Vehemence

"Matsuda, you idiot!"

"S-sorry, Aizawa!"

The young detective stared in horror at the big coffee stain on his colleague's suit. It was bad enough that he was the newest and youngest member of the task force, but he hasn't made a good impression on anyone so far. And on top of that, he was errand boy, getting coffee for everyone.

"Geez, and this was my new suit, too …" Aizawa kept muttering to himself as he stood up from his desk and to the bathrooms to try and wash the stain off.

"I'm sorry again, Aizawa … " Matsuda watched with a frown on his face as Aizawa's figure disappeared out of the room. Just as he turned around to hand the rest of the coffee cups to everyone else, he almost bumped into another person.

"Sorr- Ah, Chief! I apologize! I didn't see you!" He bowed down with the coffee tray in his hand. He had no idea when Mr. Yagami had the chance to enter the room without no-one noticing.

"It's fine, Matsuda, no harm done. Also would you be as kind as to hand me a cup of coffee? I need it."

"Sure, N-no problem!" He handed Mr. Yagami the coffee he'd previously gotten for him, knowing the chief would need his coffee fix as soon as he entered the office. It was known all around the office that their chief was a workaholic, and when the NPA was working on a heinous crime cases it'd get worse. He'd arrive everyday with bags under his eyes, and always wore an expression of worry and distress that never left his face until the case was solved.

But lately those tell tale dark circles and hollow eyes were even more pronounced than before. Matsuda had arrived at the NPA only recently but the latest case was almost everything that the NPA talked about.

As the chief put his bag down and took off his coat, he cleared his throat and addressed the men in the room. "I have some news to tell all of you so please settle down. And where's Aizawa?"

"I'm here, chief. I was just in the bathroom." Even though his voice was normal and conveyed no feelings, the deadly glare he sent Matsuda's way was more than enough to let Mr. Yagami guess what had happened.

"Good. Since you're all here now I'd like you to know that Watari has contacted me. He's coming here, to the NPA , today. I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell you why but as some of you may know, If the reason Watari's here was to inform us that L has decided to aid the Japanese police with the case, then it's more serious than we had previously thought."

Matsuda looked around to see the expressions around him turn grim. Everyone looked down at their desk and seemed to be either in deep thought or busy with worrying.

He hesitated once, then decided upon asking the chief about the thing that only he didn't seem to understand.

"Excuse me, chief, but I don't understand why this case would need this attention unlike other similar cases. I've reviewed the files and it said there were only three victims. And, while there hasn't been any serial murders here in Japan for quite some time, It isn't the first of its kind."

Some of the task force members present groaned, others looked at Matsuda like he was asking why the sky was blue. One of them said he was surprised he hasn't asked who L was.

Mr. Yagami massaged his temples and sighed. Then he looked at everyone with serious eyes. "Well, I'm sure all- most of you know how serious this case is. But I don't think I can stress how important it is for us to be alert at all times enough. Thank you, Matsuda, for brining this up." He sat down as he continued to address everyone. "As all of you know, the murders started in England. There were three victims in England, two of them were only children, aged 13 and 15, both male. The third victim was a male and a young adult who was only 22 years old. They were brutally murdered in ascending order according to their age. Then after that, the murders stopped. No evidence left behind, no suspects, no nothing."

The files everyone was provided with that contained information about the case mentioned all of that, and Matsuda made a grimace when he remembered the photos of the victims. And all of them were so young, too.

The chief continued, "Of course, it is needless to say that after that, similar murders have occurred here in Japan. There was no evidence left behind in any of the crime scenes as well. The similarity between the occurrences led our investigators to think these two occurrences were connected in some way. Perhaps even the very same murderer is responsible."

Mr. Yagami paused, thinking back to what the reports said. All of the murders were carried in a very similar manner that it was eerie. The three victims in Japan were the exact same ages as the victims in England. And all of the murders occurred in Tokyo. But as to how England was connected to Japan, or why the murderer would choose those two countries was beyond him.

What worried him more was that there had already been three murders. If the same person is responsible, then this might be the end of it. While it wasn't entirely bad news, it meant to Mr. Yagami that the killer was going to roam free without getting caught. Perhaps even start another series of murders elsewhere. And giving the victims' families the right to witness justice delivered to their sons' murderer would become almost impossible.

Mr. Yagami knew that catching the killer would be only a dream if they didn't find any sort of evidence. And with the third and probably final victim dead..

However, he believed there was hope in catching the killer. And with L on the case, there was even a bigger hope. The English police didn't mention that L had been working with them so he came to the conclusion that the case only sparked his interest after the murders were repeated in Japan. Even though the total number of victims didn't reach ten, it seemed reasonable enough that this case would catch his interest. After all, it had never happened before.

Mr. Yagami squeezed the bridge of his nose between his fingers. The day hasn't started yet but he could already feel a headache forming. It was going to be a long day.

Until exams started, school was out. Light woke up, but didn't feel like getting up from bed, so he didn't.

He only kept thinking about yesterday's stalker. And about the case his father and the police went the extra mile to keep hidden from the public. Light knew he had to face what he dreaded sooner or later, and better sooner than later. He glanced to his side. The slightly open window made way for the pleasant, gentle morning sunrays to enter through the swaying curtains. When everything around him was peaceful and quiet, like that morning was, it was almost hard to believe that there might be someone out there wafter him and his family.

Did yesterday really happen? Was he imagining things and was simply too paranoid?

Unfortunately, Light had his curse to ground him to reality, to convince him that no, it was not paranoia that led him to think that was a danger lurking around. The numbers above his father's head was the dead giveaway that Light's intuition was correct. After all, it always has been.

