The members of the taskforce stared.

Natural black hair that was in a tangled mass on his head; he had perfected the 'just got out of bed' look.

He wore a plain white shirt, faded jeans that were slightly too big for him, and hadn't bothered with shoes, or even socks for that matter.

He was a young man, whose porcelain skin was marred with dark shadows that rested just under his big dark, deep-set eyes. The bottomless lustrous darkness of his gaze pierced each man with shocking intensity.

He was thin and reasonably tall if he did not have his back curved into a slouch, which made him appear considerably shorter than he would otherwise have been.

The man kept his hands in his pockets. He raised his right foot, which he used to rub his other leg gingerly.

"I am L", he muttered; his voice as soft and articulate as it had been through the voice filters, albeit a little deeper.

"Hm... He's nothing like what I thought he'd be," whispered Matsuda under his breath.

L scratched his head and looked away, sheepishly.

One by one, the members of the taskforce held up their ID, stating their own respective names.

"I'm Yagami, of the NPA."

"Uh…Matsuda!"

"I'm Aizawa."

"Mogi."

"Ah, Ukita."

"I'm very sorry we're late-"

L raised his thumb and extended his index finger, mimicking a gun, which he pointed at the taskforce.

"Bang…bang...bang…bang...bang...bang"

Matsuda blinked in surprise.

"What the hell was that for?" growled Aizawa.

L stared at the Chief with hard, unblinking eyes. "If I were Kira you'd be dead, Chief Yagami of the NPA. All Kira needs is a name and face in order to kill someone, but I'm sure you've already figured that much out, haven't you. Please do not give out your names so carelessly. Instead… Let's value our lives."

He turned around, and skulked into another room of the hotel suite.

Matsuda glanced at the Chief. "I knew he needed a face to kill someone, but I can't remember any evidence showing he needed a name, too…"

"There's no way to verify if this is related, but criminals whose names were never released publicly, or whose names had been spelt incorrectly in the media have not been targeted. We briefly went over it at one of our meetings." The older man replied.

"That's enough small talk for now, come this way," called L from the other room. "Please turn off all your cell phones, handhelds, and any other communication devices, and leave them on the table in front of you."

"What, do you think we're gonna be using our cell phones during this meeting to leak information?" accused Aizawa indignantly.

"No, I just find them distracting. I can't stand it when people's cell phones are ringing while I'm trying to talk."

L clambered into a big armchair, on which he crouched, hugging his knees, causing his back to curve even more. His toes dug into the edge of the seat, gripping it in an almost bat-like manner.

"Let me start by saying that nobody is to take notes on anything that is said during these meetings. That means when we leave headquarters, any information we need is committed to memory." The group of men stared at L's bizarre way of sitting. His oddities were certainly beginning to pile up. "Please, make yourselves comfortable."

The taskforce made their way around a big, but low table, sitting in the various seats that had been scattered around it. At L's end of the table sat a china teacup and teapot, a small silver spoon, and a large pile of sugar cubes. The rest of the table was completely unoccupied.

He watched each detective intently, pouring himself a cup of tea in an intricate china cup. He didn't offer any to any of the other investigators; he was almost unaware of their presence. He sipped at his drink and pulled a face.

"E-Excuse me, L?" Matsuda asked, watching the strange man as he plopped sugar cube after sugar cube in his tea.

"Mm, from now, for all of our safety, I'm going to have to ask that you stop calling me L. Um…let's see you may Ryuzaki for now on."

"Uh… ok, Ryuzaki…if we know that he needs a name and a face to kill, couldn't we cut down the number of victims by just keeping criminals names from the news?"

"If we do that, we'll only be putting the general public at risk." He stirred his drink.

"The general public? Why…?"

L looked up. "Kira is childish, and he hates losing."

"But how do you-"

"Just what do you mean?" the Chief interrupted.

"Well…" L looked into his cup, the brown liquid still steaming. "I am also childish, and I hate to lose. That's how I know." He stated, matter-of-factly.

"Ryuzaki. Would you mind being a little more specific with us?" Mr. Yagami raised an eyebrow.

"Hmm. Early on in the investigation, I tried to provoke Kira with that broadcast. Up until then we thought that Kira would only go after criminals, but as we all witnessed, he didn't hesitate to kill my stand in. Also, as soon as I said he was in the Kanto region, in defiance, he made sure his next victims came from within Japan, as if to say, 'and what're you going to do about it."
Ryuzaki swallowed a sip of tea. "He's met all of my challenges head on, and he's never missed an opportunity to return the favor. Now, what do you think would happen if we tried to use media restrictions to hide criminals from someone like that?"

"Um…"

"I guess…"

L sighed.

"If you choose to withhold the names of your worst criminals, I'll kill petty criminals or the innocent. I'm holding the whole world hostage, so who's it going to be? I'm not the evil one here- but all those who oppose me by hiding criminals; you are truly evil."
Ryuzaki sighed again. "That's exactly how Kira thinks. In any case, let's see how else we can use the media to draw him out."

