siafukira | [private]

[Teru emerges from a room a few doors further down - a cornfield. He's not even going to ask - and freezes, with a sharp indrawn breath. But... no. That's not him, the hair and the clothes are wrong and - is he carrying a sword?

Still, he's clearly looking for something, or someone.]

[Hearing the door go, and the startled breath, Light glances up quickly. The name swims into view - and only the name. He has no idea what he's just given away.

There's not enough distance between the two for him to speak, but he begins to nod. He recognises Mikami, very vaguely from his own world, and from Sayu's chattered explanation: Mr Mikami helped me look.]

[Teru's had the eyes a long time, and has learnt, by now, to keep his gaze from obviously shifting to the space above people's heads. Still, he tenses just slightly at the sight of the name without the number. Naturally, that reads as Kira, not just notebook owner.

He returns the nod, as if nothing's happened. There's none of his apprehension in his voice.]

That one's still locked?

For now.

[Producing a sheet of card and a piece of thick wire from the pack, Light slides the card underneath the door and gently pushes the wire in the lock. When he pulls the card back, the key is on it; he doesn't smirk.

Honestly, he doesn't read Mikami's tension as odd; he puts it down to his face. A lot of people do it. But there's something - maybe just cognitive differences between alternates?]

You're looking for someone, Mikami-san?

[Translation: I know who you're looking for.]

[That's something he ought to have thought of, and probably would have now that he's less frantic. Except that he's surprised the mansion was cooperative enough to provide a key.]

Yes. You haven't seen anything either?

[It's entirely possible the mansion is only providing keys to trick the people searching - but as yet, Light isn't so experienced in its ways. Dropping his equipment back in the pack, he opens the door; it's a bedroom, apparently empty. He steps inside and checks through it, quickly; the bed, the bathroom. Under the bed.

As he goes inside, he says, over his shoulder:]

Nothing yet. Where have you looked?

I've been working my way along from that end - [he indicates. He was going the opposite way to Light] - but I was in that last room a long time. For all I know they've switched places again.

[Slotting the key back into the door on the inside, he closes it behind him and moves down to the next door. There are a couple still to check. The backpack slides onto one shoulder.]

The rooms, they've changed around on you a lot?

[This next door's a closet, with brooms and buckets. Nobody in there.]

They've seemed consistent, but it's hard to tell for certain. This place is perverse.

[And you don't sound like Kira. This is not the time to get into that, of course, but it's there, in the back of his mind. He couldn't stop it if he wanted to.]

[The next room's another empty bedroom. Light checks over it in the same methodical fashion.]

How perverse? How many times have you checked this corridor by now?

This is the fourth. [He bites his lip slightly.] I ought to have thought of that, with the key. But I know some have unlocked themselves since the first time.

[Light rattles his fingers against his clothes, quickly; the small sign of obvious exasperation's very unlike Kira. It's not that like Light himself, for that matter; he's adjusted fast, but the mansion's unreliability still unsettles him.]

The rooms lock and unlock themselves. They move from place to place. He could be anywhere.

[But they're still going. One more door; it's the fish lounge. Light hasn't seen it before, and stares; the tiny moving things are beautiful, and, he suspects, quite uncatchable.]

I kicked some of them open.

[There's no evidence left of that, now. He doesn't know why that would vanish and the bloodstain still be there. Or, he does, but it's not something he wants to think about.

He's seen the fish lounge too often to be distracted by it. And he can't seem to stop talking.]

But he could be, anywhere, you're right. Searching the whole place is logistically impossible, the - the number of floors isn't even consistent always, I'm sorry.

The place doesn't make sense. If it doesn't want us to find him - we won't.

[He doesn't scoop a hand across his eyes, but he does seem a bit annoyed - and is. For all that the infected were a horror he couldn't take seriously at first, at least they followed strict, logical rules.]

Sayu seemed certain it would be her brother. You agree?