After an hour and a half of thinking and over thinking and mulling over the whole thing, he finally decided he'd use the time he had to investigate more, and just do something.

Breakfast passed without an incident, and after reading the newspaper and drinking his coffee, his mother and sister wished him good luck with his studies. He acknowledged their wishes with a polite nod and a smile and headed back to his room.

Once again, Light found himself in front of his computer, hands hovering over the keyboard, ready to enter the codes in rapid succession in order to hack into his father's computer. He hesitated only a second, and then got to work. There was no use trying to run away from this.

Clicking on the case files, Light studied each victim. The murders were nothing if not brutal.

They were all murdered in the same way, suffocated to death with no obvious signs of struggle from the victim, which means they were drugged first and then killed. Curiously enough, the murder didn't just suffocate them and them, but he made sure to cut a number of fingers from the victim's hands. The fingers were always nowhere to be found. He either meant something by all of this, or was simply mocking the police.

The first victim had only three fingers on the right hand, the second had two fingers, the third had only one finger. But there was no blood, which means the killer must have taken his time executing these murders. He must've placed towels beneath the hands before cutting the fingers off.

Since Light didn't have the time to look at all the details the last time he checked these files, he started reading through them more carefully. What caught his eyes immediately was a report stating that there were similar murders in England.

It said that the victims were of the same age as the victims in Japan. And were also killed in the same order, according to their age. Now that was curious.

Was it the same murderer? It was a possibility. But there was also the possibility that some unstable human being or even a group of teenagers heard of these murders and decided to imitate them, for whatever sick reasons they had in mind.

Looking at the pictures, Light noticed that they were obviously suffocated to death as well, with some fingers missing. Light looked away, feeling sick to his stomach.

Light was about to close the files, having had enough of the hideous pictures he was looking at, but something odd caught his eye. The number of fingers missing from the victims were different from those in Japan.

The first victim had only two fingers left. The second had one finger left. The third didn't have any fingers on both hands.

No matter how hard Light tried to envision a hidden message behind this, he did not succeed. Was it a clue of some sort? Or was he simply playing around ?

With every second that went by, the young boy genius could feel himself getting angry. the kind of anger that boiled deep down but didn't really make him feel like beating something or yell at anyone. It was just a dull, persistent anger. He felt absolutely hopeless. He wished he could work with his father on the case, but he knew his father wouldn't agree.

Even after learning more about the case, he didn't feel like he had done anything. There were no suspects or evidence, so how was he supposed to interfere and stop whoever it was behind this before they harmed his family?

Something clicked in Light's mind all of a sudden. If there were only three victims in England, and there were three victims so far in Japan, then Light was sure the police assumed that this will be the end of it. Then why was his father's life endangered? Why were the numbers above his father's head so much less?

Light looked at the photos again, examining them more thoroughly. Was the difference in number of fingers remaining on each victim an indicator of some sort? If it was, then it was obvious now to anyone looked closely at the photos that the number of left finger on each victim was a countdown of some sort.

If the victims in England had only two, one, and no fingers, respectively, and following the assumption that the number of fingers was an indicator to how many victims were left, then that meant . . .

Then that meant that there would be yet another murder in Japan. Could it be .. ?

Is my father the next target? But how? And more importantly, why!?

If Light was distressed previously, then now he was reeling.

If it was true that his father was a target, then why would the killer target a police officer? And the highest ranking person at that? What was the connection between Japan and England?

The more he thought, the more he felt like this case had no beginning or ending. He was feeling more helpless by every passing second. Did the police think that as well? They didn't know that there would probably be targets from the police, did they?

According to the numbers he saw above his father's head, he had a little bit over five months to live. But there wasn't even this much time since the murders started. Heck, all the murders happened within a span of a single month.

Did it mean that his father's death wasn't connected to this case after all . . ? and What about the stalker from yesterday? Surely if he had to do something with the case and was actually involved, then he probably targets his father, even the entire family, too.

What the hell is going on . . why did this get complicated all of a sudden? I don't understand anything anymore.

Light let out a breath that he hasn't realized that he's been holding. This was getting out of hand. And the worst part was that Light really didn't understand what was going on, and he hated it.

Light found himself standing up suddenly without noticing himself doing so. He did not know his heart started racing so badly, and why he started shaking from head to toe. It seemed that his subconscious mind reached a conclusion before his consciousness did, and his body was acting upon it. Before he could process all the feelings and thoughts that were suddenly flowing painfully through his brain, he marched straight to his bookshelf, breathing heavily. Shaky hands rummaged through the shelf and caught the first family photo his eyes lay on. Light brought It closer to his face, having difficulty focusing because of his hands refusing to stay still for even a second.

"Oh, God…" The framed family picture hit the floor with a thud followed by a tiny crash when it hit the front of the picture, causing the glass on the picture to shatter into tinny pieces.

Light found it very hard to inhale, his lungs constricting suddenly. His vision started to darken around the edges, and he supported his weight on the bookshelf using his hand. His other hand covered his mouth, and his eyes were wide open, albeit unseeing.

This can't be happening.

In the image, the numbers above his sister's heads were only a couple of digits long, which indicated that she had a very limited amount of time to live. He tried to calculate the exact amount of time left, and he almost lost all of his stomach's contents when the answer came to him. He forcefully drew in air, and started sprinting towards the door, but that's when he heard a very perturbing scream.

"Oh, God . . please no . . "

Hello, author here.

I apologize for not updating for so long. I don't have any excuses, so you may hate me. You have the right to. I do want to finish the story, but I just can't seem to find the motivation.

If anyone has any comments on my writing or wishes to critique it, please do so, and please don't hold back.

Thank you.