Death Note Fan Fiction ❯ Blue Smoke ❯ Prologue ( Prologue )

Prologue

The hospital room was painted white, just like all the others. The colorless walls did very little to calm the young boy who stood nervously in the doorway, peering inside with curious amber eyes. Everything was still, save for the rhythmic rising and falling of the patient's chest - which was connected by multiple wires to a heart monitor that rested in the farthest corner of the room; the sporadic lines across it revealed that all was well internally.

“Sayu...”

Yagami Light took another step inside, allowing the door to close softly and silently behind him. He stared intently at the bed, at the patient whose face was hidden by bandages - leaving only a tuft of bushy black hair visible.

The sight of the bandages was frightening. He'd known there would most likely be a need for them - Sayu had just undergone surgery, after all - but Light was confused by the fact that they were on her face; Sayu's surgery had been a limb lengthening.

“Sayu?” Light tried again, raising his voice slightly. He didn't want to wake his sister after what she'd just been through, but he was concerned about her... and the eerie silence of the room was starting to frighten him. Where were his mother and father?

The door cracked open, a nurse stepping inside. She glanced down at Light inquisitively before moving on to the task she'd come in to do. She jotted down something onto the clipboard in her hands - blood pressure and other such vitals, Light presumed.

“Are you a friend of his?” she asked suddenly, lowering the clipboard and fixing her eyes on Light.

Light blinked, confused.

His?

...Was this not his sister?

The nurse didn't seem to mind his silence. “It's nice to see someone spending time with him... You're the first one to visit,” she informed with a sad smile.

Light directed his gaze back to the bed, his eyes wandering over the unconscious form of the patient he'd mistaken for his younger sibling. He felt embarrassed that he'd entered the wrong room, but he wasn't about to reveal his folly to the young woman beside him; that would be humiliating.

“How long has he been here?” he asked.

The nurse glanced at the chart she was carrying. “He was brought in on the twenty-eighth,” she answered, and Light easily calculated that a total of six days had passed since then.

Almost a whole week... and I'm the only one who's visited him?

The realization caused a strong sensation of guilt to weigh down on his heart, and a wave of sadness washed over him as he realized that he himself wouldn't have even entered the room or given its occupant a second thought had he not believed that Sayu would be inside.

Doesn't he have any friends? Any family?

“What happened?”

Light could sense the nurse hesitate for a moment; he studied the way her green eyes shifted back and forth from him to the sleeping, bandage-faced child. Finally, she reached a decision and exhaled loudly, closing her eyes. “He was caught in a bad fire.”

“Accidental?” Light interrupted, unable to stop himself.

As the Chief of Police's son, he was used to hearing all about the cases his father took on. The latest investigation concerned a series of supposedly accidental fires that, so far, destroyed five homes and left a total of three dead and seven critically wounded.

The nurse found this a strange question for a child to be asking, but nevertheless she answered him truthfully. “I have no idea.”

Light fell silent, his amber eyes narrowing. Perhaps his father would mention another report on the case to him later that evening; until that happened, he supposed he should just forget about the boy.

And speaking of his father… His parents were probably wondering where he was.

“I have to go,” Light said, more to himself than to the nurse. He bowed to her politely and made his way quickly to the door, where he paused with his hand on the knob in order to cast a last glance over his shoulder, at the boy he'd thought was Sayu. He left all feelings of pity behind him as he left, and the door closed just as silently as it had when he entered.

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When I first saw him, I didn't know what to think.
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“Yagami Light, where have you been?”

As soon as he stepped foot in the appropriate room, Light was immediately enveloped by his mother's arms. After embracing him tightly, Yagami Sachiko pulled away, a mix of anxiety and severity in her dark eyes. Light bowed his head, apologizing under his breath.

“Your father and I were worried sick about you!”

Again, Light apologized. “I got lost,” he explained, flushing and feeling rather mortified as his mother hugged him tightly once again. In order to divert her attention, Light changed the subject to the sole reason they were in the hospital. “How is Sayu?”

