicament as the other.

More than an hour had passed, and they'd walked silently all this time, not exchanging even a single word. The colours of the world around them seemed dark and quiet – hues of blue, black and white. With every moment that passed, and every surreptitious glance Raito shot at the other's direction, he was sure Ryuuzaki was undoubtedly thinking the same thing as himself.

They were not each other's…chosen people. Perhaps Raito had thought, even though he didn't want to admit it to himself, that, if he never did manage to find Misa, then…maybe…

But now, after having seen the actual thing, and after having realized precisely how quickly one goes to 'heaven' after truly finding their chosen one, he knew that L was definitely not…

In any case, Raito reasoned with himself, it wasn't that he wanted L to be his…it had just been the countless days that they had stayed in each other's company that had made him so aware of Ryuuzaki's existence. He wouldn't have ever thought of L if he hadn't met him that day. And he suspected it was the same for L himself. As such, since they'd never been looking for each other…and if they'd never been searching for each other, how could they possibly be each other's…

No, this idea was stupid anyway. Why would Raito want to spend eternity with Ryuuzaki – a man, no less. They weren't even good friends. Each of their exchanges felt slightly uncomfortable, since they were both always thinking that they're not supposed to be involved with each other.

"I want to find Watari." L suddenly said, the curtness of his voice acting like a snake's bite in the stillness. It was a statement – an evaluation of the current situation. Raito didn't stop walking, since at the time Ryuuzaki had proclaimed his intentions, he too had been thinking 'I must find Misa'.

There was nothing that Raito could – or felt like he needed to say. He couldn't reassure L that everything would be all right. That would have been a female – and a very disingenuous – thing to do. Not to mention that a man like L would not appreciate blatant lying. On the other hand, it seemed cruel to his own ears to tell L the obvious truth, that it was more possible to find a needle in a hay stack than Watari – or Misa, for that matter – in Mu.

So he settled for the next best thing to say: nothing.

That night though, without really realizing why he was doing it, he let L take both coats and use them as a pillow.

-

The next day, Raito proposed they enter one of the houses to spend the night. He simply wasn't prepared to face another night in the humid, frosty, isolated atmosphere of the world of Mu once again. If they could enter a house, if only for a little while, perhaps gather some blankets, towels and supplies…perhaps just stay there for a little while…

"We don't necessarily have to stay there for the night" Raito explained to a silent L in order to convince the detective, even though the idea of a real bed – with a mattress – sounded very good indeed. "If things get too intense, we can always leave." Raito said, reluctant to name the actual 'intense things' – like the ghost apparitions – that went on inside the houses.

Sure, they would have to deal with the hallucinations, but that would probably not be too bad if they were together. And besides, Raito thought, he really could use a warm bath…

"Just for an hour and a half. Besides, I really need a new shirt." Raito said, trying not to sound like he was begging, and fighting to keep his dignity as he motioned toward his torn shirt – a residue from their latest explosive fight. Thankfully, he knew that Ryuuzaki would not refuse him something if he asked for it with logical arguments – this was just one of the ways Ryuuzaki operated.

"It's not a good idea to enter houses." L answered, for the umpteenth time, but Raito interrupted again, not letting the other elaborate. He hoped that, if he could stifle Ryuuzaki with optimism, the other would not have a chance to protest.

"We need to reassemble our supplies. Even you cannot deny that it's terribly cold during the night." Raito countered.

Deciding that a bit of drama may help, Raito pushed his hair backwards, rather shamelessly displaying his bloodshot eyes from that morning.

Ryuuzaki stared at the other man for a few moments, then turned his eyes away. Raito mentally grinned.

The first thing they heard when they went from the outside to the inside of the house was oppressive silence – not even the usual wisp of ghosts, but extreme, solid silence. Literally deafening; the kind of silence that implies the air is not being stirred around properly. The kind of silence that makes one's eardrums hurt.

Only after they heard the resounding banging sound of the closing door did they realize that they were not inside a house at all. Upon seeing their surroundings, and realize the door had shut decisively behind them, Ryuuzaki whirled around, trying to open the doors handle.

But the door would not budge.

Raito and L stared at each other, and Raito fancied he could actually hear Ryuuzaki's voice mocking him in his mind. It was only the overwhelming silence around them that was keeping L from saying 'I told you so.'

And indeed, if Raito wanted to be completely honest…this was not turning out to be such a good idea after all.

Instead of inside a house, they were…in the middle of a street. An incredibly crowded, yet silent street. Very much like the High Streets of Mu actually, except much quieter.

Pressure was building in their ears from the silence, as they walked around. It didn't take long for either of them to realize that something was wrong.

That is, even more wrong than they'd initially thought.

Ryuuzaki's head whipped around, fluffy black strands flying about his face, staring at the people around them. They were all standing there, unmoving, like statues. Not speaking, not looking around. All in all, it was just another normal day in Mu, with the only difference that the people had stopped moving. And talking.

Ryuuzaki turned to stare at Raito, who, faced with a new alert, was starting to recover from the humiliating and self-wallowing pity of having led them face-first into a trap, and was busy focusing on the present. He looked at L, a mirroring perplexity etched on his features.

What on earth was happening?

The buildings….the buildings around them were…too tall…too modern…

Raito's muscles tensed immediately, and he started to stare at the people of the crowd, trying to notice any inconsistencies, or any kind of signs that...that something was off.

He turned to check L's location, spotting the other man immediately. They exchanged a meaningful stare, both believing it would be best not to speak, lest they disrupt the suspicious silence. But just as they were about to move out of the crowd and toward one of the buildings, a sudden loud, prominent noise was heard.

The people in the crowd, including L and Raito, all turned upwards, to stare at a common point. The way they all moved together was disorienting enough, as though they were a mass of…of...creatures with a common intelligence.

But as he turned to see what they were all looking at, Raito's veins chilled.

The building.

"The HQ building…" L's voice suddenly sounded, in a mutter. Raito turned to look at the detective from afar, realizing that L's features were arranged in a combination of suspicion, which was there only to cover fear and anxiety.

The building. He turned around hoarsely, looking at the crowd around him with newfound understanding.

This was….this was…

The buildings looked different because they were not from Mu. This was not Mu, it was…something else.

'Toukyo.' Raito thought, as frost permeated his brain, almost immobilizing his thinking processes. Without realizing how frantically he was moving, he dived to the left, squeezed through the crowd in order to reach Ryuuzaki, all the time feeling goosebumps run over his skin as he rubbed against the clothes of the people around him. But just as he was about to grab L's hand and yank him away, a sudden shouting sound was heard again, and Raito turned upward, hoarsely. And that was when he saw, on the very top of the building in front of him – the Headquarters' building – the figures of two people.

Raito's movements froze. He'd expected to see only one figure of a man in a white shirt and blue trousers. But now, instead of that, looming above him, miles from the ground was not one, but two people, one in a white shirt and the other in a blue, pinstripe suit.

And they were fighting with each other, occasionally shouting. They were fighting each other physically, with punches and kicks…like the real L and Raito so often did.

"Is that…" Ryuuzaki's voice sounded from beside him, and Raito turned to look first at the other person and then back at the top of the HQ building, a taste of sickness filling his mouth. "…us?" Ryuuzaki concluded, and his tone of disbelief sounded like a cracked record in the silence.

'Am I… dreaming?' Raito wondered, and a chill ran up his spine as he experienced the full-fledged strangeness of this situation. He didn't understand how this could be happening. How he could be located in this place now, when-? And why was there not one, but two figures…?

But he wouldn't stay here to find out. Grabbing Ryuuzaki's upper arm strongly enough to bruise, he pulled the other man aside, in an attempt to manhandle Ryuuzaki into following him away from here.

"We have to leave here!" he only said by means of explanation, his loud voice a whip within the silent crowd. But L stood his ground, refusing to cooperate.

"This is the same as last time, is it not?" Ryuuzaki said, his voice steeling over "The thing you didn't want me-"

"Let's go!" Raito barked, not caring that he was being so obtrusive in the middle of a silent crowd, since the people around didn't seem to notice him at all. In fact, if he looked carefully at each and every one of them, he could almost fancy that he saw a small red light dormant in the eyes of each and every one of them.

He tried to pull L forward again, but the detective was quite strong, and would not let himself be pushed around. They started tugging at each other, waiting for the stronger one to prevail. However, just as Raito had finally managed to make Ryuuzaki move, another, louder screeching sound was heard and the two men had no choice but to look upwards, in alarm.

The two men, fighting above the building as a perfect mirror image of what the real Raito and the real L were doing below, were the ones making these noises. It was utterly illogical both that they could be heard down here from all the way up there and that they were so clearly visible. But in some strange way, it was possible. Raito, as surprised as L and starting to feel physically ill again, felt some kind of knot be tied in his throat as he watched the fight unravel.

There was another shriek from the fighters, although it was unclear if it came from the man in the pinstripe suit – Raito – or the man in the white shirt – Ryuuzaki. This situation was incomprehensible – how could they be here, watching themselves fight? It was illogical. It was inconsistent. It was…

'Like the Trial.' Raito dared to think.

"What…?" Raito heard L say from beside him, and was unpleasantly reminded of the fact that he was here with company. And if the narrowed eyes on L's face where any indication…L was already starting to piece this hallucination together, even though Raito himself was utterly confused…

But just as the auburn-eyed man was about to speak again, and insist they leave, a certain buzz started to erupt in the crowd, around them. Voices started to echo – audible voices, which was strange in itself – from all corners of the conglomeration of people. Raito thought he caught snippets of conversation here and there.

"Hey…isn't that Kira…?"

"-that's right! Kira protects us!"

"…Kira is fighting for us-…"

"-the dark angel will-"

Soon, there were thousands of them, mutters and whispers, coalescing into a constant buzzing noise around them.

"we must help-"

"we must-"

Suddenly, without warning, the eyes of the people around them all turned glowing red.

Raito grabbed Ryuuzaki's elbow and pulled him backwards. His grip was steel, but Ryuuzaki tensed the muscles on his arm, resisting Raito's force. And so, Raito tried to speak again and reason with the other.

