"My End"
L sat alone in his large room, crouched over the table, as usual. Besides the quiet ticking of the Misa Amane themed clock, and the movements of the chess pieces on the board, the room was utterly quiet.
L was playing chess by himself. He didn't remember the last time he was able to sit down and play chess at all since Watari was alive, but at least he would have one last luxury before he died.
Tick, tick. The clock seemed to tick louder, and it sounded like a train approaching him from off into the distance. L knew he would have to board that train in a matter of minutes, and he would be off. He felt bad, for not being able to see Maki and Suruga one last time.
Maki, I bet you're waking up now? Have a nice day. L silently said his goodbyes to the friends that weren't even there, and his other friends that were waiting on the other side. Watari, my time has come, just like yours has. Maybe I'll finally be able to beat you at chess when I meet you again. I've been practicing. L continued to move the chess pieces, using himself as his own opponent.
And maybe I'll be able to play with you too, Light. That would be fun as well. I'm looking forward to seeing you again. Let's not be enemies, like we were in this world.
L was looking forward to seeing Light Yagami almost as much as he was anticipating his reunion with Watari. If it wasn't for the Death Note, he and Light probably would have been friends.
It's funny, that the same thing that brought them apart would bring them together again.
Suruga, take care of Maki for me. I'll be waiting for you two. L continued to play silently, but he knew that soon the chess pieces would be very few. The clock ticked louder.
Near, do not let me down. Become a powerful successor. You can do it.
His best friend was safe in this world; his other friend was in the next world, and the world was safe in his successor's hands. L had no more regrets.
He smiled at the empty chess board. Of course he'd tie with himself, and cancel himself out.
L closed his eyes, and waited for death to take him in.
The clock kept ticking.
Maki woke with a start.
She looked frantically around the room, until she saw the smiling face of Suruga, smiling down at her, which only seemed to calm her nerves a little.
"Where's Ryuzaki?" she asked, and tears welled up in her eyes. "Oh no, don't tell me he—"
"L wanted to give you this," Suruga said, and handed her an autographed baseball. "No way…" she said, unable to say more than that due to her immediate shock. If he were to give her something like that, he most definitely must have been dead by now.
"Oh, L is fine, by the way," Suruga said, with a diabolical grin on his face. "I was finally able to trick him."
"Whaaat?!" Maki sat up in her hospital bed, with her eyes wide open. "How were you able to do that?"
"I won't tell you," Suruga said, "but I've had the real Death Note a long time ago."
Suruga smiled. Maki smiled back, and with excitement she said, "Well if that's the case, let's go see him!" She leapt out of bed, momentarily forgetting about her injuries, and fell on the ground.
Suruga helped her up. "You haven't fully recovered from the virus yet," he said. "Here, let me take you." He put Maki back on the bed, and from there, he managed to carry her on his back. "Let's go. He's not too far from here."
When they stepped outside, Maki realized that the sun was setting, and lights were decorating the streets. There was apparently some festival in the town, and it seemed to be starting soon. Maki could already smell the food in the air, and the people laughing and talking while they set up for the night festival. She even saw a candy stand with all different sorts of sweets. "Wow, L is gonna love it here," she whispered. It was better that they did something like this to calm down after the hectic events that have just passed.
They finally approached the building and surprisingly, the doors were unlocked. Suruga and Maki entered, and they went through the large yet eerily quiet building to L's room. Maki couldn't help it, so she began to shout his name before they got there. "Ryuzaki! Ryuzaki, come on! There's a huge festival outside!"
"Ouch! My ears!" Suruga winced and grasped his ears tightly. Maki giggled. "Sorry," she said.
They continued to search in silence when they finally found L's room. That door was also unlocked, which seemed weird as well. The moment Suruga turned the door, Maki hopped off his back and ran towards the hunched over figure in the corner of the room. Suruga itched his back and sighed. "If you had this much energy then you could have walked here, you know," he complained.
Maki ran, shouting at L, who didn't seem to respond. "Come on Ryuzaki, you're gonna love the sweets that they have there!" She finally got to him, and she grabbed his arm.
Maki suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?" Suruga rushed over, suddenly concerned. He couldn't see Maki's face from the angle he was at, but he heard almost silent whimpers coming from her. "Come on, L," she whispered, weakly tugging at his arm. "We were gonna see the festival together."
Suruga came to Maki's side, and that's when he saw it.
The stain on his solid white shirt. The black chess piece sticking out of his chest. And the bloody note that fell to the ground from L's hand.
"Ryuzaki…" Maki said, "What did you…do…why would you do this." She could barely talk, and quite frankly, Suruga was at a loss for words himself. He walked over and picked up the note that was slowly fluttering to the ground from L's hand.
Suruga read the note out loud:
Hello, Mr. Suruga and Miss Maki. By the time you're reading this I will be right in front of you, dead, with no one around. It seems that you were able to trick me, Mr. Suruga. Believe it or not, this was not something I foresaw. However, I had to prepare for it nonetheless.
I'm assuming that when you switched the Death Notes you believed that if I would not die then I would spend the rest of my days in peace with you two. But I feel that I'm ready to leave this world now. This was supposed to be my last case, and that's why my name was in that notebook. It wasn't because of Kira.
Solving crimes is painful, you know. Seeing the families of those who had lost their loved ones is something that makes me cry on the inside, even though I remain emotionless on the outside. I've been doing this type of thing my entire life, even from when I was a child, and I feel like I've been living a life of pain.
One person can only take so much. This doesn't sound like me at all, but this is how I've truly felt this whole time. And it's not like I'm leaving this world with no one to protect it. My successor, Near, is probably taking my place right now. He's going to make a great L, probably better than anything I could manage anyway. And I trust you, Mr. Suruga, to take care of little Maki for me. You will all be successful, and that is why I will be able to part with a smile on my face.
Suruga kneeled down and looked up at L's face, which was still hung over. He saw that underneath his hair, L had a small smile on his face. Suruga held back his tears, as that was the first time he had ever seen the detective smile. He read the last part of the note.
Every small seed grows into a magnificent tree, until its roots give out. Every giggling baby transforms into a grown adult, until they just have no purpose in this world anymore.
Every beginning has an end. This is mine. I hope you will do well in the future, my friends.
Sincerely,
Ryuzaki
Suruga could no longer resist the tears that tugged at his heart, pleading to be freed. He let them go, although it was hard.
It was like what he would have to do with L.
Maki, on the other hand, was a crying mess. It looked like she was in denial of L's death, even at this stage, and she kept weakly tugging and whimpering "You wanted sweets at the festival, didn't you? Wake up please." Suruga felt sorry for her.
After giving her a moment, he went up to Maki and patted her back. "Come on, let's go home," he said. He lifted Maki up and carried her out of the room.
"Suruga?" Maki looked up at Suruga's face.
"What is it, Maki?"
"Promise me something."
"What is it?" Suruga felt his own words choked by another wave of tears.
"Promise me that we can decorate L's casket with his favorite sweets."
"We will, Maki." Suruga looked off into the distance, because it was just too painful to look at her pleading face anymore.
"We will do just that."
Maki smiled, and the two walked through the crowded streets together in silence.