A Charmed Life 11 I Cannot Believe My Eyes
A/N: This is a Ryuk/Light AU Death Note fanfic. I don't own Death Note.
***
“Ryuk…”
“Yeah?”
“You said we were… bonded? Now, I just want to clarify… that sounds rather permanent,” Light asked, squirming a bit as Ryuk embraced his naked body, holding him in his lap. The boy's breathing became heavier at the sensations of leather against his bare skin and he could feel that Ryuk was half-hard beneath his loincloth.
“It is. If you want I can keep you forever.”
“Forever… ?!“ Light blinked slowly as he thought over the implications of this. Had Ryuk just made him a literal God and… “Holy smokes… I just got married, didn’t I?”
“Well, I understand that humans do it differently,” the Shinigami said in an off-handed fashion while slipping one of his skull rings off of his claws and dropped it in Light’s smaller human hand.
“Shall I make an honest man of you, yet?”
The monster and the killer locked eyes and after a minute simultaneously broke down laughing into mad, hysterical giggles.
Ryuk then tried to slip the ring onto the proper finger the ring that fit Ryuk proved too big for Light’s slender human fingers so he ended up wearing it on his thumb.
Fuck. He was married. Alright, maybe not in the legal sense-Light imagined it would be difficult getting any government to legally recognize a gay interspecies union-especially when half the couple couldn’t even be seen by most humans and wasn’t even believed to exist. Light imagined trying to get a marriage license for his invisible husband and snorted to himself. No, a private “ceremony” of just the two of them suited Light just fine. Especially since, from the sound of it, they were soul-bonded for eternity and…
Oh. “Ryuk…?”
“Yeah?”
“Will you still like me when I get older?”
“I would, but I think the question as you meant it is irrelevant. You’re mine now and I’m not too fond of the idea of you dying so I’ve frozen your lifespan as is my right as the Bonded to a Breeder -you’re going to be eighteen forever.”
Light’s eyes flashed with conflicted emotions. Ryuk had so much power over him and while Ryuk had yet to truly abuse it, that still didn’t sit well with Light. He liked the way Ryuk took care of him but that was supposed to be just in the bedroom, not everyday life. The occasional attempted mothering by his mother aside, Light was used to being very independent and doing most everything on his own-he couldn’t say he was too thrilled with Ryuk so meddling in his life, even if so far Ryuk’s treatment of him had, so far, been benign.
“…And why eighteen?”
“Because that’s how old you happen to be now. With the sort of risks you take you could’ve died tomorrow, you know, and I didn’t want to wait. Besides, you’re real fun this eager and hormonal. Don’t worry, pet. You know I can always keep you satisfied.”
“Well… at least I don’t have acne,” the now immortal teen laughed.
“Yes, let’s focus on the important things.” The Shinigami cackled as he again nuzzled against the boy in his arms. “Oh, Light-o… I have a gift for you,” Ryuk purred in his ear.
“Not just the ring?”
“Even better. Close your eyes.”
Light was naturally suspicious but Ryuk gave him no reason not to trust him and it wouldn’t make much sense for him to hurt him now but he had thought that before and then Ryuk had bit him-even if it turned out that Ryuk’s biting him had been necessary-but that was just the thing, he didn’t know what Ryuk wanted and…
Light immediately chastised himself for being stupid.
Ryuk had been nothing but kind to him-even biting him had ultimately been an act of kindness-and yet he was still so suspicious of him?
I let him have sex with me for fuck’s sake but I don’t trust him out of my sight for like… five seconds? Yes, I don’t know what Ryuk wants but then there’s only one way to find out, now is there?
So in a rare display of trust Light closed his eyes; he did not flinch when Ryuk covered his eyes with one large hand or when the Shinigami picked him up and carried him across the room.
“You can open your eyes,” Ryuk told him once they were in front of the mirror.
At first the world seemed to have taken on a distinctive red tint before his vision cleared and he noticed something most peculiar-he could see his own name floating above his head in red kanji. Light immediately recognized the import of what had just happened.
“Ryuk-!” Light shouted, betrayed. No. He couldn't! He didn't! I never made the Deal!
