PSL; [YEAH WE'RE LOCKED UP IN IDEAS]

[godly]

[A seventeen year-old Light Yagami adjusts the school bag slung over his shoulder as he walks home. School’s been let out, and he has homework to do (he’s already done most of it in his head; he knows what essay he wants to write, it’ll be easy, just like everything else), but regardless, the young man has chosen to take the longer route today.

There’s nothing in particular to look forward to at home — his family, maybe, but even that was an everyday occurrence — and while he doesn’t lead an unhappy life, today feels more restless than normal. He doesn’t want to go home just yet, he just wants to walk. And walk he does, blocks and blocks away from home, until he comes across a small park.

It’s fine, if his parents wonder where he is, he’ll just call and tell them he’ll be home soon. They trust him enough; they always have.]

What a pain. [-he says to no one in particular, glancing around for something to keep his interest. Nearby, he sees an table with two empty chairs… and a go board, which appears to have been abandoned mid-game.

Light looks around only briefly before shrugging and taking a seat at one of the tables. He sets his bag down next to him, idly scooting it closer with his foot.]

Hm. [Someone passes by, and he can’t help himself but ask-] Excuse me, do you play?

Comments

[deathline]

[The passerby just happens to be a young man in a red jacket.

... Actually, make that a young woman. That said, her features are ambiguous enough to mistake her for one. She's close to Light Yagami's age, a high school student who is not dressed in a school uniform, but in a strawberry red leather jacket and a yellow kimono, a somewhat unusual combination especially for a young person whose other peers would usually opt to wear more modern fashion.

Her hands are stuffed in her pockets as she turns around when acknowledged by Light. There's some confusion before her dark eyes flicker to the go board and back to Light.

Interesting. She's usually left alone on walks like this, but even Ryougi Shiki (both parts) are not entirely averse to a small blip in routine. And so she nods.]

Sometimes. What, you wanna play a game? Bet some cash?

[Her voice comes out rather deep and boyish, casual even. But she's intrigued and she shows.]

[godly]

[Light hadn't even bothered to look up at whom he had asked the question to -- he figured he'd only expend the effort if the answer was in the affirmative. The voice (and its reply) has him glancing upwards, though, seeing... a young woman. Dressed a bit strangely, he muses to himself, and something boyish about her tone.

He straightens a little, interest spiking since he's caught her attention. Shoulders back, spine aligned, he runs a hand through his hair in an idle motion.]

Cash? I'm not much of a gambler.

[He says this as he shifts his weight slightly, slipping that same hand into his pocket a rummaging around. He pulls out a 1000 yen note.]

But if it'll pique your interest, I have enough for you to buy a cheap lunch.

[deathline]

[His response gets an airy laugh out of her.]

I hope that's not how you get people to go on dates with you.

[Regardless, she takes her hands out of her pockets and slides into the seat across from him and then proceeds to lean her cheek into one hand as her elbow rests on the table.]

But as they say, I'm game. I usually play go with old geezers, so this is a nice change of pace.

[Ore. That's how she's referring to herself in their language, a very definite pronoun that paradoxically suits her, but is not quite her.]

Not that I'm calling you a geezer by the way. You must go to a good school with a uniform like that.

[godly]

[Light looks at her with a lift of his brow. The use of "ore" wouldn't escape the notice of a normal person, much less someone as observant as him. Generally speaking, his expression remains schooled, though he can allow himself the smallest tinge of wry sarcasm.]

A date that's tempted by a thousand yen is a questionable one to begin with. [He sets the bill next to the go board between them; if she actually did want to gamble a little on the game, he wouldn't be against it. It's money not worth worrying about if he loses. (And he knows he won't lose.)

He reaches out to separate the black pieces from the white, slender fingers deft in their motions.]

Daikoku Private Academy. What about you?

[deathline]

Mifune. My school doesn't issue a uniform.

[With her opposite hand, she casually sweeps the black pieces towards herself. Winning or losing, it didn't matter to her, but in a way SHIKI (織) was more aggressive than Shiki (式) so there's going to be more effort on her part to play fairly and take their opponent seriously.

Ah, the yen bill just reminds her though...]

... Whoops. I usually don't carry cash.

[The life of a rich girl who can just pick and buy whatever she wants without really looking at the price tag...]

Well, shouldn't be a problem if I don't lose.

[godly]

[Light chuckles, a bit dryly. Not carrying cash meant one of two things: too poor to buy much, or too rich to carry anything except credit cards. She doesn't seem poor (at least, her clothes were nice enough, despite being a strange combination), so Light is already leaning towards the latter.]

Not much of a gamble if I don't get anything if I win, you know.

[An elbow on the table, cheek pressing into his hand, feeling the need to mirror her own body language if she's going to be so casual about everything. His pieces are nicely organized on the table and in the wooden containers holding the extra white stones.]

And no offense, but I'm probably going to win. [Confident much? At least he says it with the smallest quirk of a grin.]

[deathline]

I don't think I have anything all that interesting to offer up if I lose.

[(There's her knife, but...)]

