Archive of Our Own ^beta

'Life is so boring.'

This sentiment was just one of many things, the two Yagami siblings had in common. Which was funny, both because most people thought them rather different from each other and because the two of them always seemed busy with something.

Sayu and Light had always been close. She couldn't remember a time, when they hadn't gotten along, unlike many other siblings, and didn't want to imagine life without him. Most people looked at studious, perfect model-citizen Light and energetic, carefree happy-go-lucky Sayu and thought them almost total opposites. But in truth, they shared many traits. They were both curious, had a mischievous streak, hated being idle, and more.

But the most important thing they shared was boredom. When they were younger, the world had still seemed large and full of adventure, but upon growing older, Sayu and Light had realized, life wasn't what they had hoped for. There were too many restrictions and rules and social obligations, which narrowed down their dreams and caged their free spirits.

So they had tried their hardest, to keep life interesting. Light, always eager to learn, threw himself into academics and studying. Sayu, a bit less of a loner, tried almost any hobby and activity she could find. Anything to keep the boredom at bay. But no matter, what they tried, life still felt so painfully boring.

At first, they had thought everyone felt that way, but meeting more people soon cured them of that misconception. After any adults, they had talked to about their feelings hadn't reacted favourably, Light and Sayu started to pretend to "grow out of it" and faked interest in their respective ways of passing the time. Only their mother tried to understand and encouraged them to find something that would spark their interest for real.

"Do you think there's something wrong with us?" Sayu had wondered one day, sitting in Light's room, talking about anything and everything. Light had hummed in thought, taking his time answering, as he always did, trying hard to sound smart like an adult. "I don't think so. It's not unusual for people our age to express a feeling of boredom. Perhaps most humans are simply too easy to satisfy. There must be others, who also bore of this structured pre-determined path we call life." Sayu had really hoped her brother was right. He usually was. "Hopefully. I don't want to live in a world of NPC's forever."

Light had laughed at that. "You're calling everyone else NPC's now?" She had huffed in mock offense and put on her best lecture voice, obviously copying him. "Well, it is a fitting label. They act inside their limited boundaries, never wondering what's beyond, never yearning to break the pattern and be more. They don't have our drive to truly live, our desire to choose a different way and not just repeat the same cycle over and over and over again. How does it not drive them crazy?"

Light had no longer smiled after that. He had sat down next to her and knocked his shoulder against hers. "It won't always be like this. One day, we'll either find other people like us or a way to make life interesting again." His voice had been soft and encouraging, though Sayu often wondered, if he truly believed that, or only said it, to make her feel better.

Life went on either way, with short moments of excitement, usually about something new, always eventually followed by boredom again, their hope slowly dwindling. Sayu thought about traveling the world, in order to meet new people and hopefully find that Something, which would bring, at last, true lasting excitement to their lives. Light also liked that idea and hoped, that they would find like-minded individuals.

In the end, Sayu didn't have to leave Japan, to find excitement. The certain Something came to her in the form of a black notebook, her brother had found at school. "I don't even really know why I picked it up. It looked interesting I guess, but it's clearly someone's idea of a prank or some odd art project. I don't want it. Do you have any use for it, maybe one of your collages?"

Not knowing the importance of the object or the words spoken, she accepted it, liking the style of the notebook. She had to translate a few of the words and agreed with her brother's assessment. It was most likely a prank or an art project, a well-made one though. She put it with her other creative supplies and forgot about it. Until a few days later... .

"Hey there." Sayu turned around in shock, eyes flitting around her room, until they landed on... a monster. She let out light scream and jumped back. Sayu grabbed a pair of scissors and a freshly sharpened pencil and pointed them at the whatever-it-was. "Who are you? How'd you get in here?" The monster just laughed in a loud and deep way. "Whoa, calm down, little fighter. I'm not here to hurt you. I came because of my death note." It, he? pointed at the notebook, she had totally forgotten about.

Sayu carefully put down her makeshift weapons and picked up the book. "So this is yours?" The thing made a sound, somewhat like a chuckle and said "Eh, not exactly. Kinda borrowed it, hyuk. But I dropped it and you have it now, so here I am. Have ya used it yet?" She only shook her head. "Aww man, and I even wrote in the rules in your most common language and everything." Sayu blinked and then asked in disbelief "You're saying, you can actually kill people with this? It's not a joke?"

"A joke, hyuk? No, this is the real deal. I'm a shinigami, we use those things to kill humans too." A god of death? Maybe this was a dream. Had she fallen asleep at her desk again? Sayu pinched herself to check. Ouch. Okay, not a dream, then. Now what to do? Killing people with a magic notebook hadn't been on her bingo card for relieving boredom. Perhaps the death note could be used for something else as well.

No. The death note served only the purpose of killing humans. Bummer. The shinigami, that came with it though... . "So no one, except me can see and hear you, unless they touch the death note, you can go through walls and are able to interact with things?" Sayu asked with a mischievous glint in her eyes. There turned out to be far more rules, than the few Ryuk had written inside the note. He had been willing to share some in exchange for apples. "Yep. Dropped the death note here for some entertainment. So whatever you do with it, just don't be boring, hyuk." Sayu gave him a bright grin. "Oh, don't you worry. This will be interesting. After all, boredom is the enemy."

**

Ryuk was an exhilarating addition to her life. With his help, Sayu carried out tons of pranks at school and cheated at all types of tests. Ryuk was also an absolute gossip and devoured all the teenage drama with joy. He also was surprisingly helpful with some of her homework, like history, because he had watched many events from his realm out of boredom and foreign languages, because gods of death knew all of the human ones, although she had to bribe him with apples and promises of playing video games together, in order for him to help. (They had a fierce score keeping, especially when it came to Mario Party.)

His love for apples motivated Sayu to try her hand at different recipes, containing the fruit and Ryuk would then give his opinion, like on one of those cooking or baking shows they sometimes watched. (His favourite so far had been an apple cake, though too much sugar made him move so fast, he blurred and his least favourite a smoothie.) They actually watched a lot of shows together, mostly cartoons and anime. Sayu loved action and mystery, while Ryuk was a fan of tragedies and dramas. (Neither of them cared much for the romance genre on its own.) They both loved watching comedies for the fun of it and horror movies to mock them.

Somewhere along the line, Sayu started to think of him as a friend. She didn't know, how he saw her, but he had once said "You're alright, kid." and she counted that as a win."I can't believe your realm is so depressing. Have you ever thought about trying to do something about it, like try to copy some of what we have here?" Sayu wondered, while doodling in one of her art books. Ryuk hummed distractedly, mashing buttons on her DS. "I mean, yeah. The place is a bust, but I don't know if human things like electricity would even work there, y'know?"

They had talks about pretty much anything. The boredom of life/existence, complaining about their realms, heated debates about pieces of media. Once, Ryuk had asked her why she didn't use the death note, as most humans tried it at least once. "I don't trust myself with that power. I told you about Light's and my problems with boredom, which is also why I'm not telling him about it. What could be more interesting than a power over life and death? If we used it once, we would never stop. We would keep trying to find more interesting ways to use it. It would consume us and probably destroy us. I would never forgive myself for doing that to Light," she had answered seriously.

At first, she had wanted to share her new discovery with Light of course, but her brother admired their father and echoed his views of justice. Sayu and Light had had some debates in the past about justice, morality and the like. It was one of the fewer things, they didn't quite see eye to eye on, Light having some more severe views than her on the law. If he had the power of the death note... . No, she couldn't risk that. Sayu herself had been tempted more than once. How easy it would be to rid the world of some horrible monsters in human form with no worries about getting caught.

Instead she had stashed the death note in her hiding place with her other secret stuff, she didn't want anyone to see.

And then criminals started to die because of heart attacks.

**

"Well, looks like there's another death note around. And whoever has it, certainly makes a use of it. I wonder what they think about the name Kira, it's not the height of creativity, but it could be worse, I guess," Sayu said, scrolling through the internet. Everyone was talking about Kira these days, it had sparked many debates and arguments about good and bad, right and wrong. "At least it gives Light a new thing to focus on." Her brother was just the tiniest bit obsessed with the whole thing.

They both pretended in front of their law enforcement father, but privately talked about their honest opinions on the matter. Light and Sayu thought the death of criminals wasn't exactly a bad thing, but agreed, that one person, having such power could become dangerous. "If it is actually a single person and not a group or some organization," Light had remarked. "Ooh, or some super secret virus or human experimentation gone wrong!" Sayu had thrown in, ignoring Ryuk's snort. Light had just given her a look. "You spend too much time on social media reading conspiracy theories."

On a day, seemingly like any other, Light suddenly called Sayu into his room. Together they watched a broadcast of someone claiming to be L, the infamous detective, who solved any case, no matter how difficult. "I can't believe, he would actually show himself on camera like that. He's smarter than that. This has to be fake or a trap," her brother said, huffing. Unsurprisingly, Light also had a (not so) small obsession with L. One of his potential future careers was law enforcement, like their father and Light saw L as both someone, he admired and wanted to beat.

Sayu looked at Ryuk, who was chuckling in amusement, but knowing the god of death, that could mean anything. To her disappointment, nothing actually happened. The person, who was probably not L, only challenged Kira and gave a little speech. It was the following day, when things got interesting. "Apparently the broadcast wasn't actually worldwide, but shown in different locations at different times. And during one of them, the guy, who wasn't L, just like I said, had a heart attack and died! Kira is in Japan, can you believe it?" Light seemed to almost vibrate with excitement.

That excitement died, when their father announced, that he was joining a taskforce, working with L to apprehend Kira. "Dad, you could die! We don't know how Kira kills these people. You can't put yourself in danger like this!" Light exclaimed in protest. But Dad wouldn't change his mind. Sayu felt dread pool in her stomach. She had played with the idea of looking for this fellow death note owner, but had been worried, they might be too dangerous. "Looks like I have no choice now. I'm not gonna let Dad get hurt."

Ryuk munched on an apple and looked at her curiously. "And how are you planning to find this Kira?" Sayu smiled and booted up her computer. "The internet is going to be our friend. There are tons of forums and fan pages for pro-Kira people. We know Kira is in Japan, both because of the broadcast and because a lot of the first victims were japanese. Light thinks they are probably a teenager or younger adult with some strong passion for justice or vengeance."

"Like that Batman guy from those comics!" Ryuk laughed. Sayu blinked. "Huh. I mean, kinda? There's some similarities, I guess." She shook her head. "Anyway. I don't think most older people would pick up a death note, seeing as it looks like some emo gothic teen's dream. And it doesn't have the english rules in it, so either the person discovered the use of it by accident or their shinigami told them and they decided why not."

"Uh huh. So far makes sense. So you're hoping they check those fan sites too? Even if they do, ya can hardly write "Hey Kira, wanna meet and talk about our death notes?" Well I mean ya could, but they'd probably not be happy about you shouting about their secret weapon like that, hyuk." She smirked at that. "True, but you're closer than you think. There are a lot of meetings between Kira fans, that are organized on these sites. I only need to put in some kind of code, that a fellow death note owner would understand and then we could meet there. I'm definitely wearing a disguise though. Can't be linked to Kira supporters as a cop's daughter or in general."

Sayu thought of multiple codes, that would be obvious enough for a fellow death note user to recognize, but not too revealing to anyone else. In the end she settled on the following, hidden in between the usual lines of justice and worship "Bring your pens and notebooks and let's discuss the betterment of our world and how we can help Kira succeed. May our saviour Kira and the gods of death smile upon us."

"Not half bad. But you think they will show up? Maybe they won't be interested in meeting," Ryuk said, glancing at Sayu, posting the invite on multiple websites and fan pages. She sighed. "There is a chance, but I've made it clear, I support them, though I guess it could be seen as a trap. But who would believe a story about magical killer notebooks? If they actually got arrested, they could just give up ownership and lose their memories and then there would be nothing linking them to the murders. But someone in support of them and with another death note? I would be a great ally and if they're smart they'll realize that."

Now all she had to do was wait.

**

"Would you recognize me?" Sayu looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was hidden under a hat, her eyes were shielded by sunglasses and she wore a mask. She wore clothes, which were appropriate for the weather and nondescript. Nothing that would make anyone look twice. "Maybe I should have bought a wig after all. But the good ones are all so expensive." Ryuk waved his hand, impatient. "Nah, it's fine. Come on, let's go." She took a deep breath and left.

The meeting area was a large park, in a city, easily accessible from all sides. "You see another shinigami yet?" she whispered. Thanks to the mask, no one would see her lips move, but she still needed to be sure nobody overheard her. "Nope." Sayu fiddled with her bag, she had brought a scrap of paper from the death note with her, so the other would be able to see Ryuk. 'Mutual trust. If we can both see each others shinigami and know each others name and face it's mutually assured destruction.'

"I see 'em! Oh, crap it's Rem!" Ryuk exclaimed suddenly. Sayu turned to where he pointed. "Is that bad? Should we leave?" Ryuk shook his head. "No, she's just kinda a stick in the mud, sometimes. Way too serious, y'know?" She didn't know how to feel about that. Well, it was too late now. Someone was already approaching her.

"Hi there! I believe you wanted to meet me?" a female voice sounded out cheerfully. It belonged to a girl, maybe a few years older than her, with short brown hair and glasses, wearing a school uniform. 'Not some older creep or weirdo so far. That's good.' Sayu thought and sighed in relief internally. "Yeah, I did. Want to go somewhere else and get to know each other?" The other girl smiled. "Sure!"

They went to get some drinks at a coffee shop and found a quiet place in the park to sit down and talk. "So, wanna get the obvious out of the way and compare notebooks?" the other girl asked. Sayu nodded and pulled out her scrap of paper. "Security reasons." She shrugged. The other pulled out a death note, looking exactly like her own. They both touched the book and paper respectively and suddenly beside the girl was a shinigami, as tall as Ryuk, but white with purple tipped hair.

"Hey, name's Ryuk." He gave a wave. The other shinigami introduced herself with "I'm Rem." She did indeed seem rather serious next to Ryuk. "Hiiiii! Nice to meet you, Ryuk. Should we introduce ourselves now? I see you took some effort to hide your name. Did you make the eye deal?" Sayu shook her head. "No, I just didn't want to be recognized by anyone. Did you make the deal?" The older girl smiled. "Yep. It's been super useful. If we're gonna work together, I think we should know each other's name and face. Like a trust exercise."

'She may have phrased it like that, but she knows it will mean mutually assured destruction.' Sayu smiled and agreed. They both took their disguises off. The other girl had actually worn a wig and apparently fake glasses. 'Wait, I know that face... .' Sayu gasped in surprise. "You're Misa Amane!" Amane smiled and looked above Sayu's head. "Sure am. And you're... Sayu Yagami? Is that right?"

"Yes. Damn, I didn't expect Misa Misa to be Kira. Well, the police probably won't either, so that's good. We should probably put our disguises back on, just in case." They quickly did that and exchanged some smalltalk. It turned out Amane "Call me Misa" had watched her parents being killed by a robber during a home invasion, only a year ago. "But the trial still dragged on, despite that and some people thought he was falsely accused. There were murmurs of him going to be acquitted. So when Rem gave me the death note, I took care of it myself. During the trial, I read about many cases, where justice also wasn't delivered and I thought, if the law won't punish those criminals and give their victims peace, then I will! I can do good this way. The whole Kira thing was a little unexpected, but I don't mind. I made so many people happy."

Misa was shocked, when Sayu revealed, that she actually hadn't used the death note, but she seemed to understand, when Sayu told her her reasons. "I would have also been hesitant about using it, but I was so angry and after that, since I'm already not going to be able to go to heaven or hell, I decided, I may as well use it to do some good. I was also attacked by a stalker a while ago. Rem told me, that another shinigami saved me by killing the stalker, but because shinigami aren't allowed to kill a human, in order to save another, he died because of that. This death note was his. My life was saved and now I'm going to save others by making the world saver." Her smile became sad for a moment, before she shook her head and looked cheerful again. 'After all that, she still smiles. It must be hard. She isn't what I thought Kira would be like. I think, I want to help her.' "Dying for love. It's like from a romance novel." Misa sighed. Sayu nodded and filed that information away for later.

"I may not be able to help with my death note, but I have a different way of assisting." Now, to phrase this carefully. "There is a taskforce, that has been established to catch Kira, led by L. I have a close connection to one of the members. I can inform you about what they know, if you promise not to hurt any of them in return." After thinking it over, Misa agreed to the proposed deal, the only adjustment being, that she could kill L, should they find out his name and face. "L is fair game. He could figure Kira out, or the fact, that there's a spy. Without him, maybe they'll dissolve the taskforce and even if not, he's the biggest threat," Sayu agreed.

They discussed some ideas for how to improve use of the death note and avoid any missteps. Misa was already writing down names in advance, with fixed times of death, in case she got too busy or sick. They decided on which types of criminals to punish. Sayu managed to talk Misa down from killing any and all types of criminals or any bystanders to send a message. (While Misa was mostly sweet, she could be a bit ruthless in some circumstances. Very 'For the greater Good' vibes.) They worked out, what types of crimes to punish and brainstormed ways to improve efficiency.

Misa and Sayu would both do research on criminals internationally and confirm, that they were guilty. They would also try to get the Kira fans and followers to help with the research. "Kira fans come from all kinds of lives and there are for sure people among them, who have access to files and records. We need to make use of that. Then it won't be as suspicious, when I sometimes look for criminals in the files of my inside person."

Just in case, they also came up with a plan, for if the taskforce came too close. Giving up ownership and losing her memories would certainly be helpful, but Misa would have to make the eye deal again, upon regaining ownership, which would cut her lifespan in half again. So they decided on Sayu having a secret stack of death note pages, which she would give to a trusted Kira follower, who would get instructions on how to continue with the punishing of criminals. "Even if they arrest you, with the killings continuing and no substantial evidence linking you to the deaths, they can't put you on trial."