...I do, but - there's nothing to prove that. Well, fingerprints if there are any clear enough but I shouldn't think there are - not the point, sorry. I think it's likely to be him. If only because he was in that room, and of all the people there he... well.

[His eyes follow one of the fish, for a moment. A little blue one, flashing and darting.]

He's the one most people would have wanted to shoot.

[As Mikami mentions fingerprints, Light glances down at his own, turning one hand over. The skin's cracked and red and looks as if it complains a lot. Turning, he nods at the doors on the other side of the wall.]

You've checked this side already?

[There's something just a little shaded in his manner; what he's thinking of is how sometimes threatened people will cast someone out - and sometimes they'll cast themselves out. Scapegoats.]

Up to there. [Indicating the door opposite the cornfield. He was alternating sides.] No sign of anyone so far, and nothing noticeably different from the last time I looked.

And you've been over it four times. Sayu's been over it - I don't even want to think how many times she's been through here.

Let's continue, shall we?

[Crossing the corridor, the next door he comes to is locked, and - dropping the pack, crouching down again - a quick check with the torch shows there's no key.]

[To himself, crossing to the door next to the one Light's checking:] ...I hope she's slept, at least.

[He has, but not well. The door he tries opens easily, but he pauses, seeing that Light's hasn't.]

Is that one...?

Locked, yes.

[His eyebrows draw together. Fishing in the pack, which rattles like disturbed beans in a jar, he draws out a roll of cloth and starts inserting strips of dull metal into the lock.]

She hadn't slept. You know her well?

We - we're friends, yes.

[He doesn't sound defiant, but it feels that way. (He's always irritated about something...)]

[Light peers quizzically up from the lock, which is stuffed with quills like a peacock's tail.]

Mikami-san. It wasn't an accusation.

...your - counterpart doesn't approve.

[And he's much more able to accept that they're not all one, now, but things like this still trip him.]

She's his sister, not mine. He has that right.

[It's easy to say, as he looks back to the lock, and touches his fingers to the metal strips. They dance round and round; he shuts his eyes to see them better.]

I take it you haven't slept or eaten, either.

...a little. Not well.

[That one is a confession, and applies to both. He's still telling himself he shouldn't care so much, that he's only doing this for Sayu's sake and for propriety...]

[It's not the same sharp tone he used with Sayu; it's more casual by far.]

You know you'll be better able to look for him if you don't neglect yourself?

I know.

[That's why the answer wasn't 'no'.]

You know, I've met your counterpart a couple of times. Back home, I mean.

[Meaning to help, he digs himself deeper without even trying.]

[flatly] Yes. I thought so.

I should be checking in here. [He steps into the room properly. Not that it takes long to look everywhere, it's another empty bedroom.]

[Light opens his eyes to peer over as Mikami vanishes into the room; that was odd. Closing them again, there's a flip, and a snap; the lock undoes itself. Slotting all the picks back into place, he opens the door, which is - not an empty bedroom (clothes on the chairs, and the bed's unmade), but nobody's home. Light checks through it anyway.]

[There's no one in the room Teru's checking either. Of course. He goes out into the corridor again, waiting for Light to reemerge.]

[The room's empty, of course. Touching nothing, he closes the door behind him, just as unflustered as if he had the right to be in whoever's space he liked.]

I didn't mean to intrude, obviously. If you'd go and rest, I can finish checking here. To be honest, it all seems a little pointless, given how this place is.

[But he gave his word.]

You didn't intrude. I - assumed you'd know me. You knew who I was when you saw me, after all.

[A hand crosses his eyes again, for a moment, and he gives a quiet sigh.] ...And I don't need to rest, just yet.

I ought to have let you introduce yourself. You're the first person I've met that I recognised properly.

[Sayu doesn't, and will never, count. He moves towards the next door.]

[And Teru heads for the one after that.]

I am?

[He doesn't mean because of Sayu, specifically, but realises that's how it sounds and clarifies.]

That's - uncommon. Even for you.

I don't seem to be quite like the usual versions of myself. It's to be expected, I suppose.

