Chapter 15:
"Command Performance"
Light Yagami stood in front of a tall, standing mirror in his bedroom, and adjusted his tie. He wore a dark suit. He smiled, and adjusted a slight imperfection in his face, smoothing a winkle.
"I have to admit, I am one handsome devil," he said to himself, with a low chuckle.
He checked his phone. He had a scheduled appointment.
Misa had left for a photo shoot, Mogi had picked up an hour and half ago, so Light had some time to himself to scheme of what things may come. And he had plans, big plans.
A knock came at his apartment door and he left the bedroom to answer it. It was his father, he was here o drive them to the rendezvous appointment that was pre-scheduled.
"Good morning, Light," Soichiro Yagami said.
"Morning Dad, big day today," Light replied, as his father handed him a cup of coffee. Light locked the door of his apartment and followed Soichiro to the elevator.
They took it down to the lobby, exited for the exterior parking lot, and Light got into the passenger side of his father's car. Even after all these years, he had still not taken his driver's license. He was a full-fledged cop now, but other things got in the way.
Being Kira is a full-time job.
Still, he didn't need to go anywhere unless driven, the Kira Task Force headquarters, as small as it was, was in his apartment, so he had his own personal chauffeur service
As a deity should, he thought, laughing inwardly.
Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the city morgue, and was greeted by the head medical examiner, who checked their credentials, being law enforcement agents, and they were escorted to an examination room, where a body was laying under a white sheet on a metal slab. This was the reason for their visit.
The room smelled of alcoholic disinfectant. Surrounding them, within the walls, were a dozen storage slots for bodies. Within the room was a variety of tools for the trade.
Light and his father stood on one side of a rectangular slab with the coroner on the other. He asked if they were ready to see and identify the body. This had been the moment both Light and his father been waiting for—finally they were going to confirm that the man that had plagued them for weeks was finally deceased, dead of a heart attack in prison.
The cover was removed from the corpse's head and Beyond Birthday's face was seen, hideous burn scar on his right side, and all. Medical records were scarce and another person had to confirm that it was BB since he could not be identified by finger printers or dental records, as they did not match what was on prison records—Beyond Birthday had had some extensive surgeries done since escaping years ago after faking his death. And they had no name either.
Light had been the closest to Beyond Birthday over the last few weeks,,and he was requested by the Chief of the NPA to view the body, and to confirm Beyond Birthday's identity. This was a formality, but it was necessary.
"Is this the deceased, Detective Yagami?" the coroner asked.
"Yes, I can confirm without a doubt," Light answered.
Soichiro put a hand on Light's shoulder. "So finally, the bastard's dead," he said. "I may be bias, but after everything we know about Beyond Birthday and how many times he's tried to murder you, Light—we can now all rest easy. The lawsuit against you, Light, has been dismissed, and the DA in Los Angeles has dropped the order to extradite BB since he is dead. He says we can keep the body and donate it to medical science as a cadaver, for all he cares. All he needed was confirmation of his death, which is why we're here. All you need to do is write a letter stating you viewed the body. It saves the taxpayers a hell of lot of money now in court costs."
Light nodded. "I'll get on that letter right away, Dad," he said, smiling inwardly.
Just then, the door to the examination room swung open, and a man that looked like he was in his late sixties, but still had the vitality of a man much younger despite the white hair, entered. He wore a white lab coat and wore a pair of octagonal spectacles. Light looked at him and examined the state of the man with a hint of wonder.
"Detectives," the coroner began, "I would like to introduce Dr. Lawrence Goodman. He flew all the way from England to examine the body. He's also here confirm the deceased identity with additional medical records from when the deceased resided in an orphanage in Winchester."
Soichiro shook the doctor's hand. "Have we met someplace before, Doctor? For some reason, you look familiar to me? Oh, I'm sorry—Light can you translate for me?"
"I may have one of those faces," Dr. Goodman answered. "And I can understand Japanese, Chief Yagami. There is no need for your son to translate it."
"I'm no longer the Chief of the NPA," Soichiro corrected. "I'm just a detective now."
"I see," Dr. Goodman said with acceptance.
Dr. Goodman then reached out to shake Light's hand. Introductions were had.
"So, he has finally been taken down," Dr. Goodman said. "The poor, sad, deluded mongrel. And I call him that, because he was such a pain at the orphanage, wild and animalistic. And the acts he committed in Los Angeles was well beyond horrific, something only a beast would do. Wammy House has completely disavowed him. I looked after the children's needs at Wammy House while I was a physician there. I was heartbroken to hear that its founder had died when I read Qullish's obituary."
