An entire month had passed since L and Light had come back. They had been to at least seven different labs, all owned by Abho. When L had asked why they never stayed in one place for too long, Abho had changed the subject to the latest baseball game in Japan.
"He certainly is suspicious," Light agreed one night after they arrived at one of the labs they'd already been to. Abho was sleeping in a different room.
"Yes. And I believe he's running from someone. Why else would he want to keep moving?"
"It's like when we looking for Kira. Before we had the Kira Investigation Headquarters, we just moved to tons of different hotels."
L brought his thumb to his mouth and pulled his knees closer to his chest. "Something bad is going on. But it's nothing two brilliant detectives can't work out."
"Interesting."
"What?"
"Usually you'd only give yourself credit."
"Well you are my best friend, aren't you?"
Light smiled. "Yeah."
...
Near was getting a little impatient. It had been a month and Atabo still hadn't given them any more information. He was seriously considering torturing the man. That's actually not a bad idea, Near thought. It'd certainly get him to talk.
Unfortunately, when presented with this idea, the SPK called Near insane and refused to let him do that. "But this is important," Near argued. "Crimes of all levels of difficulty are being solved by someone who isn't me, a man who looks oddly like Light Yagami has been spotted making arrests, the Kira followers we're keeping an eye on are obviously up to no good, and for the past three months four members of the NPA have been missing."
"I know. But torture is out of the question," Gevanni said firmly.
"You're not the boss of me."
"If you torture him, or any human being, I'll kick you."
"Is that a threat?"
"No," Gevanni said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Don't worry, he'll talk eventually."
"Near," Lidner said to get the albino's attention. "If the criminals haven't been showing up in any prisons in Japan, then where are they going?"
"The Kira followers might be keeping them, possibly as victims of torture, or they could be killing them in order to stay true to Kira's traditions."
"Then why only Japan?" Rester asked.
"It's possible that they don't have enough people to go to other places in the world. And obviously they don't have a Death Note. If they did, they would have used it by now."
"This is ridiculous," Lidner said. "I cant' believe you reformed the SPK for this."
"But I need someone to buy me new toys while I'm distracted with this particularly difficult case."
Lupus: Bagels.