Over the next week, when L wasn't focused on the case, he seemed to be brooding over something. I never asked, since I was kind of scared to, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least curious. I had my own things to think about anyway. Mostly the fact that I remembered that those memories of a male version of myself in the same situation was actually made up in that version of reality. It was hard to accept, but it made me begin questioning if anything here is even real. Still, I started to work more, but mostly because I hadn't gotten many chances to go search for my charger so my game was dead most of the time anyway. Now, Wedy had called to report on the Yotsuba Group's security.
"L, are you listening? I am so disappointed. I thought this would be a challenge. The security level here is a joke. They've left it all to a single contractor. There weren't even any wire tap detectors." She didn't sound happy at all.
"It's been about a week since I first snuck into the place. It looks like things have been moving pretty smoothly since then, huh?" Matsuda asked.
"We've almost got them." I said, also pretty happy.
"So, one of these people," L paused to eat whatever kind of sweet it was he had in front of him now. "is Kira."
"Well then, now that everyone's here, let's commence our regular meeting." One of the men sitting in the meeting room on the big screen in front of us said.
"But if there are supposed to be eight, why are there only seven?" Dad asked, seeing the empty spot in the circle.
"That must mean that…" I started.
"They probably killed one of their members." L said.
"In order to further the growth of the Yotsuba Group and best serve its financial interests, who should we kill next?" The bald man asked.
Well, he certainly doesn't beat around the bush, does he?
"You see, it's just like I told you last week!" Matsuda said.
"This is not good. At this rate…" L started muttering.
"But before we get to that, there are several topics that we need to discuss. First, there is the issue of Hatori's death." The bald one continued.
"That was unavoidable." The long black-haired man spoke up. "To be honest, in a certain sense, I am relieved that Hatori is dead. Kira has demonstrated that we must be committed to these meetings. We now know what will happen if we try to leave."
"I think we all understand what Hatori's death means for the rest of us. Let's not take it lightly." The bald one said. "Now, moving on. Our next topic is Elraldo Coil's report."
"One of their members just died and that's all they're going to say?" Dad asked.
"So, did we really pay five million dollars for this report?" The guy I recognized as the Kira of the group asked, hitting the paper. "I mean, come on, look at this! He hasn't found out anything important about L, like his name or his face. Is this Coil guy seriously gonna be of any use to us?"
"Hold on a second." Baldy spoke up again. "There is something very interesting in the last part of this report. Coil's warning us that we can't afford to take L's existence too lightly. In particular, it says the concentration of killings that are beneficial to Yotsuba will likely be noticed by L if they continue on Fridays and Saturdays."
"Sounds like this Elraldo Coil has found out what we've been up to." Another of the men spoke. "I admit it's quite impressive. At any rate, I personally think we should stop killing every weekend."
"This is unbelievable. It's like they're trying to confess to everything." Matsuda said.
"Hm. As long as we have this video as evidence, we could probably arrest all seven of them." Dad said.
The chain rattled as L pressed his thumb to his lip.
"Kira hasn't been flexible up 'til now, has he? It would be nice if he could spread out his killings over the whole week." The one I recognized said.
"The fact that Coil noticed what we've been up to makes it too dangerous to continue killing at our usual pace. From now on we have to be even more careful and make sure that nobody else has noticed a trend in these deaths."
"Now, on to the main topic. Who should we kill?" Baldy said.
"I think we should focus on ELF Insurance. If they expanded the Japanese market, Yotsuba and many other companies will lose valuable clients to them."
"Agreed. Alright, any objections to killing these people from ELF with accidental deaths?"
"No objections." They said in unison.
"Is this for real? How can they do this so easily?" I asked, still not able to get over the corruption of these businessmen.
"Another potential candidate is Santaro Zenzai, a member of the Kirisawa Group. He's been protesting Yotsuba's pro-development plans. Zenzai's known to have high blood pressure, so we can designate a time for him to have a stroke resulting in natural death. Any objections?"
"No objections."
"Kira? Deaths by accident? By disease? Designated times of death? It's all just as we suspected. We were right." I said, although I wasn't very enthusiastic about it, like I remember the male version of me being.