“They’re on me, precious. No charge.” Ryuk assured him.
“Ryuk, I fucking love you!”
“I know,” Ryuk cackled softly as the boy covered his face with sloppy, eager kisses. The Shinigami then carried his eager lover to the bed where they remained until Light released more spirit energy.
“Ryuk?” Light queried as they lay together in the afterglow.
“Hmmm?” Came the Shinigami’s lazy reply as he idly trailed his claws over the boy’s stomach.
“There was a very important question I want to ask you.”
“Oh?”
“Your world or mine?”
***
L sighed as he listlessly poked at his cheesecake. Things just weren’t the same now that Light was gone.
L wasn’t about to admit it aloud but he kind of missed having his “first friend” around even though he was a serial killer-there was no doubt in L’s mind about that even if he was the only one to still retain that theory. Even Watari had chided him for “speaking ill of the dead.” That was the other reason L missed Light; without him he couldn’t bring the case to a satisfactory conclusion.
Personally L didn’t think Light was dead, partly because he found the evidence inconclusive and mostly because the Kira killings continued, though at a much slower pace than before. Another thing L found suspicious and what should’ve been a major clue even to the duller witted police taskforce had they not been so, ha, blinded when it came to all things Light, was that Light had emptied his bank accounts before his disappearance. At first glance the paper trail made it appear as if he had donated his college tuition to charity but bank records show that the majority of the money had actually disappeared.
Light had then left them a fake trail to throw off the investigators, leading them to an abandoned building where the partial remains of a teenage boy was discovered, charred beyond all recognition. The taskforce believed it was Light but L knew otherwise. L suspected it was actually the body of one of many criminal delinquents that had gone missing since the rise of Kira. He had Wammy’s top team of forensic experts looking at that body with orders to report to him as soon as they found even a shred of uncorrupted DNA that they could use because unless L could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the corpse in question was in fact not Light Yagami he could not reopen the official case against him.
L’s lab had an accident and all the evidence was destroyed under suspicious circumstances not a week later. How Light managed to find L’s lab would remain a mystery-he’d taken several precautions, telling no one outside of Watari and his hand-selected team. The only conclusion was that Light was somehow spying on him thought that should have been impossible-L readily swept his rooms for foreign listening devices so unless Kira had the power to turn invisible and walk through walls… or something like Shinigami actually existed, L really didn’t see how he could have possibly done it. Perhaps Ms. Amane could shed some light on the subject.
Most of the investigators seemed content to attribute all of Kira’s killings to the copycat L currently had in custody-the poor, delusional blonde model that seemed to be operating under the misconception that Kira’s power was the equivalent of a dating service. L thought she looked very nice tied up though. Not as nice as Light-kun, or course-Kira himself would’ve been the ultimate catch-but for now it seemed he’d just have to settle for the cheap knock offs.
Yes, L truly missed Light, even though his “friend” was the serial killing mass murderer whose execution he was seeking. He missed him because he wasn’t there to tease and torment, because without Light he couldn’t adequately solve the case, and mostly he missed Light because the teenager was pleasing to the eye and watching the boy sleep was one of the few things that made this sort of dull surveillance work tolerable. L’s favorite things about working the Kira case was that he could, at a whim plaster cameras all over the pretty boy’s bedroom. But unfortunately he couldn’t continue his stalking, no investigation, what with his main suspect having disappeared like this.
What L missed the most, however, was matching wits with Light. Especially after being subjected to yet another round of his current suspect’s inane screeching. Well technically he was still matching wits with Light-Kira was still out there, L was sure of it. Really, his favorite suspect was just playing hard to get. L swore he’d get him in the end-he always got his man.
Though there was one thing about all this that L couldn’t adequately explain without contradicting his theories and everything he thought he knew about Kira-L didn’t understand how Kira, with his enormous ego, could stand to throw in the towel like this midgame.
Something must have drastically changed or…Could there be a grain of truth to the letter? The detective thought as he pulled out Light’s death note once again. It was even titled that and hand written on simple college-ruled notebook paper which had become dog-eared and limp between L’s fingertips for having been read over so many times:
L…
Dad…
If you’re reading this,
Don’t come looking for me.
