CHAPTER SEVEN:
"Direct Challenge"
He couldn't believe it, his friends Isolde and Tristan were parents to a three and half year old boy named Braydon.
After he was introduced to Morph, a deity at odds with Kira, he was introduced to his friend's son, who had been sleeping until recently in Tristan and Isolde's bedroom. They lived in Galileo's lavish apartment with him.
Galileo was busy in his study working on a project for one of his clients, while the three of them were now in the entertainment room.
Braydon was colouring a picture and watching cartoons. Isolde thought Braydon was too young to watch any of Galileo's anime, since they mostly consisted of characters in sword play or supernatural undertakings, with partial nudity, and adult themes, so standard cartoons were the norm.
Jasper sat on a couch, with a tall, half drunk glass of chocolate milk on a table next to him. He didn't ask for it, but he got a bendy-straw with the drink. Braydon asked for one with his chocolate milk, so Jasper got one, too. But he didn't mind. And Tristan was not kidding when he said the fridge was stocked with chocolate milk. Jasper actually laughed when he saw it.
Braydon lay on his stomach drawing on the floor close by. He was using crayons to colour in a picture of fire truck and he was using more than just red. Jasper was busy with his own project, sketching in a new book, since he had left his old sketch book at the institution and wanted to begin a new one.
Tristan offered to go out and buy things Jasper needed. But what Jasper asked for in the way of equipment couldn't be found in the underground city dwelling of vendors of Sanctuary City, so Tristan had to go topside. He got everything from a local arts shop.
Isolde had been at her personal laptop on a social network page when he began his sketch, she then ventured over. She stood over him and glanced down at the beautiful sketch in pencil of a handsome young man, Jasper's age. It was not a self-portrait, but it was obviously someone Jasper knew. From his perspective, Jasper drew the unknown teen with a dark and mysterious expression.
She leaned in further. "Interesting form—Expressionism, is it?" He nodded, fully engrossed in his sketch. "Is that Light Yagami?" He nodded again. He had shown everyone Light Yagami's picture from the internet.
Jasper saw Braydon get to his feet out of the corner of his eye, wobble a little, and then make his way over to the couch. He quickly turned the page of his sketch book to a more appropriate drawing that was kid friendly. He had prepared one just in case.
"Hi, little man," Jasper said in a friendly tone. "Have you finished colouring?"
Braydon smiled and nodded. "Mommy said you're good at drawing, I wanted to see yours." Jasper smiled, and then showed Braydon a picture of an anime character—one he knew from his own childhood: Pokemon Pikachu. He had sketched it in pencil and then added a few touches of yellow to it to identify its character. "That's good! I wish I could draw like you."
Jasper ruffled Braydon's angel-blonde hair. "I'm sure you'll be an excellent artist one day. You already show promise."
Braydon smiled and ran back to his picture, plopped back down, and started colouring more. Jasper and Isolde shared a smile.
Just then, Tristan peaked his head into the room, looked around, as not to disturb his son, and gave a cock of his head for Jasper to join him out in the hall. Jasper gave his sketch book to Isolde who remained in the room while he went outside. Outside, Tristan, who had been elsewhere doing something, after he picked up Jasper's art supplies, gave him a folded piece of paper.
Morph appeared spontaneously.
Jasper gave a jerk of surprise, but he was starting to become accustomed to the boy's sudden appearances out of nowhere like a phantasm and it didn't bother him much now. In truth, Morph was almost two thousand years old, but looked thirteen.
"We found Light Yagami," Tristan said proudly. Jasper opened the paper, there was an address on it. "It took some digging, but I managed to call in some favours and found out Yagami is hold up in a business building that's secretly the Kira Task Force HQ. Why he's there, I couldn't get an answer to that. But apparently he'd helping L—the detective asked to hunt down Kira."
Jasper gave him a strange look. "Wait—what? But I thought Light Yagami is Kira?"
"Hmph," Morph expressed. "Unless he's lost the power and his memories have been erased?" Before Jasper asked him to explain, Morph continued, "You see, when I person picks up a Death Note and uses it, they obtain the power of a god of death. Once a name is written down, that person has forty-seconds left to live, unless the method of their death is manipulated to occur later…I'll explain that later. If a person loses the power, and loses possession of a Death Note, then their memories are erased of its existence, the god of death, and all killings they've committed. If Light Yagami is not in possession of a Death Note at the moment, then someone else has stepped in and is killing criminals, and other people, under the guise of Kira. I don't know who, yet. I'll have to find out more information. But that should be easy enough." Morphed mused for a moment. "Or maybe, he's purposely given up the Death Note to avoid getting caught? Perhaps L had gotten too close? If so, then he would retrieve it at a later date when things cooled down." Morph smiled admirably. "If that's the case, then Light Yagami is a crafty one, and he should not be underestimated."
Jasper mused. "So, he's helping L look for Kira unaware that he was once Kira? His memories erased of all events?" Jasper paused. "That is what you just said?" Morph nodded. "Light will have no memory of murdering my father, either. How insulting!" He slammed the wall with the side of his fist. "He thinks he can get away with it just because he can't remember? No, I won't let him off that easily. I know the truth now. And before I kill him, I'll make him remember what he did. And beg for mercy!"
"The only way for that to happen is if Light Yagami touches a Death Note," Morph said. "And even so, if he's not in full possession, and let's go, all his memories will be lost again. Unless a person is the owner of a Death Note, they don't retain their memories."
