Spira Mirabilis Chapter 1, a death note fanfic

Title: Spira Mirabilis

The Marvelous Spiral

Rating: M

Categories: Angst/Drama

Main Pairing: L Ryuuzaki x Yagami Light

Sub Pairing(s): Sachiko x Soichiro, Naomi x Raye.

Warning(s): AU, Slash, Yaoi (Although I'm not sure at this point if they'll actually have sex), Light is still hot, except now he's got a scar, but it doesn't obstruct that cute face of his, and really nothing else too terrible.

Summary: Sayu, worried about her brother, decides to sneak into his room to steal his diary, triggering the explosion that causes her death and Light's serious injury. With a scar and no memories of the Death Note, how will Yagami Light's life unfold? LxR

Chapter One – Combustion

Yagami Sayu was worried about her brother, who had become more distant over the past month or so, and had even frequently locked the door to his room. He had never done that before, and while it could be explained be mere adolescence, she also knew that her brother was no mere teenager. He was brilliant and outgoing and confident, and while he was rather introversive at times, he had never before been so different. Something had to be wrong.

She'd first saw it when she'd gone into his room for tutoring; the drawer of his desk which was locked. He'd told her not to go in there, that it was his diary and that it was personal, and then he'd told her to go back to homework. She hadn't even known Light kept a diary, and really, Light wasn't a secretive person by nature. He was too ideal to have any dirty little secrets, so what could he have in there? She had to know; and she just knew the answer was in that diary.

It was a Friday, and she'd had a field trip that day and gotten out of school half an hour early because of it. She walked home as quickly as she could, knowing Light would be home in about fifteen minutes (his school let out earlier than hers) and she had to hurry if she wasn't going to get caught. Light would be terribly angry if he found her sneaking around in his things.

She opened the door with her key, and greeted her mom in the kitchen; she went over to the counter where the silver wear drawer was located. She took a piece of fruit from the bowl to cover as she swiped a butter knife. Her mother said she was going out to the grocery store. That was good, so she wouldn't look suspicious and then passed up her room and went straight to Light's. His door was locked like she expected, but she new the ins and outs of how to open one of the locks on her door, so she was fairly confident that she could get into his. She took the butter knife she was holding and slid it in the door jam, gave a few tugs and bent the poor butter knife, but finally it opened.

She opened his door and looked around, sighing at the impeccable cleanliness of everything compared to her own room. His bed was made so perfectly one could bounce a quarter off it; her blanket in her room was strewn on the floor. His hamper was hidden neatly in his closet, his dirty clothes folded in it; her clothes for the passed week were distributed directly beside her hamper.

His desk held only his computer, a cup of pens and pencils, spiral notebook and a few books neatly set up beside the monitor; her desk had homework for the passed two years all over it, no pencils and one pen that had run out of ink three weeks ago which she had yet to throw away. In his closet was only ten pairs of pants and twelve shirts, one suit he wore for special occasions, and five school uniforms, all neatly hanging on wooden shouldered hangers; her closet was empty, because all her clothes were on the floor. She could rarely find a pair of matching shoes and many times got punished at school for missing a piece of her uniform because she'd lost it.

She walked deeper inside his room, shutting the door gently behind her for no real reason, maybe because she was alone in the house. She tiptoed over to the desk and gripped the key –which was still in the keyhole strangely enough, as it always was –and turned it to the side, peering at the door from under her black, silky bangs, just waiting for Light to come barging in and yell at her. Sayu didn't know why she thought that he would, because Light had never yelled at her before.

But then again, she'd never done something so sneaky before either.

She opened the drawer, which squeaked slightly as she pulled it out, making her cringe and her eyes dart to the door again quickly. The diary was there. She knew it was there because a book with the word 'Diary' in big bold letter was sitting on the surface of the bottom of the drawer, and it was neat, just like everything else in the room. The corners of the cover weren't even bent inwards with frequent use.

She picked it up, and sitting directly under it was another key, that she assumed went to the lock on the diary. She frowned and picked it up, wondering if perhaps it was just a fake key that was meant o distract whomever wanted to read his diary, to delay their finding of the real key. That sounded like something Light would do.

To her surprise, it opened easily, and the pages of the diary were displayed to her freely, Light's careful, precise handwriting covering the page.

It doesn't seem too well hidden, she thought, sighing at that fact, maybe the answers really not in his diary…

Indeed, she spent the next eight minutes and forty seconds skimming through the diary, and found nothing but rather boring description of his day.

