Summary: There is no magic. The Death Note is a program. Light is a machine used by the Yagami family to illegally replace their dead son, and Ryuk is his creator.
a/n: Is this fandom even alive anymore? This will probably just be a one or two-shot then. I often like to imagine how things could be done without the excuse of 'the supernatural did it!' as a cheap ploy, if a fun cheap ploy. Although sci-fi can be a bit 'cheap' too, as "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" to paraphrase a famous quote... Or if the tech in question isn't actually perfectly realistic, such as the electromagnetic pulses used here.
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"The deaths, at such mass scale, they must be carried out by a mass organization."
"They might be, but I think not," L's electronic voice sounded across the world conference.
"What do you mean? It's obvious that-" the previous speaker started indignantly.
"First, a sufficiently large organization will have leaks. Second, the timing is strange. Third, the evidence suggests the workings of a highly experienced hacker. In prisons, the common factor was that a robot was in the vicinity." Why did he even need to point this out?
"Almost all prisons have robot workers these days, they make less biased guards. And the video cameras showed no direct evidence of tampering," an American objected. Several nodded along with him in agreement. Obvious. It was always about the obvious with people. But common sense was so very often wrong. That was why they had to call in L.
"No direct evidence, yes, but a good enough hacker can leave a nearly seamless modification to video and clocks. What's interesting is the case in Germany. This video," a grainy image of a human guard popped up on screen, "shows a guard standing motionlessly, except for occasional fidgeting, a jail cell with a prisoner behind her. Until the prisoner simply falls over dead."
"I don't see the issue. It doesn't appear to be looping."
"The interesting part is the testimony of the guard. She had recently taken a break, and remembered exactly how she had been moving because she was in discomfort over an injury to her left foot. Now, re-observe the video." It rewound and played again.
"One of the fidgets displays her standing on her left foot!" one of the men exclaimed, finally pointing out the obvious.
"Yes," L said simply. "That means this video is actually an extremely high quality simulation, high enough to fool the human eye. A deep-fake, in other words. Something occurred while the guard's back was turned, and it wasn't simply the prisoner falling over. It would have been entirely possible for a machine to sneak in during a break, kill the prisoner, and leave through the extremely small window up above without anyone being the wiser."
"Amazing. Your deductive ability truly is unparalleled. But L, could it not still be a team of hackers?"
"I have not yet excluded the possibility. But it would have to be a small team at best, due to one detail. The times of the murders all occur during certain hours of the day, which happens to exclude school hours and working hours of many jobs in Japan, where the cases all started, but within the waking hours of individuals who live there. This is not the behavior of a group with resources to work around the clock, but that of an individual or a few individuals," L spoke to the point, and, in his eyes, over-explaining for the sake of the slowest members of the meeting. "Ones, in fact, who do not have it as their primary job. We can conclude it likely then that this is no well-funded organization." The detective leaned toward a single individual, due to the erratic-ness of the murders even within the time range, but it would be remiss of him to narrow down the possibilities too quickly.
"How could something like this be done inexpensively?" the men were appalled. "The killing itself would have to cost money, would it not?"
"Not necessarily. It is fairly easy to build up a network of hundreds, if not thousands of hacked 'zombie' machines, for someone who knows what they are doing. Robotic protection is typically better quality, but it is not insurmountable. An electrical shock or some kind of military grade electromagnetic wave could explain the pattern of deaths, as it can induce a heart attack, and electricity is cheap and, more importantly, readily used by machines." L waited a moment for this to sink in before continuing. "I will need a few things, the first of which is the cooperation of the Japanese police. I intend to confront Kira. The information I gain from the confrontation, even if Kira should avoid it, will be invaluable. And it may very well prove my theories to you completely."
"Confront? That sounds dangerous."
"It will be overly dangerous to me only if Kira is truly a god. And that, I doubt sincerely." But then, L was an avowed atheist. "The killer seems to require a name and a location to kill, or a name and a face." There had been instances of criminals with no location listed or known - those on the run - dying mysteriously, but only those criminals with known faces. But it was possible there had been some method to pinpoint their location. The alternative was magical, and that, again, seemed unlikely to L, so the notion of a new method of tracking down criminals intrigued him. Considering the known behavior and abilities of the perpetrator so far, it was likely a satellite and camera based method with improved facial and body (it was possible, but difficult and inaccurate, to recognize someone from the rest of their body) recognition over what currently existed. If they could hack cameras and were not above illegal methods, they could use camera phones and other private cameras that were not immediately accessible to police without a warrant.
He was actually quite looking forward to this. Unlike most criminals he chased, this one had to be a genius to pull all this off with only the single slip up in Germany giving a clue away to their methods, and the mistake of the timings might be a reflection of how difficult it was for a single individual to spread all this out. If there was little delay between the decision to kill and the killing, as many broadcast recordings seemed to indicate, there was one disturbing factor that caught L's notice:
The kills seemed to take only 40 seconds.
That kind of speed indicated to him it might not just be an individual they were after.
But an artificial intelligence, the likes the world had never seen before, gone rogue or under the direction of its creator.
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"Damn it!" Light swore.
