Title: Silent Consonant

By: Dr. Kim-chan

Author's Note: So. Chapters 46 through 53 covered a little less than a week, including the Yotsuba tryouts. That said, this one will cover the day before Beyond's trial—which we'll finally get to next chapter. Sorry if things have been going at a snail's pace, but I wanted to adequately set up the next few bombshells. And they'll be big'uns.

Speaking of which, for those still confused by the Yotsuba case, it basically boils down to this: all of Yotsuba's recent "bad luck" (the factory accident, Yotsuba's failed banks in Kansai, etc.) was an elaborate ruse to build up funds and create future blackmail fodder, with the help of Tamai and Shoriyado. To both maximize their profits and hide them, the embezzlers pooled the stolen money into illegal investments handled by Ginzo Kaneboshi (who had a small role in canon). The embezzlers' most likely plan, as L explained in Chapter 52, is to drive down Yotsuba's net worth so they can take over, getting rid of their rivals and the president in the process.

Of course, that depends on whether they can get away with it…


"Hi, Light-kun! It's Misa! I wanted to call and apologize for cutting our date short; Suzuki-san wanted to make sure I was ready for the second round of tryouts. I won't hear anything until tomorrow, though, so wish me luck! Anyway, you were so nice to show me around town, I wanted to return the favor and invite you out somewhere. I wasn't sure if Harajuku was your kind of place, though, soooo…Aoyama, maybe? Or Roppongi. Anyway, call me back and let me know. Bye!

"…To replay this message, please press 2. To save it, press 3. To erase this message, press 4…"

Heaving a deep sigh, Light hung up his cell phone without choosing any option. On the other side of the table, Saotome Ishigawa and Kiyomi Takada—the same two acquaintances Matsuda frequently spotted hanging around Light—looked up and raised one eyebrow each…

Not so much because of Light's sigh, but because they heard the cheery blonde's message all the way through the receiver.

"Woah, woah, wait a minute…'Misa'?! As in 'Misa-Misa'? Like 'THE Misa Amane' Misa?"

Takada smirked as she delicately picked at her spinach-and-strawberry salad with a fork.

"Isn't she that actress from those lipbalm commercials?"

"Hel-lo? Actress and model. And she used to live in Osaka, but she just moved here over a week ago," Ishigawa muttered between sips of lemon soda.

"How do you know all of this?"

"It was in this week's issue of Eighteen magazine."

"Which only makes me more surprised Light's dating her and not you."

"I wouldn't say we're dating, exactly."

"…'I just wanted to call to apologize for cutting our date short'? Sure sounds like a relationship to me…unless this is some sort of fling, and we all know Light Yagami doesn't go around having flings with famous models."

Light wrestled to find the appropriate words for a rebuttal, but ultimately settled for burying his nose further between pages.

If it wasn't Misa's insistence on pursuing something serious mere days after they met, it was the way Takada played mind games and skirted around the issue altogether. Granted he appreciated her refreshing intellect, but sometimes her motives and actions didn't quite match up, a perfect example being her growing reputation as 'Queen of To-Oh'. She'd swear to anyone—up and down, every day—that she despised such a glib title, and yet she never missed an occasion to flaunt her etiquette and grace...etiquette and grace that tended to slip when people didn't meet her standards.

He wasn't asking for ribaldry, for goodness' sakes. He was asking for genuineness.

Not that he'd been getting much of it anywhere else lately…

"…Besides, you should be more concerned about this trial. I heard on the news that they're allowing that murderer to be in the courtroom."

"It's almost kind of funny, isn't it?" Ishigawa mused, earning another discrete eye-roll from Takada. "You come to To-Oh to study law, but you end up being the star witness in what may be the first and only Interpol-based trial to be held in Japan—and it'll be televised globally!"

"Not much to be concerned about," Light said breezily, much to Ishigawa's disappointment. "I just tell them what happened. Nothing less than the truth."

"'Nothing less than the truth'…spoken like a true student of Professor Teguri."

Riiiing.

"That's probably Amane now!"

Light shot yet another glare at Ishigawa and looked down at the display screen.

Unknown number.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time Ishigawa was wrong.


