A/N: Hello all, remember me? Here is the next chapter. I had a bit of a writer's block hit me half way through and then only broke it a couple of days ago when ranting about my woes with this chapter to a coworker. I will admit that I don't actually like this chapter that much. I am off to work and will double check the editing when I get back.

Disclaimer: I own a lot of things. Death Note is not one of them.

Chapter 19 Shinigami

Raito first became aware of a cramping pain in his spine. His neck had a strange pressure against it and his whole body felt stiff. His nose wrinkled as the stench of sea water, body odor and cat urine came to his nose. He stayed still for a few moments and tried to remember where he was.

A flash of a picture of a semi truck and the memory of a burning pain in his shoulder. I was shot. Why am I not in pain? By now it was clear that there was no one else around him. He cracked open his eyes. The first thing he saw was that he was in a car, and the trees straight ahead. Raito glanced around. There was no sign of civilization around him, except for the dead end of the road. The pressure in his neck had been the seat belt digging into it.

"Where am I?"

It was clear that L was not around. He opened the door and stepped out. The road that the car was parked on was one way. They'd have to back out. The tire tracks looked relatively fresh, so he knew he hadn't been there more than a few hours.

Finally, he addressed his shoulder. He still didn't feel any pain, even when he moved it. It didn't even feel like he was on pain killers or any other drugs. Raito unbuttoned his shirt and shuddered at the smell coming off of his body. He had never been this dirty. I need a shower.

The cloth stuck to his body in the early morning heat. What he saw made him let out a shout of shock. And who could blame him? After all, the bullet wound was still open, yet at the same time healed, still tracing a path through his body. Cautiously, Raito ran his finger around the edge of the wound and bit his lip to stop himself from crying out. Icy tendrils of pain radiated from the wound, making him feel chilly despite the warm weather. Darkness ate away at the edges of his vision and he fought down a wave of nausea. He held onto the car to steady himself until the dizziness passed.

"Is Raito-kun feeling better?" came an inquiring voice behind him.

Raito let out another shout of shock and turned around. He watched with growing annoyance as the detective stood there eating a donut.

"Ryuzaki!"

He gestured to his arm. "Why are you dressed properly for once? And what the hell happened to my shoulder?"

"Ah I believe the Death Note healed it Raito-kun," L replied. "The clothes were given to me."

"How much time has passed?"

"Approximately ten hours. You need a bath."

Raito twitched. "I am well aware of that, Ryuzaki thank you very much. And why do you smell significantly less awful than me?"

"I ended up in a different situation than you." L then relayed the story of how he had met the Bourdeaus and what had happened to them.

"So how far are we from where we need to go?"

"Approximately sixteen hundred kilometres, Raito-kun," L said. "We will have to take a couple of detours in order to avoid those who are searching for us. We will also only be travelling at night. As for bathing, I am afraid you will have to make do for now until we find a creek or another body of water."

Raito was aghast. "You've got to be kidding me."

"No, I am afraid not. We cannot contact anyone or request assistance for this quest. We both need to follow the rules to this game or face death."

"The Shinigami King already seems to be bending the rules," Raito gestured to his shoulder. "I can move it without any discomfort, my arm is just as strong as before, but if I touch it, it hurts. A lot. You can't tell me that the Shinigami King doesn't have a hand in this."

"It may be an effect of the Death Note itself," L said. "One that isn't written in the rules."

"That is possible. Ryuk told me that the shinigami were not under any obligation to write down all of the rules but this doesn't quite suite his character. He seemed to be curious about what a human would do with the notebook when they possessed the knowledge of how it works. Ryuk probably didn't know that rule if it were true. I still think that this is the work of the Shinigami King. He did kill all of the people in the museum in order to unnerve us."

"Why would he heal you, Raito-kun?"

"Shinigami have a strange sense of humour. He probably did it because one I am not supposed to die yet and it would be boring if I did."

"I doubt it, Raito-kun. Though I cannot say for certain why your shoulder healed in the way it did."

"I demand a bath."

"We've been over this already Raito-kun."

"Well it's easy for you to say when you are already clean."

"Well I have to put up with your smell, and I will be smelling the same within a few days," L replied.

"It's going to attract attention," Raito muttered. "And I am not going to stay in this car all of the time!"

"We will do as you wish then."

"You... gave in that easily."

"I would rather not here you whine for the rest of the trip."

"I do not whine!" Raito seethed.

"I beg to differ Raito-kun. You do whine. A lot."

"No I don't!"

"Denying it won't change reality, Raito-kun."

Raito fell silent and glared at L. Really! There were so few things left for him to take pride in. One of them was his appearance. For L to refuse to allow him to get clean was a humiliating situation.

