Title: Silent Consonant
By: Dr. Kim-chan
Author's Note: So I see I wasn't the only one who had trouble logging in for the past few days! Well, they put some new features on the account page (on mine, anyway), so that may be the reason. Anyway, I hope this chapter makes up for your headaches.
To answer any potential questions: yes, the Omni Hotel is real. I saw a picture of their presidential suite and knew it'd be perfect for L. And yes, I did look up the directions on Google Maps (although it was never clear exactly where Naomi lived within Los Angeles). I'm a nerd like that.
I'm also afraid I wasn't clear enough in the previous chapter, so let me give a better explanation. "Silent Consonant" is basically my interpretation of what would've happened if (1) Light hadn't found the Death Note, and (2) as a result, Beyond staying alive and executing a plan he might have carried out if not for Light killing him. Some of this also depends on my interpretation of what happened even before that, as you'll soon see. I've said it before and I'll say it again: fanart gives you great ideas for fics.
The obligatory thanks to all my nice readers and reviewers, and let's continue.
Naomi closed the door behind her softly, as if it was an afterthought, still staring straight ahead.
As hard as the reality hit her a few minutes ago, now she felt like a somnambulist compelled to trudge to a predetermined destination. She couldn't possibly be meeting L—in person (and, supposedly, for the second time)—right now, not after all these years…
"Through here, please."
Naomi jumped a little, then followed the source of the voice through the threshold separating the small foyer from the living room. It was a real voice, not garbled at all. It sounded a little deep, quite polite, a bit of a…was it a British accent?
Probably a little older than me. Probably well-dressed, Naomi evaluated mentally. He has to be if he can afford all this. Refined…eh, he's a little rude to be a gentleman. Definitely British, though. Either that or he's lived in England for a long time…
Then the view in front of her shattered every single one of her preconceived notions.
The living room played host to a number of electronics, including a laptop, a microphone attached to various small consoles, and a portable printer/scanner/copier. Two porcelain bowls sat right next to the laptop: one brimming with cherries, another strictly reserved for discarded cherry pits and knotted stems. The first bowl was so full that when the cherries' owner stretched out a hand to fetch one from the pile, a couple of them bounced over the edge and rolled helplessly across the coffee table. One even dropped to the carpet.
But it wasn't the electronics nor the abundance of cherries that was the spectacle.
Two large, black eyes had been trying their best to slowly burn holes into her head, though for the past second the fallen cherry had managed to distract them. Under those piercing eyes were the dark bags of a chronic insomniac, the veritable bird's nest of hair sitting atop his head not helping his case. He was a bit on the slender side, but his baggy sweatshirt and jeans grossly overestimated the fact.
…He looked almost exactly like Beyond.
"So we finally meet…face-to-face, I mean."
Naomi said nothing, still glued to the doorway. The raven-haired young man raised a hidden eyebrow.
"I see. You still have reservations about my identity."
That was part of it, but in all honesty it was pure shock. Oddly enough, the bags under his eyes were the most understandable. Solving hundreds of complex mysteries for a living had to be tiring, but really, he couldn't even be bothered with wearing clothes that fit? And none of it explained why he and Beyond looked frighteningly identical. She'd believe that Beyond wanted to elope with her before she believed for one more second that this was L.
Then again, these blatant idiosyncrasies were exactly why it also wasn't too hard to believe that this was L. Anyone could send in a well-dressed man to fit the role of L, but one would have to go through hell and back to find a character like this. And if this was Beyond in disguise, he'd still have the burn scars from his suicide attempt—scars that no amount of makeup or surgery would have been able to hide.
While Naomi processed all this, L took advantage of the awkward silence to pick up the cherry on the floor and put it in the bowl of pits and stems.
"If you're not talking because you don't believe I'm L, then it's rather clever. A shame you quit the FBI, though I suppose it benefited me in the long run."
Naomi relaxed her muscles. Yet another thing no one else but L would have known.
"Never mind. Now I know you're L."
L murmured approval, then made a slight motion to her.
"We'd have a better rapport if you took a seat."
Blunt and to the point. This was L all right. She took her hands out of her jacket pockets and sat down in an armchair.
"Now that we're confident in each other's identities, we can get to the matter at hand. One of the reasons you were unsure about me was because Beyond also exhibited some of the same idiosyncratic behaviors and physical characteristics I do, correct?"
Naomi's head perked up, which answered L's question without a word.
"I thought that peculiar too, when I saw him in the interrogation room a few years back."
"But you sounded like you knew him longer than that," Naomi protested. "You didn't know he looked and acted almost exactly like you?"
"I hardly knew Beyond personally, but we both shared the same purpose…"
Suddenly L looked up at Naomi with narrowed eyes.
"In my current situation, I'll need all the help I can get, and to understand the situation and everything else about the connection between me and Beyond, I am about to tell you personal details I usually wouldn't divulge to anyone else, but of course these are extenuating circumstances. This also means I'm placing a large amount of trust in you. That said, I have your word that what I tell you must not leave this room."
