Deadboy Ch 4 The Game
A/N: I don't own Death Note.
***
"I'm bored," Light whined again having already finished off all the books in the office. The officers attempted to ignore him. "You guys are boring. Isn't there anything to do around here?"
The original Taskforce plus Yamamoto had all remained late that night working on the newest case and were getting nowhere.
"You could make yourself useful and get me coffee?" Matsuda suggested gruffly.
"Sure, no problem!"
The taskforce gaped open-mouthed as the former God of the New World dashed off to do just that.
"Matsuda!" Aizawa scolded.
"What?"
"That's just… wrong!" said Ide.
"Revenge is sweet." The others shared nervous looks as Matsuda cackled evilly.
"Actually, it was Ryuuzaki that made you the coffee boy." Mogi pointed out reasonably.
Aizawa sighed and resumed staring, zombie-like, at the computer screen on which were displayed the photos of the crime scene. Case number 34872 a.k.a. the Zero case was proving to be very difficult. Especially considering how short-handed and underfunded the investigation was. This was made all the worse by the cavalier attitude many officials still had left over from the Kira-era: "The victims are criminals so why bother investigating?"
"The victims were all criminals that were already sentenced to die by lethal injection and killed on the same day, at the very time they were scheduled to be executed." Yamamoto scratched his head as the team poured over the case documents. "Really, what's the point in killing them if they were going to be executed anyway?"
"It's inhumane. Cruel and unusual and…" Aizawa's gaze drifted to where Light was floating in the corner "…And I think it's obvious why."
Their suspect, the one named Zero by the media, just replaced the chemicals of those that were about to be killed by lethal injection with something a little nastier-something that would ensure that the criminals' deaths would be slow and agonizing before going into cardiac arrest. At every crime scene they had found a "Z" marked somewhere in the victim's blood, like the freakin' mark of Zorro or something. This Z character always left his mark on prison walls, storerooms, and one time even on the prisoner himself. There were no obvious wounds on the victims either, so Z somehow procured their blood without their knowledge, and then marked his victims beforehand.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G…
It was looking like Aizawa's earlier suspicions that this was another renegade from Wammy's House were on the right track-which meant that catching him would be all the more difficult…
Aizawa secretly despaired as he continued going over Z's code. About a week ago the police had received a message from Z via e-mail in the form of several brain teaser games. Aizawa had a team of analysts searching for where the e-mail had originated from but so far had come up with nothing. This guy was very good at covering his tracks-like how this guy managed to break into prisons, replace the chemicals, leave his Z graffiti, and then sneak out again without anyone noticing a thing or leaving a trace behind. Aizawa had more analysts trying to decipher this code but so far they had come up with nothing. In fact it appeared to be just psychotic gibberish.
"Dammit, I swear, this guy's mocking us!" Ide voiced Aizawa's thoughts exactly when he cursed under his breath.
The silence stretched out when Light suddenly returned with a tray of coffee for everyone and set it on the table.
Matsuda took a sip and nearly gagged.
"What's the matter?" Aizawa demanded, and frowned. Trying to poison them didn't really seem to be Light's style…
Matsuda coughed and sputtered. "S'too much sugar!" Matsuda glared at the Shinigami.
Aizawa arched an eyebrow as he too sipped the sugar with a bit of coffee in it. "Care to explain?"
Light cringed as if struck, an absolutely stricken look upon his face. "I'm sorry! I-I don't know why I… It just… seemed right. Don't detectives… Wouldn't… someone want to use a lot of sugar?"
"Not that much sugar!" Matsuda roared.
"Sorry." Light murmured with downcast eyes.
Looks of dawning comprehension and horrified understanding spread across the faces of the original Kira taskforce.
L...
The officers exchanged nervous glances, all thinking the same thing: Are his memories starting to return? Just how much does he remember?
"It's fine, Light," Aizawa assured him "we like some sugar, just bring it out in a separate bowl next time, alright?"
The Chief stretched, his thought process now thoroughly derailed from the difficult task in front of him. "I think… I think we all could use a break. I'm going to go out and get some coffee."
Thoroughly frustrated by their lack of progress and not wanting to be left alone with ghosts from the past the others quickly followed suit.
Light winced again as the door swung shut. "Sorry." He whispered to an empty room. The Shinigami got an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach. It felt like he was missing something… or maybe someone…
Light tried to clean up after them but one of the spoons escaped his clumsy claws. Light watched, transfixed as the spoon fell to the floor. There was an unexplainable tightness in his throat as he was again hit with a profound and inexplicable sense of loss. The God of Death slumped where he stood next to the coffee table; his pristine white feathers trailing on the dirty floor.
***
Aizawa sighed again as he returned with his coffee. From the look of things if they wanted to catch this guy he would have to swallow his pride and call Near (and of course the bastard had known, and was no doubt waiting for their call.) Because it would take a genius to solve this-
Aizawa made his way over to his desk … and dropped his coffee on the floor. In his haste to leave the room, Aizawa had accidentally left the window open. The code was solved.
"Hey Light… come over here for a minute."
"What is it?"
"This."
The teenaged monster looked absolutely miserable. "I screwed up again, didn't I? Sorry. I just… I was bored and that game looked fun and… sorry."
Game?
A couple of things were currently running through Aizawa's mind. On the one hand he was irritated that the creature saw it as such. It was certainly not a game to him or any of the investigators.
All this… it always seemed to just be a game to them. Why should that have changed now that they're dead?
On the other hand…
I have an entire floor of analysts trying to crack this. Light solved it in less than ten minutes! Aizawa stared at the Shinigami in a mix of awe and fear. His genius mind IS still intact…
Aizawa had already concluded he needed a genius to solve this case. It seemed a perfectly practical solution.
