He Who Is Without Sin
By EmptyWord

Disclaimer: Death Note is the property of Tsugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata, Shueisha, VIZ Media, Madman Entertainment, and others I may have missed.

Warning: One religious reference. And rather muddled attempts in dealing with this serious topic by yours truly.

The room thrummed with monitors and surveillance equipment and a stiff, unyielding tension, broken only by the tapping of computer keys and the clatter of links on the chain that stretched between the two occupants.

It had been two days since Raito had been released from his cell and physically chained to the world's greatest detective.

There were obvious downsides to the arrangement, considering their vastly differing lifestyles and the detective's suspicion of him as a mass murderer, but Raito was smart enough to see the silver lining. For all his own intelligence, he'd never been in such prestigious company and could appreciate having another genius chained to him.

Ever since he had developed cognitive ability, Raito had observed the world around him and wondered at the cruelty and inequality in existence. As the son of a police officer, he had often seen firsthand that justice was not always carried out. Reading through the Kira files for the past two days had dredged up that same frustration.

What he wouldn't give to set things right.

He glanced over at his chainmate, whose knees were drawn protectively to his chest, forcing his back to hunch in the worst posture. A thumb was tucked safely between his lips, and Raito couldn't help cringing at the thought of what else that thumb had recently come in contact with. There were so many physical aspects of the detective that he found repulsive, but the brain behind the social ineptitude was a rare gift indeed. One he would not waste.

"Ryuuzaki," he said and saw the other's gaze shoot over to him. Disconcerting, perhaps, but everyone had quirks. It only made him human.

"What is it, Yagami-kun?"

"I know how incriminating it is to say this," he prefaced, but continued boldly, "But I've been thinking it would be better if one of us were Kira."

There. The cat was out of the bag, and Raito carefully watched the other's reaction, waiting for even the slightest betrayal of agreement. L was a detective after all. There had to be this patch of common ground.

The detective's eyes sharpened. The gears were visibly turning behind those dark eyes, and Raito knew that from the moment he'd opened his mouth a new percentage had been calculated.

"Why is that, Yagami-kun?" inquired Ryuuzaki, in a voice of indulgence. But his eyes – ever curious, ever seeking – told a different story.

Raito returned the speculative look calmly. He knew for himself that he had nothing to fear from this conversation. There could never be any conclusive evidence against him since he was innocent. His status as a suspect was currently of no consequence.

"Kira holds immeasurable power," he began, "the power to take human life. It is a disastrous power for most people to possess. As is clear in this case," he indicated the file he'd been poring over, "Kira is selfish and petty, manipulating his extraordinary power for personal profit."

Ryuuzaki did not remove his steady gaze, and Raito might have found it irritating as most people seemed to had he not known what power lay behind that gaze. He took it as a sign to continue.

"The two of us, however, would use such a power for higher purposes."

Ryuuzaki did not flinch, did not narrow his eyes, did not even let out the breath he was holding. But he wondered internally at Raito's choice of words. Higher purposes?

Raito continued, "We both possess the personality that would rather have us do the best for the world. And we possess the genius that allows us to carry out such a dangerous task effectively."

"I disagree, Yagami-kun," said Ryuuzaki softly, finally. "My personality is not so generous as you seem to think, and even if it were so, my genius tells me that stealing human lives does not help the world in any way."

"It wouldn't be stealing human lives, Ryuuzaki," objected Raito. "It would be something advantageous. If the right person were given the power to kill, he could purify the world." It had to be someone worthy of course, someone capable, not just any run-of-the-mill busybody.

"Purify the world, Yagami-kun?" said Ryuuzaki mildly, again finding the word choice noteworthy. Purity in the world he knew was a relative term. "Yagami-kun suggests that there are those who deserve to die and haven't been sufficiently punished."

A little surprised, Raito wondered, "You don't think some people deserve death?" Perhaps Ryuuzaki was more sentimental than he had surmised.

"I am no judge," Ryuuzaki demurred, but his eyes were sharper than ever. "I don't have the right to sentence others. Are you well-acquainted with the Christian Bible, Yagami-kun?"

By now well-acquainted with Ryuuzaki's constant non sequiturs if not with the Bible, Raito did not even blink. "Not very. I've read selections but was never particularly interested."

"'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.' John 8:7. I would never dare believe that I am without sin, Yagami-kun." Would you? It was a clear if unspoken challenge.

"That has no part in it," said Raito, a little annoyed. He knew he wasn't flawless. But he also knew that people like him, like Ryuuzaki, were one in a billion, and the usual rabble just could not compare. What good were their extraordinary talents if not used for the good of the world? "Personal insecurities play no role when it comes to meting out judgment. If you saw a child being molested on the streets, would you stop and debate with yourself over whether you have the right to help?"

Ryuuzaki nearly raised his eyebrows. Relating such a mild example to this severe of a topic? "I would hesitate to kill that child molester," he adjoined.

"Killing is a drastic measure," Raito allowed. "But some crimes are despicable enough to merit such drastic measure. Or would you allow the criminal to hurt another child? Would you allow the mass murderer to live and kill another day?" The moment the words left his mouth, he knew his mistake.

And indeed, Ryuuzaki looked amused. "Only if that mass murderer killed other mass murderers, isn't that so, Yagami-kun?"

Raito was intensely frustrated. Ryuuzaki was clearly toying with him, if not to amuse himself then to re-evaluate the percentage possibility that Raito was Kira. His words were not being taken seriously. "Do you not believe in justice, Ryuuzaki?" he demanded.

"Justice," the detective mused, large dark eyes fixed on something intangible in the air, "is too much of an ideal to be defined."

And Raito would say no more in the face of such uncooperative responses. It was quite clear that Ryuuzaki intensely disagreed with him, and the conversation was completely ineffective. Forcibly keeping his voice level and his expression clear, Raito finally murmured, "How much have my chances of being Kira increased?"

"Twenty-one percent." Kira has quite an ego.

Both strangely discontent, Ryuuzaki turned back to his computer and Raito turned back to his paperwork.

A/N: I don't know what has gotten into me, fooling around in the Death Note fandom as if I've actually got a clue. I guess it's like the water boy of a baseball team, hoping that some glory would rub off on him. It's an honor anyway to contribute to so talented a fandom. That's my excuse.

Thanks for reading!

June 18, 2007