"Dad? Where are you going?" Light asked as he got out of the office, eyeing the luggage beside his father and Sayu who came to send the said item.
"An international converence," Soichiro said distractedly.
"Is that why some agents were bringing luggage to work? Even Matsuda?"
"Yes."
"What kind of conference is that? A case? Crime? Must be huge to be international," Light smiled softly. How refreshing, if only that smile did not spell trouble for Soichiro...
"..." Soichiro formulated his answer in his mind first, busying himself with his luggage as a pretense, "No, I don't think so, I think it's another conference about how to increase national defense for each country."
"Oh," Light looked disappointed at that. "Sayu, why are you not in school?" Light turned and asked his sister.
"Hehe, today, our school started late to celebrate something. I'll be going now," Sayu beamed at her brother. "Bye brother, take care father!" She bade her goodbye and ran off. It's hard to imagine that girl will graduate soon.
Soichiro waved to her pretty daughter, glaring at some polices who were caught staring. After being satisfied with glaring murderously at those men, Soichiro turned towards his son and said strictly, "I want you to be in your best behaviour when I'm away."
"When had I ever not?" Light smiled calmly.
The conference room is dark and gloomy, but the arguments and snarky insults inside it didn't really suit for its atmosphere. But then again, no one seemed to care.
"What do you mean by that?! This entire issue of drug trafficking certainly originated from US!"
"What?! I dare you to say that again!"
"Enough you all! Stop with this ridiculous banter!"
"If we're talking drug trafficking, we probably should look at Russia too."
"Are you inciting an international fight?!"
"Everyone, please. We shouldn't be this way, we're here to discuss!"
"Alright, since everyone is being so childish, I reckon to start a discussion about reinforcement from other countries and team up to catch them," A particularly calm agent from China said dignifiedly.
"I agree about that, we really need to team up. Many of our agents had fallen, some were even one of the bests. It's crossing our bottom line," A british agent said while furrowing his brows solemnly.
"Where's L?! Didn't he agree to help us? He's the one who set up this conference!" Just when that yell of frustration left the american agent's mouth, a tall man, in trench coat with brow fedora hat shadowing his face, walked in.
Everyone fell silent immediately in the mysterious man's presence.
The man calmly walked to the platform where a red table sat and put down the laptop he brought on it. He slowly opened the laptop under everyone's expectant eyes.
The laptop litted up and everyone inhaled deeply.
"Good day, ladies and gentlemen," A gothic L letter with white background could be seen on the laptop. After the voice came out, everyone leaned in, paying a close attention to the laptop.
"Terribly sorry for the delay, I believe you all gathered here today to hear out my consent about a certain underworld organization that has a deeper root than anyone ever expected. Let us start then," With that, the screen behind the platform litted up too with the same L letter like on the laptop screen, meanwhile, every agent in the room began to flip open their own files and agenda.
Matsuda looked at how everyone suddenly became so tense and proper, unlike how brash and brazen they were earlier, including his own comrades. "Chief, what's happening?" Matsuda whispered to Soichiro.
Soichiro paused looking at his document to look at Matsuda, "Oh right, you've never seen a conference with him at all," Soichiro said lowly.
"Huh?" Matsuda blinked.
"When an entire world's police forces met a huge wall or a problem that could potentially end in tragedy, we'll call him, in some rare cases, he'll call us back and set up an international conference. The world's greatest detective, L." Soichiro looked back to the laptop on the platform with a long look of reverence and respect.
"Is it always like this? He's talking through laptop?" Matsuda asked curiously.
"Yes. No one has ever seen his face, his real is unknown, whenever he felt the need to communicate, he'll send a proxy. That man over there is his trusted proxy, Watari," Soichiro explained.
"But how do people trust him when we know nothing about him?" Matsuda said in confusion and arranged the file he brought on the desk.
"Well, we learned to. He's a very brilliant man and a genius detective, he had never failed, that's why we trust him," Soichiro said confidently. "Though, he only took a case that piqued his interest, a slightly eccentric personality," Soichiro frowned as some people up front started to argue again, those guys had always been like this.
Matsuda perked up, "Genius with eccentric personality? Didn't that remind you of someone, Chief?" Matsuda's lips quirked up.
Soichiro chuckled slightly, "I don't think Light is at L's level, Matsuda, he can't even touch an inch of L's hair in that topic," Soichiro said, blissfully unaware that his son had solved almost a hundred hard cases all around the world under anonymous identities.