'But weren't diary's for getting things off your chest? Crushes, problems, family…why would you need to writing down your feelings, if you didn't have any?' she pondered.

She locked the diary back up and put the key back under it, and when she slammed down the book into the drawer, the bottom of it moved just barely. She blinked and pressed her finger to it and jiggled the wooden surface again, it moved slightly. But –and she looked – the bottom underneath didn't budge at all.

A false bottom! She realized easily, because now it was obvious. Ni-san, you clever boy! That diary was just an aversion to the real one! Now…how to get it out…

Sayu shook her head and smiled, grabbing the previously abandoned butter knife.

She reached over and grabbed them, putting her fingers through the plastic loop and then her hand in the drawer. With her free hand she brushed a stray raven lock out of her face and behind her ear before hooking the thinner blade of the scissors in the crease between the side of the drawer and the fake base. She put leverage on it, lifting the thin slab of wood up slowly, slightly, and she did not even hear the doorknob turning.

When the door opened, she looked up and saw her brother, standing in the doorway his book bag in one hand and an apple in the other . For a second, she thought she saw a spark of fury, but then he saw her hand so close to finding his secret hiding place and his eyes widened. He dropped his bag and stepped forward, but she'd already continued the task of forcing the bottom open and he reached out a hand, looking almost frightened, and this confused her.

"Sayu, NO –!"

Noise and blinding light exploded around her.

Light walked home from school leisurely, making sure to only talk to Ryuk under his breath just in case the man was close enough to hear him. The sun beat down on him, staring at him like a single glowing eye, watching him perhaps as closely as the man twenty yards behind him was.

It was annoying, being followed, but it was better that he knew. What if he'd done something suspicious and the man wrote it down? What if he gave it all away?

How irritating…Light thought, sighing, and Ryuk gave a loud Hyuk from his spot hovering beside him, a few feet up in the air.

"So, Light, what're you gonna do today?' Ryuk asked, his mouth stretching across razor-like teeth as he floated, his wings spread out behind him.

"What I do every day, Ryuk," Light replied lowly, looking at Ryuk piercingly from under his long auburn bangs. "Serve justice on the immoral, like any good God should."

"Hahahaha!" Ryuk sniggered in his deep, scratchy voice, once again thinking that Light was just so interesting. "I know that. I meant…can I have apples today?"

Light sighed, and just nodded nonchalantly as he came up to his house. He took out his key to open it but found that it was already unlocked which confused him for about three seconds, before he remember that Sayu had had a field trip that day to a play for her English class, she'd talked about it quite a bit over dinner for the last week. She must have gotten home early.

Upon entering his home and locking the door behind him Light found that his mother was not there, and when he went into the kitchen he found a note on the refrigerator that she'd gone grocery shopping. Luckily for Ryuk, when he opened the door to the fridge he found that there were two apples left, and he grabbed one and started up the stairs.

When he got to his room he opened the door with his unoccupied hand, then he saw the strangest sight. Sayu was at his desk, his fake diary was on the top of the desk, obviously she'd been reading it if the open faced crumpled pages were anything to go by, and he felt angered by her snooping. But just as soon as the feeling had come it was overwhelmed by fear when he saw how close she was to triggering his trap.

He stepped forward and let his satchel fall from his arm and held out his hand to his sister, who didn't stop. He heard the small clicking sound of the two metal bars in his trap snap together and he cried out.

" Sayu, NO -!"

The blast made him cower and curl in on himself, holding his arm up with a clenched fist to protect his face as he was hit with a wave of heat. He was knocked over onto his side, his head hitting the wall and making him see two of everything. Flames went up around him and he wondered vaguely if Sayu had even screamed at all before she was knocked unconscious from the force of the detonation before he groaned in pain. The apple rolled out of his hand and onto the carpet, turning over a few times before coming to a halt.

Ryuk laughed in his loud, erratic way and picked it up.

It wouldn't do to let it go to waste.

Raye Penber was supposed to meet Naomi's parents tonight. But, instead of practicing what he was supposed to tell them about his wonderful job as a 'traveling salesman', he was following a perfect little school boy, a perfectly boring little schoolboy…who was most definitely not Kira.

He was a nice kid, with perfect grades, who obviously had plenty of social attachments, and he seemed to share the same views as his father on justice.