L handed Raito another sandwich.

"We'd better hurry off then, if you want to stop and get clean."

L opened the driver's side and slipped in. Raito did the same on the passengers side.

"Have I mentioned that this car reeks?"

"I know it does. We will be getting a new one by the end of tomorrow night."

Steve looked up from his Play Boy magazine thinking about how he had escaped his brush with death, and how he would definitely not be telling all of his friends about it. It kind of sucked. Nothing interesting ever happened to him. And now that it had, he wasn't allowed to say anything about it!

The sound of the door opening woke him from his daze and he looked up. And his face paled to the point where it was greyer than that of the dark haired Kira standing before him. The other Kira was standing behind him and a little to the left. Steve barely noticed the terrible smell wafting through the air, his eyes focused on the two in front of him.

"We are going to use your restroom," L said. Behind him the other Kira sent him a sinister smirk.

Steve just nodded. One of these days, he would die of terror. He just knew it.

Raito dashed towards the washroom, in desperate hopes of getting clean. There was no shower. Of course there wasn't. But there was hand soap and for now that would have to be good enough. He wasted no time in locking the door behind him and stripping himself down to his boxers. After kicking the clothing to the side where they wouldn't get wet, he turned on the tap. He looked up and caught a glance of himself in mirror.

Raito had to admit to himself that he looked terrible. His skin was abnormally pale under the grime and it was apparent that he had lost some weight. His hair was a mess as well and so greasy that his naturally brown hair looked dyed. He brushed his fingers through it and winced at the nasty feeling. There was a small section of seaweed caught between his finger tips and his nose wrinkled in disgust. It would take a long time for him to be completely clean.

L leaned against the counter in boredom. It had already been twenty minutes and he knew that it would probably be even longer before Raito was even close to done.

Steve had not taken his eyes off him once and it was quite annoying.

L glanced around and his eyes caught on the candy bar display. He grabbed a large snickers bar and lifted it up between his thumb and forefinger so that Steve could see.

"Can I have this?" he asked.

Steve let out a squeak.

L took it to be a yes and tore off the wrapper.

"You don't get much business here, do you?"

Steve shook his head mutely.

Raito came out of the bathroom after another forty minutes. His hair was damp, and his clothes were soaked.

"Don't think for a moment that replaced a regular shower," he snapped and stalked out the door.

L grabbed another candy bar and followed.

-----

They allowed night to fall before they set out again. Thanks to his prolonged exposure to the Death Note, Raito's cravings were at a minimum. Combined with the fact that he was clean and not in any pain had put him in a more tolerable mood.

They left the sleepy town and raced through a couple more cities before L brought them to a halt in the middle of another suburban neighbourhood. He pulled out the necessary tools and switched license plates once more, but kept the same car.

"Why can't we change cars?" Raito complained.

"You probably know this yourself, Raito-kun, but we can not because it is better that only license plates are switched. It makes our trail harder to follow than if we took a new car every time we stop. It is likely that the owners will not even notice for a while which gives us an edge. You are just complaining. Are you not used to the smell yet?"

"That's not the point! We're going to draw more attention if we travel around in a vehicle which smells of cat urine, seaweed and sweat."

"People are not in the habit of sniffing the interior of other people's cars. We will be fine, Raito-kun."

A huffy sigh was all he got in response.

L got in and they continued on. Finally, after all of that commotion in the last couple of days, they were allowed some reprieve from those chasing them. L made sure to stay off the highways as much as possible and to travel in a pattern that would seem aimless to anyone who was pursuing them while moving closer to their goal as he went.

They broke into a house so that Raito and L could take a shower because as much as L hated to admit defeat, Raito was right in the case of hygiene. It would be much harder for them to stay unnoticed when they did need to stop for food and water. Even if they threatened the people who they interacted with the Death Note, it did not guarantee their safety by a long shot. He made sure to be as careful as he could in order to ensure his and Raito's survival. After all their lives were, in his opinion, much more important to him than any one person that died.

"What is this, Raito-kun?"

Raito looked up and saw the black stone that had gotten him through the worst of his cravings for the Death Note in L's hand.

They were currently stopped in another lightly forested area, for a bathroom break.

"Give it back!" he snarled.

"Not until you tell me what this is, Yagami-kun," L said impassively. "I do have my suspicions however, so do not bother trying to lie."

"You haven't called me that in a while," Raito commented.

"Do not try to change the subject."

"It's the stone that the Shinigami King gave me," Raito said.

"What caused the change?"

"I don't know."

"You lie, Yagami-san. You would have told me otherwise in hopes that it would be a clue to succeed at our mission. What is it used for?"

"Why do you care?" Raito snapped.

