0. Prologue - First Meeting

Raito Yagami found his life boring.

It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the little special moments he receives at home when his father is actually home from work to have dinner with them. He couldn't find it in his heart to call such moments as those boring, but he is used to his father being scarce. His father is the chief of the Tokyo Police Department and he keeps the city as safe as possible.

It wasn't his obedient and sometimes nosy sister, who at times would ask him personal questions that he answered vague enough to stir her imagination. She did nothing else aside from that or occasionally peek in at inappropriate times, and if she really needs it, asks for homework help on mathematics. Raito didn't seem bothered by any of it and tended to his sister's needs patiently.

It was the repeating days that bored him.

Everyday would go on and on and on, starting and ending the same with few differences that drew out Raito's annoyance.

It would start with him walking to school, greeted by his group of "friends". It would continue on from there, attending classes that Raito sat through while listening to the teacher blabber on about something he already understood and covered way ahead of the class. Lunch would soon unfold and Raito would receive love confessions from different girls that he kindly rejected. The reason would be that he was too busy studying to have any time for a girlfriend (which of course was a white lie). They just weren't girls Raito would be interested in.

The type of girl Raito would consider dating is a girl who shared the same intellectuality. He wanted a girl that suspended him, challenged him (not in a way that would make him cringe or glare, mind games to his level), surprised him, and amazed him. He had his particulars for girls, both in appearance and personality and none of the girls at his high school qualified what he was looking for.

Now it was summertime.

He wondered if he would meet a girl like that in university. He wouldn't rely on luck or have his hopes up too high. There were other things he could at least pretend to enamor himself with and he wasn't much of a dependent person (at least, not in the beginning).

The summer was calm and the weather, unpredictable. He didn't have "friends" that tried to impress him or got too close to his disliking; they were all preoccupied with their own senior-high-school-summertime affairs. He didn't have to sit through classes listening to his instructors teach, or in Raito's case, review something he already knew. He didn't have anything bothering him or drawing out his annoyance and yet…

He was still bored.

There was no excitement in the air that he walked in and out of. There were no conspicuous inanimate objects lying about that could attract his rare curiosity. There were no girls that fit his likings around his neighborhood either. It would be a slow morning, afternoon, and night. Raito couldn't understand the thrill his younger sister got out of summertime other than catching up on her soap dramas.

It had to be a girl thing.

Every summer day started and ended like that until a certain Thursday. Raito had woken up from a gentle slumber and walked downstairs to serve himself a bowl of cereal, when he noticed the tiny calendar hung on the fridge by magnets was marked today for Cram School. Of course, there was nothing special about Cram School, but he just found it odd that he had forgotten.

He shrugged it off and assumed the boredom swallowed up his organizing skills.

He went back to eating his cereal, unbeknownst to the commercial playing in the living room television that Sayu lie on her stomach in front of. She was clad in her dark orange and white polka dot two-piece pajamas, as if she spent the night there. Raito had rolled his eyes before pouring himself cereal when he came down and noticed his sister's presence.

On the television was the famous model Misa Amane, radiant with her Barbie soprano of a voice and exotic appearance. Sayu had squealed to herself as she watched the model's latest commercial about perfume, but Raito, at the time, didn't care and ignored his sister's fan-girling.

When he finished his cereal, he walked back upstairs and began his steps for preparing for Cram school; make bed, set folded and ironed clothes on made bed, take a hot shower, comb hair, and dress. Raito had always been neat as much as he had been smart. At the age of two, Raito could already read an entire Atlas book.

He would call out every country or continent his mother quizzed him on. If asked, he would list cities, towns, and their landmarks. It puzzled his parents at first, but they've come to appreciate Raito's intelligence. Deep down though, Raito can tell that they wished he hadn't grown so fast.

That made Raito smile to himself as he stared at his reflection. He had just shut the shower off and stepped out to face the misted mirror from the steam, he ran his palm across where his face would be and stared at himself. He wasn't one to stare at his reflection in the morning, but… it felt different today somehow.

"I wonder…" he murmured to himself.

-0-

A girl was running away as far as possible from a knife-wielding figure. She couldn't find anyone to help her and she wasn't thinking straight. That's the only reason to justify why she ran into more alleyways, right?

"You lied to me!" the voice cried from behind her.

"I did it to protect you!" she shouted. "I did all of this to protect us! All I wanted was for you to love me! I wanted you to know that I'm no one to be scared of, that I'm there to protect you—" she turned around when she was cornered at a dead-end, making a mistake as the figure stabbed the knife deep into her womb.

"…" Her eyes widened in pain as she staggered back against the wall, pupils flickering in her eyes.

"No, you're a liar! A selfish liar! I regret letting myself fall in love with you!"