Which meant, they would have to go to more meetings (in disguises, of course) and find dedicated followers, who could be trusted to carry out Kira's will and not fail or slip up. Ryuk would check the rule-book in the shinigami realm for any helpful rules (in exchange for more delicious apple pies). Misa's work as a model sometimes took her to different countries, so she would search for more trusted followers there as well. "If Kira looks more like an organization than a single person, that could help us confuse them, makes it more difficult to track Kira down, but more people mean more risks as well. We'll have to be careful," Misa thought out loud.

"Yeah, the international fan websites are going to be a big asset. People worldwide researching criminals and sharing information is going to be really helpful, but we'll also have to double-check a lot. Having reliable sources in different countries would be a relief," Sayu muttered, deep in thought. 'Light would figure out a way, but I can't involve him in this. Or, actually I could, I will just have to be really careful about it.'

Time flew by quickly and Sayu and Misa exchanged numbers before leaving. 'This certainly could have gone worse.' Sayu thought with a yawn.

**

Over the next few months, Sayu and Misa kept meeting, discussing research, plans and business and after that they hung out together. They went shopping, watched movies, tried all types of food, talked about life, discussed shows they both liked or played games together (often joined by Ryuk and sometimes by Rem). Slowly, they became friends. Sayu admitted, that her contact was actually her father and Misa in turn, told her a bit about her parents.

L proved to be a threat, that was worth keeping an eye on. "Ryuk informed me, that I'm being followed. So we have to make sure to look extra innocent and boring." It was a good thing Misa always wore a disguise, so that she wouldn't be recognized and mobbed by fans. "Do you want me to get rid of them?" Misa offered, taking a bite of her ice cream and smiling innocently. "No, thank you. It's best to do nothing and avoid suspicion. Show L I'm just a normal boring girl. Nothing to see here. It's still annoying though." Sayu groaned. "I know. Stalkers are the worst," said the mass murderer, giving her accomplice a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

After the stalker had finally left, Sayu decided to take some security precautions and with Misa's help and money got herself a device, she installed in her room, which would send an alarm to her phone, every time someone entered or left her room. "Light and I usually talk in his room and he's mostly home when I am. Dad practically never enters my room and Mom only goes in sometimes to clean a little. And I can simply ask her, if she was in my room."

And indeed, the device paid off, only a short time after she had installed it. When Sayu got a notification during school hours, she knew it couldn't be Light, since he was at school too and Dad at work, which only left her mom. So when she got home, Sayu asked her mom, if she had been in her room that day, because Sayu was planning to clean a little. She also had asked Ryuk to check her room for anything suspicious.

"Cameras all over the house! Can you believe it? Part of me thought I was being a little paranoid, but when Mom said, she hadn't been in my room I got a little worried. And then Ryuk tells me there's cameras hidden in my room. The whole damn house actually! No way is that legal!" Sayu ranted angrily, while they were strolling by a river, well out of earshot of other passersby. "And now I can't eat any apples inside the house. It's the worst," Ryuk complained. Sayu had promised to bake him a rather complicated recipe after the cameras were gone as thanks for his help in checking her room. It was that promise, which was currently helping him make it through these trying times, only being able to eat a few apples, when they were out, instead of home cooked goods. He was getting spoiled.

"That L is the worst, truly." Misa pouted, kicking a pebble in the river. Sayu sighed. "I wonder, if he knows someone has access to police files. Or maybe he checks all taskforce members. He seems paranoid like that. Oh well, time to play boring again. It's honestly easier than it should be, but next to Light, anyone looks boring. As long as L doesn't start to think, that he is Kira. That would be annoying."

Misa, upon seeing a picture of Light, had immediately asked, if he was single, but Sayu had told her how Light hadn't expressed interest in a single human being like that ever. Nor her for that matter. "Guess our issues with boredom extends to people. It's for the best, if he's unaware, that we know each other. He's smart, wouldn't want him to figure anything out." Misa had sighed in wistful disappointment, but ultimately accepted that. It also helped, that Rem clearly had a thing for Misa. "I've seen the way she looks at you. She totally loves you." Sayu knew that gender wasn't an issue for Misa after she had told her "I'm a model. Of course, I've fooled around with both girls and guys alike." The shinigami thing also didn't seem to be a problem. Since then, Sayu had watched Misa and Rem slowly circling around each other. (Sayu and Ryuk had a running bet on how long it would take them to start dating. Misa would for sure make the first move, they agreed on that.)

Misa laughed. "Yeah, that would be a bit awkward. But how would he even have time for that? Isn't your brother busy with studying for college entrance exams?" Sayu groaned in mock suffering. "Yep. Studies all day long. As if he didn't place first in the mock exams. Honestly."

Soon, the cameras were gone and Ryuk got his edible reward and continued to zoom around the house for the rest of the day and some of the following, causing Sayu to laugh herself silly. Light aced his entrance exams, to the surprise of no one. What did come as a surprise, was the weird gremlin looking guy, who also had gotten the top spot and held the speech together with Light. 'No way, is this guy's name Hideki Ryuga.' Her thoughts were proven right, when Light later told her, that the weirdo had told him he was L and that he wanted Light to join his taskforce.

"He was right there and I didn't take a picture for you to look at! But Light joining the taskforce is great. I can get all the info, that isn't in Dad's files from him. Maybe I can show up at the college and snap a picture of L. But I don't know, when he's gonna be there. But if he dies so soon after introducing himself to him, that could cast suspicion on Light. Ugh." Sayu paced back and forth, tugging at her hair, while thinking.

"I could disguise myself and visit the college, when L is there. I only need to look at him to know his name. Then I can write his name down somewhere, so I won't forget and I'm sure I'll remember his face. Then we can kill him whenever we want in the future," Misa pondered out loud. Sayu stopped pacing. "That's genius! I'll ask Light discreetly about the weird guy claiming to be L and find out, when he's at the college. It'll be the ace up our sleeve!" The two girls cheered and in celebration bought themselves some high calories sweets. (Apple flavour sweets for Ryuk and sour stuff for Rem. It turned out, that while Ryuk loved all things sweet or apple flavoured, Rem preferred anything sour or salty. "Just like her personality," Ryuk had remarked, which Rem had heard. Ryuk had then hidden from her for the rest of the day.)

**

The opportunity to figure out L's real name presented itself sooner than they had hoped. Light texted Sayu, that the detective had challenged him to a 'friendly' tennis match. Knowing Light and what she had heard so far of L, Sayu knew it would be anything but friendly. A polite war and mental chess match between two dramatic smart-asses more like. So she in turn texted Misa and gave her the go ahead. 'She did it! I can't wait till our next meeting!'

"No. You're pulling my leg. His name can't actually be the letter L. I don't believe that." Sayu shook her head in denial. Misa put the slip of paper back into her pocket. "It is, I swear it! Rem saw it too. That poor guy. Although that makes his title extremely ironic. No one would guess that. It's like that Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale." Sayu snorted in agreement. "Like that Beyond Birthday dude. Who names their kids something like that? Or do you think they had their names legally changed? I honestly wouldn't be surprised."

"Yeah. But L didn't look at all like I thought he would. The guy looks almost homeless. Do you think it's on purpose, so that people underestimate him?" Misa wrinkled her nose. "You know, I never thought about that, but it would make a lot of sense." Sayu tilted her head in contemplation. Misa always played the ditzy blonde (though her hair was dyed, obviously and she wore blue contacts), Sayu pretended to be a cheerful and innocent teen girl and Light had his charming and kind persona. "Hmm. Yeah, we all hide behind facades, don't we?"

"Oh, one of my travelers found another possible candidate for Spain! I think we can enter phase 3 of our plan soon!" Misa exclaimed in joy.

Sayu was extremely proud of their plan. Playing all those strategy games with Ryuk finally paid off. (Take that stupid Calculus and Algebra. Who needs you now?) Misa and Sayu went to Kira supporter meetings in disguise and under false names and scouted for useful and trustworthy followers. Especially important were those, who often visited other countries. Recruiting them was Phase 1. Sayu and Misa pretended to be only one link in a long chain, going up all the way to Kira. Which was the reason for the secrecy.

Phase 2 was the chosen follower, called the traveler, going to other countries and finding Kira followers there, who were dedicated to the point of being willing to sacrifice themselves for the cause and had some form of connection to law enforcement. The traveler would visit those contacts and give them instructions to research criminals of their country. They had different travelers for different countries and were hoping to eventually have someone in every country.

Which brought them to Phase 3. The contacts had the responsibility to research guilty criminals from their country especially, but also a few from others, who had committed any of Misa and Sayu's agreed upon crimes, that were punished by Kira. The contact would then write down what they found on those criminals in english, so there wouldn't be a mess of translating (including their name and picture) and put that information in an envelope, which upon the next meeting, they would give to the traveler, who would bring it back to Japan. Everything would be hand written and not printed out, except for the picture. Less evidence to trace. The meetings would be scheduled via burner phone. (At first, they had thought to give the contacts pages of the death note and order them to write down the names while looking at pictures of their faces, and then burn the pages, but so many death note pages in the world, unsupervised, posed a significant risk. There was the possibility of a contact slipping in an innocent whom they had a grudge against, a contact actually figuring out the power of the pages, the contact accidentally seeing the shinigami whose death note pages they've touched(Misa and Rem traveled a lot and Sayu went on vacation with Ryuk by her side), or gods forbid, L somehow getting his hands on a page. And it made them feel better to double check the criminals before getting rid of them.)

Should the contact be compromised, they would send out an alert to their traveler via burner phone, which they should always carry with them, who in turn would alert Sayu or Misa. The contact would get a lawyer and not say anything. Simply researching criminals wasn't a crime and there was no proof the contact had done anything illegal with that information. The contacts were all made aware of the fact, that not even L should not be able to link them to any crime and that they simply had to say nothing and do nothing, letting their lawyer do the talking. Their assigned traveler would watch over the case and once the contact was released they would live life as if nothing had ever happened. (This was also why they made sure the contacts were willing to sacrifice themselves for the cause. Someone cutting a deal with L was out of the question.) They would wait a bit, before the traveler would find new candidates to replace the old contact in that country. The contact would only know their traveler under a false name and disguise, so they wouldn't accidentally recognize them in public. (They were still looking for any uses for dedicated followers here in Japan, who didn't leave the country.)

At first, Misa had proposed killing the contacts, should they be compromised, because, even with the fake name and disguise, their travelers were still obviously japanese and if a contact talked, L could check regular flights to that specific country to find that traveler. And their travelers were not expendable, as there were only a certain number of them, who fulfilled the requirements. In the end Sayu had come up with the alternative, recruiting only people, willing to fall onto the sword so to speak, ready to serve jail time, should L abuse his authority and throw them in prison anyway, even if that made finding contacts more difficult. "Perhaps we could find a contact, who has international access to criminal files."

To add to that, they decided to do the cleansing of criminals at random times, and a random amount of them at once. They didn't want to give away when their contacts and travelers met and in case Misa was ever unable to write down names for some reason, so there were stretches of time were no one died, only a single person per week or month, or a dozen criminals an hour. (A substantial amount of Kira followers were in some way related to law enforcement, or knew people who were, which made their plan much easier.) They had decided on the information being written down on paper instead of online and transported via encrypted email, because they didn't want to risk the digital paper trail and actual paper was much easier to get rid of.

While Sayu and Misa had devised the plan, Ryuk and Rem had checked the rule book for any help. (It wasn't allowed for the rule book to be delivered to humans.) There were some interesting ones, like the one, that stated you couldn't kill any human with less than 12 minutes left to live. Sayu would actually not lose her memories, if she gave up or lost her death note, because she had never used it to kill anyone. "Huh. Nice." She would however no longer be able to see or hear Ryuk. "Ah, crap." It was also helpful to know, that if the same name should be written down in more than two death notes, the one, which had the name written in first would take effect, no matter the time of death. (Unless the time difference was within .06 seconds, in which case, it would be regarded as simultaneous and the person would not die. "Doesn't say you can't just try again though.")

"According to this rule, Misa, you now have an eyesight of over 3.6, because of the eyes. That's awesome!"
"The death note will be useless, if you misspell a person's name four time. Better be careful."
"You can't kill anyone who is 124 or older. If they made it that far, they kinda deserve it."
"The pages will never run out, great."

"Well, fingers crossed, Phase 3 is gonna work out as well as 1 and 2," Sayu said with a wry smile.

**

Phase 3 was an absolute success. No contact had been anywhere close to becoming compromised so far. Sayu heard from Light all about L and his confusion about Kira's changes. He had already caught on to the fact, that there were multiple people at work, most likely in different countries, but for now that was it.

"You know, bro, when I said you should get a hobby, joining a taskforce, hunting a mysterious killer wasn't what I meant," Sayu said playfully, giving Light a mock reproachful look. He only laughed. "I'm sure, but I really like it. Even though L is as confusing as he is irritating. He told me I'm his first friend." Sayu frowned. "After he told you a while ago, that he suspects you of being the killer you're both hunting?"

"Yeah. Maybe it's something like keeping your enemies closer. Shame, he stopped going to college, but exposing himself like that was just too dangerous. ('Too late for that.' Sayu thought with a hidden grin.) Still, I think this is the longest I've actually not been bored. Do other people always feel like this?" Wonder shone in his voice. "I noticed and I'm really happy for you, Light." Her brother smiled and then turned to her. "I've noticed, that you've also been much happier for a while now."

"Yep. I've made some good friends and playing games got me some cool online pals too." Light's smile turned into a serious expression. "You know, sometimes I've worried, that by spending so much time with me, you got your problems with boredom from me. Little kids often copy behaviour from those around them, especially family." Light fiddled with his watch, Dad's gift for getting into college.

Sayu didn't know what to say for a moment. 'For how long has he thought that?' Thinking he was the reason for her view on life and secretly blaming himself for that was such a Light thing to do. "Light, I don't think I'm like this because of you. I would have most likely developed those views anyway. Or maybe it's hereditary, could be from some family member. I don't want you to blame yourself for this. We have no idea why we're like this. It could be some mental disorder you're born with for all we know. Or just regular apathy." She gave him a stern look, daring him to contradict her on this.

Light looked a little lighter after that. "Alright. You may be my obnoxious little sister, but I would still hate to have given you a burden like that, even on accident." She gave him a smile and sighed dramatically. "And you may be my know-it-all older brother, but I still care about you. So, don't blame yourself for something that isn't your fault."

**

Things were going well after that. Every now and then, L pinned down one of their contacts and they had to replace them, but the detective hadn't gotten any closer than that. Misa and Sayu kept hanging out as friends and met for business. Ryuk got even more obsessed with gaming, Light was actually happy, as was Sayu. Rem was... Rem, she seemed happy too, in her way. Time went on and the years passed them all by.

"I'm trying my hand at being a singer, as well as a model and actress. So far, it's fun."

"That's great. As long as you don't get another annoying coworker mysteriously killed again, by having Rem write down their name. No, being rude doesn't warrant being offed. We're not Hannibal Lecter. And no asking Ryuk either."

"Aww, fine."

**

"I'm telling you guys, Light totally has a crush on L. He never stops talking about him. I've listened to my brother ranting about him in one of his long monologues too. Ryuk, back me up on this."

"He does talk about the guy a lot, hyuk hyuk. Kinda obsessed."

"That's so cute! I mean I have no clue, why a cutie like your brother would want someone like L, but Misa loves love."

"And him dating my brother could be useful for us, especially if he ever finds out about this. He wouldn't harm his future sister-in-law, would he? Actually, he might. Rats."

**

"Pay up, Ryuk. I told you, Misa and Rem would get their act together by now."

"Damn it. Fine, kid, you win. This time. ...wanna bet on how long it takes your brother and L to get together?"

"Let's include Misa and Rem. More winnings."

"I love the way your mind works, little gambler."

**

Meeting L officially had been an experience. Light had one day mentioned he would bring home a 'friend' and Sayu had immediately been suspicious. Upon seeing L, she had not been able to resist a jab. "Hey, he's that weird guy from your college, who dropped out before the end of the first semester." Her brother had only rolled his eyes and groaned. "Sayu, he knows, that I told you who he is. And I know that you know that." Sayu had only worn an obviously fake innocent look and then smirked.

There had been dinner with their parents and some small talk in the living room over tea, because apparently L was british, or part british? He had been raised there anyway. Later that evening, when their parents had gone to bed, Light had admitted, that him and L had actually started dating recently. 'Damn it. Now I owe Misa money.' "I'm so happy for you, bro. Way to go Imagay, honoring the family name." L had blinked, while Light had narrowed his eyes and hissed "Saaayuuuuuu."

While Light had gone to the bathroom, Sayu had sat down next to the detective and smiled at him. "So, you're dating my brother. As long as you treat him nicely, we'll get along great." She had then locked her eyes on his, L quickly averting eye contact, and put on a dangerous look, she had definitely not practiced in the mirror. "But if you hurt Light in any way, I will destroy you and nothing will stop me. Are we clear?"

L had glanced up and nodded jerkily. Sayu in turn had reverted back to cute lil baby sister and beamed happily. "Wonderful. Now is it true, that..."

Upon Light's return L had only remarked, that his sister was as scary as Light could be sometimes. "Light-kun could have warned me. I'm not giving you any warning when we're going to meet my siblings." Her brother had only given her an approving nod and the promise to take her along, when meeting L's siblings.

**

"Light has graduated from college. He's gonna work with L full-time now."

"Good for him. What about your plans?"

"I'm applying to art colleges. I'm thinking about becoming an illustrator, maybe a cartoonist. Ryuk would totally become a game designer."

