Title: Silent Consonant
By: Dr. Kim-chan
Author's Note: (squeals with delight) I have cover art for my fanfiction! I'm so honored! Follow this link and give huge props to TheXWandererXWithin (ignore the weird way I wrote the address; FF.N acts weird when it comes to web addresses): http (colon) (backslash) (backslash) .com (backslash) albums (backslash) vv317 (backslash) ur-my-FAVE (backslash) (question mark) action (equal sign) view (ampersand...you know, that thing above the number "7") current (equal sign)
Oh, but that's not all! Apparently this story also has a theme song. Bonzai-Bunny mentioned the trailer song for the movie "Watchmen"-"The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning" by Smashing Pumpkins, so I found it and listened to it right away, and she's right: it DOES fit with the current mood of the story.
I'm also glad everyone's been trying so hard to solve the puzzles! Everyone always has such interesting theories. So what's the solution, you ask? Let's just put it this way: there's not always just one answer to a riddle. Don't worry, though; a full explanation will come up soon (not in this chapter, though. Sorry).
I'm so happy this story's inspiring and entertaining everyone in different ways; it's all the more motivation to continue.
Note: Corrected mistake in Chapter 24; I accidentally called the would-be SPK agents by their false names instead of their real names. (head slam on desk) I keep forgetting that…
Light looked away from his computer monitor as he heard a soft knock on the door.
He stood up and walked over to open the door, and as he expected, on the other side there was his mother with a small box in her arms.
"A couple of classmates of yours came by to deliver some cards and letters from your homeroom—Miko Higashi and Yumiko Hoshino? And your teacher also sent you your homework. There were some letters for you in the mailbox, too."
"Oh," Light muttered, recognizing the names. Miko was one of the class representatives, a bit domineering, while Yumiko was more or less Miko's timid shadow. Without another word, he took the box and set it on the foot of the bed.
"Do you need anything, dear?" Sachiko asked.
"No, Mom. I'm fine."
She lingered in the doorway for a while, but finally she closed the door and continued about her household duties.
Considering that her son had been kidnapped by a notorious serial killer, Sachiko's readjustment to daily life was remarkable, even though she broke all pretense of strength and sobbed the moment Soichiro came through the front door with Light in tow (Sayu's own reaction being more or less the same). It had been the middle of the week, and Light had felt more than ready to return to school immediately, but both his father and the school authorities agreed that Light would be given a week's reprieve, including the upcoming holiday season, before he went back. As long as Light finished all the work he'd missed and caught up on studying for his college entrance exams, it would be as if he'd never been gone in the first place.
But it wasn't as if Light could relax entirely.
Even in the safety of his own home, he still felt Beyond looming over his shoulder, his strawberry-jam breath lingering in his nostrils.
But even more pressing than that, Light knew a greater conspiracy surrounded all of this. Everything felt disturbing about this, even the mere fact that Beyond had made such detailed plans which implied that L would soon need to be rescued. Rescued from what, though, and why, he didn't say.
Beyond's outburst at the Tsukiji fish market.
The fact that L had indeed disappeared of his own volition.
Watari's nonchalant attitude during the interrogation.
And then there was Naomi Misora.
The second their gazes met at the NPA headquarters, Light could tell she felt the same way about the outcome of the investigation. Why did L call upon her again…to infiltrate the very same group that had been looking for him, no less?
The urge to go to her hotel one more time and get some answers from her personally had been growing stronger and stronger, but Sachiko, already feeling guilt over sending him on an errand alone the afternoon he'd been taken, kept watch over him like a hawk, and any friend he called upon would be a brown-nosing hindrance. He also knew time was running out; soon Naomi and Raye would be going back to Los Angeles.
Then there was Beyond himself. If Light went to Naomi, would it be considered a breach of trust? If so, Light risked more than a mere bump on the head.
Trying to clear his head, Light sat on the bed and began sorting through the box's contents. He took out the homework and set it aside, wanting to go through the letters first.
"Haruka…Ryunosuke…Hitomi…"
He stopped.
There was one envelope haphazardly decorated with a red border. At the center, in equally messy kana, was written the name "Rue Ryuuzaki".
Light picked up the envelope, tore into it, and took out the letter. All the words were written in an impeccable combination of kanji, hiragana, and katakana—in both red and black pen. Very carefully he read the contents:
Hello Light,
Glad to hear you're back at home. Winning basketball games in gym class hasn't been the same without you. English has been hard, too; when you come back, you'll have to help me translate a few poems. Someone told me a rumor that you aren't coming back, but I know that's not true; you've been talking about going to To-Oh forever. You're graduating in March with the rest of us!
Hope to see you back,
Rue
Upon first reading, it looked like a normal, chummy letter from a school friend—albeit an oddly colored letter—but Light immediately knew his life had gotten much more complicated all over again.
For one thing, while some words had been written in black, others had been written in red, such as "gym", "English", and "home". But even this was a front. Recalling what Beyond told him, Light reread the letter until he picked out what was really being highlighted.
