A pretty face can hide an evil mind

Uwaaaaaaaaaa!
I love time off!
Really, I finished my first year of Law School and have to wait until September to get back into said school!

It gives me plenty of time to write fortunately! Also, I finished the latest Harry Potter book in record time. 12 hours exactly. I have to admit that I keep getting the feeling that I’ve read the thing a hundred times before and that half of it’s contents was ripped from fanfics I’ve read….. But that might just be me XP

And yet another thank you for the lovely reviews! And yet again for the good luck wishes in my new career! I think I’m truly starting to realise why reviews mean so much to authors!

Oh well. Here I am with a brand new addition to my favourite pet-project.
I hope it makes up for the rather uneventful previous chapter. Not to mention, it’s quite a bit longer, if not the longest one yet!

Also, I do believe an explanation is needed for Raito’s random thoughts. Personally, I’m the kind of person who keeps thinking about my everyday random observations.
It seems to be a trait shared by many an intelligence ‘gifted’ person. Or at least he ones I know. Somehow I see him thinking in a similar manner when not purposely thinking of a specific topic XP

NOTES!
In the original Death Note pilot (link available in my profile) some of the Death Note rules were slightly different. In the official series, the Death Note doesn’t run out of pages. Within the original draft of the series, a Death Note has 60 pages and 38 lines per page. In case there would be no room left to write down names, the rule states that the owner is allowed to ask the shinigami for a new one as many times as this person would like. This second ‘alternative’ rule is the one I’m using!

Enjoy!

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Within the barren waste-lands, a small group of strange looking creatures had gathered.

“So Ryuuku dropped his notebook in the Human world?”

“Yeah. I hear a human got to it before he did.”

“No way! You mean he has to stick around in that place until the new owner dies?”

“Looks like it.”

“I wonder if this particular human has the guts to fill it up. The last one jumped of a rooftop after finding out the thing was real.”

“Yeah! Man that was hilarious! I mean what was he expecting?”

“Wait a sec. You mean you guys haven’t heard yet?”

“Heard what?”

“About the human, the one who found Ryuuku’s extra Death Note.”

“Dude. Spill it!”

“He already filled up that notebook.”

“No way!”
“Impossible! The guy is just human!”

“Who would want to go through the trouble of writing down all those names anyways.”

“It wasn’t just one notebook. It was–”


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“So basically I can kill people in any way I want just as long as it’s within reasonable limits.”

“Yeah….I guess.”

“It should be possible for a guy in Tokyo to commit suicide in Hokkaido within a certain time limit. But for example it wouldn’t be possible for the same guy to do so in France while given the same time limit.”

“I suppose.”

Raito was getting fed up with that Shinigami.
One would figure that a shinigami at the very least knew of the limits presented by it’s own weapon of choice. Clearly he had been mistaken…

“And if a cause of death has been written down that doesn’t allow the ‘victim’ to meet the previously mentioned limits, the written cause of death will become annulled and the subject will die from a heart-attack instead.”

“Yep. Pretty much.”

“You’ve never even tried this, have you…”

“Nope.”

Headaches were starting to become an every day event nowadays.
The battle between L and Kira turned out to be just what the press had been waiting for.
So naturally all the newspapers – especially the tabloids – devoted their headlines to pronounce their view on things.

Like they even understood what was going on.

The death toll so far was unrivalled. So many people – no, criminals – had died already.
Raito had easily concluded that these criminals did not die by his hand alone. The problem was that he didn’t know who else was carrying out ‘Kira’s divine’ task.
That Kira would have a Death Note would be a given.

The rules didn’t state that one Death Note user could kill another after all. There was no way that Kira would hand over a weapon to another living being and be left unguarded.
So far Ryuuku had been a source of little to no information. The shinigami was useless really. And he decided to tell him just that.

“You’re so useless.”

“Yeah I am.”

The thing seemed positively amused. Great. He had been demoted from being an unrivalled genius in the world boredom known as the Japanese educational system, to being a source of entertainment for an unworldly creature.

How he wish he could return to those glory days…

He knew he had been wishing for a bit more excitement in his life, but if he had known previously that this would be said relief from boredom, he would have hold his tongue and taken his chances with being bored for the rest of his life.

The small bits of information he had managed to divulge was that Ryuuku had previously been tailing none other then Kira himself – at least that ruled out one possible gender – and that he refused to take sides with anyone. Raito was positively sure he could detect something strange about Ryuuku when the shinigami mentioned the name ‘Kira’ though. Fear perhaps? Possible, but unlikely. For some reason the terms ‘fear’ and ‘Ryuuku’ didn’t belong in the same sentence.