"-e have to g-" even though his words were lost in the onslaught of noise, he was fairly sure Ryuuzaki understood what he'd said. And yet, L chose to stay there, unmoving, his eyes fixed on the fighting figures of the building.

Until finally, as though controlled by some common sentience, all the people around them, with their eyes glowing red, stretched their hands upwards, in a grabbing motion.

Raito, his breathing growing erratic and hoarse, watched their fingernails, and the hair on his arms stood on end. He knew what would happen next, he thought, as he turned upwards to see the two men fighting on top of the HQ building. He didn't know why the scene wasn't exactly as he remembered it, but he was relatively sure that the horrible hallucination would end with the man in the blue suit on the HQ building being horribly torn apart by the outstretched Hands of the people around them.

He pushed Ryuuzaki backwards, trying to get as far away from the crowd as possible. He tried to put his body in front of L's, so that Ryuuzaki would hopefully never have the chance to see what would happen. However, judging by what the crowd were saying…it was all a bit contradictory…They sounded like they wanted to help Kira, not…. But just as Raito had daring to think things could not get any worse, a loud, imposing noise boomed from above them all.

"I am justice!" the voice rang, and both Raito and L recognized it as the mechanical voice that L had always used in public broadcasts. Only it sounded much more offensive than it had in the past. The mechanical voice was cropped and fast, the kind of tone someone would expect to hear from a marionette or a robot, Raito realized, and his teeth started rattling in his mouth.

"I am justice!!!" the voice shouted again, and it was so loud that Raito had to cover his ears. He noticed, from the corner of his eye, that L did the same. But no one else in this crowd mirrored this action, acting completely unaffected and keeping their hands raised high in the air, in grabbing motions, as though trying already to rip something – or someone – apart.

Raito was alarmed. Why was all this happening? None of this had happened in his Trial. He didn't want to believe that the hallucination would be as humiliating as to show him being defeated by L in a fight, then thrown off the HQ building and ripped apart by the crowd, But it seemed that this was the scenario that this hallucination would follow, Raito though, disgustedly.

"I am justice!!" and just as the voice, disturbing in its robotic quality, sounded for a third time, a scream sounded from above. Raito turned, alerted, to focus on the fighting figures on top of the building. Was it time already…? He expected to see himself being thrown off the building at any moment. But he turned just in time to see the figure in the blue suit – himself – grab the other man's head roughly. Raito couldn't see clearly from this point, but he was certain that the man in the blue suit had torn off a chunk of the other's hair. As the black tresses were ripped off, the man in the white shirt – L – screamed loudly, and it was such an utterly horrifying sound, that Raito thought the earth shook with it. From beside Raito, L sucked a quick breath – too quick.

The black wad of hair had blood at its roots, seeing as it had been ripped off the detective's head so violently. Raito felt sick as he watched. Any moment now…any moment and the Ryuuzaki on the rooftop would shove Raito's alter ego off the building…any moment, and Raito would witness himself being ripped apart by millions of hands.

"I am justice!" From Raito's side, Ryuuzaki's eyes had grown still, as they always did when he was concentrating intensely. But Raito had no time to explain anything, even though he tried to. From that moment onward, all happened within seconds.

Suddenly, the man in the blue suit on the building grabbed his opponent by the white shirt. And without a second thought, or even a little hesitation, it seems, he simply threw the other man off the building.

Raito stared, his expression a mask of true horror – the kind of terror which always accompanies the realization of ignorance – as he literally saw himself throwing Ryuuzaki off the terrace of the HQ skyscraper. From beside him, L was equally speechless. It was an instant of incomprehension at first, but that cannot even begin to explain the horror that followed, as Raito watched the little speck of white and black falling downward, spiraling toward the ground with extreme velocity.

L was….L was…falling. It wasn't Raito…it wasn't Raito…it was L!

And for some reason, this event intensified Raito's panic, verifying he had absolutely no idea about what was happening around him.

"Move aside!!" Raito shouted at L – the real L, who was standing beside him – as the saw the body dropping from the sky, in an orbit that was aiming directly for Raito. Ryuuzaki also realized that if they didn't move immediately, the falling body would pulverize them.

And even if they were already dead, it was a human reflex to try and stay out of harm's way.

A few seconds later, as both men dove to the side, the unmistakable sickening cracking sound was heard from behind them. It had all happened so fast, and it was all so intensely incomprehensible at the first few moments, that even Raito was not fully sure he understood what had happened.

Unable to help himself, out of sheer disbelief if not anything else, he turned around.

"Oh…Oh no…" he whispered, and covered his mouth with his hand, mostly because he didn't know what to do and needed to bite something in order to keep his composure. His skin was being stretched horribly by the frost and silence in the air. This was not happening. This was not happening, he kept repeating in his mind. This could not be happening.

But that didn't alleviate the fact that there was Ryuuzaki's corpse right in front of him, back broken in two and neck twisted backwards, a patch of hair missing from his cranium, black eyes staring straight at Raito's face.

"Oh no." he repeated, and gingerly turned to look at the real Ryuuzaki, who'd been standing next to him the whole time. The expression on the real L's face was unreadable – it was as though the nerves in the man's facial features had become deactivated, so that the only thing Raito could see was a frigid, neutral, expressionless mask. Then, L started blinking. He started blinking spastically, staring at his own corpse. Raito tried to move in front of the real L, to hide the horrid vision from the other man's view. But it seemed that L didn't want the view to be hidden. He pushed Raito aside, trying to take a better look at it, his eyelids still blinking in the same neurotic way.

But it didn't end there.

"Kill him."

"Help God."

"Kill him."

The people in the crowd started approaching the deformed corpse, their hands stretched forward. Raito wanted to tell them to stop, but did not have the power to approach them, with their outstretched hands like that. When the first of them grabbed the dead body Raito turned his face away, covering his eyes with his left palm, and breathing with intentional calmness, trying to ignore the stench of blood around him.

L stayed there, looking at the scene. He saw it all.

The only thing that Raito could hear, after a while, were the sounds of animals feeding. He gripped his face harder with his palm, forcing himself not to open his mouth, lest he start screaming uncontrollably.

"I am justice!" the mechanical voice resumed, from above, as though never having stopped.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, Raito felt something wet collide with his elbow. He didn't dare look at what it was. He just shook his hand a bit, until the sticky thing had been dislodged, and then carefully brought his arm forward to inspect it. A red blotch was adorning the back of his forearm.

All in all, this was where he drew the line. He didn't know what was happening, or why this horrible twist had taken place in this already grotesque scenario, but…

He moved forward solidly, intending to leave this scene. But just as he'd expected, when he reached the door they had come in from it would not open. He tried to walk out of the 'house' and to the High Street, but he realized that not even the handle of the door would budge.

He was not allowed to leave.

"Yagami-kun?" a scratchy, whisper of a voice sounded from behind him, and, without thinking, Raito turned around to talk to L. But as he turned, he came face to face with what he'd been trying not to look at for so long.

He gasped, of course, when he saw the bloody skeleton that was lying on the ground, abandoned in a puddle of blood – the only thing that remained from…

The people of the crowd, with their blood-drenched hands, where sitting around the corpse in a mockery of mourning. They looked mellow – calm, at last.

Raito turned away again, trying to erase the memory and succeeding only in replaying it over and over in his mind.

This must be a dream, he reminded himself.

This must be a dream. There was no way this could be happening so suddenly for no reason, when everything in Mu had gone so smoothly until now…And there was no reason

"It won't let us leave." He said, his voice shaking uncontrollably. He did not want to be here. He did not want L to be here…he did not want this to be happening…this mantra was the only thing his immobilized brain could summon.

"What?" L questioned, and Raito realized that his voice was just as shaky as his own, and having completely lost all semblance of composure.

"This…place…hallucination …won't let us leave." Raito said rigidly, refusing to care about his trembling fingers. He kept his back turned to L, for once not because he was intentionally trying to anger the other, but because he could not bear to turn around.

"Of course. You have to make it." The decisiveness in the detective's voice came in sharp contrast with the fatalism that had already started to grown in Raito's mind. In fact, it came in sharp contrast with the way their voices had been whispery and hesitant until then.

Raito was so shocked by the routine solidness in the other's tone that he was poised to answer in the same manner, as though what had just happened was just some small, insignificant, ordinary incident, which should not detract from their daily routines.

"Define 'make it'?" he asked, confusion reigning prevalent in his mind. He'd been so shocked by the former events that he didn't have the will or strength to consider the situation logically.

"There is some hidden clause," Ryuuzaki instructed, and, after having watched himself be brutally murdered by Raito himself and cannibalized, it made sense that he would raise his voice, so Raito didn't hold it against him. "which will resolve this."

Raito raised his head in rapt attention. L was right, wasn't he? There always was some kind of trick – some hidden clause – which would allow him to escape. At least there always was in his trial…And it was exactly this prospect of escaping this nightmare that attracted Raito's attention so much.

"I am justice!"

Raito turned around slightly, just enough to present his profile to the other man, but not enough to see the horrid sight, which would distract him from his new purpose..

"You've seen this before haven't you?" L asked again, his tone slightly accusatory, but mostly motivational.

"Seen?" Raito asked, a bit ironically. If only he'd just dreamt it, and not participated in it. Besides, this wasn't exactly what he'd always seen. He hadn't really seen this before…"No. Not…exactly." He answered, completely honest for once.

"Then…what did you see?" Ryuuzaki asked, his voice rough and on edge.

Raito kept silent for a few moments, thinking.

Of course…what he'd seen.

He slowly turned around fully, steeling himself as his eyes gingerly locked on L's black ones. They stayed like that for a few moments, each looking at the other quizzically, as though expecting an answer that would never come. But Raito kept his eyes trained meticulously on the other's, knowing that if he let himself look at the grotesque wreckage behind the other man, he would once again lose all his confidence.

"I am justice!" the siren sounded once again, now grating on their worst fears.

Then, finally, without speaking, Raito walked forward, past Ryuuzaki. He kept his eyes half-shut as he shuffled amongst the blood-drenched crowd toward the entrance of the HQ building. His shoes made horrible squelching soudnds as he walked, but he was at least comforted by the fact that, from behind him, Ryuuzaki's footsteps were making the same noise.

