Death Note Story:
"Let The Night Be Dark Into The Future"
L needed a break in the Kira Case, but so far he was at an impasse. He was known as "one of the greatest detectives in the world" next to two others, but of course, he couldn't ask them for any advise. He was, in fact, all three of them, so when L was stuck, he had no one to turn to.
Crouched on a chair, his body contorted in such a way that helped him to think with more clarity, he ate a small vanilla ice cream cone and stared at the large wall of computer monitors in the Kira Task Force building that he built. The de facto hotels just weren't cutting it anymore.
Handcuffed to him was Light Yagami, whom he suspect in being Kira. But without definitive proof, all he could play upon was conjecture and speculation. He thought he had Kira, but then Kira seemed to slip away from him. But he wagered only for the moment. He'll chase him.
"Ryuzaki," came Watari's voice from his station in a secret room—the voice sounded throughout the main operations centre of the Kira Task Force. Apart from the banks of computer stations, laptops, and large screens, there was a lounge area and other amenities, but the main area was the communications area. "You wished to be informed if there were any developments that came about after the BB Murders Case?"
L looked up and saw the large W on the wall screen, then it switched to the face of a sweet elderly man, who could be Soichiro Yagami, Light Yagami's father—a member of the task force—grandfather, appeared. He had grey hair and a large handlebar moustache with glasses.
The mention of the "BB Murder Case" immediately grabbed L's attention. He hadn't told anyone about it, only mentioning it off-handedly when Naomi Misora suddenly went missing, whereas she had worked with him on the case to help L catch a sinister serial killer.
It had been a difficult case. He had pit himself up against some great foes in some strange cases, the Kira Case being one of them, but the BB Murder Case was a bizarre one.
The others gathered near L as if some breaking information was forthcoming. Light Yagami rolled over in his chair, parting ways with his computer and his research to listen. L had suspected Light in being Kira, but now Light was helping the task force with some memory loss.
"Yes, Watari," L asked, "what is it?"
"Information brought to me through the usual channels has it 'the Apprentice' was sighted in Winchester, England," Watari revealed.
L's eyes widened, and he asked, "Where?" almost excitedly. "Is the information current?"
"The information passed my way this morning when an FBI contact regarding this old case informed me, but only when he could emerge from an undercover operation. It's a couple of weeks old, unfortunately. This information was given to him during a sting."
"Ryuzaki, who's this 'Apprentice'?" Light asked.
L sighed. He hesitated to reveal anything about the "BB Murder Case" to the task force. In his eyes, the case was closed, and the murderer was locked up. Odd enough, he had not been killed by Kira—yet. Perhaps because his real name was not yet known to Kira. Kira had gotten to far more known notorious criminals first, but "BB" was still "at large", in a sense.
Light pulled on the handcuffs. "Ryuzaki—tell us!" he asked. "Don't keep us in the dark. It isn't right. If it has to do with the Kira Case—"
"It doesn't," L said coolly. L looked at Watari. Neither one spoke. "It has—nothing to do with this case." Light narrowed his eyes, L observed, knowing that it was a lie of sorts. Not a lie, in the typical sense, but an omission. It was a case that had a supernatural edge, similar to the Kira Case. But without a word from his mentor, L sighed. He gulped down his ice cream and then licked his fingers. "Without going into too much detail, the BB Murder Case dealt with a serial killer who killed without mercy and with extreme prejudice."
Watari's image blinked out when his job was done, but he and L shared a look just before that told the other silently that they would speak privately later. With information so delicate as this, L only wanted it for his own ears. Now he had to explain himself which he hated to do.
L turned around in his chair and faced the others: with Light and his father stood Matsuda and Mogi. They were short staffed at the moment because Aizawa parted ways with them due to a conflict in ideology.
L chose his words carefully and told them the basic details about a case he once worked on apart from the BB Murder Case and yet also related to it. It involved a close friend of "Beyond Birthday" whom BB nicknamed 'the Apprentice' because he emulated BB to such a degree that they were like twins. 'The Apprentice' had a medical doctorate and experimented on his victims using Chinese pressure point techniques with what was known as "Locked-In Syndrome", where a person was "locked-in" their body, unable to move, but they were still fully conscience.
"I've been hunting for this guy for a long time," L began, "but he decided to go underground until only recently. I believe his tests were interrupted before he could implement whatever diabolical plan he and BB were cunningly planning after BB's arrest. AP, as I'll now refer to him as, then disappeared. He has stayed steps ahead of me over the years. And, along with his special skills—all his victims died—he has a unique gift: that of clairvoyance."
"Impossible!" Light professed. "There's no such thing!"
Matsuda looked confused. "What is…clairvoyance?"
Light opened his mouth to reply, but L interjected. "The ability—supposedly—of perceiving things or events in the future or beyond normal sensory contact," he said. He then put a hand to his chin in thought. "My investigation into that case stumbled onto a childhood interest of AP. He was fascinated with the theory of Astral Projection."