This brought his attention back to his previous subject though. Kira and the Notebooks.
He was pretty much sure that both he and Kira possessed one of these Death Notes.
The ridiculous amount of dead criminals made him believe that they weren’t the only ones though. Even before Raito had joined the ‘holy cause’, the number of deaths had been astounding.

Also, something about one of the particular rules bugged him to no end. Usually this nagging feeling steered him in the right direction.

‘Only 6 Death Notes are allowed to exist at a time in the human world. Of course, the Death Note that the god of death owns dose not count. This means only 6 gods of death that have passed on their Death Note to humans can stay in the human world.’

‘When the owner runs out of room to write down names, one may ask the original owner, gods of death, for another. There is no limit as to how many Notes may be given.’

Judging from these rules, there could be 6 active users at the same time. Meaning that minus Kira and himself, four other users would be able to use these Death Notes at the same time. That didn’t take away the possibility of there being more then 6 available notebooks though. At least it gave him an insight of the situation.

He also doubted that the guy would go as far as to hand out Notes to such a large amount of people. The more people involved in this matter, the more risks the guy would have to take in order to keep them in line.

The annoying ringtone echoed across the room…


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Matsuda entered the fancy room that was going to be their office for the duration of the investigation. He had to admit that he was excited. His first big case!

So far the young investigator had been disappointed in the cases that had been presented to him. Not that he could blame the chief though. Rookies never got to be on the important investigations. That was a given. Still, it had been several years since he joined the police force. One would have expected to have at least been a part of a big case at least once by now. For some strange reason he got the impression that the chief didn’t think he was responsible enough. The reason why the chief thought so was a mystery to him though.

The Kira case however would be his big chance to show everyone he was ready to handle the pressure and responsibility!

He looked around the room after nodding approvingly at the fancy new computers – this L character sure wasn’t wasting any money, these were state of the art! – and admiring the rather comfortable looking chairs. He was pleased to see several of his former peers of the police academy gathered in the room. They seemed to be slightly apprehensive of the situation. Ha! He’d show them!

Kira was absolutely nothing to be afraid of! They weren’t criminals after all.

After spotting some more familiar faces, his gaze landed on none other then Yagami Soichiro. The man had made quite a name for himself a few years back. A psycho killer had been running around hacking limbs of his victims. None other then Yagami Soichiro had been called in to help them solve that particular case. Not only did Yagami-san solve the case with rapid speed and precision, he also ended up saving the life of his young son. The same little boy that ended up helping out with some cases or so he had heard. At first he had doubted that someone as protective as Yagami Soichiro would have allowed his only son to help out with something as horrible as murder cases. Not until he met the boy himself.

------------------------------------------Flashback---------------------------------------------

The sun was shining, the birds were chirping and the cicadas were happily humming away on that hot summer day as Matsuda Tota entered the office. It had only been mere weeks since he graduated and he would already be working on his first murder case!

He had just been at the crime scene with a senior-investigator and several other policemen. They were expected in the lower meeting room to relay the facts and examine the evidence. Matsuda Tota entered the room with a smile on his face – receiving strange looks from his co-workers the whole time – and took a seat close to the screen. Yagami Soichiro walked towards the screen and cleared his throat to draw the attention of his co-workers.

“Gentlemen. We are here to go over the facts of the Amagawa-murder case.

The victim was found dead in the living-room. The victim appears to have been shot with a gun. The next-door neighbour found the body. She went over to the victims house in order to complain about the volume of his stereo. There she noticed how the door was open and spotted the body on the living-room floor.

Mrs. Fuchida proceeded in turning off the radio and returning to her house in order to call the police. Upon arrival about five minutes later, the police questioned Mrs. Fuchida in her home, afterwards returning to the scene of the crime where a police officer awaited.”

Matsuda grinned and energetically waved his hand. That police officer had been him!

“He was accompanied by two young women. The two women – Ashida Yuki and Kaori – both claimed to have seen the murderer leave the house. Ashida Kaori-san stated the following:

‘I was busy in the kitchen when I noticed Mrs. Fuchida running out of Kensuke-kun’s house. She stopped at his trashcan and threw something in. I joined my sister outside when I heard the sirens.’

After further interrogation it turned out that the victim had been dating Kaori-san until the two broke up about a week ago. The victim had been caught cheating on Kaori-san which resulted in an argument.

