Chapter Nine
Flickering Love
Dinner was interesting. If Light had to choose a word to describe the night, it would defiantly be interesting. Unexpected would be another word. Light could never have anticipated how the night would go.
At exactly fifteen minutes until six, Light had showed up at the Italian restaurant Le Sorelle in his black slacks and a red long-sleeve button-up shirt. He had a minor dilemma earlier whether or not he should where a tie, but since he was in a rush he decided to go with it, but standing here he felt overdressed.
This is exactly why Light hated social situations. The added anxiety over fitting into the expected social norms was one more emotion he did not need in his life. He was a bit early, but hopefully this would give him time to assess the location before that... man… arrived and poked and prodded at him.
Fate was once again not his friend as he walked in and discovered Ryuzaki was already there, standing near the maitre d's podium, waiting casually in his trademark blue jeans and white long-sleeve shirt.
Light was annoyed. Why had he been told to dress up when Ryuzaki made no effort at all? It didn't even look like he had tried to brush his hair. Ryuzaki noticed him and flashed him a grin.
"I thought you had said to dress nicely." Light grumbled.
"I said for you to wear something pretty. I said nothing about me dressing nicely. I need you to be up to dress code for this restaurant." Light looked around and confirmed that this was true. Women were in dresses and men were in business casual, at the least. Everyone but Ryuzaki.
"You're not up to code."
"I'm too cool to conform." Ryuzaki teased before turning to the podium and checking in for the reservation he had made. The maitre d' at first had a look of disapproval and his clothes, but it quickly went away as he realized who Ryuzaki was. He led them personally to a table in a secluded part of the restaurant then left them alone to go over the menu.
After ordering drinks (scotch on the rocks of Light and a chocolate milkshake for Ryuzaki) Light glanced over the menu and felt extremely out of his element. The menu was all very Italian foods, and Light had never had any Italian before. He never found the time or had the will to allow himself the luxury of fancy foreign foods.
As a child he had imagined traveling the world and being more globalized and worldly when he grew up, but that was before…
Ryuzaki picked up on his distress and casually suggested a spaghetti dish, to which Light pretended to consider and accept, instead of showing how grateful he was from being saved from unknown territory. Then, much to Light's horror, when the waiter came over Ryuzaki ordered the entire dessert menu twice over ordering a main dish for himself.
The waiter left them in an uncomfortable silence that Ryuzaki wasted no time breaking. Light feared once the conversation started his personal life would be pried into again, but to his relief Ryuzaki instead launched them into a conversation about what became everything else.
Few topics were left untouched. International politics, causes of World War II, well known authors, the holy roman empire, etc. Light had no idea how they got to discussing Rome's rise and fall, but he revealed every minute of it. Dinner flew by, and beyond a few cringes at the amounts of sugar the raven-haired man consumed it was conflict free.
When the plates had long been cleared and the candles had melted down almost to their deaths the two men left. Light had tried to pay, by Ryuzaki denied him, saying his company alone was payment.
Light had a few drinks in him and felt loser then he had in awhile. The conversation, though intelligent and challenging, flowed easily between them as the two geniuses connected.
They went for a walk but eventually found the bright light and activity of Tokyo too much, so they wounded up in Ryuzaki's hotel suite again. They talked and talked late into the night until eventually they fell into a comfortable silence. Light felt very content, his mind blank.
Ryuzaki's mind was not as clear. He watched Light as the younger man leaned back in the couch with his eyes closed, the way he had watched him all night. He thought about the brilliant mind in front of him that was being wasted in a starting position in a sad little bookstore. He thought about the mystery of it all. How carefully composed the brunette was, and how few tells he could pull away from the man even though he had spent a whole evening face to face with the man. And he couldn't help but have it cross over his mind how beautiful Light was.
Light opened his eyes and caught Ryuzaki's gaze. The mindfuck of a man drew him in, and they found themselves getting closer and closer.
Then in a crazy moment of thoughtlessness Light closed the distance and kissed him.
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX xXxXxXx
Waking up was a groggy and terrible thing. It left L in a limbo between full consciousness and disorientation. L hated the feeling of an unclear mind that sleep bestowed on him when ever it managed to pull him into its clutches.
As he gained his bearings, he remembered last night's activities, which at first brought a smirk to his face, but it quickly faded into a scowl. Sleep was the bane of his existence. He fought it with all his might. And worse he had fallen asleep in the presence of another, leaving himself vulnerable.
Light was a mystery, unreliable. Damn him.
L rolled over quickly to see if he was still there but found himself alone on the bed. He sat up and looked around the room. His pants and shirt lay abandoned on the floor, thrown down there in the heat of the moment.
Signs of Light were no where to be seen. His clothes were gone, just like him. Frustrated, L got out of bed and searched for a clean pair of clothes.
Watari was already in the small kitchen area, preparing tea, when L walked out of the bedroom, fully dressed.
"Good morning Ryuzaki." Watari greeted him, using the establishes alias.
"Wallingford." L replied stiffly.
"He left early this morning. He didn't want to wake you."
L stayed silent.
Watari watched his charge calmly, pouring tea into cups. "You know you were never in any danger. Sleeping is human."
"I don't want to be human." L retorted.
"Sorry this inconveniences you, but you are. And you were never in any danger. We ran a background check, and he was clean. Everything checked out."
"It's not that hard to fake a clean file. I created many fake solid, well-connected aliases in my life, quite a few of which you yourself could not detect."
Watari gave him a stern look. "Not everyone is trying to deceive you."
"The majority of whom I meet are." L picked up a cup and took a sip.
