Jesus answered, "You have said so."

♥♥♥

There was no passage of time in jail when you were on trial — when you would be convicted on death row. Misa knew that better than anyone else at the moment.

She slumped against the cold, hard wall of the thin mattress that was now her bed. That would be her bed for the next five to seven years, and that was if the courts were speedy in killing her. Knowing them, they would drag out her misery until she was too pathetic for their amusement.

They'd told her when she'd woken up that Light was dead. That he'd been shot five times by Touta Matsuda, the sweet man with the ruffled black hair and the clumsy way of tripping over himself whenever he saw her. Then Ryuk, Light's shinigami, had finished him off.

She'd asked after Ryuzaki. After L, the last person alive who still might care about her. Aizawa had given her no reply.

But that didn't matter anymore. Her Light was dead. Life wasn't worth living anymore, not without him. And to make matters even worse for her, her cell had been specially designed to make no methods of suicide available. She would be found guilty through L's evidence, and someday, she would join Light in the grave.

What would death be like, with neither heaven nor hell to await her? Would she see Light again? Would he be there to hold her close, to tell her everything was all right, as long as she was there and he could be with her?

Misa's hand touched her cheek, and she smiled bitterly. No. His last gesture was a slap. And he...he never had...

He never had...

She couldn't finish the thought. Letting out a screaming sob, she rolled over and wept into her bare mattress. All she wanted was someone close. Someone who understood. Someone who would listen, damn it.

But that would never happen. It wouldn't. It couldn't.

"Misa Amane." The Grim Reaper spoke at her door, and a man walked through. He sat down, adjusting his glasses. He looked somewhat like L, but his eyes were ice-cold, and there was a neatness to him that L lacked. And suddenly, Misa just wanted the detective close by – even though he was the one who had condemned her.

The man spoke, his mouth set in a neutral expression. "My name is Teru Mikami. I will, regrettably, be your prosecutor. But first, I want you to tell me everything about what has happened. I'm not sure I can believe it, though I am a Kira supporter and am fond of your doings."

Misa's mouth hung open for a long moment, and she studied him – his wine-red shirt, neat getup, and how he looked at her with a mixture of awe and sympathy. But something didn't feel right. And it was only then that Misa spotted Rem, whose head poked through the ceiling. As always, the shinigami's lips were slightly agape, and she looked at Misa with blank eyes.

"The Death Note has a new owner," Rem said. "And he will agree to save your life. Trust this man for now, and I will ensure that your benefactor follows through on pain of death."

Misa looked to Mikami, who waited there with patience. Then back to Rem. Then to Mikami. And her mouth dropped open even wider.

It can't be, she thought. It's impossible.

Ryuzaki?

L?

♔♔♔

Watari had lived with L and been both father and logistician for seventeen years, and there was one thing that struck him as odder than anything else his child did. L had no internal clock governing his daily activities, and thus his circadian rhythm was constantly and forever warped. He would often stay up for days at a time, then sleep for sixteen to twenty-four hours, so profoundly that Watari was concerned that someday he would end up in a permanent coma.

L had chosen the latter part of this odd cycle. It had been twelve hours, and he showed no sign of waking up. The doctors had reluctantly administered anesthesia and performed the necessary surgeries for his shattered hand – he'd had to have several bones replaced, and others were weaker than before, unlikely to recover completely.

Watari had insisted on staying for the surgery. After all, he was a medical doctor, and in his life, he had renewed his license for his son's safety. And even now, he refused to leave L's side, holding his good hand and speaking gently to him. Perhaps then, L would wake up. Maybe he would still function as he usually did – like a well-oiled machine that never needed a tune-up.

But Watari thought something had changed in the boy. In that final moment, when Light gave his speech, L's eyes were full of tears. Watari should have been there. He should have wiped those tears and put a bullet in Light's head before he had a chance to hurt L.

And yet...

And yet...

"Misa..." L groaned. "Light...please...don't you hear the bells? They're...beautiful. You should...come...and listen..."

A single tear rolled down his cheek, and his head slumped to the side. But he was still breathing.

Watari sighed. That was the change he had noticed. L hadn't put his feelings aside in the middle of this case. Why hadn't he done that? Why had he befriended his suspects, something he had sworn would never happen?

It was such a simple yet complicated answer. But being a father, Watari could understand. And a strange smile crossed his face. "I suppose...that is an affirmative, then. You did love them."

L's fingers tightened around his. For the tiniest moment, his eyes fluttered open, gray and piercing, just as they'd been all those years ago when Wammy had found him in that abandoned mansion in Moyle, Northern Ireland.

Then he closed them again, wordlessly. And Watari took that as a delicate, silent nod.

♙♙♙

Soichiro Yagami, formerly the chief of the NPA, walked toward the train station to go home from Light's funeral. He shared an umbrella with his other child, Sayu, who was solemn. He remembered her being more bubbly than this in the past. Now, he wasn't sure she would ever smile again.

She looked up at him, beaming. But it wasn't real. "Daddy," she said softly, "do you think Kira will ever come back?"

"Do you...want him to come back?" Soichiro responded, gripping the umbrella. The rain pittered down upon the plastic like a shield for lament itself.

"No," Sayu said, shaking her head decisively. "He took our Light away."

That was the lie the public and Soichiro himself had espoused. No one could ever know the truth – that Japan's top student, a protégé at To-Oh university, befriended by L and a member of the Kira investigation – had been the mass murderer. His victims totaled one hundred thousand. Every day, the NPA dealt with more bodies, many undiscovered due to the way Kira had inscribed their methods of death.

Soichiro looked back. Sachiko, his beloved, was dressed all in black, her face invisible beneath the umbrella. He looked toward the train, then to Sayu. "Take the train. We'll catch up with you, sweetheart."

Sayu looked very sad. "Um... all right, Dad." She walked up to the entrance, her body no longer carrying that girlish, youthful skip in each step.

Soichiro closed his umbrella, turning around. "Sachiko."

She stood there for a long time, the rain sticking her hair to her face. Soichiro had always seen her as beautiful even as she aged, and he always would, no matter what. But it was far easier now to see every gray hair, every wrinkle around the eyes, every age spot.

"Soichiro..." She was quiet.

They stood like that for a while at the busy train station, waiting for something. A miracle? A prayer? A deity to wipe their tears away and tell them it would be all right?

That won't do, Soichiro thought, remembering his son and what he wanted to achieve. It's hard, but we have to stay hopeful. Light wanted to create a world free of evil. We can't do that, but...

Sachiko fell into his arms, weeping passionately, her chest heaving against his. Soichiro gripped her back.

We can do our best to be just, and love mercy, too.

And it starts with my own family...or, at least, what's left of it.

And wordlessly, they held one another beneath the rainy night lights in Tokyo.

~~~

Did you know...

- Mikami is one of the most intriguing characters in Death Note, in my opinion. I'm writing him with OCPD (not to be confused with OCD) in Killer With a Pure Heart.

- I have a Discord server for my readers. Just go to my profile on whatever website you're using and you'll find a link to it. You'll get notified for soft-launches, get to read stories earlier, and connect with other fans of my work!

Tell me what you think...

- What will L do once he saves Misa?

- What's one thing I could improve on in my writing?