"No, unfortunately, we can only be completely sure after those people they've named are dead." L replied. "We will continue to monitor these meetings and take note of what they say, how they act, and most importantly, whether the people they choose actually die. If we can confirm the connection between their plans and the deaths, then we'll definitely be able to catch Kira." L said, going to take a bite of the tower of cubes he had stacked on his spoon. I'm not sure how he did that, but it's not that important right now.
"Ryuzaki!" Dad and I yelled at him, making him only manage to catch one or two of the falling cubes before turning to Dad.
"What is it?" He looked between us. "There's no need to yell in unison."
"I can't carry on knowing these people will die! That's just immoral!" I yelled at him angrily.
"Right." Dad agreed.
"I know you're planning to catch Kira by letting these guys actually carry out these murders, but," I glared at him. "We can't let that happen."
"That's right. It's obvious that these seven men are behind the killings." Dad said. "With Matsuda's testimony and this footage we've recorded, we have all the evidence."
"You're making this difficult." L said, setting down his bowl. "If we were to take action now, everything we've done will go to waste."
"So, what do you say we take care of the ELF in three weeks, and as for Zenzai, we'll ask Kira to kill him this weekend?" The men in the meeting got our attention back on the screen.
"No objections."
"If that's what they're going to do, then there's not much time left. Light, we already know the phone numbers of these board members, don't we?" Dad asked.
"Yeah." I went to grab the paper and hand it to Dad.
"I don't care who we call. We need to reach one of these men and have them stop these murders."
"Please, hold on." L said. "That will cause suspicion. It would mean the investigation caught up to them three days after they were contacted by Aiber. Also, it would make it far more unlikely that we would be able to discover who the real Kira might be. We can't afford such a huge setback seeing how far we've come." He slurped his coffee, then set it down. "In order to catch Kira, we are going to need some solid proof."
I narrowed my eyes at him, but then found myself agreeing with the male version of me on what to do.
"Ryuzaki, if one or two of these seven men are Kira, would it be safe to say that if I tried calling one of them, the odds of that person actually being Kira is going to be two in seven at most?"
"Yes, that's correct." He looked at me.
"If we're prepared to let them know that the investigation is catching up to them, let's place our bets on these odds. Ryuzaki, I'm going to pose as L. Judging from their conversation so far, the one least likely to be Kira but with the most influence is-"
Everyone said different names, but L and I said "Namikawa." in unison.
"If you're going to make a call, please, use this phone." L said, looking to a fancy-looking landline sitting on the desk. "It's set up so it can't be traced or tapped."
So, I ended up picking up the phone and dialling. I wasn't as good with public speaking as the male version of me seemed to be, but I could at least do this. When the man answered his phone, I started talking.
"Is this Reiji Namikawa, head of the Yotsuba Group's marketing department?"
"Yes. And who is this?" He asked.
"Listen carefully, but don't draw attention to yourself. I am L." I said, a stupid grin coming to my face before I wiped it off and continued. "I've placed cameras and wire taps throughout that meeting room. Even as I speak I'm recording footage of your entire meeting. The first thing you discussed was Hatori's death. Now you're debating who to kill next. Am I correct?" I paused, then continued. "If you are not Kira, or if you are someone who cannot contact Kira directly, let's make a deal." I took a breath, doing my best to form the words correctly. "I need you to delay the death's of ELF's president and Mr Zenzai by one month. I doubt that will be difficult for someone of your standing to accomplish that."
"Yes. Yes, I see. Right, go on." He replied.
"If you complete your end of the deal and cooperate with our requests from now on, then your crimes, no, not just yours, but everyone's crimes with the exception of Kira's will be pardoned based on the premise that Kira blackmailed you into participating in these meetings."
"I see. Okay." He replied.
"If you tell the others about this call, they will panic. It will be of no advantage to you. Everyone would be arrested immediately. But that's not my intention. I'm planning to go one-on-one against Kira. Listen, if I win against Kira, you will be acquitted of all charges. If Kira wins, then you'll be free to carry on with your comfortable life. Just play along with both parties. Staying on the sidelines will be best. You're not in a position to lose anything regardless of who wins in the end. It would only be a loss if I decided to arrest you right here and now." I was pushing it, but I decided that was enough. "That's all for now."
"Right. I'll see you Monday then." He replied as I was already hanging up the phone.