At least that reminded him that he was not alone this time. Someone was there with him, experiencing that same level of disgust. And even though L couldn't possibly know what Raito was planning to do, he followed nonetheless. That small detail served as some consolation.

The trek to the top floor was difficult, as Raito had expected it to be. The lifts weren't operating, and they had to climb the emergency staircases to the fiftieth floor. He shivered as he climbed the steps, and his legs could not support him anymore after some time. He leaned on the banisters, but it still felt as though he were falling. From beside him, Ryuuzaki also looked ready to collapse, his claw-shaped fingers trying to hook into anything they could get a hold of in order to aid their master. Raito noticed that the detective seemed nervous in the close, dark quarters of the narrow corridors, as though he felt trapped.

But Raito didn't remember L being claustrophobic. Rather the opposite.

When they reached the security door to the terrace, Raito pushed it open with labour. L pushed as well, much less delicately than Raito, as he simply crashed his body against the heavy metal of the gate, like a beast desperate to escape a cage.

Then, they walked outside.

The sky had different hues of yellow, orange and pink. Raito didn't wish to see it. He didn't want to be here. He wanted to be…anywhere but here. He turned to the left. And sure enough, at the edge of the platform, standing there in all the glory of his pin-striped suit, isolated and looking downwards, a tall, slender man had his back turned to them.

The real Raito exchanged a cursory glance with Ryuuzaki. Then, with shaking knees, he walked forward.

Without a single word, Raito raised his hand, which was trembling. He sucked in a breath, and, before the man in front of him – his alter ego – had a chance to turn around, he brought his hand down. A well-aimed hit on the back of the head was all it took. His doppelganger collapsed on the floor of the terrace, a batch of thick black hair clasped in his right hand.

Raito stood there for a few moments, his jaws shaking and teeth rattling again, as he watched the unconscious body lying at his feet. It felt so strange to see his own face – so strange having hit the back of his own head, having touched his own hair as a third person.

Moments passed, and the silence weighed down on them. Raito had no intention to approach the edge of the building. But somehow, he was not as wary as he'd thought he'd be – it didn't feel like he was the one who was destined to…to fall today.

Remembering something all of a sudden, and without explaining his intensions to Ryuuzaki, Raito bent downwards, looming over his alter ego's fainted body.

Working quickly, he opened the lapel of the pinstripe blue suit, and let his hand dig in the inner pocket, finding exactly what he was searching for. He pulled the wallet out slowly, careful not to let anything fall down, and placed in his own trouser pocket. He meticulously avoided L's eyes as he did all this, lest his expression reveal to L – by some mystical force – exactly what Raito had been searching for in that wallet. He didn't really care what L would think of him for robbing an unconscious person – even if that person happened to be his alter ego. As long as he could get his hands on what he'd been searching for so desperately, he didn't mind.

That photo… Raito thought, almost shivering from the excitement. My photo…

Then, before he could regret what he was doing, or start having second thoughts, he grabbed the body by the torso and dragged it forward, to the precarious aerial platform.

L did not speak, just stared. Perhaps he was marveling at Raito's extraordinary ability to arrange his own death. Raito was marveling at this as well. Perhaps, in the long period of time that had intervened between the time he'd been the person standing on the platform and the time he was the person standing behind the platform, something had changed.

Something which perhaps made him feel it was necessary for this man to start dying now, if he could ever have a chance to live tomorrow. And in the same way, the real Raito would have to kill this man, right now, if he ever wanted to escape this loop. And if 'killing himself', in some strange way, was what it would take to escape forever, then…even though he remembered the intense pain of it…

Then…

"That's it?" L's voice sounded, and he stared at the unconscious person.

"The rest will take care of itself." Raito said, and moved away from the platform, having smelled the scent of fire from the buildings around them. It was time…he thought. It was time for it to happen. "When he wakes up, just do whatever you want. He won't harm you."

Ryuuzaki stared at him quietly from the side, his black eyes bottomless, his mouth completely sealed.

He woke up in ten minutes, and, the moment he woke up, a loud scream echoed around them all, like a siren.

When he stood up on the shaking platform, his pinstripe suit now soiled and dirty, he looked like he couldn't move. Then, he buried the wad of hair that he was holding in his own mouth on his own volition. He started choking on it.

Perhaps Ryuuzaki thought it prudent to say something, at this point, if only just to prompt the other to turn around. Raito, having moved many feet away from the edge of the roof, would not be seen by his alter ego, even if the doppelganger ever managed to turn around…which he wouldn't; Raito knew.

"Yagami-kun." Ryuuzaki said, in a mixture of condemnation, greeting and confusion. As Raito – the real Raito – heard it being spoken, he felt some kind of frigid wave entrap his heart. It was that voice…that exact voice…

Then, unexpectedly, the sound of a loud bell echoed around them, like the bells of St Paul's Cathedral, that they'd heard a few days ago. The platform in front of them, with the man completely motionless on top of it, gagging on his own hand, started shaking wildly.

Raito, who'd been standing next to Ryuuzaki until then, could not bear to watch. He heard the sound of the platform dislodging – a sound he'd grown to recognize all too well. A few torturous screeching sounds of metals sliding against each other and then, the next time Raito turned around, the platform and the man on it weren't there anymore. Strangely enough, he felt a bit…better now that they were gone, even though he knew the kind of pain his alter ego must be undergoing right now. Raito kept standing backwards, refusing to walk to the edge of the terrace and observe what was happening below.

Ryuuzaki, however, who had the privilege of witnessing this wonderful scene for the first time, appeared very curious to see what was happening. He was poised at the edge of the rooftop, looking below with a face of patient evaluation. After a few minutes of watching what was going on below, the detective turned to Raito.

"So the same people kill both me and you, in the end. Very philosophical, Raito-kun." L nodded in a drawl of appreciation, his hands in his pockets as he started downwards, a vaguely melancholy expression on his face, Raito noticed. The detective then turned to look at him, and, for some reason, Raito felt embarrassed. By the way L was looking at him, it was as though he knew that this scene had been associated deeply with Raito's Trial.

"No ,L…they don't kill us. We kill each other." Raito said tonelessly, motioning toward the air between them "Their job is to eat us up."

And somehow, having made this discovery, having finally solved the eternal riddle and answered the question 'why' it had all happened, Raito felt rather…liberated. Despite the fact that he'd never wished for any other person – least of all Ryuuzaki – to witness this extremely personal scene.

Speaking of L, he turned around again, to watch the events below them. Raito heard the vague sound of animalistic shouts, and gulped.

"As if nothing ever happened, right Raito-kun? Until only the bones remain." L echoed, his eyes blinking slowly.

"That's how society works. Both for me…an… you." He said, and rubbed the back of his neck as he ambled around Ryuuzaki "In the end, from that aspect, it doesn't much matter whose side you're on."

"I know." Ryuuzaki nodded, and Raito immediately shut his mouth.

"So you do." He said, suddenly realizing that, just because these things were a revelation to him did not mean that…that they were a revelation to everyone else as well. Somehow, this thought ached more than he'd expected.

A long time passed. Raito wanted to stay up here until it was all over, and he could calmly leave this scene forever behind him. Ryuuzaki wanted to watch over the entire scene as well, so he stayed poised at the edge of the terrace the whole time.

"Wouldn't it be interesting if he ended up seeing me up here, though? He'd think this was some sort of revenge scheme on my part." Ryuuzaki commented, his voice with a bit of a mischievous undertone, in the midst of all the melancholy. It took a moment for Raito to understand that he was referring to his alter ego.

"Oh, don't worry. He can see you perfectly well." Raito said before he could stop himself. When he'd realized what he'd revealed, however, it was too late: Ryuuzaki's huge eyes had already turned toward him, two extremely black beacons in the evening light. They were wide with disbelief, and Ryuuzaki's mouth was half-open.

Raito had just inadvertently…

The chestnut-haired man cleared his throat and kicked away from the wall behind him. Then, he turned his back to the other.

"Well, it should be over by now." He said, his voice a soliloquy of fake nonchalance "Should we get going?"

But Ryuuzaki didn't say anything after that. His complex mind had probably dived in thought, to the extent that Raito's feeble attempts at reconstructing a semblance of normality were completely and unabashedly ignored. The detective was probably too immersed with thinking about what Raito had just revealed to actively care about what was happening now.

The descent of the stairs turned out much easier than the ascent, although still tiring. The problem this time was not the stairs themselves, but the uncomfortable awkward silence that accompanied their every footstep.

They needed food and drink immediately, and Raito could not believe that he had suddenly gained the ability to feel so…so…sane and stable in the context of all this paranoia. It must be the fact that Ryuuzaki was with him, he thought. This must have been why everything felt so much easier when there was someone – even an enemy – here to consult.

And even though they felt awkward now, it wasn't even half as bad as Raito had expected it to be. Ryuuzaki surely was silent, but seemed thoughtful instead of hostile.

They reached the front door of the building. Beyond the glass, they could see the remains of the carnage which had transpired in the street. If Raito's speculations were correct, this elaborate hallucination would probably allow them to exit now. In fact, he didn't need to speculate: he could feel it, in his gut. It was over.

No sooner had he thought this than he watched L open the front doors of the HQ building.

But instead of the bloody Tokyou street that he'd expected to face, the only thing he saw was the regular, familiar High Street of Mu, complete with the silent throng of people, the hallucinations, and the trees with the rotten fruit.

Raito had never thought there would come another day, after his Trial, when he'd be glad to be faced with this scenery. L seemed relieved as well, which was obvious by the way he let out a sigh the moment they walked out of the door.

It was still too early to say anything, or ask for an explanation regarding the particularities of houses in Mu, so Raito kept silent. They walked out, each with their own thoughts.

They didn't speak any more that day. Whenever they wanted anything from the other, they'd just show a gesture, or tap the other's shoulder. But they didn't speak.

-

"I trust you now understand why visiting houses in Mu can be dangerous." L said quietly, the two stones snapping in his hands as he tried to rub them against each other to start a fire. He was obviously not particularly experienced, or skilled with this, Raito thought.

