He was sitting in front of the computer screen, watching the young teenager study for hours on end. A girl had stopped by earlier, but she left pretty soon after she arrived. He stared at her curiously. She seemed to be quite close to their prime suspect, maybe she knew something.
"Chief Yagami," he started, turning his head slightly. The middle-aged man turned his head away from the screen to the man in front of it.
"Do you know this young woman?"
"Yes, that's Ori Nanase. She's a good friend of my son's." There was a hum of acknowledgment until the raven-haired man turned to an older gentleman with a tray of sweets.
"Watari, could you find a file on Ms. Nanase, please?"
"Yes, L." Watari left the tray next to L and walked off.
"L, do you think she's a suspect too?" The Cheif asked indignantly. L just pressed a thumb to his mouth.
"I'm not entirely sure, but I'd like to look into her a little more." Watari came back holding a slim file. He set it on the table for L to open. When he opened the file, she saw a young girl with pleasant facial features: curly brown hair and blue-green eyes with gold flecks mixed into the iris. There was a mischievous smile on her face that implied she shouldn't be trusted anywhere near fire or sharp tools. Freckles splashed across her nose and cheeks. L's eyes flicked to all of her information. Her overall Grade-Point-Average was a three-point-eight. It probably would've been higher if she was better at math. Below her grades was a behavioral report. Orien Nanase is very friendly and energetic and is also very understanding of other people. She's very intelligent but struggles in mathematics. She has also shown signs of being able to tell when other people are lying.
"Hmm... intelligent, visually appealing. She seems like she would be able to get along with others easily." He eyed the part about her being able to tell when anyone was lying. That would definitely be handy in the investigation. But before he invited her, he wanted to make sure that she couldn't be a Kira suspect.
"Chief Yagami, I know this is probably morally wrong to suggest, but is there a possibility we could put a few cameras in Ms. Nanase's room?" L looked back at the Chief, who was spluttering incoherently.
"Are you insane?! Do you really think I would really let you do that?" L turned away from Yagami.
"No, I figured you wouldn't, but please keep in mind I only asked so that you would be aware. I'll put blind spots in a few places as to not put her dignity in danger, but most of the room will be on tape." L reached over to grab a banana off the tray and began to unpeel it. He took a bite as the other members of the task force just gaped at him.
"You don't want to put her dignity in danger!? She wouldn't even know!!" Yagami threw out his arm, trying to reason with the detective.
"Yes, I would like her to remain ignorant until she accepts to join."
<> <> <>
"Ori? Are you feeling all right?" Raito waved a hand in her face, bringing her out of her thoughts. She looks up at him. His eyebrows were pulled together as he stared down at her. His brown hair brushed against the bridge of his nose. Could this really be the face of a murderer? And if so, how could he kill so many and then act so casually around her and others? How was all of this not eating him up on the inside? How could he be so calm?
"Yeah, I'm ok. I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night." She said, but Raito just snorted, a slight smirk on his face.
"When do you ever get enough sleep?" He asked. Ori forced out a chuckle as she ran a hand through her hair.
"You've got a point there." She said. She glanced up at the clock and let out a relieved sigh. Only twenty minutes until school was over. Ori wanted nothing more than to go home, curl up into a ball under her covers, and never go outside again.
Raito kept Ori busy until then by talking about the entrance exams to Todai coming up in four days. Ori couldn't suppress the feelings of anxiety that came along with his words.
"You'll get in. No question." His smile fell and he looked off into space thoughtfully. "Do you still need any help with math?" He asked after a minute. Ori had to force down the bile that was beginning to rise up in her stomach.
"Thanks, but I think I got it." He eyed her skeptically, and she covered up any suspicious actions by pumping her fist into the air excitedly.
"You've been a lot of help, Im-a-gay. There's no way I could mess up too bad!" He frowned at the nickname, flicking her forehead.
"When are you going to stop calling me that?"
"When you get a girlfriend and prove to me that you're not gay." She said with a shrug. At long last, the bell rang and Ori let out a sigh of relief. She grabbed her bag and rushed passed Raito.
"Ori, where are you going?" He asked. She turned around in the doorway and smirked.
"I'm going home to try to take a nap, and you always take too long. I'll see ya tomorrow, Im-a-gay." She waved and ran down the hallway to the entrance of the school. She was breathing hard, though she had a feeling that it wasn't from her run. She rubbed her face with a free hand, feeling her entire body shake. Whether it was from fear, anger, or disgust, she didn't know. All she knew was that she had to get away before she did something she regretted.
During Ori's walk home, she found herself looking around, but she had no idea who or what she was looking for. Was she watching out for Raito? Or did that phone call she got yesterday unsettled her more than she previously thought it would. Her legs pushed her forward a little faster and she found herself running. When she reached her door, she was breathing hard and gasping for air. She sucked in a breath then opened the door. She greeted Vivian as cheerfully as she could muster and went to her room. She fell onto her bed, but she felt too restless just lying there, so she got up and began pacing around her room. She tried to put her ramblings thoughts into words, but that only made her feel worse. It was one thing to think something crazy than to say it out loud.
