Caw! Caw! Caw!
The cries of crows vibrated throughout the dusky skies of Tokyo. Calling and cawing as they fluttered and roost everywhere in the city. Their black as night feathers shone from the light of the final hours of the day. Like all animals, they rely on their swiftness and their cunning instincts; sometimes they are not to be outsmarted at all. Their hoarse and sounding squawks can sometimes send up a chill through one's spine when you think of something terrible, when you feel guilty, and it can also be when you're alone in the dark.
For L, listening to those caws was nearly a curiosity to him. He was standing on the roof of the Kira Investigation Headquarters, enjoying the view of twilight looming over the horizon behind the skyscrapers. Looking at it was getting his mind off work for a bit. Working on the Kira case was hard just like every other case he had ever worked on in the past, so taking this small break could ease his stress a little. He took a deep breath, taking in the sweet and yet musty air.
Caw! Caw! Caw!
L opened his eyes, forgetting the case for once. The cawing had a different tone to them than he usually heard. Stepping forward closely to the edge, he looked down. As far as his eyes could see, a whole crowd of crows were lined next to one another, perched on the roofs of the smaller structures. They all stood in one place or another, not one took flight. Strange, this area was a rather peculiar place to roost. As L looked closely, they all appeared to be looking in one direction: up. From this high distance, L cannot see their beady black eyes but as he continued to observe them, he could've sworn that they were staring right back at him. As if that was the real deal, suddenly, all of them spread their wings and flew upward almost simultaneously, their unnerving calls were getting louder…and they were heading straight towards him!
L gasped, stumbled backward and almost tripping as the mysterious black birds zoomed upward like a swarm of wasps, coming into eyeshot and shooting up to the sky. L's breath was taken away, completely with shock and awe. A whole lot of the birds had perched on the headquarters' rim, others were near and on top of the entrance door, at least almost everywhere on the entire rooftop of the structure, keeping their distance from L. While more than many had settled on the roof, another horde of ravens were flying a few feet above him in fast but dispersing circles, looking like a forming black cloud. There were so many of them! Do all of these birds reside here in Tokyo?
Caw! Caw! Caw!
The roosting ravens were nearly silent, twitching and tilting their shiny black heads, staring at L, while the ones that were soaring cried out the loudest still. L was puzzled as to why these fowl were all here in one place and taking interest in him.
After fully seeing that the crows weren't up to doing anything to him, he was at ease. He instead looked up to see the flying crows doing their ceaseless circles, his thumb on his mouth.
Ravens were once thought to be harbingers of doom and tragedy, if you count with someone who is about to die soon. Or so it was written in the books L read about ravens and crows when he lived at Wammy's House. Of course, he doesn't believe in those superstitions, just the facts. These birds are nothing out of the ordinary but they do have a sense of darkness that is not depicted in any other kind of bird other than a vulture. He also remembered reading the famous poem "The Raven", written by the American Gothic writer and poet, Edgar Allan Poe. A strange but fascinating poem he might add.
One time long ago back at Wammy's, when he was outside straying away from the other children, he had found a crow lying on the ground, still alive but hurt; its wings was broken. L felt sorry for it that he took the injured bird over to Watari and they tended the poor animal's fragmented wing, and young L Lawliet was allowed to watch and take care of it until its wing was healed as long as he went on with his work duties. When the crow did indeed feel better, L walked out to the grounds and set it free, cawing away. Unlike the crow, after he saw it taking to the skies, he cannot be free from his time of study to his potential of becoming the next "L", the World Top Detective. Duty calls him just like the instinct that takes into a raven.
L continued to stare at the gliding avian above as he remembered the times when people would see him and they would politely (and sometimes not so politely) call him looking like a panda because of his round black eyes, but most of all they would say that he looks like a raven because of his beautiful and soft-looking hair, look like an awful lot like plumage…like that of a crow. He was sometimes being referred to as the raven or the raven man by only those who knew him in person, including the task force.