"A term used to describe an OBE," Light's voice heightened to overpower Ryuzaki's, "an out-of-body experience," he finished. "Yet another theory that assumes the existence of a soul called a physical body that can be separated and capable of travelling throughout the universe."
"Nothing was conclusive, but everything indicates AP was attempting to use his victims to transverse space and time and to prove Astral Projection is real. At the time, I thought it was ludicrous, but after recent events, my mind is opened to new possibilities. And if AP has begun his experiments again, AP takes priority over the Kira Case." L put up a hand. "And yes, I understand your objections. And I'm hesitate to ask for your help, but your skills with the Kira Case" —he looked at Light— "could be invaluable to closing this case."
"I'm in," Matsuda said. Everyone looked at him. "We seem to be stuck here. If it will help us with our case because it sounds so similar, helping Ryuzaki may help us in turn."
Light crossed one leg over the other looking deep in thought. L thought he could actually see the "wheels" in Light's head moving, and it amused him. "Very well," Light relented. "I don't see to be getting anywhere, anyway. Kira is quiet. What about you, Dad?"
Soichiro thought for a moment, then agreed. Mogi merely nodded, not the talkative type.
L sighed heavily. But before he could hunt down AP, he needed some information first, and that entailed stepping into the lions den, speaking with someone L would rather think of as dead.
In a maximum security isolated cage, the man with the pseudonym BB—Beyond Birthday—smiled to himself when he heard the news that his old friend L wished to speak with him. L would not be physically present, their communication would be vie a computer link, but the very idea amused him. He agreed, of course.
He was housed in a twenty-by-twenty cage and monitored by camera day and night. A notorious killer, BB had the same ruthlessness as prolific killers like Jack The Ripper or Sam Hill. Unlike them, BB didn't care if his victim was female or male. When he killed, it was to taunt someone. To flaunt his superiority. And he had almost won. But he had made a stupid mistake.
Shackled to the floor, wearing an orange jumpsuit, BB sat in a metal chair that was bolted down with nothing else in the room other than a computer monitor and camera set-up vie L would be speaking through. A monitor would, of course, exhibit the detective's bombastic emblem—an L. He had had not had a hair cut since he arrived at the prison and it masked a good deal of his face, all except for broad grin that exposed a perfect set of bright white teeth.
In the corners of the room, stood four officers. They were there in case something went wrong—if BB got out of control. He was known to have violent outbursts. But shackled as he was, there was little chance of that. BB was amused that the prison considered him a large threat. It was huge in prison. When he first arrived, he was confronted by some prisoners in the population, but it ended very badly for them—which forced him to be put into solitary confinement.
"You want my help, friend," he muttered quietly to himself. "I know you need it to catch him. And I'm not speaking of Kira. You've never been able to capture him." BB chuckled.
The light to the camera switched from red to green and the monitor blinked on. And there was that pompous letter in the middle. A large L in the middle of a white screen. There was silence at first, but BB knew his old friend was attempting to gather up the courage to talk. Much like the Zodiac Killer in years past, he had taunted L with clues and brutality.
"Can you hear me?" came a modulated voice.
BB laughed. "Are you that scared to speak with me, to face me, even to talk with me with your real voice? And please, do me the respect of ridding yourself of that letter. It's beneath you."
All of sudden, a scene from the black and white comedy trio The Three Stooges played out on the screen with their usual slapstick humour. Curly, after being slapped by Moe, said, "Oh, a wise guy, huh?" And then barked. BB frowned. L had a warped sense of humour, ever sense they dorm together at Wammy House, children of the same orphanage.
Silence again as the scene ended and the L replaced the comedy skit on screen.
One of the guards chuckled. BB didn't turn to see who which one it was, but he knew each of the four in the room with him. He stored it away until later to kill the guard later, accidentally.
"You're already testing my patience, L," BB growled.
"Patience is a virtue," L said. "That's how I caught you."
BB held in his anger. He could see the screen through strains of his hair, L couldn't see his eyes. If he did, L would probably see the bloodthirstiness within them. He had played with L, wishing to proof he was smarter than his friend in the city of Los Angeles. But things didn't work out the way BB had hoped. But that was the past and there was still hope of the future.
BB didn't play to L's mockery, he merely smiled with amusement.
"Where is he, your apprentice?" L asked directly. "I've sent investigators to his old haunts, but they haven't been used in years. I caught whiff of a secret place you and he hung out, but which was lost when the investigator hunting him was murdered by your apprentice. I want him, BB!"
BB chuckled under his breath. "Lost," he said coyly. "Care to place a wager how many people will die this time, L? He was close to completing his experiments, but his makeshift lab was discovered. I guess I have to take the rap for that. I said something I shouldn't." Silence again, but BB bet that was one of the first places L's investigators looked. "Have you consulted your little task force yet?" He chuckled. "Oh Kira, my Kira! Now let the night be dark for all of me. Let the night be too dark for me to see—Into the future. Let what will be, be."