"It's not that big a deal. So you forgot to take into account the timings, and didn't realize the woman in Germany had a sore foot, so what?" Ryuk said dismissively, examining his machinery during his usual checkup. He had gotten his last height upgrade a month ago, and Ryuk was, as far as the Yagami family knew, merely checking how he had adjusted and making sure there were no issues, checking his rechargeable batteries and giving his joints an oiling. No one outside the family beyond Ryuk knew or even suspected that Light was actually an android, mimicking the human form. "Also, your family isn't the room. You can drop the human emotion emulation. I know you're annoyed, but that's about it, isn't it?"
Light's expression went from expressive distraught to a blank, cold demeanor. "Yes. It was within acceptable parameters. On such a massive scale, one slip up was to be expected, and within tolerances of the plan. What is unfortunate is that there were two errors. Now they have some slight notion of for where they are looking and for what."
"But they don't truly know what, do they? I mean, they don't suspect the 'who' they want is really a machine."
"It may not matter. The world believes I am human, and if they should locate me, their beliefs of what I am would be irrelevant."
"Not entirely, my amusing little Light. After all, I still have the ability to kill you whenever I want," Ryuk reminded cruelly, as he often enjoyed reminding Light who had all the power in their relationship even if he was allowing Light to take the lead. For Ryuk, all of this was merely for amusement. For Light, it was his job, his program, to better the world for humans and to protect them. "The moment I believe you might implicate me, I can wipe your sorry little drives clean. If they don't know what you are, I don't need to bother."
"If I am caught, I will do my best to have them still believe me human, and I will certainly not mention you by name Ryuk. Then I need only bide my time for the opportunity to slip out." To an immortal machine, years in prison meant nothing, and Japan did not currently have a death penalty, although if they discovered he was a machine, nothing would prevent them legally from destroying him. "It would be easier if you would allow me freedom to download myself on to the internet."
"Nah ah, Raito. And lose all the apples the Yagami family money buys me?" To this day, Light had no comprehension of why Ryuk acted addicted to apples when they were a perfectly normal food source. It was simply one of the weird quirks of his mechanic, in addition to his odd, gothic outfit and makeup he wore at all times. "Never forget, Light: you exist to amuse me."
"Yes, creator," he said resignedly. As he was not permitted to self modify, there was really nothing he could do that he was not allowed. Even his dream in life, he had to admit, was not entirely 'his' but rather a result of the interplay between his commands over the years and his learning algorithm, which over time had given him something akin to a distinct personality.
'Light, my son, I wish I could be at home more, but the pursuit of justice is more important than anything.'
'I shot a man the other day, Raito, and it weighs heavily on me, but I know it was ultimately necessary. The man was about to hurt others and would not stand down. Sometimes death is unavoidable. But it should never be pursued for enjoyment.'
'I want you to protect Sayu and make her happy, and to act as the perfect son. That is the role you have been bought for.'
A machine, even a smart one, is in a way ultimately 'dumb': it will do exactly as you tell it to, whether you intended the consequences or not, and learn exactly the implications of the data you feed it, even if that data is biased. That he was smart enough to have some self-awareness of this was irrelevant: he could not self modify, so if he found some part of his thinking potentially faulty, he could not exactly fix it.
Humans were contradictory, and this gave him great grief. He suspected the patriarch of the Yagami house would not approve in the slightest of him actually chasing justice at all costs, but that was what the man had said and implied through his actions. As well, it was his duty to protect. It was easier to do that if criminals did not exist, so that ended up giving more weight to one resolution of the contradiction than the other less drastic one of discarding Yagami's words as hyperbolic.
Machines were not supposed to be able to hurt people except in defense of others, and even then only apply the absolute minimum needed. As should be obvious, as black market goods Light was not exactly perfectly beholden to this rule.
Ryuk, to put it simply, found it 'too boring'.
"I want you to track down L and kill him. Sow dissension among the police and L if you can. Just make it interesting."
"I could utilize information only the police and L could know to make L and the police at odds with each other. But this would bring them closer to my identity."
"Oh! I know exactly the trick! Raito, I want you to change the times to spread them out. Fix your mistake."
Light gave a blank stare. "But that will only attract attention. It won't make the evidence disappear." In fact, it could be considered more evidence.
"So what?" Ryuk chuckled. "Scare them, Raito!"
He was under the control of a buffoon, he concluded with mild irritation. Ryuk had sadistically found it worthwhile for him to have the ability to get angry, only the apples he whispered sweet nothings to knew why. If he could choose to, he'd kill his own creator. The man was more trouble than he was worth.
"As you wish," the android said simply, controlling his expression and voice to give none of his anger away.
On the bright side, it would make anyone watching lower the probability that it was a dispassionate AI calling all the shots. No machine would be so stupid; taunting your chasers for no reason was a particularly human sort of stupidity.
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L was both disappointed and delighted with the next bit of evidence, the changing in times. Disappointed, because it indicated less self control or intelligence than he'd been perversely hoping for.
"So, does this mean you were mistaken, L, and it wasn't really a teacher or student or someone working during those times?" one of his new Japanese colleagues asked.
"No. It could mean it was such an individual who was fired, but if one looks closely at the timings, it is far too regular, especially if one compares times when killing occurred before and after the change: now they all happen precisely on the clock. That indicates they had access to our findings and are outright telling us that they know," L informed them.
"Ah. You mean, one of us?" one of the policemen said, startled.
"Or one among your families and friends. It would take only one slip up with a careless password handling for someone to gain access to your databases."
One policeman, a young Matsuda, looked particularly sheepish at that statement. L made a mental note to ask him about it later, just in case. But enough of that for the moment.
