Choices

The choices people make, the paths people take have unintentional consequences to others and the people that they love.

“Wait, Kira was your father?”

“Yes, his name was Light Yagami. She has never mentioned my father’s name but we share the same last name.”

“How do you know Light Yagami was Kira?”

“I read about him in the reports my mom had kept from the investigation. She didn’t hide them too well. My mother, Stephan and L-no Near exposed Light to be Kira and with him caught a shinigami named Ryuk killed him.”

“Why don’t you hate Stephan?”

“Sani betrayed the one she supposedly loved. Stephan had no connection to him. At least he is taking care of me too. Sani is too busy working with Kiara and Near to pay any attention to me.”

“Sani...” he says to himself. The name sounds familiar to Lucca but he cannot pinpoint why. “She probably doesn’t want to see your face because you remind her of her sin.”

“The sad thing is I really don’t look like him though so she can’t even use that excuse.” He looks in the mirror at his dark almost black hair and dark brown eyes-both darker than Light’s.

“Well, at least one of your parents is still alive and you have someone that is taking care of you that isn’t a promiscuous drunk. Goodnight, Taro.” Lucca curls up on the couch under a blanket while Taro continues to look at himself in the mirror, seeing his face as Light’s. He holds his head as a headache arises from him not understanding why his mother would kill her husband- the man Taro worships even in death, why she didn’t embrace his ideals and most importantly why didn’t she love him or Taro enough to save his father’s life for his sake.

 

            Japan 2007. Sani approaches the graves of L and Watari the Kira investigation team had made for them without anyone else knowing; they wanted the world to think L was still alive for they didn’t know about his successors. She thought they had all left but she quickly hides behind a tree seeing that one person remains. His back is to her but she can hear him. He seems to be laughing to himself hysterically. She can’t tell if he is truly distraught or elated. And then he talks to himself quietly at first and them loudly.

“Now everything...my way...gone. Everyone... believes... me. It’s only... time before... rid... police.” He’s on all fours shouting at L’s gravestone now.

“What do you think of that, L? This is my perfect victory! That’s right, I win!” A devilish smirk and raging eyes show on his face, an expression Sani can’t see but can feel. She gets closer to hear what his is saying as his voice level lowers.

“Did you say that you no longer have anything interesting to look forward to, Ryuk? Well, that won’t be the case.” He gets back onto his feet. “From now on, I will show you the creation of the new world.”

            He walks away, his hair still shrouding his face. Sani knows he must be Kira; a man in a suit with short light brown hair, a brilliantly-masked dark disposition who talks to an invisible being named, Ryuk. Knowing that Light was L’s main suspect of being Kira-this chance encounter proved to Sani that her cousin was deceiving them all.  

            Confirming that this was L’s and Watari’s graves, Sani contacts Roger to have them moved to Winchester. Sani makes a plot for them in the graveyard behind the church with their names and dates of birth and death on the gravestones. She gets them ready for the proper funeral tomorrow morning with many of his successors, current and past children of Wammy House all coming to Winchester to pay their respects. She engraves epitaphs on each; Quillish Wammy, 1936-2007, Famous inventor and father to all the children of the Wammy House. Linkin Lawliet, she puts to not draw suspicion from the one letter first name, 1982-2007, justice for all the children of the world who are free to choose their own path. Surrounding their graves with flowers she talks to them for a while, her tear droplets on the petals and leaves on the flowers. A man approaches her from behind as she stands up to wipe off the dirt and grass from her skirt and tears from her eyes.

“Linkin Lawliet? So that is L’s real name? He says. She turns around hoping that Kira hadn’t followed her here after the press release about Watari’s death and Wammy’s House for the gifted. Despite having a suit on, seeing the man having semi-long dark brown hair and dark eyes and a familiar face she is at ease.

“How do you know L?” She asks.

“You mean you don’t remember me, Sani. We grew up together; even of it was only for a short time.” She looks at his face closer trying to picture him as a child. Slowly a name comes to mind.

“R-ei..ji? Reiji Namikawa!”

“That’s right.” She gives him a big hug with her head to his chest. Caught off guard, his arms are trapped in her grip.

“It’s been so long, I haven’t seen you since your parents found you.” She says as she looks up at him.

“A little late since I was already fifteen, but I know; it’s been almost fifteen years.” He smiles as he looks down at her being taller-he being 5’9” and she being 5’3”.

“Yes, you left when Bran came. You are a little older than us; that’s why I don’t remember you as well.”

“For not remembering me, you are very comfortable with hugging me.” Sani releases her embrace feeling embarrassed.

“Have you kept in touch with the others or Rodger?” A tear falls from her eye and Reiji wipes it away.

“A few, but I have been busy with establishing a career. It would seem I picked the wrong company to work for though.”