"Katsu", to win. "Shi", poem. "Oshiete", to tell. "Ni", a preposition meaning "in". "Sangatsu", the month of March.
But even this was misleading. The Japanese language abounded with homonyms—words that sounded alike but meant different things, and Beyond had known this all too well, using it fully to his advantage in his elaborate plans. Given that, then upon reading the letter for the third time, the words really said:
"Katsu", a word for "scorpion". "Shi", death. "Ni", two. "San" separated from "gatsu", which in that context meant three, and "gatsu" itself being represented by the symbol for "moon", which was Light's name in writing. Only the meaning of "oshiete" remained intact.
All together: "The scorpion is dying. Tell two, and then the three, Light."
Light froze.
So L's life really was in danger.
But why? Why was all of this happening?
Light folded up the letter, put it back in the envelope, and strategically placed it between two books on a shelf. He knew what he was supposed to do next; Beyond had given him a whole page's worth of computer code in order to access all the relevant data to send back and forth between the necessary parties, and he was still going to go through with it, but much like Naomi and her circumstances with L, he'd had enough of merely being used. If someone as powerful as L was in trouble, Light was already in over his head anyway, and damn the circumstances. He wanted to know what was going on.
And he had an idea for how he'd find out.
The deafening 'click-clack' of fingers furiously hitting the keys of a keyboard filled the room as Carter and Loud re-entered. He was by no means slothful, but this was the most active thing anyone had seen Matt do in days, and one look at Bullook's hardened face only further deepened their suspicions.
"What's going on?"
Near, now standing up due to Matt having taken his chair, turned around, the ever-present index finger in a front lock of white hair. Mello also turned, but instead of answering the question, he simply marched up to Loud and retrieved the cache of chocolate bars he'd been sent out to retrieve in the first place.
"About an hour ago, we received an e-mail from Beyond Birthday—at least, that's what it looks like. There's no indication of who the sender is or where it came from," Near explained frankly, though the reaction he got was substantially less than calm. "Matt's been trying to trace the source for a while…"
"And I'm not getting anything," the gamer interrupted. "It keeps saying something about a server error."
"…I expected as much," Near muttered. "If nothing else, information warfare seems to be Beyond's greatest strength. But it's enough that we know Beyond's in Japan—or was. I think the more useful thing we can do right now is to try and figure out what the clue means. Besides, it's more likely he used another computer in the building as a proxy. Loud, please check on that."
"I told you that thirty minutes ago," Mello growled.
As the raven-haired CIA agent left the office again, Matt's typing slowed as he closed out a few windows and brought the text of the e-mail back into full view. Mello slid his chair over to the computer next to him and, in virtually no time at all, accessed the video of L's interview with Beyond four years ago.
"Wait," Carter protested. "How did you know the e-mail was from Beyond?"
"For one thing, Beyond would be the only one who'd be able to hack into our computers like this. And then there's the video me and Bullook got from the prison in Corcoran," Mello said. "At the end of the video, Beyond says to L, '12 and 13 make 25. One is missing. Twelve knows why'. In the e-mail, there's a sentence that says, 'Follow Thirteen, and do not repeat the mistakes of Twelve, or else there will only be twenty-two left.'"
"So…he's talking about us, right?" Matt asked. "'The harvest virgin, the archer, and another water-bearer'?"
"In astrological terms, yes," Near said. "I am a Virgo, I suppose the water-bearer is you—an Aquarius—and Mello is the archer, a Sagittarius."
"So the scorpion—"
"Is probably L."
"And the bull?"
"That would be Watari, I guess."
"So who's the other water-bearer?"
Amid the deep discussion, Bullook noticed that no one was touching on the one question they should have been asking, so she did it herself.
"Wait a minute. Beyond hacked our database, but none of you seem the least bit concerned. Don't you think we should inform Watari about this before we take any further action—"
"No."
Near's stark answer took everyone by surprise, bringing down a crushing silence over the entire room.
Taking absolutely no notice of the awkwardness he'd just forced upon everyone, he scurried over to a corner of the room and dug through a box of toys until he found a few action figures he wanted to play with…or at least, that's how it seemed. He promptly sat on the floor and set up the figures in a particular arrangement as he launched into an explanation that justified his answer.
"This entire case began when L left France to settle this game with Beyond, and by the looks of it, L made sure to carefully follow all of Beyond's instructions, even going so far as to leave Watari behind, which in itself is something we should take note of," Near began, putting two of the of action figures in a spot by themselves. "L is someone who would do things his own way, regardless of the situation, and if L himself felt it necessary to tread lightly with Beyond, alerting Watari to this might jeopardize all of us. And obviously, Beyond has already proved he has the means to obtain sensitive data, not to mention there's something about this that only he knows."
He put six more action figures opposite the first two.
"I also think this is a personal challenge, much like the one he issued to L, so I think we're better off if we treat it as such. The only thing we'd accomplish by telling Watari is an attempt to pinpoint Beyond's location, and even that might be useless."
