A/N: SWEET NIBLETS!!!
I haven't updated in so long. And I apologize... But I have my reason. My computer kinda, broke down a few weeks ago so a friend is fixing it. (Right now he's on a business trip.., insert a sigh here...) So I'm kinda computer-less and without all my writing. Since all my stuff is on there. Right now I'm just using an extra tower thing we had. I was able to upload this chapter because I have all the MSP chapters up to 9 in my e-mail inbox. But until I get my computer back, which is hopefully soon, I won't be able to update on my usual schedule. I'll have 9 out early to make up for the...inconvenience. But as for OLS (Our Love Style), you're going to have to wait a little bit longer.
So...I think that's all I have to say. I'm probably forgetting some. Or a lot. But anyway, here's Chapter 8. Enjoy and please review! (:
Matsuda and Soichiro were first to come to the Imperial Hotel. Outside, Watari had handed them L's room number, and they were on their way up. After going up numerous floors in the elevator, they walked down an empty hall, stopping front of one particular room.
Soichiro steadily knocked on the door, only to hear a voice come from the other side, "Please enter. I've been waiting for your arrival."
Soichiro calmly opened the door—and everyone gasped, the others now with him and Matsuda.
The man on the other side of the door, had his hands in his pockets. He wore no socks, and slowly scratched his ankle with his other foot. He wore nothing special, just a long sleeved white shirt and baggy jeans. He had messy black hair, and black eyes with bags under them. He was...nothing like what they had expected.
"I am L," he said, breaking the silence. He reached a hand up to scratch the back of his neck, not paying much attention to the reactions of the officers.
Soichiro shook his head, and then took out his police I.D., "I'm Police Superintendent Yagami."
The others followed suit, holding their I.D's up as well.
"I'm Matsuda."
"I'm Aizawa."
"I'm Mogi."
"I'm Ukita."
L's eyes narrowed slightly, as he looked at them all.
"I'm sorry we're late," Soichiro apologized. "There five are the current..."
L lifted an arm up, and with his thumb and index finger made the resemblance of a gun, "Bang!"
Everyone gasped at this action.
"W-wha?" Matsuda looked mighty confused.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" Aizawa asked in shock.
L lowered his hand, his face returning expressionless, "If I were Kira, you'd all be dead right now."
Everyone gasped again.
L slowly began to walk to another section of the room, "All Kira needs to kill is a face and a name. You should already know that, right?" He stopped by the entrance, and looked up at them, "Don't go around telling people your name needlessly. Let's value our lives."
Matsuda turned to Soichiro, "I heard about the faces, but did anyone ever say he needed names?"
Soichiro looked over his shoulder at him, "All of the criminals whose names are unknown or were reported incorrectly have been unharmed by Kira. It was also mentioned at headquarters."
L spoke again, "Well... Hey, you can come out here. Come out of hiding. I'll even introduce you, if you like."
Everyone exchanged awkward glances, not entirely sure of what L was talking about. So far, they could all agree that he was...different."
L sighed, sticking his hands in his pockets again, "We're coming in there, anyway."
Soichiro cleared his throat, "Um.. Excuse me, L... What are you talking about?"
L looked their way, "Oh, I'm sorry. My friend is a little shy, so it appears..."
"Friend?" Matsuda raised an eyebrow, "Do you mean...Watari?"
"How would he get up here so fast, Matsuda?" Aizawa asked him tauntingly. Matsuda bowed his head, "Well...it was just a... Hey!" He looked up at L, "Does that mean we're not the first people you've shown yourself to?"
L looked to the ceiling, "From what I remember, we've been friends since I was seven years old..." Everyone gasped a little, as he continued, "Actually, she's my best friend... I chose to contact her, and meet with her out of my own decisions... And emotions."
"She?" Matsuda's lips curved upward, "She doesn't have to hide from us! We're all friendly guys here!" Aizawa jabbed the younger officer in the ribs, making him bow his head and shut his mouth.
L looked into the other section of the room, peeking behind the wall, "Seriously, you can come out."
"Do they...bite?"
Matsuda started laughing, "That's so cute! We don't bite, come on out!" The other officers looked at him awkwardly, once again making him shut his mouth.
