You quietly followed behind Ryuzaki who was talking to Light

"I'm surprised, Ryuga. I never thought that you'd suddenly ask me to play some tennis to get to know each other." Light asked with a seemingly innocent smile, almost excited

"Is it a problem?" Ryuzaki asked

"Not at all."

"But Did you say that already knowing my abilities?" Light asked with a confident smirk

"It's all right, Yagami. I was once the British Junior Champion."

British...?

"Ryuga, were you raised in Britain?" He asked

"I lived in Britain for five years, but don't worry. There's nothing there that can reveal my identity."

"Oh, is that so.."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Then the first to win a set or six games wins the game, okay?"

You stand with the rest of the crowd watching the two men play in the tennis court, racket to racket, ready to aim.

The ball flies in the air, and surprisingly, Ryuzaki hits it with great speed, flying it directly past Light

You gasp

"Fifteen, love." Ryuzaki said as if it were nothing

"Hey, hey, Ryuga. You're serious right from the start!" Light seems impressed with the raven's skills

"Are they really amateurs? Who are they?" A student in the crowd along with you asks

"They're Light Yagami and Hideki Ryuga." You recognized the girl who answered
"The two who entered this year with top scores."
she was with the other one from before. The two annoying ones...

They continue to play, everyone watches with widened eyes and intrigued faces

Another student runs up to the crowd with a book
"I thought I'd heard of Light Yagami somewhere, so I looked him up! It seems he was the Junior High Champion in 2002 and 2003."

"Really?" You said, surprised

"During the Junior High third-year commendation ceremony, he announced that he'd only play in junior high. He hasn't played in any tournaments since."

"So what about Ryuga?" You ask

"He's holding his own with the junior high champion."

You smile, it was really nice to see another side of Ryuzaki. This was the most athletic you had seen him be

"Game set! Won by Yagami! Six games to four!"

You had secretly wished Ryuzaki had won as you walked back over to him. You could tell he was tired, although there wasn't an inch of sweat on him

"Wow! As I expected of you, I lost." He said in his usual tone

"Ryuga, It's been a while since I've played seriously." Light smiled, wiping the sweat off of his forehead

His almost red eyes then meet with yours
"Is this a friend of yours, Ryuzaki?"

You nervously smile

"Ah, this is my assistant, Ritsuko."

"Oh, got it. It's nice to meet you, Ritsuko."
He smiles and shakes your hand

"You too.." You shyly smile back

"She's kind of cute." He laughs as he speaks, watching you smile

Ryuzaki steps in front of you and gets closer to Light, completely changing the conversation

"And I have something I want to ask you... so do you want to go get a drink afterwards? I've lost the game, so I'll tell you whatever I can.
But before that, I have something I must tell you."

"What is it?"

Ryuzaki almost whispers into his ear
"Yagami, I suspect that you, are Kira."

You raise an eyebrow, although you didn't need to be concerned, knowing Ryuzaki already had everything planned ahead

"I'm Kira?" Light cocks his head to the side, confused.

"Well, even though I say I suspect you, it's only a one-percent possibility....Leaving that aside, once I'm sure that you aren't Kira and because you have sharp reasoning abilities, I'd like for you to work with me on this investigation."

A Kira suspect...working on the case...about Kira?
You remember Ryuzaki speaking about this to Light earlier

"One-percent, huh?" Light replies "That's well-worded."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now in a coffee shop, you sit at a table next to Ryuzaki who sat directly in front of Light in his usual sitting position

"This coffee shop is one of my favorites." Light says, smiling brightly
"If we sit here, there's no chance of anyone overhearing us."

"This is a nice spot you've shown me." Ryuzaki really just stares at Light

"We don't have to worry about how we sit here either." He said, motioning to the way Ryuzaki sat

"I don't sit like this because I want to, I have to sit like this. If I sit normally, my reasoning skills drop by forty percent."

Typical L. Calculating everything into percentages..