You don’t understand what it’s like always having to constantly look
Over your shoulder. I tried to endure it but I couldn’t. Not on top of everything else.
Understand, please. I had to go. This life was slowly
Killing me.
Nobody understands I was always
On my own and
When Ryuuzaki
Showed up accusing me of being Kira my entire life I worked so hard for was shot to
Hell. Maybe L feared that one day I might pose a threat to him-you know how paranoid he is.
I tried so hard to be the perfect son but I can’t
Now. You can thank Ryuuzaki for that.
I’ll always have this suspicion of Kira on my record regardless of my innocence.
Get it out of your head-this stupid idea that I
Am Kira! But I suppose it doesn’t really matter now what I say,
My life is over anyway. I never told you because
I knew you wouldn’t approve, your bosses wouldn’t approve, but I can’t live this lie anymore. I’m gay.
Maybe that’s why Ryuuzaki suspected me? I’ve always hid it
And
Knowing Ryuuzaki he would not
Even seriously consider an alternate explanation because I am a
Genius and the son of the Chief of Police. He always wanted me to be Kira
Right from the start.
Enough. I’ve had enough of your mind games L
And I will
Take my own life before I permit you to further dishonor my
Family name.
Until we meet again you
Cold bastard. See you in the
Kingdom of the Dead,
Sincerest apologies-Yagami Light. Goodbye1212123129520
L found it to be a rather peculiar suicide note.
The detective casually held the note sideways and suddenly a familiar pattern taking shape.
L DID YOU KNOW…
Really, Kira? Had he really left him a hidden message to taunt him just like before? In a note so closely personally associated with him? That was tantamount to a confession! Perhaps Light was counting on the Japanese police canonizing him upon his “death” and paying no mind to the words of the “neurotic consulting detective.” It seemed to be working. After Light’s “death” the Japanese police had actually tried to sue him, (HIM!), when the Kira killings continued. In the end they settled out of court- no charges would be filed against him but L would be funding their useless bureaucratic asses for the next two decades… and Matsuda got to keep his emergency call button belt so there wouldn’t be another incident like that time he got locked in the men’s room. The Chief, of course, wasn’t happy with the outcome of their settlement, blaming L for Light’s “death” just as Light had manipulated him to do, but then the decision wasn’t up to him. L was pretty sure that at the moment Chief Yagami would settle for nothing less than his head on a pike.
Dammit, if only I could prove that Light is still alive! L thought furiously as he decoded the rest of Kira’s taunt.
L DID YOU KNOW SHINIGAMI MAKE GREAT…
Upon decoding the rest of Kira’s message L choked on his tea.
“Are you alright, Ryuuzaki?”
“Everything’s fine, Watari!” L choked out after he managed to clear his airway. “Really, I’m fine,” L insisted when Watari started giving him that look again. His caretaker’s usual worried looks seemed to be growing more and more concerned. Alright, so L hadn’t exactly cleared off the candy wrappers from his desk in the last two weeks. That didn’t make him depressed, of all things! And certainly not over Light!
“Though I could really go for more of those gummy worms... and Oreos. Oreos would be good right now. And do we have any of that mint chocolate ice cream left or…?”
“You ate it all, sir… in one sitting.”
“Damn you, Kira!” L hissed aloud. It was all Light’s fault. If he’d just been within surveillance range L wouldn’t have felt the need to mope around, binging on mint ice cream as he re-watched the tapes of Light’s daily life for any clues to his current whereabouts.
“Ryuuzaki, do you truly believe … Kira made you eat your ice cream?” the old man asked, concern becoming heavier when L did not dignify that with a response. Watari thought that perhaps it was time to make a call to L’s private therapist for grief counseling.
L stabbed at the remains of his cheesecake in silent rage. It was infuriating! Light was obviously toying with him! Especially with sending him such a suggestive message…
The detective’s lips twitched in amusement.