“Oh, thank you.” She takes her collar of her short to clean her face. “Where do you work?”

“Have you heard of the corporation, Yotsuba?”

“Yes, that’s a corporation in Japan right? I haven’t heard anything to good lately, though. The rumor is that Kira helped them eliminate their competition.”

“It’s more than a rumor, it’s the truth…one of our top members was Kira, but L helped us regain control over our company. I even spoke with him and we both thought Kira to be the same person. No wonder I earned the title “I’.”

“Roger told you that he died?”

“Yes, there are only a few of us from the first generation that keep in contact with him. He also informed me that I’m not in the running to succeed L any longer. Apparently two kids from the fourth generation are the best candidates.” He shrugs his shoulders feeling indifferent.

“Mello and Near…those two are something else. It sounds like you have a bright future ahead of you! Well, I’m happy I got to see you again. I live in Kyoto now, but if you ever want to get together for dinner or something- let me know.” She tucks her hair behind her ear and smiles at him.

“Oh, of course. I’ll see you around, Sani.” He bows to her and she bows to him. As he leaves to meet with Roger he notices much space in the plot for more graves; little did they know that Mello, Matt and others would find their resting place here in the years that follow. Not soon after L’s death, Reiji Namikawa was buried behind L; Kira had killed him too. At his funeral with her hair concealing her emotions, holding Kiara’s hand with one hand and her other hand in a fist tells it all, she swears that she will capture Kira no matter what.

            Reiji Namikawa was the vice president of sales at the international corporation called Yotsuba whose headquarters was in Tokyo. Naturally, being a leader of sales, his social skills were one of his best talents but he also was a highly skilled Shogi player (Japanese Chess). Sani was the only person to ever challenge and beat him at Wammy’s House. Briefly before L’s death, Light had given ownership of his death note to Kyosuke Higuchi to turn L’s suspicions away from him and Misa and to another Kira; eight men where part of the meetings that decided who Kira would kill next. The catch is that none knew who possessed the death note so they had to participate in fear of Kira killing them.

            Eventually Reiji wanted to know which one of them was Kira after L had contacted him being almost certain that Reiji wasn’t Kira. Ruling out Hatori after being killed first because he didn’t want to participate in the meetings and Mido and Shimura after they revealed to Reiji that they weren’t Kira, they narrowed it down to Takahashi, Kida, Ooi or Higuchi. Knowing that one of the four is known to be obsessed with money and status they all agreed that Higuchi had to be Kira. Soon after their meeting, L carries out his plan to apprehend Higuchi and was able to discover how Kira was killing people-the death note and the shinigami attached to it. Taking it in his possession, when Light was allowed to touch it to see the shinigami, Rem-all of his memories returned at once. When an owner of the death note gives ownership to another until he or she touches it again they lose all their memories of association with the death note.

            With Higuchi dead after Light killing him, Yotsuba’s remaining members had to clean up the mess he made, slowly regaining the trust of other major international corporations. When Light was able to get rid of L, he killed anyone who knew about the death note-meaning all the Yotsuba men. Setting their death dates six months after L’s, as they were about to start a new beginning for their company one by one they fell to the ground of the meeting room-all dying from heart attacks seconds after the other.

 

            Kyoto 2008. Sani returns to Japan with Kiara to continue law school at Kyoto University; she is on her second year. While in law school, she quickly learned how Kira has influenced court systems and most lawyers are afraid to be a defense attorney to those that the public thinks to be guilty and prosecutors against those who the public thinks as innocent. In both cases many lawyers have witnessed Kira past judgment on all parties involved, but Sani sees them as coincidences knowing that Light only kills criminals…and those in his way. Sani also quickly learned which future lawyers not to trust- all of them. Many stir up drama inside and outside the courtroom and Sani avoided it the best she could. For the most part she keeps to herself feeling out of place being three years older than most of them since she started school when she was 20.

            On a short lunch break between classes she sits on a ledge on the roof of the library and eats Ramen noodles. She burns her tongue multiple times trying to scarf down the food quickly. She fans her tongue and gulps down cold water. She pours some of her cold water in the noodle cup to cool it down but it dilutes the flavor. She hears a faint giggle in the distance as she tosses the noodles an eats an energy bar instead. Thinking she was alone, she scopes out the area to see a man reading a newspaper pretending that he wasn’t watching her amusing antics. She pretends to walk away but she sneaks up behind him to see what he is reading.

“You’re definitely a law student. Reading up on the latest criminal news I see.” He calmly lowers the newspaper and turns around to face her.

“A superior student is always learning, even on break. Today I learned that even some adults still don’t know how to eat noodles. Although, you don’t look Japanese so I guess it’s okay.”