The woman’s sister Yuki-san added the following:

‘When I got home, I noticed a woman disappearing into her house just as I walked into the street. It was the murderer I tell you! Not that I can blame old Mrs. Fuchida, the man was an animal! No respect for women whatsoever!’

Kaori-san seemed to be quite distressed when the officer present questioned her about the gunshot.

The sister interrupted and claimed that it would have been impossible for her sister to hear the gunshot due to the victims radio being too loud.

The officer returned to Mrs. Fuchida and questioned her about the trashcan before checking it’s contents. Mrs. Fuchida claimed to have thrown in some tissues after becoming nauseous upon witnessing the murder scene.

After checking the trashcan, both the acclaimed tissues and the murder weapon – a recently fired gun – were discovered. The gun and tissues are being examined as we speak, results should be getting her as soon as possible. All three of the women involved in this case are currently being brought to the police station for further questioning. I’d like to hear your opinions.”

A rather sturdy looking man of around 40 years old was the first to speak up.

“Seems like the only one with a motive would be the ex-girlfriend then. Were the others questioned for possible motives as well?”

Somehow Matsuda doubted it was the ex-girlfriend. The poor thing was cooking dinner at the time of the murder!

“Ah. Yes. Mrs. Fuchida and the victim were not on the best of terms according to the two sisters. It turns out that this wasn’t the first time Mrs. Fuchida went over to the victims house with complaints about the radio. As of yet the statements of the two witnesses is all we have to go–”

“It was Ashida Yuki-San.”

A small voice interrupted Yagami-san. Matsuda had been positive that there had been no women in the room when he had first arrived. Rather then a gentle sounding woman, a little boy was the origin of the smooth and tiny voice.

A young boy with light hair and almond shaped eyes. Even then and there one could see the makings of a very attractive young man. Perfect skin and perfectly shaped brown puppy dog eyes behind his neatly cut hair. The kind of eyes no mother could refuse.

The child had gone unnoticed as he was sitting in the back of the room in a dark corner.
His short legs dangling of the simple chair.

What in the world was a child doing here anyway?
The confusion seemed to be shared by several people within the room. An even larger amount of people seemed more interested in what the child had to say rather then his reason for being here.

“She claimed to have arrived at the time Mrs. Fuchida entered her home. Later on she mentioned that her sister couldn’t have possibly heard a gunshot due to the radio being too loud. If she truly arrived around the time Mrs. Fuchida entered her home, she couldn’t have known about the music being loud since Mrs. Fuchida had already turned it off.

Also, Kaori-san mentioned that she joined her sister outside when she heard the police sirens about five minutes after Mrs. Fuchida-san reported the murder. This indicates that there had been no contact between the two sisters before the arrival of the police. Yuki-san is obviously lying.”

Who was this kid?

Most of the officers present in the room had been taking notes of the child’s opinion.
They weren’t seriously considering it were they? Of all people to suspect!

A sudden knock at the door followed by a quick ‘come in’ drew everyone’s attention to the door next to the child.

“I have the results you were looking for. Mrs. Fuchida’s fingerprints didn’t match the ones on the weapon. We did find some of her DNA through saliva, but it seems to have been transferred through the tissues.”

“Thank you. Would you be so kind as to take fingerprints of Ashida Yuki-san as well? Make sure she doesn’t leave the building.”

“Got it.”

They were serious! They were really going to arrest an innocent woman because a child thinks she’s guilty?

Matsuda glanced back towards the little boy. The kid didn’t seem impressed in the slightest. Almost like he’d been expecting it all along.

About fifteen minutes of awkward silence later the man returned.

“It’s a match.”

The little boy got up and walked out of the room, still not impressed but rather with a bored look on his face.

“Who was that kid?”

Matsuda couldn’t help but agree with whoever asked that.
They all turned to Yagami Soichiro who seemed as proud as a peacock.

“My son.”

---------------------------------------End Flashback---------------------------------------------

That had been his first meeting with Yagami Raito.
He hadn’t seen the boy since, but he had heard plenty of rumours of the boy helping out with some of the tougher cases.

While lost in his thoughts of Yagami ‘Boy Wonder’ Raito, Matsuda had failed to notice that the briefing was pretty much over with already. Oops.

“Matsuda, I do believe you had something to add?”

Something to add? Oh yeah!

“Y-yeah. I don’t want to compliment Kira in any way, but…the latest statistics show a dramatic decrease in crime, not only in Japan but in the rest of the world also…”

He hoped he at least made somewhat of a good impression…

“That is to be expected given the circumstances. Thank you Matsuda. That is all we have to say L.”