"Chief, you need to be more confident in your son," Matsuda defended Light's purity? Greatness? Innocence? Pride.
Soichiro shook his head, "Light is my pride, indeed. But that boy has always made me worried and always causing me a headache, if I know he would turn out this way, I would rather have a rebellious teenager son rather than a rebellious grown-up son. His phase came off late, apparently," Soichiro sighed tiredly as he recalled his son's many headache-inducing actions. "The fact he chose to prematurely graduated only after a year in college still baffled me to this day."
"Still you're very proud of him don't you, chief? Light-kun is also not so bad," Another japanese agent chuckled in good nature.
Soichiro looked like he's complaining, but only a fool who can't hear the pride in his tone. Not only him, several japanese agents he brought also still remember how the Chief's son suddenly dropped by their office about a year ago declaring he's graduating and the ceremony will be held in a week. Well, premature is premature, but Light still managed to be the top graduate regardless...
"He's still too brash, young, and inexperienced. How could he be compared with L?" Soichiro shook his head and returned his attention to the discussion.
"Alright, since North Korea is okay with it, hm... How's Japan?" L switched to ask about Japan's condition and Soichiro smoothly stood up.
"We already do as much as possible actions to prevent anything such as that to ever come in, Japan is wholly supported this investigation. We had also exposed and captured a national-wide drug ring in our country, and have some vague informations about their connection," Soichiro said in a grim but confident tone befitting for a chief like him.
"I'm aware Mr. Yagami," L said calmly. "I heard that it was your own son who exposed it himself right? You must be proud," L said, still in his monotone computer-synthetized voice.
Everyone looked at Soichiro and murmured some things to their colleagues in their own language.
"Yes, thank you very much," Soichiro stiffly bowed in politeness.
"A rather reckless move of him, to be honest," L then suddenly continued. "I heard he got shot on his shoulder?" L remarked.
Soichiro nodded, that'd been nothing but an old news in Japan, "Yes, he's young and a bit brash," Soichiro admitted.
"You should watch out for him, your son is something," L said in a faint warning tone.
Soichiro's face turned grim, "Yes."
"Alright, since everyone already expressed their consent about this case, we'll just cut it to the point. I will prepare communication devices that can't be traced to everyone, the codes and informations will be shared equally, of course only for this case or any drug-trafficking related cases in your countries, you will find-" L cutted himself off as a rather cheerful and girly ringtone resounded in the solemn conference hall. Behind the screen, even L raised an eyebrow.
"E-erm, excuse me," Matsuda stuttered awkwardly in english from Soichiro's side. The representatives from every country looked at Japan strangely now.
The other japanese agents glared at Matsuda, they had been able to hold their heads high just now, borrowing Light's success in exposing their own country's national-wide drug ring. Now their initial pride is damped to the minus by Matsuda's girly ringtone... Soichiro never wanted to facepalm this hard in his life, not even when Light- let's not get in there.
Matsuda struggled to fish out his phone from his pocket, fumbling with it in nervousness and was about to press reject when he saw the caller's ID is 'Light Yagami' complete with a candid photo of Light that he had secretely taken. Light never called Matsuda, at most it will be a simple and short message. That fact made Matsuda hesitate, quickly decreasing the volume to zero.
Matsuda debated for a second before turning to Soichiro, "Chief, your son..." Matsuda whispered nervously in japanese noticing Soichiro's disappointed look.
Soichiro is torn between getting mad at Matsuda to not set his phone in silent mode or goddamn turned it off before the conference or mad at his son who clearly knew they're in an international conference today. "Just turn your phone off," Soichiro hissed.
"H-hai!" Matsuda quickly rejected the call and turn off his phone.
[Japan, Tokugawa Shipping Harbour]
Light cursed in five different languages quietly. Damn Matsuda, damn him for being not dependable... Well, Light can't exactly fault him. Light himself will reject a call from Matsuda if he's in an international conference.
But the precondition here is, Light never called Matsuda. Can't that guy raise his IQ and deduced he's in life and death trouble? This is why Light is lazy to befriend stupid people, they can't even make their own understanding and analyze the situation like this properly.
Light tapped his chin with his phone, blatantly ignoring the sounds of screams, curses, and gunshots outside, blissfully tucked in a shipping box with silk and cotton clothes. What? Even when choosing a hiding spot, you should also pick a good one to show your care to yourself, he wasn't about to stuff himself in a box full of hard materials.