"You mean you'd never noticed this before, even though you've been here for so long?" Raito asked, his arms crossed in front of his chest, as he leaned back against the nearby wall. He rubbed his upper arms, and glared a bit at Ryuuzaki's failed attempts at creating a respectable fire "Will that take much longer?" he asked in annoyance, jutting his chin toward L's fumbling hands.

Without waiting for an answer, Raito moved forward, roughly grabbing the objects from L's hands and kneeling in front of the small pile of wood, getting to work immediately. L seemed only too happy to recline backwards, assigning this job to Raito.

"I'd never walked into a house with someone else before, so I couldn't possibly have" Ryuuzaki answered in his own pace, sitting on the ground, near a pile of gathered metallic and plastic debris. Now that his hands were free, he picked up a ruined telephone in his characteristic way, studying it carefully and then putting it back exactly where he'd found it.

Ever since what had happened yesterday, and the revelations that had occurred about Raito's Trial of Souls, they had not spoken. At least, Raito had not wanted to speak much, and he suspected the same stood for L. What few words had been exchanged had been that morning, during their customary showering ritual. Now was actually the first time they were discussing it. The bottled up tension was finally starting to be defused, and Raito was trying to gain answers to some much needed questions.

"You mean that what happened yesterday is associated with the fact that we went inside together?" Raito reasoned, considering the aspects of the idea.

"Yes, or else it would happen whenever you visit a house on your own as well." Ryuuzaki said, and Raito had to admit the theory had plausibility. "I suspect it has something to do with the houses becoming 'crowded'. When more than one mind congest inside a narrow space in Mu…then their senses somehow…synchronize, or connect. That's my best explanation of it. " L explained, talking with his thumbnail in his mouth.

"And it does have some merit." Raito added "It would also explain why a person is not allowed to enter a house when it is already occupied. To avoid… 'congestion', as you put it."

"Indeed…" Ryuuzaki said, and, as he finished his sentence, Raito realized that, now that they were generally agreeing with each other about something…it felt rather strange. It felt as though they were back in the old days, teaming up against the moronic trio of Shouichirou, Matsuda and Mogi.

Ah, the 'good old days', Raito thought, rather cynically. They were rather fond memories, despite all their awkwardness and complete paranoia. The memories of the old days felt a bit like the memories that were being created now in Mu: so absolutely wrong…so very strange and incredibly separated from the existence of Kira, justice and Raito's dual personality, that they were almost…pleasant to remember.

"And let's not forget," Ryuuzaki continued "That 'Mu is the place where minds meet and meld'."

Raito's brain processes shut down, realizing he'd heard the Shinigami, Leeru, tell him the exact same thing when he'd first arrived in Mu. "Where did you hear that?" he asked, with a startlingly curt tone. Ryuuzaki grinned rather disturbingly. Raito was still not used to all this expressiveness from the detective's part.

"Isn't this the tagline they use for this place?" L asked, and stood up slowly, probably to try and stretch his legs a bit. "For Paris they say it's the city of fashion and lights. For Mu they say that minds meld. Isn't that so?"

Raito said nothing, just kept staring at the other. How was it that they always ended up having these conversations at night, just before going to sleep, he wondered? Probably because that was the only time they ever managed to stop walking and searching for the ones they were looking for. He didn't like having conversations at all, much less this kind, he thought begrudgingly.

"Wasn't that scene…a part of your…mind, then?" Ryuuzaki asked, using the word 'mind' when he obviously referred to 'Trial'. Raito started feeling increasingly uncomfortable, as though a noose was slowly being brought over his head.

As such, he did not feel like being discrete or coy about this. He had become fed up with all these metaphorical 'elisions'. "That's none of your business." He answered, trusting that this would permanently halt Ryuuzaki's hopeful probing.

But it seems L had been prepared for such an answer as well.

"Oh you made it my business, Raito-kun, when I saw myself being brutally murdered and eaten. Or perhaps you've forgotten that?"

"That wasn't me." In the heat of the moment, and trying to make Ryuuzaki stop his interrogation, Raito had inadvertently put his foot in it yet again, revealing more information.

"What was that?" Ryuuzaki asked, and sunk back down again, to sit in his customary position on the ground.

"That has never happened before. It …" Raito finished, then stopped himself from saying anything else, before he really regretted saying something he shouldn't. He was already regretting falling in L's trap and spilling information. He did not want to continue with this until it became really melodramatic, and he lost an inordinate amount of face.

After that, he sunk back down again, starting to untie his shoelaces. Ryuuzaki took the hint with surprising grace, and, since it was his turn to take care of the water tonight, stood up slowly and took hold of the bucket, moving away.

Raito took his shoes off and wiggled his toes contentedly, blissfully sinking them in the ground now that Ryuuzaki wasn't around to criticize him. He was loath to sink them in the soil, thinking about how inevitably dirty they would become, but on the other hand it felt so good, burying them, scratching them against the pebbles, warming them against-

The sound of the bucket being placed on the ground in front of him jarred Raito from his admittedly inane thoughts. Too bad… And just when he'd been falling asleep…

"What if we dump a towel in it?" Raito asked, his voice rather dull as he rolled his sleeves upward. Ryuuzaki mirrored the action.

"Won't work. As long as the water is intended for you, it will always transform to monstrous form, no matter how you handle it."

And yet, Raito thought in annoyance, as long as the water was intended for someone else, it could be touched without transforming to monstrous form. He really did not feel like being washed by Ryuuzaki at the moment. It was difficult to persevere constantly being around a person who one is trying to avoid.

L dipped his hands in the water and waited for Raito to tilt his face forward a bit. Then, the black haired man started to splatter water upwards, in a rather comical attempt to wet Raito's face. After the first few moments of having the front of his shirt and half of his hair covered by water, and his face still unwashed, Raito sighed. He was sick of this, among other things. If L continued his ineffectual antics, he'd extinguish the fire that Raito had spent so much time trying to light.

"This is stupid." The chestnut haired man finally concluded "Just…do it with your hand and get it over with."

Ryuuzaki's eyes flew to Raito's face, then back to the bucket. Had Raito not been feeling so tired, he'd have snickered at L's flabbergasted expression.

"How do you mean?" the detective asked, and Raito got the feeling he was procrastinating.

"Just…" Raito made a few sweeping motions over his cheeks to demonstrate, careful not to touch any of the water in his hair lest it transform to cockroaches.

Without another word, Ryuuzaki dipped his hands into the water again, this time turning them into a nest and gathering water in them. He pulled his hands out, and the chestnut haired man brought his face downward. Without much ado, the former detective helped his former suspect clean himself, surprisingly efficiently for someone who seemed incapable of even holding a spoon properly.

Then it was Raito's turn, of course, and he was sure to give as well as he got. He spent the first few minutes surreptitiously aiming water at Ryuuzaki's hair, until he made sure L looked as much like a haddock as possible. Then, finally, after gaining more than a few annoyed glares from the other, he did the job properly. But oh, truth be told, how he enjoyed this newfound concept of being able to irritate L.

At the end, he gave the bucket another little shove, making a spiral of water land on L's top, just for good measure. He considered it revenge for what L had done to him before, and did not care about it being childish, as long as it irritated Ryuuzaki a respectful amount.

Ryuuzaki, however, had apparently turned out to be rather easy to irritate just before going to sleep.

"That's very adolescent." The detective said, sending a rather brooding scowl at Kira's direction, as he tried to squeeze his top dry.

"Isn't it though?" Raito asked pleasantly, with the air of one who's referring to the weather, his voice the perfect tone of mischief as he kicked the bucket a bit more harshly, making a rather indecent amount of water splatter across the front of L's trousers, right across the detective's fly.

"You know that looks as though you-"

The bucket was kicked again, this time from L's side.

In retrospect, Raito thought, as he now looked at the embarrassing blotch of wetness on his own crotch, he should have remembered that Ryuuzaki's credo had always been 'an eye for an eye'.

Raito decided he did not consider himself childish enough to start a splash-fight with the world's ex-greatest detective.

At least, that's what he considered.

He kicked the half-full bucket a little harder this time, and watched with glee as the right side of both L's top and trousers became stained in wetness. At the time, it did not occur to Raito that, combined with the dirt they were currently sitting on, the water on their clothes was an unbelievably bad idea. In fact, now in the afterlife, at this late date, perhaps it was the first time that Raito was truly aware of the phrase 'heedless of the consequences'. Who cared what would happen? In the end, no matter how bad it was, they'd always end up here again the next morning, wouldn't they?

Even though a part of him didn't want to admit it, yesterday's experience, actually seeing his Trial from the point of view of a third person…perhaps that had been the most crucial part of his liberation. And even though he did not understand the new parts that had been added to his trial…they felt…reasonable, somehow. They felt…like they fit there.

They felt like the answers to questions which had been torturing him for a very, very long time. And Ryuuzaki's presence…had fit in there too, like the piece of a puzzle – the thing that had been missing all along but is finally discovered. It had fit.

"Adolescent!" Ryuuzaki suddenly raised his voice, irritated and not trying to suppress it. Raito was internally jumping happily at having succeeded in annoying the other to this extent. And yet, contradicting his own scornful words, Ryuuzaki proceeded to kick the bucket in return again, causing the water to fly high enough so as to wet the side of Raito's face.

"That's cheating" Raito said, the seriousness of his deep male voice serving as a foil to the childishness of the matter. It was inconceivably wicked, even to himself, that he managed to retain such an adult, reserved face when dealing with completely inconsequential matters.

"There are rules?" Ryuuzaki asked in return, his slow drawl coming more as a croak than actual human speech. This usually meant that he was getting sleepy.

"Of course there are rules…" Raito said, yawning widely himself "I wish we had computers, though." He said, completely randomly. It was because he'd just remembered that the most time he'd ever spent with Ryuuzaki was in front of computers, which in turn led to him thinking about computers in general, and how much he missed them. "I made this program for voice alteration…you should have seen it." Raito said, his speech becoming slightly blurred from sleepiness, to the extent that he even became talkative, and the smugness buried deep inside him started to surface.