"It makes more money and you get to work with games, hyuk. What more could you want? Humans have such interesting jobs."

**

"I moved into an apartment. Now Ryuk can have his own gaming computer and other stuff. He'll be like my secret roommate."

"I'm going on tour again. Rem has been my rock, without her I would have forgotten all my tasks."

"Want me to water your plants again, while you're gone?"

"Yes, please. Thank you, you're the best."

**

Having a shinigami was incredibly useful for making money.

Sometimes Sayu and Ryuk went gambling and cheated at anything that would let them, but not so much, that it would be too suspicious. Often different locations, just in case.

Corporate espionage had proven to be a goldmine. Sayu walked by some firms headquarters and Ryuk floated inside and listened in on private conversations and plans, especially news about the development of new tech. Then Sayu would sell the information to rival firms and make a huge profit. After her information had been confirmed as always being good, she had become infamous in certain underground circles.

She had also bullied/persuaded/convinced Ryuk to get a job online as a translator, to earn his own money and put his knowledge to good use. "You have your own email, account and all that now. A digital trail. It's good, if you have a legal way to earn money, that can be found."

Ryuk eventually became both a streamer and uploaded YouTube videos of speedruns and playthroughs. The fact that he couldn't be seen or heard meant he couldn't record his voice or face. They explained that away as him being shy and not wanting to be recognized. That had of course sparked many rumors, one stranger than the next. Most people thought, that he had to be a famous person, maybe a politician or a royal, which just boosted his popularity.

Ryuk also had several social media accounts. Some were for gaming, others for sweet food reviews, cryptid stuff and conspiracies and other things. Sayu and Misa followed each other on social media but kept their friendship secret officially for security reasons. (Rem still hadn't been convinced to join social media, but Sayu was sure Misa would wear her down in time.)

**

Sayu and Misa, with occasional help from Rem and Ryuk, sorted through the usual information. "Double checking results for France all good?" Misa asked, while elbow deep in a pile of papers. They always gave the information from their contacts + travelers to another one of their followers here in Japan, who could double check, that the information was correct. Sayu put down the papers in their designated spot for information on criminals and stretched with a light yawn. "Yep. Checks out." She looked at the remaining piles of paper for all the other countries and sighed.

"Anything concerning from our undercover agents?" Misa hummed and rolled her shoulders, putting down the papers in her hands. "It mostly looks good, but there are some developments we should keep an extra close eye on. I don't like the sound of them." The girl stood up, holding out a hand to Sayu. "I think it's time for our lunch break." Sayu jumped up at once, taking her hand. "Oh, finally. Being a god of justice is such hard work honestly."

"How is your form coming along?" Misa inquired, while they were eating and checking their phones for any missed messages. The blonde had encouraged her to take self defense and martial arts classes. "After that incident with the stalker I decided you can't be too careful and took a lot of classes. I think with our work and in general it would help you and then I'd be reassured of your safety." Sayu had found, she really enjoyed those classes and her family was overjoyed at this new passion of hers, always worried about their little girl. "I think I've got it down now. I'll show you later, if I still have energy. How is your language learning?"

Misa, due to her job, visited different countries and had discovered her love and talent for learning languages. So far, other than japanese and english, she had mastered korean and mandarin, as well as spanish, and noting the similarities, had decided to learn italian and french too. She was currently learning german, portuguese, russian and hindi. She was learning the languages through a mix of tutors and Rem and Ryuk, who were surprisingly good teachers. Sayu had sat in on a few of their lessons and had picked up a few things.

"It's going well. The different writing systems can be rather tough, but it feels a little like cracking a code and it's so satisfying to master it. I have so much inspiration for new songs, you should see my notes. A chaos of languages, it's insane." They continued to eat their lunch and exchange all types of gossip and news, happily chatting away and laughing. Though eventually work called and they went back to their mountains of paper.

"We've got quite a lot of names this time. I think, we should go for a bigger number of deaths and then we can sprinkle them in throughout the next batches. What do you think?" Sayu raised her head and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I agree. Even if we eliminate half of these, we'll still have enough left for times, when there's less criminals." And so, they decided on which names to write down and the time of death, and put the other files safely away for the future.

"Alright, now for the most important question: Movies or games?" After their work was done, they all sat down and ate some snacks, while either watching some movies or playing video games together (or sometimes board games). "I feel like something funny, we could watch that new horror movie? I'm too exhausted for gaming today."

As the sun went down, four figures sat on a couch, two of them cuddled under blankets (and two invisible to almost everyone on earth), stuffing their mouths with sweet, salty and sour snacks alike, while laughing at a movie and making jokes. A picture of lighthearted joy, no one would think, that these were the figures behind Kira.

**

"Congrats for winning that Oscar, Misa! You totally deserved it. I'm so proud."

"Thank youuuuu! I'm so happy. I still can't believe it, it's like a dream."

"Light, L and me are going to the UK to visit/meet L's siblings. A bunch of little genius kids plus two genius adults, it's gonna be tough for me."

"Hey, you're also really smart. They're gonna love you and if not, that just means they don't have any taste."

"Misa's right. You shouldn't feel like you have to compare yourself to them. Also, intelligence isn't everything. I'm sure, you have many talents they don't have."

"Thank you Rem. Misa. I guess, I'm just nervous, for all the obvious reasons."

"You'll do fine, kid. I can always distract them with a scare, hyuk."

**

Sayu couldn't contain her smug smirk, directed at her brother, when L said, that her english was better than Light's. "Your grammar is perfectly adequate, but Sayu uses phrases and slang and generally talks more casually than you. Learning a language from a teacher in school is just different from learning the language by talking to natural speakers or consuming media in that language."

Sayu and Misa had polished their english skills with the help of Ryuk and Rem, Misa for her career and Sayu for her future career as well as for playing on international servers with or without Ryuk. Light and her had decided to talk to L's siblings in english, since they would be in their home and they thought making them speak japanese would be rude.

"Now you know what it's like, bro. Embrace this feeling and let this experience humble you." She had already texted Misa, who shared her glee. Light pouted, though he of course would never admit to that. Sayu was still a little nervous. 'No one's gonna know. You are here as Light's sister, nothing more. I hope they'll like me. What if they don't?'

The large building was surrounded by a lovely countryside. The weather was surprisingly nice, but L had told them to just wait, it would rain eventually. Watari aka Mr. Wammy had gone ahead of the three of them, to let the kids and staff know they were coming "and to make sure nothing's on fire and they're behaving themselves," L had murmured with a grin.

Upon entering, the trio was welcomed by Mr. Wammy, a man introduced as Roger Ruvie and a lot of children of varying ages. Sayu couldn't count them, they were moving too fast. L got immediately whisked away by the mass of children, who were all firing off question after question. Mr. Wammy showed Sayu and Light to their rooms and let them put down their baggage.

After that they moved back down to join L and the children. "This will be the first time, the kids will actually see me. I only talked to them once through a monitor." When they asked why, L had answered, that back in the day, some of the kids, who were potential successors to his title as 'L' had actually met him in person, but they were "no longer around" and the successor program had undergone some changes, since back then it had produced some "unfavorable results". "I thought it better not to meet them, so I wouldn't influence them in any way. They will take over my title, but I don't want them to be an exact copy."

After asking, what had changed his mind, he had said "The Kira case reminded me, that I'm not invincible. I still need to make a choice, as to who will be my successor. And...well I'm not great with kids and after the "incidents" back then I've been hesitant about getting to know any of the potential candidates. This case has been the first time I've been meeting with people instead of just talking to them through a screen, and while other people can be rather annoying, it also hasn't been horrible. And Watari thinks, I should get a social life, though he, of course, phrased it much more politely. So I thought to kill two birds with a stone. Introduce you to my siblings and spend time with people of a similar intelligence, who will hopefully not drive me insane."

They found L, surrounded by kids, answering questions. Sayu glanced around and noticed some children, standing to the side, although they actually looked to be around her age.

There was a white haired boy ('Albino?' she wondered), who was sitting on the floor and playing with a toy, a look of intense concentration on his face. 'He looks like he reads terms and conditions.' Sayu thought to herself. He seemed not at all interested in L. Then on the opposite wall, there was a blond guy?, probably, leaning against it, sending glares at the white kid. 'And he looks like he's judging him for it.' His style of dress reminded Sayu of Ryuk and Misa. Next to him was a redheaded dude, fiddling with a gameboy, sometimes glancing at the other two guys and rolling his eyes, a constant smirk on his face. 'And that one looks like he puts traps in those agreements and then laughs about it. What a group.'

Later, when finding out, that the blond and white-haired boys were the first and second in line to succeed L, all Sayu was able to think was 'Well, they're as eccentric as him, so that checks out. Maybe it's a genius thing.'

When her and Light were introduced to the kids, Albino turned out to be Near, Gothic Blond was Mello and Redhead Gamer was called Matt. 'Those are codenames for sure. They're learning paranoia early, then.' Near, Mello and L went somewhere private to have a chat and Matt approached her. "So you and your brother are the reason good ole L is officially showing up here. You don't mind me doing some background checks, do ya?" At her confused look, he explained. "I'm a hacker. Possibly the best one in the world right now. I've won some tournaments, so that's no empty claim."

Wammy kids, Sayu quickly found out, were all rather 'intense'. They all looked at you, like you were a puzzle, they were trying to solve and they had a lot of knowledge, some of it, rather odd. And all of them were a little weird in some way, but Sayu and Light also weren't exactly normal, so she didn't mind. Matt seemed always distracted and like nothing really mattered to him. Mello was extremely emotional with a piercing gaze and shocking frankness. Near, on the other hand was quiet and always seen with a toy in hand, aloof but always observing.

"If L brought you here, he must trust you to some degree. I haven't made my judgement yet, however," Mello had proclaimed with narrowed eyes, as a welcome. Near had only let out a considering hum, letting his eyes roam over her and Light.

L showed them around and told them a little about the place and some memories he had of it. "Those brats are still following you, by the way," Ryuk informed her. He had snorted at the introduction of the kids, being able to see their actual names. Sayu turned around and looked at Mello and Matt, crouching behind a corner, obviously watching her. Near was a few feet behind, trying to look like he was not involved.

"You know, you can just talk to me," she said with a sigh, putting on one of her mother's disappointed facial expressions. "We won't know, if you're lying, we don't know your tells yet. And observation is key." Mello huffed defensively, crossing his arms. Matt shrugged, pushing buttons on a DS. "I could make another lie detector." Then he looked up, a glint in his eyes.

"Say, I checked your socials and I noticed, you're that girl, who plays with 'TheShinigami' a lot. Does that mean, you know his identity?" Of course he would know Ryuk's streamer and YouTube name. She only grinned. "Maybe. Maybe not. How much is that information worth to you?" Luckily, Misa and Sayu had long ago decided to use codenames to refer to their gods of death, when talking about them via text, just in case of a hacker. 'Paranoia paid off.' Rem and Ryuk didn't use messaging apps, since they had no need for them.

Matt eyed her with approval and interest. "Very interesting. I have played with and against him a few times. He's got some skill." Ryuk narrowed his eyes at the boy. "You don't think he's that one player, do you? If he is, I'm killing him, no arguments about it." Ryuk was referring to his ongoing feud with a player artfully named 'YourMom69', whom Ryuk had accused of cheating multiple times. "He's hacking the games or cheating somehow, Sayu. I know it. When I find out their real name, I'm writing it down for that and their dumb username!" For Matt's sake, she hoped it wasn't him.

From then on, Matt and Mello just talked to Sayu, instead of following her around. Near was just sitting near them, pretending not to listen, but sometimes throwing in a question of his own, aware, that no one was fooled by his act. Sometimes, they were joined by other kids, asking questions and Sayu learned things in return.

One day, while walking around, she stumbled, almost literally, upon a girl with blonde hair in a braid, sketching. The girl looked up, smiling. "Oh, hello. You must be Sayu Yagami. I'm Linda. Nice to meet you. I don't think we've been introduced yet." Sayu returned the smile. "Yeah, I am. There's quite a lot of people here, so I'm not surprised, I haven't met everyone yet."

"There are less normally, but a lot of us older ones came back, when we heard L was coming and bringing guests. It's the first time we've actually met him. I don't know if he told you," Linda said, twirling her pencil. "He did. Am I allowed to ask, what you're all doing or is that like a secret?"

Linda laughed at that. She had a nice laugh, light and clear. "You can ask. We're not all super secret detectives like L. I'm a painter for example. Though I've had a poetry phase too. Gave everyone nicknames that rhymed or were alliterations. L the Bell, Matt the Bat, Mello the Cello and Near the Deer. They all despised it. I was just mad, that nothing rhymed well with Linda."

"Oh, I feel your pain. My brother has it easy, though he hated me calling him NightLight. I mean technically it's Raito not Light, but eh. Try finding something that rhymes with Sayu. So, some of you just have normal jobs? I thought you were all secret agents and spies and stuff like that." Though now, maybe that thought had been kind of silly.

The other girl smiled and shook her head. "Nah. We are all part of the whole successor program, but only the top ones are really considered for taking over L's title. Some of us get assigned a letter, if they are doing "important stuff", like M for Mello and N for Near, and others like me and Matt are just doing our own thing. We all keep in contact though. It's useful to know people in different fields and we're usually the best ones in our respective areas. I'm not sure how they decide what letter you get, seems like the first letter of your name, but what if there are doubles, like it would've been with me and L?"

"I gotta ask. Those names are like codenames, right? I can see Linda and Matt and maybe Mello as a weird nickname, but Near? No way." The painter nodded, closing her sketchbook. "Yes. Security reasons. I think most kids got to choose their codename when they got here, which explains why a lot of them are rather uncreative or just plain strange. I swear some of them just used the first word they found in a dictionary and called it a day. At least I gave it some thought. Genius kids or not, they can be a little dumb, sometimes."

They talked for what seemed like hours. At some point, they were joined by a certain trio of nosy guys. "So, if you are all gen 4, and Mello and Near are the first two in line to succeed L, does that mean no one in the previous gens was fitting or did they refuse or something?" Sayu wondered. It was Mello who answered first. "Well, not everyone has an aptitude for detective work. Intelligence obviously wasn't an issue, but some people have extreme talent in other areas, like Linda in painting and it would be stupid not to utilize that." Linda blinked in surprise and smiled at the blond, who quickly looked away. "Thank you, Mello. I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me. As far as I know the ones who had the top spots in previous gens, all got assigned letters and are now doing "government work". But we have Wammy's kids everywhere. It's quite useful."

The others nodded along and Sayu imagined a network of influential former Wammy's kids, secretly ruling the world. Before she could get lost in those thoughts, Matt spoke up. "From what I gathered about the first gen, it didn't end well. One person died and the other became some kinda criminal. They obviously changed some things after that. But I mean, there's no hurry. L's still young, unless he dies suddenly, which is possible I guess, there's still time to find someone to take over after him." Ryuk chuckled at those words. "Ah, you never know. Humans are so fragile after all."

Sayu asked another question, that had been floating around her head. "Do all of you keep your codenames, even if you don't get assigned a letter? Some of them are a little, uh unusual." Linda snorted at that, Mello narrowed his eyes at her. Matt answered again. "Well, I for one won't go back to my birth name, it's stupid. I like Matt. What about you, Linda?" The painter hummed in thought. "I like Linda, it's my artists name now. But maybe I'll get a new name." Glancing at Sayu, she elaborated. "Some keep their codenames, some go back to their birth names and some make up completely new names. We all know how to forge documents, so it's not an issue. I think a lot of us actually have multiple names and identities."

Matt chuckled at that. "Obviously, imagine having only one legal ID, that'd be so boring. Yo, Mello, you still using the one, you made for your undercover mafia work?" Sayu choked a little and coughed, Linda patting her back. Mello smirked, then narrowed his eyes at the redhead. "I'm no longer actively doing undercover work there right now. I have insiders keeping an eye on things for me. Why?" There was a lot of suspicion packed into that single word. Matt simply shrugged nonchalantly. "No reason. Just asking. Linda, one of the firms I work at, is looking for some creative folks to help them with inspo for characters and backgrounds and stuff. You interested? I work officially as a game designer, programmer and related things." The last part was directed at Sayu, for clarification. Ryuk perked up at that. "Nice. That one could be useful."

"What about you, Near? Still working on cases?" Mello asked, with one of his piercing gazes and a forceful tone. Sayu remembered Linda, telling her Mello had an intense one-sided rivalry with Near, whom he had desperately wanted to beat in the rankings and now in the real world, for taking over L's title. Near, on the other hand, apparently respected Mello, but also didn't much care about him. "It's not personal, though. He's aloof like that with everyone," Linda had remarked, shrugging.

Near twirled a strand of hair around his finger and briefly glanced up, before going back to his puzzle, which had only white pieces, with nothing on them. "Yes." Sayu wasn't sure, if he did that on purpose, but from what she had observed so far, it seemed to be just what he was like. Mello clenched a fist, then forcibly relaxed his fingers and took a harsh bite of chocolate, which he had gotten out of seemingly nowhere.

During the two weeks, the trio was staying at Wammy's, Sayu kept growing closer to the four of them. At one point, she even brought up the topic of her and Light's "condition" and for the first time (other than Ryuk and her mother) was met with understanding instead of confusion, disbelief, outright denial or judgement. (Misa was nice about it but didn't really get it and Rem had never said anything on the topic.) "Every Wammy's kid is weird in their own way. Being smart often comes with being different. And there is no such thing as normal anyway," Linda said with a smile. "My grapheme-colour synesthesia actually helped me choose to pursue being a painter."

