Commissioner Gordon sighed as he entered the hospital room, glancing at the bandaged body on the bed. He could only imagine what kind of pain the District Attorney was in. The bandages hid the mangled, burnt form…
"Harvey doing any better?" asked a figure that arrived silently. A somewhat large man in a suit resembling the form of a bat. His chin was visible, and his eyes could be seen through his mask, but other than that his true identity was not exposed.
"No, not really. He's refused consent to apply skin graphs to his burns."
"I didn't realize you needed consent for that."
"Yeah, me neither," Gordon said with concern in his voice. "Like he constantly wants to be reminded of that incident."
"He must feel responsible for Rachael's death."
"The way Joker set that whole scheme up…There was no way anyone but him would win. It's almost frightening…"
"I don't blame you," the batman said. "He's the first of his kind, a psychopath who doesn't follow the rules. He makes his own, and won't hesitate to break them just as quickly."
"I suppose you would know more about him than anyone else," Gordon replied. He paused. "…When you interrogated him, did he spill anything else useful?"
"No."
"I expected as much. Batman, I don't care much about procedure at this point, the city needs you more than ever."
"Don't abandon your principles for this. Besides, I'm just the night shift. You're a figure of justice 24/7. If anything, the city needs you."
"How flattering. But, I'm not the super hero. You-" He had turned to face Batman, but met only an empty space. Gordon rolled his eyes. "…Back to night shift, I suppose."
"I'm afraid visiting hours are over sir," said an arriving nurse. He nodded, and walked slowly through the hospital room door.
"I hope you have a plan to catch that clown, Batman. Otherwise, Gotham won't survive another month…"
--
The man awoke from his nap, stretching as he left the couch. He walked over to the other man in front of the computer monitor.
"Anything?"
"Nope. No new info has come up yet. Not even my usual contacts have found anything."
"Damn…No new leads in months. If it wasn't for that oil spill, people would think the Tanker Incident never even happened."
"I know what you mean." The man looked up from the monitor. "And it's not like we can openly request help from Campbell or the military. They think you're dead after all."
"Not exactly a foreign role for me. I lived in Alaska for 6 years and pretty much anyone I knew forgot I existed."
"Speaking of which, Snake, what happened to your old sled dogs?"
"I heard they found a new owner, some big shot head of a company who was on a world tour or something."
"I see. Interesting."
"Well, if you still haven't found anything, I'll be going back to sleep."
"You've been sleeping a lot lately, you know. Getting old or something?"
"Who knows. Maybe I'm just bored." He walked back to the couch.
"…Snake?"
"Yeah Otacon?"
"…Don't worry. We'll find RAY and Ocelot, wherever they are."
"No doubts there," Snake said, slowly drifting off to sleep. Meanwhile, Otacon continued searching through various pages on the computer.
"Hmm, what's this? "Gotham City paralyzed with fear. Mysterious mass murderer kills several criminals and officers in police station bombing, then kills Assistant District Attorney Rachael Dawes in second bombing. District Attorney Harvey Dent found in critical condition and badly burnt…"" He shook his head. "The amount of disgusting people on this planet in appalling. And they still get away with things like this…" He sighed, switching the computer into Hibernate, then removing his glasses. "If there's any justice in this world they'll be punished for sure…" A yawn escaped his mouth, before he put his head down, resting it on his arms, and fell asleep at his desk…
--
"-calling it Gotham City's most terrible tragedy, and given the city's notorious crime rate, that's certainly saying something," the news reporter said. Despite the fact that this was a report on a city far from Japan's shores, the bystanders were no less captivated by the footage of the terrible incident. Blurry surveillance footage depicted a man in clown make-up killing anyone standing in his way, and using his 'one phone call' (standard in prisons) to detonate a bomb that had been surgically placed in a cell mate's stomach. It was too much for people to witness, yet they couldn't look away from the screen.
One high school student in particular was appalled by the on-screen deaths, a look of scorn on his face. He brushed back some of his golden brown hair, and straightened his jacket out of habit, to make himself that much more presentable, as if to look more dignified than the criminal he was currently watching.
"…It's reached a new low," he thought to himself. "Criminals are becoming more dangerous…Not even Batman himself can keep up anymore…And the police there continue to be corrupted by the underworld…Right now it may just be Gotham, but where will it spread next?" He took a small breath, then exhaled, continuing his walk home, hanging on to the notebook he had found earlier that day. "Death Note, huh? A lot of work put into it for a simple prank. I'm not expecting it to work. And if it doesn't, I'll just give it to the police." He chuckled. "What're you saying Light? Of course it won't work. There's no such thing as a notebook that kills people…"
--
"Hey Ryuk, where you going?"
"To the human world…"
"The human world? What'd you do, drop something?"
"Yeah, my notebook."
"Ha! Smooth move there! And good luck finding it, human world has got millions of notebooks."
"Thanks for the advice…" the creature replied sarcastically, slowly walking into the blinding white light. "Let's see if anything worthwhile has happened yet…"