GAAAAHH! Unless you're one of my readers, you probably don't know how much trouble this story has caused me. Not only do I LOVE this story, but it caused me writers block in all of my others. Oh, joy. However, you get a new story, which I think I over did a bit, but it's your opinion that masters. This will lead to LxLight, eventually, but for now, you get a half-assed over 2,000 word/almost 6 pages long chapter. God damn it.
Disclaimer: This is called FANFICTION for a reason. I'm only putting this up-and only once!- because I'm tired and dun want no bitchin.
Tokyo, Japan 12/9/2003 12:24AM
Bright lights of an ever changing hue decorated the landscape of the never sleeping city. Though it was late, cars of every shape and size drove upon it's roads, some of the drivers and passengers consisting of many different people. There were people just finishing their long hours of work, not to start again until later the next day. Some were out partying, celebrating an event that everyone outside their world knew nothing about. Gasoline, garbage, and other typical city scents protruded every persons senses. But only one felt it the most.
Staring down at the city, he wondered just how much 'home' had changed. In all honesty, he hardly saw much at all, despite the amount of time he had gone off.
Seven years...
It had been far too long.
~.~
Winchester, England 12/9/2003 8:24AM
Darkness, a familiarity he was surrounded by. Shadows of an unknown substance danced on the wall, for the only source of light was from a small, white laptop in the center. This was the laptop he always used for his duties. Or, more correctly, his 'hobby' of sorts. Files of many cases laid untouched, however. Even when his insomnia was at best, he only failed to concentrate. Only one file, one completely unrelated to his work, had caught his attention.
He laid out a deck of cards.
One by one, he organized the deck until each card matched. Then, he laid them in order of power.
...2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,...
...Jack,...
...Queen,...
...King,...
...Ace.
Sitting Indian style, for now, he looked down at the cards. More specifically, the last, and the most powerful card. The Ace. How a person could gain such a name, he was unsure of.
And yet, a person with a name(not even a real name, just an alias, really), yet no known face had been 'assisting' police agencies worldwide within a matter of eleven months. Of course, capturing world famous criminals must be helpful, correct?
Under a year ago, a person completely of the unknown started capturing criminals and leaving them on the roofs of the police agency, leaving no trace of his person except of a letter containing all information relating to the captured criminal, along with the location of his or her hide out, and a small card. An ace of hearts, to be exact.
Thus, he was dubbed Ace.
When Ace made his sudden 'appearance', many world leaders were frightened of his seemingly omnipresent status. With no trace, no forensic evidence, absolutely nothing to prove of his existence except the letters, many tried to send police officers to search for this person. However, as days dragged onto months, they became less frightened and, at this point, started considering him a help.
He, the one sitting in the dark room, was nothing more than intrigued, and this feeling had not wilted since Ace's coming. However, he was rather frustrated. No matter where he looked, he couldn't see any sort of pattern with the criminals. It seemed they were picked at random, than captured in groups or separately. He looked at the cities the criminals were captured in...
...Beijing, Seóul, Buenos Aires, Calcutta, Los Angeles...
...
He suddenly pulled up a web page, searching up 'World Wide City Populations'. There, he found a list.
...Beijing, Seóul, Buenos Aires, Calcutta, Los Angeles...
This was the pattern. Every month, Ace would change the city, each one higher in population. He had hit all of the top twelve...
...except Tokyo, Japan.
Taking his cell phone out of his pocket hastily, he snapped it on and speed dialed one, impatiently waiting for his call to be reached. There was a click.
"Yes?" A deep, old voice, laced with a british accent came out of the speakers.
"Watari, can you please book a flight to Tokyo, Japan?"
"May I ask why?"
"Let us just say I am going to take a... vacation of sorts," He wasn't working on a real case, anyway.
"Alright, master L."
L snapped the phone shut.
