The man who introduced himself as L shuffled back into the room and perched himself on one of many chairs arranged around a table. And when I say perched I mean he literally crouched on the chair like some oversized crow. I floated in after him, still a bit dazed. I attempted to introduce myself but sadly failed and ended up stuttering uselessly in English.
"Miss Andrews, would it be easier if we spoke in English?" The angel called L asked. I was hugely relieved.
"Ah, yes, yes it would be. My Japanese is still a bit…" nonexistent was closer to the correct word but I settled on and a less appropriate but more flattering choice " Shaky."
"It is not a problem, I am, myself, from England." L said while my heart did a little spastic dance of victory in my chest. I worried for a moment about the possibility of my passing out but dismissed the notion.
"Pardon me L but I'm slightly confused about why exactly I am here." He didn't even laugh at me but simply gestured to the chair across from him. I sat down gratefully; these shoes were really killing me.
"You are here today, Miss Andrews, because I would like to have your professional opinion as a criminal psychologist on information regarding the Kira case. First however I must determine that you are not, in fact, Kira. Would you open to answering a few questions for me?" His eyes were so dark I could get lost in them and they had a peculiar inquisitive glint in them when he spoke.
"Oh certainly I could answer some questions but I have one myself first. Why me? I'm new, I'm inexperienced and frankly I'm just not the best candidate for this job." The questioned spilled out before I had the chance to stop it. Idiot, who was I to question L's judgment? Hmm, judgment seemed like a poor choice of words considering the content of the case.
"We asked you to do this job Miss Andrews for the reason that you were the only one willing to do it. All of the other members of the Japanese police force declined for fear of their lives. However since you seem to be unaware of exactly what we were asking of you, you can still back out now." L spoke bluntly, no sugar coating for this man.
"Well of course I still want the job! I am honored to work with you, I just wanted to know why." My sentence trailed off lamely after a rather indignant start. Gosh, just looking at him was distracting. My usually eloquent sentences seemed to twist up in my mouth and come out as garbled nonsense.
L however seemed satisfied with my response. "Very good then Miss Andrews, shall we begin?"
His questions began with the bare facts and the dull necessities and I was struck with how boring and simple my life seemed. Why he was nearly the same age as me and look at all of his adventures! Then he asked me a question that threw me.
"Miss Andrews, why do you want to catch Kira, at risk of your own life?"
Shoot, I couldn't just tell him that I was broke and a little extra cash coming my way would make me do anything these days. That was definitely not the answer he wanted.
"I- I want to catch Kira because… because Kira is evil." It came out as more of a question than a statement. I fumbled on, getting a bit desperate. "Look, Kira kills criminals right? He thinks he's the embodiment of justice or something, almost like a god. I think he's a person and no person can have perfect unbiased judgment against another. It's arrogant and foolish to believe that you know everything about a person and therefore it is not the right of one man to condemn another. Justice isn't about murder; it's about the truth. What has Kira done to find the truth? Does Kira truly get to know everything about his victims? No, because he's a person, a bitter and selfish person who can't bring himself to see the good in others. Maybe because he can't see the good in himself." As I had been speaking I had slowly begun to realize that I truly believed what I was saying. The garbage coming out of my mouth slowly began to make sense to me and I felt a firm resolve in my stomach. Then I realized that L was staring at me. I gave a nervous half giggle.
"Very good Miss Andrews." L said thoughtfully "I may have to quote you on some of those lines. It was better put then I would say but you and I are one the same page." My heart leapt. L gave a little smile, mischievous and yet sweet. It was a strange contrast to his somewhat somber features. Not to say that it wasn't totally sexy. "Miss Andrews, welcome to the task force."
A/N: Oh L, you're so inexplicably alluring. Possible names for this chapter include "in which Lavender fails at language: part 2" or "in which Lavender paraphrases the American declaration of Independence in an attempt to impress her new boss." You can decide which is cooler. Please review, even if you hate it!