"That's the condition connected to your senses, right?" Sayu asked, hoping, she remembered that correctly. At first, she had felt incredibly fearful of getting things wrong in front of the genius kids/teens/young adults, and embarrassing herself, but spending more time with them had eased that fear a little. While they indeed had a vast amount of knowledge, and bickered with each other about getting things wrong often, they never had made Sayu feel dumb for not knowing something.

"We grew up competing with each other for every piece of knowledge, every point in a test. It gets exhausting. It is the worst for the ones at the top, always fighting and studying to be the smartest person in the room. Everyone here is smart obviously, but the successor program has a way of making you feel stupid anyway. This environment doesn't make it easy to learn that knowledge isn't everything. But we've all been humbled and smacked in the face with not knowing everything at some point. Even Near. You either accept, that you can't know all or you don't. But learning together is more fun, than constantly fighting for the top. At least I thought so, and I never wanted to be the successor anyway, so I just learned what interested me. Same for others like Linda here. Point being, we don't shame people for not knowing something," Matt had told her once, when she had asked, if they were never saying anything to her about not knowing stuff, because she wasn't above average intelligence like them. (She had worried, that they may not expect her to know anything, since she wasn't smart like all of them. Before coming there, Ryuk had told her, that if anyone looked down on her, he would "haunt the crap out of them". Sayu had been quite touched by that.)

"Yes. I connect letters and numbers with colours. It's a common form of synesthesia actually. I totally forgot, that I did not tell you already. You grow used to everyone else knowing all about you. No file is truly confidential here," Linda said with a smile.

Matt laughed loudly at that. "If they didn't want us to get that information, they would've made it harder to access. They taught us how to access it in the first place, so it was clearly a challenge." He tapped a few times on his phone screen. "We would actually make great criminals with all the skills they taught us. No wonder, that guy from the first gen turned out to be one. I guess that's why they tried so hard to instill us with morals. Clearly they failed."

'I'm going to miss these guys.' Sayu realized with a shock. Only two weeks, yet it felt like she had known them for far longer. Light also seemed to get along with L's unofficial siblings. She saw him exchange all kinds of information and talk about stuff, that quite frankly went over her head, but he looked happy while doing it, so she didn't mind.

Near the end of the two weeks, she mentioned, that it would be sad to say goodbye so soon, but that they at least could keep in touch via messaging and video calls. She was in for a surprise however. "Actually, me and Near are coming back with you. We are going to work on cases, with L checking in on us, to see our skills. He's already solving other cases, while working on the Kira one, so now he's gonna give those cases to us," Mello told her with a grin. "We wanted it to be a surprise, but what's a few more days?" He shrugged.

Sayu beamed, feeling delighted at those news. She turned to Matt after a moment of thinking. From what she had found out so far, the gamer was mostly found near Mello. "What about you? Are you going back to work and hacking?" The redhead sent her a knowing look. "Luckily for you all, I can do my job, well jobs, from anywhere, and they know better than to fire me. I'm their best worker. I already spoke with L and he agreed, that I can tag along as an unbiased party, who can offer their skills to both candidates. It's gonna cost them though, obviously. Have to make some more money, you understand." He gave a lazy grin.

'I won't have to say goodbye. They're coming with us. Wait.' She looked at Linda, the feeling of sadness returning. 'I wanted to spend more time with her.' The artist returned her look, a smile dancing on her face. "You know, as a painter, I visit many different places, to find inspiration. I haven't been to Japan yet and I heard it's a wonderful country. If only I had someone, who could show me around and help me with my slightly rusty japanese!" she proclaimed with a hand on her cheek. Sayu felt, like she could burst with joy. Near tilted his head, staring at Linda. "Your japanese is perfect, we all brushed up on our use of the language, when we heard L's friends were japanese."

Sayu laughed and threw Linda a smirk, while Matt snorted loudly and Mello rolled his eyes. Linda huffed and only said "Well, it's always helpful to speak with a local, to improve your skill and learn certain slang and dialects." in response. Sayu gasped dramatically, a hand on her chest. "So, you're only using me for your career and language improvement? And here I was thinking we were friends! Such betrayal! How will I survive? I am devastated!"

**

Having her new friends and likely kind of future siblings-in-law in Japan near her, had several benefits. For one, she had used it as a reason to visit the headquarters, directly being able to watch the Kira investigation. For another, she could show them all her favourite spots and activities to do. Linda had already created several paintings and was almost overflowing with inspiration. The only downside was having to be even more careful now. Sayu and Misa officially still didn't know each other and they would like it to stay that way.

A few weeks after returning to Japan, a surprise addition to the taskforce awaited them. A woman named Naomi Misora, who had apparently worked on a case with L before. "My ex-husband was one of the FBI agents you sent to Japan for the Kira investigation, that's how I heard of it." According to her, married life hadn't agreed with her, or perhaps it had been her husband and his insistence she leave her former work behind. "In the end I chose work over him. He wanted me to play happy housewife, but that simply wasn't me."

Linda and Sayu both talked a lot about her, glad there was finally a woman on the team. Sayu actually spent a lot of time with Linda. The painter was smart, funny and made her feel understood and accepted. She was also quite pretty... . "Ryuk, what do I do? I think I like her. Romantically. Oh gods, how do people do this?" She walked around in circles in her apartment, pulling at her hair and biting her nails in a panic.

"Damn kid, calm down. Why don't you just tell her? She seems to like you too from what I've seen." And because it was Ryuk, he couldn't help but add "Getting real friendly with the future in-laws, good thing they're not related, or that would be awkward, hyuk." He laughed, watching her pace. Sayu whirled around to face him. "You don't understand! What if she doesn't like me like that? What if she does, but finds out the secret? Misa doesn't have to worry about Rem, but this is different. I need to think about this."

After a lot more pacing, panicking and planning, she had come to a decision at last. "I'll tell her. If she doesn't feel the same, we'll still be friends, it's fine. And she's not involved, well barely involved, with the case, so it's all good. It's fine, yes. Fine." She took a deep breath and texted Linda, to set up a meeting. 'I can do this.'

**

"I can't do this. Why didn't you stop me?" Sayu sent Ryuk a look of sheer panic, the shinigami only snickering in response. "You're a horrible friend, you know that?" she said, both knowing it for the lie it was. "You love me, little risk taker, and we both know it. Now go take a risk and get the girl!" he crowed, smirking. She turned to see Linda approaching her, waving.

"Hey, Sayu. You look nice, today, as always. Do I now get to know where we're going today? I hope I'm dressed appropriately," she said cheerfully. Sayu quickly swallowed her nerves and smiled. "Thank you and don't worry, you look great. I'll keep our destination a secret for a little while longer." She had seemingly looked for a perfect place to make a confession forever, and it had been Misa, who had told her about the location, they were now heading towards.

Upon arriving, Sayu glanced at her companion to gauge her reaction. Linda, who was rather fond of all things nature, the beauty inspiring her, while the loud, bustling cities mostly gave her headaches, looked at the scene in awe. They were surrounded by green hills and large trees with wide, hanging branches, bedecked in leaves. Flowers were covering the lush grass everywhere, and ahead of them was an enormous lake, sparkling sapphire blue and reflecting the warm sun. There was a small dock with multiple small boats, in different shapes, next to a little hut, which had a sign, proclaiming happily, that one could rent a boat, or take a swim here.

"It's beautiful," Linda murmured reverently, a look of wonder painted on her face. She turned to Sayu. "We can get a boat? That looks like so much fun!" She grabbed her hands and excitedly pulled Sayu towards the hut, to rent a boat. They specifically chose a swan themed one, as they both liked the elegant animal. "It's like a bicycle!" the painter exclaimed in joy, while the two girls were trying to figure out a rhythm, slowly making their way over the water.

"So, what's your judgement of Japan so far?" Sayu asked, aiming for casual and hoping to hit that note. Thank the gods, that Ryuk was able to stay away far enough to give her privacy for moments like these. The blonde girl gave her a smile, which lit up her face. The sun made her green eyes sparkle like emeralds. (Linda had taught Sayu a lot about all types of trees, plants, rocks and gems and much more and Sayu had done her own research to impress the nature enthusiast with her knowledge and commitment to learn more about the topic.)

"Well my guide has certainly shown me many beautiful places and I have experienced many wonderful activities so far. I quite enjoy the food and it's a great opportunity to practice my japanese. The company also isn't bad," she said, her hair bouncing in turn with the boats movements, today in a simple but pretty ponytail. Much like Sayu, Linda enjoyed to wear strong, vibrant colours and didn't really prefer one style over another, simply wearing whatever she felt like. (Misa and Mello of course had their love for all things gothic and black, Near only wore his white outfits, Matt was really into patterns, L had his white shirt and jeans combo and Light his fashionable but muted outfits. He had been trying recently to coax L into wearing some other clothes for once, so far with little success, but her brother was a stubborn bastard.) For this day, both girls had opted for t-shirts and short-ish pants, pleasant in the warm weather.

"I'm happy to hear it. I like having you here." Sayu smiled, letting her eyes wander over the still water. All those romance games hadn't prepared her for the real thing at all. Neither had any of her other media she'd consumed over the years. But she had planned this. She could do this. Totally. Right? "I really like spending time with you." There. Testing the waters, no pun intended. Now to gauge the response. "I quite enjoy spending time with you as well."

'So far so good. Now onto the next stage.' Sayu carefully glanced at the other girl and asked "Has anyone caught your eye here so far?" They had talked about love and relationships in the past, Linda telling her that starting a relationship with a fellow Wammy's kid was basically begging for disaster, with the whole competition going on and that after leaving she had been too focused on her work and making a name for herself to date, though she had considered it a few times. Sayu herself, in turn had told her about her own lack of relationships, only passing crushes on celebrities, or what she thought might have been crushes. Both the two of them, as well as their siblings didn't exactly have an easy time relating to other people, so this wasn't exactly a surprise.

The Wammy's kid hummed playfully?, thoughtfully?, Sayu wasn't sure. "There might be a certain someone in my mind. Why are you asking?" Sayu gave grave concentration towards moving in a normal tempo and keeping her voice light and level. "Merely curious. I have been thinking about someone for a while myself, y'know? Maybe spending time with Light and Ryuzaki is having an effect on us all, who knows, haha." (For security reasons, when talking about L in public, he was referred to as Ryuzaki still.)

Linda snorted, then groaned in mock disgust. "Those two are the worst. I mean your father is right there. Seriously, no shame." Visiting the headquarters had also come with the added bonus of watching her father clock on to the relationship between L and his son slowly. (Naturally there had been a betting pool between Sayu, Near, Mello, Matt, Linda and the other taskforce members about when Soichiro Yagami would realize and confront this fact. Naomi had won and risen further in Sayu's and Linda's respect. Misa had also been kept informed about the events and had thoroughly enjoyed it.)

She laughed in response, then decided to bite the bullet, so to speak. "Sooooo, is this certain someone, anyone I might know?" They had stopped the boat, bopping lightly in the water, enjoying the sun and the view. 'This is it. Don't falter now. You can do this.' The blonde twirled a strand of hair around her finger, tilting her head. Then a smirk appeared on her fair face.

"Why, I believe you do. Let's see. It's a girl, young woman really, with flowing brown hair and dark, soulful eyes, that would enchant anyone. She's energetic, funny, smarter than she thinks and really gorgeous. This girl shares my passion for art and bright colours, she's a little different herself and has never thought me or my fellow Wammy's kids weird as many others do. And whenever I'm with her, I want to make her smile, because she looks ethereal, when she does and it makes me want to draw her face, smiling, so that I won't ever forget, what it looks like."

Sayu could hear her blood rushing in her ears and her heart steadily increasing speed, her pulse racing. 'Oh gods, oh gods. What do I say?!' She could feel her cheeks glowing a fierce red and swallowed heavily, then licked her lips. "I do think, I know that person. Do you want to hear about mine? I believe you might know them as well. Though I can't promise the same artful descriptions I'm afraid." She looked at Linda, who had a dash of red on her cheeks as well and was moving her fingers repetitively, a habit, when she had thoughts rushing through her head. She only nodded.

"So, this person is also a girl, who often wears her blonde hair up, so it doesn't get in her eyes, which are a very pretty shade of green, when she paints. She's really smart, but never in a superior way, she loves teaching me things, especially about nature and drawing techniques. She's an amazing artist, her art isn't just technically perfect, it's full of life and passion, just like her. Her passion inspires everyone she meets and when she talks about things she likes, her eyes and whole person light up like a star and I could listen to her talk forever. I'm really happy to have met her."

She inhaled shakily and took in Linda's face. Her cheeks had gone as red as her own and her eyes were wide and fixed on her, fingers fluttering in her lap. When she spoke, she stuttered for a moment, something Sayu had never before witnessed her doing. "I know her. Say, if, if that girl wanted to share a kiss with you, would you be alright with that?"

Her heart stuttered for a moment as well. She took a shaky breath. "I believe that would be more than alright." They both smiled and slowly leaned forwards. It always looked so smooth on television and was described all flowery in books, but once again real life proved to be a little different. Their noses bumped together and they both started giggling, then tilted their heads slightly and let their lips touch.

If Sayu were asked to describe that moment, she wouldn't say that there had been fireworks or butterflies in her stomach or anything like that. No, it had been far calmer, the soft touch of lips meeting made her feel like a flower basking in the sunlight, warm and happy, fully content in this single moment. She had also thought of a gemstone, light hitting it at an angle, coming out in a ray of rainbow colours on the other side. Maybe she should have become a poet.

At some point, she had closed her eyes. Now she blinked them open again, taking a deep breath, the need for air making itself known. Next to her, Linda was doing the same. "I think that was pretty good for a first kiss, what do you think?" she asked, only a little breathless. Sayu nodded with a smile. "Yes, I liked it." Her pulse and heart rate were slowly calming down, the red on both their cheeks slightly diminished.

"It felt like floating underwater and coming up for air at the same time!" Linda marveled, her voice carrying that dreamy quality it always had, when she was picturing something in her mind. Sayu shared her own experience and the painter delightedly exclaimed "Oh, I love those too! I'll need to try and capture that in a painting. Imagine the result." She sighed deeply, a gleam of inspiration taking over those green eyes.

Later, Sayu would excitedly tell Ryuk all about her success and he would pretend to gag at the romance, as he always did, but reward her with a high five for getting her girl. She would tell Misa, who would congratulate her and mourn the fact, she couldn't officially meet Linda, and her brother, who would promise his revenge for every time she made an Imagay joke, but also smile at her and give her a hug, both of the siblings relieved to have found people, who understood them, who were also not "normal" and didn't let that stop them.

But for now, she would simply exist in this moment, trying to fix it into her memory forever.

**

"Linda and I are officially dating now."

"That's amazing! I'm so happy for you, Sayu."

"My parents will have to give up on their dreams for grandchildren for now. With so many geniuses involved, you never know, maybe we'll grow one in a test tube or something."

"At least, you don't have to keep your relationship a secret. My fans and reporters are relentless. I actually haven't really thought about children until just now. I'm not sure, if I want to have any, in the future. Also, Rem, Ryuk, hand over the money. I told you, I know romance and relationships."

"You bet on me and Linda?"

"Of course, we did, kid. You think you're the only one making bets, hyuk?"

"You know, that's fair."

**

"Congratulations on getting your degree!"

Sayu was swamped by her friends and family and her girlfriend. (Even Misa had shown up, heavily disguised, surprising her with a hug, after texting her to go to a specific bathroom.) She felt on top of the world. Her younger self would have never believed, that she could be this happy. 'I made it. I really made it. Light and I are actually happy, I have real friends, who understand me and are like me, a girlfriend, who is awesome and loves me, and I'm co-leading an illegal organization, trying to make the world a better place, while my brother, his boyfriend and several of my friends are trying to catch us. I'm no longer so bored, that I feel like dying. Actually, I've never felt more alive!'

**

"Why are you grinning like that? Did you hack into top secret government files again?"

Matt was wearing a huge grin, that could only spell trouble, though for whom, Sayu didn't know just yet. "L is making Mello and Near work together!" he exclaimed in a giddy voice. Sayu and Linda exchanged a shocked glance, while they let the news sink in. Trouble for all of them it was then. "He's really challenging fate with this one. You started betting on the fallout yet?"

He gave her an offended look. "Obviously. Aizawa thinks, they're gonna be at each others throats soon, like L and Light back in the day, y'know before the fighting turned into making out. Matsuda says, they're gonna work out their issues, I'm not sure, if he actually believes that, or is just trying to manifest that reality by hoping hard enough. Naomi bet, that they're gonna struggle at first, but then make an efficient team. I know it's gonna be entertaining no matter how it goes."

So far, L had only ever tested them individually, giving them cases to solve and tasks to complete, to check their various skills, like deduction, reasoning, pattern recognition, behaviour analysis, capability to work with all types of tech and programs, interacting with other non genius people during cases (that one they learned from Light, as L's people skills still left a lot to be desired. In fact, L had been made to learn/improve that particular skill alongside his heirs, much to his pouting objection.), et cetera. 'So now it's time to learn to work with fellow geniuses huh? Delightful.'

Light was meanwhile solving cases on his own in the name of L as well, which made her extremely proud of her brother and him really happy. Sayu felt her own face splitting in a devious grin, which she saw mirrored in Linda's face. "Oh, I can't wait for this to escalate. Let's place our own bets shall we?"

**

"Come on, Ryuk! We have to win this!"

"We'll wipe the floor with these losers and then I'll upload it, so the world can see their shame, don't you worry, little legend."

Ryuk and Sayu were once again having a friendly gaming session with Light, L, Mello, Matt, Near and Linda. Friendly meaning extremely competitive and highly emotional. Right now they were playing in teams of two. (Light and L, Linda and Near, Mello and Matt, Sayu and Ryuk.) Playing games with geniuses and a shinigami, though only she knew that one, was always an experience.