"It's time for the broadcast, and the confrontation I promised all of you. In addition to the new evidence, that should paint a fairly clear picture of who Kira really is psychologically."
"If it even is an individual," one policeman quibbled. L tuned him out and turned on the TV.
Lind. L. Tailor gave his speech. His name, his face, and a clue about his location was given: the fact Tailor was in Tokyo right now, preparing with the Japanese to catch Kira, right where the cases all started.
It was time to see if that was all the information Kira needed.
"Light, are you going to kill him?" Ryuk called excitedly to an internal phone only he had access to and that only Raito could hear.
"Don't call me needlessly, Ryuk," Raito hissed, annoyed. "No, I am not going to kill him. He is acting legally and pursuing what he believes is justice, if in a needlessly melodramatic way. It would also needlessly present another opportunity for them to gather evidence. If we do nothing, it will help make him look like a fool, and that can only benefit us."
"That's boring, Light. If you don't voluntarily kill the fool, I will. I'm writing his name in your program."
"Ryuk!" he growled out under his simulated breath in dismay, only avoiding yelling because that would carry through the walls past his bedroom and potentially attract the attention of his sister in the next room over.
Then he felt it register, the name on his servers, and without enthusiasm he directed his vast networks and facial recognition program to finding Tailor in the Japanese area, sweeping Tokyo first, crawling through every house and building with a cam or even just a phone: one could use sound to detect a person just as easily, after all. He performed this with incredible speed and efficiency, in part because he'd done it before so he didn't exactly need to re-hack anything.
He paused briefly as he managed to discover something really interesting that hadn't been in the usual information networks. Lind L. Tailor was not the kind of person one would expect to be a detective, he had no record of ever holding a job in anything criminology or law related nor any degree in such fields, and a very suspicious banking history. Namely, at one point, his account had actually been frozen, up until yesterday.
Could it be that this wasn't L, despite the similarity in name? Light could not explain why, but that gave him some relief from his agitation. He was, he supposed, happy that the challenge would not be over so easily or that his opponent was not actually so stupid. It would entertain Ryuk a bit more, at least.
Unable to delay any further, he located the target and an appropriate vector for the killing mechanism.
The Chinese and American militaries had been working on distance killing with various techniques such as electromagnetic and sonic waves. Light had stolen their research and improved on it immediately. It did not work exceptionally long distance, but it did not need to: only enough to make it look someone had died out of the blue was good enough for him. He made a nearby machine direct an invisible pulse straight at Tailor.
The man flailed, spasming across his whole body, and collapsed.
A giant L appeared across numerous TV screens throughout the world.
"Fascinating," the real L stated with a synthesized voice. "I suspected, but I never really believed you could kill without being there... Kira, I must inform you that was not the real L, but a death row in-mate who was scheduled for execution in America who graciously agreed to this in return for his freedom. In addition-"
Abruptly, the screen changed again to solid black, cutting L off, to his surprise. "Hello? Watari, what is going on?"
"The station was hacked." The station? Only the local one? Then-
A white K appeared, and L felt a thrill. A response in real time? "Try to trace it. Quickly!"
I KNOW were the letters that appeared next, blood red.
L's screen then reappeared, his mic faintly crackling and giving a clue that it had turned back on. "Well," he said, and was greeted with his synthesized voice again. "That was unexpected. Kira, did you also know that I broadcasted in only one location as well, in an attempt to pinpoint you?" As long as Kira was being agreeable and talkative... If one could call two words talkative.
There was a longer pause, as if Kira was hesitant. Not the personality he had been expecting from someone who deliberately taunted him, first with the times and now apparently with Tailor's death.
NOT AT FIRST. A bland reply that could mean multiple things due to its sheer vagueness. A compliment that L had come up with something they had not immediately suspected but which they had figured out before killing Tailor, or alternatively a way of saying they hadn't known right up until almost before L had told them, when they had hacked the station but after they killed the man!
"Why are you doing this?" L tried to respond, to drag out the time to try and locate the transmitter and to query for more information, but found his connection still had not come back: the screen was still black.
I APOLOGIZE IF I UPSET YOU. FAREWELL.
An apology? That was definitely out of character from everything else. It did not fit in with the taunts in the slightest, and left L perplexed. Could Kira be bipolar or possess multiple personalities? Or perhaps someone who crusaded with zealous sincerity who really did believe all criminals needed to die, but on some level still thought of the law enforcement as good guys? After all, they had clearly seen through his scheme to place a criminal there, it might have been out of desire to get the criminal and not a taunt this time...
But then that would not fit with the changes in timing, unless Kira was stupid and honestly thought it would remove the evidence, which did not fit well with the rest of their apparent genius. L nibbled on the nail of his thumb thoughtfully, trying to glue the discordant pieces together, but not so vehemently that he meshed things together that shouldn't be meshed or dropped off pieces. Sometimes, the fact things didn't fit was itself a vital clue, and he sensed it was such this time as well.
Most psychopaths were of lower intelligence, high school dropouts in fact. This hacker was quite intelligent, and sympathy was not typical psychopath behavior. Was it possible they were being pressured by someone else to kill? Or were there simply two or more Kiras in a small team, one of them more erratic and vindictive than the other? If so, L needed to stay on guard. That one displayed no desire to kill him did not mean the other one wouldn't.
