April 30th
12:30 pm
Seto Kaiba arrived outside the Hyatt Regency in a foul mood. The same thought had been whirling through his head ever since yesterday afternoon, when he had finally checked to see who had called him during the catastrophe and seen L's false name blinking on the screen.
The man who tried to kill my brother might be in that hotel room at this very second.
He knew that Light was the primary suspect. Matsuda had let it slip earlier. Seto could very well be about to enter a room with the man who had attempted to kill his brother.
The thought made him tighten his fists, imagining strangling whoever Kira might be.
"Ah, Kaiba-san," a voice said behind him. "Good afternoon."
Seto had to suppress a violent, angry shudder at the voice of Light Yagami. He turned stiffly and nodded at Light.
"Good afternoon," he said woodenly.
Light nodded back, and then moved to push the brown bangs from his eyes. It was rather eerie to look at him; just close enough to Seto's own looks to feel like he was looking into a fun house mirror.
"You don't look too good. Are you all right?" Light asked.
Seto's lips tightened.
"I'm fine."
Light didn't look convinced, but he shrugged, and fell into step with Seto as they entered the hotel lobby.
"Which number is it this time?" Light asked as they entered the elevator.
"Sixth floor. Room 602."
"Right," Light said, pushing the number for floor six. He laughed a little. "You remember easily. I get confused all the time."
Seto only grunted. He sent Light a sidelong glance as the elevator doors started to slide shut.
The college boy was looking at the elevator dials, half a smile on his face as though thinking about something vaguely amusing. He was shorter than Seto, perhaps by about three inches. For some reason, that made Seto feel a little calmer – he always liked being the tallest person in the room. He felt like it gave him a psychological advantage. Seto glanced up at the numbers changing slowly as the elevator went up, wishing that this ride would end already.
Not that it had ever helped against Yugi.
"So...how's Kaiba Corporation?" Light asked, out of the blue.
Seto took his eyes off the display and glanced at Light, a tad surprised, but unwilling to show it.
"Why do you care?" he asked.
Light shrugged.
"Just trying to make small talk."
"I don't do small talk."
Light laughed a little, but although it was a light-hearted sound, it still sent a chill down Seto's spine. He had no proof that Light was Kira. Hell, even L wasn't sure. But just knowing the possibility made Seto feel...trapped. Like there was some presence pressing in –
He caught a slight motion in the corner of his eye, and glanced into the elevator corner.. There was nothing. Just a shadow.
Just...a shadow...
"So...Kaiba Corporation?" Light said, almost hopeful to draw Seto into conversation. "You know, I've read a bit about it. Amazing that you switched its entire function and didn't lose anything in profits."
"The switch wasn't all fun and games," Seto snapped.
He stared at his shadow, and then at the corner of the elevator, for just a moment longer. Then he shook his head. He glanced at Light, who seemed disappointed that Seto wasn't interested in talking. How much longer was this damn elevator ride anyway? Seto sighed.
"Are you interested in business or something?" he asked.
"No. I'm going to college to be a police director."
"Heh. Like your dad, huh?"
Light nodded, smiling slightly.
"I wanted to do it since I was a kid."
Seto snorted. Again, that strange flicker out of the corner of his eye. He glanced into the elevator corner. When he glanced forward again, he thought he saw Light staring at him –
With a strange, steely glint in his eye.
But when Seto looked back, Light was just his normal, quiet self.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
"No," Seto said.
The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. Seto pushed forward, stepping out first. As he did so, he caught that strange flicker again, like a black feather – and then, a slight platinum sheen, for just a moment. For a second, he thought he could smell flowers.
He glanced behind him into the elevator. Light was stepping out, and he blinked at Seto's backward glance.
"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked. "You really don't look good."
"I'm fine," Seto snapped. "If you're going to be a police director, you'll have to get used to working without sleep too."
But his comment was only a mask, to hide what he had thought he had seen.
For a moment, he thought he had seen two shadows in the elevator, behind Light. One of them was nothing more than an impression.
The other, for a moment, was a strange, pale blue light...
April 30th
12:50 pm
Seto Kaiba was acting very strangely today.