"You are acting out of character Raito-kun."

"I am not! Why are you saying that?"

"You are also acting far below your intelligence level. Give me the stone."

"No! The Shinigami King gave it to me."

"I believe that it is affecting your judgement. Give it to me."

"No."

"Well if it is not affecting your judgement, you should have no problem handing it over."

L extended his hand towards him. Raito glared and reluctantly dropped the stone into L's hand. Or at least he tried to. He shook his hand in order to dislodge it. It seemed to just hang on tighter. Raito turned his hand over and noticed that it seemed to be pulsing, in time with his heartbeat. He tried to pull it off, but his fingers ghosted through it.

L grabbed Raito's hand and frowned. He couldn't touch it either.

"Raito-kun... what is this?"

"It's the stone the Shinigami King gave me. I have been using it to suppress my Death Note cravings," Raito said. "It became a little darker every time I used it."

"The question is, how are we supposed to succeed in our endeavors when you hide something like this, Yagami-san?"

"You would have taken it away!"

"I wish I could have," L replied.

They stood and just watched it. Dark strings shot out of the pulsing item and plunged into his hand. Arteries and veins began to swell and were clearly visible under the skin. Raito yelped in pain as the pressure in his arm increased. Smaller blood vessels began to show underneath the skin as well. This time Raito let out a scream.

"Please be quieter, Raito-kun. Someone will hear us."

He got a glare in return.

L reached out and placed his hand on Raito's chest. There was no heart beat. He pressed harder on Raito's chest. There was still nothing. L turned and looked at the thing pulsing in Raito's palm. It had expanded too approximately the size of a human heart.

L pulled the Death Note out from underneath his shirt and touched it to the thing. It also passed through. As he watched, it began to slowly sink into Raito's hand.

Raito all but shrieked, his voice reaching a shrillness that L would have thought impossible. He reacted quickly. L took off his sweater, and tore the fabric along one of the more frayed edges. He rolled part of the fabric into a tight ball and forced it into Raito's mouth. Tears rolled down the other's cheeks as L used the remaining ends to bind it tightly around Raito's head.

"Bite it, Raito-kun," L said.

Raito obeyed and bit down on the cloth. He sat down on the ground and dug his fingers into the dirt. L crouched down beside him and waited for Raito to pass out from the pain. Unfortunately for Raito, that didn't happen. He tore the fabric out of his mouth and threw up instead.

Over the next four hours, they silently watched the thing slowly creep up his arm and through his chest until it landed in the hole left by the bullet wound in Raito's chest. As soon as the heart had settled in, the bullet wound sealed itself, leaving a round scar. By this time he was pale and shaking. L forced him to eat a couple of sandwiches, and hauled him into the passenger's side of the car. Raito buckled his seat belt and promptly fell asleep. L looked up at the sky and noticed that it had just begun to lighten. He climbed in the car and crouched down on the driver's seat. They had lost too much time to go farther that night.

As the day wore on, L did not move, except to get some candy from the back seat. He sat there running their plans through his head and when he had finally gotten tired of thinking about that, he switched to running complicated mathematical equations through his head to pass the time. Normally he would have just bugged Raito, but it didn't look like the young man would have moved if L had dumped ice water over his head.

Finally L just got up, put on his shoes, which he didn't even wear when he was driving and headed off for a walk to ease his restlessness. It was an hour before sunset when he returned. He found Raito exactly where he had left him still asleep. L bit his thumb and frowned as he looked at Raito. His skin looked paler.

L opened the door and slipped inside. He leaned over Raito and turned on the overhead light. His eyes had not been fooling him. He placed his hand over Raito's forehead to find it ice cold. L had to restrain himself from flinching.

"Raito-kun, wake up," L said quietly.

Raito didn't even stir. L jabbed him sharply in the side. Raito's eyes flew open and he let out a shriek.

"Ryuzaki?"

"Raito-kun. Your eyes are red,"

"Pardon?"

"Your eyes are red, Raito-kun," L pulled down the overhead shade and flipped open the little mirror. "See?"

"This is a problem." Raito squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. The irises remained red.

"Yes it is. The Shinigami King seems confident that he is going to win."

"So I noticed," Raito said dryly.

"In light of recent changes, I propose that we abandon our original plan and form a new one. There is a ninety-eight percent chance that these changes are caused by that new heart of yours."

"A direct route would be best in this case," Raito was still absorbed in studying his reflection. He had a bone to pick with that Shinigami King.

"We only have six days left, Raito-kun. There will be no more stops except for bathroom breaks, gas pick up, and license plate changes. We have enough water if we are careful. If we are lucky, we should make it in a day and a half, two days at the most."

Six days remaining.

So... review and tell me what you think!