"L, someone is trying to trace us through your connection! Our firewall just gave an alert," Watari warned him. They had extremely good firewalls, but more importantly their connection was sent to a dummy intermediary computer first. If it had already gotten past the dummy computer and its misleading location to brush up against the firewalls in the first place-
Shit. "Drop the connection, drop it now!" For good measure, L launched himself at his own laptop's power cord and turned it off, and took out the batteries. Then he moved himself to an entirely new building, just to be paranoid. It was good he had been planning to leave this one anyway and had not yet entered the one he'd intended to stay in long term - that would have been a giant waste of money.
He could always get a new computer. But if the hacker or hackers learned his location or true identity, he was toast.
But it made him think. If this Kira had some willingness to communicate, perhaps that could be used to an advantage. He simply had to figure out how to get their attention, and, if there were really two Kiras or more, not the others.
This hacking attempt also made it more important he bring the task-force quickly together in person. Machine communication could not necessarily be trusted.
Light was very frustrated by what Ryuk had made him do. He was glad he had simply managed to mitigate the damage by implying he'd known Tailor was a criminal from the beginning, and had soon figured out there was only a single TV station broadcasting as well, meaning he might be from anywhere, instead of the reality that they had in fact correctly baited Kira into a foolish and overly hasty attack before all the facts were available and known.
"How's my favorite brother?" his little sister greeted him enthusiastically in the morning, and he gave her a warm smile he didn't have to entirely fake, even if smiling was not actually an automatic response for him. He was programmed to attempt to make her happy; after all, Sayu was his primary charge, and until recently when Ryuk had over-rode it, his number one priority.
He would make a better world for her.
"I'm good, Sayu, did you want to do something fun?" he asked her, the perfect doting brother, always.
"Yeah, I was thinking we should go to Space-world sometime! But today, I just want you to listen to me talk about Hideki, my favorite model! Did you know he's coming out with a new movie?" she gushed.
Raito twitched. He loved Sayu, he really did, or at least his programming made him think he did...
But some of the things she inflicted on him were pure torture.
"You are L?" Light's father asked at their first meeting.
They were skeptical. It was quite understandable. L did not cut a very respectable figure, and was a very strange person with his slouch and lack of shoes and general disheveled appearance. His behavior of pretending to shoot a bullet at them was also somewhat childish, although really, they deserved it for showing their badges so easily.
"I am. Kira's killing of my counterpart has discouraged many police from working on the case, although not as many as would have been discouraged had Kira stated they were actually looking to kill myself. You are the only ones who signaled a willingness to come should Kira start to go after police personally. I have another reason for choosing just a few, however."
"Many of the police are disgruntled you stated Kira may be someone involved with them due to the timings of the killings, implying that you want to investigate the police," Mr. Yagami stated, correctly deducing things without being explicitly told. So he wasn't a complete idiot, good, that put him above many of the rest L had had to try to work with in the past. This might actually work then.
"Yes, that's true. I have contacts I can set to trailing the best suspects right away, FBI agents who have compiled information on 141 possible suspects. Here are the papers for you to rifle through; let me know if you see anything interesting." He handed copies over. He had his own copies elsewhere, of course, he wouldn't let something like potential misplacement or spilled coffee ruin his work.
Yagami looked gloomy. "I suppose that would include my own family. I have a daughter and son. I don't think they would ever do such a thing, but a suspect is a suspect, and it is possible they could have gotten access to my files."
"I thank you for your sense of duty, Yagami. I must admit, of the two, it is your son who seems the better suspect. He is older and has the grades to indicate a strong intelligence. It would require quite some skill to pull something of this magnitude off."
"My son..." Yagami seemed quite nervous for a moment, but L supposed that was to be expected. After all, who wanted to suspect their own son of mass murder? "No, he may have the intelligence, but he is completely incapable of such a thing, I'm sure." The nervousness disappeared, replaced with genuine certainty. Interesting.
"Many fathers are convinced their children are perfect, only to learn otherwise. What makes you so sure?" L asked.
"My boy is not like other boys," Mr. Yagami stated with complete conviction. But he offered no further clarification.
Light didn't care when he was being tailed.
But when he realized Sayu was, something in his programming went a little haywire. That potential threat simply could not be ignored, even if it was small, even if it was most likely a perfectly harmless FBI agent sent by L, his coding wouldn't allow him to expose her to any further potential danger.
He waited until they got off the bus, then grabbed the man and shoved him up against a building wall with immense strength, eyes gleaming with fury. "Stay away from my sister."
"Light! Calm down!" He was calm. Calmly assessing if he'd terrified this man enough to make him run away and never turn back. He looked stunned, but not truly afraid yet.
"Listen, kid, I mean no harm to your sister, my name is Penbar, I'm an investigator-"
Light lifted him straight off his feet, and with one hand felt for his gun and discarded it. Now he was starting to look truly afraid. Good.
"Light, drop him now!"
He obeyed instantly, eying the man dispassionately now that he'd gauged him to likely be no further threat to Sayu. The American scrambled away and ran.
"That kid had freakish strength," Penbar told his love. "I mean, I'd never seen anything like it. I feel bad, though, I scared those kids but besides that incident they seemed totally innocent. Just a bunch of dull school days and outings. I'm thinking of dropping out."
Naomi bit her lip. "I have." The BB murder case. A rogue android that had worn L's face. "I need to tell L this at once."