Light winced as the others returned and all shared Aizawa's look of shock and incredulity upon realizing what had happened. The Shinigami fidgeted "Sorry."
"No Light, you did nothing wrong. In fact you did a very good job on this."
"I… won?" Kira asked hopefully.
Aizawa forced a smile and patted the monster on the back. "Yes Light, you won."
Light could barely contain his glee. He cracked a smile that exposed more than a hint of fangs, his demonic eyes looked large and crazed. Aizawa gazed into the eyes of madness and it almost seemed like a warning: tread carefully-this was still Kira, no matter how innocent he currently seemed.
"…This round. You see it's a team game… Say would you like to play with us?"
"Oh, would I!" Light nodded enthusiastically. It sure as hell beat floating around being bored. And a team game? That sounded really exciting…
Aizawa could see the others weren't too happy about this but since they had this… resource at their disposal it would be foolish not to use it.
"Okay, Light. So here are the rules…"
***
"Huh." The Shinigami stared at the cipher. "This looks like a name. Keiichi Inoue?"
"I got it!" Yamamoto announced as he clicked with his mouse furiously. "Keiichi Inoue-sentenced to death for crimes against humanity. He's scheduled to be executed at 4 p.m. today."
After Aizawa made a quick call to the prison, it was quickly discovered that the chemicals in store room had indeed been replaced, the execution chamber tampered with. Z had been there.
(Meanwhile the officials were quick to order in a new batch of chemicals so that Keiichi Inoue could still be executed on schedule.)
Meanwhile Light helped the team decipher the rest. Oddly enough one of them appeared to be an address. Aizawa sent Mogi and Matsuda to go check it out.
The officers hadn't known what they'd expected to find there but it probably wasn't that they'd catch their culprit sleeping off an evening of espionage on his crappy futon surrounded by week-old laundry and old pizza boxes.
It would appear that "Zero" was just that, a loser of the highest order.
Apparently he had been so confident that the police wouldn't be able to crack his code that he had even sent his home address to them as a taunt and all the evidence was right there-blueprints of each of the prisons, how to bypass security, all the equipment necessary to do so.
Z struggled but it seemed he was much better at infiltration then he was at fighting. Mogi effortlessly held him down as Matsuda gave him a lovely set of matching bracelets. Mogi kept Z in a chokehold and once they reached the cruiser and Matsuda secured him using some techniques they had learned from Ryuuzaki-this guy was so good at escapology-they couldn't afford to take any chances. Aizawa had a special cell ready just for him.
The taskforce celebrated their victory with the time-honored tradition of doughnuts.
"It's like a blast from the past. He's definitely one of the Alphabet gang."
"Got the whole look, you know? Pale, slumped posture, bags under the eyes…"
"He kind of reminds me of Mello."
"Yeah… except he's like… an albino."
"So like… if Mello and Near had a kid…"
Ide turned slightly green as he chewed his bearclaw. "Not while I'm eating, please."
"Aw, the whole thing is completely ridiculous. I mean, they're supposed to be geniuses right?"
"Genii." Light muttered from the corner. He had abstained from eating and the party-even though he helped them win the game, Light could sense he was less then welcome. He didn't take it personally. After all, he was an interloper and a God of Death, their reactions to him were only natural…
The Shinigami simply floated in an out-of-the-way corner while re-reading another one of Aizawa's Sherlock Holmes novels.
"What?"
"The plural form of genius."
"Whatever. They're supposed to be so smart, but you'd think they'd have more… originality..."
***
After the party, Aizawa slumped exhaustedly in his chair. No doubt they'd catch Hell later with Near for locking up his old classmate or whatever but he was sure they were ready for it. The Chief looked askance when he felt the chill prickling at the back of his neck of someone staring at him, or rather a Shinigami staring at him. Aizawa turned in his seat and regarded Light-the Shinigami's gleaming crimson eyes were wide and adorable as he asked excitedly "So… Did we win?"
Despite himself, Aizawa found himself smiling back. "Yeah… we won." He just stopped short of ruffling his hair. The Chief of police does not ruffle Kira's hair.
"So Light… would you be interested in playing again sometime?"
***
"That case has been solved already. Thank you for offering but we don't need your assistance at this time." A potential client cheerfully informed him over the phone. Near crushed an autobot in his grip. His case volume had shrunk significantly in the last two weeks.
It all began with the capture of Zero…
Zenith, Near mentally corrected himself, His codename is Zenith, not Zero. Near shifted uncomfortably with something almost akin to guilt; no matter how he threatened, pleaded, or cajoled the NPA would not hand over the prisoner to his custody. Sure Z was a loser but he didn't deserve this. Near was sure he was just playing a game with him…
(As per usual Near kept track of the current situation using his toys. The Lego policemen represented the NPA who held Z, represented by the X-men's Gambit (Apocalypse variant) prisoner.)
What Near found most surprising was that the police managed to crack Z's codes. Z was an idiot, the loser, the zero, last place at Wammy's but there was one field in which Z excelled and that was cryptology. Even Near had trouble cracking Z's codes. That the police managed it on their own was unthinkable-they must have had help and Near was determined to find out who…
(Near, represented by Optimus Prime, stood on his tall Lego tower but another figure had begun to make a tower of his own, hovering over the police station. Near represented this unknown rival with a Skeletor figurine and then used his variant model of Optimus to fire some missiles made of cheap plastic-they hit Skeletor square in the chest.)
Yes, Near had a rival to crush because as things stood now he had a genuine Detective War on his hands.