Cold Hearts Ch 4 Nothing To Hide
A./N: I don't own Death Note.
***
"Light, what are you doing?" Rem demanded as she saw what Light had written in his case notes.
As with Gelus before, Rem was powerless to stop him and could only watch as her new friend penned his own doom.
Light leaned back in his chair, a defeated look on his face. He knew full well that he had just screwed himself over. He forced a grin as he left his notes on his desk.
"Hey Rem, want to play some video games?"
"But… we're on camera."
"Exactly."
"Please, Light? This is foolishness!"
"It's too late to stop it, it's done. Please, Rem? Just one game? We don't have long."
Rem sighed and picked up the proffered controller.
***
L's ice cream had fallen in his lap as he stared at the screen in shock as he watched what Light wrote in his case notes. Mr. Yagami wasn't fairing much better as Light proceeded to have a conversation with the empty air and then sat down next to the floating game controller to play video games with the invisible entity.
L bit his thumb until it bled.
He knows that he's being watched? He knows he's a suspect? Yet he's coming forward with this information that is tantamount to a confession. He knows full well that if we decide he is Kira he'll be sentenced to death... maybe those cuts WERE from a suicide attempt.
But the message Light is sending was quite clear "I'm not Kira, I am a cooperating witness."
What's worse is that that message feels... believable...
But that can't be! If Light isn't Kira... then who is the Kira I've been fighting all this time?
If... IF Light isn't the Kira I have been fighting then it's obvious it was the Kira broadcast that spurred Light to take this drastic action...
But what other purpose would it serve for Kira to so irredeemably incriminate himself like this?
Well, maybe that was what he was counting on us to think? Maybe he's trying to get close to me so that he can kill me. But he should know better than to think that L would come near a potential Kira after learning information like that!
"Ryuuzaki..." The Chief still stood beside him, looking pale.
L sighed. "There's no choice. We have to bring him in..."
***
Light continued to play video games with Rem until they heard the door bell ring.
Light was surprised to see just a couple of officers waiting at the front door instead of say, a whole SWAT team...
"Light Yagami, if you would come with me please," asked the guy with afro in a perfectly pleasant tone that brooked no room for argument.
"Wait, what's this about?" Sachiko demanded she saw the strange men came to the door wanting to take her son away. Aizawa and Mogi showed their fake I.D.s.
"Dad's work, right?" Light asked. They nodded.
"I'm just helping with a case, mom... dad can tell you..." Light began when they steered him towards the door. "Uh... Should I get my notes?"
"No. You are to come with us immediately."
"I understand."
"Get in," the big guy motioned towards the waiting limo.
Well, either this really is L... or we're being abducted by the mafia.
"Wear this," they demanded.
Light put on the blindfold.
He grimaced at the feel of the handcuffs biting into his wrists but only felt a stab of fear when he felt the needle in his neck.
"We're giving you a sedative now. When you wake up, you can expect we'll have some questions for you."
"Yeah... okay..." Light muttered already getting really groggy. "Listen... you can't... show your... face..."
***
Meanwhile L was watching everything, hearing everything, testing everything.
There was no point to sending in a secret assault team since he was expecting them to come. But now if Mogi and Aizawa suddenly dropped dead the case would be closed.
Light was totally cooperative and didn't try to fight it.
L hummed softly around his doughnut as he watched the monitors. "It looks like... this is exactly where he wants to be..."
Just what are you planning, Light Yagami?
The Chief scowled.
"My son can't be Kira! Why would Kira come forward to help the police?"
"Hmm… good question. I suppose we'll find out soon enough... The sedative wears off in an hour."
The Chief was even more eager to begin questioning than L was because he needed an alternate explanation.
***
When Light awoke in total darkness and he felt a stab of fear.
The blindfold. It's just the blindfold, right? Light still felt the bite of the handcuffs, and his movements were restrained...
"They've handcuffed you to a chair."
"Yeah, I kind of figured that out for myself, thanks..."
"You knew this would happen." It wasn't a question.
"Yes. It was inevitable..."
Meanwhile L watched as Light woke up and began talking to himself (?) or rather to the alleged invisible entity he had showed to the cameras with the floating game controller. L wondered how he pulled that off that trick and just what purpose was that supposed to serve other than further incriminating himself.
Sure Kira apparently killed through some seemingly supernatural means. But to suggest the existence of something like a Shinigami? L would only believe it if he saw it... and maybe not even then...