Naomi nodded earnestly, and L continued in his semi-polite tone.
"I'm working alone at the moment, something I'm not exactly used to. This was also a part of the challenge Beyond issued me, and I have to say, whatever he's planning, he has more motivation behind it than the murders here a while ago. Like me, he's childish and hates to lose."
"I don't know if children would kill in order to win," Naomi interrupted. "How can a person hate someone so much that they involve innocent people in their twisted plan?"
A tinge of anger veiled her voice, and typically L would have asked for her to keep her emotions in check at a time like this, but he let it pass.
Because, somewhere in the back of his mind, he had been asking himself that same question for years.
"A strange question coming from a former FBI agent, but a valid one nonetheless. I had no personal aspirations to be a detective. Not at first. At a young age, I had no family, no real purpose. It was at that time when Watari brought me to his orphanage, where I learned to apply and expand my intelligence and become a detective in order to better society. However, as the years passed, it became apparent that my life would be in danger, even with all the measures of precaution. So he began raising duplicates."
"Duplicates?"
"Others…orphans like me who had great potential. Beyond, or B, was one of the first. Before him, there was another replacement called 'A'. However, A couldn't endure the process, and he committed suicide."
A slight pain invaded Naomi's chest, a sensation similar to heartbreak. Was it that much of a burden to follow in the footsteps of L…to be L?
"As for B, he refused to accept that he could be nothing more than a mere copy of an original, and he resolved to defeat me by any means, even if it meant becoming a counterpart to the world's greatest detective—the world's greatest criminal."
He sighed. "But apparently that's not the only reason he harbors so much resentment towards me."
He picked up a piece of paper and handed it to Naomi. Along the edge of the top was a single sentence.
12 and 13 make 25. One is missing. 12 knows why.
"He didn't actually send this to me. This he told me at the interrogation. The meaning—to me, anyway—is rather straightforward."
Though the conversation had fractured at the point between recounting his past and presenting evidence, Naomi instinctively knew she was supposed to connect the two. Also, she had the advantage of past experience. She knew Beyond had a strange obsession with the numbers four, nine, and thirteen. Together with the wara ningyo nailed to the walls of the crime scene, she'd assumed the killer used four and nine because they were unlucky numbers in Japanese culture. It was also no coincidence that the two numbers added up to thirteen.
But why thirteen?
Naomi placed one fingertip over a bit of space separating the '1' from the '3'. As she thought. 'Thirteen' could just as easily be the letter 'B' if combined.
So who was twelve?
She used her mind's eye to combine the '1' with the '2', but all she got was a weird shape…or was it…?
"It looks like an 'L', but…" Her voice trailed off.
"It is," L assured her. "I know it's not a typical 'L', but remember that he's not referring to just any 'L'."
Naomi's face crumpled up, then she looked at L again, and then her face lit up. Not any normal L…so not the standard font.
She had to stop thinking in Times New Roman.
She instantly remembered the stylized 'L' glowing on her laptop the first time she became involved with the Wara Ningyo Murders. Old English. A rather stylistic font. Comparing that with the morphed 12, then yes, the shapes matched almost perfectly, right down to the funny-looking tail at the top of the vertical bar. She also considered something more obvious—that 'L' was the twelfth letter of the alphabet, but in this context it appeared to have no immediate significance.
"Okay. '12 and 13 make 25. One is missing. 12 knows why.' One missing from 25…26. Twenty-six…a set of twenty-six...the alphabet."
She stared at the bowl of cherries. "Beyond blames you for A's death?"
"Like I said, I hardly knew Beyond personally, but Beyond and A were together at the orphanage. I don't know if it's pure irrational emotion or he actually has evidence to support this, but at this point, the past isn't as important as what'll happen now."
"But anyone can turn resentment and their own broken logic against you if it's strong enough, irrational or not. You may not have killed A with your own hands, but, probably in Beyond's mind, you might as well have done it yourself…"
Naomi then bit her lip as she realized what she said.
"Sorry."
"Don't apologize. It was a very astute observation. Yes, emotion is a very powerful weapon, and there may be something deeper to this that I'm just not seeing right now..."
His sallow cheeks started bulging out slightly in random places, accompanied by odd sucking noises, and then he stuck his tongue out to present two clean seeds and a pair of perfectly tied cherry stems, both of which he promptly picked off his tongue. If Naomi hadn't been so disturbed by that little trick, she probably would have been impressed.
"But if I become invested emotionally at this point, I'd only be making it easier for him," L finished saying.
Naomi glanced down at the piece of paper again, and then two more crucial questions popped up. One of them she never voiced, and in the future she would wonder if she'd been right for keeping it to herself.
The other question she asked immediately.
"You said he first started sending you clues in prison, and you also said he's not out to kill us. If his only objective was to play this…this game with you, why'd he escape?"
His hand started to go for more cherries, but at the last minute L changed his mind and started chewing on his thumb.
"Yes, it would be unnecessary to attempt something as daring as a prison break…if we assume the game itself is the desired end result. Given that he did attempt it, however, and that he succeeded...what's the ultimate objective of a game?"