"I feel like you can trust Light. Or don't trust him. But I think you could use the company. You rarely talk to anyone other then me casually." He worried.
"That's not true. My successors…"
"Teasing and insulting your successors doesn't count." Watari shot down L's self-defense.
They fell into a silence, L pouting childishly at Watari's words.
"You know… he hasn't been taking the medicine I gave him. Nor has he been 'taking it easy'." Watari broke the silence.
L nodded. He had also noticed.
"I'm not telling you to do anything. I just think it would be good for you."
L took another sip. He would consider Watari's advice later. Right now he felt like solving cases.
xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX x
Two days later L was on a roll. He had solved a record number of small cases, thanks to the return of his concentration. Several big cases had come his way, but none of them were interesting enough. They were cases that could be solved by lower detectives. They needed their time to shine. Besides, L didn't want to be entangled in another case if a better case appeared.
There was one case that L had been keeping an eye on. It had started with one killing. It was gory and sick; multiple stabbed wounds, all to the torso.
The victim had been a foreign national, which at first lead the investigation to believe it was a hate crime. The economy was rough, and job competition was fierce, making the usual Japanese stance towards foreign immigrants (which was bad to begin with) tenser. But that theory didn't fly with L because the victim was a teenager, a student, unemployed.
The victim, Luke Adams, had not been mugged. His wallet and ID were found next to the body; his backpack at the entrance of the alley where his body was found. It was assumed it had be dropped there in the victim's attempt to get away.
Another killing occurred on the opposite side of town several days later. This one also happened at night and the victim had the same injuries. Multiple stab wounds, enough to disfigure the torso, identical to the first. This victim was a Japanese national. Izaya Monoke, a twenty-two year old NEET. It appeared he had been on an outside on a food run. A grocery bag full of ramen and junk food was dropped next to the body, the receipt in his back pocket. The food had been trampled, by either the killer or the NEET.
The third killing had officially gotten L's interest. This victim was a middle-aged woman. Gouki Anahara, a mother of two and wife. She had been returning from a night out with friends when she was killed. Same injuries as the first two. Once again no known connections between this victim and the previous ones.
Looks like Tokyo had a new serial killer on its hands.
L decided to take the case on. He sent Watari to the NPA and was about to have a private meeting with the lead detectives on the case. Via computer, of course. Only an extreme case would make him reveal his face. A situation that has yet to happen.
From the camera installed in the meeting room Watari had secured L watched his disguised companion and several Japanese men entered.
Watari place the laptop on the table, facing the men now sitting on chairs and a couch, and opened it up revealing a white screen void of anything but his trademark ornate L.
"Chief Aizawa, Deputy Matsuda. Detectives Mogi, Ide and Ukita. Welcome." L's voice came out of the laptop in a computerized voice. "I am briefed with the basics of the case. Please tell me any important information your team has uncovered."
"Well," Deputy Matsuda began, "All the victims died within day of each other, one on a weekend, the others weekdays. All attacks happened at night in areas close the victims' home. The times of night vary, but within the time span of 11:00 pm to 3:00 am. All had stab wounds to the torso, mainly in the chest area. The number of stab wounds for each victim is undeterminable as the bodies had… had been severely mu-mutilated."
The deputy had a troubled face in. It was obviously he was sickened by the fact that a human could do this top another. There was something to his face that showed this was not the first time dealing with a case like this. Good. Since he is deputy he can probably suck it up and not get too emotional.
Matsuda continued. "We have come to the conclusion that all the attacks were done by the same person using the same or a similar weapon. A serial killer.."
"I have already come to that conclusion," L interrupted, "And I believe the murderer will strike again. Do you have any suspects?"
"No. We have no real suspects. We found no one connected to all the victims so far, and beyond that there has been no witnesses of any of the attacks or of any suspicious figures in the areas before, during, and after the attacks, beyond claims of seeing Kira, but that is no more useful then a demon sighting." Aizawa said.
"Kira?" L questioned.
"He is kind of an urban legend in Tokyo these days. We have been receiving tips and evidence from a mysterious source for the past few years that has helped use solve quite a few cases. People say Kira is behind it, a guardian angel of sorts the people say that walks the streets and keeps the public safe. We get Kira sightings reported all the time, most of which end up inconclusive or a case of mistaken identity."
"Interesting..." L lied. He could care less about a small fry vigilante at the moment, but he took the information and stored it in his mind in case he needed it for later. "Have you identified the murder weapon?"
"Not yet. We know it is a knife, roughly ten inches long. From what we can tell it is not a jagged blade, or a special knife at all. All the stab wounds are similar, but we do not know if it is all done by the same blade. No weapons have been discovered dumped anywhere near the attack areas."
"Send me all the reports and information you have. I believe I may be able to identify it before our next meeting. In the mean time, keep looking for a connection between the victims, and look into their backgrounds. They may have been chosen randomly, but I have a feeling they were all each chosen for a reason." L concluded. "I also suggest you increase police presence on the streets. We can't anticipate where the next attack will happen, but I know it will be soon and I am certain it will happen again."
Thank you for reading my latest chapter and my story as a whole so far! I'm sorry it has been so long since my last update. Life, you know. Started college, moved to a dorm, got a roommate, and have early classes.
That, and my classic having trouble writing 'happy'. Don't fret; this story is still in my heart and my dreams, and soon to be on paper. Microsoft word. Whatever. And it has an ending. I just have to work my way there.
And a reminder, this story is rated M for the dark themes and violent stuff. Yeah.
Did you know I once shot an elephant in my pajamas? How he got in them, I'll never know.