Letting out a sigh, I grabbed the nearest chair and sat down. I was kind of afraid they'd notice my legs were shaking from nerves.
"What's going on, Namikawa? Who was that?" Baldy asked.
"One of my men screwed up again. I'll have to fix it on Monday." He replied smoothly. "Anyway, sorry for the interruption. Let's get back on topic. We were discussing when we should kill Zenzai and the men from ELF. Here's what I'm thinking, we'll give Coil one month to reveal L's identity. If he still hasn't uncovered the information we need, then we can go ahead and kill the targets randomly. Then we'll give him another month to investigate, and repeat the process. Once we get rid of L permanently, we can go back to killing two or three people a week. In other words, our top priority should be the elimination of L."
"I see. Once we kill L, there won't be anything standing in our way. But until then, we need to be careful."
"Right. Sounds like a reasonable plan to me." Baldy agreed. "We need to be extremely careful if we don't wanna get caught. Then, we're in agreement. We'll give Coil one month."
"Agreed."
"We'll still be meeting on a weekly basis. That is all." Baldy dismissed them.
"That went well." L said.
"Yeah." I sighed out, relieved.
"You really are quite amazing, Light. Not only did you manage to delay the killings, but you also set up Namikawa as a potential mole for us. Sounded exactly like the sort of thing I would do. And you thought of it quicker than I did." He was probably suspicious of me again. "At this rate, if I end up dying somehow, it's quite possible that you would be capable of succeeding me."
"What?! Why are you being so morbid?" I snapped irritably at him, getting the feeling that that wouldn't work out anyway. If I could remember the reason that'd be great, but right now, there are more pressing matters. I stood up to face L. "There isn't time for that. We only have a month to figure out Kira's identity and gather evidence against him to prove it. This is only the beginning."
"Yes, but you were the one who first noticed the connection between Yotsuba and Kira." L said, holding up some papers. "You actually might be more capable than I am. I honestly believe that you could take this on."
I just stared at him, not sure how to respond to that.
"Tell me, if I should die, would you take over for me as L?"
"Don't ask that of me. You're not going to die." I responded harshly, my fists balling up and my jaw clenching angrily. Then, I looked away, sighing. "Ryuzaki, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to tell everyone what you're really thinking right now. He thinks that if I am Kira, then there are two possibilities. Either I'm just pretending I'm not him and putting on an act, or Kira's power has passed on from me to someone else and I have no memory that I was ever Kira in the first place. He's trying to determine which, if either, is the truth. The first theory, if I am putting on an act, he will never remove these handcuffs." I lifted my arm to look at the cuff. "No, even if I wasn't pretending to be innocent, I'm sure he still wouldn't take them off. Ryuzaki still believes that I'm Kira. Even if that power had been passed to someone else, he thinks that I would've planned to have it returned to me once I'm safe from suspicion. In other words, I wasn't being controlled at all. He thinks it was a plan. To pass on the power and arrange for it to come back to me once I'd been cleared." There was a short silence before I continued. "Ryuzaki's theory is that once I steal L's title, I will become Kira again."
"Correct." L responded.
"Taking on the identity of L. Having the power to control the police in every country, while being Kira in secret. It's ideal. And you're thinking I could do it. No, that I would do it. That's what you're saying, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"You're wrong then. I'm not putting on an act. I don't want your title. You're not dying anytime soon if I have something to say about it and I do." I pointedly lifted my cuffed arm to rattle the chain.
"If this is all an act, and you are trying to steal my identity, there's no chance you'd be foolish enough to reveal your plan in front of everyone. Wouldn't you agree?"
He was pissing me off. So, I grabbed his shoulder, spun him around on the chair, then put my other hand on his other shoulder and lowered myself enough to be about eye-level with him.
"Ryuzaki, do you think that I'm actually capable of becoming a murderer? Kira? Even after I help you catch him? Do I seem like that kind of person to you?" I don't know why I was asking. I knew the answer.
"Yes, you do. I've always thought so."
Well, his foot was in my face, but my hand was in his so fast I didn't even know I had swung.
"Gah. Not again!" Dad said.
"Okay, break it up!" Matsuda threw himself between us. "Once is enough! It was a draw so, let's just leave it as an even match, okay?!"
