The light of the screen was the only light in the dark room of the police headquarters. The detective's tired eyes gazed blankly, without blinking, at the recent list of murder cases.
It was 3am and everyone was asleep. L took a quick glance at the monitor that was linked up to the hidden camera in his main suspect, Light Yagami's, room. The possible Kira was sleeping like a baby under his duvet; possibly a murderous baby but still looking quite peaceful nonetheless.
The insomniac narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the pile of blanket and human that was curled up in a big mound on the bed, slowly rising and falling as the teenager let air in his body. Almost enchanted at the sight of the innocent-looking suspect, L nearly fell off his chair as the computer beeped, startling him. The detective let out a sigh of relief when he saw that it was only Watari trying to video call him, not an explosive about to blow him up.
Still, he clicked the answer button cautiously, wondering for what reason his guardian could be trying to contact him for. The old man's face appeared on the screen, him seeming tired but in a matter of urgency.
L knew immediately that something was wrong; "Watari, what's happened?" he asked.
"A whole prison of criminals has just died simultaneously" L wasn't too surprised, he obviously knew that I was Kira who was responsible for this. But how? He sighed, popping a sugar cube in his mouth.
"There seems to be some similarities between all of their deaths" Watari informed him.
"And they are…?" L encouraged, crunching on the sweet sugar,
"It seems as if all of their internal organs turned into apples" the old man said, as if he were telling L the time of day. L almost choked on the sugar cube in his mouth. Well, this was certainly a new one.
"Apples?" L had to ask, making sure his ears hadn't deceived him.
"Yes, L, The fruit. It's all rather strange; do you think it's Kira?" Watari asked him
The detective pondered for a few moments, his thumb in his mouth. Apples? Seriously, what the fuck is going on? It has to be Kira, only someone with that kind of power could pull off something like this. But why on earth would anybody do this?! L noticed his usually calm breathing speed up slightly as thoughts raced through his mind, trying to determine the purpose of this.
Was he getting creative with his killings? Was this another cryptic message to L? Or maybe this was simply because Kira liked apples a lot?
"I guess he's trying to confuse us by doing something surprising" Watari suggested.
"No" L stated confidently, "this wasn't Kira's own idea but perhaps somebody asked him to do this, I don't know why though".
Apples? What are you doing Kira?
"Ryuk, what the fuck have you been writing in the notebook?!" Light questioned the tall shinigami.
The god of death still stood there with that same wide grin plastered his smug face. He quite enjoyed seeing Light's anger at his actions. Also, this human was swearing at him as if he were an equal, it was quite intriguing to observe.
"I have no idea what you're talking about" he said sarcastically. Light considered throwing the death note at him but it would probably just go through his body, Light also didn't want to risk damaging his key to world peace.
"Just ask! I could've gone to the shop and bought you some apples!" Light was annoyed; L would surely have noticed this by now and be trying to figure out what this all means.
The lanky god just shrugged his shoulders at the teenager. Whatever price Light would have to pay in the afterlife for owning the death note, it was no match for having to deal with this annoying shinigami while he walked the earth.
As Kira, he'd already sent L the message that "Gods of death like apples". What would the detective's reaction this be? At that moment, his phone rang on the table next to him. Speak of the devil; it was the detective himself. Light answered the phone to his arch enemy/ best friend.
"What's the matter Ryuuzaki?" he asked, acting surprised even though he already knew what was wrong.
"Why is it that you assume something is wrong?" L was back to interrogating him, "Unless, of course you were the one causing trouble".
Damn L, he always had to turn every conversation back to this didn't he!? Light had to hide his anger, if he were only an innocent suspect; he wouldn't be so worked up over L's words.
"No, it's just that you don't usually phone me for a pleasant chat about the weather" Light said as his excuse, "After all, with this Kira case, there often is something wrong".
"Yes, that is true" L accepted his excuse with same monotone voice, not giving away any clue as to what emotion he was feeling, "Your assumptions were correct though; a rather strange situation has occurred".
Light immediately knew that the detective was referring to Ryuk's brilliant idea of creating an orchard inside the prisoners. The shinigami overheard their conversation and let out another of his signature creepy laughs.
Everyone would automatically assume that Kira was behind this, as L had said, "strange situation". This wasn't exactly the message that he wanted Kira to send out to the people of the world, at least it was prisoners though. People might see it as another act of justice for world peace, a strange act of justice, but nobody would dare to question the god of the new world's actions, knowing the power that he held.
Light had to act clueless about this "strange situation", he prepared for his best shock reaction.
"Another Kira incident, I'm guessing?" he asked, making sure he sounded like he didn't know what had happened.
"We're not too sure, more criminals were killed, yes, but not from heart attacks however" L was taking a long time to get to the point, Light knew he was trying to find any more signs that he was Kira through his reaction.
"So what exactly happened, Ryuuzaki?" he was getting impatient but couldn't let it show through his voice.
The detective was listening very closely for any tell-tale signs in the way Light reacted to this information.
L paused for a moment, thinking how to word it to provoke a reaction from the suspect. His replies so far had neither leaned him further towards or away from the likeliness of being Kira… but of course Kira would want to do the exact same thing.
"Ryuuzaki?" Light prompted again after getting no reply, the tiniest hint of annoyance slipping into his words, he knew that he had to calm down soon otherwise he'd give L an advantage over him.
"Light, an entire prison full of people has been murdered. We think that it may be Kira's doing" he purposefully left out the strangest fact, to test whether Light would reveal any information.
"A whole prison? At the same time?" Light caught on that he wasn't telling the whole story but had to act like he knew nothing more than what he had just been told.
"I want you to come and investigate the crime scene with me" from his tone of voice, it clearly wasn't a request; it was an order.
Light was taken aback at first but then realised that it made perfect sense; the detective would want to observe his reaction in person. However, it wasn't himself that had committed this crime; it was the shinigami, so his surprise wouldn't be entirely faked.
His silence didn't help to ease L's suspicion.
"I'm flattered that you'd ask me but why do you want me to come with you?" Light asked politely, slightly unnerved.
"A second pair of eyes, just in case I miss anything" L, of course, never missed anything, "and I also need to keep an eye on my suspect behind all of this".
Light sighed, he couldn't refuse this request without seeming suspicious, so he went along with it, "Okay then, I'll help you. When are we going?"
"No denial of being Kira?" L pointed out.
Light should've expected him to say something like that, "Ryuuzaki, I just…"
L cut him off, "Meet me at the headquarters in an hour". The phone cut off without even a "goodbye".
Light was walking down a quiet street to meet the detective at the headquarters, closely followed by Ryuk.
"I thought that even the Death Note couldn't do the impossible" Light questioned.
"The notebook works differently for shinigami- if I want apples; I can get apples" the shinigami explained.
"You're causing me a lot of trouble, you know" Light told him, knowing he wouldn't receive any apologies in return.
"I know; more apples and more conflict!" Ryuk exclaimed gleefully, his smile widening even further.