It was all started a few hours ago when Light was on his way home- well, not exactly home as he took several twists and turns to the whole region, searching for things to amuse him after a short happy second day without his dad nor Matsuda in the office...
~Approximately 4 hours ago~ 01:00 p.m
Light arranged his last bit of paperwork to the side, smiling gently all the while. He's in a good mood today, yesterday, Matsuda was gone with his father and several other trusted agents to attend an international conference at 'classified' country, which means no one to bug him for a lunch or meaningless conversation. His dad is also gone, which means no one to scold Light over the smallest thing he did on a whim.
Light expect this few days would be blissful days.
"I've finished. I'm going home early for today, goodbye everyone!" Light announced to his fellow officers who gaped at him, but Light ignored them. Because of his recent injury, work has been very forgiving and merciful on Light's work hours, as long as he finished his part of paperwork, he's free to go. But usually, if Soichiro is here, he won't let Light left so early. But he's not here.
Now Light had finished his quota, what else that could hold Light back here? Light grabbed his bag and strolled out like a boss, outside, he stretched out slightly, resisting the urge to yell "Freedom!" because that would be very out of character of him and that's so inelegant.
Light looked into his watch before patting his pocket to determine his money is still there, then he proceeded to walk off. What would he do today, hm? Whatever, let's just go into a buss first.
A shadow emerged from an alley after Light walked off, silently, it followed.
Light looked down as his eyelashes fluttered, the breeze is pretty fierce these days. Pushing his hair back, Light smiled.
After four times changing buss, because he simply wanted it, Light stopped at a shopping district. He walked into a bookstore, mildly noting the black-hooded man is still following him. Light had noticed him since the start, but alas, being so popular since forever had numbed Light Yagami's dangerous stalker alarm.
After all, back in the days in middle school and high school, there are at least four stalkers a day for one Light Yagami, they even have their own schedule. It was kinda creepy at first, more so if you find a bouquet of flowers in the mailbox, or opening your shoe locker to find your outdoor shoes had been cleaned, or chocolates in your locker... But Light had learned to roll with it, at least he could shut up Sayu's nonstop talking with the chocolates and please his mom with the flowers.
Light shook his head as he remembered those days, how nostalgic, now he can't exactly shut Sayu up without those chocolates. Sighing, Light grabbed a random magazine on the cashier display and flipped it open, promptly snorted at the headline, "Hideki Ryuga's engagement is broken?" who the hell cares about other people's engagement? Well... Sayu probably cares.
Light purchased the magazine despite his initial distaste, oh what he wouldn't do to be a good brother he is. Sayu better stops bothering him when he gets home.
Light also took a sketchbook, pencil and a pen along with it and put all of them on the cashier counter, smiling charmingly to the girl behind the counter and got ten percent discount for it.
He left the store and began to wander around again, surely taking his time with sightseeing. Out of nowhere, Light started to think about buying a fishing rod. A hobby wouldn't be bad, after all his father had asked him to go and have a normal hobby for once, he could use the fishing rod to convince his father he got a new hobby...
[02:00 p.m]
Light could feel it, his stalker is infuriated, annoyed, and downright frustrated. Certainly it has something to do with Light acting like a tourist in sight-seeing spree. It's amusing, really.
So Light had gone to the emptier part of district because he heard something worth buying there, as expected (yeah, he expected it, but did he care? No.). His stalker suddenly shoved Light into an alley and suddenly pointed a gun at Light's head.
Shocked, Light held up his hands in surrendering motion, his expression is careful and cautious with a tinge of appropriate amount of fear. Deeply inside he wasn't really surprised, if this what his stalker called surprise attack, he should train more. Still, in the end, the man is the one who was armed while Light is not.
But Light has to solve this peacefully without a gunshot, without someone's head getting blown out, without his head getting blown out.
"Listen, we could solve this peacefully," Light said carefully, panic and concern were mixed as one in his tone.
"Shut up or I'll blow your head off!" the man growled and straightened his hand in a threatening gesture to pull the trigger.
"You'll regret this later," Light said, his tone is pure and full of concern.
The man sneered, "What made you think I'll regret this? Sure, I need you alive but dead is also acceptable."