"Useless?"
"'There are three of you now, but there will soon be four'," Near said, moving one of the first two figures over to the other six. "It sounds like he's already made up his mind to come here."
"You guys are supposed to protect us anyway, right?" Mello cut in peevishly, garnering a hard stare from Carter. "Just do your jobs."
"…So what do you want us to do?" Bullook asked, finally relenting.
"Nothing yet. As it so happens, Naomi Misora and Raye Penber are also coming back, and we're expecting Watari to contact us, since he wants them protected until Beyond's captured. We can use that opportunity to set up a stakeout around LAX and the rest of the city."
As Near rearranged his toys on the floor and began fine-tuning their plan of action, Mello rested his crossed arms on the desk and stared blankly at the computer screen. Either Near was just that single-minded or he already knew and simply hadn't wanted to say it out loud, but as far as Mello was concerned there was another good reason Watari was better off not knowing about the e-mail.
In all the years he'd known and admired him, Mello never knew L to suffer from any type of nervous breakdown. Hundreds of cases, and L never gave up. Even amid the difficulty of the Los Angeles BB Murder Cases, he rose up to the challenge with the help of Naomi Misora.
And why now, of all times, were they suddenly being given the responsibility of replacing him?
Was that what Beyond meant?
Safely under the dark shadow of his kingdom, the bull will soon sting the scorpion…
"A project?"
Naomi nodded…but very slowly, almost as if she herself didn't believe it.
"L is basically Watari's attempt at making the world into some sort of crime-free utopia. But Watari knew he had to insure him if worse came to worse, so he used an orphanage he founded to train backups. That's what Beyond was—someone meant to take L's place. But after the death of the first one, A, he didn't want any part of it, so he left. So far, L's been Watari's only success."
"Then the Wara Ningyo Murders were just two people settling a grudge."
"…Yeah," Naomi said, noting Raye's slight disgust at how light that explanation made the tragedy seem. "That's what it was at first, anyway."
"'At first'?"
"After Beyond was put in prison, L visited him, and Beyond told him that he had wanted to prove something else with the murders. He wanted L to know that there was more to A's death and more to this project…a conspiracy, basically."
"Then Beyond breaks out, and L suddenly comes back to Los Angeles without telling Watari? But couldn't this have been a trick, or Beyond's own delusions?"
"No. Beyond's smarter than that, for one thing. Also, when L came to Los Angeles, the first thing L did was meet with me. Beyond had told him he could ask for my help. One of the clues sent us to UCLA, and there we found a thesis Watari had written and published some time ago, about making an elite that could change the world for the better. I knew that thesis wasn't fake; I saw it for myself."
After pacing for a while, Naomi sat down at the foot of the bed.
"Then they both left, and I didn't hear anything until L showed up here. Whatever he found out, he was upset about it, but…now that I think back, I don't think he wanted to believe it. That was why he did what he did. But…"
Her voice dropped down to a whisper tinged with emotion, which Raye knew Naomi seldom did.
"Believe what?"
She looked down at the floor.
"…It didn't say any of this in the thesis, so whatever else L found after he left Los Angeles would tell the whole story, but I could tell Watari had a clear idea of what the elite was supposed to do. After Beyond's murders, apparently Watari started having second thoughts about L, and…"
Her face froze completely.
"He thinks L should be terminated."
"Terminated?"
"…Killed."
"I think that's everything."
Raye looked up at Naomi, who was in one corner of their hotel room, zipping up the last piece of luggage. He still was in a state of disbelief, but truly, was there any other reason any of this was happening? And he knew Naomi was a sensible person; she couldn't have made any of that up if she tried.
But the troubling possibility that this was all true only further cast Raye into doubt about what they could do. He despised the idea of someone being treated and disposed of like a failed experiment as much as anyone with even half a sense of morals, and technically, he was still a member of the SIS-L Los Angeles Branch, but to go against a man with the clout to mobilize Interpol and erase the world's greatest detective from existence…
Knock knock.
Naomi looked up, a bit startled (and vaguely reminded of the day L came to the hotel room), and then the sound repeated itself.
"I'll get it. It's probably someone from the SIS-L," she muttered, strolling over to the door and opening it.
For the second time, she was wrong.
She was looking face-to-face at Light Yagami.
(End Chapter 25)
Author's After Note: Before anyone screams "OC", that'll probably be the last time Miko Higashi and Yumiko Hoshino will be mentioned. Actually, their names were vital clues…not for Light, but for you guys.
Ignore the "-ko" suffix, since that's a basic suffix that often goes at the end of girls' names and was mainly meant to throw you off. Then you have "Mi" and "Yumi", along with their last names. "Mi" comes from "miru", a verb meaning "to look", and "Higashi" means "east". "Yumi", among many other things, can mean "to read", and the first part of the surname "Hoshino" means "stars".
So basically, you have "Look east" (to Los Angeles), and "Read the stars". Keep that in mind…