Chapter 54
*L*
It has been exactly twenty-two days since that abrupt broadcast, which had taken over every television station inside of japan. That very same message has been somehow anonymously routed throughout the globe. When I had seen the broadcast I was mesmerized. Had this new Kira really grew bold enough to speak to the public even knowing that the actual Kira could retaliate? Or was he just figuring that his message did indeed get through? I would initially have figured that Light himself figured out these cryptic messages but if he had he certainly wasn't showing it. He looked genuinely puzzled over them as day in and day out he would open the files containing the messages in attempts to crack the code.
Glancing up towards Light's computer I could see him gazing at the messages once again as everyone seemed to leave looking more beaten than three weeks and a day ago. The broadcast had been hacked in a way that not even I could figure out. Which would leave me wondering if the hacker wasn't actually Kira herself. I watch as she pauses from leaving looking towards Light's computer, unnoticed by Light himself. She looked absolutely stumped and confused. There was even a sign in her eyes where she has begun to doubt these messages altogether. So am I to believe Kira hasn't been trying to contact Light?
The possibility is quite high. Knowing that she herself is a hacker and openly admitted to hacking into headquarters it would leave me with little doubt. But, if she had regained her memories. Wouldn't the shell she had covered herself with before have re-emerged? Wouldn't she have become that same cold, withdrawn beauty she was? Or is it after all this time she has learned to hide behind lies and deception? If that was true would it also mean that she has been lying this entire time? Logically speaking I would believe nothing else. Yet, those green eyes were still glimmering with the very same innocence they had when she first woke from her coma. A glimmer that couldn't possibly be faked. To top it off she has taken a move out of my handbook and continuously jumps hotels. Relocating rapidly and never with the same time frame or even types of hotels.
I have tried to analyze a pattern as she had done with me when she had bugged my own rooms. But to no avail, I haven't found one. She could just be moving on a whim or a roll of a virtual dice from her Ipad. Either way, the hotels are most definitely random. Which I would have thought to be a way to prevent me from watching her if I had not witnessed a conversation between her and Light mentioning something about a possible break into one of them. He had asked her once again to move in with him but she had refused. She knew not to move in with the enemy and was openly showing she was keeping him at arm's length. She gave him her hotel room listing to him only once. After that, she has changed hotels a good handful of times. Never staying in the same room for more than three days.
What if that task force and I had missed a few clues from this new Kira? I had thought of that question once already and had been through all over the Kira killings since. They were all the usual untimely killings. Some in restaurants, cemeteries, visiting loved ones in or out of hospitals, and even inmates just randomly dropping dead. There was nothing at the tips of my fingers. Yet, I still feel as if one if not more of these insignificant deaths were actually crucial to the message itself.
"Ryuzaki." Watari's voice came over the com just as the screen flashed to show his W.
"Yes, Watari? Has she finally began to speak?" I question as I peer into the screen almost as if I could see him. If Misa doesn't give up the information soon…
"I am sorry Ryuzaki. But, Misa has taken a turn for the worse I am afraid." A turn for the worse? How? Bringing my thumb to my mouth I nip at the end of it. Watari's voice was rather shaky and laminated with the guilt that was building on his shoulders with each passing day. We have tortured confessions out of many suspects in the past. Every now and then slip-ups do happen, and the longer one is kept under such conditions the more likely they are to occur. I had never guessed that Amane would have such a strong resolve. She was weak-minded enough for Light to use and manipulate her, weak enough to show emotion when told of Kira's death. But strong enough to hold out for so long without uttering a single word that would condemn Light. Is this truly what love is capable of?
The accident happened a few weeks ago when Watari had unknowingly got a little too rough with her. Causing her appendix to rupture. We had immediately gotten care to her in order to have the appendix removed but apparently what it had excreted went to the nearest organs in her body. The more we had tried to save her the weaker we had actually made her. It had come to a point that we had to stop taking pieces of her organs just for her own temporary survival. Was this indeed an accident? Or was this the work of Kira? Everything pointed to it being Watari's fault even when numbers are ran to calculate the possibilities. But we cannot forget that Kira can manipulate what happens to someone before they die. He can determine even, how they die just as Yotsuba had painfully done with their... Accidental deaths.
"I see... So the time has come." I finally respond to him as I pull myself out of my thoughts.
"It seems so. She is fading."
*Light*
Setting in the task force room I turn in my seat to look at everyone there. Including a pair of green eyes that have begun to plague my very existence. With the rapid deaths Kira has been doing, there remain only five hardened criminals left. I could stand up and proclaim that they have lost but that wouldn't get me anywhere but captured. "I think it is time to conclude that the messages left for us were used to actually misguide us. To keep our attention away from what was actually happening."
"What do you mean?" My dad questions abruptly standing with genuine shock showing on his features. It was then that Alessia now stood and walked towards me. Plugging her Ipad into my computer and directing the larger screen to show her word document she always uses to type on. We all watched her in silence giving her time so she may speak what she wanted to say.
-He means that there are only a handful of criminals left. There have been no messages since the last one that Light had figured out. Since that message, there have been more deaths and even the haughty message broadcasted to the world. It is a possibility that there was never another Kira at all. Kira himself could have just made us think that to give us something to do. Although as L did before I have been keeping Light as my Prime suspect. You all should know that now before I continue on.- There were gasps echoing through the room as they all looked at her with disbelieving eyes. Including my own as I felt myself stare at her in shock. I finally tore my eyes away from her as she glanced back down to her Ipad and began pattering away again. -I did not believe that those rules within the death note were real. I never did. Even when I reviewed the information about the shinigami saying that all death notes would have the same rules. It never once said that a Shinigami could not lie. I believe Gods of death may gain pleasure in watching humanity squirm knowing that they cannot be killed by human means. All beings have a motive for what they do. And the Shinigami never stated theirs. So with the thought of the rules being false Light nor Misa would be cleared of any speculations.-
"If that is true Alessia. Then why are you saying this now? What are you trying to say?" I question. Wanting her to explain. If she did suspect me it would explain why she continues to decline to move in with me. Why she never actually trusted me. Yet, even without me getting her to let down her guard she is openly admitting this for some sort of reason and I can only guess why. This guess was making it truly hell to not laugh in triumph.