It made for great content for Ryuk's videos as well, many commenters wondering who all the players were, and if they were really that good or cheating. Seeing as almost all of them had reasons to keep their identities secret and it fit Ryuk's own secrecy, they had agreed to Sayu's friend being allowed to upload their games as long as none of their voices or faces were in them. You would think, that people might find that boring, but Ryuk added commentary via text on the screen, and recently worked on creating a digital avatar, who could say the lines, he would type, so he wouldn't have to add his comments in later. The mystery made the viewers go mad with theories, which worked out great for Ryuk's channel.

They had tried out any and all types of games, some of them, they were allowed to only play every now and then, because playing them together escalated a little bit too much, even for their standards. The fans loved it though. They had come up with nicknames to refer to them and ideas for all the players identities based on the different player names and skins they used, as well as their behaviors and any messages they wrote in ingame chats, so naturally they had all agreed to make guessing anything as difficult as possible.

"Also, remind me to update our cyber security once more. Matt's been hacking us again."

"Gotcha. Now let's show them who's boss."

**

"Do you ever wonder, if it was fate, that we would all meet?" Misa asked one day out of the blue.

"Maybe. I'm not exactly a believer in destiny. But there's gods of death, so who knows, perhaps there's more out there," Sayu answered.

"A while ago, I noticed, that if you take a letter from each of our names, you can spell Kira. K from Ryuk, I from my name, R from Rem, and A from your name. Kira! Isn't that neat? Like a sign we were meant to form this group," the blonde said excitedly, drawing their names on a piece of paper to show to Sayu.

ryuK
mIsa
Rem
sAyu

"Huh, I never noticed that. That's cool. I like it. Better burn that though. Wouldn't want that accidentally ending up in someone else's hands."

Later, when Ryuk and Rem came back, Misa told them about her discovery with a happy smile. "Isn't that cute? We were all meant to meet, I'm sure!"

"I'm certainly glad, I got to meet you, Misa," Rem said, with a soft tone in her voice, only found when talking about her girlfriend. "Meeting you has been a pleasure as well, Sayu," she added, pointedly ignoring her fellow shinigami.

Ryuk just shrugged and grinned. "I dunno about higher powers and fate and all that, higher ups are all annoyingly secretive when it comes to important information, but this has been a blast so far, so I can't complain."

"Awwww, you love us and you know it, Ryu!" Sayu teased. (If he could giver her nicknames, she could do the same.)

**

When Sayu placed an assortment of mostly self-made apple flavoured sweets in front of Ryuk, he sent her a confused but appreciative glance. "Is today a holiday I forgot, or some kinda party or event? Is this a bribe?" She laughed and shook her head.

"Nope, not a holiday. Today marks ten years, since a very important event in both of our lives." Ryuk looked at the calendar and frowned in thought, while munching on a candied apple. "Aren't you a little off the mark? You took ownership of the death some days before that." She snorted, then sighed dramatically and looked him in the eyes. "Who cares about the death note? Yeah it helped, but this is about you and me. Today is the day we met, silly!" She laughed.

He sat still in shock for a moment, something flickering through his eyes. "Oh, you're right, it is. Huh, it's just, normally people would probably care more about the death note than the shinigami attached to it." Sayu chuckled at that and replied "Well, I've never been normal, so I don't see why this should be different. The death note is just a tool, but you're my friend."

"You're gonna make me cry, kiddo, stop," Ryuk spoke, his voice carrying something, she would almost call fond. "Happy 10 year anniversary to us then!" he exclaimed, taking a huge bite of a slice of cake, decorated with whipped cream and skulls made out of sugar. "Happy anniversary to us!" she echoed and took a slice for herself. 'Damn that's a lot of sugar.'

They, mostly Ryuk, ate way too many sweets and played some games together, just the two of them for fun (and competition), like they often did, and talked about whatever came to mind. (Ryuk still regularly checked the apartment for cameras, bugs, or any other form or sign of tampering. It's not paranoia, if you know L and his methods. He had proven that before.)

"You know, it's said, that humans, who are possessed/haunted/whatever you want to call it by a shinigami always end up experiencing misfortune. I'm glad that hasn't happened to you, Sayu," Ryuk mentioned at one point, quiet and sounding oddly serious. 'He used my name. It's really serious then.' she thought, stealing a sideways glance at her friend.

"I'm glad too. Maybe it's the death note, not the shinigami. Maybe it only happens when a human uses it to kill other humans. Like a punishment for daring to decide who lives and dies, acting like a god, when you're only human yourself. But Misa has killed with it and she seems happy. Perhaps there's a loophole," she mused, staring at the loading screen before them.

"Well, no matter how it works, or if it's even true, we're lucky it's not affecting you. I wouldn't like it if you were befallen by misfortune..........friend." Sayu let out a happy little squeal of joy and was about to mercilessly tease the god of death, but then the game finished loading and Ryuk hastily exclaimed "Wow, look at that, the game's continuing. Better focus on that, huh?" With a huff and a pleased hum, she decided to simply be happy about the long awaited admission and not to make him uncomfortable. He deserved it, just this once. "Sure thing, buddy. Game on."

**

"I haven't seen the scaredy cat in a while. Think he's gone for good?" Sayu wondered, while brainstorming for new ideas.

After some years of owning the death note, Sayu had one day met the shinigami Sidoh and found out, that her death note actually belonged to him and Ryuk had stolen it. Sidoh had been running out of lifespan and had therefore come to get it back, after no one had wanted to help him. Sayu had, of course, given Ryuk a high five for that act and had then started to negotiate with Sidoh. Luckily for them, he was an absolute pushover and folded easily.

She had given him enough pages to continue living for quite a while and bribed him with chocolate, which he adored, to spy on some humans for them from time to time. Rem and Ryuk could only go so far from then, and while Sayu ,technically, could give up and regain ownership without losing her memories, that seemed needlessly annoying. The combined scariness of Ryuk, Rem, herself and Misa (the two of them could be scary, if they wanted to be) kept him in line. And it was helpful to keep an eye on some of their followers. But they could always get a human to do that for them, should the shinigami fly off for good.

"Who cares? He's mostly useless anyway." Ryuk yawned. Sayu tilted her head and shrugged lightly, writing down some ideas. "Yeah, but I don't like the idea of loose ends. Hey Misa, do you have any new ideas for the use of some of our other followers?"

Over the years, they had evolved old ideas and come up with new ones. They now had followers stationed in pretty much every country and all types of legal systems and organizations. Mello's undercover work had given Sayu the idea for having some of their followers infiltrate gangs, cults and other types of dangerous groups, so they could keep an eye on them and learn names and faces to destroy them if necessary. Thank the modern wonders of technology for cameras.

Having a lot of their followers give them money for the glory of Kira's new and improved world also was rather useful. They had a few followers, who were officially declaring their loyalty to Kira and acted as their mouthpieces to the masses. They had them donating money to charities and organizations, that helped the poor and those in need, in the name of Kira, advocate for equal rights for everyone, no matter their gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, et cetera, because all were equal before Kira, and help push laws, that would protect people, who needed it and abolish things like child marriages and the ban on same sex marriages in as many countries as possible. (One of Light's former classmates from college, Kiyomi Takada, now a reporter and Teru Mikami, a prosecutor, whom Misa had heard of and admired for his strict principles, during the trial of the robber, that killed her parents, were part of their official spokespeople for Kira.)

The star hummed, her head in Rem's lap, a lollipop in her mouth. "I'm still working on the project we talked about, with the building of houses and giving out food to the poor and those in need of shelter. Things are looking good. And brainstorming better ways of sending instructions to our people." (Rem and Ryuk could just drop off notes, being invisible and able to go through walls was so handy, but their distance limit to Misa and Sayu was bothersome.) "Any news on the L versus Light bet?" Sayu only groaned in dismay, rolling onto her back to enjoy the feeling of sunshine on her face.

After years of dating and completing each other, like they had been made for the other one, the topic of marriage had come up. With both Light and L being stubborn bastards, (like wanting to be the one to catch Kira) there was a high chance of both of them wanting to not be the one to propose, because they thought it meant giving in, or do be the one to propose but in a way the other could never top, so naturally, they had all started betting on who would eventually pop the question. Opinions were split, unsure and ever changing, all of them trying to gain some glimpse of insight or advantage.

"Still nothing. I think they know and are toying with us. We should just throw them an engagement party at this point, honestly. It's so annoying. At least I got both of them to admit, that Kira is actually doing some good." Rem raised an eyebrow, expression slightly changing, but Sayu had years of getting used to her micro expressions, and that looked like her being impressed.

"You got these two stubborn boys to admit that?"

The young woman let a self satisfied smirk show on her face. "It took a lot of subtle work, using my little sibling charm and the other taskforce members' help, but yep. And what can I say, our results speak for themselves. They can't argue with cold hard facts, well they tried." She laughed in delight. It was no secret in the taskforce, that Sayu (and most members of said taskforce actually) didn't agree with Kira's methods, that being killing people, but did like some of Kira's beliefs and changes. After all, how could you not love equality the fight for what's right?

**

"I want to tell you something."

Sayu almost choked on her sip of tea. Linda and her were currently on a date, walking along the seaside with its sand and rocks, breathing in the salty air and enjoying the wind and waves. Not much had changed between them since they had started dating, except that they were now sometimes engaging in acts of romantic affection and annoying their friends and family with "Light and L levels of obnoxious pda".

"Okay, I'm listening. Wait, is it something bad? You sound serious," she replied, worried, throwing a concerned glance at her girlfriend. She looked calm, but Wammy's kids had an impeccable poker-face, so that didn't mean anything. But Linda gave her a reassuring smile, though Sayu detected something sad or heavy in her eyes.

"It's nothing bad. Maybe a little sad." There was a moment of silence. "I want to tell you my name." Sayu stopped walking, her eyes growing wide. At least, she had stopped drinking, so she didn't embarrass herself by choking on tea. Of course, she had known, the topic would come up eventually. They had briefly discussed it once, and Sayu had understood, that it was a matter of trust and difficult memories, and had therefore been fully supportive, giving Linda the time she needed. 'I have my own secrets after all. Who am I to judge?' she had thought.

"Oh. Okay. I'm here and listening, whenever you're ready." They kept on walking, there were barely any people to be seen. Sayu kept taking little sips, her heart fluttering a little in nervous anticipation. "I was born in Sweden under then name Linnea Dahlberg. Linnea is the name of a flower, also known as the twinflower, it's quite pretty. There's also a version of that name with an accent on the e, but my parents chose the version without it, I don't know why. I never asked them." Linda's voice was quiet but clear, her gaze on the waves, hands around her tea, moving up and down.

"My mother was an architect and my father a photographer. I had two little siblings, a sister and a brother. Creativity ran in the family." Here she stopped speaking and took a large sip of her tea. "When I was five, almost six, we went to a festival, in a large city. It was already dark out and there were fireworks to celebrate. Someone tampered with them and instead of rising into the sky, they dove into the crowds and exploded." Linda turned and looked into Sayu's eyes, her own green ones glazed with memories.

"I remember the screaming and the noise of the fireworks exploding. People get injured by fireworks every year, you know? But those are accidents, that was an attack. Against the dark, the explosions of colour looked so bright. My eyes were watering from the gunpowder and my ears hurt from all the different noises. The sparks caused fires to break out and everyone was in a panic, trying to get away. I was looking for my family, but we had gotten separated by the masses."

Her face turned back towards the waves and her tone changed into one Sayu had heard often from any of the Wammy's kids, a tone they had when reciting facts. "Fireworks can result in burns of varying degree, loss of limb, eyesight or ability to hear. Due to their extreme heat, once lit, it is advised to wait 20 minutes, before retrieving and discarding them." Linda shook her head and looked at Sayu again. "Now put together the darkness of an evening, exploding fireworks and a panicking mass of people and you can imagine the results. I still often get panic attacks or flashbacks when I see fireworks or hear an explosion. I think that's also part of the reason I prefer nature over cities. No one ever claimed the attack and we still have no idea who did it or why. It's funny, fireworks aren't even considered weapons, and yet that night they caused the deaths of hundreds, which may not sound like much comparatively, but still."

"No one told me how my family died and I wasn't allowed to see them. I got my hands on their files some years ago, not sure, if knowing helps or not, but you know us Wammy's kids, we always have to know, even if it kills us. I visit their graves, well grave sometimes. The four of them are all together and I'm still here, without them. Some people told me I was lucky to survive, can you believe it? All I could think about at the funeral was, that I'd rather be dead with them than alive alone. I wonder if they're mad with me for not changing my name back. I wonder what will be written on my grave, when I die, if I'll rest next to them then or somewhere on my own, with a strangers name. Ah, is that morbid? I sometimes slip into those dark thoughts, apologies. I like to think they're proud of me, continuing the creative job family tradition."

Linda's eyes were dry and she was smiling, but she looked less bright than usual, something heavy and dark hovering around her like a shadow. Sayu gulped, her throat hurt a little and her eyes stung with not yet formed tears. A dark voice in her head called out: 'Find out who did that and kill them! How dare they! Kira will bring about your deserved karma!', but she took a deep breath and centered herself. Now was not the time for violence. She took a step towards Linda and held out a hand.

"Would you like a hug?" Her voice came out soft but steady. The other girl nodded and they both set down their drinks and hugged tight. Sayu tried to infuse the hug with all the warmth and comfort she could offer. They stood there on the sand for a long time, unbothered by the wind or anything else.

After letting go and sipping the rest of their by now cold tea, Sayu simply said "Thank you for telling me." and after some consideration "I wish, I had some name to offer in exchange." Of course, she could admit to being part of Team Kira, but that didn't seem like a great idea, especially now. Linda gave her an innocent smile and nonchalantly answered "You can give me your last name, when we get married." This time, Sayu did choke on her tea. And it had been the last sip, too.

**

"Do you ever wonder what our families and friends would think, if they knew what we are doing?"

Misa looked up from doing her nails. "Sure. What brought this on?" The two of them were at Misa's place, hanging out, while Rem and Ryuk were off doing other stuff, a few rooms over.

Sayu fiddled with the many bottles of nail polish, still selecting a colour. "Linda told me she was wondering whether her family would be proud of her, and it got me thinking. I've sometimes contemplated their reactions, you know." Her friend gave her a curious stare. "And how do you think they'd react?"

"Well, mom wouldn't be happy about the whole causing people's deaths thing, but she supports basically all of the changes we're making as Kira. She puts family first, so she would help me, even if she didn't like it. She was actually apparently quite the rebel, when she was younger, she even has a tattoo. She's also really practical, so I think she'd see that we're ultimately doing more good than harm. She always tried to help me and Light find something to be passionate about, and taught us how to pretend to be "normal", so we'd be able to fit in. Mom probably has a few secrets of her own, maybe she was like us as well, we've often wondered if it was genetical or hereditary. Mom definitely taught Light and me how to put on a mask and keep your true thoughts, feelings and opinions hidden."

"Dad would be a whole different deal. With his tight morals, he'd for sure feel obligated to stop me or make me stop, though I'm not sure, if he'd arrest me. I would like to think, that he'd put family over duty, you know. He loves us, I know that, he's just busy a lot and cares much about his job. That's not a bad thing, but it meant Light and I couldn't be weird in any way, couldn't have any issues, we had to be good kids, normal kids, because otherwise we would reflect badly on him and he didn't have the time to deal with our weirdness. So we only show him our "good" sides, like we do with everyone else. I don't think he wouldn't love us, if we showed him the "bad", it's just habit at this point. If he found out about this, he'd probably blame himself, I know he feels bad, for not being there enough already."

"Light is easy. He'd support me in anything, as I would him. I've often thought, we were meant to be born as twins, he's like my platonic soulmate, we just think alike. With his views on justice, he'd fit right in with us, which is why I wanted to leave him out of this. He's such a martyr, he'd sacrifice himself in a heartbeat, if it meant, he'd be able to change the world. He told me, he supports Kira and only really wants to catch them before L. But unlike us, he doesn't know his limits, he'd overreach himself and burn out and then what? Just another "villain with good intentions", taking it too far. Quitting isn't a word in my brother's dictionary, he always has to achieve perfection."

"As for L and the taskforce, I'm not sure. They've changed their opinions on Kira a little over the years. They've admitted, that they are doing good things, bringing about positive change, but they still think that the killing is wrong and should be stopped. Sometimes I think L just wants to catch Kira for the challenge, it's not like he's never committed a crime, he ain't exactly innocent. The boys are mostly just curious I think and Linda... she has given differing opinions on the topic, so I'm not certain." Sayu exhaled in exhaustion and chose some bright colours, one for each nail. "What about you?"

Misa didn't talk a lot about her parents, which was understandable really. She'd mentioned some snippets over the years, recounted some memories. Sayu had seen some pictures and knew a few facts, but that was it. The girl shifted onto her back and looked at the ceiling, her neon pink and black nails, shining in the light.

"Hmmmm, I'm not sure. My parents were both very outgoing, energetic people, always moving, always happy. My mother was a music teacher and my father an event planner. Mom was always singing or humming, listening to the radio and swaying along to the beat. She wanted to be a singer, when she was younger and she always motivated me to sing and dance as well, to follow my dreams and be happy. Dad was a little shy, but still loved being around others and making them happy. Always listened to me and offered a helping hand. They were such warmhearted people, I feel like they would be horrified at my actions. They put forgiveness over revenge any day, y'know. But they also loved me fiercely and wanted me to be happy, so. I'm hoping they'd stand by me still, understand that I'm trying to do good, even if the methods aren't all that glamorous."