"So what did you want to ask me?" Ryuzaki said, biting his finger

"That can wait until you're sure that I'm not Kira." Light smiled, he didn't really seem like the type of person to be Kira

"Then excuse me but, do you mind if I test your deductive skills?"

"Sounds like fun."

Ryuzaki turned to you with a gentle smile
"Ritsuko, can you retrieve the pictures?"

"Of course."
You smile back and reach into your bag, grabbing the photos Ryuzaki asked you to bring, and placed them in front of Light, making sure to leave the one specific one on your lap until further notice

"Then first please take a look at this. These three are pictures of notes that we believe were written by criminals in prison right before they died. Please tell me what you think."

Light examines the different pictures of symbols, letters, and clues written by the prisoners
"This is interesting... If I pay attention to this and correctly unscrambled the sentence the way Kira wrote it, it would say 'L, do you know, gods of death love apples'"
He looks at you and laughs
"But just because I solved this code doesn't prove I'm Kira."

"It would be amazing if Kira could not only inflict death on others, but control his victims actions as well." Ryuzaki looks at the photos and watches Light's every move

"And the message encoded here, is taunting you."

You start to speak, moving the cards into certain directions
"When we rearrange the messages and take a look at the top letters of each line, they form another sentence. Rearranging it into a message that makes sense would probably be 'L, do you know gods of death love apples.' So in all, Light is most likely correct."

"But" Ryuzaki added "There are printed numbers on the back. When we arrange them in that order, we get, 'L, do you know love apples gods of death.'"

"It doesn't make sense and it's hard to think that Kira would have wanted you to read it this way." Light says with a raised eyebrow

"Incorrect." Ryuzaki says, taking the photograph from your lap and placing it on the table. His sudden touch makes you blush

"There are actually four photographs. When we add this one, it reads 'L, do you know gods of death who love apples have red hands.'"

Light sighed, disappointed
"My deduction was perfect, wasn't it?"

"It wasn't perfect. The truth is that there are four of them. It would have been perfect if you'd figured out there was another."

After hearing this, Light seemed a bit agitated
with Ryuzaki

"Yagami, even though you knew the message wasn't finished, you decided that there were only three notes. You didn't guess that there was a fourth."

He sighed once again
"Well...whatever the case, it's not a message that would lead to Kira. Gods of death don't exist." He shrugged

"Then if you were me, faced with someone who might be Kira, how would you check if he was Kira?"

Surprisingly, Light responded almost immediately
"I would try to have him say something that wasn't broadcast to the public, that only Kira would know."

"That's amazing." You whisper to Ryuzaki who nodded

"I've asked several detectives that same question, but most of them needed a few minutes to answer. You immediately thought of a scenario in which Kira is talking to the investigator. Your deductive abilities are amazing, Yagami."

He waves it off shyly
"The more impressive my answers, the more of a suspect I become, it seems."

"Yes. By about three percent."

"You can take those up, now." He tells you, and you immediately take the cards and neatly place them back into your bag

"But in that respect, it's made me more determined to work with you. Even if you are Kira, I would like for us to work together on this investigation."

Light smiles and shakes his head
"I think it's a great idea, but aren't you getting the wrong idea, Ryuga? I'm interested in the Kira case and conducting detective work as a hobby, but... I am not Kira, and I don't want him to kill me."
He adds
"First of all, I have no proof that you or Ritsuko aren't Kira, either. It would be strange for just one of us to be investigated, right? Neither of us have proof that we aren't Kira....But Ryuga, if you are L, I'm sure you can show me proof of that. Like having someone in the task force or my father tell me that you are really L in person. If you can't, I can't investigate with you."

"You talk a lot, don't you, Light Yagami? Typical for someone who hates to lose." L sips his tea
"I am currently working with your father.
If I take you to headquarters, you'll help with the investigation?"

