Chapter Four - The Wall
The wall,
Separating, spacing,
Closing in.
Shadow of intimidation,
A lone figure challenging
A supreme force.
"It was Ryuk."
Vile startled, looking over to his side. It was dark, very dark, well past midnight. Kuru was standing by his side, green eyes shining through his mask.
"Thought so," Vile admitted.
This whole Kira business was obviously started by a Shinigami. You couldn't get any more conspicuous, if you knew what to look for. Vile looked back at his human, his confusing but interesting human, who was sleeping fitfully. This was the sort of thing he had been waiting for.
"You're an idiot, Vile," Kuru hissed.
"Maybe, but I just want to have a little fun."
Vile supposed that he'd have to thank Ryuk at some point.
"You have a laptop specifically for the purpose of hacking?" I ask, staring at the sleek black computer that D pulled from his bag. It's December 11th, at around 7:00 PM. K and I have gone to his residence for this operation, which was to hack the Task Force. (We're all out of our minds, I'm sure, but this was my idea.) The three of us are sitting in his bedroom, which is in his basement. I'm sitting in a chair with my legs crossed Indian style.
"Neat huh?" D flashes mean an insufferable grin.
"Does that mean you hack things often?" I retort.
"No, this was a gift from my uncle," D explains, setting the laptop up before him. He is sitting on the bed. K's sitting on the foot of said bed.
"I presume that your uncle was the one who taught you to hack."
"He said it was a good skill to have, even if you don't use it often. He also warned me not to use it for malicious intent."
"Where did he learn to hack?"
"I prefer to call it 'navigating cyber defenses', Red."
"Naturally," I reply sarcastically.
"Well I think it's cool!" K says, smiling warmly. She doesn't seem bothered at all. Well, of course you would think that K. Either way, it's kind of suspicious, and I don't like it.
"Okay, let's get started here!" D announces, and cracks his knuckles together. Once he focuses on the laptop, I doubt we could do anything to halt his concentration.
K waits eagerly. When she asked me what she could do for this (because she isn't a hacker and does not have much insight to this situation) I told her that she could take notes. She happens to have a quick hand, fortunate for us, and as I've said multiple times, she isn't an idiot, so she might catch something that I would miss.
The Shinigami also wait patiently. Kuru is content with standing by K and watching over her shoulder. Vile, on the other hand, is in the opposite corner. His arms are crossed, and he has his wings out and around his body. He's probably just trying to stay warm, but it's kind of creepy – he looks like some weird vampire bat.
As for myself, I find this quite dull. There is only silence except for the monotone clicks of D's keyboard. An hour passes and I am quite bored. I play with the sleeve of my sweater. It's a red one, in honor of this occasion. I end up absently chewing on it, like I did when I was younger.
"Kurai darling, don't chew on your clothes. It's not good for your mouth."
"B-but Mama," The little girl with black hair complained to her mother. The woman smiled down at her.
"It could hurt you, make you sick," she said to her child.
"How can it do that? It's just a sweater."
"There are tiny bugs on it, and they can make you sick," the mother did her best to explain the concept to the five-year old.
"Tiny bugs?" The girl's eyes went wide, and she looked down at the sleeve of the shirt she was wearing, as though it crawled with insects.
"Yes."
"I don't like bugs," the girl whined, making her mother laugh her joyful, free laugh and hug her child.
"Don't worry; I won't let them hurt you."
I stop chewing on the fabric, and looked down at it. I haven't thought of that for years now.
"Fuck!" I hear D swear under his breath. Glancing over, I see a scowl plastered to his face.
"What's wrong?" I ask quietly.
"This is going to take a while. They've put up more barriers than I first expected." He says, voice crackling with suppressed rage. I stand up and go over to look at it over his shoulder. I am met with a screen full of technical things. I am no hacker or technician.
"Barriers?" I ask.
"Think of it like this: there are walls that I need to get past in order to get the information we want. I've gotten past the first few, but they're getting harder and harder to pass the deeper we go."
"I didn't know that the Task Force had so much security."
"They don't (sadly enough)."
"But you just said-"
"I know! I got the information, because I got through the walls, but I found something interesting."