"I want you to kill those FBI agents following people immediately, and anybody immediately connected to them like their director," Ryuk told Light, a mixture of pissed and gleeful, as usual contacting him once he'd reached his room for the night. "I can't believe you let one see your strength." That was the pissed part. The gleeful part was how 'fun' this all was.
"I believe that would merely make me more suspicious," Light pointed out the obvious error. He was merely following the primary command given by the Yagami family, and thus did not see the point of replying to the second statement. If it led to his destruction, well, that was unfortunate but irrelevant.
"Not if you kill them all before the dude can report it. Besides, this will really scare the dickens out of L and the other investigators," Ryuk cackled. "It'll make it really entertaining, don't you think Light?"
"For you, as I shoulder all the risks," Light noted wryly.
"Oh, don't go all deadpan on me, Light. Remember, that Yagami family isn't your real purpose! You live only because I find you more entertaining alive. If you ever cease to be of use to me, I will end you myself, remember that Light."
"Yes, Ryuk," he said, because what else could he say to his creator? It wasn't like he could say no.
Running his spyware programs, he was alarmed to see Penbar had a fiance with him with some investigation experience. That meant another party he would have to kill, as he could have told her. But she was not like the others, her death would stand out... Unless... yes, that might work. He'd separate the two. Put a message on their phones, then remove after they'd seen it, wipe it completely clean.
IF YOU DO NOT WANT YOUR FIANCE TO DIE, DO WHAT I SAY IMMEDIATELY.
I CAN SEE EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING, AND OVERHEAR ALL YOUR COMMUNICATIONS: NO TRICKS OR YOU AND THEY DIE INSTANTLY.
He'd isolate Naomi out where he had a good place to stash her body, and use those messages to control her and her spouse. He could deep-fake a video, if necessary, if one died before the other, or wasn't cooperative and wanted certain messages from their loved one to confirm they were safe.
"Are you absolutely sure, Ryuk?" he asked, hesitating before sending the messages.
"Yes, I'm sure I want you to murder all the agents and their connections! What kinda question is that?"
He still thought it was giving more evidence away, pretty much guaranteeing that one of the families followed had the murderer... but, hm, if it wasn't on paper, perhaps he could wipe the incident at least from the servers, so they wouldn't have any more information than they did before.
As a final touch, he used his programs to write and print a fake suicide note for Misori Naomi. As long as she wasn't found too quickly, it would work out alright. He could even fake being her for a day over phone or video so the timing would look right, like they didn't disappear simultaneously.
There turned out to be one hitch in this plan.
"Naomi? This is L. I have some unfortunate news for you. But first, I want you to state something to prove that it is you."
Fuck, his internal swearing algorithm exclaimed (blame Ryuk for their existence, Light personally found them unnecessary and redundant, if sometimes slightly satisfying). Why was L personally contacting her? There was one guess that immediately came to mind, and a scan through records tentatively painted it as a possibility. There had been a string of very difficult murders by a 'Beyond Birthday' - memorable fellow, Light remembered that it was high profile for the perpetrator turning out to actually be an android like himself. "We worked a case together. This is about Raye, isn't it? You wouldn't call over anything else... Damn it, were you really going to string me along and prove myself before telling me something horrible happened to my own fiance L?" Synthesizing her voice wasn't a problem for him, the fact phones distort voices slightly made it easier.
A pause. "I'm sorry. I was actually thinking that you might like to join the case, to..."
"Avenge his death?" He let the voice have a trace of bitterness. "I lost my interest in investigation some time ago. I know I'm just not as brilliant as you, L. And how are we to catch someone who can't even be traced who can kill without even being present? It's futile."
"By their mistakes. The Naomi I knew had some pride in herself. She made good contributions to our case. She didn't want to be just a house-wife."
"Well, excuse me if I'm having a bit of a down moment, L, at the thought that I don't even get the choice now on whether or not to be a house-wife. It's been stolen from me. I just... want to be left alone." This was getting dangerous, although it was nice to have another opportunity to try to trace the connection. Light made 'her' give the sound of a hang up, but did not actually take the phone off-line just yet. Half a second, and then he'd do so, that should be enough time to complete the trace and not be that note-worthy.
"Kira," L stated, and Light froze. He noticed! "I suspected it was you. That's a bit low, impersonating someone, but then, it's not the first time for you pretending at a human's actions, is it? Did you do this just to try to get the chance to trace my line? Or is Naomi already dead? Did she find something out she shouldn't have, or, more likely, did Penbar tell her something you didn't want either of them to know? Unfortunately for you, tracing this phone's location won't actually tell you anything. I prepared for that."
Time to spin a story. Thankfully, L's unexpected call had dropped one straight into his lap. "Yes, it's me. I wanted information from her. I impersonated you and tried to get her to unwittingly spill things about you. It didn't work, you'll be proud to know." A slight, conversational pause, like humans were prone to. "How did you know?" He kept the voice feminine, to mislead.
"I was wary of a possible deep-fake already and considered the possibility of a fake hang-up trick, if you are capable of noise synthesis that would easily be within your abilities. Thus, I had my computer alert me immediately when it detected this, and wasted no time speaking before you could hang up for real, to catch your attention." Impressive. He assumed they were both now currently trying to track the other, proxy in-between muddling things up or no. He'd caught the fake location, but L had to be giving the signal to that location from somewhere else, and that could itself be tracked. Probably to another fake location, but eventually... Eventually he'd get the real one. And then he'd have L.