L sucked on his lollipop in thought, looking out across the hotel suite. Matsuda was typing at a computer, trading quiet conversation with Aizawa on the other side of the table, who was writing up reports. Light sat at another computer, working on reviewing data sheets and scouring TV stations for signs or clues of Kira replying to the last message. Kaiba was supposed to be helping him, but every time Light made a comment, Kaiba only grunted, and stared at his own computer screen. He barely seemed to acknowledge Light's existence.
When Matsuda had to print something out, he had asked Seto to pull it off the printer for him, since he was closer. Kaiba had sent an icy glare across the room, and Matsuda had come to get the sheet himself.
There was almost a poison in his glances. It was definitely in his voice whenever he was forced to reply to someone. L thought he could hear Matsuda whispering something about Kaiba to Aizawa, who covered his mouth to hide his laugh. Soichiro had knocked Matsuda on the head with a rolled up newspaper and told him to get back to work.
But there was something else. Something more intriguing.
Every now and then, Kaiba's eyes would flicker to a corner of the room, his brow would furrow, and then he would look quickly away. Sometimes, his eyes flicked to the ground, at his own shadow, and sometimes he would even glanced behind him. He would then glance at the others as though to see if they had noticed, and look back at his screen. L always made sure to be examining his little bowl of hard candies very carefully whenever Kaiba looked towards him.
"Hey, Ryuzaki," Matsuda said, coming over to the couch with a few sheets of papers. "I ran those simulations you wanted."
"Thank you," L said, taking the papers from him.
But Matsuda lingered a little bit.
"Yes?" L asked, glancing up from the numbers and names.
Matsuda bit his lip for a moment. Then he looked back at Kaiba.
"Doesn't it seem like...Kaiba-san is acting strange?" he asked.
L glanced at Kaiba. The young man was typing away at his screen. His fingers paused for a moment, and L thought he said Kaiba's head turn slightly towards the corner of the room. Then the man shook his head, almost angrily, and turned back to the computer screen.
"Probably sleep deprivation," L said, shrugging. "I've seen the signs before. It's nothing to worry about."
Matsuda nodded slowly. Then he nodded a little more emphatically, and turned back to his own work, obviously convinced, as idiots often were. L, however, was not an idiot, and did not think this strange mannerisms came from sleep deprivation. He just didn't need Matsuda bringing things up and making it more difficult to complete his investigations.
He hadn't let go of the idea that Seto Kaiba could be Kira. He had the means. The intelligence. The only thing that didn't fit was the fact that he had given up the Death Note. L wasn't sure why Kira might do that. Perhaps to gain trust? And become a part of the task force? It was certainly a possibility. There were very few impossibilities in this investigation at this point.
L considered this for a moment. Then he turned to his own computer and started bringing up files on Seto Kaiba.
He was everywhere. Press releases, newspaper articles, magazine pages, Dueling forums – he was a difficult person to not find on the Internet. Among the business related articles that stretched back to nine years previous, there were even tabloid reports on him, suggesting that he owned secret labs learning to develop real life Duel Monsters, and that Kaiba Corporation was responsible for the world wide appears of monsters for a short period nearly seven years ago.
Huh. Hardly worldwide...I don't remember seeing any of these monsters.
The photographs of the so-called monsters were horribly blurry, as though they had been transposed and then recopied several times. He ignored the tabloids. And the several magazine articles naming him as Bachelor of the Year three times running. He did wonder, for a second though, if Kaiba even knew he had won that award. And what he thought about it. But it was irrelevant, although vaguely amusing to imagine.
He found the more important, personal information on another website, this one Dueling based. Most everyone knew that he was adopted, but no one could seem to find records of his original birth parents, and it was something of a hot debate on this particular forum. He had a younger brother named Mokuba Kaiba, who used to be the vice president of Kaiba Corp before he had stepped down a few years previously. The new vice-president, who had been instated rather quietly, was listed as...
"Noa Kaiba?" he said under his breath.
There were no records of another Kaiba in the Seto's family. He searched the name. There was a small news article, somewhat buried in the results. The article was almost fourteen years old, and it reported the death of Gozaburo Kaiba's son, Noa Kaiba, in a hit-and-run accident. The driver had not yet been found.
Noa Kaiba was dead fourteen years ago. And he was the vice-president of Kaiba Corporation.
