I Have the Right to Destroy
Chapter 03: Disappearance
L... what do I remember from L?
The children of Whammy's House had never met L in person before. There was only one occasion where he spoke to us, and it was through a web connection. The computer was a MacBook with a camera, where L was allowed to see us. The face that was shown to us was his trademark English font L against a white background. The voice that we heard when he answered the children's questions was scrambled beyond recognition.
Ah, yes, that's the memory I have of L: he had no face, no smell.
This is why I have nothing to say about L. For all we know, it could be Mr. Whammy who was speaking to us on the other side. Or, it could very well be some other being: a ghost? A vampire? A government official?
The point is, L never proved his existence to me.
L is scentless.
L is nothing to me.
"What's that you're writing there?"
I lifted the tip of the pen off the notebook and stared at my latest victim's name. I took a notepad from my desk and wrote, "This is so our friend knows who I am."
"Quillsh Whammy," he read over my shoulder. "Eh? You're giving away your identity that easily? That doesn't sound very smart," he told me.
I wrote, "You underestimate me, Mr. Ryuk. You know I have no intention of losing to him."
The death god, with its bulging yellow eyes and permanent grin, tilted his head in a comical way. "How are you going to win if L knows who you are? He's powerful enough to have that weird TV broadcast happen. If he knows who you are, he could just have you arrested or killed right here and now, even without proof, right?"
I shook my head. By this time, writing with a pen comes easily to me. "I have a better idea of how L thinks than you. He might arrest me, but not without difficulty; after all, I doubt that he knows how to do many things by himself. He's just like"—I paused for a moment before writing, "Near."
Ryuk cackled and said, "Near…"
"L might do many things to me if I let myself get caught—I can't deny that, can I? But he won't kill me. I can assure you of that."
"Well. If you say so," said the death god. "I'd hate to kill you off too early. It's boring dealing with dead people."
I stopped him with a wave of my hand. "Don't worry about it. I will make things very interesting for you, Mr. Ryuk."
"Okay, if you say so. Hey, you don't mind if I go to the kitchen again and steal some apples from the stash, do you? You kids don't appreciate apples, anyway. All those yummy nutrients are wasted on you—all I ever see you guys eat are chocolate and more chocolate…"
I nodded at him, even though I ignored most of his tirade. With that big smile on his face, he disappeared through the walls.
I do hope he helps himself, because it's the last time he's going to stay here. It would be hard taking care of a death god suffering from withdrawal symptoms…
After he left, I dipped my notes in ink, tore them apart, and threw them in the rubbish bin. And without further ado, I started writing down names and numbers into the Death Note.
It must have been a normal day for Roger Ruvie, acting headmaster of Whammy's House, except for the fact that he was the only one in the orphanage that morning.
As per L's orders, he had to be alone when the message was transmitted. The night of the message, he hastily got the teachers together, gave them some money, and told them to take the children and the members of the staff to the city centre in Winchester. The teachers agreed. Part of their job is to understand that whatever questionable things Mr. Ruvie does in the orphanage must be tolerated, for Mr. Ruvie only did these things because Mr. Whammy told him to.
The children, of course, would naturally be suspicious of what is reallygoing on, but they also know that this is definitely all according to L's plan. All of them would oblige, because L can never be wrong. Besides, it's a field trip. For many of the younger children, it would be the first time that they would leave Whammy's House after their first day of residency.
Exactly an hour after he personally saw all of the children and staff leave the premises, he locked all the doors, the windows, and retreated to his office. He closed the blinds, turned on his laptop, and waited for transmission.
It started. His desktop, scant of icons and wallpaper, turned white. A singular letter appeared in the middle of this whiteness: L.
A scrambled voice echoed in the empty room: Good morning, Mr. Ruvie. This is L.
Mr. Ruvie typed, Good morning, L. This is Roger Ruvie.
This transmission will last only five minutes. After that, please destroy this laptop within twenty-four hours. Make sure that the memory is completely erased and the unit itself is unusable.
Mr. Ruvie nodded gravely and typed, I understand.