That did the trick. Sachiko stepped away from her son and gestured to the bed where a young black-haired girl lay. Light strode forward, stopping before the gurney, and smiled at her.

Sayu, though she looked too exhausted to even close her eyes, returned the smile with one of her own.

“Brother, where have you been?” she asked, her voice adapting a tone of mock-anger.

“Sorry, Sayu,” he said, not wanting to tell her that he'd ventured into a complete stranger's room and mistook that stranger - a male - to be his sister; somehow he figured that wouldn't settle too well with her.

Sayu forgave him easily enough.

The two siblings attempted a conversation, but Sayu was still too heavily medicated to speak one hundred percent clearly. After a nurse arrived to strengthen her dose of morphine, all hopes of having a discussion were lost, for in a matter of moments Sayu was snoozing peacefully.

For an hour or so, Light remained by Sayu's side, passing the time by flipping through television channels and listening to his parents convey their thoughts on Sayu's operation and what her recovery would entail. At four-fifty, a knock on the door announced the arrival of Light's escort home.

“Matsuda-kun will drive you home, Light. Your mother and I will remain here for a few more hours... but you need to get started on your homework.”

Light frowned, looking over to the nervous wreck that was nineteen-year-old Matsuda Touta. Light never had much respect for the young man - he was too subordinate, too eager to please; really, he was more equivalent to a lapdog than a human being - and so he was not too keen on the idea of riding in the same car as him. If Matsuda was as much of a calamity on the road as he was off, it would be a miracle of they reached their destination in one piece.

But regardless of this, Light's father had ordered him to go with Matsuda, and he couldn't very well disobey his father.  

Matsuda was beaming as he waved to Light and greeted him. “Come on, we can stop for ice cream on the way home if you like, Light-kun.”

Irked by the fact that this buffoon - who probably had a lower IQ than him - had the audacity to call him by his first name, Light stared up at Matsuda coolly before brushing past him. “I hate sweet things,” he answered tonelessly. He paused in the doorway, gave a curt bow to his parents, and then left, striding quickly down the hallway and waiting for Matsuda to come stumbling out behind him.

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Should I feel bad for him -- pity him?
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The next evening found Light standing outside the door to room 213 - the room he entered accidentally the previous day. He didn't know what compelled him to go there, but for some reason his feet carried him automatically to the door, his conscience coaxing him to go inside. Perhaps he just felt guilty about the boy never having any visitors; or, maybe he was curious to learn more about the boy - if he was awake, Light could ask him about the fire.

After several moments of silent debate, Light decided he would go inside for a few moments. He had plenty of time to spend with Sayu later, and he really didn't plan on spending that much time with this boy anyways.

He was greeted by the same continuous beeping of the heart monitors and, just as in the previous day, the patient was asleep, his face still covered in bandages. Light tried to hide his disappointment, but couldn't stop the heavy sigh from escaping his lips.

The boy on the bed jerked. Light's eyebrows rose, his interest piqued. Experimentally, he sighed again - this time a little louder - and in response, the boy made a low humming noise and slowly blinked his eyes open.

“...Is someone... there?”

The voice was weak and strained, most likely due to not having been used for several days. Light could detect a hint of hopefulness laced into the words. Was the boy so desperate for a visitor?

The boy tried to turn his head to the side to look around the room, but stopped suddenly, emitting a sharp gasp followed by a pitiful whine; Light guessed that his injuries hadn't fully healed yet.

“Mama,” he asked, “...is that you?”

Light's gaze fell to the ground; he didn't know what to say. He felt it would be wrong to leave the boy alone, but at the same time Light knew that he was no longer comfortable with the position he was in. It wasn't too late to leave unnoticed; he still had the door partially opened - he could slip out without the boy even knowing he was there to begin with.

“... Is anyone there?”

The voice had fallen to a dull whisper, a sign that all hope had now been exhausted.

Light took several steps back, out the door. He stood in the arch, still staring, shaking his head. “No,” he answered, just as softly, before closing the door behind him.

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Or should I just... not care?
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To be continued...