It's time to cut all the threads.
- L's Journals, 26th October, Tuesday,
"I would like to thank you all for your help over the course of this investigation thus far, a great deal of work was done and you all did perform to a remarkable level," L announced to the group of men that were assembled about him. The members of the team were all sat tensely; now and again a couple of them threw glances towards the youngest member. Just hours before they had witnessed Light break off his relationship with Misa, a painful spectacle to be witnessed by anyone. The deception the girl had played was absolute, none of them could deny that; they even had it all documented on a neat little cassette. Even so, the way she had teared up, so sincerely, so desperately, and clung to the young man she adored, it meant that none of them knew how they could ascribe guilt to her. She simply had looked so confused.
"Misa Amane," L began, careful tracing a line under the men's thoughts, "will remain under reasonable and distant observation for the rest of her life. However she is free to go and I doubt that she will ever cause this team any concern again. It is unfortunate how this investigation has progressed…but it is even more unfortunate to have reached this conclusion." L paused for just a moment, twitching in his chair, his head cast down, "That is of course…no conclusion…" He curled his fingers around his sleeve and then raised his eyes up again.
"Yagami-san, all of you, I regret to inform you that this will be our last meeting."
A shocked silence met this announcement. After a few moments Soichiro managed to summon up the strength to speak,
"I don't understand what you mean by that, Ryuzaki." L lowered his eyes once more, his long fingers playing with the material of his shirt.
"Forgive me, Yagami-san, this is a complicated and…delicate matter. Let me be clear and excuse whatever bluntness I may be guilty of within this explanation: I will not be continuing to work on this investigation. I will not pursue, lead or govern investigation into Kira."
"You're giving up?" Matsuda cried, incredulously.
"I am removing myself from the investigation and it's operations. It seems the only logical thing to do at this point. There are no leads to pursue, no clues, no information. Quite frankly there is nothing for me, or indeed to a great extent, for any of you to do. I have tried to provoke Kira, I believed that this would work. However this has proved to have actually yielded nothing sufficient in the way of evidence. I could continue to try and provoke Kira, yet there is little I feel I could achieve by doing so and I am unsure how I would do that. Anything I could possibly try would be a waste of resources and furthermore lives. At this stage, let me be frank gentlemen, there is nothing I can do."
"So what now then? Is that it?" It hardly seemed to matter who voiced this, no one could be entirely sure either way as they were all thinking it. The dejected state which had consumed the group of men was obvious in every way.
"No," L replied softly, "I would like to instate you, and a larger team of select men, whom you shall have at your disposal, as an organisation devoted solely to gathering information and monitoring the pattern of killings and general behaviour of Kira. Constant monitoring is possibly the only way information may possibly be uncovered. I will direct you in this matter, and on other tasks on which I require greater informational resources, from a distance. Your work will be both important and useful however…it may be that we are unable to uncover any clue which leads us to Kira. I formed a profile of what I thought Kira could be, but it now seems that it is possible, in fact highly probably, that this profile was manipulated by Kira himself as misdirection. I therefore have absolutely nothing to run an investigation on. I believed that once we understood Kira's method of killing that it would become easier to trace him. However that is not so, although we understand the method it is even more clear than before that this mode of murder is completely detached; there is no trace, there is no evidence.
I am sorry that there is no more I can do."
Another silence met this speech. Soichiro was the one to break it. His rough, low voice broke through like a blade,
"And Light?" L's black eyes held the older man's gaze.
"Light and I will remain in Japan for five days further," L said softly, "that much is certain, beyond that I do not know. He shall be working alongside me, outside of this investigation. He shall be my partner."
To most of the men there this statement meant nothing, to four members of the party though this sentence held a certain resonance. For one it made his mouth go dry; it was a distasteful reference, it held disquieting connotations. For another too it held a double meaning, one which caught him only with a certain shyness. For the remaining pair, the only two who tasted the full extent of the meaning, one had been the speaker and the other was the young man opposite him. They stared at each other in silence across the room.
It was a familiar look, yet one which had been absent from their interaction recently. It was the engaging look of the two men on either sides; it spoke of challenge and of irreconcilable differences. The intensity however, the passion and intelligence, was so well matched that it still served only the underline the connection between the two men. It ran between them like a taut thread. L curled his fingers around the thin air as the silence grew uncomfortable for all those present. He smiled softly at his lover.
Kira smiled back.
Author's note: Yes, this is the end. I had intended to write at least two chapters worth more of L and Light just basically trying to come to argue their points of view to each other; to the point where they reach their compromise. However it was just too hard to write. I got a complete block over it. There wasn't anything to it anyway except talking. When I tried to write it it came out like a script and it didn't even sound good.
It will be continued in a sequel therefore, where things are shown 5 years on. (That way there is shown the effects not the actual compromising between L and Kira itself.)
However because it seems unfair to make you wait for the essential things, the basic outcome is this:
L tells Light that he needs to do two main things;
1) Form an organisation which he can delegate work to, including investigation and judgement. This is to be made up of Kira supporters who Light is in complete control of. There are several levels of the organisation as well and Light must have direct authority over people in positions of authority.
2) Using L's resources endeavour to investigate victims more fully, this in particular is L's moral interjection and he insists upon this condition.
L then has several ways he wishes to influence Light. Most notably he suggests a wider influence of Kira's authority. Instead of just underlining the judicial system in Japan and European countries and performing as essentially a vigilante who is enforcing the legal construct as it stands L suggests a more political approach. Quite simply; the assassination of dictators and the disassembling of governments in other countries. Then L proposes that they can guide the rise of a particular government or even instate their own all under the complete rule of Kira. An advanced legal and political system can be built that will work in the same way as in European countries; as a functioning system by itself but one which Kira shall use as a tool to judge absolutely. Kira's organisation can spread and in particular in these countries his influence will be absolute. He also suggests as one simple idea the illumination of terrorists, of dangerous political insurgents and extremists in every country in which Kira gains complete control.
In detail of the organisation L even goes so far as to specify low-level informants, secret police and investigators.
In short L is a megalomaniac. If L and Kira joined forces this is what I believe would be the end result would be of both L's resources and input.
In the end much of these intentions are carried through; Light is more thorough in his judgements and he starts to establish a wide organisation to help him act as Kira. He and L also start to carefully interfere with the wider politics of the world, however this is very gradual and with a lot of thought and time going into it.
L continues to investigate cases and lets Light manage his operations as Kira however they both discuss things and influence each other freely so although they have their own specific fields really they are working together in both; as both L and Kira.
The sequel will be entitled: Inheritance.
I don't want to give away too much but it features Mello and Near, who I'm sure some of you have been wondering about. You can all muse on that if you like.
I don't know when it will happen. I still feel quite blocked on this one and I am quite busy with uni stuff. I'll try and get round to it soon though...in the mean time I have been working on beautiful devices and The haunting so I should be able to update those soon.
Might write a nice smutty one-short as a present to you all as well.