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Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note. If I did, L and Mello would still be alive.
When Lawliet told Sachiko he wanted to be a detective when he grew up, she promised to support him to the end; it was what any mother would do. But she fully expected him to forget about it after a while, or take a mild interest in it now and study more in depth when he was older.
She hadn't anticipated him starting the next day.
From then on, as soon as he got home from school he'd rush through his homework and delve into books on deduction he'd bought as well as old cases he gleaned from Soichiro. Whenever he could he'd also coax permission from his father to use his computer, and on the Internet found even more cases and information. Lawliet had a sharp memory, and soaked up everything he read like a sponge.
Young Light followed in his older brother's footsteps, and after that there were times Sachiko wondered what she had done to have two sons who hardly ever played video games or watched anime like normal children their age. Instead they spent nearly every afternoon either in Lawliet's room or at the computer in Soichiro's study researching world crime rates and the successes of famous detectives.
Eventually, after numerous night-time discussions, the two parents decided it would be best to take Lawliet out of elementary school and educate him at home from then on. He'd never really fit in there, and while he took the top grades in class, they knew he was capable of so much more. The nine-year-old – to their astonishment - was already handling college level mathematics and sciences with confidence.
After this, to his great satisfaction, Lawliet was able to spend even more time studying the things he would need in order to be a detective. Light, on the other hand, now that he no longer had to keep his older brother out of trouble, grew a desire to socialize more and at least try to act like a normal child. He still kept his interest in the art of deduction (and used it more than once to his own advantage), but he began reserving several afternoons a week to hanging out with his friends or bringing them over. Yet no matter what, the evenings always belonged to him and Lawliet.
Often at night after Light had gone to bed the older boy would excitedly show Sachiko the things he'd learned that day; whether it was carbon dating or analyzing DNA or how to tell if someone was lying or not. It thrilled her to see how fascinated he was by whatever subject he'd explain to her, especially since he'd never shown such an interest in something before. He could talk for hours, and to Sachiko it seemed lately that was all he talked about.
Often he would ask her for first-hand accounts of how these things were done, since she used to be a detective herself in the NPA years ago. These she was more than happy to give him - although often she would spare him any grisly details.
"Mom," Lawliet told her seriously one evening when they were talking, "Why are you taking out parts of the story?"
Sachiko cleared her throat and diverted her attention to the case files strewn all over his desk. "Why do you ask? And how did you know?"
"Some parts do not always click." The boy picked up the file they had been discussing. "You said that in this case the yakuza in question was charged with kidnapping and assault. But what kind of assault was it? How would I be able to solve the case if I did not have all the details of the crime?"
"It doesn't matter now. That case was solved over five years ago." She sighed as she flipped through the file. "The work of a detective isn't always pretty – it can get dirty at times, more often than not actually. I know, because I helped solve a good many cases like this back in the day."
"Why did you stop?"
"Well, for one thing, I got pregnant with Light. I wanted him to always have one parent at home to take care of him. Originally I planned to re-join the NPA once he was old enough, but in the end I changed my mind."
The dark panda eyes met hers with interest. "Do you ever miss it?"
Sachiko hesitated. There were times, especially at the beginning, when during the comparatively mundane routine of caring for her newborn she'd felt a longing for the work she was used to. But still, those years had had a fair share of the stress and weight that came with being a detective and holding lives in your hand. The more cases one received, the bigger a target they became for criminals or rival detectives. It had taken her over two years after retiring to get out of the habit of sleeping with a gun under her pillow. But with determination and a lot of love and support from Soichiro, she'd pushed away that old life and never looked back.
"I used to," she admitted. "I thought that if I wasn't in the NPA, I was no longer making a difference in the world. Saving lives. But then I realized…I was still changing the world. By raising you and Light."
He raised an eyebrow, puzzled, and she continued, "That's why I'm teaching you, and pouring everything I know into the two of you. You've got big dreams, and with hard work they could become reality. In this way, I'm still making a difference…through you."
"I suppose that makes sense," he replied with a slight smile. "But what about the details of the case?"
He never forgets, does he? "While you may be training to be a detective, remember you're still a child. Some of these cases had messes even a full-fledged police officer would feel sick seeing. You don't need that, not now."
"But I can take it!" Lawliet insisted. "It's vital information to the case! Besides, blood does not bother me."
Before Sachiko could shoot back a reply, the door burst open and Light dashed in.
"Mom! Lawliet! Dad's bringing home an NPA member!" he announced excitedly. "They're working on a case together, and he has a son who's coming – he wants to be a detective too, like us! They're coming in an hour!"
"Maybe we can exchange what we know and get new ideas from each other!" Lawliet was already running a dozen ideas of what to do with a third party. "Oh, and can we help with the case?"
"No, son," he could hear Soichiro yell from the other end of the house.
The boy rolled his eyes exasperatedly. His dad never let him try out the good cases. "Oh, come on, Dad! I can keep it confidential!" There was no answer, and with a resigned shake of his head he went to stack up the files on his desk.
"This is gonna be great, nii-san!" Light bounced up on a beanbag chair and kicked his legs. "I wonder what he's like?"
