Manipulator (L Lawliet X Reader)

Japan

L was quick to get a flight to bring me to Japan. I left some money with my mothers bar tender friend, and my guardian when mom was not around, to pay for my mothers house and get food for the people that lived there. 

L had given me a week until my flight. Enough time to tie up loose ends, but it was not like I had any loose ends to tie in the first place. I quit my job and collected all the money I had saved up from it into a bag. I never had a bank account. I couldn't have one even if I wanted. I didn't even have a drivers license, but I still drove.

I gave up the keys to my apartment, dragging my bags out to my car. Out of everything I owned, I only brought my clothes, the notebook L had left me in the orphanage, and the teddy and locket I took from my old home. 

I had never been to an airport before. When me and my mother had moved from France to London, we drove. When our car broke down half way there, we hitchhiked. 

The airport was something I had never seen before. Sure, I had seen large crowds of many people going everywhere and no where at the same time, but never had seen it so lively. Usually, when I saw crowds like that, it was always full of people wasted or high or both, trying to escape the truth of their lives.

I guess that was what I was doing at that moment. I was leaving behind the terrible life I was living in that small town, and going into the unknown. The life I was throwing myself into could've easily been just as bad, or even worse than the life I had where I was. At that point, I didn't even care. I was determined to avenge my mother, and what did I have in the life I was living that was worth staying for, anyway? Nothing, if you asked me. 

The airport was all white, with bustling business men that reminded me of the men who kidnapped my mother, poor looking ones who reminded me of what me and my mother used to be, and everything in between. It looked like heaven, and felt like it, too, in a way. I was leaving my old life behind, and entering a new one. Whether it be heaven or hell, I'd have to see once I made it to Japan. 

I clenched the locket in my hand as I went to the front counter.

-

 The ride in the plane was terrible. I learned that I was deathly afraid of planes. Something about being so high in the sky made me feel sick. I passed out early on the ride, and slept a majority of it. 

When I woke up, we were ten minutes from Kanto. I felt groggy, so the messages on my phone were basically nothing buy blurs but I was awake enough to read that L had sent Wammy (L called him "My assistant" but I knew who it was, of course).

Following the instructions given by L, I got my bags and waited outside, right next to the doors. Not too long after I made it there, a car pulled out in front of me. I was glad to get out of the public eye, as people had started to stare at me holding my teddy to my chest. 

"It really is you, after all," Wammy said in english as I sat in the passenger seat. 

"Yeah... I'm not too psyched about it either. I shouldn't be in Japan," I looked out the window, blowing out a breath slowly to calm myself. 

"It is quite the move, isn't it?" I stayed silent as he drove away from the airport. Nothing really felt real anymore. I guess you could say that none of my life ever felt real. Something crazy was always going on, and the only time anything felt real was when I was with those kids in that heavenly neighborhood years ago, or when with L in the orphanage. 

The orphanage itself seemed to be unreal. It was luxurious for being an orphanage, pretty as hell despite so many kids living there that you would think it would be destroyed. L kept me grounded, in a way. Though it felt impossible that a kid so young could have his title and be working on cases like he did, though it felt impossible that I, a poor girl from the outskirts of London, was considered a child with a gifted brain, and was surrounded by kids like me, or felt impossible that I was helping with the cases L worked on. He somehow made it feel real. 

L was always real. Maybe too real for his own good. When even the idea of a lot of his cases seemed unreal, something you would only see in the Saw movies, he made it feel entirely possible and almost normal. Even as an adult, I constantly thought about the cases I helped out on, and read up on them, pointing out the things that L and I had talked about under that weeping willow tree next to the pond. 

It seemed like forever before Wammy pulled up to a large building. It seemed to reach the sky, but it felt ominous at the same time. Like the pit leading down to hell, and the stairs to heaven combined. 

Wammy and I carried my bags in, though he argued that he could do it himself. I was stubborn. Just because I was going to be working with the most famous detective in the world did not mean that I should be treated any different than anyone else. I guess that was a childish way of thinking, but I was clutching a teddy bear in my left hand. I was childish.

Wammy took my bags and set them aside, saying he would bring them to my room once I was settled in with the task force.

The halls of the place seemed so empty, like they were dead of life. I guess from a place that is for investigating a serial killer that had killed the most people out of every other serial killer in existence, it was fitting. It didn't give someone the fear that they felt when they walked in my room, dark and murderous because of the weapons and horror movie posters that littered the walls. It gave you an utter feeling of dread, like you thought that this place would be your death bed. For all I knew, it full well could've been.

I followed Wammy, following the twist and turns of the hallways, and taking the elevator to the right floor. I half felt like that elevator would break and collapse, sending me barreling down the floors below until I hit the ground so hard that I died on impact, but it didn't. Still, my legs were shaking when I stepped out.

Considering all the things I had been through, as a child and adult, you'd think I'd be calm for all of this. I was not sure why I was not. Maybe because I finally got to see what L was doing when he was thirteen, when we first met. What I was indirectly involved in. I couldn't be sure. 

I stopped in front of the large doors. I knew once I stepped inside, I would be involved with the Kira investigation until either it was over, or I was dead. I started to ask myself if that was a sacrifice that I was willing to take, but shook my head at the thought of turning around and leaving. Kira had killed so many people, and yet, he crossed the line when he killed my mother. He claimed that he spoke for justice, but my mother was such a good woman, despite what others would say about her. He killed an innocent. 

I knocked on the door a few times, and everything was eerily silent for a moment as I opened the door. I knew that on the other side was my old friend, and everyone he was working with. I was not sure if I was prepared to see him again, but it was then or never. I pushed open the heavy metal door and came face-to-face with a group of men, all staring at me with intense curiosity. Even more curious that I was wearing a mask on the bottom half of my face. 

"Hello, Kitsune,"

"Hello, L,"