The Puppeteer

27 More Days

I was two when I felt it for the first time, the weird feeling of Deja vu.

I was with my parents, walking the streets of Winchester when I came across this beautiful building. It was more like a monument if you were to ask me. I simply couldn't move past it. Freeing myself from my parents' grip, I ran into the building at the fastest speed my tiny legs could manage.

Now that I look back, I remember them shouting after me as they followed me, but I clearly remember that at that point, I could not hear a single sound as I ran across the road into the gates of 'Wammy's House'.

I remember bumping into him, that nine-year-old boy. I remember the way our eyes widened, the way my long open hair flew back, the way he stretched out his arms to catch me, as if it was all just yesterday. His slim figure, his pale skin, his messy black hair, his raven eyes. It had to be him. I remember the sudden headache, I remember holding my head in my hands as I screamed bloody murder, I remember the flashes of falling, the flashes of Ethan's death, the flashes of Daniel and his arrest, flashes of my death, before I fell to the ground, unconscious.

I don't quite know what happened after, I couldn't see anything, obviously. I did feel him grab my shoulders and shake me, I did hear him say 'hey! wake up' before I completely lost consciousness.

The next thing I remember was my mother crying and my father panicking as he held me and ran towards our car, I heard him whisper to me. He said, "Kiyohime, it's all going to be fine. You're going to be fine."

I smiled at him and said, "Yes dad," and fell asleep again.

Then I remember waking up in the Hospital. Waking up as a twenty-two-year-old in the body of a two-year-old. I remembered it all. My previous life as Lilith Frost, my job as a detective, my missions, my death, but what struck me the most was the boy at 'Wammy's House'. I had seen him. I remembered him. He was L. 

Well, not yet, but he was going to become L. I was born to this wonderful couple, my parents, that gave me so much love and care, unlike those in my previous life that made me the manipulative and calculative scamster I was. I wouldn't have replaced them for the world though, I was proud of my skills, I was proud of what I had used them for, and I was thankful for all the horrible things they had put me through that made me gain these abilities.

I had to manipulate my way out of my parents' abuse as a ten-year-old. I had to manipulate them and divide them, I got them to kill each other before they ended up killing me. I don't regret it though. I mean, I was only acting upon my primary instincts, the primary instincts of most probably all living organisms, 'self-preservation' or 'survival instincts'.

Anyways, that's a story for another time. Coming back to Lawliet and Wammy's House, I was mind fucked beyond mind fucked as I sat on my hospital bed. I had seen it multiple times, in the very first anime, I had watched - Death note. It was one of the only shows that had really surprised me when I watched it for the first time. 

It surprised me because of how it ended up being. One of the characters I had studied very closely was Light Yagami. He did so much to be the 'God' but failed miserably. Misa Amane, Kiyomi Tadaka, Teru Mikami, he 'manipulated' them all, and the only word that came to my mind when I would see him do it was pathetic.

The only person Light had managed to manipulate was Naomi Misora, that too was too bad to be called so. 

I used to sit in class and hear my friends talk about the anime and how 'Light Yagami' the hot but disgusting guy was a manipulative bitch and it would make my blood boil. It was like an insult to me. It was like an insult to what I did. All Light did was use them. He only convinced them. 

Misa, Teru, Kiyomi, they all already adored him, they respected him and loved him, and he said he loved them back. That is not manipulation! He is a liar, he is a cheat. Manipulation was something too intricate, too delicate for his crude, unrefined, and imprecise ways. It was something that had to be definite, it was a process that took time. You can't influence someone's mind by simply promising them your love, if you did promise it, you had to give it.

I gave my love to Ethan. It took me a year to manipulate him, he said he loved me. I said I couldn't love him back. He loved me even more, and he loved me so much till I had no choice but to return his feelings. It was then I promised him, my love, I promised him that we would live together and die together, and I kept my word.

That was manipulation.

It was like rewiring someone's mind, slowly by simply your words. Rewiring so much so that eventually even when the person realizes that you are simply manipulating them, they can't help but allow themselves to get influenced by you, and this could not be attained by lying. It had to be built on the basis of pure truth.

I remember looking at the calendar placed next to my hospital bed. It was November 1, 1991. Light Yagami was born on February 28, 1989. Lawliet was born on October 31, 1982. I, Kiyohime Ikari, was born on October 31, 1989.

Coincidence..? Maybe.

I had to wait, wait for 2006, wait for Light to find the death note on the grounds of his school, Daikoku Private Academy, and I would have to be there to see him pick it up.

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A giggle left my lips as I recalled the day I knew what my new purpose in this life would be. The day was November 1, 1991, exactly fifteen years ago.

I had 27 more days. 27 more days before a bored Shinigami decided to drop his death note in the human realm. 27 more days before an inattentive genius student would catch sight of the book. 27 more days before this world sees the most complicated case it ever has. 27 more days before this world begins to spiral into chaos. 

27 more days before I have more fun than I ever have in either of my lives.