Chasing Broken Dreams ~A Death Note Fanfic~

Chasing Broken Dreams /*Chapter 15*\

I knocked slowly on the door. The early November chill getting under my warm jacket, I shivered. I failed to notice the heels tapping on the pavement behind me. That was until I heard the oh so familiar, annoying voice come from behind me. "What are you doing here?" She spat out 'you' like it was venom. I turned to her and refrained from glaring. "I'm here to meet with Light. What are you doing here, Misa?"

She sneered at me and glared. "So is Misa! Why are yo- oh, that's right, you tried to kill yourself the other day.." I growled lowly at her. How dare she! Karasu laughed from behind me. "Oooh. Burn.." Stupid Shinigami! I swear, if I could hit him, I would. Misa walked, err, skipped in a circle around me. "Poor, poor Aisuru. She never had anyone to love her. And just when she thought someone would, they die! It seems as if even L -the sympathetic detective- didn't want to be around you!" She teased.

I wanted to glare at her, but I knew she was right. So I just kept my head down and stayed silent. Misa kept skipping around me in circles, teasing me and making me feel worse. "Misa. Knock it off." A serious voice spoke from behind me. Light. I heard her stop skipping. "B-But Light! Misa was just speaking the truth." She protested. I could feel him glare at her. "Speaking the truth? Get out Misa."

"But-"

"Out!" Misa let out a whine and ran past me, stopping at the corner of the sidewalk and pointing at me accusingly. "Misa's going to get you for this!" Then she ran off. I stood still. Right now, I was trying to focus on the cells in my hands and how they were freezing to death. Footsteps came up from behind me. Light gently grabbed my arm and led me inside. I followed willingly.

"Ai, don't listen to her. She-" I cut him off. "It's OK Light. You don't have to act like you're not sick of me.. I can see you're fed up with me. I'm sorry." I turned away from him and walked out of the house. I honestly couldn't blame him for being sick of me. I had nearly tried to kill myself and kept a huge secret from him. All he's done though, is hug me and tell me it's OK. I stopped in front of a small park and broke down into tears.

When I was finally done sobbing my heart out, I was curled up in the fetal position, hugging my knees close to me. Karasu sighed from behind me. "Are you done yet, I want waffles!" I sat up, sniffed and rubbed my puffy eyes. "Y-Yeah..hey Karasu?"

"Hn?"

"Can you d-do me a favor?" I hiccuped, trying to regain my voice. He looked at me tiredly, gesturing for me to continue. "Can you go to Ryuk and tell him to kill someone at a certain time?" He looked at me with surprise but nodded. I gave him a dry smile and stood up. Deep inside, I knew I was doing something bad, but it was the right thing for everyone.

I watched as Karasu took off and flew to where Ryuk would be. My hands slipped into my pockets and found a slip of paper. Weird, I don't remember putting a piece of paper in my pocket.. I pulled out the crinkled parchment and smoothed it out. As I read the note, I could feel the tears burning in the back of my eyes.

"L..."

~OoO~

I regretted coming into headquarters that day. Everyone finally understood that L was dead and freaked out. I was standing in the middle of the room as everyone was running around me shouting commands, profanities, and curses at each other. The only one not freaking out was Light. He was staring blankly at the computer screen. I think he had just talked to someone named 'N'.

From what I know, N was a little kid who graduated from Wammy's house in second place -next to L of course- and was now taking over the Kira case. In all honesty, I hated the idea. I didn't hate N, but I hated the fact that someone was replacing L. It made my blood boil. Especially if it was some kid! He was only 12 or 13 from what I had heard and it annoyed me!

We already had to deal with some brat that graduated from Wammy's house in third place like N! He had caused so much hassle already! We lost our chief (Light's dad) and everyone's going frantic because of it!

Matsuda let out a loud whine and I lost it. I stormed over to the wall and slammed my fist against it hard. It was loud enough to shut everyone up and turn their attention to me. I massaged my aching hand and spoke. "Knock it off. Get a hold of yourselves and get back to work! This isn't the time to freak out." I glared at everyone of them before continuing. "I understand that we've lost L, but that doesn't mean we can slack off and have a panic attack! We're getting closer to catching Kira and if we miss this chance.." I trailed off, unable to speak the next part.

Everyone seemed to understand me. What my point was anyway. They all regained the little dignity and pride they had left and got back to work as if nothing happened. A deep sigh escaped my lips as I made my way over to Light. I was planning on apologizing for my behavior the other night, but now wasn't the time.

I had to talk to N. Now.

"Light, let me talk to N, please?" He gave me a weird look and started to protest, but closed his mouth and moved. I nodded to him in thanks and sat down in his seat and pressed the button thingy. "N, who do you suspect is Kira?"

I waited a bit before he answered. "I'm not clear on that. He could be anyone. But thankfully, L narrowed it down. It might be someone that's nearly an adult." Wow, this kid was actually pretty smart. "Hn. Agreed. He may be young, but that must mean he was at the top of his class, right?"

"Maybe. That is possible. Or he could have hidden behind a mask of stupidity. It depends on how clever he is." Ha ha. Light you got owned by a kid. I smiled slightly. "That is true. And L has already figured out that Kira was in this region. Can you check all the school records for the smartest and the ones that had to be held back or just barely passed?"

"Yes of course." Came the distorted reply. I nodded even though he couldn't see. "Thank you N." I hung up with that and stood up. Everyone looked at me expectantly. "We've got a big lead on the Kira case!" I beamed. Everyone cheered slightly. Light remained silent, as if trying to figure a way out of this.

Good luck buddy.

I sat down happily on the couch and stretched my hands above my head. "Hey, Ai?" Matsuda questioned. "Hm?" I yawned a bit. "We've got a picture of 'Mello' as he calls himself." Mello? That sounds familiar..

"Mmm give it to me." I held out my hand tiredly. A slip of photo paper was placed in my hand with the back facing me. I sighed and flipped it over.

My entire body froze the second I saw the picture and my heart stopped in mid-beat.

"Michael.."