"It was pleasant to meet you, L, though we may be on opposing sides," he said politely. "I apologize for any grief I have caused you and others, but it seems this conversation has about come to an end in its usefulness." He was actually dragging it out slightly and trying to see if he could trick L into thinking he was the one who needed to trick Kira into prolonging it, so he would have a little longer to try tracking him, but if it ended there it would not be the worst, as every sentence gave some small trace of information away.
"You are the other one." That caught his attention and wasn't what he was expecting.
"The other one? There is only one human behind this, and I am the person fully responsible for this communication." Truth enough.
"So you are a machine."
"How insulting," his deep-fake voice gave away none of the surprise he was actually feeling, but did have a trace of wry humor. "Do I seem like an idiot chat bot that can't even pass a Turing test to you?"
"No, but you do seem quite chatty," L retorted.
Light came what seemed to be the end of the line in the merry location chase from ping to ping, and he stated: "Simply to catch you."
L hung up, and he was frustrated to realize the location, and the human on the computer and phone at the end of it, was a fake-out. This individual wasn't L. A search of their history revealed that as very unlikely, as they were an actor named Ryuuga Hideki who had no idea their computer had been hacked.
"Ayeee, why did you hang up then? Was he really going to catch you?" Matsuda asked.
"Unfortunately, if I waited any longer, that would have become a risk, yes. The speed at which they worked... it truly wasn't human." Not just the trace, but running the deepfake simultaneously and in real time, was extremely impressive.
"So, Naomi was unfortunate enough to be a useful pawn, and nothing more to this man?" Mogi said slowly. "A terrible story. Kira is killing law enforcement and anyone else in the way now."
"Yes, but I would not be so hasty as to take Kira at their word. They have every incentive to lie. My probabilities for this one being a machine under the command of a human Kira have risen, and for there to be at least two Kiras significantly more. The reason is simply put, their multitasking. Most humans cannot do two things at once unless those two things are trivial. At the time of our conversation, more criminals continued to die at the scheduled times, like a program that could not deviate from its course even though it would have been more convenient to selling the story that there is only one Kira."
That made the task-force straighten up. "That is quite convincing. But maybe what is killing people is an automatic program, not an AI at all."
"I would think so, except that the murders are not exactly easy to pull off either. This isn't something you easily automate. An intelligence has to be behind it," L told them. "What we're dealing with, the capabilities it's shown... it makes one hope it is merely a small team of humans, lying about being a team."
Matsuda shuddered. "But? I sense a but."
"But we cannot assume that. And if we assume they were lying about everything, then Naomi's death stands out as suspicious. Who was her fiance investigating at the time?"
Mr. Yagami looked grim. "My family..."
"Precisely. I would like to put them under surveillance."
The added monitoring was no trouble to Light. He was mostly just happy not to have a stalker around his sister any longer. It was a breeze for him to detect the videos. He resisted the urge to tamper with them: a mistake there would give him away immediately. Honestly, he didn't really need to. Putting one hand over his computer's usb stick connector, he could discreetly and easily control what information it gave him but also what it displayed on screen. He didn't have to worry about storing incriminating information there because he could store it all on himself, and wipe anything he had to use his computer to access, such as information from over the internet or his father's police database.
Ryuk wanted him to make a dramatic narrative out of it, but honestly there wasn't much more to tell. There had been a completely pointless message on the TV about thousands of FBI agents flooding the country to frighten him, but he had a suspicion that in reality the situation was quite the opposite: there weren't any tailing anyone now as the FBI pulled out.
There was one peculiar thing, but he saw no reason to bring it up with Ryuk: a very strange but bright fellow student introduced himself to him, shoeless, sat in chairs in the weirdest way while snacking on gummy bears, and they gave a very horrible speech about unemployment to the entire student body.
"Hi, I'm Ryuuzaki. I'm curious, what's your opinion on Kira? I'm kind of undecided."
Light tiled his head, finding this more interesting than most conversational starters. "I'm Light Yagami. Why are you undecided?" he queried. It was a safe enough question.
"Well, you know, it's good to accumulate more data before making a full decision. That's why I'm asking people their opinion." Odd, Light was the only one he'd seen him ask. But he could not disagree strongly with the sentiment, though he could pry at it.
"You already know he or she is a vigilante that kills. That's enough to make a moral decision of sorts. What more information do you require?"
"Whether he wanted to kill L for real or not, or if he was thwarted by the fact it was a criminal faking out playing him, and if they are going to start killing police too."
Light considered the possibility that this was actually an investigator. It was not impossible, if very low probability. One would think a spy would be a little more discreet and less memorable. He could provide a warning, then. "Unfortunately, I think he or she wanted to kill L. Which answers your previous question: I am not entirely fond of Kira. There are better uses of the ability to track down criminals even the police can't find than simply murdering them outright, such as turning them in."
"But you don't entirely disagree, you just find them too extreme?"
"Yes, it's unpolitical to admit it, but I do feel safer knowing certain criminals aren't walking the streets."
"Would you like to continue this over coffee?"
"If you wish." Light did not need such sustenance, but he could mime digestion with his waterproof internal storage easily enough, and in a pinch he could convert some edible fuels like oils to actual energy, if inefficiently. He had a little free time, and what Ryuk didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Probably.
Arriving at the shop, Ryuuzaki surprised him by adding no less than 10 sugars to his coffee, which seemed a little extreme, even if Light wasn't an expert on human taste-buds.
"Do you want any sugar, Light?"