~.~
Tokyo, Japan 12/18/2003 12:29PM
Frankly, he was rather disappointed. No, he wasn't just disappointed. He was also upset, frustrated, miffed, dismayed, and basically every other synonym for disappointed. Never before in his life that he had so much trouble. Not even the time when he attempted to restrict Mello's chocolate supply. Yes, he found this more infuriating than that, and everyone who knows Mello knows how much of a brat he is.
For nine days-seriously, nine days?-L had been trying to spot Ace through a number of cameras set up at each police station. Even with at least 64 cameras per station, Ace had somehow found a blind spot to place the criminals. It seem Ace expected-no-knew of the camera's appearance. Out of all the things that L really discovered, it was that Ace was a lot smarter than he let on about. Of course, that wasn't the only discovery L came across. Apparently, he dropped the criminals off at exactly midnight, no earlier, nor later. How he managed to do that was beyond L's comprehension.
At least now L knew when he could hide out in case he decided to spot Ace personally. All L had to do was convince Watari. He tried to sneak out once, but Watari eyes were that of a hawk...
None the less, even with new found info, he still wasn't feeling on top. Though, since Watari suggested it, L decided to head out to a small cafe. Apparently, they not only had coffee, but plenty of pastries-YES! Cake, cake, cake-on stock.
Once inside the cafe, he sat down at a private window seat, so as to stray away from onlookers, and ordered a strawberry shortcake("Sir, are you sure you mean a slice of cake?" "No, I most certainly asked for a strawberry shortcake."). Unfortunately, the waitress said he would have to wait awhile. Maybe he should have just asked Watari...
In his moment of boredom, he observed his surroundings. It really was a typical cafe, colored with brown and tan hues. Truly, nothing really stood out- whoa, who was that?
A young teen, no more than seventeen, sat just a seat away from L, all of his features from torso upward in plain view. His black, mussy hair perfectly framed his face. He wore a simple, light collar shirt, and a white t-shirt under it. His skin was tanned, which was odd, considering it was still winter. His coat was laid out on his seat. However, even with his handsome features, nothing caught L's eye than two seemingly minor details.
The boy was wearing an obviously ancient pendant. It was rather dirty and rusted, so much that the designs on the front had almost faded. In fact, L almost missed it. Even then, he just couldn't make out the lines.
It didn't stop there, of course. He knew that it could cause the teen's attention to shift from the menu to the older male, but L couldn't tear his own eyes from the boys. Most would say the teen's eyes were honey brown, or maybe hazel, but L knew better. His eyes, for sure, were the brightest golden color L had ever seen in his life. The youth's eyes seemed to dance, like a small, but glimmering fire.
L brushed a finger against his lips. There was no way the young man was wearing contacts, they were never that bright, not to mention the teen was wearing glasses. Why wear glasses and contacts at the same time?
Without warning, the youth's head snapped up, staring straight at L. Within as little as a few seconds, L felt a heavy, almost omnipresent fog flow through the cafe. It was everywhere, and seemed to crowd him in, but he held on confidently. Apparently, though, only L, and maybe the teen felt the surrounding air. Then again, L had his suspicions that the youth was the cause of it. None the less, he wouldn't allow such a thing to pressure him.
Thankfully, two waitresses, one with his cake and another to take the teen's order, came along and broke the increasing tension between the two males. He took the cake and began eating, however, L did catch the other man's expression. A slight look of disgust, obviously from the cake, but he also appeared to be glaring at the older man. L could assume that the teen was angry at his staring, but somehow that just didn't seem to fit.
L would never guess that the young, golden eyed male was just as intrigued.
~.~
Tokyo, Japan 12/27/2003 3:42AM
L couldn't believe his eyes. Nine days later, after the Golden Youth Incident (as he had taken to calling it), he had finally managed to spot somebody who could have been Ace. Of course it didn't show, but he was ecstatic, elated, joyful, blissful-
-He really needed to stop memorizing the thesaurus in his spare time.