If that’s the way you want to play it, Light… Kira, then so be it! There is nowhere on Earth you can hide from me! When I catch you, be ready to face the consequences! Really, how dare you, Light? I thought we were frie… enemies! When I find you, you will never go anywhere without my permission again!
Watari wordlessly cleaned up L’s cake plates and tried to retrieve that poor boy’s suicide note that really did belong in evidence but, upon sensing Watari’s intentions, L gripped hold of it most fiercely.
“You can go now, Watari.”
After it appeared he was alone once more L sighed, popped his back, and slowly shifted out of his customary crouch. He walked around the hotel room a few times, executing the occasional Capoeira spin-kick to keep in shape and to get his blood moving again before flopping down, bonelessly, onto the sofa in front of the TV.
The lonely detective found himself once again staring at the letter in his hand.
Where are you, Light Yagami?
L’s eyes once again trailed to the bottom of the note:
…Cold bastard. See you in the
Kingdom of the Dead...
The Kingdom of the Dead.
Shinigami.
Shinigami power.
"We’ll confirm our identities by showing our Shinigami to each other… "
L shot up in his seat.
Could that really have been literal?
No way, that’s impossible!
And that would mean I’d have to accept that Light is forever removed from my grasp!
Unacceptable. Completely unacceptable!
No Light, I won’t stop looking for you. You’ll make a mistake eventually and then I’ll have you.
L vowed as he glared angrily at the taunting letter. He must have been over it a thousand times and yet he was still finding new layers of mocking messages intricately woven within their passages. Bilingual taunts and genius puzzles that Light must have known would be missed by the taskforce investigators.
Another puzzling thing about the note was that series of numbers at the very end. While the rest of the note was written with a fountain pen the numbers were written in a red-brown hue that was speculated to be blood. The taskforce seemed to think they were very important after Aizawa’s buddies in the crime lab had confirmed it was indeed blood, and that it was Light Yagami’s.
Matsuda had suggested that the cryptic message was a phone number plus extension and tried calling it but 1 212 123 1295 ext. 20 just ended up being a sex line, the type that catered exclusively to heterosexual males. That ended L’s interest in Matsuda’s theory-he doubted the sex line had anything to do with Light or the case-the teenager had no apparent interest in sex or at least not in girls and didn’t even get excited when looking at porn! L merely filed the number away for future reference.
So L had initially written off the numbers as just another taunt from Kira that would have him wasting more time rather than scouring the globe for where he might have hidden himself. Not that the detective had had any luck yet on that front-for a brief, joyous moment L had thought he had a confirmed sighting of Light at an apple farm in Germany but that was beginning to look like a false alarm or at the very least, questionable since L had yet another unconfirmed sighting of Light in America buying farming supplies in a small town in Kansas on the very same day, just a few hours later. Both reports were equally credible but it should have been physically impossible for Light to have traveled to both locations in such a short period of time-unless of course this was yet another of Kira’s powers …
But really, what could Light possibly need with farming supplies for anyway? The detective imagined Kira suddenly giving up on his crusade against criminals and quest for Godhood for a quiet life on a farm and snorted to himself. L would sooner eat vegetables, he was sure.
The odd detective sighed again as he vacantly stared at the paper in his hand, idly playing with various permutations of the numbers in his head and…
And the more he stared at the page, the more he became convinced that there was a subtle spacing between the numbers. Looking at it now, it didn’t read “1212123129520” but “12 12 1 23 12 9 5 20.” That made all the difference-and the detective’s dark eyes went as wide as dinner plates in realization.
No… it couldn’t be something as simple as a one to one alphanumeric code!
1 = A, 5 = E, 9 = I, 12 = L, 20 = T, 23 = W
12 12 1 23 12 9 5 20
L- L-A-W-L-I-E-T
“Goodbye 12 12 1 23 12 9 5 20”
“Goodbye, L Lawliet.”
This time L began choking without the aid of any tea. Luckily Watari was still lurking nearby so he was able to give him a harsh pat on the back in time. The elderly caretaker then went on to schedule his charge’s much-needed therapy because all this obsessing over a dead boy surely could not be healthy. Maybe he should hire a dietician as well. His ward could certainly stand to eat a vegetable or two.