L looked at Kaiba out from under his dark bangs. The young man was sending another glance into the corner of the room. His shoulder looked stiff.
What are you hiding, Seto Kaiba? L thought.
April 30th
3:10 pm
Against L's better judgment, he was out in public again. This time, he had a baseball cap pulled over his face, and a baseball sweater that was two sizes too big, but he was having a hard time walking with a straight back to complete the disguise.
There was a high school nestled near the heart of Domino City, and he was standing across the street from it, pretending to be texting as he leaned against a fence. According to all the reports he had read, this was where Mokuba Kaiba went to school.
When he heard the final bell ring, he glanced up. To his surprise, there wasn't a Kaiba Corporation limo waiting outside the high school. He would have assumed Kaiba would send a car for his brother.
Kids slowly started to pour out of the school. He could hear the shouts of kids to their friends to wait, the chatter of girls discussing where to stop after school, the constant beeping and jingling of people sending and receiving texts, and, of course, the tramp of feet as kids started heading in all directions. Still, no Kaiba limo. Had he gotten the wrong address.
"Oy! Mokuba! Will you wait for just a second?"
He glanced up from under the brim of his hat. Only about twenty squares down the sidewalk from him, a teenage boy with his black hair in a short ponytail slowed and came to a stop. It was definitely Mokuba Kaiba. L could already see the resemblance to his brother, in the young boy's sharpening features.
An American girl with cropped blond hair was jogging across the street to him.
"Geez, Moki! At least look across the street before you run!"
"Aw, stop being such a worrywort, Bex."
"Stop calling me that."
"Why? You call me Moki."
"At least show some consideration for Noa's feelings."
Mokuba winced apologetically, and they both looked across the street to another boy, about the same age as them, with short green hair. He was looking back and forth down the street, almost compulsively.
"It's clear, Noa," Mokuba shouted, hands cupped around his mouth.
The boy called Noa – could this really be Noa Kaiba? – frowned, and jogged across the street. His face was white as he reached them.
"Why doesn't it get any easier?" he said.
"Sorry," Mokuba said, rubbing the back of his neck.
The American girl rolled her eyes, and slid her hand into Noa's – she did it rather blatantly, L thought. Like she was trying to make people notice she was doing it. Noa held her hand back, but didn't really look at her.
"Anyway, Moki, you shouldn't be straining yourself," the girl said.
The trio started to walk down the sidewalk, coming towards L. He settled more firmly under his hat.
"Why? I feel fine," Mokuba said.
"I told you, Becca," Noa said. "Idiots bounce back fast."
"From nearly dying of a heart attack?" the girl said, looking furious. "You should be taking it easy! Why doesn't your brother send the car for you, anyway?"
"Oh, please, don't start that again," Mokuba groaned. "Nii-sama nearly insisted that I start taking the car back and forth."
They were passing by L now, ignoring him. Just the way he wanted it.
"Well, maybe you should be doing that!" the girl said. "For goodness sakes, you did almost die."
She lowered her voice for her next sentence, but L could just barely hear her.
"And, you know, what if he tries to do it again?"
Mokuba shrugged, bouncing as he walked. He turned midstep to walk backwards so he could look at the other two, who were, L noticed, still holding hands.
"Let 'im try," Mokuba said, with a fierce grin. "After all, I've got my ka now, don't I? I can take him!"
Their voices were starting to fade now, and they turned the corner.
"One ka is not going to protect you from him..."
"Geez, Rebecca, lay off; you act like you're my mother..."
L straightened up off the fence. He wasn't quite sure what he had expected to gain from this excursion, and what, if anything, he had actually gotten in the end.
Noa Kaiba looked very similar to the Noa Kaiba he had seen the in news article. But he was too young. Much too young. He should have been Kaiba's age by now. And then...there was something about Mokuba almost dying recently?
Of a heart attack?
L glanced down the street. He looked back to where the kids had gone. When he looked back down the street this time, he caught the barest glimpse of someone pushing off the street corner. The figure pushed his hands into his pockets, turned away, and walked away down the street.
But even from this distance, L could recognize the spiky hair of Yugi Mutou.
What was he doing here? L asked.
Possibilities and impossibilities whirled around in his head, and they showed no signs of stopping.