The men were stunned. "But… how?"

"How about something like this…" He looked up at the ceiling. "The death of the FBI agents infuriated the US. The latest killings anger the international policing community and the nations agree to send fifteen hundred investigators to Japan. For Kira, this will be beyond what he faced with the FBI. He'll see everyone as a potential threat. Psychologically that'll make him feel cornered, and that'll cause him to take some sort of drastic action."

"Wow… That's interesting!" Ukita piped up.
"Since none of these investigators exist, he won't be able to kill them… It just might work!" added Aizawa.

"Well before we celebrate, I'll tell you the rest of my thoughts on the Kira case." L cut in, somewhat impatiently; the other men nodded in agreement.

"Kira works alone. He had access to all our classified information…" He bit his thumbnail. "Kira needs a face and a name to kill; and he can determine the time of death and to some extend control the victims' actions before dying… We already know that much. Please keep it in mind, and listen carefully to what I have to say next." He uncapped a permanent black marker.

"On December 14th, 12 FBI agents enter Japan." He scribbled his musings on to the table. "Here we are on December 19th.

"Using prison inmates, Kira performs experiments, controlling manipulating his victims' actions before they die. In other words, during these 5 days, Kira becomes aware of the FBI and obviously felt threatened…because he didn't know any of their names or faces he was at a disadvantage. He needed to know how much control he had over his victims before he could use it against the 12 agents.

"As we all know, on December 27th, he obtained a file containing all the names and faces of the FBI agents currently in Japan, and he succeeded in killing every one of them. During this period, to the best of our knowledge, at least 23 individuals died of heart attacks, but these victims were different from Kira's previous targets. They were all alleged criminals, ex-convicts, or suspects in on-going investigations- so legally speaking they were innocent.

"What this indicates is that…Kira had to manipulate these lesser criminals in order to kill those FBI agents. He killed that many people so that we'd be unable to tell the decoys from those who were actually used. In truth, he probably only needed a few. He waited 8 days so the FBI could investigate other suspects, which means there'd be no timeline linking him to their deaths.

"I suspect Kira had to be one of the people being investigated by the FBI between the 14th and the 19th of December. In fact I have no doubt."

Ryuzaki stopped scribbling and delicately placed the lid back onto the marker. He picked up a pile of papers from the floor and placed them neatly in the centre of the table.

"These are documents provided by the FBI. They contain additional information you may find useful. For obvious reasons you are not permitted to take these out of this room, but-"

"Amazing! There may only be five of us but with this, much information we should be able to cover a lot of ground! There weren't that many people who had access to information from headquarters; and of those, the FBI only investigated a small group in the first five days!"

L glared at Matsuda. "So, does anyone have any questions?" he asked sarcastically.

"Actually, Ryuzaki, I do have one question for you." It was the Chief. "And it pertains to what you said earlier about how you said you hate to lose. Does the fact that you have shown us your face mean you've lost? By just being here, are you admitting defeat to Kira?"

L gazed into the distance. "That's right. By showing my face to you now and by sacrificing the life of 12 FBI agents, I have lost the battle, but I'll win in the end.

This is the first time I've ever put my life on the line. I want to show Kira that we're all willing to risk our lives if that's what it takes,"

For the first time since the men's arrival, L genuinely smiled; it was the kind of smile that was rare, but brightened his face to a considerable degree- the way a child might smile after being given candy. "And that justice will prevail no matter what."

"Hey yeah, that's right!"

"I like the sound of that!"

"We can do this Ryuzaki!"

Chief Yagami sat in silence, watching the young man warmly.

Well, I had my doubts about whether it was really him at first, but there's no mistaking it. This man is L.

"Before we go any further, I have to be absolutely sure that none of you are Kira. So I'll need to speak to each of you individually before you leave today."

"What's the deal, he still doesn't trust us?" grunted Aizawa.

"No, I think it's a fair request." The Chief cut in. "Try to see it from his perspective. Kira's been getting information from our headquarters from the very beginning, so there's a good chance that he's one of us."

L walked over to the window, eyes roaming over the city.

'Just one clue… A single decisive factor is all I need…we cannot let him get away' thought L

The members of the taskforce watched him.

"The Chief's right. Working this case has given us the chance to see him in person," agreed Matsuda.

"He's risking his life to be here…" admitted Aizawa.

It was still dark out, but dawn would be breaking in just a couple of hours. L turned around sharply. "Come to think of it… Who's at the police station right now?" He asked the Chief.

"Actually… No one's there at the minute."

"That's not good news… We need someone there at all times, work in shifts if you have to."

"I understand. Aizawa, I'll put you in charge of that for now."

"Yes sir! I'm on my way, won't take me long." He stood up to leave.

"Hold on… it would be preferable if you left after I've spoken to you. I don't believe that you're Kira, but we cannot afford to take any risks, no matter how small it may be."

Aizawa grudgingly agreed, and when the interrogation was over, he headed out.