L still could not understand why all these birds were here at all, period. It was as if something supernatural had summoned them to gather here. But why?
L inwardly smirked. Could it be because my time is almost up?
Crows were also thought to be messengers giving warnings to people about the dangers that may befall them in the future. And if you got the message well enough, you would know what it was about and to be real cautious of what could happen. And if these masses of crows and ravens were trying to tell him something of the sort then it might as well be that what could happen to him would be inevitable.
L knows that Kira somewhere out there wants him dead for good, and it was possible that that time was closing in. L was not afraid to die for he was always prepared for it when he might fully expect it or not. Even if he failed to get Kira, he still has those who would follow where he left off and succeed, he knows it.
Caw! Caw! Caw!
Suddenly, a crow strayed from the flying group and it was coming straight towards L. Snapping out of his thoughts, L watched the bird intently, feeling a little bit scared as it approached him and he flinched as it landed on his left shoulder. L looked at it with wide eyes, generally surprised that an actual bird would alight upon him, and he tried not to move. It shifted down to his arm once he held his arm a little bit high for it to stand easily. It gave out a low screech, L could feel its clawed feet and sharp nails through the fabric of his shirt and they seem to sting a bit. L looked at the bird's black eye and since it didn't turn its head, he could tell that it was observing him as well through just its right eye. L looked straight into it as though he could see his future like what you could see through a crystal ball, and now as he looked through the depths of that eye just as it looked back at him, he could almost sense that it was feeling…pity? For him? L frowned. Maybe these birds do have a sense of what is yet to come.
Caw! Caw! Caw!
Now L broke his staring contest with the crow on his arm, and looked up to see that the flying group were descending but they kept gliding in fast movements, cawing and squawking. The crow took off from L's arm to join with the rest, and all of a sudden they were shooting down towards him. The flock that were perched began to take flight. L stood there paralyzed and not moving. He could've rum away so why didn't he? The wind howled along. The ravens began to swirl around him, and not knowing what to do, L raised his arms over his head should the birds attack him and go for his eyes, but he didn't feel anything, not a peck nor a talon scratching. The black birds kept going around and around him L felt like he was inside of a dark tornado. More ravens keep coming in the odd avian twister as the birds enveloped and swallowed him whole, their never ending caws were now too much for L that he tried covering his ears but for some reason he didn't have the strength to even put his hands over them, it was as if the birds were taking every bit of his energy by encircling him and they were getting closer and closer that they nearly touched him.
L gasped as he didn't have any form of escaping and he could only watch in horror as the terrifying black plumaged birds came at him and covering every inch of his body with theirs. L let a out horrific scream. Too many! There are just too many!
And then…
everything…
went black…
****
"-zaki! Ryuzaki! Wake up!
L opened his eyes slowly as felt someone shaking him hard, his vision gradually coming back. When he could see clearly again, he turned his head to see his primary Kira suspect, Light Yagami, looking down at him with concern in his eyes.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"Ah," L grunted as he sat up. He took a moment for him to take in his surroundings. He was still on the roof, and it was now night time and the moon was showing full up high. "That was strange," he muttered to himself. Was it real?
"Ryuzaki," Light spoke, breaking L's thoughts. "what happened? I've been looking everywhere for you and when I couldn't find you inside, and yet I found you up here lying on the floor, for a second I thought you were…" He couldn't bring himself to say the word "dead".
"I-I'm not sure," L replied groggily. "I thought I had this dream of crows or ravens forming around me in circles, almost like…like…Oh, I don't know. It was probably just a dream."
"Then what about these?" Light held his hand up and on his palm were five pure black feathers. L took one with two of his fingers, it was soft though and stared at it, and he began to look elsewhere around and he could see that the entire rooftop was covered with black feathers. L gasped softly as he looked back at the one in his fingers. Then it wasn't a dream at all.
Caw!
L and Light deliberately looked over to their right and a sole raven was standing a few feet away from them, and it had something in it beak. L scowled at it. After that intense experience, he wondered if he would ever look at a raven the same way again.