"And it hasn't shown up on your computer…? Has there been any mention of it in the SIS-L's records? I see…well, it's pretty much the same with us; nothing too notable except for the countdown clock and some missing disk space…no, just our computers. So far Matt hasn't seen anything to suggest it's a trace program, but we restricted network access just in case. L probably already knows about it, but continue monitoring the situation yourself and inform us if there's any change."

Near hung up the phone but kept it cradled in his hand, apparently still in deep thought. On the other side of the hotel room Matt was in the exact same place, doing what he'd been doing for the past several hours: lying on his stomach on one of the twin beds, typing furiously at his laptop. At first Mello had been on his own laptop, helping Near pick up the slack with Twelve's secondary cases, but rarely had he seen Matt invest so much energy into a singular activity, and so he inadvertently found himself hovering over his friend's shoulder.

"Interesting," Near said. "It's showing up on the Los Angeles Branch's computers, but not the Japan Branch's; they weren't even aware of it until the FBI contacted them last night."

"That narrows it down, though," Matt said, cracking his knuckles. "So this clock thing must be associated with a file or a set of files both we and the Los Angeles Branch SIS-L have in our computers."

"Well, that rules out the elite project logs," Mello muttered. "No way Watari would leave anything like that lying around."

"But Beyond was able to make at least one copy of the whole folder. What if he sent them to the SIS-L?"

"Unlikely," Near dismissed. "If this is the same data L had Aiber and Wedy infiltrate Wammy's House for, I doubt Beyond would disseminate it so carelessly. All his actions so far seem to suggest the elite logs and what they entail is the center of his dispute with L and Watari, and anyone else becomes involved at their own risk, or his own discretion."

"Well, obviously he wants to involve us—but how are we supposed to figure out what he wants to tell us if he won't give us all the clues? It probably won't even matter in a few days."

Matt furrowed his brows. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that considering the mess he caused this time, he'd be lucky to get the same sentence he got for the Wara Ningyo Murders! Even if half of what's been going on wasn't actually his fault, he's still a previously convicted murderer who escaped from prison, kidnapped Light, interfered with a worldwide investigation, and tried to kill L at Tsukiji in front of multiple witnesses. He's already as good as dead to Interpol."

"I highly doubt Beyond won't go so easily unless this ends on his terms," Near muttered. "As L said, it was obvious his surrender in Los Angeles was a come-on. Next he gives Watari just enough information to lead him to believe we're all here in Japan, then makes up a story that he killed L and is holding Misora, Rester, Bullook, and Loud hostage, and when Watari calls his bluff and pushes Interpol to finalize the trial, he stops cooperating altogether. The way it appears, these next few days are probably a holding pattern until he can enact the next phase of his plan."

"And how exactly can he enact anything if he's in the SIS-L's custody?"

"I don't know…but I'm sure that what happens next depends just as much on Twelve as it does on Beyond."


In spite of the luxury and full-body stimulation literally beaming at Takahashi through the windshield, he released a deep exhale, squeezed his luxury sedan into a precious parking spot, and wished he was back at the spokesmodel consultation, arguing over pretty girls.

Not that he'd gotten much say in whose name Yotsuba was now poised to announce tomorrow; his department wouldn't need the help of this new marketing campaign. Like the good construction work he purportedly prided himself on, the Homes and Material Planning Division had been holding itself up pretty well ever since Takahashi took over for—geez, the company was so damn old, which one?—the fifth or sixth man to hold his position. All he had to do was watch the numbers, delegate, and pretend to be smart.

That'd been the plan, anyway…

Takahashi grimaced again as he stepped out of his car to cross one of the frenzied sidewalks symptomatic of Ikebukuro. Just as how Namikawa preferred Ginza to while away his spare time in, Takahashi simply left Tokyo altogether, escaping to the ease of Yokohama or the surf of southern Japan. He probably wasn't the brightest one in the boardroom, but even he was repelled by the 'younger' districts—Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro. There were sumptuous places hidden anywhere if one looked carefully enough, but that wasn't the point.

One unassuming lobby, a mirrored elevator, and three floors up later, the flustered executive was welcomed into a dimly-lit lounge with décor that clung desperately to the kitsch of America's Roaring Twenties, complete with a low-hanging cloud of cigarette smoke. Foreign ladies darted in and out between booths and tables, serving drinks that cost more per glass than a designer watch.

And who else was in the booth farthest from the bar, the table already cluttered with three glasses and two bottles?