"Tch." I rubbed my face on my sleeve and looked away. "Yeah, you're right. Anyway, let's focus on catching the Kira that's in front of us right now." I lifted my cuffed arm. "As long as I have the handcuffs on you shouldn't have any complaints."
"I suppose so." L turned his chair back to the desk. "We only have a month, so there's no time to get distracted."
Matsuda gave a sigh of relief.
"Ryuzaki," Dad said.
"Yes?"
"We have plenty of footage from this meeting. Can't we use that as evidence against those seven men and prevent the murders of other criminals."
"Unfortunately no."
"But why?"
"At the moment, we're not certain if Kira is among those seven men. If all they have is a tenuous connection with him, then Kira will kill them as soon as they're arrested. We have to be absolutely sure that Kira is among them so there's no point in detaining them now. And even if it does turn out to be one of them, it will be quite difficult to determine who the culprit is. I believe it is still far too early for us to make our move."
"Hold on. At the same time we can't say that he's definitely not among the seven. That means there's a chance the killings will stop if we take this opportunity to arrest them."
"There's a chance, but…" I mumbled, feeling my face scrunching up.
"Excuse me, but I think from now on, I should go after Kira by myself." L said while dropping more sugar cubes in his coffee. What is that, eight? "You can use these headquarters as you wish. I'll also be here, but we will be working independently. You can conduct your investigation under your own direction. Feel free to arrest those men if you like. I will be carrying on my own investigation. We'll only get into arguments if we don't split up and act separately at this point. This is...For the best."
"Are you saying you're going to figure out who Kira is by any means necessary?" Dad asked.
"Yes. This case will never be solved unless we capture Kira himself. Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't say that preventing more deaths was pointless. But if we don't uncover the entire truth, once and for all, Kira will only appear again and the number of victims will continue to increase."
He had filled that mug full of sugar cubes by now. One fell out onto the desk, so I swiped it and put it in my mouth to suck on. I hadn't done this since I was a kid in that other life, but I kind of wish I'd done it sooner with how many sugar cubes are always present around here.
"That's why I believe it's more important to find out who Kira really is." L continued like I hadn't stolen a sugar cube. "As I've been saying, I am opposed to arresting those seven men. If you want to do so, then you will have to take responsibility for it. I will pursue Kira on my own. We only have one month." He got up and started walking past all of us. "I wonder who will succeed."
"R-Ryuzaki, where are you going?" I asked, being dragged along with him.
"To Amane's room. Sorry, I know you're on your father's side in all this, but I can't remove these handcuffs. I'm afraid you're going to have to come along with me."
You're wrong. I wanted to say that, but the words died in my throat, so I just followed him silently.
"Light!" Misa looked absolutely ecstatic to see me walk into her room with L. "I didn't know we were supposed to hang out!" The she saw L. "Oh, right, I should've known."
"Misa Amane." L began walking over to where she was sitting on the couch, but instead of being normal, he stepped on the arm and leaned a little too close to her, which made her move away. "Tell me, do you admire Light from the bottom of your heart?"
"Huh? Uh, yeah! Of course I do!" She responded.
"But you also worship Kira, don't you?"
"Well, yeah."
He got in her face, so I started yanking on the chain, but all that did was pull his arm out toward me.
"So then, if you had to chose between Light and Kira, who would you pick?"
"What?" Misa ran around to hide from him behind me. "That's obvious. Of course it's gonna be Light! I'm really grateful to Kira and want to meet him someday in person, but that's not our bond!" She hugged me. "I'd definitely chose Light."
"But your precious Light is planning to catch Kira." L said from the couch. "Isn't that right?"
"Well, yes, of course I am." I responded.
L was suddenly a little too close to Misa, making her yelp and tighten her grip, making me take a step back with her.
"She says she wants to catch Kira. Now what will you do?" L asked Misa.
"Well, if that's what Light says, then I'm gonna support her no matter what."
"I see. So if you were given the opportunity to work with Light on this investigation, would you take the offer?"
"Ryuzaki-"
"Yeah! Of course I would!" Misa said, letting go of me while cutting me off. "I'd do anything I could to help Light."
"Wait, hold on a second. Where are you going with this?" I asked L, although I already had a pretty good idea.