“Thank you. In my opinion were getting closer to Kira. Before I leave, I would especially like to thank the victims-unit, media-team and internet-unit for their previous examination. We now know that Kira most likely only needs a name and face in order to kill his victims. Not only that, but after further examination of the times in which the victims died, seem to match the time schedule of an average Japanese student.”

A Japanese student? To Matsuda the idea seemed ludicrous. But then again. He had been proven wrong by a genius before…right?


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Within a dark room a single laptop hummed on top of the wooden floor.

A dark-haired man sat in front of the screen and appeared to be deep in thought.

“L. The head of the FBI wishes to speak with you.”

“Thank you Watari, put him through.”

“As you wish.”

“This is Nelson speaking. About that matter we discussed earlier…”

“Yes?”

“Are you positive that Kira is one of the investigators?”

“Definitely. And I’m sure considering the FBI’s reputation, you will do your best.”

L closed the connection.

He was sure. Kira had to be connected to the police somehow. Mere hours after the investigators had returned to the safety of their homes, Kira adapted his killing pattern in an attempt to either punch a hole into their ‘student’ theory or to mock them.

“Watari. Do you have those papers I asked for?”

“Yes. I will be delivering them shortly.”

“How many in total?”

“141 including direct family members.”

“Thank you.”

Kira was bound to be one of them. He just knew it.


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“You know Raito, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

“And what would that be?”

Raito walked home from yet another evening in cram-school. He frankly couldn’t wait to start Toudai but at the same time couldn’t help but feel apprehensive. Perhaps it would alleviate the boredom somewhat, but potentially it could be just as boring…

Not that recent events had proven to be dull though. Quite the opposite.
Always the optimist, Raito had quickly responded to L’s move in order to turn the situation around. His father had come home after a meeting with the investigation team and pronounced that he was to be the head of said investigation. Only outranked by L and his superiors of course. Not only had he practically given Raito all the information he needed with his simple statements, he had also been a great help with the formulation of his new scheme to finish off L. Unknowingly of course.

“There’s a guy following you around. Not that I’m on your side or anything, nut he’s getting on my nerves. I mean he’s been following us for the past two days. It’s getting annoying.”

He had already suspected as much.

“Annoying indeed. I’ll get rid of him soon enough.”

L was finally picking up the trail he had left.
His latest orders had been made perfectly clear. Kill L and make sure to keep him away from ‘the others’. It seemed that Lady Luck had finally thrown him a bone or two.

Kira’s ‘accidental slip’ confirmed his suspicion on there being others like him.

Raito opened the unlocked door. He could smell his mom’s cooking throughout the house. Way too much seasoning like always. She would certainly ruin his taste-buds one of these days. It was common knowledge that increased exposure to certain taste-enhancers would have a permanent effect. People who ate spicy food for example would need to eat much larger contents of spice in order to taste it. Hence why many foreign ‘kitchens’ ended up using a large amount of spices.

What was he thinking about anyway? He needed to figure out how to get rid of the guy tailing him…

His plan to get close to L would have to wait for a bit longer. True, he hadn’t been behaving suspiciously in the slightest these past two days, but still. If he got rid of the unidentified investigator after his ‘examination period’ had passed, he might be able to side-track L for a little while longer…

Keeping him busy didn’t mean make it easy for him after all.

He would lure L out of hiding, giving him no other option then to investigate in a front row seat so to say. Somehow he would use his fathers connection and his own reputation with the police to get closer…

Already an adaptation of his original scheme was formulating within the depths of his mind. But first things first. The name and face of the guy tailing him.

He picked up his cell-phone – not the Kira ‘standard issued’ one mind you – and checked his virtual address book for a perfect subject.

“Eh? R-Raito-kun?”

“Yeah. It’s me. Hey listen, how would you like to go to Space-Land with me?”

“REALLY! Oh-! I mean I’d love to!”

“I’ll meet you tomorrow at the bus-stop near school then.”

“Certainly! See you tomorrow!”

Ryuuku chuckled.

“Looks like you’re pretty popular with the ladies.”

“Yeah. I am. Aren’t you?”

That shut him up pretty quickly.


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“L. We have an update on the Kira murders. 64 more criminals died yesterday, 3 of which died under mysterious circumstances.”

“Mysterious circumstances?”

“They committed suicide in a rather brutal way. They also left suicide notes written in their own blood…”

“Thank you Watari, could you send pictures of these notes?”

“Immediately.”

It only took mere seconds for the images to arrive. After all these years he expected no less of Watari. The man was truly the only one capable of reading his thoughts. To a certain extent of course.