"Other than that, I'm not really that close with people, except you, Rem and Ryuk. Comes with our second job, doesn't it?" She laughed and Sayu laughed as well in agreement. "Yeah, if not for Light and L dating and me therefore meeting his siblings, I wouldn't have any close friends except you guys." She finished painting her last nail and looked them over. Thoughts circled her mind and she decided to voice them.

"You know, it's easy to judge from an uninvolved standpoint. I think we are doing quite well, considering the circumstances. You can't achieve change by asking nicely. Sometimes you have to do what's necessary, even if it isn't pretty. Someone has to do it and then others can judge them for it, while having done nothing themselves, and still getting all the benefits from that person's actions. I'm not letting others tell me, what I'm doing is right or wrong. We're doing what we can, to make the world a better place, with the tools we've been given and that's good enough for me. Let them judge, if they want, at least, we did something and didn't just run our mouths."

Misa raised her eyebrow, tilting her head and giving her a look. "Now that's the spirit. Thanks for the motivation, gotta say, I feel quite better now. Did I mention, that I'm gonna get another tattoo? I'm worried I'll run out of space soon. Stupid contracts," she grumbled with a pout. The goth actually had multiple tattoos, all in black depicting some symbols or something mythical, but she couldn't get any on her arms, legs or other visible places, because of her model/actress/singer contracts, which greatly annoyed her.

Sayu had thought about getting one, but hadn't gone through with it yet. Linda and her had discussed tattoos and getting one or more on some occasions. "Nice. Black again?" The girl smirked at her teasing tone. "Actually, I want black with some bright pink and red this time, I think. For my aesthetic and maybe something white and violet in the future to fit Rem's vibe." Her smirk turned into a lovesick smile. 'Do I look like that too, when I talk about Linda? Dear gods have mercy on us foolish mortals.' Talking about foolish mortals.................

"Oh gosh, I almost forgot! We finally had enough of waiting for Light and L to get their shit together, so we sat them down and told them they now have a deadline and on that day they both propose and they can make it into a competition or whatever, as long as they get a move on. None of us are getting any younger. And then we can judge who did it better or something. Whatever it takes for them to get off their asses about it." She groaned in emotional suffering, sending her friend a look, screaming with pain but also relief.

Said friend actually looked a little worried. "Are you sure a competition is a good idea after 'the incident'?" Ah, the incident, which of course referred to the time, Sayu, Linda and Matt had the genius idea to create a series of riddles, puzzles and mental tasks to challenge Light, L, Mello and Near to compete against each other, so they could see, who the biggest smart-ass/know-it-all/genius really was. Naomi had helped a little with designing the challenges, while the rest of the taskforce decided to only watch from a safe distance (with snacks). Of course none of the four had been able to turn down a competitive challenge. The day of the competition had been....eventful.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I had a ton of fun and no one got seriously harmed that day. And Light and L already said, they're gonna propose without us there, 'cause it's something private and we'll get our fill at the wedding." Misa nodded along in agreement, then suddenly smirked. "Your brother is going to be a total groomzilla."

Sayu opened her mouth to deny this, then thought about it for a moment and paled dramatically. "Oh gods, you're right. We're doomed."

**

Because she knew her brother, Sayu had gone to him and told him not to overthink the whole proposal thing. "Just be honest and tell him what you want, which is getting married. I know honesty is difficult for us, but you can do it. He knows you, he loves you and he isn't leaving." Light had seemed calmer after that talk and when the day of the proposal came, it was all good. Both kept their ways of proposing secret, only waltzing into the headquarters and announcing "We're getting married. Now get back to work." Her brother later told her, he had tried his hand at baking and made L a cake with frosting, saying 'Marry me'. He wouldn't admit anything else though, only lightly blush and say that it had been a wonderful moment and that he would treasure the memory.

Misa's prediction turned out to be accurate, much to everyone's dismay. While the wedding would be a small affair, that didn't mean, it would be cheap. Money wasn't an issue after all. Light threw himself into planning and in typical fashion accepted nothing less than perfection. L had seemed to be much more relaxed about the whole thing, until the matter of food and attire had come up, then he revealed his capacity to be as much of a pain as her brother. Ryuk, of course, found the whole affair to be hilarious, while everybody else was slowly losing their minds, sanity and will to go on.

Surprisingly, in their darkest hour of need, it was their mother who came to the rescue and dealt with the two troublesome grooms-to-be. With mesmerizing efficiency and skill, she took over the planning, listening to her son and his fiance, but shooting them down, when they got too annoying. Her fearsome glare made the detctive shrink back and mutter something about "scary family, all of them". Watari, or Mr. Wammy also turned out to be a great help, and him and her mother became a scary but efficient duo, no one daring to get into their way, as they bustled around with stacks of paper and politely terrorized their sons, with smiles on their faces.

And so, after a few months of terrifying planning, they had a date, a location, a guest list and everything else that was needed for a successful wedding. But what would be a wedding between two genius detectives without a little mystery?

**

The venue, in Sayu's opinion, looked less like a villa and more like a small castle straight out of a fairy tale, with the breathtaking garden, blooming with flowers aplenty and a huge fountain, swirling adornments on the outer walls of the building and the landscape surrounding it. "Pinch me Linda, I think I'm dreaming." Her girlfriend obliged and Sayu came to the conclusion that this was in fact real. 'Money really wasn't an issue.' she thought in amazement, taking it all in.

"My lady, me thinks we should head inside to help with the last preparations," Linda reminded her playfully, her own eyes also only reluctantly tearing themselves away from the magnificent view. The inside was as glamorous as the outside, if not more so. Grand halls and beautiful staircases, portraits lining the walls and huge chandeliers hanging from the ceilings. Her mother and Watari were checking their lists and mumbling to each other and she could hear her father's deep voice from one of the halls.

Her mother looked up at their approach and smiled. "Ah, there you two are. Sayu, dear, can you check the seating cards and arrangements for me? I just want to be sure they're in order, you understand. Linda, don't you look lovely? Could you take a look at the decorations for me? Your artistic eye is always a great help." Both of them nodded and smiled, knowing everything would be perfect, but also wanting to reassure the scary duo, that all was still well, after checking things over at least twice, just to be sure. While walking away, they heard Watari say "And someone needs to make sure Ryuzaki stays away from the food and doesn't try to get a little taste beforehand."

In the end, everything was in order, just as they had known it would be. All sighed a breath of relief at seeing the satisfied expressions of the planner duo and changed into their formal wedding attire. The dress code had been black and white, both for the symbolism and the fact, that the soon-to-be-husbands liked the colours (or non-colours depending on who you asked). Sayu helped her brother get ready and teased him gently to prevent any last minute nerves.

"You look good. Feel ready?" she asked her brother, who looked at himself in the mirror, searching for any imperfections. His suit was black with white accents, while L would wear a white suit with black accents, so they would mirror each other. Light smiled at her, his face happy, excited and a little nervous. "Thanks. I'm ready, I think. I can't believe it's happening, I feel like I'm going to wake up any moment now to find out, it's been a dream all along."

She knew exactly what he meant. Often, she too thought it was all simply too good to be true. Sayu nudged her brother gently in the side. "I know, but it's real and it's happening. So don't worry and just enjoy your wedding. Mom would be cross if you didn't, after all that hard work she put into it," she added jokingly and he chuckled softly.

Sayu soon left to get to her place outside, next to Linda and quickly spoke to a few of the guests. Besides herself, Mom and Dad, there was ,of course, Watari, the boys, Linda and the taskforce, as well as other Wammy's kids, whom Sayu had met before, over the years, either at the orphanage in the UK, or because they had come to visit them at the headquarters in Japan. The melodic sound of a bell made all conversation still.

The time in between Light walking down the aisle on Dad's arm, to the infamous and long awaited "You may now kiss the groom." was a blur of happy tears and a flood of emotions. Mom was dabbing her eyes, Dad looked so proud he seemed to almost glow and Sayu herself felt her eyes grow misty, her heart swelling with joy in her chest at her brother's happy face. Watari, who was officiating looked close to tears as well.

Light being Light, naturally had a long and beautiful vow, full of teasing and dramatic proclamations, that were no less earnest for their flair. He spoke of challenging each other and growing, discoveries and and setbacks, honesty and acceptance. He also spoke of first impressions, trust and the ability to change, playfully dragging his love for his weird habits and strange quirks, but declaring he wouldn't change any of him for the world and loving L just the way he was, no matter what.

While Light had said his vow in english, L proclaimed his own in japanese. Where Light had approached writing his vow as he did anything, meaning intense focus, precise planning and a flawless execution like a performer, L had gone about it in his own typical way, meaning his vow felt like another case being unraveled and explained, with the inevitable conclusion, supported by watertight evidence, that him and Light were deeply in love and made for each other. L spoke of passion and finding understanding, exposing all of oneself and being embraced instead of shunned, differences and similarities and the feeling of knowing someone as well as yourself. He too mercilessly but in good faith, made fun of Light, but proclaimed to love and cherish him in his entirety, come what may.

They exchanged the rings and shared a kiss, the guests clapping loudly and cheering the new grooms on. Once the cheers had died down, the guests lined up to congratulate the happy couple, and after that, everyone sat down at their assigned seats to eat. Light and L cut the sugary monstrosity of a wedding cake and Sayu watched with amusement as Ryuk kept stealing desserts. The food was excellent, but she made sure not to overdo it, because following the food, dancing awaited them in the ballroom. In addition to the vows, the food and decorations were also made to honor both their english and japanese cultures, as well as the music and dances.

The grooms naturally took to the dance floor first, showing off their skill, as they elegantly twirled to notes, smiling, completely absorbed and in their own world. After the end of the first song, other pairs joined them on the floor. Light shared a dance with his mother, while L danced with Naomi, as he didn't have a maternal figure present. Naomi wore a short black dress, made of leather, which was rather form-fitting, complete with black stockings, shiny black high heels and dark make up. Misa had been wailing when she had heard of the dress code and had loudly and tearfully bemoaned the fact, that she couldn't attend, as it was too risky and no one who didn't already know L's identity had been invited.

"I am looking respectfully," Sayu whispered, drinking in the sight of Naomi smiling and trying to keep up with L, her dress lifting with her movements. "So am I," Linda murmured next to her, eyes glued to the vision in front of them. They weren't the only ones, Naomi would be turning many heads that day. The picture of seductive temptation was shattered, when she stumbled and almost fell face first on the floor, before L steadied her, both of them laughing.

Sayu turned towards her girlfriend. "My lady, would you do me the honor of dancing with me?" She bowed dramatically and offered her a hand and what she hoped was a charming smile. Linda's eyes crinkled with her smile and daintily gave Sayu her hand. "You may share this dance with me, fair maiden." They walked onto the dance floor and Sayu spotted the boys, standing a bit to the side, drinks in hand, though Near's most likely didn't contain any alcohol, as he wasn't fond of either the taste or its effects. Near wore a white soft looking suit, Matt a patterned grey one, and Mello a partly leather black one. The three seemed to be talking, probably gossiping, she thought.

Linda and Sayu found a spot and took their positions. Both of them were good dancers and rather enjoyed it, so they had been looking forwards to this. Despite both of them loving dancing, they differed when it came to their taste in music. Sayu enjoyed pop, hip hop, rock and sometimes heavy metal, while Linda preferred jazz, rhythm & blues and classical music. (The artist had told her one day, that louder, harsher music sometimes gave her flashbacks to that horrible night, which a few times, had sent her into a panic attack.) However, they both loved musicals with a burning passion and often sang and danced along to their favourites together.

"You look wonderful," Sayu told her, while they spun across the dance floor, not looking away from each other. Sayu had gone along with her brother and now wore a flowing knee-length black dress with tiny white flowers at the hems of the short sleeves and the skirt, as well as around the waist, black stockings, her hair done up in an elegant ponytail braid, completed with a pretty black bow. Linda was wearing a white pantsuit with black flowers and leaves winding around the pant legs and long flowing sleeves, a brooch in the form of a white flower (her birth names namesake in fact) adorning her hair, which was also braided fashionably. Both of them wore shoes with only slight heels, as they both put comfort first and their dancing could get a little wild (they still called high heels 'ankle twisters' and they had learned that lesson painfully).

"You look breathtaking. I wouldn't want to take my eyes off you, you'd make an exquisite painting," Linda whispered, her voice containing a slight purr, her eyes glancing up at her from beneath the lashes, glittering. 'I'm so lucky to have her.' Sayu sighed internally, aware of the besotted expression, which she must be wearing at that moment, but not caring. They moved together through many songs, fast and slow, enjoying the flow of the notes and the closeness to each other. Over the course of the late afternoon and then evening, they also shared a few rounds of dancing with others.

Sayu danced with her brother, who was alight with joy, smile never leaving his lips, which were often locked with his husbands. "Look at you smiling. Gosh, now we have three Mr. Yagamis in the immediate family." It had been a topic of interest and debate among them all, what name L would put on the official documents, as he obviously had multiple official and unofficial, legal and less than legal names and identities (like all Wammy's kids). No one had been surprised to hear, that the detective would be taking Light's last name, they had however been curious to see the first name on the license. "Huh, why Leighton?" Sayu had asked him, looking at the words. The detective had given a slight grin. "It's a name I've often used in my youth, it felt right to choose for this. An english first name for my past, a japanese last name for my future." Light, Sayu knew, had been told L's real name, in a gesture of trust from his beloved, her brother had said so to her himself, but obviously hadn't revealed the name to her, not that she needed him to. He had been happy with the name L had chosen to put on the official documents, understanding, that he couldn't use his real name, even for this.

Light laughed, then a glint entered his eyes, that told Sayu he was about to tease her, supported by the grin, he was now wearing. "Well, give it a few years and we'll have three Mrs. Yagamis as well, won't we?" Sayu blushed fiercely at his comment, remembering Linda's comment, quickly darting her gaze towards where she was dancing with L right now. Then she "accidentally" stepped on her brother's toes. "Whoops," she drawled, staring at him, with a raised eyebrow. Then they both started snickering, while trying to keep with the rhythm.

She would also take to the floor with L, who, like her brother, was a wonderful dance partner, Naomi, who was trying very hard, and while, perhaps not a good dancer, was still a fun partner to dance with, energetic and motivated and all three of the boys. Near danced the steps perfectly, but lacked the emotional flair of the activity, viewing dancing more as something technical. Matt was an alright dancer, sometimes going a bit too fast or slow, but full of enthusiasm and grand movements. Mello was both passionate and skilled, swirling over the dance floor like a tornado, whisking her along, she found it rather exhilarating.

As she was washing her hands, after a quick bathroom break, Ryuk joined her and smirked, some sugar still on his face, which Sayu decided, to not point out. "Package delivered, boss." He saluted comically, bending over backwards with the momentum of the gesture, which made her giggle. "When do you think they'll notice? Can't wait for their reactions." She gave him a matching smirk. "Not before tomorrow, I'm sure. They'll be otherwise occupied tonight I bet." Ryuk grimaced at that. "Ugh, I didn't need that mental image."

Team Kira had decided, that their dedicated pursuers deserved a gift from Kira for their wedding as a token of appreciation for the years of helping improve their security and methods. "It's not a proper detectives wedding, unless there's a mystery. Aren't we so generous to give them such a thoughtful present? Certainly better than a mixer." So they had tasked Kyomi Takada with writing down their message on the card and getting and wrapping the gift. Ryuk had then taken them and placed them with the other presents, while everyone was distracted. (Do gods of death have or leave fingerprints?)

As Sayu went to get something to drink, watching her brother twirling around with Linda, both talking and laughing, making the moves look effortless, she was approached by someone. "He looks so radiant with joy, doesn't he?" Recognizing the voice at once, she turned around and smiled at her mother, who was dressed in a long white dress with loose sleeves, matching her father's black suit. "He does. As he should after all your wonderful planning." She chuckled, her mother shaking her head at her antics. Something serious entered her eyes, though she still smiled. "I'm so glad you and your brother have found that spark of life. You both deserve all the joy in the world." Sayu blinked in shock, not expecting that, though perhaps she should have. Their mother had always been more observant than people knew.

"Yeah, we really found our happiness. There were times, when I didn't think we would, but we did it." Her mother gave her a smile, slightly shadowed by some darker emotion. "That's why I have always pushed you two so strongly, Light with his academic interests and you with your creative ones. I was hoping for you to find the thing or person, that would make you feel that spark. And you have, my brilliant children." Sayu felt something squeeze inside her chest. "Did you ever wonder, if there's something wrong with us?" she whispered, her throat feeling tight all of a sudden, her voice coming out small. Mom's eyes widened, then narrowed and her face was overcome with a fierce expression. "Never! You and your brother were born a little different from other children, but that doesn't mean you were born wrong and don't you ever let anyone tell you otherwise, dear. We are all different in our own ways and there is no "right" way to be, no matter what society is trying to tell you. No one should have to pretend to be someone they're not, hide themself behind masks, because the world makes them feel ashamed and wrong instead of accepted and supported. Never be ashamed of who you are, Sayu. You and your brother are right just the way you are."

They were both looking a little teary-eyed now, but Sayu still felt lighter and gave her mother a hug. "You should bring Linda around more. She's such a lovely girl." They both gazed towards, where she was still dancing with Light, smiling and giving her a quick wave. "She is. I'm really lucky to have her. To have all of you."

**

Team Kira had long debated on what to write on the card, but in the end, they had decided to defer to the tried and tested KISS method, Keep It Short and Simple. So the message merely read

Congratulations on your marriage

-Kira

"Let them freak out and try to decipher any hidden clues." For a gift, they had decided to let their desire for mischief win and chose a Kira plushie, wrapped in wrapping paper, with a bloodred bow on top, together with the generic wedding card.

