Keiko’s POV:

Keiko was sitting on the bench closest to the side lines nearby, watching as the scene played out in front of her. Both Light and L had just emerged from the boys locker room and stepped onto the tennis court, though it was blatantly obvious that Light was the only one who had changed.

Why did L even bother going into the boys locker room? He’s still wearing the same outfit he always does. If he was in there just to watch Light while he was changing, then honestly, that’s a little...weird. Or perhaps creepy would be the right word, but I wouldn’t put it past L to do that honestly.

L, or rather, Hideki Ryuga, had called out to Light earlier and asked him to play a match of tennis with him, as a sort of way for them to get to know each other. Keiko had to admit, at first she didn’t quite follow why L had chosen tennis. However, L had insisted on tennis specifically, explaining that it was the one sport he and Light were both extraordinarily talented in.

She bit her lip, in deep thought as she watched the two of them, who were now walking towards her general direction.

With tennis, there is a clear winner and a clear loser. Is he doing this with the thought that, if Light tries to win on purpose, he’s Kira? On the flip side, if Light happens to lose to L, does that also mean he is Kira to L? How’s he supposed to conclude anything from this? What’s he trying to do?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Light, who was now right next to her, grabbing his racquet. He had set his tennis bag right next to Keiko on the bench. While he was there, he flashed Keiko a smile, before focusing his attention back on L.

“I must say,” he started, “I was surprised when you suggested tennis as a way for us to get to know each other better, Ryuga...I’m also surprised that you insisted on keeping that outfit of yours on. I did say I had an extra set of clothes you could borrow.”

Yeah, I’m surprised too, Light. But L is a bit...odd. The more you get to know him, the more you will get used to it. Sort of, at least.

“Is that going to be a problem?” L questioned, a blank expression on his face as he, too, grabbed his tennis racquet.

Light shook his head and smiled, “no. Not at all, I suppose whatever you want to wear is fine. But, on another topic, when you first invited me to play tennis with you, did you know how good I was?”

“Yes,” L admitted, “but I’ll be fine though. I have to admit, it’s been a while but at one point in time, I was actually the British Junior Champion.”

Ah, so that’s why L is so confident...unless he’s lying about receiving this award specifically to intimidate Light, but somehow, it doesn’t feel like it. While he doesn’t always tell the truth about everything, I don’t see why he would lie about something like this. After all, he did tell me confidently during our meeting the other day that he was an expert pro at tennis.

“So, Ryuga, were you raised in the UK then?” Light asked as the two of them walked back onto the tennis court.

“I lived in England for about five years when I was younger. But save your breath, nothing in that story would reveal L’s true identity, I assure you.”

Keiko rolled her eyes, of course L would say that on purpose just to try and taunt Light. Did he really have to go that far, though?

L continued on, a new found glint in his eyes, “well, since it is our first match, how about we just play a single set? First one to...hm...six wins, how does that sound?”

“That’s fine with me,” Light replied, and he went off to his respective side of the tennis court. Almost immediately after Light had stepped into his place, L gave his first serve. Light seemed to realize a little too late that L had already started the game, and the ball hit the fence with full force on his side of the tennis court.

“Fifteen love,” L commented with a smirk. It seemed to Keiko that the great detective was rather pleased with himself.

Light stood there, open mouthed for a moment. However, he quickly composed himself and grabbed the rolling ball from off the ground, “wow, Ryuga, nice serve. I have to admit, it caught me off guard.”

“He who strikes first wins,” L responded, and Keiko detected a strong hint of smugness in his voice.

Light passed the ball back to L, who gave another serve. Except this time, Light was more than ready for it. He hit back with just as much intensity, and thus the games began.

Keiko had to admit, she didn’t know squat about tennis, not even after being forced to sit through her cousin’s multiple tennis matches during her elementary school years. She did know, however, that this was the most intense game of tennis that she had ever seen. It was probably the most intense match the whole world had ever seen, for that matter.

L and Light managed to garner a rather large crowd of spectators relatively quickly. All around them, people were frozen in place, watching and whispering in awe.

“That’s Hideki Ryuga, same name as that pop star guy, and Light Yagami, they both got a perfect score on the entrance exam,” Keiko heard a guy standing close behind her explain to his group of friends.

One of his companions whispered back, “and the girl sitting on the bench, whose that?”

“Oh, her? I’m pretty sure that’s Light Yagami’s girlfriend. I heard that she also scored a hundred percent on the entrance exam. Look at them, they all seem close, which makes sense because they say smart people travel in packs…”

“Wow,” the friend replied, “well I hope it’s okay if I say this seeing as she’s dating Yagami-san but, she’s pretty hot.”

Keiko rolled her eyes and tried her best to ignore their comments, keeping her eyes glued to the game. So far, L and Light were pretty much neck and neck. This attracted even more people to stand by and watch the games go on.

It took only a few more minutes for them to gain a couple guys to willingly volunteer as a line judge and an umpire for their remaining matches.