April 30th
6:30 pm
"Oy. Light."
Light didn't even look up from the sink, where he was passing his hands through the water, counting out the seconds.
"Light. I want an apple."
Light rolled his eyes, and shut off the tap. He looked into the large bathroom mirror, in which he could see the hulking form of Ryuk against the bathroom stalls. His head was starting to twitch strangely. Looked like an apple withdrawal was coming on.
"Liiight," Ryuk moaned.
Light flicked his eyes back to the mirror, looking at his own reflection.
"I should probably stop by the market on the way home," he said, as though talking to himself.
But Ryuk understood, and his grin grew wider – if that were even possible.
"Then hurry up, I need and apple."
But Light was deep in thought at this point, staring into his own eyes in the mirror.
Seto Kaiba had been acting...odd, today.
He glanced at Ryuk in the mirror. The CEO's eyes had kept flicking all around the room all day today. It might have been coincidence...but...
About half of the CEO's glances seemed to coincide with Ryuk's movements around the room.
There was no way that Kaiba could see Ryuk. Was there? He had touched a different Death Note. Come to think of it...if Kaiba had once had a Death Note, where was his Shinigami? Light himself had been able to touch that Death Note that Kaiba had given to L. And he hadn't seen a single sign of a Shinigami. What was Kaiba up to? Could he be the second Kira? He doubted it. The messages had come from someone with a much lower intelligence than Kaiba. Unless he was playing dumb to throw the scent off of himself? The possibilities were endless.
And why the sudden increase in enmity towards Light himself? It had felt like the CEO was going to rip his head off in that elevator.
Could Kaiba become an ally...or an enemy?
His fingers itched to write the man's name into his scrap of Death Note and be done with it. But he knew that would only increase suspicion towards himself. And what of this...Yugi Mutou? Light had looked into him. He was, in fact, a self-proclaimed expert on the supernatural. Could it be possible that Mutou knew something more about the Death Note? Had Kaiba shown it to him? Was Yugi a threat, or a potential ally? He would have to ask Ryuk if he knew anything about ancient Egypt, Mutou's area of expertise, when they got back to the safety and privacy of his room.
Something moved in the mirror.
"Well, it certainly took long enough to find you," said a smooth voice.
Light stiffened in spite of himself. He did not know the voice: a velvety, dark tone that seemed to seep into his soul like a poison. He glanced towards the door of the bathroom.
A young man was standing there, leaning against the frame with his arms folded, looking perfectly relaxed. Long white hair draped across his long black coat. Violet eyes looked out at him with the eerie, predatory gaze of both a cat and a snake.
"Hello?" Light said, molding his tone of voice and perfecting his confused mask. "I'm sorry. Do I know you?"
The boy smiled widely, his teeth glinting in the dark.
"No," he said simply. "No, you don't. But I know you...Kira."
Somewhere in his stomach, Light's emotions exploded, making him feel sick. But he showed none of it on the inside. He gave a somewhat nervous and confused laugh.
"I'm sorry?" he said. "You're calling me Kira? We've only just met."
The man smiled even wider, and then barked a laugh.
"Oh, you are good. I can see why L is having such trouble finding you. But then, dearest L can't see Shinigami, can he...?"
The violet eyes shifted over to, and rested firmly on, Ryuk. In spite of himself, Light glanced at Ryuk too.
To his shock, the Shinigami almost looked tense. His permanent grin hadn't changed, but there was something...nervous in the way his wings were twitching.
Light turned his eyes back to the white haired man.
"Who are you?" he said.
"Mm, hoping to use the mighty Death Note on me, are you? You needn't worry. I'm not about to sell you out. And besides. You couldn't kill me with that little thing anyway."
Light's fists clenched. He was getting nervous now, and angry, but he didn't want to admit it. Before he could talk, the man spoke first.
"I have a proposition for you. One that I think could benefit us both nicely."
Light's eyes narrowed.
"What if I refused?"
The man's smile widened.
"Let's not find out, shall we?"
Light didn't like the way this was going, but he also felt like he didn't have much of a choice. This presence...was odd. He disliked it – but didn't mind it at the same time.
"Fine," he said. "I'll hear you out. But what should I call you?"
The man chuckled.
"You may call me...Bakura. I've found I rather like the name."