To their surprise, over the years, Kira had not just amassed a following, but those followers and fans had created websites, posters, stickers, shirts and much more with just the word KIRA or slogans like "For a better world". Once Team Kira had safely established their organizational chain of command and started on trying to strengthen their influence all over the world and have official spokespeople, they had decided to lean into that.

Why not have our own official merch? It's another way to make money and honestly kinda hilarious, they had thought. The merch was a hit, people buying shirts, mugs, stickers, key-chains and more. One day, Sayu, slightly drunk, had the idea of making plushies, because "plushies are like really soft and cute, so tha's like a great idea, right guys?" Misa had squealed in joy and agreement and so they had started to design a Kira plushie. "We've wanted an official design for ages anyway. We can put that on all the shirts, mugs, stickers and so on."

The two girls had researched all types of gods and looked at many depictions, the two shinigami in turn had described the looks of their race and so they combined that into their idea for the design of Kira. In the end Kira was a tall figure with an androgynous face(there had been a lot of debate in the early days, whether Kira was a man or a woman. Once it was mostly agreed, that Kira was a god and clearly didn't adhere to silly mortal things such as a gender, Kira became a They with a capital T. Team Kira supported this development.), which was made of sharp cheekbones, a pair of fiery red eyes, a defined nose, smooth red lips and perfectly shaped eyebrows. The hair was falling down in wavy lengths a little below the shoulders, in tones of red, orange and yellow, looking like a wave of fire. The skin was of a bronze colour, seeming to shine in the sun, a toned body and wings of white. Kira wore a black Toga with gold accents to highlight the flame colours of their hair and was barefoot.

Post the look of Kira reveal, merch was flying off the shelves even faster. But people didn't only buy merch to show their appreciation for Kira. After their official Kira spokespeople received a lot of fanmail to deliver to their god, Team Kira decided to create an official place, where people could send fanmail or their knowledge of criminals and/or criminal activity (which would obviously be verified, before action was to be taken). Sayu and Misa were shocked at the sheer amount of mail they got from all over the world. (Once again having shinigami acting as translators was invaluable.) They soon had to open up more places, as one simply wasn't enough. It also meant they finally had jobs for those of their trustworthy followers, that weren't cut out for infiltration work, traveling, law enforcement, et cetera. Some managed the places, some delivered the mail to a location, from where someone else would bring it to another location and so on, until it got to Team Kira, some would sort through to sort out the hate mail and check for threats or tampering.

It was extremely heartwarming to read all the letters and receive drawings or gifts from people. They got letters from parents, thanking them for avenging their murdered children, gratitude from victims for eliminating sex offenders, before they would be released again, tearful thank yous from friends and relatives of kidnapped people for taking down human trafficking rings, grateful notes from ones, whose lives they had changed for the better through one of their projects, like helping to pass laws(banning child marriages, legalizing same sex marriage, ensuring equal rights,...), building shelters and houses, providing food, clothes, education, tearing down cults, et cetera.

As they had suspected, the taskforce absolutely freaked out at the card and gift. Ryuk was doing flips from laughing so hard and Sayu felt, like she deserved an award for keeping her face neutral instead of bursting out laughing like her friend. Rem and Misa enjoyed their little prank through second hand accounts of the reactions.

The card was analyzed to death for any hidden messages or codes, fingerprints or poison, the poor plushie was dissected after multiple scans for explosives or other things, that could have been placed inside. Speaking to Takada gave them nothing. It wasn't as difficult as one would think, to figure out, who was part of the secret Kira taskforce, there were plenty of clues, so they couldn't be sure, how exactly Kira had gotten the information.

"Do you think Kira was at the wedding?"

"No, some underling must have delivered the gift."

"How did no one notice a stranger though?"

"We were all pretty distracted."

"Is it a taunt, a threat?"

"Should we be worried? This could be their way of telling us, they know who we are."

"Kira has never killed an innocent before though."

"And we've suspected, that they know for quite some time now."

"It feels like they're simply trolling us."

This was in the end the consensus reached. That Kira was making a statement of telling the taskforce, they knew who they were, but wouldn't do anything to harm them, perhaps not viewing them as a threat, even gifting them a plushie of themself. It had certainly been amusing to watch them jump from conclusion to conclusion, overthinking every little detail.

A short while after, their little prank was overshadowed by an interesting announcement.

**

A week before said announcement, Sayu had had an interesting chat with L.

"Sayu, can I talk to you?"

The girl in question had jumped a little. L was always quiet, when he wanted to be, all the Wammy's kids were and they loved sneaking upon you. She had followed him to the roof, where the coffee table was waiting for them, holding tea and snacks. As they had sat down, she looked her new brother-in-law over. Guessing L's moods wasn't an easy task, as his face mostly held the same expressionless stare, no matter his feelings or thoughts, but she had thought he seemed pensive that moment, as evidenced by his immediate stacking of biscuits and nibbling on his thumb, both sure signs of deep thinking.

She had inspected the biscuits, trying to decide, which one to eat first and wondered silently what this conversation would be about. As was usual for him, L didn't beat around the bush and had simply started immediately with the matter at hand. "Have people often compared you to your brother?" That question had made her blink in surprise, her thoughts about biscuits forgotten. She had tilted her head in thought and hummed.

"When we were younger, yes. Family members, neighbors, teachers and so on. But now, it only rarely happens." People had always been fascinated by their close bond, even though, on the outside the both of them had seemed so different from each other. L had stared at her with one of his probing gazes, evaluating answers, checking for honesty, analyzing facial expressions and movements.

"Did that bother you? To be compared to your genius older brother?" Sayu had hummed again, resting her head on one of her hands, while picking up a biscuit with the other. "You know, you're not the first person to ask me that question. A lot of people asked me, if it was annoying to live with a brother, who would always overshadow you, if I resented him for his intellect and success, if I wished to be like him or better than him. I'll tell you what I told them. There were times, when I wished I was smarter, like him, a top student, winning prizes for my smarts and and having others be in awe for my achievements. But I never resented my brother for being smarter than me and I never thought, it was annoying to live with someone like him, only that people comparing us was annoying for both him and me." She had taken a bite of her chosen snack and smiled.

"Light was never arrogant about his intellect, at least not to me or our family. He never made me feel dumb for not being as smart as him or like I was in his shadow, like many thought. It also helped, that we both had our fields of interests. Light was the smart one and I was the creative one. It never felt like I had to compete with him, we both shared our interests with each other. He would tell me about new knowledge he learned, all excited, and I showed him my creations and how to make them. We learned together. Light would also destroy anyone who dared to even imply, that I was in any way less than him. We were always each other's fiercest supporter, next to Mom of course, and endlessly proud of each other's achievements. I always knew, that I was simply talented in other areas and that I didn't need to be exactly like my brother."

She had eaten the rest of her biscuit and watched L, whose mind she could see whirring away behind his eyes. "So you didn't feel like you had to become like him in order to be acknowledged as worth something, you knew you could achieve something by your own merits, different from his?" he had asked, dark eyes seemingly swallowing her like a black hole. Having L's whole attention focused on you, often gave you that feeling. She had nodded, then thought about adding a little more to her answer. "Everyone has a different view on the world, different talents, strengths and weaknesses, and it's important to let each person discover their way in life and not force a path or direction on them."

Following those questions, the two of them had spoken of some other topics and Sayu had almost forgotten their conversation, when a week later, L had them assemble for an announcement.

Everyone was there and most of them didn't look what this would be about, except for Light and Watari, who stood next to the detective, smiling slightly. L stood tall instead of slouching, which only happened on rare occasions. He looked quickly over them all and then began speaking.

"As you all know, Mello and Near are the first two in line to succeed me in my position as L, should something happen to me or in the case of me living long enough to retire. Since they have joined us here in our headquarters and started to work under and with me in person, many things have happened and I have learned many things, which have made me gain a new perspective for the whole topic of the succession."

Near tilted his head and watched L with his usual intense focus, Mello was narrowing his eyes and tapping his fingers rapidly together, Matt had his eyebrows raised and a smirk was dancing on his face. Sayu looked over to Linda, who had a dawning look of understanding, while she herself could feel her own face displaying a similar expression. 'I thought, those questions might have something to do with this. Looks like I was right.'

Over their years of working here with L, Near and Mello had slowly but steadily grown closer, Matt slotting into their developing friendship like a puzzle piece, until the three boys were most often seen together, talking, scheming, doing whatever three young geniuses did in their free time. The matter of the succession had worried Linda and Sayu, would the choosing of one of them break the bond and cause resentment or strife? If Sayu's theory was correct, this problem would now hopefully resolve itself.

"I have talked to Watari, who helped me become who I am today and who has also helped establish the successor program, so that others could one day follow into my footsteps. I have also talked to many of the Wammy's kids, who were all part of that program, including Mello, Matt, Near and Linda here, to hear about their experiences with it. And lastly, I have talked to Light and Sayu for their uniquely helpful insights when it comes to expectations, comparisons and succeeding by your own merits."

"Like I do with any case, problem or puzzling thing, I started from scratch, collected evidence and testimony from different sources and then looked at the facts and the story it all tells when put together. Which is this: Near and Mello are exceptional detectives. They have all the skills a detective needs to be successful and I am both pleased and proud to call them my heirs, but they aren't me. The successor program was modeled in a way, which would find the person, who would most closely resemble me, so that they could one day take over as L seamlessly. Which in theory sounds perfectly logical and seemed fine to me, when I first heard about it, but with both the different generations and their results as well as working with Mello and Near personally, I started to see that making someone into a perfect copy of me should have never been the goal."

"As I have said, Near and Mello are exceptional detectives, but they aren't me. And that is good. They each have my skills, but also their own ways of solving cases, of operating, of collecting and analyzing evidence. They are clearly different from me in many ways, but that doesn't make them worse detectives. Quite the opposite in fact. It gives them their own unique view on things. The program should never have been about molding anyone into another me, it should have helped them find their own way to success, without the demand and expectation of replacing me and always having to measure up to this one specific person with their specific way of doing things."

"We have seen how that demand and expectation destroyed kids and we've seen other kids thrive from finding their own path and becoming both successful and happy, being their own person. So, what I am saying is, that the two of you, Near and Mello, should both become detectives like me, but in your own right. You have already solved cases as M and N, I believe you should simply continue doing that. I think I should be able to rest easy and retire one day, knowing that there are the both of you, continuing my work. Having multiple of us Wammy's kids work together in this field should inspire us all to challenge each other and grow, not to grow complacent in our past achievements. And we will, of course, have to make some changes to the program. I think that covers all."

L looked at Light and Watari, falling into his usual slouching position. Sayu looked to Near and Mello, who were obviously still processing the revelation. Then Near blinked and nodded. "That works fine for me." Mello jerked and let his eyes fly from Near to L to Matt and blinked furiously, tapping his fingers against his legs in a fast rhythm. "This isn't what I expected. But I guess... it's actually a reasonable idea. Huh." He pulled out a piece of chocolate and devoured it, offering Near a piece with a smirk. "To us. Seems like the competition has actually grown. Time to give the old dog a run for his money." Near letting go of his hair, to take the chocolate, let a smirk overtake his own face. "To us. He doesn't stand a chance. Technically, Light is in the running too. He's been solving cases under different names for a while now. What about you, Matt?" Matt just laughed, looking extremely pleased. "I'll leave solving cases to you guys. My job's more fun anyway, but I'll keep helpin' ya for the right incentive. Finally no more need to play impartial."

This was followed by everyone properly congratulating Near and Mello, which was in turn, followed by a party, that left most of them exceedingly happy, if unable to to recall their own name and feeling half dead in the morning.

**

"I think we should tell them."

Misa blinked and stopped what she was doing, which was going through the reports. Over the years, the official crime rate had gone down, and so also their number of criminals, they got from their various contacts, though crimes and criminals were still happening, often in the shadows. But that didn't save them from Kira's gaze, mostly. There were the occasional criminals or groups, they couldn't infiltrate or destroy fast enough to prevent them from carrying out their plans. On the other hand though, they couldn't cut down anyone, who hadn't committed a crime or didn't have clear intent of committing one, as Kira never killed innocents. L proved extremely helpful in locating criminals and stopping some groups, they were almost a team.

Fearing the retribution of Kira's justice stopped many would-be-criminals, but of course, sadly didn't stop all crime in its tracks. Still, working through all the papers was mildly easier now than it used to be, even if the number of contacts ( and/or countries) had increased drastically. Sayu and Misa still handled the part of getting rid of criminals themselves, but they had put their most trusted followers in charge of certain areas, like Mikami for legislation and laws and Takada for public relations and Kira's image. All of those in charge still delivered monthly reports of expenses, progress of current projects (long term and short term) and more.

"What do you mean?" she asked, lightly tapping her manicured fingers on her desk. Sayu took a deep breath and remembered her arguments. "I think it would be best for us going forwards, to tell the taskforce the truth." She let Misa, and Rem and Ryuk, who were looking over some papers as well, take in, what she had just said. "Uh, you remember, that they wanna catch you, yes?" Ryuk asked, looking at her with a confused expression, or as close to confused, as he could get. Rem sent her a heavy stare, contemplative, or so she thought. "What makes you think, that is a good idea?"

That was her cue. "Several reasons actually. They have, however unintentionally, been already helping us for years, we could use more trustworthy people in the know and that's what family is for and they are my family. They're not going to execute or imprison me, they care too much about me, have agreed that Kira has done good and they have also done quite a few illegal things themselves, so they can't pretend to be morally superior. If they want to change some of our methods, how better to do it than right from within? We simply need to show them that us working together is obviously the best solution. And we know all of their names and faces, so if they're for some reason absolutely against it, a little threatening won't hurt. They can't stop us, they can however join us. And we will eventually have to look for someone to carry on the work, we won't live forever."

Misa let out a melodic hum, pursing her lips in thought. "Well, you've clearly thought about this. Does this have anything to do with no longer wanting to lie to your loved ones?" Sayu cringed and sighed. "Actually, the lying has never really bothered me. I have been lying and hiding truths since I was a child, it feels almost natural. It's that I don't want to keep hiding a part of myself, like I've done all my life before meeting them and you. Being Kira is a part of me and I want them to acknowledge that part, even if they hate it. Is that selfish of me? Does it make me a bad person?"

"I don't think so. We all want someone to look at us, all of us, the good and the bad, and still love us, and not turn away." Misa looked at Rem with a soft smile, so full of love, relief and gratitude, a look Rem also held in return. "Any human being wants to be accepted for who they are. I could see the merit in uniting our forces with theirs, but we need to find the right way to reveal this to them." Sayu felt weak from the rush of relief coursing through her at those words. "Do the two of you have any objections against this? You are part of Team Kira too after all."

The two gods of death shared a glance. "I'll follow your lead, kid." Ryuk saluted with a grin, which made her smile. Rem exhaled deeply, then stared directly at her. "It is a gamble, but I believe you can pull it off. They are attached to you and you can use that to convince them."

Sayu felt a grin overtake her face. "Okay, now we need to perfectly plan our arguments and how we are gonna go about this. First..."

**

The day had finally arrived. Sayu had called the usual suspects and her mother to the headquarters for a meeting and announcement of her own. She shifted in her black and white clothes ("for the aesthetic, Sayu! I'll wear a bit of white too and we'll present a united front. It's important."), her nerves rumbling in her stomach. Ryuk was floating next to her and gave her shoulder a clasp, shooting her a winning grin. "Chin up, kid. You got this. We prepared plenty, you're ready." Due to the presence of everyone else, she could only answer with a deep breath and rolling her shoulders.

"I'm sure you're all wondering why I've called this meeting. And I will come to that, but first, I would like you to meet one of my best friends." She had let Misa in before the meeting and the girl had been nearby, awaiting her cue. In a graceful whirl of the usual black clothing, though today with a decent amount of white mixed in, Misa came bounding over, stopping next to Sayu, Rem floating behind her, ever watchful. "Hi everyone! I'm Misa Amane, maybe you've heard of me. It's so nice to finally officially meet you all!" She bowed.

There were a few open mouths and quickly blinking eyes. "You're friends with a celebrity?" Matt asked, impressed, looking the blonde girl up and down, earning Rem's narrowed stare. "She's cute." Misa smiled her sugary sweet smile, she used in public, hiding her true feelings. "Aww thank you. But for your own safety I should warn you, I have a girlfriend and she doesn't share." She giggled at his perplexed face and Sayu snorted, while Rem had a pleased aura surrounding her. "How come we're only meeting her now?" Light wondered, then bowed in return. "Hello, I'm Light Yagami, Sayu's brother. It's a pleasure to meet you." The others followed suit, introducing themselves with their real names, seeing no harm in being honest with Sayu's friend,except the Wammy's kids, not that it mattered.

"Misa is a well known celebrity, who is often recognized by fans and has to disguise herself, if she wants to go out in peace. We didn't want everyone to know about our friendship and maybe bother us about it, so we kept it a secret. But we really wanted you to finally meet her, so here we are. Please be mindful about this, we're still keeping it a secret from the public." This was met with understanding murmurs from the gathered people.

They spent some time answering questions and Misa worked her charm on everyone. When asked how they had met, they answered, that they had met one day in a park and discovered, that they had some important things in common and bonded over that. Seeing, that everyone was relaxed, Sayu shot Misa a glance and they stood up and stepped together. Sayu cleared her throat. "Now that you've met Misa, I'll get to the second reason for this meeting. I would like to introduce you all to someone very important, who has changed many lives, including mine. Although it is technically incorrect to say it is merely one person, we are actually a team. So without further ado, it is my pleasure to introduce to you..."

"Team Kira!" With a flashy and dramatic wave of her hand and striking a pose with Misa, that would have made her old theater teacher proud, Sayu presented them, though two of the four members of their team were currently invisible to most humans in the room.

