L's room, January 30th 2011:
L looked at his screen, upon which he saw a room with three people. One of them was Matsuda, the other two were people, a man and a woman, to whom Matsuda wasn't introduced yet.
"So..." he sounded nervous, "... you two were the... help?"
"Matsuda." L spoke through his microphone, "You better return to Japan."
"Huh?" Matsuda couldn't understand, "You mean you kick me out of the task-force?"
"This case is more serious than we previously expected." L explained, "And since you fainted at the crime scene, I can't say you're up for this. Honestly, after your last great case, I expected more from you."
"My last..." Matsuda wasn't sure of what this was about, "You mean the Ki..."
"Yes, that." L interrupted.
"Well, I..." Matsuda was dumbstruck.
"We can't risk you jeopardizing this any further." L continued, "You've taken a risk before, we can't have you do this again."
This is when something came to Matsuda: "Wait a minute, how do you know about that? You weren't there!"
If L could express any emotion, he'd snicker at this. For as far as Matsuda was concerned, the one he knows as L is really Near, as the L himself is supposed to be dead. As such, L could know about Matsuda's screw-up, but Near couldn't.
"It is not important how I know this." L replied, "What is important is that you can't be part of this any more. The next plane to Japan leaves in two hours. You'd better get going."
Matsuda took a deep sigh, then left the room.
The woman, who hadn't said a word throughout this conversation, spoke: "Nice going. We could use all the help we can get."
"True, Keiko-san." L replied, "But you've seen it yourself, your bullets barely penetrated that rhinoceros, and that warthog is still alive from your shot in his head."
"I know that the people in Calisota aren't particularly human..." the man in the room spoke, "... but I didn't think they'd be this strong."
"That's because these two weren't from Calisota." L explained, "They were first sighted in New York City in the late eighties. No one is sure where they came from, although there have been reports of animals escaping the local zoo. All the escaped animals have been accounted for, safe for one rhinoceros and one warthog."
"You think these two are...?" the man sounded skeptic, "I know you're know to think in ways nobody else would, but I didn't think you'd..."
"You are a man who managed to turn himself invisible, having to wear a mask so to have a face." L interrupted, "You of all people should be more open to this, Caine."
The man, Caine, didn't say anything else. The woman, Keiko, then spoke: "So what now? There's only two of us, and this... vague syndicate of yours has human-like animals as lackeys."
"I'd wish Winch didn't let that group go." Caine remarked.
"Caine, what are you talking about?" L asked him.
Caine shrugged: "About a year ago, the head of Group W had assembled a group of people. Apparently, some of his goods had gotten in the wrong hands, so he needed special people to take them back."
"Define special." L ordered.
Caine did exactly that: "One was a wanted criminal, another was a werewolf, another was a... creature from hell, apparently, another was a mass-murderer, who had this stench of a corpse, and there was also a little girl who was genetically engineered. In fact, seeing as I know more about bio-engineering than anyone Winch could think, he hired me so I could study her, and see how and if we can use her, and even find out her weaknesses if she didn't cooperate."
"What?" this last bit enraged Keiko, "You dare do that to a little girl?"
Caine laughed: "You kill people for a living, so who are you to..."
"Don't change the subject!" Keiko exclaimed.
"Talk to you in a minute." L said, after which he turned off his microphone and turned to Mello and Near, "A group of special people. Ring any bells?"
"Yes." Near answered, "In Great-Britain, people have been assembled on several occasions. Similar groups started to emerge in France as well, such as the Mystery Men and the Shadow Men. A trent that's been continued in North-America as well. Justice Society, Justice League, Avengers, Minute Men,... to name a few."
"Funny that Caine should mention the people he mentioned." Mello started, "Remember that giant robot battle in Flanders last year? Here are some pictures that were taken that day."
Both L and Near received the pictures that Mello spoke of. Some were of a group of five, considerable, odd people walking around the streets of Brussels. One of them was a little girl, as Caine described, another was of a woman who looked more like a beast than a human, another of a bulky man with a hockey mask, another man with green eyes (without a pupil and scelera) and another man with just one eye, who didn't appear so unfamiliar to the other two."
"Snake Plissken." L said, "I though the Cleveland heist from two years earlier killed him."
"With Yagami Light having killed many criminals, I'm surprised he's still alive." Near spoke.
"Maybe Yagami just assumed he was dead." Mello said, "Or because he has been pardoned for his crimes, there was no official record Yagami could get his hands on that would draw his attention."
"Or maybe somebody had written in his or her death note that Snake will die under different circumstances, like once he reached a certain age, so if anyone else would write his name later, it won't take effect." Near thought out loud, "After all, thanks to you two, we now know that is possible."
"I've been thinking about what Caine just said." L spoke, "Maybe we too should put a special team together."
"Using these same people again would seem out of the question to me." Mello said, "From how Caine sounded, they used all kinds of dirty tricks to get them to do their bidding. They may not be so helpful even if we asked them nicely."
"There is that one woman we caught that may benefit from all this." Near suggested.
"There's also that English man who tried to take this case away from us." Mello said.
L seemed to think about this: "So if we ask them in addition to these two, that may give us a better chance."
"Right." Near agreed, "I'll contact Watari and tell him to fetch that woman."
"I'll get ahold of that man." Mello added.
L turned to his microphone, switched it on and spoke to the other two: "Stay in town, and meet here again in the morning."