Getting on his feet, L said, "Light-kun, go back inside, I'll be over in just a minute."
Light hesitated. "All right," he replied reluctantly. "Just don't faint on me again." With that said, he went in and disappeared behind the roof door.
The raven hopped over to where L stood and just when it was within reach, it lifted its head up. It seemed to be offering the object to L. When L didn't receive it at once, it hopped insistently one more step and stubbornly craned its neck a bit more.
L eyed the bird suspiciously, but he reluctantly took the item from its bill. He looked closely to see that it was a stone, but it didn't look like any ordinary stone; it was smooth and it had the shades of the deepest blues, greens and reds and it glistened when L looked at it from front and back. It was a beautiful rock, really, and many of these you would find on a river's edge.
L stared at the small rock nonchalantly, and then looked at the raven again.
"What is this for?" He must be going insane for talking to a bird.
It didn't give an actual response but it shrieked lowly, and looked at him in the eyes as if it was really trying to communicate with him.
A L looked into its eyes carefully, he said, "Is this like a gift?"
As if it understood, the raven cawed and dipped its head as its way of nodding.
Surprised at the raven's responsive behavior, L looked at the stone again. "It's really impressive, but I still don't understand why you're 'giving' me this."
There was a look on the raven's eyes that L had seen before; the same kind of look that he had seen on the crow that settled on his arm earlier when it all happened: sadness. Pure sadness.
"I think I understand," L said after eyeing the bird. "This stone is to be with me until death, is that it?"
It nodded again much to L's astonishment. These birds are smarter than he thought. "But I don't think I can accept this." He stretched his arm to give the rock back.
To his shock, the raven let out a screech of anger as if telling him -no, insisting that L should keep the stone until then. L backed away a step, his eyes wide.
"All right! All right!" he said defensively. "I'll keep it. I must admit that it isn't anything I've ever seen before." He rolled the stone in his hand, feeling its soft surface, and he began to admire it.
"If you had actually sensed my sensed my future death, I suppose this is your way of saying 'I'm sorry, but your time is nearly up' by giving me this as token of sorrow and empathy."
L had always thought it strange for the connections man and animal in all of his years, and for a raven to do this act of giving to him is even stranger. He always thought that ravens were cold, callous creatures. But this is something that's truly amazing and he would relish this small moment that happened with an actual creature in his shortened time.
After looking at the stone once more, he looked back at the raven and smiled. "Thank you, my feathered friend."
The bird gave one more solemn nod at him, flapped its wings and took off into the night.
Staring off into the space in which the raven flew, L put the stone in his pocket and headed back inside, he smile still on his face.
****
While Kira's cackle echoed throughout the cemetery, the ravens and crows all stood on tombstones, statues, tree branches all coming to mourn L's death. No matter where they perched, they glared at the wicked laughing man in front of L's grave. It appeared that their presence was oblivious to the man as he continued laughing evilly. But he was not alone. Somehow in some way they could see a tall monstrous hunching figure that they never seen before standing beside the man. It was staring at Kira, wondering where on earth has his sanity gone to.
The man stopped laughing but he was hysterical as he shouted things at the sky and fell on all fours on top of L's grave soil and continued his ranted boasting that he had won the battle.
But there was one thing that he did not took notice at all. L's stone, the same one that one of their companions had given to him, was lying next to the tombstone cross. It would stay there until L would rise from the dead. They were sure of it and they would be there when it happens. They could only hope that his man mocking L's grave would get what he deserves and worse and be done with it. And soon.
When the man stood on his feet again, the birds felt that they have seen enough and all at once they flew away and the man who was now talking softly soft to the strange creature took no notice of them, and that suited the ravens fine. This man would sooner or later be on his downfall and he would be joining L beyond this life…forever. And before that happens, there would be others who would continue to do justice against him and finish.
Caw! Caw! Caw!
-----
As Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" goes,
"And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall be lifted
--nevermore!"