However as L continued to listen to one-side of the conversation he realized that this was either incredible acting or Light seemed to actually believe there was something there.
"Kira threatened my father! What would you have me do? The alternative means sitting back and watching the police officers get killed one by one!"
Light waited for several seconds and appeared to be listening to something. He gave a heavy sigh and added "I know it's going to be rough but I need you to not freak out, okay? ...No. you can't! No matter what happens to me... Promise me! ...I've just... I've just got to do this."
Rem sighed. "Why must you be so stubborn?"
Just then there was a screeching sound (a microphone) and a disembodied, filtered voice filled the room "Light-kun, may I ask who you're talking to?"
"Rem..." Light said quietly. He worked to steady himself and stay calm under these circumstances to answer that disembodied voice (it can only be L).
"What was that?" asked that mocking voice.
He's trying to elicit a response but I won't give it to him.
"I was talking to Rem. She's a Shinigami."
"You really expect me to believe that?"
"Yes. In my jeans pocket there's a vial. In it is a piece of the weapon. If you touch it you can see and hear her."
Light had enough time to prepare that at least-it was just a fiber of paper torn from the book, not enough to write on by any stretch of the imagination but enough to prove his story...
L gaped at the monitors. "You brought physical evidence with you?"
No, it couldn't be this easy! This wasn't like Light Yagami. It wasn't like Kira...
"I was going to just show her to dad but then... that broadcast..."
"Mr. Matsui..."
Mastuda entered the cell and fumbled around in Light's pockets to retrieve the vial... while Light was restrained and blindfolded. This was really awkward...
Matsuda found it the small vial and inside was an even smaller fiber of something… it was so small it was hard to tell what it was for sure.
"Just touch that to see her," Light insisted.
"Mr. Matsui, you will do no such thing. Have Aihara-san take it to the lab and have it analyzed," The disembodied voice from the P.A. system ordered.
Light looked shocked and a little annoyed.
"Its complete nonsense for the investigator to take suggestions from the suspect," decreed the P.A. system.
Light sighed. "I understand."
"Are you ready to confess?"
Even with the blindfold covering up half his face L could read that resolute, defiant expression.
"I'm not Kira! I am a cooperating witness! Go on, ask me anything! I have nothing to hide!"
***
L kept at it for hours but Light stuck with his story-and what a story it was:
"Well, you see the other day when I was walking home from school, I made a new friend. She's a Shinigami. She gave me a Shinigami's Weapon as a gift. No, I haven't tested it. The existence of the Shinigami was confirmation enough. No, I don't intend to use it. No I'm not turning it over-it's for your own good! Why? I told you I think it might corrupt the owner... If I give it to you, you could become Kira. I will not have that on my conscience!"
It was a story that L recognized was full of holes but Light was sticking to it.
And it continued...
Light lost track of time. Hours were becoming days...
***
"No, I'm still not Kira. I won't be Kira no matter how many times you ask me..."
"Light-kun is not taking this seriously."
"Light-kun is very serious," Light grumbled in frustration. "It's just that nobody is listening."
***
L took a brief break from his questioning to sit down and eat a whole box of doughnuts on his own when he saw the others gathering round. They looked angry. This was the final straw considering one of L's interrogation techniques involved "forgetting" to give the suspect any food or water for days at a time...
Here it comes...
"Ryuuzaki, this is completely unreasonable!"
"Newly broadcast criminals are still dying, Ryuuzaki! My son is not Kira."
"Let him out!"
The others murmured in agreement of "He's not Kira!"
"He's still lying!" L shouted over them, his face was hidden beneath his fringe of bangs "And from what he told us there must be more than one "Shinigami weapon" out there. It's perfectly possible for Light to be a Kira..."
"You're contradicting yourself! You're own tests are showing he's not Kira! What's it going to take for you?" Aizawa shouted.
"I suppose... I have to find out what he's hiding. Because he IS hiding something…"
"Of course he's hiding something! He's a teenager!" Matsuda pointed out in a flash of insight.
"Light-kun lost any right to privacy the moment he agreed to this. If he's truly innocent, then he should have 'nothing to hide,' right?"
"He came forward as a cooperating witness!"
"He can't take much more of this..." stated Mogi as he watched how Light sagged against the restraints.
"He is Kira or he is connected to Kira. We will find out which it is," the others groaned in unison as L sounded like a broken record.
I will discover your secrets...
Even if it destroyed him.
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