Chapter 22:
"Archimedes Principle"
Light Yagami stood in an Art Gallery of a museum exhibit hall of famous painters, or so his perspective of such lead him to believe what he was seeing was either a figment of true reality or his own imagination, after succumbing to Auric's knockout gas inside the SUV.
He had no idea why was here, but as he stood in the large boxed room with its carpeted floors and ambulant, open space, he took in his surroundings. He was alone, yet there was—something equivalent to the soft sound of aquatic music—new age music. Or it may have been the sound of a waterfall display just somewhere in the distance outside of the exhibit hall. He couldn't be sure.
Almost immediately, he felt displaced, even lost. He also suddenly developed some anxiety. Something about this place was gravely eerie and surreal.
On every wall, there was a representation of a famous painting, but something—missing. Each painting only included landscapes and he knew that was not right.
He recognized some of the paintings, or at the very least the settings within the paintings. Each painting was devoid of human figures, almost like the people that had occupied these sceneries decided to escape the locked-in walls of the canvas.
What was the point? Why recreate famous paintings without the main attractions, namely the people? Then again, was this symbolic in a way? Was he dreaming?
Light was trying to create a brand new world by wiping out the old stock, per se. To remove the old stains of humanity and replace it with a fresh new scene. To remove those that inhabited it and insert others who saw his grand agenda. Then what he was seeing now, was it what he wished in his brand new world?
And yet, everything looked empty, and boring. This world was rotten and those that made it rotten deserve to die, but to remove humanity itself from the canvas of the world was moot. Kira needed followers to do his bidding and to spread his word to the masses.
Kira needed to be fluid like water and rise to the challenge of anything that came between Kira and his brand new world! I need to gather like minds that see that what I'm doing is just and necessary.
Misa? I need you...
Suddenly, one-by-one the people that inhibited the famous paintings began tor re-appear back into their respected canvases. Had he just had an epiphany? He needed to get back to judging again. He wanted the Death Note physically in his hands. He needed to show the world Kira would not relent in his quest to cleanse the world of evil. Was his subconsciousness trying to tell him to be more god-like without spreading fear and tyranny? The world was a canvas for him to re-paint, he concluded.
Light now knew this was a dream, but it was a profound one. He would learn from his mistakes. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. He wouldn't make the same mistakes he made with L that nearly cost him everything—with Beyond Birthday. But a real name, he needed a real man! He needed to kill Beyond Birthday—"Rue" was all he had, so far!
All of sudden, the floor began to flood with water. He looked around, the water was everywhere. The carpet disappeared beneath the water, covering his feet, his ankles…He didn't know why. Was it symbolic of something else? He needed to emerge from the sinking sensation of his own human ego and think more like Kira—be a king, a ruler, and a god!
Then something made him turn around—
And he gasped when he saw Beyond Birthday standing there, his hands around Light's shirt collar.
Light was slapped across the face, released, and staggered back.
"Wake up, you idiot!" BB said harshly
Light jolted awake. He had been dreaming. He remembered in an instant that Auric Lafayette, aka "A", had filled the SUV he and BB were trapped in with some sort of sleeping gas. What happened afterwards, he had no clue. Only now, he found himself handcuffed to Beyond Birthday by a ten foot chain, and trapped in square glass chamber within another brightly, painted white square room, with water filtering in through a floor drain at his feet. The water was now up to their knees. Light's clothes were soaked.
"W-what…what's going on?" Light asked, his cheek stinging.
"I've been trying to wake you for the last five minutes," Beyond Birthday told him. "You're a heavy sleeper, but Nitrous Oxide, or sleeping gas commonly used to drug patients undergoing medical surgery, sometimes effects people differently," BB said. "We have a problem and I need your help. And don't ask me how we got here, we don't have the time for frivolous chit-chat."
Light nodded. "Okay," he said, wanting to ask the question foremost on his mind but didn't.
"If we don't get out of here, we'll drown!"
