The Puzzle Book

The Puzzle Book

Word Count: 2,247

Summary: L Lawliet at a young age decided that instead of solving puzzles, he rather enjoyed creating them. And so, instead of a detective, he became the world's unbeatable cryptologist L. However, the unbeatable has just been beaten. L-Light.

AN: Finally, after a summer of planning and research, I have actually posted this first chapter of The Puzzle Book. This is based off of a plot bunny that was first originally created by TimeTravelFreak (IJ), and I can only hope that I wrote what was first imagined. This will be a lot more epic then other things that I have written and I am extremely excited about it. The first chapter is rather short, but mostly because I see it as a prologue of sorts. As for A New Life, I am definitely still working on it and should have the new chapter out sometime soon. I have most of it completed already. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: Not mine.


Chapter 1: Accidents vs. Serendipity

Light stared at his sister's form on the sterilized hospital bed. She looked so peaceful asleep, something he wasn't sure he would ever see again only a few short hours ago. It was his fault that she was here; that she was hurt. It was his fault that his mother was sleeping restlessly in the corner chair, tear streaks still on her face. It was his fault that his father was in the waiting room probably on his 7th cup of coffee. It was his fault; his stupid 'genius', stupid confidence; that his precious baby sister almost died.

A small, rasping cough interrupted his dark thoughts. He watched as his sister's small body wracked with the internal force of her coughs that couldn't seem to leave her lungs. They couldn't leave the body that was wrapped in multiple layers of gauze. He stared at her perfect, unblemished face that had an oxygen tube wrapped around as she fell back into a deep sleep. She was lucky to still have her pretty, untouched face. The rest of her body, however, would be covered with scars for most if not all the remainder of her life and would have to undergo various treatments.

He lowered his gaze away from her still form and towards his hands in his lap. He was the genius of the family and he had thought the two of them would be fine without their parents, but it seemed that he was wrong at some things. He had convinced his parents that he was more than able, being so intelligent, to take Sayu to the park near their neighborhood alone. On the way there they had been playing a game that the two had come up with called 10,000 Questions. The game and its title had come from a conversation in which Light had accused Sayu of having 10,000 questions to bother him with. Since then, the two had created the game where Sayu would ask questions and Light would answer them, and if he did not know the answer then he would look it up and learn everything he could about the subject. It benefited them both as Sayu's 4-year old curiosity would be quenched and Light's intellect and confidence would grow.

They had started the game, as always, with a simple question, but as they continued to walk the questions became more like questions of how to do various actions. The topic of conversation had turn to survival in the wilderness as they reached the park. Light, who had wanted to show off his intelligence, told Sayu that he knew how to start a fire with only two rocks and some dry wood. Sayu, excited, asked him to show her, swearing that she would not believe him until she saw it herself. Confident with his own abilities, Light sat down on the dry ground and had slowly sparked the rocks, lighting a small fire small twigs that Sayu had gathered. Things had quickly gotten out of hand and now Sayu was in the hospital, the playground was in a crisp, and Light had arson on his record at the young age of 7.

Light closed his eyes and leaned back in the uncomfortable chair. Although no on had said anything, Light could feel the blame being put onto him. He could see it in their eyes. Not from Sayu, his sister would never blame anything on him since he was her hero, but Light knew what his parents were thinking, even if it was unwillingly. A terrible accident had occurred and the injured ones had to put the blame somewhere in order to stay sane; it was only human nature. They were obviously blaming him for the accident, which was altogether not unreasonable, as he was the older one, the genius, and the one who should have been more responsible.

He squeezed his eyes shut tighter, angry suddenly. He understood that his parents were just scared and emotional, but he hated that he was being blamed for this. Wasn't it enough that he blamed himself, but now the people he cared for most in the world were blaming him as well? Now that he thought about it, intelligence really brought nothing but chaos to anyone. The people with power and the people with brains were always the ones getting blamed for everything, because they hadn't predicted something right or they hadn't known something that they apparently should have. The people of the world followed them blindly along like sheep, and when something went wrong they immediately blame the people with intellect and power. It was ridiculous. He knew in the back of his mind that his parents' blame would only last as long as their emotional states and that he was irrational connecting two different instances together, but his fury and hatred grew as he continued thinking about how terrible it was to be considered a genius. Hot, angry tears ran slowly down his cheeks as he opened his eyes, showing the determination of a set declaration he was about to make.

If being a genius gets me into trouble, then I won't be one anymore!


Light's plan worked for all of about 2 weeks. He had tried to stay true to his promise to rid himself of his intellect and be a normal person, but had come to realize that he could only hide his genius, not destroy it. He had quickly gotten bored with not using the full capacity of his brain and had found ways to sooth his boredom without showing his intelligence off, which was why he was slowly making his way towards the Waseda University library.

It was October again, almost a full year since the accident with Sayu in the park, and Light was now 8 years old. October was his favorite month of the year. It had his favorite type of weather, he was convinced that everyone was a lot more cheerful, and it contained Halloween, his favorite holiday. It was the one time that you could see a person's true colors. It was when people could be who they really were and what they've always wanted to be, instead of who they always pretended to be. Sayu wanted to be a beauty queen this year. Light was planning on being Batman.