He followed him until he got into his house and then waited outside, where he would stay until the lights in the boy's bedroom went out. Then he would drive to Naomi's parents house and enjoy (dread) a late dinner with them, and try to answer as many questions as possible. He leaned against the brick side of the house next door and got comfortable, staring up into the balcony and the ceiling of Yagami Light's room.

Then, suddenly there was a flash of light that looked distinctly like a bomb and a sound that sound a bit like a gunshot. Raye sprung into action, pulling out his phone and pressing the 2 button down hard to call the emergency number on speed dial rushing to the front door and kicking it down, it swung loosely on its hinges and out of the way.

"Hello, what is your emergency?"

He dashed up stares and paused for a second, taking in the horrible view before him. Yagami Light lay on the floor, whimpering in pain and rolling over, trying to put the fire on his clothes out and another, badly burnt unconscious person that Raye could barely identify lay on the floor as well. Flames covered parts of the carpet and desk and were spreading to the bed.

"Hello?"

"There's a fire!" He barked, giving them the Yagami's address and telling them to hurry as he rushed forward and put a jacket over Light to suffocate the blazing fire on him quickly before rushing over to the other figure, which was female and young by the body. Her skin was black, red and raw. He pulled her out of the room and into the hallway, away from the fire and then went back in for Yagami, who'd managed to scoot away from the closing in fire.

Raye hooked his arms under Light's armpits and it caused Light to cry out in pain as the bad burns he'd gotten were pressed and disturbed.

"I'm sorry," Raye conceded softly, pulling him out into the hallway and gently putting him down by his –sister? It had said in the report that he had a sister. "I had to move you."

Light was still covered with Raye's jacket and he was in so much pain –god it hurt –but both he and the FBI agent could hear the vague sound of sirens heading his way.

"Can you talk?" Raye asked comfortingly, leaning over Light, concentrating on him, who was less severely injured. The girl, whoever she was, was probably going to die and there was nothing he could do about it.

Light opened his mouth but only a choked moan emitted from his chapped lips. He gave a short shake of his head, which hurt in itself. God, everything hurt –a burning, stinging agony pieced him. It hurt, it hurt so bad, and he heard the ambulance siren get even louder and it was comforting, but god, it had to get there faster. He would scream, he wanted to, but even that hurt too much.

"Fine, try to nod or shake your head," Raye continued, "Is that your sister?"

A nod.

"Do you know how this happened? What cause the fire?"

Another nod.

"Okay well…" Raye heard the ambulance pull up, as well as a fire truck, and he vaguely heard the water rushing into Light's bedroom. He watched as the carpet was soaked and it seeped through to the hallway slightly. "Just stay awake, okay? Until they –"

"Where are you?" someone called and Raye stood.

"Over here!" he yelled back and soon people where rushing up the stairs with a stretcher, the pounding of their footsteps on the stairs echoed in Light's ears for some reason.

He was lifted up (he cried out again as sharp pain shot through him) and he was laid onto a stretcher, he closed his eyes. The stretcher hurt a portion of his back and made him arch slightly to get away from it, gasping as the horrible smoldering sensation seemed to spread in every direction.

He could feel his skin, throbbing in a way that made it feel as though he were still on fire. He threw his head to the side, his teeth gritted and his eyes scrunched shut.

"Hello, sweetie, I'm gonna need you to stay awake for me," said a sweet female voice that he didn't find appealing at all. He wanted to snap at her 'Don't call me sweetie' but it still hurt to speak so he tried to ignore it, and besides, the torturous feeling of his burning skin was first and foremost on his list of worries. He opened his eyes a bit to show he was awake.

"You seem to have a bump on your head," she told him, and he wondered when exactly she'd felt his head, "Did you hit your head on something, hon?"

He was suddenly outside, and the sunlight reminded him of the fire that had enclosed on him, engulfing him in a prison of fiery walls. He'd felt like he was in hell, but he wasn't, it hurt too much for him to be dead. But the sun soon disappeared and he was faced with the roof of an ambulance and the stretcher snapped around, jostling him (the stretcher doubles as the bed in an ambulance). More intense pressure on his back, making him let out a loud, dry sob at the nasty sensation.

"Please, hon, I now it hurts, we're about to give you something, but I need to know, did you hit your head?" She asked again, and he nodded curtly, and once again it hurt like hell. "Does it still hurt? At all?"