"To win."
"And what are the various ways one can win a game?"
Multitudes of board games invaded Naomi's mind.
"Um…to collect the most of something, to earn the most money, to reach the end of something without getting caught or trapped, capturing the other players' pieces, earning the most points—"
"There's another strategy as well."
Naomi leaned forward in her seat, ready for the answer.
"By making the other player think he's winning. That was how Beyond hoped to accomplish his aim the first time. By attempting to take his life—the ultimate loss—he would have won by eliminating the most important piece of evidence: the perpetrator. I also speculate he chose self-immolation as the method because he wanted to make sure he didn't leave behind any traceable forensic evidence."
He popped another cherry in his mouth. "But the rules have changed this time. He'll merely stand by, tell me his conditions, and watch me make my moves accordingly. At some point he'll take a more active role, but when, I'm not entirely sure."
"Like Dungeons and Dragons."
L gave Naomi a quizzical look, and she suddenly felt embarrassed, but that was the best analogy she could come up with. In D&D, winning was hardly ever the objective. The adventure itself was important, and the appointed game master controlled your path.
"Anyway, here's the clue that brought me to Los Angeles."
L handed her another piece of paper. This one read: The scorpion scurries from under the bull's hoof to hide among the angels, and there he will find the bearer of the vase, the one who poured the water that extinguished the flame. When the scorpion's shadow is freed, the scorpion will also find him among the angels, or else he will never find the water he seeks.
"…What?" Naomi blurted out.
In response, L handed her yet another piece of paper, this one a complicated matrix of numbers.
"To put it simply, he's alluding to astrology. I am a Scorpio, Watari is a Taurus—the 'bull's hoof'—and you're an Aquarius, the 'bearer of the vase'. He further wanted to make that point by sending me a sort of verification code, which he based around Pythagorean numerology. When I solved it, I got all our names and birth dates."
Nothing else in the past day scared her more than that last sentence.
"How does he know my birthday?" Naomi whispered.
"He has his ways of obtaining information, I'm sure. I was just as surprised to see that he knew personal information about me." As if he knew exactly what she was thinking, L added, "If he'd wanted use this advantage to track you down, he'd have long since done it. For now, I'm his only concern. I'm even convinced that the last sentence was nothing more than a bluff. Ninety-four percent, actually."
Naomi looked at the sentence L specified and reread it. When the scorpion's shadow is freed, the scorpion will meet him among the angels, or else he will never find the water he seeks.
Translation: L, be in Los Angeles by the time I escape or Naomi Misora dies.
"Well, you're here now," she said, keeping her voice steady. "Now what?"
"We wait for the next clue. Also hidden in the numbers were specified times: 5:01 PM, 10:31 PM, and 2:11 AM. 5:01 PM referred to the scheduled takeoff for a flight to Los Angeles I was meant to take. 10:31 PM—"
"—was approximately the time he broke out of prison last night," Naomi finished, recalling that morning's news report.
"And 2:11 AM is when we should be receiving the next clue."
Naomi took out her cell phone and glanced at the digital readout. 2:09 AM.
That was pretty much all she had time to see before L plucked the phone out of her hands, holding it delicately between his thumb and index finger, and dropped it next to his bowl of cherries.
"Hey—"
L silenced her by turning slightly to dig in one of his pants pockets before turning back around with another cell phone.
"Another one of Beyond's rules is that, even though I'm supposed to be working alone, I can receive help when he allows it. When I discovered I was meant to contact you, I figured calling you would be the quickest way on such short notice, and I arranged to get you a new phone before I came to Los Angeles. This one has unique security features and a direct line to me, so tedious encryption and destruction will no longer be necessary. I already activated it and had your old account transferred. That'll spare you the trouble of explaining a sudden change in number to your fiancé."
"Thanks," Naomi muttered, slipping it into her pocket without turning it on.
"And I suppose I should say the same. Even if Beyond hadn't wanted me to get in touch with you, I probably would've done so anyway."
Naomi nodded humbly as if she understood, and some of it she could grasp, but this meeting had only raised more questions than it answered. So Beyond wasn't after blood, but they still couldn't entirely discount revenge for the underlying reason behind this convoluted riddle. Again, this seemed to be all about L. But something felt wrong. The motive didn't look to be the usual fight for superiority.
Such a single-minded, yet brilliant mind…the playing field now leveled by L's current lack of associates…
Who would win this time?
An electronically jumbled bell dinged, and two pairs of eyes immediately snapped to the desktop.
An unmarked e-mail.
Nine seconds past 2:11 AM.
The security system popped up, asking L if he wanted to open e-mail from an unknown sender. He leaned forward to begin typing away, and the system tray vanished, replaced by the body of the e-mail.
Can't you see, L? A was a victim. Listen closely to both sides. Through the archways and across a sea of earth sits the paper church that holds your redemption.
L's eyes narrowed, his teeth ravaging his thumbnail again.
"Redemption?" he muttered.
"I wonder who needs it more…" Naomi grumbled.
(End Chapter 4)