"Sure," Light said, unsure where he was, the emerging water began to get higher. On the nearest glass panel, BB had etched something into it with some sort of tool using it as a writing board. They were arithmetic equations. And Light recognized it. He looked at BB stunned. "What's…"
"'A' is playing a game of life and death with us," BB said, pointing at a wide flat screen on the wall outside the glass chamber. It had instructions: Solve for Archimedes Principle!
"I—I don't understand," Light said, then gazed back at BB's equations.
The water was filling higher.
"You know what Archimedes Principle is, right?" BB asked him.
"Yes," Light answered. "The principle discovered by the ancient Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes states that the buoyant force acting on an object placed in a fluid is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object. An object completely immersed in a fluid displaces a volume of fluid exactly equal to the volume of the object."
"Correct, top marks," BB said sarcastically.
"'A' has locked us in here and is slowly immersing us in water," BB said. "I've tried everything, but something is wrong, or, 'A' isn't playing by the rules. If we solve it, we'll be released." He pointed to a locking mechanism on a hermetically sealed door on the side of the chamber. "I've solved the problem, but…I know 'A', and he wouldn't purposely craft a problem I couldn't solve. He enjoys playing with me."
"Does he want to solve for the interior area we are standing in with the chamber completely full?"
"I believe so," BB said, "check my equations."
Light did so swiftly. BB's arithmetic formula for a 20x20 space looked correct, assuming the enclosure they were in was indeed a perfect square, the volume of water it could contain was easily calculable. But then it hit Light. BB had missed something important.
Light pointed to the error. "You failed to take into account the space two objects of said kilograms—meaning us—would take up. You only calculated for the water. Correcting the equation—here—will fix it."
BB gave himself a face palm. "I'm the idiot now. How the hell did I miss such a simple thing? How much do you weigh?" Light told him. BB added Light's and his own weight to the equation.
"Stress can alter intelligence in dire times," Light said understandingly.
BB corrected his error—
Light observed what BB was using to carve into the glass chamber wall.
Shocked, Light said, "That's my watch!"
"Yeah, I needed something to write with," BB responded. "I apologize for what I said about it earlier, wonderful craftsmanship. You have good taste—a Rolex. It's the real mccoy."
Light's mouth trembled with shock. He mentally cursed BB. But he'd deal with the issue later. He wanted it back! BB had taken it to aid in his disguise to become Light to trick the Kira Task Force.
Seconds past after the error was fixed.
Nothing happened and the water kept rising. Now it reached up to their waist.
Light and BB exchanged confused glances.
"It's correct, I know it is!" BB stated. "'A'" he called out, "release us! We've solved your puzzle. We've solved for Archimedes Principle within the allotted space! Answer us, you bastard!"
A strange, ghastly laugher came from a set of speakers installed on either side of the room in the walls. Light then noticed two cameras embedded in the far corners directed at the glass chamber. Auric wanted to see the both of them die, drown in this chamber of inescapability.
An inescapable Locked-Room, Light thought.
"Did you now?" came Auric's voice from a speaker. "I suggest you rethink your logic. For the equation isn't complete to its finality. Miguel de Unamuno, the famous Spanish novelist, once wrote: 'The only way to give finality to the world is to give is consciousness'. So look beyond your logic."
"What the hell are you talking about, 'A''? BB shouted.
Light looked over the equation, then he swore. "It isn't finished!" he said.
BB cocked his head, his eyes narrowed. "What do you mean? The equation is correct!"
"It is, but it's only part of the problem. We have a solution, but we don't have the complete solution. Auric is waiting until the chamber fills up with water for our answer to be finite."
BB's eyes widened. "So, we're going to have to drown for our answer to be correct?"
"I'm afraid so," Light said sombrely.
BB swore, but then started to kick at the door lock. "I'm not going to die here!" BB said. "L didn't kill me, Kira didn't kill me, so I'm not going to let my past do it!" And with each foot of water than filled chamber, it became more difficult to move, forcing them to tread water. "He wants us to drown. 'A' doesn't care if we life or die! He wants me to suffer for what I did to him!"