Dr. Goodman approached the body.
"We all were, Doctor," Soichiro replied.
Dr. Goodman leaned over the face of Beyond Birthday, and seemed to examine his face thoroughly, visually, and then produced a pleasing smile. He cocked his head amused. "Intriguing," he said, then gave Light a side-ways glance.
Light looked at the doctor but didn't react.
Then the doctor turned to the coroner. "I trust the records I produced helped identity and confirm the deceased, as well as Detective Light Yagami's attestation?"
"They did, thank you, Doctor," the coroner replied.
"So, what will be done with the body now?" Soichiro wondered.
"I have received permission to have it cremated," Dr. Goodman said. "Never again will the scourge of Beyond Birthday dawn this world. The only way to purge evil is to burn it."
Light looked at the doctor and for a split moment Dr. Goodman looked at him. He then approached Light. "Tell me something, young man. I hope your encounters with this piece of scum won't derive you with any, say, mental issues? You seem to be a man in the prime of his life, it would be a shame if someone like derailed you of your dreams?"
Light tilted his head slightly. "I appreciate your concerns, Dr. Goodman, but I'm stronger than you may think. I joined the police force to help people, following in my father's footsteps, and I assure you that a piece of…" He coughed his throat. "A criminal like Beyond Birthday will be a dime a dozen in the years that I'll have to contend with. I'm fit as fiddle."
Dr. Goodman looked to the coroner, and said, "May we have a moment?"
"Of course," the coroner said, then left the room.
The doctor smiled, then said to Light, "I heard that you are a member of the task force that hunts down Kira-like crimes here in Japan, detective. That must be exciting work?"
"And where did you hear that, Doctor?" Soichiro asked.
"Information comes my way through third party sources," he said. "And I happen to speak with the new chief of the NPA days ago before getting on a flight to Japan to identity the body."
"It's supposed to be a secret, to protect the identity of its members," Soichiro said. "I'm going to have to have a word with the new chief about this."
"Forgive me if I revealed something unnecessary," Dr. Goodman answered, "but I'm privy to information that a lot of people are not." He then turned his attention back to Light. "Detective Light Yagami, if it would all be possible, could you tell me—" Dr. Goodman seemed to take a moment. "I'm sorry, I know that that bastard Kira murdered L—one of Wammy House's most brightest and most respected alumni. It still wounds me that L's gone. I hadn't spoken to L in quite a while. He and Qullish, Wammy House's founder, were continuously gallivanting around the world, solving crimes. Wammy House knew what the pair were doing and kept it secret."
Soichiro gave Light a look. "L died bravely," Soichiro then said. "And Kira will pay for their deaths, we swear it."
The Doctor nodded. "Could you tell me about L, from what you knew of him? I would very much like to know the man that he became?"
Soichiro agreed to tell him (almost) everything as they left the examination room.
After a summary of events, and the unfortunate events (minus any mention of the Death Note; Soichiro had to lie there), Dr. Goodman was brought up to speed on L's quest against Kira and how tragically it lead to his death.
As Light and his father were about to depart, the three of them stood just outside the main entrance to the hospital that housed the examination facilities in the basement, Soichiro's phone rang. He looked at the caller and said that it was important. He had to step away to take it.
Meanwhile, Light remained at the entrance. He found himself biting his nails.
"That's a nasty little habit you have," Dr. Goodman voiced.
Light turned to the doctor, dropping his hand. "Pardon me?"
"Biting your nails, young man. It's a sign of nervousness or anxiety. Did the sight of a dead boy unnerve you that much? You'd have to be stronger than that in your line of work."
Light eyed him.
Dr. Goodman chuckled. "Drop the act, you're not fooling anyone," he then said. Light looked at him. "Your posture, your appearance, even your voice—you look and sound just like him, but I know you better than you know yourself, Rue. Such a command performance, my son, and you even have his own father believing you."
"Son-of-a-bitch," BB said to the doctor. "Just shut up! And I'm not your son. I never was. The way you treated us, I would hardly call you anything other than our tormentor."
Dr. Goodman cocked his head amused. "Your words wound me, but I do understand your confusion. A great many of the children at Wammy House would probably side with you, but the experiments were not meant to harm any of you, but to prevent you from committing harm to others. The school is for 'gifted children', but that was just a facade for what you kids really are deep down: psychopaths. You were my greatest failure, Rue. And L went after you when you with good reason. You tried to prove you were better than him in Los Angeles, but in the end, you attempted to take the coward's way out when you came up to a brick wall."