"What?"
"L is using an outside source. He probably has a person there to represent him, which hooks up the laptop. I found that laptop, but it's only used for a connection. I'm trying to hack the laptop it's connected to. There might actually be something important on there, something only the detective has."
"Good point," I admit, but I can't help but think that D's pretty ballsy to actually attempt such a ludicrous thing.
"You can take a nap if you want; we're going to be here for a while." I nod once.
"Just make sure you have all the files we need saved."
"No need to worry, I backed them up on a flash drive."
"Good," I yawn, and find myself ready to sleep.
"Keh, maybe your little plan won't go as expected."
I ignore my Shinigami, and try to sleep. It finds me after a few moments.
"Move!" whined a little boy with blonde hair. A young raven-haired girl sat on the grass and gazes at the flowers.
"Why …" She said wistfully.
"We're going to play here, go somewhere else," the boy said angrily. His friends were getting fidgety behind him.
"But the flowers are so pretty," she sighed in contentment.
"Go away, freak!" One of the blond boy's friends said.
"Yeah, my mom said that you weren't normal," Another said.
"So go away! You don't belong here."
The girl got up, pouting and tiny fists clenched, "I can go where I want!"
"Go away freak! You're a monster!" The boy yelled, and then pushed the girl. She fell over onto her behind.
She stared up at him, at a loss for words: shocked.
Monster …
"Shit!" a voice yells, and I am ripped from my nightmare.
"Another one …" I groan tiredly as my vision becomes clearer. It takes a moment for me to fully wake up.
"Damn!" another yell. I look over at D, who is beet red with anger. He looks as though he is going to throw his laptop across the room.
"What's going on?" I ask groggily.
"I got past the fourth wall, and now he's trying to hack me!" Vile gives a loud laugh from his corner, and I shoot a glare at him.
"Huh, what-" K is waking up now from where she is lying on the foot of the bed. I stand up, and stretch, popping the vertebrae in my back. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to sleep sitting like that. Glancing at the clock by D's bed tells me that it's around 2 AM.
"Who's trying to hack you?"
"L!" I freeze in understanding.
"L is trying to hack us …"
"Yes! He might have known what we were doing the entire time, or maybe he set a trap that I couldn't detect behind one of the other walls. I don't know!" He shouts in absolute panic.
"Hah, this guy got you," Vile chuckles.
"Shut up," I shout at the Shinigami and move so that I can see the screen. There is a frenzy of activity on it. D's fingers fly over the keyboard, his face is covered in sweat, and he is biting his tongue.
"Does he have control over the computer?" I ask.
"Fortunately, no, but there's a thin line; this guy is very experienced. I wouldn't be surprised if he could hack his own system with ease. It's taking everything I got to ward him off, and even then I might not be able to keep him completely out."
"Can't you just shut the computer down?" K asks.
"That won't work! You can hack a computer that is turned off. We have more of a chance to stop him by fighting than simply turning the machine off."
"Sorry," K says apologetically.
I frown. He is certainly a better hacker than I imagined. How useful! But now we have caught L's attention. The very thought sends chills down my spine and makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
A window pops up. The only thing in the window is white, and a black capital L in the middle. Just like the one on TV. D sighs in relief.
"Well, at least he doesn't have total control," he says, and continues typing in another window – probably trying to stable his position so that he can't be hacked any more.
"Does he have access to the files?"
"No."
"Can he wipe the hard drive?"
"No."
"Can he crash it?"
"I doubt it … no."
"Can you get rid of him?"
"No. He's secured himself as well. He probably wants to speak with us."
Lo and behold, just after D says this, another small window pops up. This window is blank, but there is a small box where you can type in some text – just like a chat function on those social networking sites.
"I guess he does," I say quietly, "Is it stable?"
"Yeah."
"Let me talk to him," I say. D moves over so that I can sit next to him. I pull the laptop in front of me. K then moves around so that she can see over my shoulder.
This is it: time to shine, time to prove to myself that I can do this.
Let's get started.
A line of text appears at the top of the box: I am L.
Wasting no time, I see. I type in my answer. He wants to know who I am, well, I'll tell him. I am Red.