It didn’t take long for the message hidden in the notes to be made apparent.

‘L do you know…’

Kira was experimenting.


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“I almost didn’t believe it when Raito-kun asked me out on a date! To Space-Land even! I’ve been wanting to go there since I was a child!”

‘You’re still a child in my opinion.’
“Really? I’ve been wanting to go there as well.”

“The bus should be here in about 5 minutes. I can hardly wait!”

‘I can imagine. Like the idea of cuddling up to me on the way there offends you.’
“I know. I’m quite excited as well.”

The only ones excited here would have to be the girl and Ryuuku.
Raito was about as excited as a mortitioner at a health-club…

Idle conversations with a girl wearing an impossibly short mini-skirt in the early beginnings of what would soon develop to be a rather hard winter. Brilliant. Truly.

“I thought you said you didn’t want to go out on dates because of your Toudai entrance exams though.”

‘It’s called an excuse.’
“I wasn’t at first. But I’ve been doing especially well with my studies, I felt like I deserved a break.”

Another annoying giggle and a couple of flirty insinuations later the bus arrived.
Raito was pleased to see that his stalker decided to join them on this ‘joyous event’.
He would hate having to go through this hell without getting something for it in return.
Better yet, the guy sat directly behind him and his ‘date’.

Perfect.

And as predicted, a rather unwholesome looking figure got on the bus at the next stop.
With any luck the girl currently latched onto his arm would cancel the date altogether after certain events had taken place. His experiments with the Death Note earlier on had given him the exact edge he needed in order to figure out his stalkers name.

Raito’s mood lightened even more so when he noticed only eight people – including the driver – were currently on the bus. The less witnessed the better.

The strange looking guy suddenly drew a gun and aimed it at the drivers head.

Wow….he hadn’t seen that one coming…
Did anyone besides Ryuuku notice how he was the one of the few not screaming?

“All of you shut up! One more word out of you and you’re dead! Ad you, driver! You know the telephone number to Space-Land right?!”

“Y-yes sir.”

“Good, then call them!”

The scene before him played out just as he had imagined. It wouldn’t take long before he would be expected to play his part in the act.

He reached into his pocket and wrote on the note that he had placed there earlier.

‘Don’t worry. When that criminal isn’t looking I’ll attack the hand that’s holding the gun. My dad taught me that. The hijacker is small, I can probably take him.’

He made sure to hold it up at such an angle that the guy behind him would be able to read it as well before tapping his ‘date’ in order to gain her attention.

“That’s dangerous! Let me handle the situation!”

‘And try to look surprised, but don’t make it obvious. And cut!’

The whispered reply of the man sitting behind him had been more then expected.
He hastily wrote down another message.

“There’s no need to write it down, the hijacker can’t hear us over the sound of the bus.”

He crumpled the note and placed it in his pocket. Again, as expected.

“Excuse me, but judging from your accent I can tell you’re not Japanese.”

“Yeah. I’m a Japanese-American.”

“Can you prove to me you’re not the guys partner? It happens often after all. Make people think that there’s only one criminal, but in reality there’s another one.”

A moment of silence. Would it work?

“So are you?”

Another moment of silence. Before the answer to his question came through ad ID-card presented to him.

“Here’s proof.”

‘The FBI?! L is ordering them to investigate the Japanese police! Raye Penber…’

“I believe you…But why would the FBI be here?”

“I’m afraid I can’t divulge that information…”

“Do you have a gun?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll leave this situation to you.”

‘Yeah right. Now cue the ‘accidental’ paper drop.’

“Hey you! Secretly passing notes to each other huh! Don’t you touch that!”

‘And the guy picks it up, throws it back…and voila.’
He had to admit that the cold barrel of a gun pressed against his head made him shiver though…

“A date note huh! Real cute kid! Listen up! Don’t make any sudden movements or e–”

‘Well Ryuuku, time for you to be useful. Don’t hold it against me.’

“What the hell is that thing?!”

It didn’t take long for the second act to occur. Ryuuku was actually complimenting him for his accomplishments rather then be sour about the whole ‘bullet through the head’ ordeal.

The criminal rushed out of the bus after discovering bullets, Shinigami and death were not connected to one another. And incidentally got run over by a car. Messy but effective. And pleasantly on time.

He not only got the name and face of the guy that had been following him, he also managed to clear the trial without making himself look suspicious. There was only one problem…

“No way! I still wanna go to Space-Land! Let’s go!”

Oh well, you can’t win them all…

TBC