She watched in awe as the matches finally drew towards a close. Both Light and L were hitting the ball back and forth like there was no tomorrow.

It looks like they’re both trying to go for the win...L’s theory is that Kira is childish and hates losing, so if Light loses, he’s definitely going to be watchful of Light’s reaction to losing. On the flip side, if Light wins, he will also see if Light gloats about it...either way you look at it, it appears Light can’t win. L only sees what he wants to see, and right now he sees Light as being Kira. It’s hardly fair, especially seeing as the probability of Light being Kira is around 5-6%, but there’s no way to convince L otherwise.

“Game and set! Light Yagami is the winner!” the self proclaimed umpire announced, waving his arm around in Light’s general direction. At this, the crowd went wild with clapping and cheers. Keiko jumped off the bench, heading towards L and Light, who were now gathered near the middle of the tennis court.

“Just as I suspected,” she heard L say as she got close to the two of them, “you beat me.”

Light laughed, “honestly? It’s been quite awhile since I had to play that hard. You truly were a worthy opponent, Ryuga.”

“Congratulations, Light-kun,” Keiko said, wrapping her arms around Light in a quick surprise hug from behind. She could feel his sweat, which now clung to her clothes a little as she pulled away from him, but she didn’t really mind it.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“Heh, hey woah there,” she heard Light say, “you don’t have to feel obligated to hug me even when I’m dripping with sweat.”

Keiko laughed a little, “no, I suppose I don’t have to. But, I still wanted to, to congratulate you, and it was well worth it. Besides, it doesn’t bother me that much...and one could say that you’re...dripping with good looks.”

This got a chuckle from Light, and Keiko felt herself give her boyfriend a warm smile.

“Oh, hello again, Kagami-san,” L said, looking over in her direction, “did you enjoy watching the game?”

Keiko could sense the double meaning behind L’s simple question. He was asking her indirectly what she thought of the whole situation, and if perhaps she thought that Light was more suspicious to her because he had won.

She supposed that she should have felt a little more suspicious now, but she just felt like overall the game had been rigged from the beginning.

Somehow I’m starting to think that there was much more to this game than just winning and losing...but if so, then what is L’s true gain from all this?

“Yeah,” Keiko replied, “it kept me on my toes the entire time. That’s saying a whole lot coming from me, seeing as I don’t know very much about tennis.”

Light glanced at Keiko, “oh, is that so? I will have to work on fixing that someday, now won’t I?”

“Only if you promise to learn more about knitting,” Keiko responded while attempting to keep a straight face. In actuality, she also knew nothing about knitting either, no matter how much her mom chided her for it. However, she never really had chances to tease her boyfriend, Light was basically perfect, so whenever she was given the opportunity, she took it. That, and she wanted to keep the mood light.

Light looked aghast at Keiko’s demand, and his eyebrows furrowed, “wait a second...you don’t even know how to know, do you?”

“You’re right, I don’t know how to knit,” Keiko said in between laughs, “but the look on your face was priceless!”

Light started to laugh a little himself, “you got me there, Keiko-chan. Although, I don’t know which is funnier, the thought of you knitting, or the thought you trying to teach me how to knit.”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, golden boy,” Keiko responded.

She could feel L’s eyes burning a hole in her back, and sensed that he now wanted to spend some time alone with Light. She figured Light probably wanted to get to know L a little better himself, “anyway, I don’t want to keep you two from cleaning yourselves up, so I think this is goodbye for now. I’m gonna head on home but I’ll text you later, okay?”

No way...so L wanted to play a round of tennis just to get Light alone?

“Mhmm, sounds good,” Light replied, “I’ll see you later. I’ll be hanging out with Ryuga some more, if that’s okay with him.”

“Of course, Light-kun, we should grab a drink somewhere and cool off. Anyway, goodbye, it was nice seeing you again, Kagami-san!” She heard L call out behind her as she walked away.

I know he mentioned testing Light with the messages he got from Kira a little while ago, but does he really plan on doing that now? I guess it would appear so...it looks like soon L will be deciding for sure whether or not to add Light to the investigation team.

What Light didn’t know was, instead of heading home, Keiko was really heading towards the investigation headquarters. It was there that she would meet up with the rest of the Task Force and wait there as the rest of L’s plans for Light Yagami unfolded.

/timeskip/

“Did I miss anything?” Keiko asked, nearly out of breath by the time she burst through the doors of the current hotel room. Watari, who had been ironing one of L’s white shirts, Mr. Yagami and the other five policemen all looked up at her as she made her way towards the couch. She decided to take a seat next to Matsuda.

“There’s been one more heart attack, it happened at around 2:30 p.m. today, the criminal was on death row,” Light’s father informed her, “there’s no way that Light could’ve…?” He trailed off, but Keiko knew exactly what his question was about to be.

“It would have been impossible for Light to kill a criminal during the last couple hours,” Keiko responded, “Ryuzaki didn’t let him out of his sight for the whole afternoon, and in fact, I suspect that he is still with him at this very moment. ”

“Oh right, the tennis match, how did that go?” Matsuda asked her, “Ryuzaki said that he was a pro at tennis, but I remember a few years ago, Light won a district championship.”