He shook his head, teeth gnawing at each other. He felt a pinch in his arm and quite suddenly relief washed through him in the form of what he was pretty sure was morphine. He finally relaxed into the strong fabric of the stretched and the mattress beneath it. The pain was not completely gone, but it was dull, as though he were just waking up slowly from and nightmare and the horrible unreality diminutively stayed with him even as he started into the real world.

"Okay, sweetie you can go to sleep now. You won't die, don't worry."

Light didn't have to be told twice; he let go of the restraints keeping himself tied to the waking world and let himself fall into the dark peacefulness of sleep and away from memories of the horrific, excruciating, blistering inferno.

It was three days and two surgeries later that Light woke up. He'd gotten through the most painful part of it while unconscious, although buckets of morphine was still fed to him through a needle. He pressed the button that helped him sit up and he looked around, saw that he was an the ICU and his eyes met with a nurses, she rushed over with a smile on her face. Pushing the glass door open and stepping in side.

"Hello, Yagami-san, I'm nurse Miko, I'm so glad to see you awake," she smiled at him and reached up to his neck, where bandages were, and it annoyed him.

"I…" Light cleared his throat, and decided to ask about his sister, who was undoubtedly worse off than he, being closer to the blast. "How's Sayu?"

Her face fell, "Yagami-kun…I'm so sorry…"

"No," he replied, eyes wide, "She's not…she's not really…"

"I'm sorry, she died in surgery," she stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder, and although it didn't hurt at all, he shrugged it off, "Your parents are in the waiting room…they're very worried…but um…the police are also here for you. Because you're a minor your parents have to be here with you."

"Right," Light said distantly. His sister…Sayu is…

"Okay, well, I'll send them in, if that's okay," She said to him, "If it's not then…we can tell them to wait. It's only been three days since your were seriously hurt. After their gone, I'll get a Doctor to come in and tell you about your scar."

"My scar?" Light blinked, looking up and once again touching the bandages on his neck. He could feel more on his chest and back and waist and side, all the way down to his outer thigh and a bit of his bottom He raised his arm too, first his left, then his right. But the right one wouldn't lift, he tried again and this time was met with pain. His eyes watered at its intensity, he looked down and saw bandages all up and down it, going as far down as his fingers, leaving only the tips untainted by fire, "I…see…"

"Yes, I'm sorry," Miko said sadly, and then hurried from the room.

There was no wall to his care unit, on the side that faced the nurses desk, but a large window with thick beige blinds. He felt like he was in a fish tank, and he hated it. He looked around the room, and found several bundles of flowers, boxes of chocolate, presents and cards. He frowned, knowing that somehow the people in his school knew about his condition and his sister.

Sayu is…

Perhaps it was in the newspaper; that would be even worse! He didn't think his dad would allow that though, even if he had to throw a fit and pull a million strings.

"Light!" Sachiko cried rushing into his room and kissing him on the cheek. "I'm so –so glad your all right…I –I don't know what –what I'd do if I…If I lost you too…"

"I'm sorry, mom," Light whispered.

"Light," Soichiro put a hand on his sons head and pulled him into his chest briefly, careful of his wounds and gave him a small, short hug, "I'm so happy your okay. Do you…know about Sayu?"

"Yes," Light nodded, and then looked at the blanket and he clenched the fabric in his fingers, Sayu is… "Dead."

"Yeah," Soichiro managed, his throat sounded clogged, "Yeah, Sayu is gone."

Sachiko started crying again, streams of tears falling down her face, and small shudders racking her body with the force of her sobs. She held tight to Light's hand, the one that was not wrapped.

"I'm so sorry," Light closed his eyes and continued to grip the sheets. "I…"

"The police want to talk to you," Soichiro told him softly, looking down at his son, who opened his eyes again and then looked back up at him.

"Yeah, okay," Light nodded, gazing through the blinds at two people in blue uniforms, one a woman and the other a man. Soichiro stuck his head out the door and nodded and then returned inside with the two officers following behind him.

Soichiro took his wife's arm and led her over to the chair on the other side of Light's bed, sitting her down and sitting himself down next to her. He took her into his arms and held her tight as she bawled into his shoulder. He did not often cry. He took his pain in silence, without tears. He hadn't talked for over 24 hours after hearing of Sayu's passing. Hadn't eaten, hadn't slept. He'd just thought, contemplating her and what she was to him and how much he loved her.

"I'm Detective Riso and this is Deputy Hanasuki, we need to ask you a few questions," the man told him and Light nodded again.