There was a long moment of silence. Her brother raised his eyebrows, her parents looked confused, as did most of the others, the Wammy's kids and Watari had perfectly blank faces. "Is that a joke? Did you lose another bet?" Light asked, face indulgent and lightly amused, knowing she had stolen his penchant for dramatic gestures. Sayu and Misa sat on the edge of the table and swung their legs. "Oh no, brother dear, I am completely serious. We are Kira. I am Kira. Misa is Kira. We have two more members of our team, but us two do the most work due to certain reasons. But don't worry, you'll meet them in a moment."

Her father took a step forwards. "Sayu, this isn't funny," he said seriously, with a deep frown marring his face, her mother half a step behind him. "Dear, maybe we should let her explain. I think this is important." The two of them shared a long look, full of unspoken words, then her father and mother stepped back, next to Light. Sayu smiled at them. "Thank you." She held out her hand to Ryuk and he slid his hand behind his back and produced her death note, which he handed her with a smile.

She held it, so that everyone could see it, then addressed her brother. "Do you recognize this notebook ?" He looked at it with a thoughtful gaze, then nodded, as realization flooded his eyes. "Yes, I found that on the floor, back when I was still in high school, I think. I gave it to you, right?" He frowned at his probably hazy memories surrounding it. Sayu smiled, putting the note on her lap. "You did. You thought it was a prank, because of the instructions written inside and never used it. And you gave it to me and therefore gave up your ownership of it. Honestly, probably for the best, if you'll forgive me for saying so."

Light gave her a confused stare, then looked at the death note with furrowed brows. "What do you mean by that?" She readied herself and gave him a big smile. "Well, wouldn't you know it, this is no prank, it's the real deal. As you can see, it's called the death note and if you write someones name in it, while picturing their face, they will die." Her brother let out a snort, a look of disbelief on his face, which was echoed by most members of the taskforce. "Very funny, Sayu." But she wasn't done yet. "It also comes with a shinigami. If you don't believe me, just touch it. Anyone who touches the death note, will be able to see the shinigami it belongs to."

Her brother rolled his eyes, smiling and stepped to her side and touched the cover. Only to let out a yell, when his eyes landed on Ryuk, who gave him a grin and a wave. "Heya." In his shock, he had fallen to the ground, and quickly backed away. "What the...?"

After noting Light's reaction, the others, some more reluctantly than others, one by one touched the death note and reacted appropriately to seeing a god of death. By screaming, yelling, going white and/or falling over. Ryuk was enjoying the whole thing way too much, snickering and waving. Sayu rolled her eyes at her best friends antics, while Misa was giggling. "This is Ryuk, the shinigami, whose death note you just touched. Well, actually it belonged to another shinigami, but Ryuk stole it and the other is a complete doormat, so it's mine and his now." She shrugged with a grin, kicking her legs happily.

Misa got her own death note handed to her by Rem and continued their story. "I got my own death note from my shinigami, Rem. She's my girlfriend by the way. If you all would please touch it? It's much easier, if everyone can see and hear each other." Like in a trance, or more likely a state of shock, mixed with morbid curiousity, they all did so and hastily stepped back again, looking from Rem to Ryuk with wide eyes. "So, you're Kira," L stated in a cold tone, staring at the four of them with a blank look, hiding his swirling thoughts.

"Yes, we are. And you were right, that Kira needs a name and/or face. You need both a name and face, in order to kill the right person and not someone who shares the same name or has a similar face. Congrats. Don't look so glum. We're actually here to propose an alliance." The detective stared at her, face unreadable. "You want us to work together?" Sayu nodded with a smile. "That's right. Now, before you get all righteous, let us tell you our story and then we can debate like civil adults, with logic and facts. Alright?"

L looked at Watari and the two shared a long look of silent communication, then he turned towards Linda and the boys and another silent exchange happened. "Fine. We'll listen and then we'll talk." They all sat down and Sayu shot a glance at Linda, who stared back with a shuttered expressions. Something clenched in her stomach. Misa gripped her hand and gave her an encouraging smile.

Sayu began their story, talking about getting her death note from her brother and like him, brushing it off as a joke or some kind of art project. She spoke of a god of death appearing in her room and scaring the daylights out of her, telling her the truth of the innocent looking notebook. "She threatened me with scissors and a pencil and I knew, she'd be fun, hyuk hyuk." Ryuk laughed, grinning. Misa chuckled lightly. "I didn't truly believe it, until I wrote down the name of my parents' murderer and he died. I was so grateful for the chance to avenge my parents. I thought, with this, I can help others like me. And so I did."

Sayu took over again. "If you don't write down a cause of death, it will always be a heart attack. When criminals started dying from unexplainable heart attacks, I knew someone else had gotten a death note." Light looked sharply up at her at those words. "So, you hadn't used your death note before that?" Something like relief coloured his voice, and she smiled at him softly. "I have never written a name in my death note. I have never used it to kill anyone. Though I have condemned criminals to death, so I am not blameless. But we have never killed an innocent." Light and her parents seemed to relax a little bit at those words. Misa coughed, looking contrite. "I did kill the fake L, thinking he was the real one, but he was goading me to kill him and he turned out to be a criminal, so."

Sayu paused for a moment. "Oh, yeah. I almost forgot about that. After that incident, I decided to meet the fellow death note owner to see if they were a threat." She explained her coded message to arrange a meeting and how they had talked and decided to work together. She loosely talked about the plans they had made and their decision to only kill proven guilty criminals.

"We were worried about L, but luckily for us, you thought Light was suspicious and went to his university, giving us the opportunity we needed. See. a death note owner can make a deal with their shinigami to gain 'The Eyes', which allow you to see someone's name and remaining life span just by looking at them." Misa continued, by explaining, that the deal cost you half of your remaining life span, but that she had gotten the rest of her almost killers lifespan, when he was killed by a shinigami for her. She talked of going to To-Oh and seeing L's name, while he was playing tennis with Light, though she didn't say his name out loud. "So we've known your name for like a decade, but we didn't want to kill an innocent, so we stored that info away as a last resort."

Matt tilted his head. "So, wait, does that mean, you can see all of our names right now?" This caused everyone in the room to panic, which took a short while to defuse. Sayu waved her hands in a careless manner. "She's known all your names for years now. And we won't use them. Kira doesn't kill innocents." Like they had practiced, Rem and Ryuk drew themselves up and looked extra scary. "We, however have made no such promises," Rem growled menacingly. "So don't give us a reason, got it?" Ryuk added with a grin, that showed almost all his teeth.

Sayu clapped her hands, startling a few people. "Anyway, moving on." But she was interrupted by Linda, who looked sad and betrayed, eyeing her with a frown. So, you already knew my name, when I told you?" Sayu felt a shiver go through her. "No! I didn't. I told Misa, not to tell me, because I knew it meant a lot to you all." Then she gave the boys a slightly guilty look. "I also don't your names, only L's. Misa, and Rem and Ryuk obviously, are the only ones who know and we only did it as a safety precaution." They had hoped to never have to use the knowledge of their names, but it was better to be safe than sorry, so Misa had looked at them all, while in disguise in some public place. Sayu had felt somewhat guilty about it.

Linda hummed at that information, still wearing the blank look, as did the boys. The reveal of their plan of establishing contacts in every country and even the rare contacts, who had international access, earned them an impressed nod from the Wammy faction and Light. Sayu talked about the creation of fan articles and places for fan mail and how that had evolved over the years. About how they had undercover agents and how she had gotten the idea from Mello. About creating a public link for Kira, communicating with the people. "Having access to the taskforce was, of course, extremely helpful." She grinned, shrugging. Then she grew serious and looked at Light.

"I thought about telling you, you know. But I didn't want to involve you in this, because you're too similar to me, but you're also a perfectionist and I knew, you your rather naive yet extreme views on justice would keep driving you to do more, faster, and it would have consumed you and probably destroyed you." She smiled sadly at his shocked face and then looked down at her death note. "You were finally happy, as was I, and I didn't want you to have to hide again, like me. Before, I had felt so guilty, for finally finding a passion, that made me want to live and not sharing it with you." She paused a moment, then clarified. "By passion, I meant Ryuk and the ability to cause mischief, not the death note and it's ability to murder people, in case that was unclear."

After that, she spoke of their idea to use their followers to help change laws and try to weed out corrupt justice systems. Misa talked about a few of their different projects to help humanity and then, suddenly they were at the end of their story. "Well, I think that covers all the important things. I apologize for keeping this a secret from you. However I will not apologize for my actions, I do not owe you or anyone an apology for trying to make the world a better place." She shifted her expression from defensive and heated to calm and polite. "We now take questions and arguments." 'Which we will counter and destroy.' she thought. Just like they had practiced.

L started with the well expected question: "What makes you think you get to decide who gets to live and die? What you're doing is simply murder not justice."

Misa answered that question, as she was the one, who wrote down the names. "It isn't a matter of thinking if you have the right. We have the tools, therefore we can. And isn't justice paying for a crime, balancing the scales? We only wipe out the worst scum, proven guilty criminals of severe enough crimes, like murder (unless it was self-defense or an accident), sexual assault or terrorism. We don't punish theft or forgery, we give those people a chance to do better. A lot of the criminals we killed were already on death row or had life sentences. By showing that you get punished for those crimes, we have stopped many would-be-criminals, you have seen the reduced crime rates. We have received countless letters from avenged family members, friends and victims, thanking us for bringing them justice. Would you rather deny them that feeling of relief and safety? Rather have some of those monsters walk the streets again and committing the same crimes again, when we could have stopped them? Is that what you would call justice?"

The detective stayed silent, mulling over her words, staring at them in thought. Sayu decided to continue, driving the point home. "Do you know how many terrorist attacks we've prevented over the years? How many shootings, bombs, or gas attacks from violent groups or cults? How many corrupt politicians and business people we've eliminated?" She stared at all of them in turn, daring them to deny this.

"We aren't simply killing people, we are enacting justice for the victims. We build shelters and provide food, clothes, education. We use our followers and their resources to help the poor and those in need. We use them to help pass laws to ensure equality for all and protect those who should have always had that protection. I have seen you do plenty illegal things in the name of a case, so don't you dare play Mr. Morality with me. We have actively helped make the world a better place. Are any of you going to deny this? If so, do it to my face. Look me in the eyes and tell me the world is worse than it was before." Sayu felt the blood rush in her veins, heated passion coursing through her body. Misa was smiling at her with a proud look, while Ryuk was murmuring "That's my little fighter."

That wasn't the end of it, of course. Over the next hours, they all asked and answered many questions, discussing morality, justice, ethics and the like. At some point, between talking and taking a breather, Light came up to Sayu. She opened her mouth to talk, but before she could form a word or make a sound, he engulfed her in a hug. She froze, blinking. "I'm so proud of you," he whispered warmly and she could feel her eyes get a little teary, while she hugged him back. He let go and sat down next to her, an arm around her shoulders. "I can't believe, you managed to hide something so big from me for years." His smile grew a little sad. "But I understand why you did. I would have possibly gone just a little bit overboard." He brightened up again. "My little sister is a god, who changed the world. You're standing up for what you believe in."

Her parents chose that opportunity to join them, stopping before their children. Her mother quickly hugged her as well. Upon letting go, she cupped her face briefly. "I always knew you would find your passion and look at you now. My whole family, such fierce fighters for justice. The way you've chosen might be unconventional, but that doesn't mean it's wrong. I love you, dear." Her mother gave her another quick hug, then they looked at Sayu's father. He looked tired and conflicted, running his hands through his hair. He looked at her and swallowed. "I will need a little time to come to terms with this." He hesitated for a breath. "But I want you to know, that I love you, Sayu, and nothing will ever change that." He gave her a short but strong hug and Sayu felt a few tears run down her face.

The Wammy's faction had been, in the end, rather easy to convince to join forces. They could see the merit of an alliance. It was the rest of the taskforce, who needed a little bit more time, but they eventually agreed, partially motivated by Ryuk's threat of murdering all their loved ones, should they tell anyone Kira's identity. "Who, in their right mind, would believe a story about a notebook, that can kill people? And even then, we can hardly prove, who wrote down the names, with all the pages burned. And it would be pretty embarrassing to admit, that Kira was partly one of us this whole time." Matt laughed and shrugged. Then he turned to Ryuk.

"So, that means you're "TheShinigami" right?" Ryuk nodded, while munching on an apple, then narrowed his eyes. "And you better not be that damned "YourMom69"." Matt went pale for a moment. "Wicked. I'm not, but I can find out who is. Yer not gonna kill them though, right?"

At one point, Mello asked "Does this mean, he's been there all this time? Hanging around and watching us?" Sayu shrugged and waved her hands. "Not all the time. I need some privacy every now and then, but he's been around a lot, yeah." Mello looked at the gods of death thoughtfully. "That is extremely useful. You could do so many things with that." She grinned. "Oh, trust me, I know. But I'm open for new ideas, my friend." They shared a look full of mischief.

While Team Kira was talking with Near, about shinigami and if they knew of other supernatural beings, a question, they had discussed many times before, Misa suddenly elbowed Sayu excitedly. "We were right! It changed! It says Yagami now! Awwwwww!" It took her a second to process the words, then realization kicked in and she looked at L, though she didn't see anything, of course.

Sayu and Misa had been wondering how it was decided which name belonged to a human. Was it the name they were born with? The one they identified with? What if one legally changed their name, or got married and adopted a new last name? What about adoption in general? So they had done some investigating. At pride, which they went to every year, and other places, they had met many individuals, who didn't identify with their birth name and even before legally changing it, Misa had seen their chosen name appear above their heads.

When Sayu had shown Misa a picture of her parents, Misa had seen her mother with the last name Yagami, even though she had only gotten that name when she had married their father. "So it has to be the name you identify with, the one you chose, not the one chosen for you by others." Rem and Ryuk had speculated, that only the name tied to the humans soul would be valid. "If you believe in that kinda thing," Ryuk had added, shrugging. When Misa had told her, that the boys and Linda all had, what were probably their birth names, floating above them, instead of their code names, Sayu had thought it made sense.

They had wondered, if L's parents had really named him that, or if, after becoming L, he had simply felt more connected to that name than his birth name and only kept his last name so to speak. "Certainly makes more sense than his parents naming him after a letter. Who does that?" Watching married couples also proved interesting, as a lot had the same last name above their heads, but some had different ones. "Either they decided on one of them keeping their original last name, or one of them doesn't identify with their new legal last name. Maybe an arranged marriage or trouble in paradise?"

If their theory of the name being the one tied to the soul was true, that left them still with some questions. Would a child of divorce have the last name of the parent they liked more appear above them? What about an orphan who never knew their name? Perhaps a foster name or the name used in legal documents? What about someone with multiple personalities? What if someone didn't connect with any name? Could a person have no name tied to their soul? Ryuk and Rem hadn't known the answers to that. "Maybe someone higher up would know. But you shouldn't want their attention on you," Rem had remarked thoughtfully.

Sayu echoed Misa's excited squeal and smiled at L. "Aww. You're really part of the family now. There's no escaping us, you're one of us forever now, haha." Seeing everyone's confused faces, they explained their theory on names. Near seemed especially interested in that idea and it turned into a long discussion.

Sayu smiled, looking at her loved ones, all in one room, getting along and talking excitedly. Ukita, Mogi, Ide and Aizawa were talking with Misa, who was smiling kindly and seemingly explaining something. Matt and Mello were animatedly discussing something with Ryuk, who was grinning and eating bubblegum (most likely apple-flavoured). Near was sitting next to them, listening silently and every now and then throwing in a comment. Her parents, Light, L and Watari were drinking some tea and shared some words calmly. Matsuda and Naomi were laughing over some snacks, looking happy and cheeks a bit red. That left only... .

"We should probably talk about this." Sayu turned around to find Linda at her side, looking calm but serious. She nodded and the two of them went into a room to talk privately. Sayu shuffled, a little nervously. "So, I know this is a lot. If you're angry, I understand. I just want you to know, that I wasn't deceiving you and I was only lying about the Kira thing, nothing else. I love you, but if you don't want to be together anymore because of this, I would understand." She looked to the floor, waiting, hoping, worrying. Linda let out a sigh, tipping Sayu's head up so they were face to face again.

"I knew you were hiding something. I'm not an idiot, but I knew it was important to you and you respected my secrets and privacy. I fell in love with Sayu Yagami and that is still you, even if you are also Kira. I'm happy, that you trust me enough to have told me the truth. I wouldn't want a secret to hover over us like a shadow. I know all of you now, and I'm staying." She leaned forwards and they shared a kiss filled with relief and joy and acceptance. "I love you," Sayu whispered, like sharing a treasured secret. Linda smiled. "I love you," she whispered in return.

"Actually," the girl said quietly, uncharacteristically shy, "there's something I've been toying with. I thought about going back to using my old name. I like Linda, but I would like to use my real name again, to be Linnea again." Sayu was silent in shock and surprise for a moment, then broke out into a smile. "I think that's wonderful. Do you want to tell the others or do you want it to be just between us for now?" Her girlfriend smiled, eyes glowing happily. "I want to see if it still fits first, but after that, I think I'll tell the others too. I'm ready to reclaim my identity! I think you've inspired me."

They talked a bit more alone, before rejoining the others. Some time later, Light sat down next to her, looking over the others. "Never a dull moment, huh?" He grinned at her playfully. Sayu felt herself return it. "Not with these guys." She shook her head and leaned on her brother's shoulder. "We've really done it. I often wonder how, but we got that happy future, we thought impossible." Light sighed, happy. "I couldn't tell you. But life hasn't been boring for a long time now, and I'll enjoy every second of it." The siblings sat and reveled in the happy moment, utterly content.

And they both thought, that they had fought boredom, their worst enemy, and emerged victorious.