DISCLAIMERS APPEAR BELOW

L left the table to clear his thoughts. Light was draining the last of his coffee when he came back.

"Hello again," said Light. "Do you understand jam now?"

L sat down. "Yes," he said. "As it happens, the mnemonic I was trying to remember was a coded message I left to myself. The increasingly difficult-to-recall mathematical tricks were intended to remind me not to overthink things."

Light thought about this.

"But you alre—"

"I know," said L. "Please, let's just move on."

"OK," said Light, still feeling quite magnanimous. "Shall we discuss how to kill the Joker instead?"

"Unless you have developed shinigami eyes in the last hour, I see little we have not discussed."

"As it happens, there is another way to get his name. A very simple method, in fact. But I'm sure you will veto it."

"Is it an effective method?"

Light smiled grandly. "It is typical of Kira. Which is to say, it is very effective, but completely amoral."

"I will hear you out."

"We have someone else take the shinigami eyes. They can identify him."

"I veto this idea," said L, gloomily.

"I had a feeling you would."

"Aside from the morality of forcing someone to shorten their lifespan, I am wary of any plan that involves revealing the Death Note to anyone. It is already a high-wire act to act as both Kira and L. Bringing more variables into that situation is astoundingly unwise."

"You're right. But I weighed that risk against the advantage of removing the Joker in one move, and I still found the idea compelling. Even if you don't like the idea, I think we should leave it open to our consideration later on."

"Risk is only the most obvious problem. The most serious and inescapable problem is ethical in nature. You are taking someone's life for reasons of convenience, not law, and there is nothing that could move me to agree with you on this."

Light's magnanimity was swiftly evaporating. "Then why did you make such a song and dance about it before? Why invite me to shoot him if you're not prepared to use the Death Note?"

"The Death Note was irrelevant," said L. "I gave you the option of killing him, and you chose not to. That was the correct choice."

"It really wasn't. We only made that error because neither of us realized how dangerous he was."

L seemed unimpressed. "I did realize, in fact. I am not in the habit of inviting you to kill people on the spur of the moment. In my opinion he is a player selected by the Management just as we are. He would strike me as a murderer even if I knew nothing about him."

Light's thoughts ground to a halt.

"Excuse me?" he said, when his mouth worked again. "He's in the game, and you didn't tell me this first?"

"No."

"Well," said Light. "This is all very familiar. I'm sure you have some bizarre elliptical reason for not telling me about this. Possibly relating to Shikigami."

"Not really," said L. "I just forgot."

...

"Sorry," L added. "I have quite a poor memory, sometimes."

"Yes," said Light distantly. "I have noticed this."

END OF EPISODE 21 (SAT MARCH 26 2011, 00:15 AM)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Death Note.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Batman.

It's Friday when I say it's Friday.

-Surreptitious Hurt/Comfort