Who do you work for?
I work alone.
"You're not going to mention us? D did all the work up to this point," K points out.
"I know that. It's to throw off his trail. One person isn't much of a threat. If I let out that there is more than one of us, it will let him narrow his line of sight in order to find us." K doesn't look but convinced, but that isn't really my problem.
What do you wish to gain from hacking into my system?
I was curious to see if there was any confidential information on it.
There is none that you haven't already gotten. The rest is in my head.
I see. Then there is no need for me to be here.
Why did you hack the Task Force mainframe?
To get information on your investigation.
Might as well be honest. I don't want to be investigated alongside Kira. There is a pause.
Why?
To help. I want to catch Kira, but I doubt if I just came to your HQ that you would take me seriously.
Another pause. How can I trust your word?
I am not sure. I can't exactly trust yours either.
Well, in that case, what are your thoughts on the case?
"Damn, what are we supposed to say?" D hisses.
"Well, the obvious," I say out loud.
"And that is?" K asks.
"That Kira can kill in more ways than one," I say simply.
"What? Why?" D asks.
"It's better than saying 'I know how Kira kills', isn't it?" I growl.
"I guess."
"Like I said a few days ago, if possible we should contact him and get his trust. Now that we're stable we can continue on the latter."
"Right," both of them reply, determination sparkling in their eyes. Well shit, we're really doing this!
Kira can kill in multiple ways. He is not limited to heart attacks.
Why do you say that?
It's unlikely that a heart attack is all he is limited to. He can choose a time to kill his victims after all. I don't think it's much of a jump to assume he can kill in ways other than a heart attack. A heart attack is just his way of mocking us and letting us know he exists, like the way criminals intentionally leave behind clues. He wants us to go after him. He wants to sit back and laugh as we struggle to comprehend what clues he left behind.
It is a shaky hypothesis. I can practically hear his eyebrows rising at this point.
I know.
You have given me much to think about. A pause, I do not answer. Red, can I possibly contact you in the future?
Possibly.
He quickly outlines a few times where we can contact him. I have K write them down quickly for future reference. Contact me in one of these times, and I will let you know when you can speak with me after that.
Very well.
The line goes dead. The chat window and the window with the L close. D takes the laptop from me and starts typing away. After a few minutes, he sighs and shuts the lid.
"That son of a bitch," D moans. "He probably doubled the security on his system now. I don't think I'll be able to get in again besides those times."
"Well, it's not all bad," I say.
"Why is that?" K asks.
"He will probably share opinions and information with us," I smile. "Alright L, we'll help you."
Somewhere far away, in a dark room, a man sat in front of a computer screen. His unruly black hair covered his face as he disconnected from the chat. He had just been speaking with a person he knew nothing about.
This person had come out of nowhere: Red. Who could it possibly be? Could this Red actually be Kira? It was possible, but why give information to the detective who was after you? Maybe it was a hired agent from a powerful government.
L was the sort of person who made it his business to know who was who in the crime world. He knew who the top detectives were. Any who had dared challenge him had lost, and their names claimed as one of his aliases. The man brought his thumb to his mouth and chewed on the nail thoughtfully.
So who was this?
Could he trust Red? Probably not … but this person had managed to get deep enough into the system to alarm L at the very least. There was no doubt in his mind that this was a professional.
And what he had said … Kira could kill in other ways. That wasn't good for L. It may help the further investigation, but it could also mean disaster. The conclusion was also very vague, without evidence, so what had led them to believe that?
He couldn't let Red go, now that the mysterious person had been brought to his attention. It was dangerous to let them go. He needed to win their trust, bring them closer, and confirm if Red was indeed Kira or not. If Red was a threat, he would destroy him. If he really did have intentions of helping, then by all means – if they could in fact help them.
L sighed, and focused on his computer. He had work to do.
Omake
U89ZXM,ERRRFGVZX B/ X I8LW fg ;3Ul '4dj;
…?
L, on his side of the screen, looked at the series of gibberish with absolute confusion.
On their side, Red glared angrily a K, who had actually fallen onto the laptop. The blonde girl grimaced and laughed awkwardly.