Chapter 3:

"Deadliest Catch"

Light couldn't believe that this man knew so much. How did this man come to know about the Death Note? Light knew he had to engage in conversion to goad the man into revealing more information. But one thing he did come to conclude unequivocally: this man was a psychopath.

Even before he became a trained investigator and he knew how to make people talk as Kira. If he could trick Naomi Misora to reveal her real name, then he could do the same to this jerk. Still, something about his captor concerned him. He had to tread carefully.

His training dictated he'd need to start with the basics, even attempt to befriend the man.

"Let's start anew off on the right foot," Light said. "Obviously 'Candles' isn't your real name…" Light stated plainly. "You know my name. Give me yours, a first name will do."

His captor laughed. "Negotiation Tactics 101: Befriend your enemy, make him feel more at ease, so he will reveal something about himself, and then use it against him. Nice try. But it won't work on me, Detective Light Yagami. I know everything in your bag of tricks."

Light frowned. Not everything, he thought.

"That isn't my real name, but Onyx loves his idioms." "Candles" took a step back and then took a theatrical bow with an arm across his stomach, he looked up. "You can call me Beyond Birthday, or BB for short. My real name will remain secret for obvious reasons." BB stood up straight. He looked at Misa. "Now, Misa is in possession of the Shinigami Eyes, but I have made assurances that my name will remain unknown to her, as will the names of rest of my group."

"You have a Shinigami? And what's with the ridiculous nom de guerre?"

"Ridiculous? It's beyond ingenious! The best factitious name anyone could come up with."

"And why is that?" Light asked. "It sounds beyond amateurish," he added derisively.

BB snorted amused. "Witty," he said dryly. "As for being aligned with a Shinigami, sadly my situation is beyond different," BB said, restituting a sarcastic comment. "However, this place is shielded from your Shinigami, Ryuk, with spirit charms. As you know Shinigami are gods of death, but they must also adhere to the same set of rules as the deceased. They cannot enter a forbidden location. Your Shinigami Eyes won't work here, either, Amane—my other insurance policy—against you. Of course, you already knew this—a lover of everything gothic."

BB knows quite bit about Misa, other than her actress profile, too, Light thought.

Misa stuck out her tongue at BB, then said, "I was perplexed at first, but then I saw the paper charms all over the walls. I recognized them. I have a friend who's into the Occult. I can't see your name, but even if I could, I still need to see your face for the Death Note to work."

BB looked at Raven. Raven shook her head in disbelief. BB turned back. "If I was a cop, interrogating you, Misa Amane, you'd just be indicted inr being Kira with a confession like that."

"Misa, be quiet," Light told her.

"Memorizing thousands of lines of script must be easy for you, but you can't lie to save your own life. It's almost like you want to be caught. Are you feeling guilty?" Misa said nothing. BB looked at Light. "Everyone makes mistakes—Am I, right, Yagami? The road we wish we hadn't taken. Decisions we wish we had made more carefully. Critical errors to avoid unnecessary hardship."

"I don't know what you're talking about?" Light said.

"Oh, I think you do," BB said. "In hindsight, I bet you wished you hadn't killed L's imposter during that live broadcast. L wouldn't have pinpointed you in the Kanto Region of Japan."

Light eyed him ruefully. "Screw you! L's dead and I won our game."

"I'm afraid the game has just begun anew, Yagami. And it starts here, on your birthday."

Light eyed him suspiciously. He wanted to ask BB what he meant, when Misa asked, looking around, "Where are we? This looks like some sort of old hospital."

"Correct," BB told her. "It's an abandoned psytritric hospital for the criminally insane."

"Fitting place for a person such as yourself," Light said satirically.

"Hmm," BB said analytically. "I can see it in your eyes, you're trying to profile me."

Light smiled broadly.

BB cocked his head beleaguered. "Why are you smiling? Did I say something amusing?"

"You're playing a very deadly game, Beyond Birthday," Light said arrogantly. "Kira will come out on top, as always. I beat L and he was concerned the best detective in the world." Light laughed.

BB struck Light with the back of his hand. "You son-of-a-bitch," the villain said aberrantly. "You remind me of L. That same vexatious arrogance. How the hell was L beaten by you?"