Thank you, sir. I have terrible news for everyone…
The disembodied, distorted voice of L reported every tragic, disgusting detail of the Kira case, as it had developed after the death of Lind L. Tailor. L, as always, was nowhere to be found. For now, he had no choice but to hide from the public eye, only a mere week after his international debut.
As the old man listened, the same grave look never left his face.
Please listen to the next lines carefully. Mr. Ruvie, your life is in danger. Kira needs a name and face to kill. I'm afraid that the chances of you being killed by Kira within the next twenty-four hours are more than 90 percent.
The news was not surprising. After all, the suspect was one of the children.
No need to worry, L. My death will not lower your chances of solving the case, he typed. Next, with hesitation, he typed, Who do you think Kira is among the suspects?
L mentioned an alias.
Mr. Ruvie frowned. I see. How true do you think that is?
Lower than 2 percent, replied L.
Then, I'll believe what you say. All the data that you…
The clock chimed, 11:00 AM.
Mr. Ruvie?
Mr. Ruvie, are you still there?
For the headmaster, there was no use comprehending the garbled voice of L. All he saw was darkness—and then, the darkness disappeared, and all he saw was his office. All the objects spoke to him, except that there was only one voice talking to him. The voice was distorted and unrecognizable, but desperate.
Five minutes are over.
Mr. Ruvie no longer knew himself. All he remembered were the words,destroy… destroy…
Mechanically, he opened his desk drawer, found a box of matches, and knew what he had to do.
All he did was to follow orders. That was his purpose in life, after all. From the moment that he answered Mr. Whammy's call for help, up until this very moment, with L's letter fading into his desktop again…
L got his wish: the laptop was destroyed within 24 hours of the transmission.
Along with it, Roger Ruvie and the entire building of Whammy's House burned to the ground.
That was how I imagined the second death, and I certainly liked how I pictured it.
When we all got back from our impromptu 'field trip,' the scene wasn't attractive in any way.
It seemed that none of the teachers or staff was informed of the fire, which started a little after 11 AM. Whammy's House had no neighbours at all. The entire thing burnt to the ground, and authorities were only alerted at 2:00 PM, when a traveling truck passed by and saw enormous amounts of smoke. A forest fire was avoided, but that was all that was saved.
The firemen and detectives rounded up everyone who used to live in the place and explained that the fire was probably caused by an individual, rather than an electric accident. They weren't crossing out the possibility of a 'serial arsonist' yet, but it seemed most likely that Mr. Ruvie committed suicide.
"Oh, God." Upon seeing the wreckage and hearing the detectives' theories, all the adults crossed themselves. Many of the children cried for poor Mr. Ruvie. What could he have been thinking? What did he hear from Watari?
More importantly, where do we go from here?
Ryuk, who flew beside me all throughout the field trip, was finished going through the rubble of Whammy's House. He groaned, "No more apples, kid. You could have warned me beforehand that you were planning on burning the house down. I could have stashed some apples in the forest," he told me.
I was standing with the other two, who were silently staring at the space where the house used to stand so proudly. Amongst the noise, only the three of us remained dry-eyed and relatively level-headed. We knew that there was no use of crying. Crying was for losers. This was definitely a puzzle to be solved.
One of them turned away from the rubble of the house, annoyance flashing in his eyes. I asked him, "What do you think happened here?"
He turned to me and replied openly, "I think Roger was speaking with L before he died. And then he got killed by Kira."
The other one had his arms crossed over his chest. He laughed a little too loudly and asked him, "You think he died of a heart attack before somebody else set him on fire? That doesn't sound very likely to happen."
To my surprise, he gave a vague laugh. "Come on, do you honestly think that Kira's power is limited only to giving heart attacks to criminals?"
Well now. I resisted an urge to smile. "What made you say that?" I asked him. I said this with only the slightest touch of suspicion in my voice—I mustn't let them notice how abnormally neutral I was being about this…
He shrugged. "Just a hunch. I might be wrong." He was never one to give me serious answers. "One thing is clear, though: L is currently working on the Kira case. I wouldn't be surprised if he was speaking to Roger about it. Kira might have found it necessary to eliminate him, and Kira has the ability, right? All he needed was a name and face, and Roger never hid his name and face from the public."