Light exhaled in resignation, "Listen, I know I'm gorgeous and all. You're obsessed, I understand. But you don't have to kill me, we can talk this out, I can be your friends?" Light peered at the man and said softly.
The man paused and looked at Light strangely, where did this guy get his confidence from? Sure he was a bit pretty but that amount of self-confidence is too much!
Light saw that man slackened his guard out of his incredulity of Light's confidence and quickly moved for a kick to the man's right hand, effectively sending the gun flying. Light then pulled his own gun and directly pointed it to the stalker's head, "Checkmate," Light smirked.
The stalker's face paled immensely as he glared at Light with his most murderous glare, "You..."
"You shouldn't have let your guard down even in front of what seemed like a weaker opponent, Stalker-san," Light said smugly.
Suppressing his panic, the stalker then forced out a smirk, "It's not a checkmate for me, brat. I've let my comrades know about my mission, in a bit, they'll surround this place in a case you managed to slip out of my grasp or to collect your corpse if I succeeded. You have nowhere to run, Light Yagami."
Light still looked calm as he shoved his gun onto the man's head, right in-between the stalker's eyebrows, "Oh? Are you from that drug ring which I took down not too long ago?" Light questioned languidly.
The man glared, "Many people were enraged over that matter, Light Yagami. You're in our wanted list."
"Out for revenge? How cliche," Light mumbled boredly. "But that is fine, the more of you who get out, the easier for me to clean everything up," Light smiled brightly.
"Damn you, you'll die! They'll kill you! After what you've done, many of my comrades had been jailed or dead, you fucker-"
"Then," Light cut him off, his tone is completely different from usual, it's not polite, it's not light, it's not soft and gentle, it's very cold, dark, the man couldn't help but shiver with this tone. "Why don't you just accompany your friends in hell?"
The man gulped, looking at Light in fear.
"See you in hell," Light smirked evilly and pulled the trigger.
*Bang!*
The stalker's body went limp as he fell to the cold ground, Light looked at the limp body and raised his brows in disdain, "Human is such a naive creature," He mumbled.
He never put any bullet in his gun.
It's human's nature to have suggestion in their mind, that man is under impression Light's gun is filled with a bullet. Even though in truth it was empty but the reality is different in that man's mind. He's scared and at wits end. He expected his death after the trigger is pulled, and that was what his brain pulled on him when the trigger was pulled.
It completely shutted down.
In short, the stalker had only fainted out of fear and shock.
Light crouched down and began to roughly searched the guy for some spoils. Light got four bullets and a package of heroin as an evidence. Light also pulled out his hankerchief to handle one bullet and press it to the stalker's un-gloved hand, second evidence, cool. Light also memorized the man's face, that's a plus point.
Light then pulled out his medical gloves and put them on before grabbing the stalker's gun, Light doesn't need an additional armed pursuer, thank you.
Light then stood up and tucked back all of his evidences, "Well, see you in the line-up, gentleman," Light mock-saluted and quickly dashed away.
[03:30 p.m]
Light promptly began to think again, how is he this unlucky? He probably shouldn't have left the work early today, or should he? If there are these many criminals who were looking for him, why don't they just straight up kidnapped Light since yesterday or the day before or y'know, a week ago.
Why today? Light mused solemnly on the question. Did someone order them to?
He had dragged his many pursuers to an empty shipping harbour which turned out to be not so empty after all. There are two big yakuza gangs there, apparently they were in a personal war and this harbour is their war zone. Seriously what did police do nowadays?
It was bad enough Light is in his uniform, added with his revengeful pursuers, they practically add more oil to the already raging fire. In the end, Light is forced to adapt to the new situation, avoiding the warring yakuza's members as well as his pursuers while taking advantage of the chaotic war of Yakuzas. To tell you the truth, he actually pretty enjoyed the game of chase...
Well, fun was fun, when Light finally out of energy and finally get rid of those pests from his trails, he went and hid in one of the shipping boxes, trying to call for help from there only to find his phone can't reach anyone. Not his few colleagues whose numbers he kept, not his mother who usually forgot her phone anyways, not his little sister who is busy with her exams.
Not even the emergency number worked. Light would surely fill in a hell lot of complaints after this, if he got out of this situation alive, of course.
[Present Time]
Yup! Now even Matsuda rejected his call and turned off his phone, just when Light had thought Matsuda's recklessness could save his life for once... He shouldn't have his hope so high for that idiot.