"Ok, so Raito got all fidgety while we were talking about Kira, and he has access to police files because of his dad, not to mention he also lives in the Kanto region of Japan, but so do so many other people." Ori was pacing back and forth across her room. She was raking her hands through her hair, messing up the ponytail until she just took it out and let her hair fall past her shoulders down to her midsection. She pushed the heels of her hands into her eye sockets, and when she pulled away she was seeing spots. Her legs were shaking until they eventually gave out and Ori fell to the floor. She gritted her teeth angrily as she took her desk chair and shoved it into her bed.
"Dammit!" She could feel her eyes welling up with tears. Ori didn't want to believe that Raito could be Kira, and she knew that she would feel awful if it turned out that he wasn't, but she would feel even worse if he was. Then she would've been friends with a murderer and she wouldn't have even known. She choked back sobs as she curled into a small ball on the warm wooden flooring of her room.
"I don't know what to do." She whispered to no one in particular. If only she could tell Vivian about her fears and suspicions, then she could curl up in her mother's arms while she stroked Ori's hair and told her that everything would be ok. But she was all alone and had no one to talk to.
<> <> <>
"She seems rather distressed." L pointed out, the tiniest hint of amusement in his voice. He watched at Ori paced around her room, fell to the floor, shoved her chair into her bed, and curled up into a ball.
"Well, the entrance exams to Todai are in a few days and she's been pretty stressed about it." Yagami was standing behind L's chair as he watched the security tapes too. It didn't seem like Ori had noticed them, but the detective wasn't sure if Yagami thought it was a good or bad thing.
"Even so, that seems like a very excessive reaction for an entrance exam, and she's very intelligent, so she shouldn't have a problem. No, this is something different." He turned on the sound and pressed the 'rewind' button for the cameras. It went back to when Ori first walked into her room and L pressed 'play'. She dropped her bag on the ground and fell facefirst onto her bed, but she only stayed there for a few seconds, only to get up again and pace around the room. He could hear her muttering to herself and turned up the volume so he could make out her words easier.
"Ok, so Raito got all fidgety while we were talking about Kira, and he has access to police files because of his dad, not mention he lives in the Kanto region of Japan, but so do so many other people."
He hummed in interest. "Chief Yagami, it seems that I'm not the only one curious about your son." Yagami just shook his head ferociously. It was clear that he didn't want to believe that even a friend would suspect his son.
"No. I know my son and he would never kill anyone."
"It seems that Ms. Nanase is struggling with that ideal too." He gestured to her cursing as she pushed on the chair.
"I don't know what to do." She whispered pitifully, curling up into a ball. She looked small and vulnerable. Would it really be a good idea to get her involved with this case? If she let her emotion run her judgment, it could put everyone, including herself, at risk. L kept his eyes trained on the screen as Ori slowly stood up and pulled her chair back to her desk. She pulled her school jacket off and draped it over the chair. Her brown hair looked tangled from her continuously running her hands through it. She plopped down onto the chair and powered up her computer. L turned to Matsui and Awzaia just a few chairs watching Light.
"Has Light done anything so far?" L asked.
The two men shook their heads. "He hasn't done anything but study for the past hour," Awzaia said, almost smugly. L looked back at his own computer screen.
"So Yagami Light mainly studies and looks at adult magazines while Nanase Ori seems more focused on searching for Kira." He pressed a thumb to his bottom lip in thought. It was fairly clear that Ori wasn't Kira unless she'd somehow out about the security cameras, though the chances of that happening were very slim. And Light looking at adult magazines seemed odd for his other behaviors of helping his sister with her homework, but everyone has their secret hobbies. Light's hobby wasn't just reading perverted magazines, however, it was also killing people. L was five-percent certain that Yagami Light was Kira, and given the number of people in the Kanto region of Japan, that was fairly high.
L turned to Yagami, an idea forming in his mind. "Mr. Yagami, you said that the Todai entrance exams were in just a few days, correct?" Yagami eyed him skeptically before nodding. A tiny smile came across L's face, but he turned his head before anyone could see it. He forwarded the footage of Ori back to present time and she was still doing research.
"I think I'll do the entrance exams as well. It seems like the best chance I have to meet both of them." Yagami opened his mouth, most likely to object, but then he closed it. Maybe be realized that it was pointless to argue. L wasn't going to change his mind about this. This was the best chance he had to casually meet with Light and Ori. Whatever happened next, L had to be ready. He was now putting himself in danger. The only thing keeping him alive was that no one but Watari knew his real name, and hopefully, it would stay that way.
Or else he was dead