Previous
Next
***
“Ryuk…”
“Yeah?”
“You said we were… bonded? Now, I just want to clarify… that sounds rather permanent,” Light asked, squirming a bit as Ryuk embraced his naked body, holding him in his lap. The boy's breathing became heavier at the sensations of leather against his bare skin and he could feel that Ryuk was half-hard beneath his loincloth.
“It is. If you want I can keep you forever.”
“Forever… ?!“ Light blinked slowly as he thought over the implications of this. Had Ryuk just made him a literal God and… “Holy smokes… I just got married, didn’t I?”
“Well, I understand that humans do it differently,” the Shinigami said in an off-handed fashion while slipping one of his skull rings off of his claws and dropped it in Light’s smaller human hand.
“Shall I make an honest man of you, yet?”
The monster and the killer locked eyes and after a minute simultaneously broke down laughing into mad, hysterical giggles.
Ryuk then tried to slip the ring onto the proper finger the ring that fit Ryuk proved too big for Light’s slender human fingers so he ended up wearing it on his thumb.
Fuck. He was married. Alright, maybe not in the legal sense-Light imagined it would be difficult getting any government to legally recognize a gay interspecies union-especially when half the couple couldn’t even be seen by most humans and wasn’t even believed to exist. Light imagined trying to get a marriage license for his invisible husband and snorted to himself. No, a private “ceremony” of just the two of them suited Light just fine. Especially since, from the sound of it, they were soul-bonded for eternity and…
Oh. “Ryuk…?”
“Yeah?”
“Will you still like me when I get older?”
“I would, but I think the question as you meant it is irrelevant. You’re mine now and I’m not too fond of the idea of you dying so I’ve frozen your lifespan as is my right as the Bonded to a Breeder -you’re going to be eighteen forever.”
Light’s eyes flashed with conflicted emotions. Ryuk had so much power over him and while Ryuk had yet to truly abuse it, that still didn’t sit well with Light. He liked the way Ryuk took care of him but that was supposed to be just in the bedroom, not everyday life. The occasional attempted mothering by his mother aside, Light was used to being very independent and doing most everything on his own-he couldn’t say he was too thrilled with Ryuk so meddling in his life, even if so far Ryuk’s treatment of him had, so far, been benign.
“…And why eighteen?”
“Because that’s how old you happen to be now. With the sort of risks you take you could’ve died tomorrow, you know, and I didn’t want to wait. Besides, you’re real fun this eager and hormonal. Don’t worry, pet. You know I can always keep you satisfied.”
“Well… at least I don’t have acne,” the now immortal teen laughed.
“Yes, let’s focus on the important things.” The Shinigami cackled as he again nuzzled against the boy in his arms. “Oh, Light-o… I have a gift for you,” Ryuk purred in his ear.
“Not just the ring?”
“Even better. Close your eyes.”
Light was naturally suspicious but Ryuk gave him no reason not to trust him and it wouldn’t make much sense for him to hurt him now but he had thought that before and then Ryuk had bit him-even if it turned out that Ryuk’s biting him had been necessary-but that was just the thing, he didn’t know what Ryuk wanted and…
Light immediately chastised himself for being stupid.
Ryuk had been nothing but kind to him-even biting him had ultimately been an act of kindness-and yet he was still so suspicious of him?
I let him have sex with me for fuck’s sake but I don’t trust him out of my sight for like… five seconds? Yes, I don’t know what Ryuk wants but then there’s only one way to find out, now is there?
So in a rare display of trust Light closed his eyes; he did not flinch when Ryuk covered his eyes with one large hand or when the Shinigami picked him up and carried him across the room.
“You can open your eyes,” Ryuk told him once they were in front of the mirror.
At first the world seemed to have taken on a distinctive red tint before his vision cleared and he noticed something most peculiar-he could see his own name floating above his head in red kanji. Light immediately recognized the import of what had just happened.
“Ryuk-!” Light shouted, betrayed. No. He couldn't! He didn't! I never made the Deal!
