WARNING! SPOILER ALERT! Spoiler for episode 35 and chapter 58.
Now that I've thouroughly warned you, I was an emotional wreck when L died. The anime only made it worse. The foot-washing killed me.
So, as for all my favorite deceased characters, I wrote a little tribute to L, looking at his last thoughts before he died.
Discalimer: Need I say that if I owned DeathNote, L would be alive and would have shot Light at the end. Thos did not happen, therefore, me no own.
Bells.
Not a ringing in his ears. The deep bronze- or was it brass – chimes of bells. They had been ringing all day. L pushed open the door to the roof. The rain pounded on the cement of the helipad, soaking him quickly. He stood by the edge, watching the lights of Tokyo flicker past him.
The rush of wind filled his ears, underscored by the sounds of traffic far below. His long, unruly black hair fell in his face, dripping water in his eyes. Watari had been telling him that his hair needed to be cut for a while now. Maybe tomorrow morning. And still, the bells rang.
They were cold, impersonal sounds, yet strangely familiar. They weren't the bells from Wammy's House, he had checked with Watari. The bells there were iron. These were brass- no definitely bronze.
"What are you doing out here?"
At first he thought his mind was adding voices to the bells.
"Ryuzaki, what are you doing out here?"
He turned to see Light Yagami standing in the doorway, shielding the rain from his face. "What are you doing out here?" he asked again.
"Listening to the church bells," he said without really thinking. Church bells. They were definitely church bells. But from where? Where had he ever heard church bells before? Bronze church bells.
"I don't hear any," Light said, looking around.
Of course not, L thought, you weren't at the funeral. A funeral! Exactly! But whose funeral? "Really," he asked, "they're quite loud. They've been ringing all day. I find it quite distracting, really. It could be a wedding, or…" A funeral. Definitely a funeral. "Light Yagami, from the moment you were born, have you ever told the truth?"
The cars raced by as Light stuttered his response, "Well, we all tell the occasional lie, but I make a conscious effort not to tell a lie that would hurt anyone."
"I thought you'd say something like that," L responded. Bronze funeral bells. Where had he heard bronze funeral bells?
Light peered at his friend's face, "Let's go inside, we're getting soaked."
L nodded noncommittally.
Light tossed him a towel. L draped it over his head as Light started drying his hair. The bells didn't care if he was dry. He sat down and started drying Light's feet.
"What are you doing?" he asked, confusion and- was it fear? - crossed his face.
"I thought I'd help. I guess it could atone for some sins I'm quite good at it." L had never been religious, so why was he caring about sins now? The bells. The bells made him think of sins. They sounded like a requiem, almost. A bronze requiem.
Light brushed the water from L's bangs. Tomorrow morning, he would cut it. It really was getting too long. "It's going to be lonely, won't it?"
Light looked at him questioningly, "What do you mean?"
"We'll be parting ways soon." The bells were calling him. Was it his parents; funeral? Had he even been there? What had happened before Wammy's House?
He sat in his chair, explaining to the rest of the group his plan to test the thirteen-day rule. The rule couldn't be true. It didn't make sense.
Watari's voice was cut short from the computer.
"Watari," he called, "Watari, are you there?"
The screen flashed the message, "Data Deletion Complete" Damn. That could only mean one thing.
"I told Watari that if anything should happen to him to delete all the files." The bells rang louder, their mournful toll reverberating in his head. Were they Watari's funeral bells? They rang, rang, rang…Rem. The Shinigami. He scanned the room, "Everyone, the Shinigam-"
Pain. Indescribable pain spread out from his chest. It seared through his chest setting every nerve on fire. A heart attack. He heard his spoon clatter to the ground as he lost balance and toppled over. The bells faded into the background as he felt a pair of arms surround him.
"Ryuzaki," Light called.
L looked up, feeling the strength leave his limbs, the pain turning to a dull, permanent numb. The face looking down was not the face of Light Yagami.
Kira. The twisted grin of triumph plastered across his face like some sort of macabre mask. His features were Light Yagami's, but the soul was the evil and twisted one of the God-wannabe, Kira.
Light Yagami….was Kira, is Kira. He had been right, but it was too late. He tried to call out. To Mr. Yagami, to Matsuda, to someone, but his voice died in his throat. The numbness spread to his chest and his breathing became labored. You may have won this battle, Kira, he thought, but justice will win the war.
And the bells played a bronze requiem for L.
Emotional wreck. I told you. Well, review, please!
~~BJ