Don't worry, I'll pay up if it comes down to it.

[Akitaka's nearby, so she'll just ask him for some paper bills. Still, this is someone Shiki could safely call a little smug. In a way, that's better than trying to be humble. A humble person wouldn't ask a stranger out of the blue to play go outside after all.]

What, you can see the future or something?

[godly]

Heh. That's fine. I was only joking.

[He shrugs and straightens again, feeling the cool texture of a white stone between forefinger and thumb.]

It's not much skin off of my own back if I lose some pocket change. Though honestly, I shouldn't be thinking this way where money is concerned.

[He looks at her, and though his tone is mild and his expression polite, there is a glimmer of a challenge in his gaze.]

No such thing. I'm merely basing prediction this on past experiences.

[deathline]

[And since she's black, it's her job to begin the match. The first black stone is placed on the board, but she continues the conversation as her eyes scan the surface, perhaps trying to plan ahead.]

You know, I actually met a fortune teller in an alleyway not too long ago.

[SHIKI (織) wonders if that old auntie is in that same alleyway, waiting for customers to come to her this very evening.]

She did a palm reading without being too flashy. I'm not easily impressed, but I was in that moment.

[godly]

[He looks at where she placed the stone, and with little effort places his own white one nearby. It's a rather basic starting move; Light won't do anything too needlessly strategic until he has a better idea of how she might play.]

Is that so? And you believe in that sort of thing -- palm readings, fortunes, and such?

[His eyes remain on the board, as if already imagining the myriad of ways it might blossom into a full game. His tone, however, edges on dubious.]

[deathline]

Yeah, I know what you're thinking; it's child's play, a charlatan's act, that kind of thing.

[Her fingers pick up another black stone and she hovers over the board before setting it down, in a path she feels will help her later on if they go far enough.]

So normally, I'd say no.

[Brushing some bangs aside, she just looks genially at her game partner whose name she doesn't even know yet.]

There are stranger things in life though. And when she told me what my fortune was, I didn't need much convincing.

[godly]

[And so Light picks up a stone between his fingers, hovering only a second over the board, before placing it adjacent to his previously placed white piece. He thinks perhaps he'll build his territory early on.

The game isn't taking enough focus for him to not entertain this conversation as well.]

She might've been lucky in her cold reading. [Light says it before even asking what her fortune was. It's indicative of something skeptical, maybe even pessimistic, which may look strange coming from a nice, presentable young man.] Regardless, I'm curious to know what she told you...?

[deathline]

[ Shiki (式) will not remember this conversation. Shiki (式) will not remember playing this board game with the stranger and she will not remember the elderly woman who had confirmed SHIKI's (織) future. Did SHIKI (織) expect to be remembered? No. Does he expect anyone to miss him? Absolutely not. He is an abnormality inside of Ryougi Shiki and his chance encounter with this young man sitting across from him won't change a thing. There is no avoiding what lies ahead even if there's a slight detour to the darkest destination.

And so without a care and almost thoughtlessly, SHIKI (織) answers as he ends his move.]

I'm going to disappear.

[SHIKI (織)has no future.]

And I won't be able to avoid my unfortunate and grim future. Scary, huh?

along came a spider

[deathline]

[A lot can happen in two years.

Ryougi Shiki woke up in a hospital bed without her entire self and missing a good chunk of memories before the accident. She had lost something while she was submerged in the void, on the boundary of life and death, but when she awoke, she had gained something stranger and deadlier. The world looks different to her now, much more twisted than before.

And without SHIKI, having to deal with her current self sometimes felt unbearable.

It's an evening like any other, where Shiki takes a nightly walk, usually without purpose. She doesn't remember much pre-coma, but it's likely that she's trying to retrace the steps of her past self, the steps of SHIKI and Shiki. Dressed in her signature red jacket and blue kimono, she has also traded her geta sandles for leather boots. She stalks along the path, looking surly despite her more grown up looks. Her facial features have sharpened and are more distinctly feminine. Her hair remains short, but is not neatly cut.

The red coated figure stops in her tracks when she sees a go board on a table. Did she play go before? Did it matter? She stands still, with all of these thought in her head, trapped in her own world.]

[godly]

[In another universe, maybe, a time that isn't this one, Light Yagami became a killer. The Death Note took everything about the young man that made him great and made him greater; it took everything that made him flawed and made him unforgivable. Blinded by pride, narcissism, idealism, a dream of an unmarred utopia. Discarding the world of its trash and any who would stand in his way. For years, he would be successful, until he was not. Until death took him, as it does all things.

This is not that Light Yagami.

This is the Light Yagami who never found that black notebook on the ground after school, one day. This is the Light Yagami who had moved on with "life", or some facsimile of it. Studying, making connections (never friends, not real friends who understood him), making into Tokyo U. This is the Light who still remains unchallenged, languishing in ennui, but at least he's not a murderer these days.

That's better, right?

There's housing on campus, of course, but Light still visits home on occasion. The weekends are the best time for this, because at least then he can see his family in passing and escape the humdrum of campus life -- it's evening now, on such a weekend, and maybe he should be getting back home. A park is no place for an upstanding young man to be as evening transitions to night.