L turned back to the group, "She's been with me the whole time I've been investigating the Kira case. She's also helped me at some points. Whenever you were talking to me, you were, in a sense, also talking to her."
Soichiro's eyes widened, "I-I didn't know. Why didn't you tell us?"
L shrugged, "She's my best friend." he said solemnly. Hearing movement he turned to see Jade, herself step into the room sheepishly. She bowed slightly, "Sorry, everyone... My name's Jade..."
Matsuda took a step forward, "My name's Matsuda! Nice to meet you!" He stomped on in and opted to shake her hand. Ignoring this, L turned back to the other officers, "Let's not stand around talking. Come this way." He waved his arm over to the other section of the room, "Please turn off all cell phones, laptop computers, and any other transmission equipment and leave them on the table over there." He pointed to a small checkered table.
Aizawa stepped forward, "L! Do you think we'd leave our cell phones on and leak our conversation to the outside?"
Soichiro looked at Aizawa, "It's okay; do as he says."
Everyone began to place their things carefully on the table.
"I know he's been cautious from the start, but does he really trust us or not?" Matsuda asked, having released Jade's hand to join the others. Jade shook her hand in pain, looking to L for reassurance, who only chuckled softly at her.
"No," L replied, climbing onto a chair and sitting crouched over on it as usual, "I just hate it when cell phones ring while I'm talking." Jade pulled a small chair over by L, and took a seat watching Matsuda sit on the sofa with Soichiro and Mogi and offer her a smile. She awkwardly returned it.
"Just so we're clear from the beginning: do not write down anything I say here," L said, "Please just keep it in your head." He looked each of them over, until reaching forward to the tea set on the table. He carefully poured himself a cup of tea, and took a sip. Everyone watched him curiously, as he lowered the cup and gave it a funny look. He set the cup down, and began putting sugar cubes into it, two at a time. Everyone's eyes widened at the amount.
Matsuda looked the most surprised, "Um, L...?"
"From now on, don't call me L. Call me Ryuzaki, please. Just to be safe."
Matsuda nodded, "Okay, Ryuzaki, then. If Kira needs a name and a face to kill somebody, then wouldn't the number of deaths decrease if we altered news broadcasts about criminals?"
L stirred the tea, not taking his eyes off of it, "If we did that, then innocent people would die."
"Civilians?" Ukita repeated.
"Why?" Aizawa asked.
"Kira is childish and hates to lose," L replied.
"Childish and..." Matsuda started, as Soichiro finished for him, "...hates to lose?"
"Yes. I'm also childish and hate to lose," L admitted, "That's how I know." He lifted the teacup and passed it to Jade, "Try that, please."
"Isn't that...a lot of sugar?" Matsuda asked, watching as Jade took the test sip for L, her eyes lighting up from the sweetness. She passed it back to L, who took a long sip of it. He set the cup down, "Actually, it's the perfect amount..."
Forsaking the amount of sugar he used, Soichiro spoke up, "Ryuzaki... Could you explain a little better? About Kira, I mean?"
L sighed, "When I declared war against him on TV, Kira, who until then had only killed criminals, killed my stand-in without hesitation. Then, when I declared he was hiding in Kanto, Japan, he concentrated only on Japanese criminals, as if to say 'Yeah, so?'." He took another sip of tea, then set it down again, "He responds unflinchingly to any challenge with another challenge. What do you think someone like that would do if we censored the media to hide the criminals?"
Matsuda bowed his head, "He'd..."
"If you don't bring out the felons, I'll kill those who've committed small crimes, or even the innocent. I'm taking the whole world hostage. It's not my fault. You, who hide evil people from my judgement, you are evil." L wiggled his toes together, "That is Kira's mental process. Let's think of some other way to use the mass media."
"Like?" Aizawa questioned.
L put his hand on his chin, "How about something like this? "America angered at murder of FBI agents. Kira becomes known throughout the whole world, one thousand, five hundred agents from the world's leading nations enter Japan." That would be totally different then Kira's run in with the FBI agents. Everyone around him would seem like an enemy." He took his hand off his chin, "Kira, feeling cornered, would react in some way."
"T-that's interesting!" Ukita inquired.
"Even though there are actually only seven, I mean..eight," Aizawa remembered how L had mentioned Jade helping him, "people working on the case, one thousand, five hundred people... And unlike the FBI agents, they don't exist so they can't be killed.."
