Paladin Ch 9 Suffering
A/N: I don't own Death Note.
***
"…Hasn't spoken a word since..." Mogi mumbled.
"And the doctors think its post-traumatic stress?" asked Matsuda.
Mogi silently affirmed with a nod. Matusda now found himself wishing he had been there. He would have murdered the animal that did this! How dare he attack the Chief's family!
"Chief! Thank god!" Mogi fell into step with the Chief and Matsuda as they stormed the corridors of the hospital.
"How could this happen!"
"Look, Chief… I think it would be for the best if no one presses charges… It was clearly self-defense and then there's the whole Kira-issue…"
"At the very least this should clear him of suspicion of being Kira, right? I mean if he were Kira he wouldn't have to, you know…"
Soichiro looked sternly at Mogi and Matsuda. "Right now I am not your Chief. Whatever happened, right now, I am just the father of my children. I cannot even think of-Mogi I'll leave it to you. I'm going in to see them now."
"Dad!"
Soichiro's first reaction was to hug his child. "I'm so glad you're alright!"
"…can't breathe…"
"Sorry," the Chief relaxed his grip a little (still hugging but not quite so hard.)
"Dad, oh dad! I was so scared! I'm so sorry!"
"What are you apologizing for? None of this is your fault."
"But I couldn't… I didn't... and now…"
"Shh. It's going to be alright. You both made it out alive. For that I am grateful. "
Father and child held each other a bit longer before the later sniffled and asked "So, how's Light?"
***
Light sat on the hospital bed, still as a statue, staring at his hands as if they held the answers to the universe. The events played over and over in his head, a broken record… His sister screaming, the man grabbing him, the gun flying, the decision to seize it and pull the trigger, all that blood...
The Shinigami Ryuk was beginning to get annoyed. It had been funny watching Light go catatonic at first but having to watch it for hours was not very entertaining.
"Light-o, oh Light-o!"
"…"
"C'mon Light, this is hardly the first time you've killed someone…."
Ryuk hovered upside-down in front of Light's face. "Ah, teenagers. Once they've entered that emo-phase you have so much trouble getting them to talk to you."
"…"
Ryuk landed ungracefully in front of Light, and began to poke him "Light! Snap! Out! Of! it!"
Light sunk back onto the bed and covered his face with his hands.
"Was it not real to you before? Did you think that this was ALL just a game?"
Light twitched slightly.
"A reaction! I think I'm getting warm…. You know you'd better get used to it. Don't tell me you're giving up? I mean you've gone way too far to stop now."
Ryuk noted the eye movement. Light was now glaring at him hatefully out of the corner of his eye.
Progress.
"What happened to "it's worth it even if I have to sacrifice my mind and soul"? Did one little crook catch you unprepared?"
Shut up.
"Seriously Light, did you suddenly forget that you are a killer? And not just any killer but the most prolific killer in human history? That sort of thing… it must be in your very nature, you know. It's hard-wired in your blood. You can't change who and what you are. And what that is, is a God in human form-Death God that is…."
SHUT UP!
"Do you need me to give you a little pep talk or something? Self-esteem! I love me for me! Be happy with who you are! Light! Light! He's our man! If he can't do it! No one can!"
"Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
"Hey, are you okay? I heard you shouting… Here let me give you something..."
"No I'm fine Ms…"
Nurse Rin Bukimi, the Angel of Death.
Oh crap.
"No, I'm fine really I don't need anything."
Light scuttled away from the nurse, getting tangled in the hospital gown.
"You need to rest."
As the nurse drew in she suddenly felt a sudden tap on her shoulder, she glanced behind her in time to see a dark-haired woman leap towards her, and execute a flying spin kick. The syringe was knocked from her hand and lodged itself into the wall.
"Misora-san?"
"What's going on here!" bellowed Light's father.
"Are you with the police?" Misora asked as she held nurse Rin in a restraining hold "Please arrest this woman for attempted homicide."
"Get her off me!"
"…since I heard what happened, I've had my suspicions..."
"She's crazy!" Insisted Rin.
"She's been killing her patients! She just tried to kill this man."