"Wait, if that were true, why would L talk to him…?" The other boy frowned. He looked around to see if anyone was listening and said in a low voice, "Hey, are you saying that we have something to do with the Kira case?"
He nodded. "Maybe… Maybe he thinks that one of us is Kira," he whispered. It was faint, but even he sounded a bit nervous when he said it.
The three of us fell silent. Only the sound of Ryuk cackling behind me was the noise I heard.
"That's… that's nonsense…" Now he was taking the other boy seriously. It was probably that unexpected nervousness in his voice that did it. None of us, after all, ever showed hesitation, especially not to each other.
"Why would L think that?" I asked.
He frowned at me and only shrugged his shoulders in response.
"Heh, you better be careful of this guy," Ryuk told me, floating behind the doubter's head. "I don't think L is your only enemy now."
You're right of course, Mr. Ryuk. But we can't let them see that, right?
The other one sighed in annoyance. His spiky bangs floated in the air briefly before landing back over his brow. "You know, I hate to say it, but now that I think about it… It can't be entirely nonsense, what you just said. L did say over the broadcast that Kira is in England, and he needs a name and face to kill. Technically, everyone in England who reads the daily, uses the Internet, or lives in places where the names and faces of criminals can be seen are suspects. And Whammy's House residents fit 2 out of 3 of the criteria," he said.
"England is a big place," replied the other boy with a challenging tone.
"Yes, it is," he nodded. "Which makes me think that something happened that caused him and Watari to think that the killer is here…" He turned to me and asked, "What do you think it is?"
I looked at him for a few moments and pretended to think about my answer. "Maybe… maybe Kira did something that only a Whammy's House resident could have done. If the name and face is all you need, then it must mean that he was able to kill…"
I paled after that. We all did.
"Ku ku ku… you're really good at acting, kid," he told me.
Some of the charred remains of Whammy's House floated away from us with the afternoon wind.
Mr. Whammy had backup plans for everything.
The remaining faculty and staff took the children to another house—a smaller version of Whammy's House, which was still big enough and good enough for all the children to recuperate. They would live off of the fortune that Watari left them, which was more than any of us ever dreamed. It was enough for them to live decently and more.
None of them knew what to do next. There would be authorities to help them out, of course. The law protected them, and L would protect them. As long as he's alive, no harm will fall on these kids again.
When the children were rounded up to board the bus again, the faculty noticed that there were only forty-seven children left.
When the authorities jumped to their feet in search of these missing children, they stopped them. All of them are free to leave at any time. It's part of the deal in Whammy's House. Please understand.
And so, four people disappeared from Winchester that day:
Roger's remains were shipped off to the homicide department of Winchester's police for further examination.
Mello, with his bag full of chocolates, addresses, and guns, walked off the scene. He was the type who never looked back. And this time was no different. His skinny clad-in-black frame against the violent orange sky disappeared with the horizon.
Matt had a backpack with cheat codes, game cartridges, handheld gaming devices, and a wallet filled with some cash and small receipts. Cigarette calmly hanging from his mouth, he had that usual noncommittal look on his face when he left.
Near willed himself to move on his own two feet for the first time—he had known that this would happen eventually, anyway. Taking his messenger bag of toys, clothes, books, and some money with him, he put on his shoes and walked away from the premises.
All three knew that he will be the one to emerge victorious from all this.
"It was as if no tragedy took place at all." Ryuk watched all this with glee. "I wonder who will win."
"Isn't it obvious?" I told him. The Death Note rested peacefully inside my bag. "I will.
"The gods always do."
- Chapter 3 end -
Note: All I needed to write this story was a hand-written outline. And all I needed to write Kira well was to make him sound less like himself and more like Light. Hehe. Hopefully, things will sound a bit better from this point forward. Guess if you want, otherwise, just enjoy the story as it unfolds. Go Kira :D