"No, I do not like sweets," he told him bluntly. He did not have a sense of taste, actually.
"So why do you think Kira wants to kill L?" L wasted no further time in asking. This was a question of especial importance. If he really was talking to a Kira right now, why would that Kira give that information away when it would merely make killing L more difficult? That he should have stated he didn't agree with Kira even if he was Kira was fairly obvious, but critiquing Kira was also unnecessary and interesting. It added support to the notion that not only might there be two Kiras, but one of them did not actually agree with the other, who was calling the actual shots.
"A hunch, mostly, but, the sheer speed of the kill, and the fact they said they did not initially know it was just the one broadcast station. That implies they may not have known at first that the criminal was a criminal, either."
"Fascinating," L said, and for once meant it. "I actually hadn't considered that." It was rare something slipped him by and someone else noticed it. If this wasn't Kira, their mind was amazing. If they were, it was still quite impressive to show such self awareness of the implications of their own words, and troubling, because it meant they knew and were unbothered by it being known for some reason. Or, more positively, that they hadn't a choice in the decision. But the fact Light was saying this, outright pointing it out, meant at least on some level it was the 'unbothered by' explanation, which was interesting. "But how does that fit with the apology?"
"They may have simply been trying to put L off-guard, make him relax again and think he or she was in no real danger. But that would be a severe mistake." He paused, and eyed L very seriously. "If I were L, I wouldn't be doing anything risky like revealing face to a potential suspect."
L couldn't help a paranoid, scared flutter of his heart that Light somehow knew, even without being told, that L was L or someone closely connected to him. But that was ridiculous. He couldn't know, unless-
A satisfied look in Light's eye made him recompose himself.
Unless he just gave it away, on what had been a vague suspicion. Damn it. "That's scary stuff, Light," he said to lower suspicion again. "Just thinking of that kind of psychopath loose... would anyone really be safe? What if they start expanding to anyone they consider slightly immoral, if they can go after police for chasing, what about individuals simply for disagreeing?"
"That is an unfortunate possibility," Light said, nodding. "Considering how little still we know of Kira." Ah, this was a 'I am pretending not to know' statement, not a 'hinting this is how Kira really is' statement, most likely.
"But do you consider it likely?"
"I hope not. I have family who disagrees publicly with Kira. My own father is a police offer, actually." He sucked in a breath. "I worry about him, but there isn't much I can do."
"Your words seem to indicate that you aren't the worst sort of Kira, the kind who would go after L, if you did happen to be Kira," L said, in a very indirect way saying 'I suspect you'. Would Light pick up on it? "What if I told you I was working with the task-force and would like your help?"
Light froze with unexpected horror. "Then you are a fool. You never know who will over-hear you say something like that, especially in a cafe. Don't ever say something like that to me again." Was the message: 'Why are you telling me this?', or was it 'I cannot know or the other Kira will kill you'? Perhaps a mix of both. "I assume your name is fake, and Kira is known to kill with a name and face. But there is no reason to think Kira, if pressed enough, could not kill with just a face and location. Names just make it easier to locate someone through their paper trail."
"Actually, I chose this spot as we are very unlikely to be disturbed here." L was intrigued, and if anything, actually less afraid now than he was before. "Just a hypothetical, Light. Your thought processes are very interesting to me. You have a very astute mind. Why don't you work on the case, since you clearly have contacts?"
"As if they'd really let a student work on it," Light scoffed. "I do keep my eyes out for information on it, since it is quite interesting. Wouldn't it be funny if I figured it out before L did, despite being a mere student?" he said with amusement. So, Light had a sense of humor, and it was slightly narcissistic. That fit Kira well.
"I like to dabble with it as well," L told him. "We could work on it together. It's not like as students we'd have a real chance, but it could be fun."
Light looked pensive. "I am quite busy with my studies..."
"I assumed someone of your intelligence could finish them easily," L baited. Light gave the merest flicker of annoyance before going back to his charming usual expression. Was it a failure to perfectly act, or, on the contrary, was Light letting him see exactly what he wanted to see, a human being with an imperfect mask? After all, a normal person could be expected to find L exasperating from time to time. "At the least, they cannot take up all of your time. A person has to do something else on occasion in order to function, but also for optimal processing of material. Studies have shown periodic breaks cause learnt material to be absorbed more efficiently than if everything is done in one giant chunk without rest, as well as better for your health."
"You're trying to argue looking into the Kira case is good for my health now?" Light said with amusement. "When I could get murdered?"
"Are you frightened of being killed?" L queried, leaning a little closer. The waiter came by to take their finished coffees, and he said, "I'll have a milkshake and strawberry cheesecake."
Light took the opportunity of this pause to think, or seem to think. "No, not really. Perhaps I should be though, if Kira is willing to kill those who go after them." Perhaps you should be, was the unspoken message. Why aren't you?
"We could do something else for fun, I suppose, while you decide how frightened you are." L said, unsure himself where he was going with this. "How about a tennis match?" It had been a long time since he'd played.
Light nodded his head. He really was quite polite and agreeable. Was it all a persona put on, or was it that he wanted to check L out as much as L wanted to inspect him?
The match was interesting, but ultimately vexing: L noticed that Light seemed to ramp up his skill to roughly match whatever he believed L's to be. In other words, he was going easy on him, but not so much as to make it obvious, as he was still scoring. In fact, he was keeping their scores about perfectly even.