With cunning intelligence, Light thought.

"Light! Are you okay?" Misa asked.

Light spat out blood. He continued to smile, ignoring Misa. "We've been profiling each other, Beyond Birthday," he said. "Words can speak volumes to someone who has a keen ear, so can body language. And I've come to understand something very interesting about you."

"Oh? Really? What, and pray tell, would that be? Please, enlighten me, or godly one."

Light smiled. "That you're nothing like L. Your admiration is in fact jealousy, and that's all you have. When it finally comes time for you to die, I'll deliver the same humiliation to you."

BB laughed softly. He learned in close, eye-to-eye. "Trust me when I say, Light Yagami, that your days of swinging your gravel down is nigh. I may have not liked L, as conceited as he was, but he was someone I respected. And he deserves proper justice! I hereby judge you guilty and I sentence you for the greatest crime of all. That of hypocrisy!"

BB pulled out a gun from behind and pointed it in Light's face.

Light struggled in the chair.

Light sneered. "If you kill me, you'll be sentencing the entire world to wallow in abject evil! Kira is the brightness that'll bring the world out of the dark. The light that will open their hearts to good."

"Nice play on words, but I can't believe L was killed by a guppy like you." He returned the gun to his pants. "You're not worth a bullet. In fact, you're not on my level. I see what you're trying to do. You're conditioning the masses to accept an irrational form of authoritarianism. Many have tried through history and they've all come crashing down. An emperor with no clothes, that's what you are. You'll eventually fall to your own whims. Humans are weak."

Light eyed him with utter hate. "Bastard! Kira will be the god of a brand new world. And I plan on reigning in it for a very long time. Kira will cleanse this world of evil! If L couldn't stop me, your attempts will falter, too! If you didn't bring me here to kill me, what was this all about?"

"As I said, this was an introduction," BB stated. "You miss L, don't you? You don't have anyone worthy to play around with anymore, do you? The Kira Task Force not challenging enough to outwit? Well, you have me now. You would've been L's most deadliest catch. But this was way too easy. You're not much of a challenge."

"I'll kill you! I swear it!"

BB chuckled. "We'll see each other again, someday," he said. "In the meantime, I encourage you to continue your little judgements and play to your belief that you are some kind of god, pseudo in nature. I've emerged from the depths of darkness to find you. But until you show me you're a fish worth reeling in again, I'm throwing you back."

"In aliorum commodum, In nomine dei nostri satanas luciferi excelsi," BB said in Latin.

Light gasped. In the service of god, in lucifer of the most high, Light loosely translated.

"I am not Satan!" he shouted.

The next thing Light saw, and tried to recoil from, was BB's fist smashing into his face—Misa's scream in his ear—and then darkness again.


Weeks later after Light's encounter with Beyond Birthday, the Samurai became a faded memory for the media and they had moved on to something else when the killings suddenly stopped. Some claimed Kira served out justice, but Light knew better.

Misa had told Light what had happened after BB knocked him unconscious, but only to the point to where she was drugged and then collapsed. BB's minion Onyx had brought them home. They woke up in bed together, Light fully clothed. BB knew where Light lived. That was dangerous information and it exposed Light to further torments from BB if he decided to do so.

Light soon learned the piece of the Death Note he had in the secret compartment of his watch had been taken. BB was now in possession of a portion of his Death Note and that meant he could see Ryuk, yet another dangerous circumstance. He would have to be guard for now on against both the task force and now for Beyond Birthday. The pressure was a bit much.

The next morning—Misa was out for an early morning movie shoot—Light walked out of the bedroom and into the living room wearing nothing more than a pair of jockey's.

He was alone and the task force wouldn't be arriving for another couple of hours so he could ease into his day. He flicked on the switch for the kettle to boil water for tea when he suddenly saw something had been slipped under his apartment door.

He went over and saw it was an 5x7 white envelope. He turned it over, then opened it. Inside was a generic birthday card. The envelope had no return address, so it must had to have been hand delivered. There was a hand written, but short message in blue ink.

Hello, Light…

It was a pleasure chatting with you. The next met time we meet, we can go beyond just words. Stay true, you handsome devil!

Admiringly yours,

— BB

Light crumpled the card in his hands.

To be continued...