L x Reader oneshots 1 // series 3 • Death Note

Cult leader

A/n: religious trauma time!!! Yaaayyy! Obviously I don't hate Christian/catholic PEOPLE, but I do absolutely hate the way evil preachers and pastors use the faith to harm people. And since DN uses a lot of biblical imagery and religious trauma I think it's about time I did too.

God loves you, but not enough to save you.

And this? The senseless killings sweeping the world at the hands of a human being with a gif complex? That was proof if it. If god really did exist, and he was this all loving, all forgiving being... this wouldn't be happening. It's funny, Kira is no god, but he clearly wants to be one. And he's succeeding, not in the sense that he is cleansing the world of evil and being a saviour, oh no. But because he's taken the pain of those who've lost family and friends to crime and weaponised it.

That's what happened to Misa after all. She lost her family to murder, a robbery gone wrong. And in her worst moments, her pain and her suffering at the loss, along came Kira. Killing her families murderer and in her state of grief and trauma, she saw it as divine intervention. Justice.

But death was no justice, because no matter who you are, we all die. Some early, some late. Some peaceful, some violent. But we all die. Shinigami don't care who sins and who doesn't, who prays and who shuns god. They gamble with human lives like it's a game, they watch on because they have nothing better to do.

Kira isn't this holy divine being. He's a human who's imitating a Shinigami, killing for his own benefit.

But Kira loves you... right? He'll cleanse the world of evil and get your family justice... right?

"(Y/n)"

Snapping out of your daze, you turn to face the voice beside you. The only one awake at this ungodly hour with you was L, sitting before the monitors watching security footage as usual. The room dark, the light from the computer screen illuminating him.

"Hm?" You replied.

"Whenever you zone out like that, you're thinking about Kira... what's on your mind?" He asked.

How did he always know..? Maybe you were just that easy to read to a guy like him.

"L... do you believe in god?" You asked.

"Which?" He replied.

Interesting. Most people immediately thought of the one in the bible, the one most of the religious population of the world worshipped. Even if it was in a slightly different way to each other, or using a different name.

"The bible" you clarified.

"No" he simply stated.

"Any god at all? Spiritual ancestors? Nature?"

"No... but..."

But. That was also interesting. You had a feeling L wasn't religious, he seemed too much of an analytical scientist to believe in anything.

"Given we now know shinigami exist... I don't know what to believe. All I know is the ones who demand worship? They aren't real. No real god would demand worship. They're above us humans, they're beyond space, time, science. Why would they care about us? They wouldn't. They'd simply watch and observe like we're ants in an ant farm" he explained.

You had to agree with him there, the proof of shinigami told you everything you needed to know. The shinigami didn't demand worship, they didn't care for humans. Humans were mere entertainment to them, beings to watch like as L said, ants in an ant farm.

"Why?" L asked.

"I grew up religious... not anymore. Traumatised me too much. But the whole Kira thing... makes me realise just how cult like people get over a being that's supposed to be all loving" you replied.

L turned to face you, suddenly intrigued. He may not have grown up religious, but he did know his fair share. Wammys house was built off an old church. He saw the paintings still on the walls of the part of the building that was turned into the cafeteria. Sometimes kids would come in from religious families and they'd have to unlearn all the religion based abuse they'd been taught. In fact, when Mello first arrived all he had with him was some extra clothes and a rosary. He still had it, wore it despite no longer believing. It was the only thing he had left of the one family member that didn't hurt him.

He'd seen what someone with religious delusions could do to a child first hand.

"The extremely conservative kind?" He asked.

"Yeah. No pants for girls, church every Sunday, boarding school, no sex before marriage... all that bullshit. You have no idea how badly it fucked me up. But I guess all that experience has made me more perceptive to the ways Kira is doing exactly what the people who hurt me did. Trying to rid the world of sin, by committing a sin themselves" you replied.

L'd not thought of it that way, but you were right. Kira was the sinner he was trying to rid the world of... and he didn't even realise it. He was so caught up in his god complex he didn't realise he was the filthy sinner he hated so much. Ironic.

"Your perspectives provide a fresh set of eyes on the case (y/n)... I'd not thought of religious delusion as an option yet..." L muttered.

"Oh he's SO got a religious delusion. Kira is exactly like all those pastors I saw trying to convince you that THEIR church is the RIGHT way to worship. That anyone else is damned to hell because they dare to allow girls to wear pants. They'll stop at nothing, no matter how sinful, to get people on their side just so they can feel like god themselves" you replied.

As you ranted, L couldn't help but think of Light. He already suspected the man of Kira, but seeing it from the standpoint of religious delusion only made L more sure. He really didn't want you near him now, not just because he was Kira but because he was exactly like all those preachers that hurt you in the past. L felt the urge to keep you far away from him, the same way a non religious person would try and keep their loved ones away from the culty church down the road and their creepy pastor.

You weren't blind to what was going on here, you'd eaten the apple, you had the knowledge even if you had to suffer for it. L ate that apple a long time ago too, he knew the way people used faith as a weapon all to well. If Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden of Eden just for the harmless human pursuit of knowledge, then so be it. You and L would leave that garden too, full of the knowledge of who Kira really was and use that knowledge to take down the false god that loomed over this case, over the two of you.