"She's right, I saw her," Light chimed in "I thought it was an accident at first but…"
The Chief slapped the handcuffs on Rin Bukimi and then turned back to look at his son. Soichiro looked torn between being angry and being concerned…
"I'm glad to see you're feeling better, Light. We'll talk soon."
"Okay… "
Did the Death Note not work? Or maybe I was too specific? Maybe because I wrote that "Bukimi Rin does no further harm to her patients" and I'm not technically her patient?
"Hey." Light glanced up to see Naomi smiling at him.
"Hey. Thank you, Naomi Misora-san."
"Yeah, well I thought I heard you from down the hall… You okay?"
"Yeah, thanks again, but what about you? I mean… That was amazing but really, should you be up and around after…"
Naomi made an annoyed sound. "Yeah, I'm okay now, but the stupid doctors won't let me out of here. But I guess this means we're even now, huh?"
"Yeah, thanks again."
"Oh! Ow. I think I tore my stitches!"
"Maybe the doctors know what they're doing after all."
Naomi scowled at him.
"Uh, sorry."
"Say what's this?"
"Oh? Dad must have left it here. It looks like a crossword puzzle with no clues…"
Naomi looked grim. "I've seen this sort of thing before… He sent it to mock the police. Because he knows no one would be smart enough to solve it."
Oh? Ha! Well I'll show him... Not like I have anything better to do anyway…
Light began solving it, Naomi peering over his shoulder.
"Oh, and the answer to that one is Great Devil King."
"Huh?"
"The perp is a fan of Akazukin Chacha."
"Wait, you know who it is?"
"Yeah.. why?"
"I tried to find out, but that case is locked."
"Well, that's to be expected. It's one of L's cases."
…And so Light the (Evil) Genius Mastermind and Naomi who was experienced with Beyond's particular brand of insanity filled out immediately the puzzle that had stumped the country's top cops. Then they discovered the elaborate and altogether ridiculous number cipher it translated to...
At this point Matsuda came in to visit Light and peeked at what Light and Naomi were working on.
"What's that? Lucky lotto numbers?"
Could it be... lifespans? "Wait no," Light said aloud "see it forms a code. If you arrange it like this..."
25 5 12 12 15 23 2 15 24
"Maybe… try using the English alphabet. He's done that particular trick before."
25 = Y
5 = E
12 = L
15 = O
23 = W
2 = B
24 = X
"Y-E-L-L-O-W-B-O-X, Yellow box?" Light said, a note of confusion in his voice "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Perhaps it's a clue to the suspect's location?"
"But would he really do something so… STUPID as to tell us where he is?"
"Yes he would," said Naomi "because he is that confident… and that crazy."
"I'll start looking for places that have that name!" declared Matsuda, ecstatic that there was finally a lead was up and out the door in a flash.
"Wow, we did that…"
"Yeah, we make quite a team."
Naomi made to do a little victory dance… "Oh, Ow!"
"You know, you should really get those stitches looked at."
"No shit, Sherlock."
***
Sometime earlier, the Yellow Box Warehouse
"Good morning, Lawli dearest!" Beyond chirped brightly upon seeing that L was awake… well perhaps that wasn't the right word. L's eyes were open true, but… "What did you do, Lawli? What did you do?"
It was clear from how unfocused they were that L wasn't home right now. Not that that stopped Beyond from trying to engage in conversation.
"Did you have sweet dreams?" Beyond asked cracking a smile.
L was laying on his side, couldn't be doing much else really, considering the way he was chained to the bed. "Naughty L. One should speak when spoken to." Beyond began idly poking his knife into L's naked flesh drawing blood. L still gave no reaction.
"You know, you can be a real drag to be around, Lawli." Now normally this would have been enough provocation for Beyond to start hacking off limbs but really, Beyond just wasn't in the mood today. He had gotten EVERYTHING he wanted from L last night, so he simply shrugged and clicked on the TV. Perhaps Teletubbies was on…
"You can fatten your love rivals by five kilos!"
"Well now isn't that interesting…" Beyond said as he laid his eyes upon the bubbly blonde Japanese girl who had no visible lifespan...
***
A/N: Just to clarify the timeline, Beyond sees Misa's cooking show at the same time that Light does...
In poor emo!Light's defense shooting someone WOULD seem more real than just writing names in a notebook...