Well, after all, it was three in the morning. They'd walked until very late that night. He deserved a bit of credit, he thought, even if it was for a completely random thing that had happened so much time ago.

Ryuuzaki blinked a bit, probably labouring to stay awake and think it over. Finally, he spoke.

"Wasn't that my program?"

"No, I…" Raito yawned again "expanded it and things." It seemed that, when very tired or lazy, Raito's vocabulary tended to slip to its lowest possible form.

"Oh…" Ryuuzaki said. The fact that he didn't ask for clarification was proof that he was completely knackered. Curiously enough, however, Raito was too exhausted himself to notice this, since before either of them could speak again, he'd fallen asleep.

-

Raito hadn't considered that there could possibly be a change of seasons in Mu, until now. Strangely, the atmosphere really did seem to be getting colder and colder each day. He had noticed this by the sudden need to light fires at night in order to keep warm. But now, the cold was becoming pronounced even during the day, and they had to wear the tattered coats in order to walk.

It seemed as strange as always, seeing an article of clothing on L different than the customary. The blue coat did not suit the detective at all. And yet, it was rather an interesting change to watch.

This was not the first time Raito had wondered about the inner workings of this huge machine called 'time'. Was his sense of it correct? Where there days and nights, and months and years in Mu? Did time pass here as it did in the living world?

Did the seasons circulate?

They dragged their feet as they walked, and the sound of L's shoelaces scraping against the dirt had stopped bothering Raito after the first few minutes, since his own shoelaces had become untied as well. He didn't bother with tying them again, however, knowing they'd become untied in a matter of minutes. The sky was cloudy once more, its colour palette ranging from titanium white to silver grey. Raito was tired of this: the weather constantly looking as though it were about to rain, only to stay cloudy continuously. And it wasn't even a normal, ordinary cloudy sky; it was some kind of silver mist, the colour of glowing ice, shining above them like an interrogation light.

At night, it became pitch black, making the bizarre neon structures of the High Street glow brighter.

They walked for hours, not talking or exchanging any thoughts. Just walking together, or seeing things simultaneously was often enough to give them a feeling of company. And besides, there was only so much you could say to a person you've constantly been with for more than a month.

At certain times, Raito wondered if it would be better to part ways with Ryuuzaki. He didn't like the implications of staying with the same person for long periods of time. Besides, there had been certain times where he'd longed for his privacy. When with another person, there could be no such thing as privacy, talking to oneself for pleasure, or even just sitting and thinking alone. 'Yes,' Raito would think 'It would be best if he and I separate.' Then, when he'd finally decide it would be best to tell Ryuuzaki to leave him alone, Ryuuzaki would do something; like help Raito bathe; which would make Raito lose his resolve all over again.

"We've been going in circles." L's husky, trademark drawl suddenly rung, echoing Raito's deeper thoughts, and the Japanese man turned to look at the back of the other's head. He'd been too preoccupied with searching the crowd for any sign of Misa, so L's voice had jarred him back to reality. At first, absorbed in his thoughts, Raito had thought that L had been talking about Raito being indecisive about whether or not it would be best to part ways…but soon enough he realized that L was referring to a completely different subject, since the detective was looking around at the street.

Raito didn't say anything to respond, indicating that he was expecting L to justify what he'd just said. Ryuuzaki turned around, head lolling backward slightly as he widened his eyes, looking straight at Raito.

"We've passed by that building before." He stretched his right hand and pointed awkwardly with his index finger, making Raito wonder how it was possible for a person to be unable to do something as simple as even point at something without seeming awkward. In any case, it wasn't L's mannerisms that drew his attention at this moment, but the actual place L had indicated.

"…" Raito didn't really want to admit that he didn't remember seeing the two-floor house before. If he did, he would also have to admit that he hadn't been paying much attention to their environment, and had been mostly daydreaming for the better part of the last few hours.

However, to Raito's credit, it was a fact that after a certain point, all the houses around them seemed to become formulaic, and the landscape never seemed to change much. After L turned his head around a few times, obviously scanning the area, the chestnut haired man, rubbing his irritated nose with his hand, spoke.

"What do you suggest we do?"

"I believe, Raito-kun, that under the circumstances, asking for directions is out of the question." L answered, with that intentionally innocent, childish tone he always used when trying to aggravate Raito on purpose. He was probably being funny, but it didn't make Raito feel much better.

"Perhaps we should try to calculate the distance as we walk." Raito offered, his seriousness conflicting with L's humourous uptake on the situation. Kira's eyes narrowed as he stared at the fleeting faces of passing pedestrians "Or use objects as signposts."

L didn't say anything, just turned his back to the other man and looked around. After a few moments, without speaking, they started walking again. It was an unspoken agreement that now they were both trying to measure the distance and detect any kind of signpost.

Finally, after about three quarters of a mile's worth of walking, they came upon a suspicious curb in the street. This probably was where they'd gotten misdirected before, Raito thought. He must have been completely lost in thought, in order not to notice. They paused for a bit and just stood there, in the middle of the street, occasionally being shoved to the side by the odd pedestrian.

Raito observed the slightly awkward angle of the street, the way that it curbed so steeply. He considered that, if they followed the street's flow, they probably would end up looping around the same direction, again. Thus, he turned to the left, where there seemed to be a narrower, more promising passageway. He started walking toward that direction, but suddenly felt a soft tug on his upper arm, holding him back.

"It's this way." Raito turned and told L, with a cursory glance at the detective's doubtful face.

"I don't think so…we went that way before." L answered, taking his hand away from Raito's body. Raito felt annoyed, suddenly, but didn't know if it was with himself – who hadn't been paying proper attention – or with Ryuuzaki – who was patronizing him again.

"But that twist in the street looks suspicious." Raito justified, motioning toward the curb in the road on their right.

"That's probably what we thought before." L answered, lifting his thumb to his mouth, and letting his eyes sink in Raito's. The auburn haired man stood there for a few minutes, looking at Ryuuzaki but not really seeing anything, since he had sunk in thought.

Finally, after a few minutes, Raito decided he truly would not trust himself, at this point, seeing as he really had been inattentive when they'd been walking before. Best listen to L's advice on this occasion, as loathe as Raito was to admit it.

And so, breaking eye contact with the other, Raito marched to the right, towards the awkwardly twisted turn of the street, which looked like it would lead the back to where they'd come from.

A few minutes later Ryuuzaki was not even trying to hide his smugness, as they realized that, despite its appearance, the strange street actually led not towards but away from a looping direction. After a few rabid turns, the road straightened out in front of them once more – clogged up with people, as always – and they were back on regular track.

The houses at the sides of the street had started to change a few days ago, turning from Victorian age to slightly more industrialized. It was still a Western setting, with absolutely no signs of influence by Asian architecture… and it was starting to anger Raito, slightly. It seemed this place was truly endless: as big and complex as the grand total of human history. And in the midst of it all, he knew that the possibility he actually find Misa was extremely low.

Later that evening, when they walked out of the High Street in search for a place to spend the night, they received an unpleasant surprise.

"No well?" Raito wondered aloud, not bothering to contain the tone of annoyance in his voice. L walked around with his hands buried in his trouser pockets, dragging his feet as he looked around. His black head seemed to bob around like a shadow, in the night.

"I think you'll find" the detective suddenly commented and turned to Raito "that there's something better than a well."

Raito, intrigued by this but too tired to bother with asking, walked forward to see what L was talking about. Ryuuzaki twisted around as well, pointing to somewhere on the far right.

"Finally." Raito simply said, feeling a bit better than before when he saw the water tap jutting out from the pipe system on the back of a nearby building. "We've returned to relative civilization."

"I wouldn't be too surprised, Raito-kun" L said using his long legs to hop on a nearby rock. He balanced himself on it, bending awkwardly to wrap his hands around his knees, reminiscent of the position of a track runner, waiting for the ignition signal…or that of a gargoyle on the Notre Dame, Raito thought with intentional cynicism. "It seems that living utilities in Mu go hand in hand with the theme of the buildings."

"But why would there be no taps in Victorian buildings? Didn't they have drain systems in Victorian times?" Raito asked with squinting eyes, proceeding to lean against a nearby wall, then slowly letting himself slide down, until he was sitting on the ground.

"Not in villages, they didn't." Ryuuzaki answered, his eyes sparking a bit with the starlight from above – starlight from dead stars, of course.

Raito didn't answer anything to that, just tilted his head backwards and closed his eyes, sighing with what could be considered blissful relaxation. He couldn't believe that they'd finally stopped walking – it was almost too good to be true.

They were so exhausted that night that they didn't bother with washing up before falling asleep. Rather, they would have bothered, only that they fell asleep before they could do or say anything about it.

However, it wasn't long before the biting cold started to become oppressive, and stitches of ice started to pierce through their skin. And as if the biting frost was not enough, cold, heavy water droplets soon started to hail from the sky.

The first time he woke up, Raito reflexively made a blind sweeping motion with his hands, as though trying to scoop up a blanket in order to cover himself. The realization that there was no warm shelter available was as unwelcome as it always is when one is extremely tired and longs to go back to sleep. Raito shook his head slightly, rubbing his palms up his arms in an effort to find some warmth. He kept his eyes closed, refusing to open them since that would imply acknowledging the problem. So he just kept them shut, and waited to fall back asleep, confident that the nuisance would soon stop.

But the hail was becoming stronger, and now that he'd awoken once it was nearly impossible to return to blissful ignorance. Muttering obscenities between his gritting teeth, he opened his eyes into slits. The first thing he saw, predictably, was the rapidly worsening mud on the ground. Then, he saw the outline of Ryuuzaki's white, bony fingers, clenched tightly on two jean-clad knees. Raito opened his eyes widely now, taking in the whole scene.

L's shoulders were shaking – his wet white shirt having become stuck on his skin and the blue coat rapidly becoming more and more of a wet burden than a shelter from the cold. From this angle, the detective's face was cast to complete shade beneath his black tresses, so Raito couldn't tell whether Ryuuzaki was asleep or awake. In any case, Raito looked down at his own body, realizing that the small stones of hail raining down on him had started becoming rather hurtful.