[Light's door opens onto quicksand; nothing but. He pauses and looks inside, contemplative rather than indecisive.]

The point I wanted to make was that you're like him. [If wordier than other-Mikami would ever know how to be.] He'd be here checking doors, I think. Turning the place upside down. No care for himself when others need him.

[Despite his words, Light's tone sparkles, bright in a way that suggests mild disapproval. It's not an uncommon way to be, and while he understands it, he doesn't like it - or how closely it holds a mirror up to Light himself.]

You'd see that as a problem?

[He glances at the quicksand.] If he'd gone in there he'd have come straight out again, afterwards. You've probably heard that.

... so I've heard.

[And, despite the logic of it, the unreality of it, he can't care for it; his face tightens. Closing the door, he produces chalk from his pocket, and marks a large cross before writing "quicksand" underneath. It's startlingly legible.]

The thing about giving and giving and giving, Mikami-san, is that sometimes it's just another form of suicide.

[Quite unemotional, as he heads for one of the last two doors.]

...sometimes.

[Teru opens his own door. A bathroom - he wonders whether there's any significance to them mainly being so ordinary.

He doesn't say He's not someone I'd kill myself for any more.]

[Light doesn't even imagine it; he'd be as close as he gets to horrified if he heard it. His door's an unoccupied bedroom; he checks through it, the bathroom, the wardrobe, before stepping back out with a sigh.]

This corridor, it's been checked over and over. You've said most people here wouldn't be interested in helping him. Are there any more, besides you, and her?

I - honestly don't know. I can't think of anyone specific.

[He closes his eyes, trying to focus.]

There was a version of me recently who still believed in him, and there's Amane and possibly Takada. People from worlds without Kira. A few people from those with who'd still do something to help just on principle. I expect L from my world would, and Matt. [shaking his head] You'll have better luck asking who'd help her, I suspect.

[That's why he's here, after all.]

Or perhaps she'd have better luck asking than either of us, isn't that right? And I sent her to bed. Still, it can't be helped.

[It's the mark of his face, nothing more. Light knows he's not Kira, even if he can't expect anyone else to.]

But those are our options. Either we recruit more people and expand the search - or we accept that given the size of this place, and the way it moves, we're unlikely to find him at all.

[His gaze is a little off-centre, shuttered and regretful. Bad news.]

[He goes to speak, pauses, and gives a quiet little sigh. Really, he's known the only possible conclusion since he started looking. It's just one he can never bring himself to accept, on his own. But now he has permission to say it at least.]

Honestly? We could recruit the whole mansion population, and we wouldn't find him if the place doesn't want us to.

[At Mikami's words, Light nods quietly in confirmation.]

No, that's clear. But still, we had to try, didn't we? She'd have no peace of mind if we hadn't - and you never know. We might have found him.

Someone had to do something.

[The undeniable truth. As always.]

Yes.

[It is undeniable. What more is there to say?]

Mikami-san, I'm going to check around here one more time. Perhaps it'll be more amenable to showing me; perhaps he's locked in somewhere. Fetch me if you find him. If I'm not here, I'll be in the main library, or my room's on the second floor - uh, a couple of junctions left as you come out of the kitchen. There's a chalk circle on the door.

[He gives his location as if he doesn't think he's in danger himself; as if it's nothing at all.]

[Teru nods, acknowledging. As if it's normal, to be talking like this, with him - it's not as though he can do anything else. He can't just ask, who are you and why are you treating me as if I'm human? Not now, anyway.]

Understood. I will.

[Light returns the nod, again, understanding - and misunderstandings - tripping back and forth. He knows exactly which doors he's checked, and before heading down to the closest one, he offers one more piece of detached advice.]

Get some sleep. You've done all you can.

[He doesn't think his world's Mikami would begin to hear it, but this one might.]

...all right.

[And he can say that, because it is advice. Not an order, or anything like one. (Vaguely, he remembers the other one telling him to sleep, and how he'd concussed himself in the efort to obey.)]

Thank you.

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