“For your information I am Japanese; that’s one of the races I do know that I am.” She says with one hand on her hip and the other hand’s fingers snapping in a Z-formation.

“Black is another one I assume.” He turns his attention back to his newspaper.

“So you’re just going to make a snide remark and ignore me now! What are you reading that’s so important?” She snatches the newspaper out of his hand.

“I scare myself sometimes.” He says with his chin resting on his hands contemplatively. Sani reads the list of criminal names who Kira has judge and even some corrupt businessmen- the Yotsuba members were among them. “Many of the people who I thought Kira should delete-were. I want to believe it is all a coincidence.” He stands up and turns to Sani. “I don’t know why I am telling you all this. Looking into your eyes I can see the pain injustice has caused you.”

“You’re right. Many of my loved ones have died without their killer being brought to justice.” She hangs her head down, but the man raises it back up.

“Fear not, Kira will make all right. He has already proven to me that people will pay for their sins and divine judgment will be passed on them. This truth has been proven again and again to me since I was a child. Justice will prevail.” He smiles at her thinking of the days where the bullied overwhelmed the bullies in middle school, when three of the worst bullies in his high school were killed in a car crash and even when a bystander-his mother got hit by their car and died. His mother didn't want Teru to get beat up at school every day for standing up for what he believe in. She told him to give into peer pressure to keep himself safe for the violence-beatings meant for other kids.

Sani’s mixed feelings about Kira arise again. She knows his intentions were good but the way he has gone about it is evil. But then she wonders if her mother had left her with the Yagamis from the start, would she support Light and be a devote follower like this man? Intrigued by this man, she puts herself in his mindset.

“You’re right, again. I want to become a defense attorney to keep the falsely accused and those who can be reformed out of jail. The court system needs much reform as much as the law does.” He softly runs his hand through her hair.

“We can reform all together. I have two more years of school before I can begin my career-my lifelong mission. Will you join me…?”

“Sani, Sani Lawliet.” She extends her hand.

“Teru, Teru Mikami” he copies and shakes her hand.

 “You can just call me Teru, though.” He folds up the newspaper, tucks it into his bag and heads down the stairs as Sani gathers her things and follows behind him. They walk to the law school building holding hands. Teru notices she has a ring on her left ring finger and she simply tells him the truth, “He died before we could get married.” They arrive at the building but head to different classes, but before they part ways Teru makes an offer.

“I live in an apartment complex not too far from campus. Yoshiashinmachi: apartment number 1012. You should come over sometime-I can cook you a more traditional noddle dish.”

“I may take you up on that offer, Teru.”

            As Sani got deeper and deeper into a relationship with Teru, she learns his views on many things; how he believes that it is harder to reform a person as they get older, those who have no reason to exist is a threat to those around them, wanting to be a prosecuting attorney to pass judgment on criminals so Kira can “delete” them and that evil will be “deleted.” Things he took to an extreme when he obtained the death note years later.She also sees how hard it would be for him to have a child in his life. He lives a very schedule-orderly life; going to the gym certain days at certain times for a certain amount of time, when he goes to the bank, what time he wakes up to get ready in the morning and how long it takes him and especially how neat and orderly he keeps his apartment. For the time being, she keeps Kiara a secret until she can decide on if she wants him to be involved in their lives and he want to be involved in Kiara’s as a father. The one thing that she changed in this routine was what time he went to sleep with varied by how long they stayed out on the town and how long they stayed up fooling around.

            Kyoto 2009. At one point, Halle came to visit Sani with Mello from the States; at the time Mello is only sixteen and Halle took the role of being his “legal guardian” really letting him do what he wants. Sani always saw their relationship as a little weird since she knew both liked each other on a much more loving level beyond just “mother “ and “son” despite being ten years apart and Halle being Sani's age.

When Halle joined the Kira investigation she made it very clear that she wasn’t on Near or Mello’s side- she just wanted to catch Kira for killing a relative of hers. While investigating Kiyomi Takada, she would leak information to Mello on her own an eventually by Near’s request as well. She did know Mello before Near however, but Mello was too young to remember anything before Wammy House.

          She tells them how intense Mikami’s beliefs and feelings about Kira are and if she should be so involved with a man who believes Kira to be God. Mello suggest that she stick with him just in case he finds some use for him in the future to catch Kira before Near does and Halle agrees. Contacting Near as well, he suggests the same thing and tells her to encourage Mikami to attend events where Kira will be watching and maybe Kira will pass his power onto him. Not even knowing it then, their plan was already set in motion and Kira did eventually notice Teru Mikami when he started to frequent TV programs for debates and public opinions on Kira on the infamous program known as “Sakura TV’ and later by “Kira’s Kingdom.”