"That would work!" Ukita exclaimed.
"Okay, then, let's discuss my thoughts on the Kira case," L announced.
The officers all nodded, "Yes."
"Kira is working alone, "L said, placing his thumb on his bottom lip. "He was getting information from inside the investigation before."
"But...alone?" Aizawa repeated. "Why do you think that?"
"Wait, Aizawa," Soichiro told him, "Let's hear all of Ryuzaki's deductions, first."
"He needs a name and a face to kill," L confirmed. "Plus, he has some way of controlling the time of death and a person's actions before they die. Please keep those two things in mind..." Jade suddenly handed him a marker, which he opened, "...as you listen to what I say now." He reached down to the table, and with the marker, began drawing and writing small diagrams down. "December fourteenth: twelve FBI agents come to Japan. December nineteenth: Kira is obviously conducting some sort of test on prisoners, controlling their actions right before they die." He drew a line, connecting the two small diagrams. "So, somewhere in these five days, Kira noticed the FBI's presence, and felt threatened. Then, in order to get rid of the FBI agents, whose names and faces he didn't know, we can assume he had to conduct tests to find out to what extent he could control people's deaths. Then, on December twenty seventh...twenty three people died of heart attacks that we know of. These twenty three people were all wanted criminals, ex-cons, or people simply suspected of crimes. They are obviously quite different from Kira's previous targets."
"Definitely true," Soichiro agreed, nodding.
"So, in order to get rid of the FBI...Kira had to use people's sins who were relatively...light," Jade said quietly, as L continued to add onto the small diagrams. "He killed twenty three people..so that we couldn't determine just who he used..."
L nodded, "He probably only used a few of those people. There were eight days between the tests and when the results were implemented in order to allow the FBI agents to investigate more people and hide his own identity. So, Kira was definitely among the people that the FBI investigated between December fourteenth and December nineteenth." He put the marker down and picked up a stack of papers, "The information from the FBI, and other necessary data has been collected here." He put the papers back down. "Taking any of that information outside is forbidden, but—."
"Amazing!" Matsuda exclaimed, him and Mogi looking at some of the papers. "This is amazing! If we know this much, we'll be able to catch him, even with just us!"
"Let's break up into two groups," Aizawa suggested. "to retrace the FBI's steps and those of the heart attack victims."
"There aren't many people with information about the investigation, whom the FBI were investigating in the first five days," Matsuda continued.
Aizawa nodded twice, "Yeah."
"So, any questions?" L asked, everyone looking his way.
"Well then, Ryuzaki. Let me ask you one thing: You said just now that you hate to lose, but doesn't the fact that you've shown your face to us mean you're losing to Kira?" Soichiro asked.
L glanced at Jade, who only frowned slightly before he looked back at Soichiro, "Yes. That I've shown my face, and that twelve FBI agents were sacrificed, means I'm losing. But, I'll win in the end. This is the first time I've put my life on the line for a case."
Jade bowed her head, hating to hear that mentioned...
"We here, who are risking our lives..." L continued, "...Let's show them that the good guys always win." L looked at Jade, giving her a smile which she returned.
"Y-yes, that's right!" Mogi smiled.
"Justice will prevail!" Matsuda exclaimed happily.
"Let's do our best!" Ukita said.
"Let's do this, Ryuzaki!" Aizawa grinned.
"Okay, first off, in order to prove that Kira isn't among us I'd like to talk to each of you, one at a time," L told them. "Jade can keep you company while you wait your turn. And if you need anything, a drink perhaps, don't be afraid to politely ask her."
"So he didn't trust us after all," Aizawa said to the other officers.
"No, he's right," Soichiro said. " If Kira has access to information leaked from the inside, the chances are high that he's still here."
"That's right," Matsuda agreed. "If he were still here, he would be able to see Ryuzaki's face."
"Just this meeting puts his life on the line..." Aizawa said quietly, looking with the others to see L at the window with Jade standing next to him.
"What do you think, L?" she asked quietly, "I mean...Ryuzaki."
"When we're alone, feel free to call me L," he told her. "Just not with the officers, here."
She nodded, "Alright. So...what do you think?"
"All good up until now," he replied. "Just one...if there was just one more definite clue..."