"We'll have to wait and see. In any case, I intend to contribute to the case, even a little. I can listen in on the adults' discussion."
"But how'll you do that if we're with Matsuda-kun?" Noticing his brother's questioning glance he added, "That's the new guy, by the way. Forgot to mention that."
Lawliet shrugged nonchalantly. "I can attend to Matsuda-kun and listen at the same time. It's called multitasking."
Light nodded in understanding and they began discussing other things, like the old cases they'd been working on together. They were simple ones, that was true – robberies mostly and sometimes a kidnapping or mugging – but they were still real cases. To Light they were challenges, to Lawliet they were more of a game, a thrill that he couldn't find in video games or anime.
All too soon they heard the doorbell ring, and their mother heading to greet the guests. "I guess we should go too," Light said, brushing off Lawliet's shirt. "You should have changed your clothes. Let's go." The two brothers ran to the living room, where Soichiro and Sachiko were exchanging pleasantries with the guests.
"Boys, this is Matsuda Touta," Soichiro introduced. "And these are my sons, Lawliet and Light."
Matsuda gave them a friendly smile and bowed slightly. He looked older than the two of them, about twelve or thirteen years old. "It's great to meet you," he said eagerly. "Yagami-san said you both want to be detectives."
"That's right!" Light beamed and motioned for Matsuda to follow him. "Dad gives us old cases from the NPA database and we get to solve them over again."
"No way! That's amazing! And you've actually solved them?"
"Sometimes we get help from Mom, but yeah, we've done quite a few on our own. Lawliet's better at them than me. All the stuff's in his room, so let's head there."
"No." Lawliet grabbed the doorknob firmly and held it in place. "My room's private. Let's use your room."
"Come on, bro," the seven-year-old protested. "If we use your room we don't have to move all the books and stuff."
"Your room," he replied sternly, and after a few moments Light relented with a shrug. It only took them a few minutes to move their things to Light's room.
"So, how old are you guys?" Matsuda asked, by now genuinely intrigued.
"I'm seven," the smallest boy piped up, "And Lawliet's nine, but he'll be ten in two months."
The preteen's jaw dropped. "You," he sputtered, pointing at Lawliet, "You're nine and you're already solving cases? You must be a genius!"
"I am?"
"Of course! Even I can't do things like this!" At this Matsuda bowed deeply. "Teach me your ways, senpai!"
Lawliet smirked slightly and picked up the case files. "I suppose, if you wish, I could show you a few things, Matsuda-kun."
"Oh, please, just call me Touta."
"Very well, Touta-kun. What have you learned until now about deduction?"
"Eh, honestly, not much," Touta admitted. "I mean, I've read some books and stuff, but that about all I have to go on. I never thought of asking Dad for cases."
"That is a good start. Now you must build on what you know and practice it." The nine-year-old meticulously selected several case files from the stack and handed them to the eldest. "These are simple – I am certain you can solve these."
Leaving Touta to study the cases and Light to help him, Lawliet stepped outside the room and listened to the adults talking, bits of their discussion catching his ear as he leaned against the wall. It sounded like a series of murders, and a glint of excitement flashed through his eyes. Now this was a real challenge.
None of the crime scenes hold any evidence; it's all been erased before we got there…
They started on the 25th last month and repeated every nine days after that…
All the targets have been members of the NPA…
A slow smile began to spread over his pale features. The boy raced to his bedroom and snatched up a notebook, then returned to sit behind the door to the living room. His pen flew over the pages, scribbling down the information he'd picked up and anything else he was hearing. Digits and percentages flew through his head as he matched dates and made connections, his mind filling in for him the details he hadn't heard. He dropped the notebook and burst into his father's office, opened up an Internet tab and started typing. This is my chance to prove myself. I can do this.
Entering through Soichiro's account into the NPA's member-only website, his mind kept going a mile a minute, and as the seconds ticked by he realized this was actually easy; he's just never realized it until now. The percentages kept rising in his head, and as it all clicked together he felt a rushing thrill he'd never felt before.
That was when he realized he was not a normal child. Never would be.
But it would never bother him again.
Lawliet printed out several pages and ran back to where he'd left his notebook, only to find the door already open. And Soichiro was reading what he'd written.
"Son," he said slowly, "Did you do this?"
The nine-year-old reached up and took his book back, opened it up and quickly added new parts to it. "Yes, I did. And I believe I know how to solve this case."
"Then by all means let's hear it," Matsuda-san replied good-naturedly. The two men returned to their place on the sofa, and the boy sat down between them as he spread the notebook out over the tea table.
"What Dad and Matsuda-san have got wrong is that they analyze each part of the case separately, when they should be studying it all at once. That way you can see the patterns easier and make the connections."
"But that's how we always do it," Soichiro interjected. "Nobody can assimilate all the facts at once."
"Strange," Lawliet mused, furrowing his brow slightly. "I do not find it difficult at all. Anyway, as I was saying, if you look at the locations of the murders, you will see they alternate between two cities: Osaka and Tokyo. The first one was in Tokyo, the second in Osaka, and the third once again in Tokyo. Going by this, the next murder should be in Osaka. And since they were each nine days apart, it will be in two days."