Light quickly went up the steps and slipped into the library quietly as he had been doing for the past 11 months. He had been doing this everyday after school since the accident, allowing his mind to grow and wander. He had told his parents that he had joined a club at school, but instead came to the university everyday to study and learn by himself. During the day, in school and around his family, he was a normal, average, everyday boy, but while he was alone, he soothed his boredom by reading and learning about everything and anything. In his spare time, he had started playing the 10,000 question game with Sayu, but had started to become more in depth with his answers and started teaching her above her 4-year old age. Of course with her newly founded expansive knowledge, Sayu was considered the genius of the family, while Light looked on as the proud older brother. The situation suited Light just fine; he owed Sayu everything.

Inside the library everything was quiet; something Light loved. This was a place that he could reflect quietly by himself, be himself, and have solitude. As he made his way over to his normal desk, he watched a woman follow him out of the corner of his eye. This woman had been there everyday for he past two months watching him, and it was starting to get on his nerves. At first, he watched her watch him out of the corner of his eyes, curious and a little worried as to why she was so interested in him. It had gone on like that for half a week; the two watching each other, before Light had judged that there was no danger present and had gone back to his intensive studying. However, the woman had just not given up as he supposed she might, and had continued to study him with the pretense of scholarly studying in the form of a large law book in front of her.

Today her stare was just grating his nerves. Pushing his new book away, he stood up and stalked over to the woman, who was watching him with a small smirk on her face. He stood before her and bowed slightly.

"I was wondering how long it would take you before you would come over here." The voice made him look up and into her amused eyes. This was the first time he really had the chance to study her up close, and not from subtle glances and peripheral vision. She was older than he thought she was at first, maybe in her late 50's. She was a foreigner, most likely from Western Europe with dark brown hair and blue eyes. She had wrinkles around her face that softened the features, but Light couldn't help but feel like the woman in front of him was anything but soft.

Without any hesitation, the older woman leaned back in her chair and spoke, looking Light straight in the eyes. "You are Yagami Raito, age 8, son of Soichiro and Sachiko Yagami. You were born February 28th, 1986 and have Type A blood. You have a younger sister, Sayu, who is 3 years younger than you are, and you father works at the NPA's Kanto Region Bureau. You were set to take IQ tests and placement tests last year after a teacher suggested that your intelligence may be abnormally higher than children your age, but the tests were canceled per your instructions and your grades in school, while still slightly higher than normal, dropped last year around November. However, while you appear to be an average 8-year old boy, you enjoy theoretical math, law philosophy, and dark romance literature, and have a basic understanding of English and French, both of which you taught yourself. Need I go on?" the woman finished with her smirk plastered on her face again. Light was beginning to find it annoying.

"How do you know all of this?" he asked with narrowed eyes, trying to look intimidating in his 8-year old body.

The woman laughed slightly at his glare. "After watching you devour books on multiple subjects I became curious, and when I found that you weren't a known child prodigy I was even more interested. It surprised me to find your face and name on a children delinquents list. I never would have guessed that you would be an arsonist, and only found out by stumbling upon it."

Light turned away at the mention of his file. No one but his family and the officers involved really knew about what happened that November day last year, and it bothered him that some stranger would bring it up in a conversation that they shouldn't be having. He turned back to the woman. "Who are you? And why are you bothering me?" he asked firmly.

A gleam appeared in her eyes as she leaned forward to stare him in the eye. With her sitting down, the two were at the same height, and although she had that dumb smirk still on her face, there was an air of seriousness that made Light tense up a little. "My name is Sophie, but I am known as Seven, and you are going to be my prodigy and protégé."

The atmosphere between the two was edgy as silence reigned, before Light burst out into peals of mocking laughter. "Ha, yeah. Sure, I'll be your protégé. You're crazy, woman. Stop stalking me and go bother someone else."

Light turned around and was about to walk away when the woman's voice invaded his thoughts again. "Don't try to fool yourself, Yagami-kun. No matter how much you try to hide it, you're curious and extremely intuitive and intelligent by nature, and your silly plan of concealing that nature has made you bored. I can help you with that. I can teach you everything you would ever want to know and can't get from a book."

Light by this point had turned around again. "Why should I trust you?" he asked suspiciously.

The woman stood up. "You shouldn't." As she was turning away, she paused and glanced back. "Yagami-kun, everyone knows the story of curiosity and the cat, but what no one ever talks about is whether the curiosity killed the cat because the curiosity was fulfilled and the action of snooping around killed it, or whether the cat was killed because the curiosity was left alone and it ate at the cat from the inside. You know the agonizing boredom of not being able to satiate your inquisitiveness, which do you think killed it?"

With that said, the woman, Sophie, turned and walked away, leaving Light to stare at her departing back. "Meet me outside the steps tomorrow with your answer, Yagami-kun."

The next day Light met Sophie outside the University library steps and only offered her a nod which she returned with her smirk.