OK, back to the subject- Ace. At exactly 12:00PM, December 26th (technically, the 27th), L spotted a shadow. After much focus, the shadow turned out to be a dark cloak- so dark that it was mistaken for an actual shadow. Apparently he had used both the cloak and possibly dark clothing to mask himself as such. Rewinding the other tapes, he noticed that the same shadow was there. It really was a notable discovery.
However, there was something he just didn't get. He didn't notice this shadow before today, and L was sure that shadow didn't even exist when the recording began. But now, all of the tapes had that cloak in view. Had Ace made some sort of optical illusion? If so, why did he only see it now? L replayed the tape again and again, just waiting for something to give...!
A oval-like shape floated in mid air, just a ways away from the cloak. However, when he zoomed in, he saw a small chain connecting the shape and the cloak. L's mind flashed to the young man at the cafe...
Could the golden eyed boy and this person-possibly Ace- be one and the same? There was only one way to find out.
L began setting up a plan.
~.~
Tokyo, Japan 12/31/2003 11:46PM
Slinking through the darkness, L turned a left to reach the elevator. He pushed the elevator button, shuffling his feet together impatiently. When the door finally opened, he moved inside and pressed another button. Soon, he would be on the roof, waiting patiently for Ace's appearance. He was risking his life, his entire career, for just a glimpse at the mysterious man.
And it was all on a whim, pretty much.
It took a lot of convincing, but with a bullet proof vest and plenty of weapons, all hidden under the black pea-coat he wore, Watari allowed L to go onto the roof of the police station to have a real life look at Ace. This time there were no cameras, except for the small one peeping from the pea coats pocket. As soon he reached on the roof-11:51PM-he hid behind a group of boxes that gave him full view of the area Ace always placed his captured criminals without revealing L's own hiding spot from any angle. Unless Ace is even smarter than he knew, L's plan was sure to not fail. Hopefully...
...After all, he had no idea what he was going to do once he saw Ace. If he managed to see Ace's face, and it turned out that Golden Youth and Ace were one and the same, he might be able to find him and confront him at his next target point. The only flaw was Ace's location. Tokyo was the most populated city globally, so the only way for L to track Ace down was to wait for more criminals to be captured. But that would take days, and personally, L didn't feel like waiting. In other words, he was going to completely wing it, if he did confront Ace tonight...
Speaking of which, he should be arriving in just a minute...
~.~
11:55PM
He couldn't believe the nerve of this guy...
This man was quite a sight. Donned with an obsidian pea coat, which fairly matched both his atrociously messy hair and dark eyes, plus those disgusting jeans and shoes... this man was a walking riot! Well, not really, but he sure as hell stood out, no matter where he was. It was obvious who he was waiting for, especially since he kept checking his watch. He must have been incredibly intelligent, not to mention have plenty of resources, if he managed to figure out the other's pattern.
11:57PM
Tonight, this 'other' had finished his rounds. It was his final day, and he always caught a more minor criminal on this day, although most people didn't notice. He wondered if this man noticed, but he doubted it. Intelligence had it's limits, truth be told. Although, this man was quite interesting. It's not everyday you have to avoid 64 cameras, even if he had is gift to back it.
'Tch, some gift it is,' thought the man. He checked his watch.
11:59PM
It's show time.
~.~
Just a minute away, L told himself...
Surprisingly and not surprisingly, it was L's longest minute of his life. But that didn't matter, the only thing that mattered was the ticking clock. He had no idea that another was thinking the same thing.
'Tch, screw it.'
L suddenly jolted his head from his watch. He heard a large thud, only to recognize it as a middle-aged man, most likely a criminal. But it was 11:59:58, there was no way...
..unless...
12:00AM, 01/01/2004
"Well, well, I didn't expect a one on one confrontation with my eavesdropper, but I guess it just makes it all the better."
L jumped up, only to see a dark cloaked figure, and the brightest golden eyes he had ever seen piercing right at him.