A/N) This is the chapter where things start to really move along. Some information that I forgot to mention in the last chapters is that Danielle doesn't exist and Vlad died due to his accident in college; which is what caused Maddie and Jack to isolate themselves. The two tended to stay alone in the basement together, only ever coming up to eat, sleep or relieve themselves. Shopping was left to Jazz and Danny. While Jack and Maddie paid attention to Jazz; Danny tended to fade into the background, unnoticed. Due to their neglegence, Danny doesn't see them as his parents, just people in his life he rarely pays attention to. The one he sees as his mother would be Jazz because she was the ones to take care of him while their parents worked. All the time. He loved Jazz, he considered her his mother, not his sister.
Disclaimer!~ I don't own Danny Phantom or Death Note nor any other fandoms that are referenced in my story
Bolded words are from the actual anime. As I introduce Danny to the Task Force, these will appear less and less.
"Yuki, I'll be out late tonight, alright! There are some things I need to do after my classes, so I won't be able to work with you and Aiko, okay?" I shouted as I packed everything I needed for my lessons into my shoulder bag.
"Alright, the days have been slower lately due to school finals, we should be fine by ourselves. Though, if you don't mind me asking, where will you be going?" Yuki questioned loudly from the kitchen downstairs.
"I was assigned a project that I need to do a bit of investigating for. I'll be going to a few public libraries, maybe a couple other places, looking for information," I explained as I tromped down the stairs.
I wasn't completely lying, I've taken it upon myself to figure out the Kira case. It was a self-imposed project. I still felt a bit guilty for lying to Yuki though. I'd investigate as Phantom, so as to keep others from connecting Yuki and Aiko to me. I don't want them to get hurt because of me, especially since they've only ever shown me kindness. They weren't scared, and that fact made me want to cry out of joy.
"Try not to stay out too late!" she yelled as I jogged out the door, closing it behind me as I went.
I got to the University and hurried to the bathroom. Once I made sure that no one else was in there with me, I let the glowing rings that signaled my transformation wash over me. The ice cold sensation that always accompanied them was welcomed.
My abilities, which were already powerful, had expanded in number through my high school and college years. Of course I had the basic ghost powers, invisibility, intangibility, flight and ectoplasmic blasts. I also have my ice powers, cryokinesis, and my ghostly wail. All of these on top of my shadow powers, the abilities I've had since I was young. I've gained duplication, teleportation, shape shifting, telekinesis, and, with a lot of effort, the ability to open portals to the Ghost Zone.
I prefer to use my birth powers, they were much easier to control. I could travel within the shadows and raise skeletons from the earth. It was thanks to the former that I got to Japan, and, well, the skeleton helped to relieve my loneliness if only for a short while.
I gave a nod to the duplicate I just created and handed him my shoulder bag after he returned to our human form. We went our separate ways, him through the restroom door and me through the ceiling.
I flew to the apartment of Touta Matsuda. The young policeman was just making his way out the door with a piece of buttered toast hanging from his mouth. I followed him down to his vehicle and phased in while he started it. The ride to the NPA headquarters was short, but not at all quiet. Matsuda-san liked to sing along to the radio music, it was… debatable if he was good or not.
When we stopped, I phased out of his car and waited while he gathered his things. I shadowed him as he trudged his way to his office, looking at all the people and rooms we were passing by in hopes of memorizing as much as I could. Matsuda-san soon stopped in front of a man with greying hair. The man, holding himself with confidence and giving off an air that demanded respect, greeted Matsuda-san with a nod and a handshake. This man was most likely to be Soichiro Yagami, husband to Sachiko Yagami and father to Light and Sayu Yagami.
"We will be leaving for the meeting soon. You are just in time, so there is nothing to worry about, Matsuda-san," the Chief of the NPA said in response to Matsuda-san's worrying.
When we got to the building that the meeting was scheduled to be in, we walked in and Yagami-san signed Matsuda-san and himself in. He then dismissed himself to go to the restroom and left Matsuda-san to find the room the meeting was being held in. Ten minutes went by with me smiling in amusement and Matsuda-san wandering in confusion. I finally made a trail of frost leading to the room for poor, confused Matsuda-san to follow. I walked to the back right corner of the room, where a large majority of shadows had congregated, scoping out the room and the people as I did so.
