Tee hee another chapter! I might even write another one tomorrow!

I'm getting my hair lightened tomorrow as well. Hopefully there will be no more Orange haired Ellie.

Might be blonde this time? 😂

Anyways, enjoy!

(2986 words)

Btw it gets a bit intense(?) towards the end 😂
~~~

Well then, let's begin this meeting."

"Given that there's only seven of them, one of the eight must have.."
Light started to speak, but Ryuzaki was the one to finish it

"I suppose they've most likely...killed him."

The men gasped, looking down at Ryuzaki

This time, he had let you sit directly by him again, so you got to watch everything. No more boredom...for now

Why would Yotsuba kill one of their own...?

"In order to advance the Yotsuba Group's development further, whom should we kill?"
An older bald man with glasses said in his unsettlingly low voice

You widened your eyes, others gasping
"N-No way..."

Matsuda pointed to the screen
"See! It's exactly like I said!"

"But before that, there are a few things we meed to discuss. Firstly, we need to address Hatori's death."

"It was unavoidable. Besides, if i'm honest, i'm kind of relieved that Hatori's dead. Kira's clearly shown us what'll happen to those who try to leave group."
This man with long, black silky hair particularly gave you small chills down your spine. Something about him made you feel uneasy...

"I believe everyone here has understood the significance of Hatori's death; let this be a lesson to us all."

The men spoke to each other in such a chilling cold fashion about their former dead coworker...

"R-Ryuzaki..."
You tugged on his sleeve

He turned his attention to you
"Hm?"

"S-So does that mean they killed that man because he wanted to leave the group..?"

He nodded
"Unfortunate, isn't it? Sadly, there are very cruel people in this world. It's things like this that you can't control."

You felt Matsuda's hand on your shoulder, the other was on Ryuzaki's
"But we can bring them to justice! That's the most important thing!"

The raven sighed and turned back to screen
"Yes. That too."

"Next, Elrado Coil's report."

The man gasped again, including you. All confused, of course.

"One of their members has died and that's all they've got to say?!"
Chief scoffed

You couldn't blame him

"So, this report is what our $5 million paid for?"
Oh, this guy
You didn't like this guy. After seeing and hearing him speak, he unsettled you the most.
"He hasn't uncovered any vital information, such as L's face or name."

You smirked

Tee hee, you know both of those things

"Is this guy, Coil, really going to be of any use?"

You wonder...

Is L "working" with the Yotsuba group, or is it someone else doing the job of being Elrado Coil?

"At the end of the report, he warns us not to underestimate L's existence.. 'Given your current pace.. particularly the fact that the deaths which benefit the Yotsuba Group occur every Friday and Saturday..it's possible that L will connect this to Kira.'"

"To be able to figure this much out about us, Coil's a pretty capable guy in my book. At any rate, we need to reconsider our current plan of killing off people towards the end of each week."

Matsuda was ecstatic. He had been the reason of you being able to watch this after all. He concluded that theory first.
"T-This is incredible! The confessions just seem to keep coming!"

"Surely with all this recording, we'd be able to arrest all seven of them?"
Chief said, staring intensively at the screen as everyone was

"Kira's not being very versatile with this, huh? They should at least attempt to spread them out over the course of the week."

"I think that since Coil's realized this, it's going to be too risky to carry on killing at our own current pace. From now on, we've got to be more discreet and ensure no one else finds out about this."

"Mm, moving on to the main issue... Who should we kill?"

It feels wrong watching this..

You bit your lip as the others started speaking, reading off some papers
"The launch of E.L.F. Insurance in Japan.. if we don't stop that, then the Yotsuba Group, among other companies, will lose a lot of clients."

"Agreed." This bald guy freaks you out. Frankly, all of them do.. In their own freaky ways.
"So, with regards to E.L.F., shall we go with accidental deaths for those on this list?"
He asked

"No objections."
The entire table said in unison.

Freaky...

"What on Earth?! Just like that?!"
Light exclaimed with widened eyes

Ryuzaki started to pour chocolate into his bowl of whatever sweet thing you could find that you gave him earlier.

"Another target is the one who's opposing the Yotsuba Group's plans for a resort. Mr. Zenzai Santorou of the Kugisawa group. Zenzai suffers from high blood pressure, so we can specify a date for him to suffer a stroke. How's that?"

Ryuzaki held up a spoon with a chocolate covered candy on it

You bit your lip and tugged on his sleeve again, and he turned to you, holding out the spoon to you with a smile.

He knew you what you wanted

You smiled and took the candy off of the spoon, eating it as you listened.

"So we can specify a date for him to suffer a stroke. How's that?"

Ryuzaki took another spoonful and ate whatever it was

"No objections."
The men all agreed in unison. Ohh you hated that, it sounded like they were in a cult.

Light gasped and looked down at Ryuzaki who was eating candy as if he didn't care
"Kira, accidental death, death through illness, specifying exact times... It's exactly like we thought! There's no mistake about it!"

Ryuzaki responded calmly, mixing up the candy in his bowl
