#raynao

there's this one song decently famous where i’m from whose chorus got turned into an ad jingle recently and i HATE that it got turned into an ad jingle so i made it about naomi misora instead

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While she was still wondering about that, she clicked on her inbox. There was one new message, from Raye Penber. This was the name of Misora’s current boyfriend, also an FBI agent. He was the most obvious example of the agents who had a high opinion of her (not that this stopped him from begging her to transfer to a less dangerous department every time something happened). Since her leave was almost over, this might well be just business, so Misora went ahead and opened the message…

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PS: In order to contact you, I took the liberty of borrowing your friend’s address. This was the simplest and safest way to contact you, so please forgive me. [L, referring to hijacking Raye's email account]

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She briefly considered the idea that Raye Penber, or someone else, was playing a practical joke on her, but she found it hard to believe anyone would be so bold to sign their name as [L].

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Perhaps she should check into [Rue Ryuzaki] herself, instead of leaving the investigation up to L… if only for self preservation. She considered calling Raye, and having him check it out secretly, but first Misora left the alley behind.

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Then the phone in her bag rang. She answered quickly, assuming it was L, but it was her boyfriend and coworker, Raye Penber.

“Hello? Raye?”

“Yeah… let me speak quickly, Misora,” Raye said, in a low voice. At this time of day there must be other people around him. “I checked up on what you asked me.”

“Oh, thanks.”

She’d asked him on the 16th, and it was now the 19th, and he was a very busy FBI agent, so this was pretty fast work. When she thought about how much he did for her, she found herself wanting to thank him every time she spoke to him.

“So?”

“Basically? There is no private detective named Rue Ryuzaki.”

“So he’s unlicensed?” An unprivate detective. He had said so himself.

“No. There are no records of anyone named Rue Ryuzaki at all. Not just in America, but in the records of every country in the world. The name Ryuzaki is reasonably common in your home country, but none of them are named Rue.”

“Oh. He speaks Japanese like a native, so I thought he might be from there… so it’s a fake name?”

“Presumably.” Raye was silent for a moment, but then blurted, “Naomi! What are you doing?”

“You promised not to ask.”

“I know I did. But your leave of absence will be over next week, and I was just thinking about the future… are you coming back to the FBI?”

“I haven’t thought about it yet.”

“I know I always say this, but…”

“Don’t. I know what you’re going to say, so don’t say it. I don’t have time. I’ll call again.”

Misora hung up without giving him a chance to respond. She spun the phone around between her fingers, feeling a little guilty. It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought about going back, but that she didn’t want to think about it.

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Misora slowly reached her left arm out toward the ceiling. Holding it away from the floor. She opened her hand and stretched her fingers out all the way, as if trying to grab the fluorescent light overhead. There was a ring on her finger. An engagement ring from Raye Penber. An engagement ring that still seemed about as real as a joke between two children to her, but was it possible someone would cut off her finger, her arm, to steal it? What if it was a bracelet? No. Using herself as an example just made it seem all the more unlikely.

Holding her arm up like this had allowed her sleeve to slide down toward her shoulder. Her wristwatch came into view. It was a silver watch. A present on her birthday this year, February 14th, again from Raye Penber. So if it wasn’t a bracelet, but a watch? It was silver, so it wasn’t cheap… a watch?

[*note: according to HTR, naomi's birthday is february 11]

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“And we shouldn’t call for police backup, right?”

“Yes. We might be able to protect the victim’s life, but the scale of the operation would be too large.

[…] he had a point.

If she asked her boyfriend in the FBI, Raye Penber… no, she couldn’t do that. Misora was suspended and she’d told Ryuzaki she was a detective. Her actions of the past week could get her in hot water if the agency found out. Even if she was really working for L she couldn’t exactly admit that in public…

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Naomi Misora honestly did not know why she had been unable to pull the trigger. Perhaps she did not possess the proper self awareness… the proper resolve that an FBI agent should have.

Her boyfriend, Raye Penber, had said, “I guess you couldn’t live up to your nickname, Misora Massacre,” somewhere between sarcasm and trying to cheer her up, but since she didn’t understand it herself she hadn’t protested.

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(chapter 8, manga)

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(chapter 9, manga)

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(chapter 10, manga)

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(chapter 11, manga)

(note: naomi is retracing raye's footsteps here. the coffee shop she passes, cafeel, is the same one where light kills someone to prove he's really kira to raye. and then she gets on the subway just like he did)

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(chapter 12, manga)

(light laughs very loudly. naomi looks at him confusedly and light apologizes. then naomi says,)

(naomi explains her theory about kira killing the busjacker & convenience store robber to get to raye)

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(chapter 14, manga, right after light tells naomi he's a member of the task force and asks her to join)

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(chapter 15, manga)