-I am trying to say that if this was Kira just giving us something to do, then the broadcast definitely was to either throw us off some more or truly be Kira himself trying to speak with us. You may be wondering what I mean by this comment and I shall tell you. If Light were Kira then that wouldn't be the message he would have said. He would have told everyone to find those who oppose him and allow them to be brought to justice so he could kill them. So this would mean that Light is not Kira. Having said that I firmly believe the Kira before Yotsuba was definitely Light. After Yotsuba as S had explained the killings were of the same pattern… What if Light never began killing again? What if there was a supporter out there who thinks enough like Light that he was able to fool us all?-
*S*
-This hypothesis would explain the sudden compassion for the task force as for the fact that since he has gained control over a notebook no members have been targeted or killed much like when L still worked this case. The Kira then was ruthless and proved he would kill anyone if only to prolong his life. This one's message was..-
Light sat up in his seat and decided to interrupt my typing to finish my sentence. "Do not harm those who oppose me, treat them with the same kindness you would show your fellow supporters." He ended up repeating the line from the broadcast. "It was his victory speech." He sounded as if he had just realized this himself. I nodded to him as the other's eyes were looking from Light to myself.
-He was proclaiming that we are unable to catch him. There are only five criminals left and the crime rate is practically non-existent. After these five criminals, our .05 percent chance of us catching him drops even further. With no more criminals to kill there will no longer be any chance for him to make a mistake. If he continues killing at his usual rate. There will no longer be any criminals by morning.-
"So… What you're saying is... You finally believe in Light's innocence but... We have lost against Kira." Mr. Yagami says as his gaze falls to the floor. The weight of that quite possible truth is evident with his words. I had never thought about the possibility that I had somehow got Light to lose his memories prior to my detainment and then kept him from regaining his memories. Or somehow in some other way changing the outcome. What if I myself had found someone else to continue on as Kira in the hope for Light and I to have a chance at a happy life. What if I changed the story. If I did.. Closing my eyes I take in a deep breath feeling as if I should be the one punished for all of these murders rather than whoever is out there committing them.
"We still have hope!" Matsuda happily breaks the heavy tension circulating the room. Looking towards the young detective I raise a brow. What did he think of that I didn't?
*Light*
Upon hearing Matsuda speak I look away from Alessia who for a time looked utterly beaten as if she was giving up. "What about Misa! S detained her because he has evidence on her! What if he can get her to talk? It has been long enough maybe he has gotten the evidence we need?!" After the outburst, everyone seemed to look a bit more hopeful even as my computer screen flashed to reveal S's contact screen. Our breath's caught as I turned toward my computer. *- Light, your computer and phone have been hacked so that S can listen and watch you-* the sight of that text flashed through my mind as I stare at the black S in front of me.
This contact is too well-timed for it to be a coincidence. He had in fact been eavesdropping. Though this time it was taking him slightly longer to begin his pompous speech of how he was able to make Misa crack. So I flicked on my mic and voice filter to speak to him. "Greetings S. We were just talking about you." Again there was silence. "S?" I question trying to get him to say something, anything at all really.
"Misa Amane is dead. She died in her detained medical bed last night. There was nothing I could do." Just like with L that night which feels like eons ago in the precinct emotions could be heard behind the filter. Depression just as everyone else had been feeling before Matsuda's small ray of hope had busted out.
"W..What do you mean S?" I question allowing myself to look upset... Pained even. Misa was gone. No more loudmouth yips of glee. No beautiful blond to suddenly appear in my room to wrap me up in her arms. No more fits of fury from my distance towards her. Yes, think of anything that could seem sad. I had quite gotten used to her after so long.
"With every bit of interrogation there comes a chance something can go wrong. Though I cannot be completely certain that the fault does lie with me and not Kira but, in this instance, something did happen. While being interrogated her appendix had ruptured. She was immediately operated on in attempts to save her though the acids from her appendix had the time it needed to permanently damage her. We had only merely managed to prolong her life but her death was imminent from that point." There was a pause as if he was allowing all of this to sink in before speaking again drawing our attention back. "Now I should say, I have a confession to make... Since my first contact with the task force, I had set your computer up so I may watch and listen to your meetings. As I had bugged Light Yagami's phone. Just as Alessia did. I believed in his guilt. Though reading her words now. She may be correct. Though Misa Amane was without a doubt the second Kira. There is no proof that L number 2 or Light Yagami is in fact, Kira. The death note either by Light's will or another's could have very well landed in the hands of someone who could continue Light's work for him without him ever needing to touch another death note. As of an hour ago the number of living criminals diminished by four." Suddenly my dad's phone began ringing drawing our eyes though he made no move to answer it. "Answer the call, Mr. Yagami. I can wait." S said which caused me to look back at the computer.
What the hell? I can wait? This isn't like S at all! I could hear dad behind me talking on his phone answering with simple yes's and I see's before a sudden solemn exhale and the beep of his phone. "That was Ide. He just confirmed the deaths S was speaking about only. Just as he was speaking with me. The fifth death was called in."
"I see." S said pausing a moment. "So, Alessia is correct. We have lost this war." With that said my screen flashed back to Alessia's word document…. Have I.. Really Won?