“They’re on me, precious. No charge.” Ryuk assured him.
“Ryuk, I fucking love you!”
“I know,” Ryuk cackled softly as the boy covered his face with sloppy, eager kisses. The Shinigami then carried his eager lover to the bed where they remained until Light released more spirit energy.
“Ryuk?” Light queried as they lay together in the afterglow.
“Hmmm?” Came the Shinigami’s lazy reply as he idly trailed his claws over the boy’s stomach.
“There was a very important question I want to ask you.”
“Oh?”
“Your world or mine?”
***
L sighed as he listlessly poked at his cheesecake. Things just weren’t the same now that Light was gone.
L wasn’t about to admit it aloud but he kind of missed having his “first friend” around even though he was a serial killer-there was no doubt in L’s mind about that even if he was the only one to still retain that theory. Even Watari had chided him for “speaking ill of the dead.” That was the other reason L missed Light; without him he couldn’t bring the case to a satisfactory conclusion.
Personally L didn’t think Light was dead, partly because he found the evidence inconclusive and mostly because the Kira killings continued, though at a much slower pace than before. Another thing L found suspicious and what should’ve been a major clue even to the duller witted police taskforce had they not been so, ha, blinded when it came to all things Light, was that Light had emptied his bank accounts before his disappearance. At first glance the paper trail made it appear as if he had donated his college tuition to charity but bank records show that the majority of the money had actually disappeared.
Light had then left them a fake trail to throw off the investigators, leading them to an abandoned building where the partial remains of a teenage boy was discovered, charred beyond all recognition. The taskforce believed it was Light but L knew otherwise. L suspected it was actually the body of one of many criminal delinquents that had gone missing since the rise of Kira. He had Wammy’s top team of forensic experts looking at that body with orders to report to him as soon as they found even a shred of uncorrupted DNA that they could use because unless L could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the corpse in question was in fact not Light Yagami he could not reopen the official case against him.
L’s lab had an accident and all the evidence was destroyed under suspicious circumstances not a week later. How Light managed to find L’s lab would remain a mystery-he’d taken several precautions, telling no one outside of Watari and his hand-selected team. The only conclusion was that Light was somehow spying on him thought that should have been impossible-L readily swept his rooms for foreign listening devices so unless Kira had the power to turn invisible and walk through walls… or something like Shinigami actually existed, L really didn’t see how he could have possibly done it. Perhaps Ms. Amane could shed some light on the subject.
Most of the investigators seemed content to attribute all of Kira’s killings to the copycat L currently had in custody-the poor, delusional blonde model that seemed to be operating under the misconception that Kira’s power was the equivalent of a dating service. L thought she looked very nice tied up though. Not as nice as Light-kun, or course-Kira himself would’ve been the ultimate catch-but for now it seemed he’d just have to settle for the cheap knock offs.
Yes, L truly missed Light, even though his “friend” was the serial killing mass murderer whose execution he was seeking. He missed him because he wasn’t there to tease and torment, because without Light he couldn’t adequately solve the case, and mostly he missed Light because the teenager was pleasing to the eye and watching the boy sleep was one of the few things that made this sort of dull surveillance work tolerable. L’s favorite things about working the Kira case was that he could, at a whim plaster cameras all over the pretty boy’s bedroom. But unfortunately he couldn’t continue his stalking, no investigation, what with his main suspect having disappeared like this.
What L missed the most, however, was matching wits with Light. Especially after being subjected to yet another round of his current suspect’s inane screeching. Well technically he was still matching wits with Light-Kira was still out there, L was sure of it. Really, his favorite suspect was just playing hard to get. L swore he’d get him in the end-he always got his man.
Though there was one thing about all this that L couldn’t adequately explain without contradicting his theories and everything he thought he knew about Kira-L didn’t understand how Kira, with his enormous ego, could stand to throw in the towel like this midgame.
Something must have drastically changed or…Could there be a grain of truth to the letter? The detective thought as he pulled out Light’s death note once again. It was even titled that and hand written on simple college-ruled notebook paper which had become dog-eared and limp between L’s fingertips for having been read over so many times:
L…
Dad…
If you’re reading this,
Don’t come looking for me.