You sees Ryuzaki's phone light up

You tap his shoulder
"Ryuzaki, your phone."

"Oh- Excuse me."

At the same time, Light had picked up a call on his phone. At this point you were concerned at both of their expressions

Ryuzaki widened his eyes and looked up
"Light, your father has-"

Light exclaimed with the same expression
"My father had a heart attack!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You're sure it's just fatigue, right?"
You, L, and Light all sat around Chief Yagami in the hospital room

"Yeah." Soichiro sighed
"When I collapsed, I thought it was Kira, but I'm alright...I've been pushing myself a bit hard lately."

"Especially since your son has been suspected of being Kira." L interrupted, causing you to barely hit him on his shoulder

"You've told that to my father?" Light turned to Ryuzaki, obviously irritated

"Yes. I've told him everything. Even the fact that I'm L."

"That's right." Soichiro weakly spoke
"He's L. We call him Ryuzaki so others can't find out, but there's no mistaking it. That's him."
He turns to Ryuzaki and smiles at you
"How are you, Ritsuko?"

You smile back
"I'm fine, thank you."

He smiles and nods, turning his attention back to Ryuzaki
"So Ryuzaki, has talking with my son cleared away your suspicions?"

He shrugged
"I'll say that I suspect him, but it's only a little.
I'll explain once more."
He took a deep breath in, looking up at the roof

"Kira killed twelve FBI agents who were in Japan. They were tracking those who were connected to the Japanese police. One of them was Raye Penber. There were many suspicious things surrounding his death."

"And I was one of the people he was investigating?" Light asked
"It's no wonder I'm a suspect..."

"No, it's as Ryuzaki says There is no one else to suspect." Soichiro says to make Light feel...better..?

"Your deductive ability is quite impressive.
It's always quick and accurate."
Ryuzaki compliments Light's skill. You could tell he was impressed earlier

"Ryuga, I'll cooperate with you on this investigation. My father has vouched that you're L."
He smiles, he had the expression of determination
"Also, I want to catch Kira and prove that I'm not him."

Soichiro laughed
"Light, soon you're going to have to study to enter the police force."

Light looks at him
"Dad, what are you talking about? I don't know how many years that'll take."

"I promised you, didn't l? If something happened to you I'd be the one to get Kira executed There's no way that my son can be Kira."
He then adjusts his tone to something a bit more serious

"Light, listen to me The fact of the matter is Kira is evil. But recently, I've been thinking about it in this way- The real evil is the power to kill people. People who attain that kind of power are unlucky No matter how you use it, nothing gained by killing people can bring true happiness."

Ryuzaki nods the same time you do

"If Kira is an ordinary person who gained this power, then he is a very unlucky person."
Ryuzaki, Ritsuko, I'm sorry for causing you two trouble. I'll try to recover quickly."

You smile
"Oh, it's no issue. Take your time."

At that moment a nurse walks in
"Excuse me visiting hours are now over."

You all exchanged your goodbyes and walked out of the room

"Is there any way that I can get you to believe that I'm not Kira?"
Light asked as you all walked down the halls of the hospital, side by side

"If you aren't Kira, there wouldn't be any need to do that."

"Ryuzaki..." You said as L was being a bit harsh, nudging him in the shoulder

"Cut that out! Think about how it feels to be accused of being Kira." Light exclaimed

"It feels horrible." He replied

Light then stopped in the middle of the hall, making you and L paused along with him
"How about keeping watch over me in a place without even TV for a month?" He asked.

You and L both exchanged confused expressions
"I can't do anything which would deprive you of basic human rights, and furthermore it's nonsense to take suggestions from the suspect."

To brighten the mood, you speak after Ryuzaki's harshness
"We'll know in time if you're not Kira."

"Oh, one more thing." Light added
"I said that I would cooperate with the investigation, but I don't think I can do anything until my father is well again."

"I understand."
"That's alright."
You and Ryuzaki both smiled as you both had spoken in unison