He's here anyway, spotting a girl with a red jacket. Something about it makes him hesitate, then push forward with equal momentum. His footsteps can be heard as he approaches.]

...Looking for a partner?

[To play with, he means. What was it about this situation that's giving him an impalpable sense of deja vu?]

[deathline]

[The same, but different; that's one of the ways to describe the face that turns to look at Light Yagami.

The same features remain such as the dark hair and pale skin, and the eyes are not all that different except for the expression of apathy, of emptiness. It remains unchanging as the eyes give the young man a once over. Nothing interesting, might as well move on is what her face and body language seem to say.

(She can't deny that she feels something is amiss though as if there's a hole that she isn't aware of).

And so Shiki Ryougi's answer is short and curt.]

No.

[It's the next few words that give her away as she turns to walk away.]

I don't play go with strangers.

[That unique masculine speech pattern which she has adapted into her every day life has returned, with all the casualness and none of the affability. Coolness and distance defines it now.]

[godly]

[Light remembers names and faces extraordinarily well. It's a gift that would've been advantageous to him if he had become a killer; even now, for more innocuous reasons, it's a trait that doesn't fail him.

His eyes widen in recognition, and his mind flickers back to... two years ago, was it? How strange, but yes, he does remember now. It was this same go board he had sat at, playing a game with a girl who acted like a boy. Masculine pronouns, masculine body language. He sees it in Shiki's face, and yet something has changed.

No flippancy, no affability. Cold detachment, enough to shrug even someone like himself off. He frowns, and words come to him swiftly.]

Yes you do.

[It's said almost commandingly, only for the sake of getting her to turn around and pay attention to him again.]

You don't remember me, Ryougi-san? You lost 1000 yen to me that day.

[deathline]

[A flash of irritation flits across her face when he refers to her as Ryougi-san; being called that never sat well with her for one reason or another although she won't correct the stranger. What's more important is how and why he knew her name.

But first thing's first. Shiki clarifies bluntly without turning around.]

I don't know you and I don't recall that event.

Even if what you say is true, I don't have the capability to recall it.

[godly]

[Light wouldn't consider it odd, really, for her not to remember him. It was two years ago, and he doesn't expect others to have the same level of memory as himself. And yet, it's the last part that confuses him. The capability, she says.

The young man steps forward, caught between concern, curiosity, and feeling indignant.]

You do know me. I know I'm right; I wouldn't have forgotten you.

[WHICH SOUNDS HILARIOUSLY LIKE A PICK-UP LINE so he makes a quick adjustment to this statement.]

The red jacket, I remember it. It's the same one, right?

[There.]

What do you mean you don't have the capability?

[deathline]

I don't know you.

[She's starting to sound angry, not wanting to have this conversation with someone she doesn't know. There couldn't have been anyone in the past aside from her family and Kokutou who concerned themselves with her before and after her accident and hospitalization. None of her classmates had a connection with her so why is this guy making this attempt?

Shiki continues looking darkly at Light.]

Look, if you're some classmate of mine then you ought to know there's no way I remember you because I never talked to anyone else. And you'd also know that I've been in the hospital for two years.

[godly]

[The sound of her irritation seems to just mitigate Light's natural stubbornness. For some reason, he wants to prove that yes, they did meet prior. He knows they did; he's not just imagining it. That day, languid as it was, had proven to be of vague interest, only because he had met her -- strange girl that she was.]

No, I'm not a classmate. My name is Light Yagami. [He motions to the go board right next to them.] We played go, right here at this the very spot.

[But then he swallows his words when she mentions being in a hospital for two years. Was that why...?]

We played... two years ago. [He seems to bite down any bullheadedness of his own after this revelation.] I guess you really don't remember. [A concussion? Amnesia? His mind filters through the possibilities as to why she wouldn't remember.]

[deathline]

[And appropriately, it's his name she reacts to first. There's disbelief and then the scrutiny. The same, but different.]

... Seriously?

[godly]

...yes. Seriously.

[He frowns, but lacks the offense he felt the it's the time.]

You had a similar reaction to my name the last time, too.

[deathline]

...

[She falls silent as she stares at Light. No matter what she tries, there's no way to salvage the memories of her past self. Those disappeared into the void of death along with SHIKI. This guy was persistent. There doesn't seem to be an ulterior motive in knowing her. But it troubles her, not knowing.

What did I do?

What did I talk about?

Why did HE want to talk?

Shiki keeps this to herself, like she does so many things. Her eyes glance at the ground avoiding Light's gaze.]

... Whoever you talked to two years ago...

[She turns around about to walk away.]

That person disappeared.

[godly]

[Light's eyes widen slightly. What she had told him two years ago rings in his head, clear as day.

I'm going to disappear.]

H-hey, wait-

[He steps forward, and maybe a little rashly (he doesn't care; in the end, Light often does what he wants, in some form or another) reaches out to grab at her shoulder. He doesn't want her to walk away until this gets cleared up.]

Can't we just talk for a moment? Humor me.