You don’t understand what it’s like always having to constantly look
Over your shoulder. I tried to endure it but I couldn’t. Not on top of everything else.
Understand, please. I had to go. This life was slowly
Killing me.
Nobody understands I was always
On my own and
When Ryuuzaki
Showed up accusing me of being Kira my entire life I worked so hard for was shot to
Hell. Maybe L feared that one day I might pose a threat to him-you know how paranoid he is.
I tried so hard to be the perfect son but I can’t
Now. You can thank Ryuuzaki for that.
I’ll always have this suspicion of Kira on my record regardless of my innocence.
Get it out of your head-this stupid idea that I
Am Kira! But I suppose it doesn’t really matter now what I say,
My life is over anyway. I never told you because
I knew you wouldn’t approve, your bosses wouldn’t approve, but I can’t live this lie anymore. I’m gay.
Maybe that’s why Ryuuzaki suspected me? I’ve always hid it
And
Knowing Ryuuzaki he would not
Even seriously consider an alternate explanation because I am a
Genius and the son of the Chief of Police. He always wanted me to be Kira
Right from the start.
Enough. I’ve had enough of your mind games L
And I will
Take my own life before I permit you to further dishonor my
Family name.
Until we meet again you
Cold bastard. See you in the
Kingdom of the Dead,
Sincerest apologies-Yagami Light. Goodbye1212123129520
L found it to be a rather peculiar suicide note.
The detective casually held the note sideways and suddenly a familiar pattern taking shape.
L DID YOU KNOW…
Really, Kira? Had he really left him a hidden message to taunt him just like before? In a note so closely personally associated with him? That was tantamount to a confession! Perhaps Light was counting on the Japanese police canonizing him upon his “death” and paying no mind to the words of the “neurotic consulting detective.” It seemed to be working. After Light’s “death” the Japanese police had actually tried to sue him, (HIM!), when the Kira killings continued. In the end they settled out of court- no charges would be filed against him but L would be funding their useless bureaucratic asses for the next two decades… and Matsuda got to keep his emergency call button belt so there wouldn’t be another incident like that time he got locked in the men’s room. The Chief, of course, wasn’t happy with the outcome of their settlement, blaming L for Light’s “death” just as Light had manipulated him to do, but then the decision wasn’t up to him. L was pretty sure that at the moment Chief Yagami would settle for nothing less than his head on a pike.
Dammit, if only I could prove that Light is still alive! L thought furiously as he decoded the rest of Kira’s taunt.
L DID YOU KNOW SHINIGAMI MAKE GREAT…
Upon decoding the rest of Kira’s message L choked on his tea.
“Are you alright, Ryuuzaki?”
“Everything’s fine, Watari!” L choked out after he managed to clear his airway. “Really, I’m fine,” L insisted when Watari started giving him that look again. His caretaker’s usual worried looks seemed to be growing more and more concerned. Alright, so L hadn’t exactly cleared off the candy wrappers from his desk in the last two weeks. That didn’t make him depressed, of all things! And certainly not over Light!
“Though I could really go for more of those gummy worms... and Oreos. Oreos would be good right now. And do we have any of that mint chocolate ice cream left or…?”
“You ate it all, sir… in one sitting.”
“Damn you, Kira!” L hissed aloud. It was all Light’s fault. If he’d just been within surveillance range L wouldn’t have felt the need to mope around, binging on mint ice cream as he re-watched the tapes of Light’s daily life for any clues to his current whereabouts.
“Ryuuzaki, do you truly believe … Kira made you eat your ice cream?” the old man asked, concern becoming heavier when L did not dignify that with a response. Watari thought that perhaps it was time to make a call to L’s private therapist for grief counseling.
L stabbed at the remains of his cheesecake in silent rage. It was infuriating! Light was obviously toying with him! Especially with sending him such a suggestive message…
The detective’s lips twitched in amusement.
If that’s the way you want to play it, Light… Kira, then so be it! There is nowhere on Earth you can hide from me! When I catch you, be ready to face the consequences! Really, how dare you, Light? I thought we were frie… enemies! When I find you, you will never go anywhere without my permission again!