It took a few minutes of twisting and turning. Then, he crawled toward Ryuuzaki's silent silhouette, covering his face with his hands the entire time, in a largely futile attempt to protect himself from the upcoming storm.

He stretched his hand toward L's shoulder, as though to grab and shake it, but he obviously didn't have to, since Ryuuzaki bobbed his head forward suddenly, revealing his open eyes.

So he'd been awake, then.

Raito lost no time with explanations, opting to give the sky a meaningful glance, then turning back to L and standing up. The detective followed suit, remembering to grab the bucket. They were tempted to leave those slimy coats behind, since they were now completely useless, but decided to tow them along after all, in case they need them in the future.

Thus, they were left with nothing to cover themselves up with, no shelter and no comfort, under the merciless hail. L took the lead, walking toward the High Street – the place where the weather did not always correspond with that of the outside world of Mu, probably thinking that they may have a chance to find somewhere to spend the night over there.

But it seems luck was not their ally that night. Not only was the High Street not better than the outside world of Mu…it was possibly worse. The narrow street made the hail seem more severe than it actually was, and the fact that there were people running frantically trying to find shelter was creating a sense of chaos. People were conquering their fears and walking into buildings, just because they considered dealing with ghosts less troublesome than the horrible rain.

But Raito didn't have that choice…not as long as he was with L. If they ever tried to enter any kind of building together, he now knew, they would witness a repeat of what had happened last time – seeing parts of each other's worst nightmares. And Raito simply would not stand for that.

One nightmare in particular, Raito thought, as Sai's face flashed behind his eyelids. The chestnut haired man felt his stomach turn.

He would die – again – before he ever let Ryuuzaki see that scene. The humiliation was truly that great. No one knew about what had happened in that Trial. No one except Raito. It was his secret. The most humiliating one that he'd been allowed to carry beyond the grave…and he was intent on keeping it that way. Because even though none of it had technically been real…it had all felt real enough to him, and he treated them as real events.

So much so, that they affected him, even now. Which, he supposed, had been the purpose of the Trial of Souls all along.

A small voice on the back of his mind started suggesting – again – that it might be better if he separated from Ryuuzaki and entered a house…but at the same time, he considered what it would be like for him if he was left without even the smallest of comforts that L's presence provided – what it would feel like to be in a house full of ghosts, in a Mu filled with hail…and all alone. Being isolated would be like a cherry in the cake of misery.

"Go back outside." L said, jarring Raito out of the trance he'd fallen into, as he'd been running after the other. The chestnut haired man shed another glance at the High Street around them, and then promptly decided that he should probably follow L's directions. There was nothing to be found here. Unless they wanted to enter one of the houses – which would certainly not happen – then there was no point in staying around this place. It would only make things worse, seeing as the panicked people of the High Street were obstructing every passageway and blocking every small orifice in the wall that could be used as shelter.

So Raito lost no more time, reversing the direction of his pace and turning immediately back to where they came from. He trusted that Ryuuzaki was following him, even though he could barely see in this flurry of hail. He was trying to keep his eyes as narrow as possible, to prevent any small stones from hurting or blinding him. With one of the filthy coats over his head, he walked back across the road and to the small alleyway between two relatively nondescript buildings.

Moments later, the screaming of the hallucinations in the High Street stopped, the neon lights were distinguished, and Raito was back in the outside world of Mu again. Moving automatically, the first thing the man did was turn to his left to check if the other was there. When Raito saw the white outline of L's shirt, and the black bangs stuck on the alabaster nape, there was a strange sense of appeasement that overcame him, which he didn't recognize for what it was, but rather mistook for anxiety.

He tried to think of a solution to the problem: perhaps he could run into one of the houses – if they weren't all occupied by now – and quickly snatch a cape, or a coat…or even an umbrella, which could help them temporarily, just for tonight? Ryuuzaki could wait for him here, and then they could-

Just as Raito had lost himself in thought, he felt a tug on his arm, and let L pull him toward the wall of the closest building, in an effort to find what little cover from the hail they could, by utilizing the building's tall walls. Raito was berating himself for his sudden inadequacy and mental unpreparedness when, suddenly, L's voice echoed – not nearly as husky or as placated as it usually was.

"The huts." Ryuuzaki rigidly said, and Raito, trying to adhere his body as close to the wall as he could, did not bother with turning to look at the hunched man properly.

"What?" he simply asked, not paying attention, trying too intently to think of something in order to listen to Ryuuzaki's voice.

"The huts, Raito-kun." L moved his hand upwards, index finger jutting out prominently, pointing at the barely visible, dark hills in the distance. And each hill had a little hut on top – the small, wooden huts whence people arrived in Mu every day. L's movement distracted Raito and drew his attention, making L turn to look at him immediately.

The huts…

The huts!

Raito paused a bit, his mind freezing for a moment. He turned to look at L, with his lips slightly parted. L was looking at him, his black led eyes narrowed, water droplets running through his hair, wind beating on his white shirt. For once, his pointing index didn't seem awkward at all, but rather like a shining beacon, in the darkness.

-

The wooden door slammed behind them, with a resounding banging noise. It almost hit the back of Raito's head, as he quickly walked in the narrow room.

The walls were wooden, and the sound of hail beating against them echoed everywhere. The roof, a precarious thin layer above their heads, seemed to rattle with each particularly strong gust of wind. All in all, when walking inside the small wooden hut, at first Raito felt as though he were in the lower levels of a sinking ship.

There was only one window, which had no glass. In other words, it was a rectangular hole in the wall, not wide enough to let hail from the storm enter the inside of the hut. But it was the only source of light they had, and the flickering thunderlight that slithered through it was a blessing in this darkened, damp room.

The trek to this hut had been difficult, not to mention tedious. In order to come this far, they had been forced to walk under the storm for about half a mile, treading upwards on a hill. This in itself did not sound so bad…but it was, when taking account of all the time it took trying to bypass the various ruins and artifacts they found thrown around the world of Mu, and the fact that the more time they stayed under the hail, the more exhausted they became.

Perhaps the worst of it all had been nothing of those, but the fact that they hadn't even been sure if their plan would work. What if they weren't allowed to enter a random hut so casually? What if they were banned from entering the huts which had been used by other people to arrive in Mu? What if…after they entered the hut, they would have to be put through a hallucination similar to when they tried to enter any other building together? Raito didn't wish to think about it!

Naturally, this endless uncertainty about their eventuality was constantly keeping them strained, making their pain and attrition that much more unbearable.

But the hail was so strong, and the hill so difficult to conquer, that when they'd finally reached the top of the hut, Ryuuzaki didn't seem to give it a second thought – he grabbed the handle and pushed open the wooden door, diving into the shelter of the dark room before Raito could even pull him backwards to deter him. But as he saw L harmlessly walk inside, The various doubts instantaneously were wiped out of Raito's mind, and, suddenly, the narrow open door beckoning to him seemed like the golden gate of paradise, rather than the mossy, filthy thing it was.

Not sure what he was to expect, he closed the door behind him, letting it bang noisily. Then, he stood and surveyed his surroundings.

But there was nothing to observe, really. There was nothing in the room, save for the wooden floor beneath their feet, the wooden walls, the roof and the window. In other words, this couldn't really be considered a house at all. Just a small, wooden room. Perhaps a tent, or a pigsty would describe it much more accurately.

But at that moment, to Raito's mangled nerves and thrashed sense of space, it looked like the grandest palace.

Ryuuzaki took a few paces forward, and Raito saw the outline of the detective's drenched body against the light of the window. Why did this place have so much to do with water, he wondered idly, as he heard the disgusting squelching sound of his wet boots against the dry floor. It seems he'd lived in western houses so long that he'd forgotten his manners, he thought in irritation, as he bent down to take off his shoes and leave them at the entrance.

The detective saw what the other was doing and mirrored Raito's movements. He handed Raito his shoes, and the former suspect set both pairs on the inside of the door. They were both careful not to approach the window to much as they walked deeper in the room, lest they fall victim to the few pebbles of hail that managed to come through it. Raito stood there for a few moments, not knowing what to do with his limbs.

Now that he suddenly found himself in such a small, narrow space…it suddenly felt as though…he was in such close quarters with the other man. Besides, the blissful silence that had suddenly fallen around them came in sharp contrast with the noisy hail that had been deafening them until that moment.

Raito watched L for a few moments, as the former detective ambled around the room a bit aimlessly, and dared to wonder if, perhaps, Ryuuzaki may be feeling the same as he.

Suddenly, it felt…strange.

It was more the instantaneous realization that they were actually all alone. All alone, with not another human soul around them for miles. No one was watching them, no one was walking next to them, no one was smelling them or trying to talk to them. No one was trying to steal their food or get to the well before them. It was cold, but at least the roof provided some cover for the hail.

And there were no ghosts or apparitions popping around them.

In fact, it was all so…so…relaxed…that Raito didn't really know what to do with himself. As often happens at these times of intense exhaustion, sleep stubbornly refuses to present itself.

In order to occupy his hands, Raito started scrunching up his blazer and squeezing as much of the fabric as he could, in an attempt to dry it up. It took a few moments for Ryuuzaki to find a corner – the darkest corner in the small room – and seat himself comfortably in it. Then, he started mimicking Raito's action, drying up his clothes, but in a much slower pace and with much more fluid movements than the chestnut haired man.

Raito didn't know where to sit, strangely enough. It felt rather…awkward, being alone with Ryuuzaki's distinctive figure, here in this narrow space. He realized that, by standing like a stick in the spotlight of the room, he was hardly helping things. So he moved as well, heading for the wall opposite to the one Ryuuzaki was sitting at. Then, careful not to hurt himself accidentally or get a splinter from the wooden planks, Raito seated himself, leaning against the wall.

He stayed there, silently, for a few moments, listening to the tapping of the rain as it hit the roof. Then, he heard shuffling sounds, and turned to look at Ryuuzaki. For lack of a better word, the detective seemed…uncomfortable. He kept changing the position of his legs, as though unable to keep them settled calmly in one spot.

Raito looked away, not really knowing what to do or what to think.

Then after a few minutes, the wooden planks of the floor started creaking, and Raito raised his head to see L in the process of standing up. Raito considered asking what the other man was up to, but he didn't inquire after all, contenting himself to simply observing L's antics.