Light had nothing to say. The water itself was cold and he began to shiver. But he figured they would drown long before hypothermia set in. As the water rose higher, they floated to the top and within a minute the chamber filled, they took their last breath to fill their lungs.
Light knew he couldn't hold his breath for long.
A shadow suddenly appeared within the water in front of Light, then it fully formed. It was Ryuk. "Hi, Light," said the Shinigami, its voice bubbly, due to the poor acoustic conduction property of the water, its thin arm waving, its jewelry glinting with sprinkles from illumination cast from outside light. "If you don't get out of here, you're going to drown."
Ryuk looked at BB, his cheeks inflated with air.
Light gave the Shinigami an incredulous look. Light couldn't talk, but for once he was glad to see Ryuk. He pointed to the door lock. Ryuk looked, but he didn't seem to get the idea.
Ryuk looked back. "What?"
Light gave in. "Open the lock!" he shouted through the water, bubbles coming out.
"Oh!"
Ryuk turned and went to the door lock. Light watched the Shinigami, but as he did, he had no air. He had used it all up shouting the directive to the god of death, who was now taking his time obeying his order. Ryuk went to the lock and then seemed to check it out. He put a long-nailed finger to the mechanism, using his nail like a key; he unlocked it. "Light, get ready!"
The door flew open and the rush of water ejected itself out the chamber in a massive torrent.
Light and BB were literally vomited from the chamber and thrown to the outside room. They each coughed, on their hands and knees, after the water began to fill the other parts of the room, and then drain elsewhere into floor drains.
Light felt like his lungs were on fire as he coughed out water. After he shouted at Ryuk, he had actually gulped water into his lungs. Now he had to get it all out and it hurt like hell.
"Yagami," came BB's hoarse voice, "you okay?"
Light coughed, then nodded. "Thanks to Ryuk," he replied, coughing. Ryuk stood next to him.
BB got to his feet, coughed, then helped Light to his own. They were soaked to the skin and Light felt his clothes weighed a ton. BB brushed back his wet hair. Light did the same.
"If it wasn't for Ryuk, we would've drowned," BB said. "'A' had no intention of letting us live."
"That's unfair!" Light said, coughing out again. His throat hurt, but he begin to breath normally again.
Laughter filled the outer chamber, and then suddenly a hidden door inside a wall slid up into the ceiling, revealing a second room. "You have successfully passed Stage 1. Congratulations! Despite getting assistance from your Shinigami, Light Yagami, I applaud your efforts in solving the puzzle when Rue failed to see an obvious flaw. And there is much more fun to be had in my secret rooms."
"Whats your end game, A?" BB demanded, looking at the nearest camera.
"Simple: I know how much you love your Locked Room mysteries, but now a twist! If you solve the mystery in each room, you'll be allowed to keep going. The puzzles will get more difficult as you progress, however, so I hope you bring your A game?" 'A' laughed, much like a Shinigami. And Light noted just how much Auric's laugh mimicked Ryuk's. "And with Yagami with you, I'm sure he can bring up the slack."
Light frowned, as if he were a third wheel in Beyond Birthday and Auric's fight.
BB let out a short cough, then said, "Screw you! But bring it on!"
Light wasn't much for confrontation, but he told himself that there came a time in everyone's life when fear had to be put aside and a person just had to press on taking each challenge as it came. "Let's go!" he said to BB. "There's nothing the both of us won't be able to handle!"
"I like your cockiness," 'A' said. "I'll be watching to see what you show me, my pair of wannabe A-Players. Enter the next chamber. Once you do, the door to the previous chamber will be shut. You must solve the puzzle in each room to move on. At the end of my funhouse, you'll see me. I'm looking forward to chatting with you face-to-face, if you survive. And you're going to need more than just luck to win!"
Auric laughed heartedly.
To be continued...