Watari wordlessly cleaned up L’s cake plates and tried to retrieve that poor boy’s suicide note that really did belong in evidence but, upon sensing Watari’s intentions, L gripped hold of it most fiercely.
“You can go now, Watari.”
After it appeared he was alone once more L sighed, popped his back, and slowly shifted out of his customary crouch. He walked around the hotel room a few times, executing the occasional Capoeira spin-kick to keep in shape and to get his blood moving again before flopping down, bonelessly, onto the sofa in front of the TV.
The lonely detective found himself once again staring at the letter in his hand.
Where are you, Light Yagami?
L’s eyes once again trailed to the bottom of the note:
…Cold bastard. See you in the
Kingdom of the Dead...
The Kingdom of the Dead.
Shinigami.
Shinigami power.
"We’ll confirm our identities by showing our Shinigami to each other… "
L shot up in his seat.
Could that really have been literal?
No way, that’s impossible!
And that would mean I’d have to accept that Light is forever removed from my grasp!
Unacceptable. Completely unacceptable!
No Light, I won’t stop looking for you. You’ll make a mistake eventually and then I’ll have you.
L vowed as he glared angrily at the taunting letter. He must have been over it a thousand times and yet he was still finding new layers of mocking messages intricately woven within their passages. Bilingual taunts and genius puzzles that Light must have known would be missed by the taskforce investigators.
Another puzzling thing about the note was that series of numbers at the very end. While the rest of the note was written with a fountain pen the numbers were written in a red-brown hue that was speculated to be blood. The taskforce seemed to think they were very important after Aizawa’s buddies in the crime lab had confirmed it was indeed blood, and that it was Light Yagami’s.
Matsuda had suggested that the cryptic message was a phone number plus extension and tried calling it but 1 212 123 1295 ext. 20 just ended up being a sex line, the type that catered exclusively to heterosexual males. That ended L’s interest in Matsuda’s theory-he doubted the sex line had anything to do with Light or the case-the teenager had no apparent interest in sex or at least not in girls and didn’t even get excited when looking at porn! L merely filed the number away for future reference.
So L had initially written off the numbers as just another taunt from Kira that would have him wasting more time rather than scouring the globe for where he might have hidden himself. Not that the detective had had any luck yet on that front-for a brief, joyous moment L had thought he had a confirmed sighting of Light at an apple farm in Germany but that was beginning to look like a false alarm or at the very least, questionable since L had yet another unconfirmed sighting of Light in America buying farming supplies in a small town in Kansas on the very same day, just a few hours later. Both reports were equally credible but it should have been physically impossible for Light to have traveled to both locations in such a short period of time-unless of course this was yet another of Kira’s powers …
But really, what could Light possibly need with farming supplies for anyway? The detective imagined Kira suddenly giving up on his crusade against criminals and quest for Godhood for a quiet life on a farm and snorted to himself. L would sooner eat vegetables, he was sure.
The odd detective sighed again as he vacantly stared at the paper in his hand, idly playing with various permutations of the numbers in his head and…
And the more he stared at the page, the more he became convinced that there was a subtle spacing between the numbers. Looking at it now, it didn’t read “1212123129520” but “12 12 1 23 12 9 5 20.” That made all the difference-and the detective’s dark eyes went as wide as dinner plates in realization.
No… it couldn’t be something as simple as a one to one alphanumeric code!
1 = A, 5 = E, 9 = I, 12 = L, 20 = T, 23 = W
12 12 1 23 12 9 5 20
L- L-A-W-L-I-E-T
“Goodbye 12 12 1 23 12 9 5 20”
“Goodbye, L Lawliet.”
This time L began choking without the aid of any tea. Luckily Watari was still lurking nearby so he was able to give him a harsh pat on the back in time. The elderly caretaker then went on to schedule his charge’s much-needed therapy because all this obsessing over a dead boy surely could not be healthy. Maybe he should hire a dietician as well. His ward could certainly stand to eat a vegetable or two.
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