The black haired man walked forward, toward the closed door of the hut. His long fingers slowly stretched toward the handle of the door, closing around it.

"What are you doing?" Raito asked, in a very quiet voice, but his words were lost in a sea of noise, since L had just forcefully pulled the door inward, sending both their shoes flying haphazardly to different sides of the room. L did not answer, probably not having heard Raito's voice in the first place.

He just settled down at the doorstep, curling himself in the usual position. He leaned his back and head on one side of the door, folded his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, placing his feet on the opposite column of the door. Then he pulled one arm away from his knees and stretched it in front of him, setting it against the column, where his feet were pressed. He turned his head away from the inside of the hut, looking at the harsh rain.

Raito could feel the coldness in the room worsening, and he could see, from where he was sitting near the floor, that a few droplets from the rain outside had found their way into the hut. And yet, even so, he could not find it in himself to stop staring at the black outline of the back of L's head.

He stood up slowly. As the floorboards creaked from his movements, L turned around to look at him. The detective's face was completely cast into shade against the light blue-grey colour of the outside world. Even though he couldn't see L's eyes, however, Raito kept staring at that direction, watching the softness of the throat – what little of it was visible.

Raito took a couple of slow steps forward. L kept his face toward the other for a few more seconds. Then, when he was obviously sure Raito wasn't trying anything strange or threatening, he turned back to the rain, staying unperturbed in his position at the door.

Raito approached, until he was standing a few feet behind the other man. Then, he crossed his arms over his chest, and let the side of his body lean against the wall beside him. He stared at the rain from above L's head, watching the hail as it hit the ruined metallic machinery and the wrecked buildings of the world of Mu.

As he stood there, his eyes dipped downwards, staring at Ryuuzaki's nape for a few seconds. Then, he looked up again, wondering since when L had started appreciating open spaces connected to nature more than he did enclosed ones associated with computers.

And so they stayed silent like that. After a while, one of Ryuuzaki's legs uncurled, stretching next to the side of the door, outside of the hut's protection. But he didn't seem to care.

Raito lost track of the time they spent there, just standing and sitting, watching without speaking. Breathing in the blue light, as the stared at Mu.

-

It had been a few days after that time, and they were walking again, relatively slow paced. The rain had finally subsided, and they'd left the hut behind, going back into the streets of Mu and burying themselves into the crowded silence of it, which came in such sharp contrast with the comfortable quiet of the shack they had spent their night it.

Now, finally, the ghost of the black cathedral had started to fade in the far back, and the houses around them seemed to be changing decisively from Victorian cottages to modern-looking, useful and practical places.

Actually, they were currently discussing this gradual change in environment, not really minding the crowd around them. Raito noticed a few blonde heads, but, after a few failed attempts at finding her, he determined that if Misa was really looking for him, she could just as well come and find him for a change! He just couldn't be bothered any longer!

Suddenly, however, as Raito was commenting on the strange, over-the-top architecture of one of the buildings, Ryuuzaki froze in his tracks. Raito, who'd been walking forward, didn't realize this until a few moments later. He turned around to check where the other was, only to realize too late that Ryuuzaki was suddenly nowhere to be found.

"What…" he muttered quietly, his heart starting to beat a bit quicker. He keenly remembered that all too familiar feeling of a small child, lost in the supermarket, with mother nowhere to be found.

He hated comparing Ryuuzaki to a mother, though…he didn't want to think of Ryuuzaki as anything but collateral baggage on his long trek. But…where had he gone? Why hadn't he-

"Sir Wammy!" Raito suddenly heard from somewhere on his left, and turned around immediately.

The sight that greeted him was so unexpected, and at the same time so overwhelming, that, for some reason, he felt his insides freeze.

"Ryuuzaki!" the old man floated into Raito's vision. Raito watched, his stomach sinking unexplainably and his fists loosening at his sides. On the one hand he thought that perhaps he should take a few strides forward and greet Watari – the old man hadn't changed a bit since the last time, shiny spectacles and all. But on the other hand, he knew that not everyone was as accepting of his murderer status as L. He still remembered Matsuda's reaction and he didn't want to risk something similar happening with Whammy, especially if he wanted to be in the old man's good graces….But he would have to talk to Whammy, if he wanted to remain with Ryuuzaki…and if he didn't-

"I looked for you! Whammy!" L said, and Raito was shocked into speechlessness by the glee he detected in that voice. He felt his gut tighten, realizing that L's eyes were completely fixed on the old man, and he wasn't even looking at Raito, as though he wasn't there. The black orbs had light in them, and L's face had broken into a smile of such free and careless happiness, that Raito had honestly never seen before even in his own face.

Judging from Watari's seemingly overjoyed face, Raito expected them to start hugging at any moment, a thought which slightly disturbed him, for some reason. The least that L could do was-

"Ryuuzaki, where have you been?!" Watari said again, and Raito felt angry. The pressure in his head started intensifying, and L's positively gleeful face wasn't helping. Oh how he wanted to wipe the smile off, punch Ryuuzaki's irritatingly full lips until he couldn't smile no more, and then-

"I met Yagami on the way. You remember him, of course." L answered the geezer, nodding slightly.

"The boy with the Death Book, what? Wasn't he younger than you, Ryuuzaki?"

Raito was standing a few feet nearby, but already, by the way they seemed to have eyes only for each other, he could feel a horrible tightening, strangling feeling in his throat. And the fact that they were talking about him as though he wasn't there made him feel as though there was some kind of barrier, separating him from them. He made to walk forward, but, for some reason, he couldn't. Only then did he realize that, that-

I can't move!!!!

And only once had he felt this feeling before. 'This horrible feeling of being unable to move, or talk, or breathe…'

"Yes, much younger." L answered nodding, and Raito's chest started actually hurting when he heard that tone of derision in Ryuuzaki's voice. 'I'm not younger that you anymore!!' he wanted to shout, but the only thing he managed to do was strangle on a wad of black hair.

"He didn't really know what he was doing from the start that boy, what." Watari agreed "Doesn't really compare. But it's all right now, since I found you, Ryuuzaki."

And as Ryuuzaki opened his mouth to answer, a soft glow started to shine in their bodies, and they started to fade away.

Raito, immediately realizing what was happening, started shouting. He managed to pull the black hair away from his face, long enough to yell uncontrollably.

"No!". He tried to flail his arms, writhe, do anything in order to draw their attention. But it was no use – they were disintegrating. L's face was fading into wisps of vapour. "Ryuuzaki! NO!"

But before he realized what was happening, he heard a sound, some kind of disgusting screechy shuffling. He turned his eyes downwards, to the soil, only to see the black outline of a string of cockroaches making their way towards him. He turned back to Ryuuzaki, trying to call for help, but L was looking at Watari and Watari alone, his white shirt glowing like a beacon in the wind as it slowly turned to glowing mist. The old man was holding L's shoulders, like a mother hen protects its younglings from the storm.

Then, finally, with one great cry, Raito managed to shout:

"Ryuuzaki!"

And just at the last moment, as L's face was fading into nothingness, Ryuuzaki's eyes turned away from Watari, and fixed on Raito's face.

"Yagami-kun"

It was the voice of a monster. It sounded like a greeting and a condemnation at the same time. A mixture of confusion and perplexed acknowledgement, or perhaps a farewell. It was the voice of a person who doesn't much care.

Then the huge bell rings, a sound which doesn't belong to this world. Haunted, Raito realizes that the great Cathedral, which he'd previously thought was miles away from where he was standing, is now towering directly above him, its heavy black bells stretching upward, its belfry piercing into the clouds.

He feels the ground shake beneath him, and tries to move his legs, but they won't obey him. The only thing that he can move is his head. He turns it downward. His blood runs cold, as he sees where he's standing.

It is miles. It is the pit, and there are skyscrapers everywhere. The platform is shaking. Raito feels the disgusting taste of that retched batch of hair in his mouth. He starts coughing pathetically, trying to scream but unable to make even the smallest of sounds.

Toukyo

His heart is beating fast; everything is spinning. He can feel the pain all over again, before it even begins.

There is silence.

Then, the platform falls.

The fires, the mirrors, the orange sky above the HeadQuarters' building.

But he hasn't been here for so long – he's forgotten how to look for the signs of escape. The mirrors come and leave too fast. He doesn't manage to see anything in them – can't spot L's figure anywhere.

Of course.

L left with Watari… he disappeared and he wouldn't be here now for help-

The Hands appear.

Strangely, in the midst of the crowd, he can still see Sai's red eyes as they hunt him down, strip him. He's still screaming in his head.

They grab him. He screams, but no sound comes out, chocking as he is on the batch of hair. They haven't even started yet, and he's already screaming. It hurts. It hurts so much. The bells are deafening him, as are the sounds of a hundred thousand eating mouths, feeding on his own flesh.

And above them all, poised on that building, he can see the silhouette of two men, fighting. He recognizes them, one with a white glowing shirt, the other in a pinstripe suit. What are they fighting over….what are they…? Then, the next second, he can see not two but one man, the one in the clean, blue pinstripe suit. He can't understand why he can see so clearly from such distance, but he sees.

He sees the man's auburn hair, his monstrous twisted smile. The man is standing on the platform, staring down with his glowing red eyes, at Raito, who's being devoured. There is a batch of black hair right in front of him. There's black hair everywhere…it's his own hair! Raito's own hair! It's black.

His vision is more narrowed than usual – Raito realizes. He's not in his own body! He's in L's body! He's in L's body! He's been thrown off the building while in L's body!

He looks upward and sees Raito – himself – staring down at him.

It makes sense that L left with Watari, Raito thinks. It makes sense, since Raito killed him! L would never want-

"Demon!" Raito shouts in his mind, but doesn't understand who he's cursing, and why.

"Yagami-kun!"

"Shut up!!" he shouts, and in his mind, his voice is loud enough to wake the hounds of Hell. "Damn you! DAMN YOU!!" the Hands are tearing him, he can't feel anything, but he knows it's happening, and just knowing is enough.