A minute passed without a word spoken. Then L returned. He made something equivalent to an audible muse. "Thank you, BB. You gave me exactly what I needed. And please, take that Robert Frost poem to heart. For you'll never see the 'sun throw up its rays' again for as long as I'm alive. Acceptance is the last stage of grief. Accept your fate. No one will grieve for you."
BB's brow frowned. "W-what did I give you?" The screen went blank and the camera's light went from green to red. "L, what did I give you? Damn you, L!" BB tried to jump out of his chair at the monitor and camera, but the shackles prevented it. "I'll kill you, L. I swear it! You're dead!"
The four guards then swarmed him.
L knew one turn deserved a next. He played BB into giving him the clue he needed to catch AP. He knew BB was a fond of poetry, especially dark poems. And BB knew exactly what he was doing to taunt L again, but L quickly caught whim of BB's trickery and consulted Watari.
The Kira Task Force was all present for the video feed with BB, but the prison room was too dark for anyone to see BB clearly and L was glad that it was. In fact, he had purposely asked the Warden to turn down the lights for the video conference so the members of the task force couldn't see his old foe clearly for personal reasons and when it came to the Kira Case.
Light was typing at his computer station and brought the poem ACCEPTANCE by Robert Frost. There were fourteen lines, but it was only the last three that BB quoted that allowed L to clue in.
"So, what does it mean?" Matsuda asked. "I was never good at this sort of imaginary stuff."
"It could mean any number of things or BB could be playing with us?" Soichiro put in.
L turned to Light and produced a moderate smile. "Maybe Light could enlighten us? I'm always curious how his mind works. Light's very smart, so maybe he can walk us through it?"
Light looked dumbfounded. "If you know where AP is, Ryuzaki, shouldn't we go after him? Dispatch the police? People's lives are at stake! And you're playing around?"
L waved him off. "Trust me, we have plenty of time," the detective said. "Besides, Watari is on the case. And thanks to BB, AP will be ours in no time."
Light's mouth opened with shock. "Forget it, Ryuzaki," he said with a huff, and turned in his chair back to his computer station, He began to type. "I'm not playing your games! I'm going back to hunt for Kira. I need to clear my name."
L sighed. "Very well, do what you wish," he said. He turned to the others. Then explained the poem to them and its wondrous, dark imaginary. "So, we know exactly where AP is—right now. And he's no longer a danger to anyone. Little did we know he was right under our nose. Well, six feet under, anyway—if you want to get literal."
L remembered that one of BB's old stomping grounds was a large cemetery near Wammy House. In fact, a lot of kids used to play playing hide-and-seek there. There was an above-ground tomb chamber that had descending stairs into an anti-chamber with a series of crypts. L remembered the door could be swung up for easy access, but few people knew this as the stone that covered the entrance looked to weigh a ton. It was fake.
It was a very dark and spooky place, but it was also a safe haven for some of the kids. Of course, no one dared to desecrate the ruins, but thanks to BB's admission, it was the perfect place to house a secret lab. And clues within Robert Frost's poem gave away AP's location. But only someone like L would figure it using knowledge he had. BB knew this. BB thought he was too clever for L to figure it out. Once again, BB's arrogance defeated him.
Once Watari had provided the information, the police with permission from the family that owned the tomb secured the premises and found AP inside.
But it wasn't what they had expected.
AP was laying on a large heavy crypt that he must have been using as a table—dead. His eyes wide open in death.
Through papers he left behind, he claimed to have made a serious breakthrough with his OBE experiments and tried it on himself wanting to experience, returning back to his body. His writings claimed through OBE, he would be able to experience Astral Projection, and even enter a world new world, a world beyond this one.
Unfortunately due to an error on his part, he became a victim of his own ambition and became 'Locked-In' into own body connected to pieces of medical equipment AP had spent a great deal of time collecting and keeping secret. He had been unable to move and died; weeks ago. A strong smell of decomposition filled with tomb.
L finally put the case to bed, but he knew BB would be furious, tricked again. As he continued with the Kira Case, L wondered if the Kira Case would ever be solved in a similar way. And as he turned and give Light a passing glance, he knew his instincts weren't wrong about Light. But would he be able to solve the case before something happened him?
Kira wanted L dead.
L wanted Kira caught.
Would the secret behind Kira be "locked-in" Light Yagami's amnesic mind forever?
L hoped not.
One week later, L learned that BB died from a mysterious heart attack, a year and half after L had had apprehended him for the "LA" BB Murder Case killings.
L cursed Kira.
This was not justice! It was plain old murder!
END
BB—Beyond Birthday—is a character in the novel 'Another Note' by Nisio Isin. Credit to the author and character.