"Yagami Light," the woman walked up to him, pulling out her notepad and pen, "We need your statement about what happened to cause the explosion in your room."

"It…was my fault," Light replied, staring still at his hand as his fisted the sheets so hard his veins pulsed inside.

"How so?" The male cop inquired as the woman scribbled. The scratching of the pen against paper brought of a memory that he couldn't place. Which was rather stupid of him, really, he went to school, so obviously he'd heard such a sound before.

"I…I booby trapped my desk," Light required, and he heard the pen come to a halt, "My diary was in there. I guess I…didn't want anyone to read it. I …um…"

"You guess?" Detective Riso asked, brow furrowed.

"No, I mean, that was why," Light shrugged, because really, what else could he have to hide in there? "I didn't think anyone would actually go looking for the diary, or if they did, find the false bottom of it…I tried to stop her –it's all my fault…"

"That's pretty drastic, for a diary," Hanasuki pointed out, still writing.

"It wasn't supposed to be that big," He shook his head, "Something must have gone wrong…"

"Something did," Riso told him, "You used an old plastic bag and then a new one, and because it's been sitting there fore a while it caused a chemical reaction that basically turned you little trap into plastic explosives…"

"I…" Light wasn't sure what to say to that. There was nothing he could say except perhaps 'I didn't know' but that was painfully obvious already.

"So, why would you take such measures for a diary?" Hanasuki prodded, glaring at her partner for going off topic.

"Someone's been following me," Light told them, gazing up at the pair of cops, "I don't know if he's a stalker or what, but he's been following me for over a week. I thought, if he tried to go rummaging through my stuff…"

"I see," Riso nodded, looking at Hanasuki, who nodded in agreement at the unspoken message, "Well, we're pretty sure the ruling for this will be accidental. There's no motive for killing your sister, and since you had no reason to believe that you sister would go into you room, and that she in fact snuck in there as opposed to you setting the trap in her room, and taking into account your own significant injuries in the incident, we're not going to attempt to go to trial with manslaughter."

"No jury would ever convict you," Hanasuki added, before tucking the notebook and pen away in her pocket. "Well, it was nice to meet you all. We are very sorry for your loss…Have a good night."

Riso nodded and left with her, leaving Light alone with his parents.

"Mom…dad…" Light started, looking at them, his eyebrows tilted up in the middle in a look of desperation, "I…"

"No, Light," Soichiro said softly, "It's like they said, Light, it was an accident…don't apologize."

Sachiko looked at him, and then back at Soichiro and then cried into his shoulder again.

Hours later, a long time after visiting hours had ended and Light had choked down his hospital dinner, he was staring at the white ceiling while a rerun of the eleven O'clock news played on the old television set in the corner of the room. He sighed, and tried to sort through a few things that he must have had trouble remembering. He remembered hitting his head, and he supposed it was attributed to that.

Why had he really put that trap in the drawer? He knew what he told the police, but he also knew it wasn't completely true. That diary was nothing but uninteresting recordings of his day to day activities, he would never go so far to hide it. The man that had been following him was following him for the Kira Case, he knew, but he didn't know how he knew. He also didn't even know why he knew the man was following him. One day he'd been clueless, and the next he'd known the man had been watching him for quite a while. He must have hit his head pretty hard…

His parents told him that his room had been mostly burnt to a crisp, his clothes, his school bag and books, his bed and most of his desk was charred. He would stay in the hospital for a few more weeks and he'd have to take pain pills for a while if he wanted to function normally, and of course, he would always have a scar, which the doctor had told him covered 22 percent of his body, but other than that, it shouldn't disrupt his plans for his future.

Light decided to ignore the small gaps in memory that he had, to forget what he'd forgotten, because he had more important things to focus on. Like the death of his sister, his disfiguration, his morning parents, and if need be, his school work. At the same time, it felt like something was missing, it felt like there was something else to worry about.

Something important he was supposed to be doing.

But maybe that was just the morphine talking.

Nilahxapiel: Hello, people, how're you doing? I'm starting yet another story, but I'm co-writing it with the wonderful Dante's Muse, so it's okay. ::nods::

Okay, so, Dante's writing the next chapter. This should be a really, really, really great story, and I hope the summary and the first chapter caught your interest. I'm lovin' this plot, really. It's gonna be great, so please hang on tight and wait for more plot development!

The next chapter; L arrives!

Please review!

Nilah & Dante