"….Yuki." she uttered brokenly, starting to shake but it wasn't from the agony of her penetrated womb. She pulled the knife out by its hilt quickly, gasping and crying out. "Yuki! Don't say that! I love you with all of my h-heart—" he retook the knife and stabbed her womb again.

"Die…" he hissed in her ear. "For what you did to my family, my friends, and to… Akise-kun!"

"Yuki, it hurts!" she cried.

Yuki stepped back, his face shadowed as he withdrew the knife by its hilt—too fast out of her wound that she screamed—and when he looked up, his eyes were unapologetic. "Goodbye, Yuno…"

"Please don't kill yourself, Yuki! I LOVE YOU!" She clutched to her bleeding womb, staggering towards him but he moved further back and shook his head.

"Not this time, you psychotic bitch!" he smashed his own diary, making her eyes widen hugely. "I won't miss you and your manipulation!"

"…." When he disintegrated to nothingness, Yuno screamed at the top of her lungs until her voice cracked and her body decided to fall back. She let herself lie there, staring at the sky with deeply traumatized eyes and quivering lips, all the while, barely suppressing the bleeding from her womb. "H-help m-me…" she whispered, even though she knew it was pointless.

-0-

Raito was walking his way to Cram School with the skies gray and ready to rain above him. His bag was hung over his jacketed shoulder and he was set to go, what with the bus fare his mother offered him shortly before he left. He didn't ask. It wasn't him to depend on people, but if offers came conveniently, then he would accept.

He only hoped it wouldn't rain or that would mean he would be drenched on the way home. Raito was almost there when he heard something. No, when he heard her.

"H-help m-me…" croaked a weak voice, like a melody going on broken record.

Curiosity and thrill getting the best of Raito, he risked skipping Cram for today to venture into the alleyways where such a voice was coming from. She repeated a few times for Raito to finally reach her. When he caught sight of her, he blinked.

A girl who was three years younger than him, lain on her back in a pool of spilling blood that came from the deep slit on her womb. She pressed her palm down on the wound in an effort to suppress anymore bleeding, but that was failing badly. She shook against the ground, from the cold and of how much blood she was losing. She had four-tails of cotton-candy colored hair; two tied tightly in the back and two loosely in the front with bright pink ribbons. She wore a school uniform of some sort, but it looked homemade to Raito's knowledge.

He's never seen a dark blue and bright pink school uniform before. She looked up at him and their eyes met. It was an infinite moment for both of them until she croaked again and outstretched a trembling hand towards him; the one that had been clutching her bleeding wound.

At the moment, Raito didn't care and he lifted her up into his arms, having wrapped her slender and shorter body in his khaki coat. Her eyelids fluttered weakly. Raito needed to find shelter for her and he needed to find it quick. He couldn't take her just anywhere.

She buried her heart-shaped face in his shoulder, clinging very slightly. Not that he minded. It didn't waver his thoughts. He couldn't remember any places he could take her as shelter where he could treat her wound and if he didn't do it fast enough, she might bleed out!

Rain poured down on them as they walked. He was about to announce his conflict when he realized something. There was that abandoned church he sometimes visits. He left a few things there, even some medical home remedies he could use to patch her up. He started running faster, taking routes that attracted less attention as he thought of the path to that abandoned church. Though, with umbrellas being held over a head and eyes to shelter from the pouring rain, they wouldn't be able to witness much.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked weakly.

"You'll see."

And she did. She hadn't expected him to take her somewhere so isolated and tarnished, but she wasn't complaining as he pushed the doors open to the vacant antechamber. He took a turn down the hallway of glass-stained windows that displayed religious art, and finally, into the praying room aligned with pews and a podium. She looked around. It was so dim in there. How did he manage?

"There," announced Raito as he sat her down on one of two first row pews. He walked around the back of the platform where the podium stood atop with two altars behind it against the wall, separated by a room that Raito disappeared in. She hesitated, staring at the knife she hid under her skirt. After he helped her, should she kill him? He could have seen too much.

"You're a liar! A selfish liar! I regret letting myself fall in love with you!"

Her eyes watered and the hand that was reaching under her skirt to retrieve that hidden knife shook. She bit back a whimper from the pain in her chest and in her punctured womb. Why would he say something like that to her? After everything she did for him… he turned on her. Wasn't she good enough?

She was going to let her thoughts continue on when Raito returned with a medical kit. She blinked back her tears, hoping her eyes weren't as glossy as they were during her train of thoughts. He smiled at her, the kindest smile anyone has given her. Not even Yuki has dared to give her a smile as effective as that, his always wavered from fear or were proven pretend.

He started cleaning out the wound, his gaze intent on the wound he was treating. He didn't smile or laugh when Yuno cried in pain. The disinfectant he used was as sharp as alcohol but strong in its cleansing of the wound. He bandaged her enough to stop the blood from seeping through and smiled that same one that left her composure shaking.