"We deduced this much already," Touta's father said. "But the city is enormous – even if we did manage to scour the entire city in only two days the chances of finding the next target are minimal."
"Precisely – which is why you must narrow down the locations and times even more." The boy turned a page and began jotting notes. "Starting with locations. If you examine the areas in which the murders took place, you will notice all of them begin with the syllable shi. Shinagawa, then Shinsekai, and Shinjuku. If this pattern continues, it narrows the next location to either Shinsaibashi - which judging by the other areas is unlikely given it is a shopping district – or Shitennou-ji, both in Osaka. I would recommend keeping an eye on both areas to make sure. The next thing is that the blocks involved are all square numbers with one added, going backwards; seventeen, ten, five. If my theory is correct, the next 'danger' block is two, in either area I mentioned. It is a good thing the series has not been going for long, otherwise the persons responsible might have changed the pattern later and made this more difficult."
By this time both Touta and Light had overheard the discussion and were listening wide-eyed in the doorway. "The times at which they happened were all multiples of three with one added, as well; four AM, seven PM, ten PM. There is very obviously a pattern here, with one murder in the early morning, the next two in the evening, and the fourth also in the morning, at one AM. And to fool anyone who went solely by the number pattern, each of the minute times was different, and chosen at random." Lawliet stopped writing and ran a hand through his messy dark hair. "Do you have any pictures or footage of the crime scenes?"
The two men, who were both listening intently by this time, glanced at each other hesitantly for a moment before Matsuda-san nodded curtly, and Soichiro brought out a case file. He took out several photographs and handed them to his son. The scene wasn't pretty, but Lawliet was unperturbed by this as he studied them closely.
"And with this, it all comes to a conclusion," he announced triumphantly. "In each of these photographs it has been partially erased, either with a footprint or something else, but at all of the crime scenes, etched either in dirt or blood, do you see this symbol?"
Matsuda-san took a photograph and squinted at the image. "It looks like a kanji symbol."
"Exactly!" The boy snatched up his pen again and sketched the kanji out on his notebook, filling in the smudged parts. "The kanji for vengeance! The only group that has that kanji as their symbol is Kurano-okai, a yakuza group from Kyoto! So there you have the next location, time, and the group responsible. If you do as I have suggested, I am certain you will be able to end the case."
He cracked a grin as the adult's jaws nearly dropped, making them look ridiculous. It was like they couldn't believe he had solved what they couldn't. But it wasn't even that hard…
"I knew it!" Touta yelled from behind him. "This guy's a genius!"
After that, both parents willingly allowed Lawliet to study whatever cases he wanted. Soichiro even began taking Lawliet with him to the NPA headquarters and gave him access to their databases, and occasionally to confidential information from Interpol. As the Japanese police's representative in the I.C.P.O., Soichiro had access to intel that wasn't available to regular police members.
Light and Touta became fast friends despite their age difference, and often the older boy would come to hang out and work on cases together with the six-year-old. Lawliet sometimes joined them, but what they did was now too easy for him and he preferred to have a challenge to unscramble.
Despite her early trepidation, Sachiko was proud of Lawliet's progress. Before he'd gotten interested in detective work, after doing his homework he'd spend hours just doing nothing, or building intricate towers with dominoes. Now he rarely did that anymore. When he wasn't solving a case, he was studying sciences, mathematics and foreign languages.
It was several weeks after his tenth birthday that she began hearing news about Soichiro's old friend, Mr. Wammy. He was the one who had introduced them to Lawliet all those years ago, and now he had orphanages all over the world.
"He has one which is his most important facility, in England," her husband explained. "It's called 'Wammy's House', and is especially for gifted children. Children like Lawliet. There they are given special training and as adults will take up important places in the world, all working to make it a better one. It's amazing, the work that man is doing."
"Are you suggesting we send Lawliet there?" Sachiko asked skeptically. "He's not an orphan anymore."
"Not like that, no. I mean, perhaps there you could study what they do, and get ideas of how to work with him. Bring the training they offer back here to Japan. What do you think?"
The woman hesitated. Lawliet had been away from England for so long; over five years now. Taking him back might trigger a reaction that would undo all his progress, and that was the last thing they both needed. But still, it would be good to see Wammy again, and perhaps she could get some advice on how to help the boy.
Finally she nodded. "I suppose, maybe. But can we afford it?"
Soichiro beamed. "That's the best part – I wrote to Wammy a while ago about Lawliet and the direction he's going, and he's thrilled with his progress. He's eager to see the both of you, and offered to pay for your trip there if you decide to go."
That did make the journey sound more inviting. A few days passed without further incident, and Sachiko took the time to think about the idea. In the end, she decided it was worth a try, and the two wrote back to Wammy confirming the trip.
"Lawliet?" she called as she opened her son's bedroom door. He was sitting on the floor surrounded by stacks of books, copying down Russian verbs.
"Yes?" he replied. The ten-year-old placed his book down and got to his feet, as if sensing his mother had something important to tell him.
"We're going to go on a trip together…to England."