Jasper mused. "Then we'll just have to get the Death Note back from this other Kira. I'll kill its current possessor and then make Light Yagami touch it and make him its new owner. Then I'll face Kira head on." Jasper smiled a sinister grin. "I accepted your offer, Morph, so now he can't kill me. But I can kill Light Yagami/Kira. After that, then I'll become possessor of a Death Note."
x x x
Despite countless resources at their deposal, and in collaboration with the NPA in regard to the Jasper Yuta case, Jasper was elusive. He appeared to go underground the moment he escaped from the mental institution, after murdering a Japanese businessman, stealing his possessions, and murdering a prostitute, among others, at a shady hotel.
There was only one conclusion, as far as L was concerned, Jasper had help.
Street surveillance cameras captured something of interest: one of Jasper's past known associates, coming out from an arts shop, carrying supplies. Matsuda had learned about this video from a contact in the NPA while investigating. And from what was learned with Soichiro Yagami's digging at the institution, Jasper Yuta liked to sketch.
L reviewed the surveillance video and printed out a picture of the young male. Now he had a recent picture of one of Jasper's friends. But he only had a first name: Matt, to go with the picture.
Things had taken a little twist. This now proved something the Task Force had been wondering about. Just recently, artist renderings of Light had been popping up on the internet in known Kira forums, but with no description or reason. Posters wondered who the person was, not the poster, but who the person in the rendering was. They critiqued the drawings as being very life like, with good form, but no one could provide a name until Light himself visited the forum and was shocked to see his picture in several threads.
It was a taunt. But now L could track who was posting them. It was Jasper Yuta, because the renderings matched that found in Jasper's sketch book left at the mental institution.
Unfortunately, the IP/DNS origin was masked with expertise, bouncing spastically. No service provider could tell the Task Force nor the NPA ,where it came from, either, and not even Light with his computer skills could find out.
They printed out each drawing and spread out half a dozen on the table in front of them in the lounge area just off the main computer setup situated in the main surveillance room.
Light leaned back in his seat and gazed concerned at one of the drawings. It was a rendering of him from a picture someone posted online of him from Toho University during the Entrance Ceremony. The likeness was so good that it was like Light was looking into himself—the eyes stared back him with a spookiness of a phantasm.
"This is bad," Matsuda said, also looking at a rendering. "It looks like Jasper's out for blood, he's taunting Light online."
"He must've known you'd eventually look at one of the most popular Kira website forums, Light," Ryuzaki said, "and posted these pictures there. I have to admit, they're quite good. Jasper Yuta has talent."
"Thanks, Ryuzaki. Nice to hear you complement a killer," Light said snidely.
L gave him a serious stare, crouched on his chair. "You know that's not what I meant," he replied.
"So, what do we do now?" Soichiro spoke up, stepping in before an another argument could break out. He knew Light and Ryuzaki had strong differences of opinions and they had come swinging with fists when things heated up. "Light has said there's chatter about the drawings online. We should go over the surveillance video of Jasper's friend from street cameras—maybe there's a clue?"
Matsuda perked up. "That's right," he said. "Just like that time you found the envelope missing at the subway station when we were watching the death of Ray Penber, Ryuzaki. We went over that video more than a dozen times, but only you found it."
"Who? I don't remember this Ray Penber?" Light said.
"He's the FBI agent who…" Matsuda began, but then L shook his head stopping him.
"I've already been over it several times," L then said about the "Matt" video. "Other than Jasper's past associate in the video, there's nothing more of value. And he disappears soon afterwards, off camera. The police are checking the area, but so far, they haven't found anything. Recent data has concluded that there is an underground community where crime is rampant, this coming from a spy for the NPA. So far, no access to the community has been located. But like I said, I don't think we'll have to go to him. Jasper will come to us. It's classic psychopathic behaviour. A person like Jasper feels they must be front and centre to taunt their victims."
"Why would Jasper come to us?" Light said. "Revenge is one thing, but I don't take him as someone who would risk his own life just to take mine. He doesn't strike me as that kind of person. He's smarter than that."
"True, but—"
Ryuzaki's phone beeped. It was Watari. After hearing what he had to say, Ryuzaki went to the main computer and pressed a button. On the large computer screen, in the foray to the building, stood three individuals—one of whom was Jasper Yuta. One of the others was the same person who had been captured on surveillance video coming out from an art shop buying supplies, Matt.
The third individual with the glasses was unknown.
"I don't believe it!" Soichiro said with utmost shock, each member following L. "We should call the police."
L put up a hand. "No, we can handle this ourselves," he said. "We don't want to give our headquarters away to outsiders, although if they located it, it may not be a secret anymore." Communication with Watari was on an open comm channel now. L said, "Watari, you know what to do. Allow the building's defences to occupy them until we're ready to welcome them properly." Watari said Yes. After a scan, Watari also said they possessed no weapons. "This is obviously a direct challenge. How he found us is interesting…"
L then turned, and said: "Light, you and I need to have a little talk. When I looked on the forum where these pictures were found, I saw that someone had posted a reply to them, asking about the artist. You used a pseudonym, but obviously, someone tracked the IP address, and I assume it was one of them. You were careless and you unsuspectingly gave our location away. You fell for Jasper's trap. You compromised us. I said earlier that you were a liability and I was correct in that."
"I'm sorry, Ryuzaki…I just wanted to know where they originated from and by whom?"
L waved a hand to dismiss the mistake. "The damage is done," he said. "Now we have to deal with it."
"But why would they come here?" Matsuda asked. "It's dumb."
L eyed the trio on the screen. "I guess we'll find out," he contemplated. "But it may not be as dumb as we think?"
To be continued...