She quickly pulled the knife out from underneath her skirt. Raito's eyes briefly reflected panic, until she gave the knife to him. She stared at him with life-draining eyes of cerise, almost like a wilting flower ready to die from being neglected. He blinked at the knife.

"Kill me." She croaked, smiling in self-loathe.

"…I can't do that." He replied as calm as he could be at that moment.

"Sure you can." She laughed bitterly.

"I can't, you deserve to—"

"Then, what for?! What do I deserve to live for?!" she asked, continuing her bitter laughter that eventually turned into crying... "I've lost everything..!"

If it was any girl at his school, he wouldn't care. He would shrug his shoulders and remind them that that was a permanent choice of theirs and he wouldn't be the one to make that decision for them. But this girl… somehow she was different. He didn't understand how or why, but she was different compared to those other girls at school.

Sure, she was younger and pink hair was considered exotic in these places but… no, it wasn't any of that. He couldn't figure something out for once and it was bothering him. He didn't like it when his pride was in question. He felt trapped, empowered.

Nonetheless, he grabbed her by her shoulders and gave her a gentle shake.

"You haven't lost anything!" he shouted involuntarily, as if he was offended by her suicidal rambles.

"What do you know!?" She shouted back. "You're just a stranger I asked to help me when he walked by at the right time! If you won't kill me, then move, I'll do it myself!"

"There's no way you honestly think I can just sit here and watch you put yourself out!?" Raito glared back.

When she reached for the knife that he left next to him, he kicked it further away. He climbed onto the pew, pinning her down and glaring. "I'm not letting you."

"Why…" tears streamed down her cheeks as she stared into his golden-brown eyes. "Why do you…" she lost her composure and started crying. It didn't matter if she showed her emotions to him. He wasn't the enemy.

"Why? That's because you called for my help and I'm going to help you." Raito upturned his lips into that kind smile again, but this time it melted her heart as she laughed in disproval at his statement.

"You're a dummy." She murmured.

"If I'm a dummy, then so are you." He grinned cheekily.

She laughed again. Blush colored her cheeks and the life reformed in her eyes as she smiled up at him.

"Thank you, for helping me."

"You aren't giving up, are you?" he asked, raising his brow.

"No," she smiled wider.

"Good." He eased himself back up, unpinning her and helping her up from the pew.

On their walkout, they both knew this would be it. It made them rethink their thoughts prior to their meeting. When they stepped out, the gray sky and pouring rain hadn't subsided.

Raito turned towards her, smiling. "This is it. Never forget what I said."

She only smiled, stood on the tip of her toes, and pressed a gentle peck to his cheek that left him taken aback for awhile. She giggled, running away somewhere he would never see her. Raito sighed, not a bored or displeased sigh—a sigh of peace as he clutched his kissed cheek in adoration.

He wouldn't forget that girl.

Thursday, January 28th, 2010, 15:15 PM

The skies were almost gold from the dimming sunset that sat between two shadowed hills. It made the scenery very gorgeous for all it was worth. Limping on the desolate street sidewalk and looking out-of-place in a black suit that had tatters from where he was shot multiple of times, Yagami Raito clutched to his shoulder wound that wouldn't stop bleeding out with tears in his golden-brown eyes.

How humiliating was this…

He worked so hard for many years to end up here. Betrayed and side-stepped, he's never felt so worthless in his life. He was forced to stop in his tracks when he noticed a girl in heavy cloaks, barefoot, standing in his way. Her hair was down but it billowed in the breeze like silk and it was the color of cotton-candy. Was she here to finish him off or was she an angel here to take him to nowhere? He didn't know, but his rare curiosity sparked in the saddest moment of his life.

"You told me to never give up," Her voice was so musical that he was serenaded. "You showed me kindness no one else ever has and you helped me when I needed it."

He widened his eyes in realization. He opened his mouth to speak but no sound came out. Blood trickled from his mouth that he nearly choked as he stared, fascinated by her and trying to ignore the physical pain growing from his shots.

"You're in pain…" she whispered knowingly, her eyes watering as if she didn't want that.

Raito outstretched his hand towards her, limping forwards. She met him halfway, standing in front of him. She laughed, smiling weakly up at him.

"It's been years and I still can't meet your height." She said playfully.

She knew he would laugh if he wasn't in so much pain. She stood up on the tip of her toes, like she had before, but this time placed her hands on his shoulders to stare into his golden-brown eyes with her cerise ones. Their lips brushed softly and simply.

"I'll meet you again." She whispered against his lips.

He furrowed his brows together, scared and hesitant.

"Forgive me for this…" and that was the last he heard when suddenly his vision went black.