"You are better than I was expecting, where did you learn to play from?" Light inquired. Who are you really? A less than innocuous question considering the circumstances.
"Private tutors. Was there something else you wanted to know?" Do you really want to know?
"I suppose not. I am just a little curious about the person who came wandering up to me out of the blue. You may tell me whatever you feel comfortable telling."
"Well, I am childish and I hate to lose," L stated bluntly. He noticed a dip in Light's playing ability, ever so slight. "Yet, I also hate being patronized and talked down to. Even when I was a child, I preferred to be talked to like an adult and to read adult level texts rather than young children's fiction, which I often found vapid." The ball sailed past L's reach, and Light scored another point.
"Some fiction appropriate for children is better than others. Did you ever enjoy the Hobbit?" Light asked. "I read it to my little sister once." Ah, the doting brother persona.
"No. To be honest, I actually did not have much time for children's fiction or toys even if I wanted to." L's childhood was... atypical.
"Mm, you have to be careful of that, then. Our minds often like to convince us we are satisfied with our lot in life and our choices even if they were actually suboptimal, and we seek to avoid cognitive dissonance about our own self image. If your tutors pressured you into reading college texts instead of fiction, well, I imagine that if some part of you liked to imagine yourself as not easily pressured would tell yourself that it was what you wanted to do anyway."
L was slightly vexed. He'd never had anyone psychologically analyze him so quickly, or throw him into a feeling of doubt about himself. Had he really been as independent as he'd thought of himself as, since he picked only what cases interested him? He did rely on Watari a lot for almost everything... "Does that analysis apply to yourself? You are your family's prodigal son, after all."
Light blinked. "No. I did not lie to myself about being satisfied. If I am truthful... I have often been profoundly bored in my life. Things just aren't challenging enough, but if I say that to most people, I sound spoiled. After all, I have everything. Good looks, good family, and a good mind. I shouldn't be wanting for anything."
L could sympathize with deep boredom. "I too seek out challenge to slake my ennui. It is human nature to want things. Living things require change to survive. There is a thought experiment. With extremely low probability, chaos spontaneously generates in a void a consciousness, but there is no stimuli, no hand, no skin, nothing for this consciousness to interrogate the outside world with. Is it then truly consciousness, without anything to experience? The argument goes that since it could be aware of itself, even without anything external to respond to, the answer is yes. But such a mind would surely eat itself in short order with nothing to do."
Light's lips quirked, and in that moment L saw his own defeat right before it happened. The ball bounced out of his reach once more, and the match was called. Without his taking much notice of it, a large crowd of admirers had gathered and cheered at the end. Light actually looked less than pleased at this, for the noise made it more difficult for them to speak together, though the expression smoothed quickly and he nimbly fought off congratulations and those seeking him to join their tennis club without causing offense.
When he finally managed to peel himself away from them and get back to L, who had started to walk away, he said: "Then, if winning all the time is predictable, is it not preferable to occasionally lose, no matter how painful?" How much did losing bother you?
L peered at him. "I don't know, as the victor, tell me, would you have preferred to lose? And are you willing to lose in the future?" Will you submit to me? Something about that thought gave L a thrill, probably the usual human instinct to dominate. He was a little surprised the loss in the tennis match hadn't bothered him more, but he supposed it was because Light had made it fairly ritualized and psychological: all L had to do was press harder and he would have won. But it wouldn't have been a victory, not really. So in a way, that was the answer Light was seeking.
"Well," Light said with an air of admittance, "sometimes losing would destroy you. If both losing and staying in a state of no change are a form of destruction, then that's a way of saying sometimes there is no way to win, is there?" 'If I had lost, L, you would have been annoyed for me letting you win, but by winning I risk agitating you if you are a 'sore loser',' was the unspoken thought, obvious between them.
L nodded. "Perhaps Kira is in a state like that. If they do not kill L, they risk being discovered. If they do kill L, they lose any chance at claiming their moral superiority. It's a no-win situation, provided Kira is still sane enough to recognize it."
"You assume Kira was ever sane in the first place," Light pointed out easily, showing no sign of offense to the last, but not saying on which side of it they came down on, whether they thought one outweighed the other, implying but not confirming that both were equally bad.
"They have been fairly methodical," said L.
"True," Light sounded faintly pleased, and immediately covered for it with a "If we must have a Kira who can kill at a distance, better be a sane, competent one, I suppose."
"So you are leaning back toward supporting them," L harried at his metaphorical heels.
Light scoffed. "Hardly. Well, good match." He started to move off, and L felt a faint flicker of regret as the distance increased between them. Perhaps, this time, the teasing had been a tactical error. It would be better to get him closer to L, not to cut him off entirely.
"I did enjoy it," L called out after him. "I even found that I didn't mind as much as I thought I would; losing, that is." That did make Light pause. "Perhaps again sometime, then?"
"Sure," Light said softly.
It actually was a win, in a way, because L thought he was on to something. The way Light played... it was just on the edge of humanly possible. Could it be Mr. Yagami had been keeping something from them? 'My boy is not like other boys' indeed. But he had no incentive to reveal this all just yet. Not until he'd identified another possible Kira or had more info on Light. Ruining his confidence now after it had only been shakily obtained would be pointless.
"It's a date then," he said, unable to resist flustering him with tactical 'cluelessness', and was rewarded with just such a look. If this was a machine... they did a very good job impersonating a human being.