Keiko let out a chuckle, “well it appears that Ryuzaki also won an award. He gave Light a run for his money out on the courts earlier, but Light still managed to beat him in the end. The game was super close, though.”

“I see, so Light won after all. Do you think that this strengthens Ryuzaki’s argument for the chief’s son being Kira?” Ide questioned, his eyes surveying the room.

“It might, but whether Light won or lost, Ryuzaki still would have thought it was suspicious, or so I’m assuming. I think the match didn’t matter too much though, the real test is those pictures L kept mentioning before. They have to be,” Keiko replied.

“Of course, that makes sense. The good news is, if Light passes, he will be able to investigate with us,” Aizawa added.

All of the sudden, Mr. Yagami had a pain stricken look on his face, and he grabbed at his heart. Keiko’s eyes widened, frozen in terror, as he groaned, now in danger of falling off his seat on the couch. She felt Matsuda jump up beside her, he was headed towards the chief.

Keiko couldn’t bring herself to do anything other than sit in her spot on the couch. She wanted desperately to help but she was like ice; cold and numb.

All she could think was that, if this was the work of Kira, then it wouldn’t matter what they did, the chief would soon be gone.

No, Light Yagami’s father would soon be gone.

Is Kira behind this?! If so, then there’s no way that my boyfriend could be Kira, he would never kill his father so mercilessly! That’d be absolutely evil!

“Call 1-1-9! We need to get him an ambulance, stat,” Aizawa commanded Ukita, who immediately reached in his pocket to turn on his cell phone.

A minute soon passed, then two minutes. The ambulance was called, now on its way over to the current Task Force headquarters. Light’s father was fortunately still breathing, and Keiko hoped that it meant Kira hadn’t struck him after all.

If he had, Keiko suspected that Mr. Yagami would have been long dead by now, seeing as it appeared Kira’s heart attack victims didn’t live longer than a minute.

There’s no way that this was an act of Kira. He would have died otherwise. Light’s father must have just collapsed from stress. It’s hard enough for me to have to suspect my own boyfriend of being Kira, I can’t even imagine what it must be like for him having to suspect his own son, his own flesh and blood.

“Luckily, I think the chief will be okay, but are you going to be alright?” Matsuda asked, focusing his attention back onto Keiko, “he might just be the chief to us, but to you, he’s your boyfriend’s father.”

Keiko could feel as Matsuda gently reached for and grabbed onto her hand, in hopes to help her stand up from her spot on the couch. She gladly accepted his help as she was not sure she could have trusted herself to stand up on her own.

“I-I think so,” she stuttered out, glancing away from Mr. Yagami and focusing her attention on the tall, dark haired policemen, “in all honesty, I’m more worried about Light.”

He gave her a sad yet apologetic smile, “fair enough. He has a lot on his plate right now, but so you do, Keiko-chan.”

“Take the girl home, Matsuda,” Aizawa demanded softly, interrupting their conversation “and I don’t care what Ryuzaki might say, we should give her a little break, just until Chief Yagami is feeling better again. It can’t be easy for them.”

“Understood,” Matsuda replied, turning back to Keiko, “let’s get you home, Keiko-chan.”

Matsuda lightly reached out for her arm, pulling her towards him and leading her outside of the hotel room. Keiko quite literally felt like she was a walking zombie as the two of them walked towards where Matsuda had parked the spare police car.

“Alright,” Matsuda awkwardly called out in an obvious attempt to try and liven things up a bit, “next stop: The Kagami household.”

“T-thank you, Matsuda-san,” Keiko whispered, barely audible as she got into the front passenger seat of the car.

The young policeman gave her a quizzical look, “there’s no need to thank me, Kagami-san. I’m only doing my job; it’s my duty as a police officer to ensure that you get home safe and sound.”

Keiko gave a soft smile as she thoughtfully replied, “yes, yes I know. But, even so, that doesn’t mean I can’t be thankful. I know you almost never get noticed for the things that you do, it’s like people take you for granted sometimes. I just wanted to let you know that someone out there is thankful to have you around to do small yet meaningful tasks like this…”

A moment later, Keiko looked up and noticed that Matsuda’s face was now slightly tinted pink, and she had to bite her lip to stifle a small laugh from escaping her throat as she closed the door to her side of the car.

Ah, I see...he’s really not used to receiving compliments that often, is he? How cute.

“Yeah, I’m thankful...heh, even if you are an idiot a majority of the time,” she added quietly to herself, watching as Matsuda nearly tripped over his own feet as he walked over to the driver’s side.

He was still rather flustered as he got into his seat and put the police car into gear, “uh, well, t-thank you, Kagami-san...be sure to buckle up.”

The whole car ride home was filled with Matsuda’s awkward rambling, but Keiko was glad for it, because for a few minutes she was able to forget about the Kira case and all the horrors that went along with it.