The Puppeteer

Some Tennis, A Coffee, and A Heartattack

7th April 2007:

"I have to admit, I was surprised Ryuga. I never thought you'd ask me to play tennis as a way to get to know each other."

"Is.. it a problem for you?"

"Not at all, but when you first invited me to play.. did you know how good I was?"

"Yes. I'll be fine though, it's been a while but at one time I was actually the British Junior Champion."

"Ryuga, were you raised in the UK?"

"I lived in Englan for about five years when I was younger, but save your breath, nothing in that story would reveal L's true identity I promise you."

'Bullshit' Kiyo thought as she situated herself on a bench nearest to the tennis court where L and Light were going to play their game.

A lot was going to happen that day. Well, not to or with her, but in the episode, a lot had gone down. The tennis match, the coffee shop scene, and Soichiro Yagami's heart attack. At this point, Kiyo was sure she had never been happier in either life.

The tennis match began and she could only think about what was going on in the minds of the two opponents, the opponents that were trying to gauge each other based on a tennis match. 

It made her laugh.

Unbeknownst to her, Light had sent a certain shinigami to trail and keep a watch over Kiyo and report to him if she did anything suspicious by bribing him with apples, and the shinigami was more than amused when he stood next to her and saw her chuckle every once in a few minutes while she shook her head at what he could assume was the 'naivety' of the two boys playing tennis.

He wished he could somehow talk to her, somehow get her to touch the death note and make her see him. He could meet her as her sleep paralysis monster if she'd prefer that, or just a hallucination that appears and disappears at will. 

Ryuk was intrigued. It wasn't like he saw someone as peculiar and odd as Kiyo every day, it wasn't like he saw some girl make Light's mind spin every day. If Ryuk didn't know better he'd think Light was obsessed with the girl, but he did know better, and so he knew Light was obsessed with the girl.

Something told Ryuk that Kiyo was more than what the eye could see. Something told him that she was more than just Kiyohime Ikari that lived in Japan and studied in To-Oh, she was more than just some pesky teenager who fussed over trivial things, she was older beyond her age, wiser, and looked like she understood thing many adults would fail to, like she would have views and opinions many adults would fail to comprehend, and that 'something' that told him all this was what he saw when he looked above her head.

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"Just as I expected, you beat me."

"It's been a while since I had to play that hard," Light chuckled slightly before turning to look at L as L, Kiyo and he continued to walk together, "I'm feeling kind of thirsty, plus there's something I want to ask you about, you wanna go somewhere for a drink?"

"You humored me with a tennis match, the least I can do is answer some of your questions, but before this conversation goes any further, there's something I must tell you."

"What's that?"

"I suspect that you, Light Yagami, are in fact, Kira. Now, if you still want to ask me something then please go ahead."

Light froze in his place, turning to look at Kiyo who was right there, listening to their conversation.

"Does she- does she kno-"