It didn't take very long for the meeting to start. Chief Yagami joined Matsuda-san in the seats designated for them a few minutes before things really got started. Once every seat was filled, there was a few minutes of silence before a cacophony of noise and yelling exploded from the group. It got to the point that I had to cover my ears, and, even after doing that, I could still hear them. Vaguely, I could see Matsuda-san whisper something to Yagami-san and get an answer in return, but I couldn't them over everyone else.
Suddenly, everybody stopped, they didn't talk and they didn't move. As a collective group, every person turned their head to a man walking onto the stage at the lowest point of the room. The man wore a leather duster with four buckles on the chest that covered his body, from his neck to his lower shins, a brown fedora that was lowered to cover his face and shiny, black, leather dress shoes. From my position, I could see an outline of a mustache and a couple wrinkles. There was no doubt in my mind that this is Watari, the only known person to be able to contact L.
Watari finally stopped at the podium in the middle of the stage, the podium that held a projector for presentations. He pulled out a laptop from under his coat, set it down on the podium and plugged it into the projector with a connecting cord. The projection screen lit up with a picture of a letter, the letter "L," the font of the letter being Cloister Black. The letter "L" in Cloister Black font was the symbol of L, the world's best detective. We'd be listening to the mystery man himself.
"Greetings to all of you at the ICPO. I am L," a monotone, computerized voice drawled from the room speakers.
"The difficulty of this case lies in its unprecedented scope, and make no mistake, we're witnessing an atrocious act of mass murder. One that is unforgivable. This case cannot be solved without the full cooperation of the ICPO. That is, all of the police organizations you represent throughout the world. You need to make the decision to fully support the investigation, at this meeting. Also, I require additional cooperation with Japan's National Police Agency," L's computerized voice echoed around the room.
Well, that didn't surprise me in the least. I had already figured out that Kira was in Japan and that he or she needed a name and face to kill. The long series of deaths started with a man named Kurou Otoharada, who I'm guessing was simply a guinea pig for Kira to test his or her powers on.
I heard Matsuda-san mutter an intelligent, "Huh!" but Chief Yagami was much better with expressing his surprise.
"What! Why Japan in particular?" he questioned.
"Whether the guilty party is an individual or a group, there's a strong possibility they're Japanese, and even if they're not, we can be sure that they are hiding in Japan," L responded.
"What is this based on?" Yagami-san asked.
"Why Japan, you ask? I think I'll be able to provide you with proof of that after I directly confront the culprit," L replied.
"A direct confrontation?" the Chief murmured questioningly.
"At any rate, I will set up the investigation headquarters in Japan," L finalized.
I will admit, L's plan to use a criminal meant to be executed soon, in his confrontation with Kira, was smart. Though, that was to be expected, you couldn't be the best detective in the world if you were dumb. He'd have the scripted challenge broadcasted in every region of Japan, one after another, until Kira responded by killing the criminal. By replying to L's challenge, Kira would be giving his location away.
"We'd like to apologize for this interruption. We bring you a live broadcast from the ICPO," the news anchor informed.
"I head an international police task force which includes all member nations. I am Lind L. Tailor, otherwise known as L," the black-haired man on the television revealed.
"So this is how it all starts," Yagami-san said.
"But, you said L has never shown his face before, why would he show himself now," Matsuda-san asked.
A good question, for someone who didn't know what it meant to have a secret identity. I knew that the man on the screen wasn't L the moment he appeared, however, they didn't. Except me, everyone standing in this office in this building, the NPA headquarters, didn't know that the man on the television wasn't L, but a criminal that had been caught in secrecy. These men didn't know L was still hiding, I knew because I was the same as L. I wasn't about to shout to hundreds upon thousands of people who I was and what I am, why would L?
"It must mean that L is serious about this," Yagami-san answered.
"Criminals around the globe are being killed by a serial murderer. I consider this crime to be the vilest act of murder in history. I will not rest until the person or persons responsible are brought to justice. Kira, I will hunt you down, I will find you. Kira, I have a pretty good idea of what your motivation might be and I can guess what you hope to achieve, however, what you're doing right now is evil," the criminal in disguise spoke.