"No, unfortunately, until the said people actually die, we can't say that for sure.. From what these seven have disclosed at this meeting, as long as we closely monitor the actions of those seven until those mentioned at the meeting die.."

You widened your eyes at what Ryuzaki was doing

He had a tall wobbling stack of those candies on that spoon

"If we closely monitor these things from now on.. without a doubt, we'll catch Kira."

He opened his mouth to eat it, but-

"Ryuzaki!"

Light and Chief yelled, making Ryuzaki drop and spill his candy back into his bowl.

"What's the matter? No need to yell in unison.."

"I can't go along with your plan! It's wrong! It's apparent that you plan to allow those seven to continue killing in order to catch Kira, but I can't do that!"
Light exclaimed sternly, his father adding more flame to the fire

"He's right! The seven of them are clearly murdering people! Surely we can prove this with Matsuda's testimony and these video tapes?!"

Ryuzaki calmly put down his-

-HIS EMPTY BOWL?

H-HE HAD TO HAVE INHALED THAT-

"It's quite a dilemma.. If we do arrest them now, then everything we've worked for will be ruined."
How could Ryuzaki be so calm?

Before anyone could say anything else, they were interrupted by one of the men speaking

"So, we'll request Kira to kill the E.L.F. people in three weeks' time and Zenzai this weekend. How's that?"

"No objections."
Ugh ew, they keep doing that.

"This weekend?! There's no time left!"
Chief exclaimed in frustrated words, turning to Light
"Light, do you have the cell numbers for all seven?"

"Yeah."
Light nodded and grabbed a piece of paper, handing it to the Chief

He read off the paper
"It doesn't matter who, we need to contact one of them, and force them to call off the murders-!"

"Wait a minute, please."
Ryuzaki interrupted, turning to look at him
"If we do that, it'll mean they have been discovered just three days after Aiber got in contact with them. It'll look suspicious."

"Oh, is Aiber pretending to be Eraldo Coil?"

"He is."
He turned back around to face the screen.
"Most importantly, it's extremely likely that doing so would make it impossible for us to figure out who Kira is. After all this work, we'd be back at square one."

He takes a careful sip of his tea, and then sits it down on the table
"In order to catch Kira, we need to be able to prove that they're Kira."

Light looked as if he was thinking hardly, looking back at the screens
"Ryuzaki, if Kira really is one of those seven, is it fair to assume that if we call one of them, the chance of them being Kira is one in seven?"

Ryuzaki's cold, sharp eyes looked up at Light's
"I was thinking that there'd be two at most, so i'd say two out of seven."

Light put his hand on the table
"If we're already prepared for them to find out that they're being investigated, then it's worth betting on the two out of seven."

He paused
"I'm going to borrow the title "L", Ryuzaki"
He looked up at the screen
"Someone who looks unlikely to be Kira from the conversation, yet is still influential.. that would be-"

"Ooi!"

"Namikawa."

Matsuda and Ryuzaki both said at the same time, Ryuzaki being the correct one which left Matsuda a bit embarrassed.

"If you're going to call, use the phones in this building."
Ryuzaki pointed to the phone on the table.
"They can't be traced or tapped."

You scooted the phone over to Light, and he quickly typed in some numbers, and began the call

Oh shit, Light's gonna call one of the creepy guys

Which one?

As the men talked, you watched as one of the members took his phone out of his pocket. The scary one with the long black hair

Unconsciously, you were gripping onto Ryuzaki's sleeve as you watched, Ryuzaki smiled and didn't mind

Light started to speak, his voice was altered to the point where it was unrecognizable
"Is this the Director of the First Trade Department, Reiji Namikawa?"

"...Yes. That's right."

"Please give out natural responses while listening to me.. I am L."

You could see the man widen his eyes on the screen

"Cameras and bugging equipment have been set up in that meeting room. The entire meeting have been recorded by us. You began talking about Hatori's and then went on to discuss whom you should kill...am I right?"

You bit your lip

"If you're not Kira negotiating directly with them, I can make a deal with you. Postpone the murders of the E.L.F. President and Mr. Zenzai by a month. I doubt that will prove too difficult for you

"I see..and then?

"If you do this and cooperate with us from now on, you will- no.. in fact, all of you except Kira will be considered as having attended these meetings under duress, and you will not be charged."

"Oh, really.."

Light looked so focused, perhaps the most you've seen him
"If you tell people about this phone call, it'll just call panic. It'll do you no favors and you'll all be caught. However, my aim is to go head to head with Kira. Listen carefully... if L beats Kira, you won't be charged; if Kira beats L, you get to continue your affluent life."

Just watching and listening, you were stressed out.

Your grip on Ryuzaki's sleeve got tighter, and he put his hand over yours. Light was too focused to turn around.

"You should just play along with both sides and see what happens. L, Kira, whoever wins, you can't lose. The only way for you to lose.. is f you're caught right now...well then?"

The man sighed
"Fine, on Monday."
He hung up

Everybody sighed after he did so

"What is it, Namikawa? Who was it?"

He closed his phone and put it back into his pocket