"I'm planning to have Aiber pose as Elraldo Coil again. He'll tell the Yotsuba members that while he was investigating L, he discovered that Misa Amane might know who he is. He'll also tell them that L brought her in for questioning on suspicion that she was the second Kira."
"That part is true." Misa said.
"If the Yotsuba Group believes that Misa could be their lead to finding L, then they'll say that they want to meet her to discuss their advertising campaign. They'll use that opportunity to question her. Thanks to Matsuda's screw-up they might already be considering Misa as their new spokesperson, so this could work."
"Yeah, right." Misa agreed.
"That sounds risky. Misa, who knows what could happen to you." I said worriedly.
"Aw, are you worried about me? Yay!" She hugged me quickly. "But don't worry. I don't mind doing something like this if it's for you, Light."
I sighed. "Listen Misa, it's hard to say that they won't go to great lengths to get information out of you because they think you know who L is."
"No problemo! I promise I won't say anything! Even if they torture me!" She said, holding up her arms in a strong-man way.
"I can attest to that." L said.
"But Kira can control his victims actions before their death. There's a good chance he might try to manipulate her into revealing what she knows and then kill her. Also, if he does manage to kill L, he won't have any use for Misa. He'd kill her to keep her silent." I snapped at him.
"Oh, I don't like the sound of that." Misa seemed to be getting worried now.
"Light," L lifted a finger to shake at me, which rattled the chain. "You forget that if we win against Kira, Misa won't die. Besides," He lifted his arm to have the chain sway in his face. "As long as we're handcuffed together, you and I share the same fate." He lowered his hand back to his pocket. "If I die, so will you. And if that happens, Misa is the one who will grieve most of all. Either we lose and both die together, or we successfully catch Kira. Which is it?" He motioned to Misa for an answer.
"We catch Kira!" She threw her arm up. "I would never dream about living in a world without Light!"
"Yes, that would be dark." L responded.
I couldn't stop the snicker in time. My hand went to my mouth a little too slowly. Both of their eyes were on me as I collected myself and tried to loosen that horrible dread that clenched my chest at the talk of people dying. Unfortunately, when my hand removed itself from my mouth, it buried itself in the fabric of my shirt over my chest and my eyes shifted to the floor for a second before looking up into L's black abyss of a gaze.
"I won't allow Misa to die. Not her, not Matsuda, not Mogi, not Dad. Especially not you." I said quietly, but it sounded loud in the silence of the room. "I will make sure Kira is executed, once and for all. And…I think we can take this risk." I turned to Misa with a small, forced smile. "Do you think…you could work with him?"
She stared at me for a few seconds before gasping quietly. "Oh, I see." She whispered, her eyes lighting up like she had just solved the greatest mystery. Then, she turned to L. "Well, I guess we could be friends, right, Ryuzaki?"
"Yes. So now I've gained yet another friend." L said.
"Yeah! Of course, anyone who is important to Light is a friend of mine!" She said, grabbing both our wrists while laughing and making us spin in this kind of awkward circle that only one of us really wanted to be apart of. I was just glad when it was over.
"And of course, I'd never think of betraying any of my friends. With our powers combined, we'll arrest Kira!" The movements she was making made me wonder if she wasn't impersonating one of those animes with magical girls or something.
"Unfortunately, Light's taking a different investigative approach from us and will be working with her father and the others." L said. "I'm afraid that it will just be you and I."
"Huh? What's up with that?" Misa asked, looking at me as I sighed.
"You're wrong." I muttered. "You're trying to manipulate me, but I was never on anyone's side in that argument. Besides, I've got no choice now. I have to make sure Misa is alright."
"Oh, Light. You're so sweet. Thank you for worrying about me." She said. "But I would gladly die if it's for you."
I adverted my gaze. "That isn't what I would want. Even if we were in a position where I would die if you didn't give your life instead, I would want you to live…Even if the world is dark."
This pain in my chest…I wonder if it's because I have so many people's lives to worry about. Or maybe, I really did lose my memory, but can still sense certain things. Was there something related to the Death Note that is making me feel this way? I guess I'd have to get the one I had back and find out. This foresight wasn't getting any easier to hide anytime soon. Still, things are beginning to change from what I've seen. Little by little. And it's making me uneasy.