Not a minute after he said that did his eyes widen as he grabbed at his chest and tossed his head into the air. He then collapsed onto the table in front of him, dead. Two men came and dragged him away after checking for a pulse. Seconds after they stepped off screen, L's stylized letter appeared.
"I had to test this, but I never thought it would actually happen. Kira, you can kill people without having to be there in person. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't just witnessed it. Listen, Kira, if you did indeed kill Lind L. Tailor, the man you killed on the television previously, he was a criminal whose execution was scheduled for today. Police arrested in secrecy, so you wouldn't have heard about him on the TV or the internet," L explained.
Kira has to be furious right now, or surprised, thinking he had killed L, but in reality he just screwed himself, hard. He gave us an area to investigate, by making a mistake on his part. So far, in this competition, it's L; one and Kira; zero.
"I assure you, L is real, and I do exist. Now try to kill me! Come on, try to kill me! Can't you do it? Well, Kira, it seems that you can't kill me after all. So there are some people that you can't kill. You've given me a useful hint. I will return the favor. This broadcast was said to be broadcast around the world, but in actuality, we're only being broadcasted in the Kanto region of Japan. I had planned on broadcasting this around the whole world, one country at a time, but it looks like I won't need to. I now know where you are," L taunted.
Hmm, one would have never expected the world's best detective to jibe the enemy into killing him. That would only make a person angry, oh, who am I kidding? I pissed off who knows how many people with my witty banter. I did it to make them make mistakes during our fighting, and it always worked. L was most likely doing the same thing in a different way.
"The police treated your first killing as an unrelated incident, but one of your first victims was in Shinjuku. On the scale of crimes your victims committed, this ones' crime was by far the least serious. Furthermore, his crime was only ever reported in Japan. I use that information to deduce this much, you are in Japan, your first victim being little more than a test subject. Meaning you haven't been killing for very long," clarified L.
It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who figured that out. I wonder, just how much information that L has will correlate with mine.
"We decided to broadcast in Kanto first because of its large population, luckily for us, we found you. I never expected things to go this well. It won't be too long now before I'm able to sentence you to death," admitted the detective.
"L sure lives up to his reputation," muttered Matsuda-san.
"Yes, he proved that Kira exists, that the deaths were murders and that he is here in Japan," Chief Yagami agreed.
"Naturally, I'm very interested in how you're able to commit these murders without being seen. However, I don't mind waiting, you can answer all of my questions when I catch you. I hope we can meet soon, Kira," his last words floated around the room.
Ha! He was pretty much saying, "I can't wait to see you captured."
I doubted there was anything else I needed to stay in there, in the NPA building, for. So I took off for the bakery. Landing next to my copy, I tapped his shoulder. He finished ringing up a customer and readying their order, he excused himself to the restroom. I followed, closing the door behind us. I lifted my invisibility and he transformed, reaching for my hand.
The moment we connected, I received his memories as we became one again. Thanks to my duplicate's findings, I can safely say that Kira is a student. I'll wait and see if the NPA or L can confirm that as well. All I need to do is wait.
Knowing that the police will most likely chicken out of the investigation, the group left standing tall will be small. L has to have considered this already. The ones left, the officers willing to give their lives, will be the people working in close quarters with him. Perhaps even seeing him in person. Yes, he'll take the most trustworthy of the men, the ones who don't care who they work with so long as Kira is captured in the end. Those men shall be the ones to see the face of the greatest detective in the world. I will wait for those men to be revealed.
Stepping out of the restroom, I returned to my register. Watching Yuki and Aiko go about their business, I heard the door open. In walked a brown-haired, brown-eyed boy around seventeen years of age in a light brown suit. It wasn't him that made me bat an eye though, it was his companion that did. The vaguely human like thing behind him bore blue skin, eyes with red pupils and yellow sclera, black pants and shoes, a dark grey belt complete with a skull buckle, and a dark blue shirt with feathers on the shoulders to top it all off.
Keeping my face the same wasn't very hard, I've seen far too many bizarre things to question this. I looked at the boy as he walked up to the counter I was standing behind. When he stopped in front of me, I looked him in the eye with a smirk on my face and greeted him, "Hello, welcome to Sweetie Bell's! What can I get for you?"