"One of my men messed up, i'll have to deal with it on Monday. Sorry for the interruption, let's get back on topic.."

Finally after much more discussing, the meeting finally ended..

It was starting to get boring..

"It seems to have worked.."
Ryuzaki said, watching as the men got up from their seats

"Yeah.."

"Light, you really are amazing... Not only did you manage to postpone the killings, we might even be able to obtain information off of Namikawa.. Your methods are similar to mine and you managed to think of this before I did."

You'd never thought you would hear these words come from Ryuzaki

He continued
"In that case... If I die, you may be able to carry on the name of 'L'."

You widened your eyes, turning to Ryuzaki

"What are you talking about!?" Light exclaimed
"We have a month to deduce who Kira is and find the proof. The challenge begins now."

"Yes.." Ryuzaki held two papers up in front of him
"However, since you were the first to notice the Yotsuba Group, it's fair to say that you may be more capable than I.. It's possible that you may be able to handle it, Light."

"Ryuzaki..."
You didn't like it when he talked about his stuff

Without caring about Light watching, Ryuzaki put a reassuring hand on your shoulder

"If I were to die, would you succeed me as L?"
He asked Light, making the boy gasp. He was taken aback.

"What are you talking about, Ryuzaki?! As long as we're wearing these, we'll die together!"
Light held up his chain, but then paused
"Oh, I get it.."

Huh?..

"I'm sorry, Ryuzaki, but i'm going to have to tell everyone what you were actually thinking."

......huh?????

"Ryuzaki's thinking that if I were Kira, then either I still am Kira right now and just pretending otherwise, or Kira's powers have passed to someone else, and right now I have no recollection of being Kira. Those are two patterns.. If it is the former and I am just acting, then he can never take these handcuffs off."

For the love of god please don't let it be the former

"-No, even if I wasn't acting he probably wouldn't remove the handcuffs."

No!!!!

"- He's thinking that I was Kira, and even though that power may have passed to someone else, I might have set things up so that the power will return to me. Basically... It's not that I was simply being manipulated.. Rather, I may have transferred the power to someone, and have planned to regain it once the suspicions against me had lifted."

Ryuzaki stayed quiet, his eyes never leaving his screen

"....Correct."
The word emitted from his mouth softly

"To gain the same status as L and be in a position to even manipulate the police.. while secretly being Kira... I'd be invincible.."

Wow.. was Light really correct?.. How could he have figured that out...?

"-And you think that i'm capable of achieving this.. no, in fact you're saying I would do this.."

Ryuzaki quietly responded
"...Yes."

"But what do you think now? If nothing else, you must have realized that i'm not acting, right?"

"....You mean that if you were putting on an act to take my position.. you wouldn't be revealing your plan to everyone, am I right?"

Light bit his lip and put his hand on Ryuzaki's shoulder, turning him around

You watch as Light got down on his knees with both if his hands on either of Ryuzaki's shoulders
"...Do you actually think that after catching the current Kira, i'd go on to become Kira? A murder? Do you really see me as that type of person?!"

Ryuzaki responded in a cold tone
"That's correct."

For a cold, silent moment, everything seemed to be still but

Everything happened so suddenly

Your eyes widened in fear

Light threw a hard punch to Ryuzaki's face, and Ryuzaki pushed Light's face away with his foot

stop stop stop

You closed your eyes shut, placing a hand over your head as your vision became blurry

Smashing...

no..

And

Screaming

Stop it..

And

Smashing

STOP IT!!!

Glass

Everywhere

Blood

Everywhere

Mother

Mother

DON'T-DONT HURT ME!!!

Mother

Blood

Mother

IM SORRY!!!

SMASH!

Mother

Glass

Mother

brother...

Mother

Mother

Mo-

"St-Stop it! What's wrong with you two!?"
You yelled, trembling hard, pushing the two away from each other. Everyone's attention was now on you.
"Why can't you both control your temper and take it like the adult intellectuals you are!?"

Nobody had heard you get this loud before, you snapped. You had enough.

You bit your lip, tears filling your eyes as you looked down, breathing hardly

Ryuzaki and Light looked down as well

"Ritsuko... I-I apologize.."
Ryuzaki got up, putting a hand on your shoulder, feeling you tremble under his touch.
His eyes softened the second he saw the look on your face.

The flashbacks were too much...

You would never know how much it tore him apart when you're clearly upset and he can't physically comfort you, hold you, kiss you, and tell you it was going to be okay..
It destroyed him.

Light looked up, putting his hands in his pockets
"I'm sorry too.. and you're completely right.. For now, we've got to catch the Kira that's right in front of us.. as long as we have the handcuffs, we shouldn't have complaints.."
He held up his handcuff

Ryuzaki sighed, his eyes never leaving yours
"You're right.. we've only got a month left.."

Matsuda put an arm around your trembling shoulders
"I-I think Ritsuko needs a break..."

Ryuzaki grit his teeth as he watched Matsuda take you down the hall to the bathroom as you cried, looking down

To be continued...

cliffhanger much? ;)

What's Matsuda gonna do?

How's Ryuzaki going to react?

Tell me what you think in the comments :P

~💜~
Luv u <3