"Yagami-kun! Wake up! You're having a nightmare"

"You monster! That's not me! You're playing games! You're – I hate-"

"Wake up!"

"Something! You've done somethingthat words cannot describe!!!" Sayu's voice echoes, and he feels something prickle-

"RAITO!!"

A sudden slap on the face is all it takes. Suddenly, from rolling and writhing beneath the imposing building, Raito went to rolling and writhing on the wooden floor of one of the small huts of Mu.

He opened his eyes and started breathing heavily, gulping down air greedily as he sat up. He felt suffocated, since the memory of the Hands was extremely fresh in his mind. He felt something lodged on his ribs and shoulders, so he flailed his body around, thinking the Hands were still attached on him. The weight of the objects retreated quickly, and then, as his eyes focused again, the first image that floated in his vision was of that damnable black hair.

"Get off." He whispered, feeling the bile climb to his throat. Ryuuzaki must have sensed the other's panic, since he didn't need to be told twice. Nevertheless, Raito pushed the other man away, making disgusted grimaces and shivering at the sight of the black hair. "Get off." He whispered again, not with hostility but with roughness. Ryuuzaki immediately pulled his hands away, and only then did Raito realize how close they had been before.

A few seconds later, after shooting upwards and crawling nearby, as far as he could from the other, he bent forward and vomited violently on the floor, emptying the already measly contents of his stomach on the wood.

When he was done, he panted pathetically, and realized his throat was scratchy enough to indicate he'd probably been screaming in his sleep a long time before he became sick. The reality of it all started to sink in, as he panted, shivering, in the frigid air of Mu. What had he screamed and what had L heard…he shuddered to wonder. Of all the things he didn't want L to know, this was the principal one.

Having awoken from one nightmare, he'd just entered a new one, called the nightmare of soiled pride.

Ryuuzaki probably respected the other's need for silence, since he didn't ask any questions. Raito appreciated this, although he said nothing to show his gratefulness. He stayed there, shivering, as the stench from his retching session started to seep in the floor and be emitted around them.

Without speaking, he stood up, slowly. His legs were shaking, his heart hammering in his chest. It had been too sudden, he tried to console himself, unable to restrain his trembling fingers. He hadn't been expecting it. Not saying a single word by means of explanation, he started walking toward the cabin door. Judging by the sky overhead, Raito thought that it must be early in the morning – it looked like the sun had already dawned. The rain seemed to have stopped, as there was the fresh smell of dew everywhere around the cabin.

Raito walked out, heading toward the plastic bucket, which was full of water from the rain last night.

In his frantic anxiety and tangled nerves, he had forgotten that he could not handle water on his own here in Mu. However, unfortunately, he was doomed to be reminded of this when he dipped his hand in the bucket, only to see the water transform into a pool of insects.

"Argh!!!" he shouted, having just experienced a nightmare and completely unable to control his reactions. He kicked the bucket away from his body, letting the insects spill over the ground. Only when they started moving towards him and crawling all over his shoes did he realize his mistake. He started shaking, trying to pry them off. This was just too-

A net of white fingers suddenly filled his vision, and he saw L grab the handle of the bucket quietly. Without paying Raito any mind, L started walking toward the small path that led to the High Street of Mu, where the water taps were located.

Without controlling his reactions, Raito pounced forward, grabbing L's elbow and barking: "Where are you going?"

L slowly turned to look at him. "To get some water."

Slowly, Raito's grip on the other man's elbow loosened, and Ryuuzaki resumed walking forward, leaving behind a completely mortified Raito, who was just coming back to his senses and realizing how childish he was being.

Raito stayed silent the whole time, stepping on the insects around him maniacally now that L wasn't looking, trying to squish them into silence. After that dream, some kind of primal instinct of fear had been awakened in him. Some kind of-

Ryuuzaki didn't say anything as he climbed up the path again, moving the newly filled bucket toward Raito. In the dull lighting of the dawn, everything around them had a blue tinted colour. They sat on the doorstep of the hut, barely wide enough for two grown men.

Ryuuzaki raised the bucket and let Raito rinse his mouth. Then he tipped the container toward the other's face. Raito knew that if he tried to wash himself, he'd end up with a handful of cockroaches. Instead, he opted to grab the edges of the bucket in order to steady himself, and proceeded to bury his head in the water. It was the best strategy he could come up with, in his state of mind.

He stayed submerged for a few seconds at a time, coming up gasping for air. By the fifth time he'd done it, he was beginning to feel dizzy, and L pulled the bucket away before the chestnut-haired man could try again.

Breathing erratically, Raito rested his elbows on his knees and leaned forward, burying his face in his palms. Next to him, Ryuuzaki proceeded to dump the bucket on the ground and stand up. Then, he retreated inside the cabin, to a place Raito could not – and did not care – to see.

After about an hour, when Raito had calmed down for the most part, he pulled his palms forward, stretching the skin on his face and letting them clasp on his nose. He breathed heavily, and the sweat beneath his black t-shirt started to dry. Turning to look at where L had gone, still in the mind-frame of a nightmare, Raito noticed that the detective was sitting directly diagonally to him, with his knees pulled to his chest. He playing with his big toes as he often did, letting them overlap, and had both palms on his knees. Raito meticulously avoided looking anywhere near the vicinity of L's own hair, lest he be sick again.

He was looking at Raito, just as a scientist would look at a particularly interesting specimen.

A stale taste overcame Raito's mouth, and his stomach convulsed as he wondered what kind of things he may have shouted in his sleep, and whether…whether…

"Ryuuzaki!"

…that name was one of them. Because if it was, then he might never, ever live it down.

That face….that damnable face that was looking at him now with such calculative wonder…he remembered exactly what it had looked like when L had been talking to Watari in that dream…That blissful expression of careless joy…Raito wondered how he could conjure in his dreams an expression he had never seen on Ryuuzaki's face in real life.

The chestnut haired man decided that caring about L's thought consumed too much of his daily time, so he proceeded to bury his head forward, letting his fingers run through his rapidly drying hair.

When he finally stood up, his legs still shaking at the joints, Ryuuzaki stood up as well. It went without saying that they would skip their morning shower today, and would not follow their usual routine.

In fact, Raito was thinking so intensely about what he had seen in his dream, that he wasn't even paying attention to what he was actually doing. He moved mechanically, putting one foot before the other and walking. L's footfalls from beside him sounded like they were coming from miles and miles away. And had he been able to admit it to himself, today he found it rather hard to believe that this was the real Ryuuzaki… that Ryuuzaki was really here. That this was not yet another hallucination.

That this was happening. The real thing.

He sometimes thought like that, but today it was ten times worse. And as L took care to gather their meager belongings, and shoved the coats in Raito's hands, Raito grabbed the clothes automatically, not realizing what he was doing.

"Am I…?" he started saying, but his voice turned into a choking squeak, so he stopped. Ryuuzaki turned towards him, watching him for a few moments. When it became clear that Raito would not continue, he turned to the opposite direction, walking forward, toward the High Street and away from the cabin that had served as their shelter for the night.

Raito rushed forward, constantly feeling as though, if he didn't move immediately, then he would never be permitted to walk again. And so he trod forward with abandon, not caring even to remember the soft blue light of last night, and the way he'd stayed there, staring at the rain with Ryuuzaki's for the better part of last night.

He didn't remember how lucky their recent discovery about the huts had been, nor that he'd decided that they'd stay in a hut every night from now on. He couldn't even feel how cold it was around him. In fact, Raito was so completely lost in his own thoughts, shivering periodically, that he didn't realize that a significant weight was missing from his trouser pocket.

He turned around to make sure that Ryuuzaki was walking behind him, on his left, as always. He met L's black eyes and looked away immediately. Then, with a sudden jolt, he remembered what had happened in his nightmare when Ryuuzaki and Watari had met.

'I'll never let that happen' in his nightmarish haze, Raito did not even realize what he was thinking, as he turned around to look at L again. L stared at him in response, cocking his eyebrows a bit at Raito's persistence. 'It will never happen! Even if he finds Watari…I won't…I won't let-' he repeated in his mind, clenching his jaw as he strode toward the High Street, his eyes fixed in an utterly determined gaze.

Completely distracted, Raito did not notice what L was doing behind his back as they walked. The detective, finally assured that the other would not turn around again, pulled his eyes away from the back of Raito's head and buried his palm in his pocket, pulling out the worn, brown leather wallet. He held it in his usual careful way, letting it hover in front of his face for a few seconds. Then he opened it, experienced hands slipping swiftly between the credit cards and bank notes, until he found the thing that could make all the difference in the world.

His eyes did not blink.

He closed it again, having seen what he was searching for.

Holding it in his dexterous palm once again, he took a few quick strides toward Raito, hand poised over the Japanese man's trousers.

"Watch where you're going!" Raito suddenly said in annoyance, since Ryuuzaki had just stumbled against him. He wasn't in the mood for L's clumsiness right now.

"Pardon." Ryuuzaki's voice floated lightly from the back, but Raito seemed to have already forgotten about the other man, lost in his thoughts and memories once more.

L stared at the back of Raito's head. His hand, with its long white fingers, tightened around the plastic handle of the bucket.

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

a/n: Oh-oh! Revelations galore! Crazy stuff happening!! so….wasted…must…eat….must…go…to…pub…with…friends….ughhhhhh….Hope I didn't make them awfully OOC. I did try my best to make them seem as though they have evolved, but without appearing completely OOC.

Also, I tried to make them act like men, in the sense that I try not to have them talk too much. Most of the real feelings are expressed through acts, not words. At least that's what I tried to do! I hope I succeeded!

I really like this chapter, for some reason! This romance thing is really getting to me! I try to contain myself, however, lest I make them seem completely OOC or completely over the top out of my own overexcitement!

Ps. What was your favourite scene? The shower, the fistfight, the wooden hut? Did you like how I involved Raito's trial in the whole thing? It was kind of a 'twelve monkeys' moment, if you know what I mean. The next time they enter a building, we're going to see L's trial!!

I love this, I love this! I'm so excited about it! I try to write whenever I can! Thank you all for reviewing – you don't know how happy you make me!

I'll see you all soon (I hope)

Ezan