            Summer 2009. Being on break from school, Sani thought it would be the perfect time for Mikami to meet her daughter-but first she needed to tell him about her. Just recently Mikami had asked her to move in with him and she hasn’t told him yes or no yet. At his apartment they eat dinner quietly. Sani is hoping to start a conversation in which she can tell him not so abruptly but he is quiet tonight-waiting for her to say something. So she does.

“Teru, remember when I told you I was engaged when we first met?” She says as she looks down at her plate trying to cut her chicken breast.

“Yes. But you said he died…don’t tell me that was a lie.” He leans over the table and grips her arm so she’ll stop cutting her meat. She looks at him in the eyes.

“He did die, that part is true but I haven’t been completely honest about my past relationship.” He scrunches his eyebrows as he looks in her eyes trying to find out the truth before she says it. “We did thing backwards I guess. I have a daughter and her name is Kiara. She is nine years old. She’s over my aunt’s house most nights so that is why you never meet her when you came over.” Removing his hand from her arm, he sits back down in his chair. “Do you think you can handle someone else’s child in your life?” He folds his hands together in front of his mouth and close his eyes as he takes a deep breath through his nose.

“Why did you wait this long to tell me something as important as this?”

“I was afraid to ruin something good before I realized what this was. I know having a child in your life is a big change, but I’m hoping you a willing to make that change for me. I love you, Teru.” She sets hands on the table palm-up as if she is pleading her case. He sits back and folds his arms, looking away from her.

“No, if you love me you’d know me by now. I don’t want children, Sani.-not yours, not some other man’s and not mine.” He slams his hands on the table as he knocks his chair back. “Do you really think we can raise a child properly with our careers!? You already devote so much time to school and I.” She hangs her mouth open unable to respond. “Who knows how damaged your daughter’s life already is if you’re here all the time, your aunt is raising her and her father is dead!” She puts her arms around her stomach as she hangs her head in shame-soaking the floor and table with her tears. “She’ll end up as one of your clients one day and you’ll defend the guilty. Is that what you want?”

“How…dare…you. How dare you judge my daughter- you don’t even know her! How dare you call me a bad mother!” Her eyes are filled with rage as she slams her hands on the table and knocks over her chair.

“You’re the one who said it, not I. Now, get out. If you really love me…no if you really love yourself and your child-you will leave.” He turns away from her and jerks his head in the direction of the door.

“So that’s it. This is how you want to end it?” She asks him as she walks to the door. He walks off to his bedroom and locks the door without saying a word, without knowing if she left or not. He runs water in his bathroom sink as he looks at himself in the mirror. He knows where his job can lead him especially in a world where Kira and those against him still exist. He doesn’t know if Kira will prevail and Teru will be a hero to his people or if Kira will fall and he will be killed for believing Kira to be God. Either way he will be guilty by association and he doesn’t intend on straying from the path he has set for himself-no matter who comes in and out of his life, no matter the consequences of his actions. In the mirror he sees himself fixing his tie as a prosecuting attorney but behind him is height bars used in mug shots. With an emotionless expression, he can feel his heart hardening.

            January 25^th, 2013. Matt and Mello are in Kiara’s room. Matt is hunched over the side of her bed loading his smoke bomb gun while Mello is researching the schedule of a delivery truck he can use to kidnap Takada on her laptop at her desk. Kiara’s arms are wrapped around Matt’s waist as she uses his butt as a pillow. Mello’s motorcycle helmet lies next to Matt’s car keys on Kiara’s nightstand. Down the hall, Sachiko Yagami leaves a bedroom in her pajamas. She tells Kiara and the boys goodnight before heading downstairs to tell Sani she’s going to bed. She pays no mind to Kiara having two clearly older boys planning on sleeping in her room. Downstairs, seeing her with her head on the piano’s keys she rubs her back and asks her, “What’s wrong, my niece?” as she puts on her coat.

“Just tired, auntie. Thank you for watching him for me today. I won’t make this a routine I promise.”

“Oh you know I don’t mind. I love the company. Little man and I visited Sayu today. He really helped her smile again today-even if it was just a faint one.”

“I hope she recovers quickly.” Sani hugs her goodnight.

“She will, I just know she will.” She smiles and heads to a guest room one the first level of the home.

            Sani sits on the couch drinking a glass of water while listening to a CD with a collection of jazz music. She keeps it loud enough to drown out her thought but low enough to hear the door. 10:30 at night, the doorbell rings as Sani was drifting off to sleep. She jumps up at the sound feeling alarmed. Regaining her composure, she ties back her hair with the hair-tie she keeps around her wrist and fixes her clothes to look somewhat presentable. The doorbell sounds off again and she starts unlocking the door. Opening the door, the porch light illuminates the figure of the man standing on the other side. Wearing his glasses, his suit and tie, the man she hadn’t spoken to in almost four years now stands at her door wanting to come in.