"How the hell did you two get here so fast?" Takahashi growled, scooting into the booth next to Higuchi.

"We left before you did, remember?" Hatori scoffed.

"I know that! But expressway traffic was terrible getting over here. I had to swing around part of Bunkyo."

"'Expressway' doesn't always mean 'fastest way'."

As he reached for a glass with burgundy-brown liquid in it, Higuchi subtly craned his head around to make sure that the neighboring booth was still empty, then aimed a hard, sidelong glance at his hapless associate.

"Speaking of taking stupid shortcuts…"

Before Higuchi could rip into him, Takahashi started sputtering out a defense.

"All right! So I forgot to rewrite a couple of the accounts-receivable files from last year! We're already behind on sending in our taxes as it is! Shimura kept rushing me!"

"Of all the times for you to be worried about proper tax procedure. Besides, you had at least four months to rewrite the damn things."

"All the other documents were fine; it was just those two I missed! Besides, it's not like nobody important saw it. One of the new interns in accounting spotted the error, and he reported it directly to his superior. All we had to do was make up some excuse, tell him to send it back, erase any other copy he made so there wouldn't be any 'mistakes' with the taxes, and wait until we gave him the 'correct' files. And since we're busy with this model thing, I got plenty of time to stall."

"Now where have we heard that before…?" Hatori mumbled. "Oh right: four years ago, at the end of 2001's fiscal year."

Takahashi scratched at the stubble on his chin, subconsciously trying to hide his reddening cheeks. He put up with a lot, and he admitted he wasn't as savvy compared to everyone else involved in this, but he drew the line at being made fun of.

Especially by the likes of Arayoshi Hatori.

"I'm not gonna take that from the same guy who almost blew our cover with that whole disciplinary hearing mess—which wouldn't have happened in the first place if you hadn't been trying to cheat us out of our fair share!"

Now Hatori started to turn a shade of bright red, but before the sniping could turn into all-out fisticuffs, Higuchi finished off the last drop of alcohol in his glass.

"Neither one of you can count on getting lucky twice, especially since we're so close to sealing the deal with Takabe and Ishibashi," Higuchi chuckled. "Hell, even I gotta watch my back now. That's why we brought you two into this in the first place. This thing was pretty much running itself, but then certain…people got promoted."

For the first time since Takahashi entered the club, Higuchi's broad grin shrunk to a pained grimace, and neither he nor Hatori had to ask who he was thinking about in particular.

It didn't so much bother him that Namikawa was the youngest person to become a Yotsuba VP in over a decade, but it was how he'd done it. To rise up the ladder in corporate society, it often boiled down to who you knew, how many strings you pulled, how much you kept your head down and agreed with your superiors. But Namikawa was an entirely different breed. He disagreed just as much as he agreed, but he knew how to disagree with tact. He exuded intelligence, but never imposed it upon others.

All the more reason why he made a perfect scapegoat.

"I wish I was at the helm of this thing," Higuchi sighed, pouring himself another glass. "It'd feel all the sweeter, seeing his face when the news breaks: 'Yotsuba President Keigo Niiyama and Vice-President of Sales Reiji Namikawa Charged With Embezzlement and Fraud, Forced to Resign'."

He laughed out loud at the fantasy, but Hatori's face stayed sour.

"…Yeah, but only one of us can be the new president."

"Hey. At least there'll still be room on the board of directors."

(End Chapter 54)

Silent Extra: Taking a break from chapter titles. Let's talk about food now.

Usually when L appears with sweets, I try to draw inspiration from that particular chapter's events. Starting with…

-Chapter 4: Cherries. Though there's no shipping in the story, the idea of a late-night meeting at a hotel conjured up sensuality, something cherries represent (not to mention L's cherry-stem knotting).

-Chapter 6: Just tea with sugar. Something to keep him up while he read over Watari's thesis…

-Chapter 7: Beyond's coffee. Coffee is darker than tea, just as how Beyond's intentions tend to be darker than L's. I also had him use Raye's mug just to show his 'charming tactlessness'.

-Chapter 8: Chocolate-covered strawberries. To represent the partnership between Wedy and L. I've also been told they go great with champagne.

-Chapter 10: My personal favorite, inspired by reader Ithilelda; since L was in Italy it only made sense he'd get some authentic tiramisu.