Light lamented for a while, if he died, the next morning's newspaper's headline would be [Handsome young officer tragically died in a crossfire between two Yakuza gangs] assuming his body would be found today, that's it. Light furrowed his brows, no, he couldn't end like this. His future is bright, there are so many things he hadn't discovered, so many things he hadn't understand, so many things hadn't try yet.
He decided to send some messages
"Help, in Tokugawa shipping harbour"
"Caught in a crossfire between two Yakuza gangs"
"Pursued by criminals"
"Matsuda, damn you"
The gunshots becoming more and more lively outside and shouts of demise becoming more frequent and bloody, Light still curling himself in his shipping box, anxious and a bit scared to be honest.
"Damn it! We need to find that slippery pretty boy!" a rough voice cursed from outside and Light slyly pressed his ear to hear more, if they revealed some informations it would be good, Light could then wrap them in a lovely jail cell.
"Fuck, we lost four people at that, those yakuza dogs are really ruthless."
"How about we just shoot him directly on sight? Just say to the boss he's too slippery!" another said.
"The conference is today right?" another voice asked. Light perked up, 'conference? What a sophisticated drug ring, they also have a converence?'.
"Yes, that's why it has to be today or else we would be too busy in the future to avoid the police and relocate, not to mention to rebuild the ring back. In the future, we won't have time to assassinate the boy," The man growled.
"Those foreigner bastards, ordering us around like slaves," Another complained in whiny tone. Shouts then resounded and sound of gunshots could be heard again, even livelier.
Light's eyes were wide inside the box, it only took him two seconds to piece everything.
There's a spy in the ICPO conference. How could Light missed this? If the drug ring could be this huge there must be a spy among the polices, the one that Light took down was a really huge scale that it's impossible without outside help. Not to mention, it seemed like it was also not a simple national-wide... Oh shit, he incited an international-scale hatred?
'But if that's the case, there's a huge possibility there are spies inside other countries' police departments, perhaps some of them are in the conference too,' Light clicked his tongue quietly as he thought. He needed to tell his father about this, but how? His father's phone is off, small possibility it would reach there not to mention get read in time. Light began to regret his disdain to save every of his colleagues' numbers, if he gets out of this alive he'll save everyone's numbers for sure.
Connection is important, no matter how much it's below you.
Light began to rack up his brain to recall any useful phone numbers, someone, someone smart... Well, smart enough to not get killed, smart enough to move alone. A person that people will hear out... Amane Misa? Nope. Absolute not.
Takada Kiyomi? Hm, she's smart enough, intellectual, she will know what to do. But she won't be able to contact anyone useful. She might get caught in the crossfire and died, Light didn't need a guilty conscience.
Someone who is smart, could protect themselves, had a great line of connections...
Light's memory did not fail him as he recalled someone from not too long ago, a black-haired lady with her soft eyes and confident smile. The beautiful woman Light met when he was part-timing as an assistant psychologist, a year ago. That woman had wandered to mental therapy wing by 'accident' she said, and was pretty surprised to find a young man in one of the psychologist's room.
They had hit it off nicely after that, Light enjoyed her intellectual conversation and she enjoyed Light's knowledge and slightly dark humour that she strangely thought as cute. Their lovely friendship at that time only lasted for a week before she had to go home overseas, she had told Light her phone numbers at that time and told her about her past as an FBI agent.
Light smiled as he pressed the numbers in his memory and brought his phone to his ear. This is his only hope...
[At classified country, Noon]
A black haired beauty was pouring herself a glass of orange juice, a country rock music is playing in the background, she sat down and relax her body to the couch. She flipped her crime magazine, weighing whether to buy that long-chained handcuffs, just to surprise her fiance.
Chuckling at the thought of her fiance's flustered face, she thought back of his hesitance to bring her along to this country where the conference is being held. After today, he might be really busy, that's why she had insisted to come along, to spend more time with him while getting a new atmosphere along the way. She doesn't mind even if his time is so little, as long as she could be close by, she's fine.
A series of rings resounded within the room and she looked to the flip phone on the nearby coffee table, her grandma's gift. She raised her brows and picked it up, looking the numbers is not recognizable she had a half-mind to reject it but decided to answer it instead.
*Piip*
"Hello?" She answered in english.
The other side exhaled in relief, then in a hesitant tone he said, "Naomi Misora?"
Naomi Misora sat up, a frown etched her face, "Yes, that is me."