Dr. Goodman attempted to touch the right side of Light's face, or rather the burned scarred area of Beyond Birthday's face underneath the disguise, but his hand was slapped away. "Don't touch me, you insufferable bastard. I'm going to kill you one day, I swear it."
The doctor chuckled, then: "Tsk, tsk. You wound me. Rue," he said. "This tis he way you speak to me after nothing seeing one another in many years? I should put you over my knee. You need to learn more respect. I raise you from a pup. Don't bite the hand of your master."
BB clenched his fists at his side. He wanted to punch the doctor, but they were out in the open. He seethed inside, but he kept himself from lashing out.
"There's still so much to be done, Rue," he said. "But even if you did kill me, my work will go on through the methods of others. One man can't reshape the world, but men who have a collective vision have the fortitude to carve a niche within its crust."
"I never thought you'd be so brash as to come out in the open, Doctor," BB said. "I'm the only one that hates your guts."
Dr. Goodman smirked. "I'm sure I have a lot of enemies from long days past," he said, "as do you, and not just L and the Kira Task Force. So, tell me," he continued, as he looked at Soichiro Yagami still on the phone out of earshot, "What did you do to the real Light Yagami?" he asked.
"He's—safe," BB replied. "I have Raven, my associate, watching over him now."
Dr. Goodman mused. "Yagami…Yagami…Why does that name sound so familiar?" he said to himself. He shook his head. "Maybe it's nothing, it's an unusual name."
"Light Yagami: His name is spelled with the Japanese kanji meaning 'Moon' or 'God'," BB said. "Ironic, isn't it? He picked up the Death Note and tried to play god with it."
Dr. Goodman smiled thinly. "And what about you, Rue? Can you still see things…beyond the scope of the conventional? When you told me you could see numbers and names above people's head, I thought you delusional. But when you proved it, after predicting the deaths of some of the kids, telling me you knew the exact moment and time of his deaths, I knew right then that you were someone beyond special."
"When I received those 'Eyes', from a Shinigami," BB said, "that was my rebirth. Those eyes reached beyond reality. I felt like I was born again, receiving them so young. I never told anyone, but I was having trouble with my sight. But these new eyes cleared that up."
"Suffice it to say, the experiments I conducted on you kids at the orphanage were for your own good. And as a result, the monthly injections I gave you, that I told the administrators was a monthly vitamin booster, reversed a progressive neurological degradation within your synaptic pathways. Without this damage, you could all lead normal lives, instead of waiting your turn to be being locked up in an institution for the insane. As a bonus, it also increased your intelligence. L was the exception without the injections. He was his own monster, and was gone most of the time, pretending to be Sherlock Holmes. However, he had his own quirks. Those obsessive compulsive disorders all of you possess mask a dark side of yourselves."
BB blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Your nail biting, for example."
"I stopped that for a while, but I seem to have started up again."
"With ever child I experimented on and injected, I added an elemental programmer 'stopper' to reinforce inhibitors. They help reassert yourself to a state of calmness when you feel anxious. The psychosomatic experiments were to cure latin homicidal maniac inclinations. Qullish Wammy brandished the orphanage as a place for gifted children, but it was really a place for children with mental issues. He asked for my expertise to help you children, but he didn't know the extent I went to quell each of you the best way I could from your insanities."
BB dug his nails deep into the palms. "We children were not play things for your amusement, Doctor. You tortured us! You put each of us through a battery of painful tests, especially me. You focused a lot of your time on me and 'A'."
"It was for your own good, but it seems were able to undo my work, and you left the orphanage before I could complete my work with you. I'm pleased to say, the others faired much better."
"The experiments never stopped, 'A' said this. What did he mean?"
"I thought Auric killed himself? I trust there's a story behind his supposed resurrection much like yourself. The last I heard ,you suffered a massive heart while in prison a year after L caught you. But I'm glad you didn't die. You were one of my favourites. I'm glad we could reconnect."
"As you can see, Doctor, I'm a man of many talents, and my thespian skills are, as the Japanese say, Subarashī," BB said with a broad smile. "Brilliant!"
"You always enjoyed acting a role, Rue."
BB proceeded a malicious smile. "Well, it's true, and I've proven it. The bad guys have all the fun." Then he said, "But just know, Doctor, I still plan on killing you for what you did to us."
"You can try," Dr. Goodman replied. "But remember, Rue…When death comes for you, it will have your eyes. And you will see a reflection of your life in death just before it takes you."
"Death comes for us all, none of us get out alive. I don't fear death."
"You are death," Dr. Goodman said with a touch of levity.
They both laughed.
To be continued...
