(I don't own Death Note or the characters.)
I apologize up front for the lameness of the detective wars and the out-of-character-ness of L. Don't hate me please!
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Chapter 11
Language Arts. A long, never-ending hour of my life wasted on learning simple things I already knew. Some lady's voice droning on at the head of the room. Me in the back not paying attention, my leather vest sticking uncomfortably to my skin where Neosporin was tending to my injuries. It itched and I was probably being pretty disruptive in my not-so-discreet shifting about in my seat. So, when the intercom called my name, I was sure I was in trouble for disturbing the class or some other lame B.S.
I walked slowly and leisurely down the halls, in no rush to get to the office where there was sure to be an angry Mr. Wammy. Leather pants squeaked against each other the whole way attracting strange looks from random passers-by.
When I arrived and entered Mr. Wammy's office, I was shocked to see not Mr. Wammy, but L, perched in the most ridiculous fashion on the chair behind the massive mahogany desk.
"Welcome, Mello. Please, do sit down," L invited.
I did as I was told, never once allowing my cerulean gaze to leave the black-haired man. Once seated, an awkward silence overcame us. I had the feeling that he expected me to speak first, so when I didn't, it puzzled him. He cocked his head to the side, as if trying to figure out why his prediction had not come to pass. I simply glared back at the man who began nibbling on his left thumb. It looked rather odd to me, seeing a full-grown man squatting on a chair and sucking his thumb. In fact, I had just lost so much respect for the detective that I was about to leave the office right then and there and never hear what L had to say, when he spoke up.
"Cake?"
I blinked in astonishment.
"Excuse me?" I responded.
"Would you like any cake?" L asked again, slower this time as if talking to a child.
"Um, no. Er, no thanks, I mean," I replied awkwardly.
The frail man produced a rather large piece of strawberry cake and began eating, holding his fork with just his thumb and index finger, as though it was filthy.
"Perhaps you'd prefer chocolate," L stated with his mouth full and pulled a chocolate bar out of thin air, which I took.
As we ate our sweets, the awkward silence resumed, only this time it was even more awkward as we were both fairly noisy eaters. After an eternity of chewing and swallowing, L disposed of his plate and my wrapper before crouching back on the chair and studying me closely.
"You don't like me." It wasn't a question. It took me by surprise that the raven-haired man had made such a presumptuous accusation. His dark eyes stared into mine, and they looked saddened somehow. I shifted my gaze uncomfortably, itching just as uncomfortably at my sticky back.
"N-no I don't, L," I finally answered uncertainly.
"Yes you do." Again, it was a fact. He was 100 percent certain of my disliking of him. It almost made me feel sorry for the man.
"No, L, I don't not like you," I said with some hidden confidence, though internally cursing myself for my interesting grammar.
"Oh. Well, if you're sure…." He looked up at me again, catching my gaze. It felt like he was daring me to object, to say I hated him.
"Honestly, L, I don't hate you or anything. I don't know where this is coming from," I said with even more confidence than before.
L smiled.
"Okay, good. Now that we have that out of the way, we can get down to business." At that, the detective clapped his hands together and began rummaging through one of the drawers of the desk.
I remained seated, still incredibly uncomfortable and feeling more awkward than I'd ever felt in my entire life. My breathing was quiet and shallow as I tried to make it seem like I didn't exist. I currently didn't want to exist. I had never really had a conversation with the detective before, and he seemed clinically strange. All I honestly wanted to do was head back to my dorm and study.
L finally found what he was looking for, plopping a small stack of papers and files onto the desk. He promptly began staring at me again, his gaze boring right into me. I shifted in the seat, leather squeeking embarrassingly in response. Only to break the tension, I asked, "What're those?" gesturing to the papers.
"Past cases," L replied, smiling.
"Oh," I said, acting as though I understood why he would have put a stack of old cases in front of me during some meeting we were apparently having.
"You could be the next L…." the detective murmured as if speaking to himself. Regardless, his comment elated me. I was beside myself with joy. Me, the next L. I grinned despite myself, and the man in front of me returned the gesture.
"You really think so?" I asked, still smiling dumbly.
"I would not have said it if I did not think it," the raven-haired man answered simply. However, just to kill the mood, he added, "Either you or Near."
My ecstatic smile faded instantly. Of course Near was an option as well. I shouldn't have allowed myself to forget that he was first and I was second. Always, always second. I shouldn't even let myself get excited, since Near will be chosen to be the next L anyway. Why go through that kind of disappoint?
L must have seen the unhappiness on my face, for he smiled quite sympathetically, biting his thumb again, taking me in.
Already angry by the detective's thoughtless comment, I rudely blurted out, "Can you stop staring at me like that?"
"Does it bother you?" L asked sickeningly calmly.
"Yeah, actually it does," I snapped back.
"I do apologize then," the man said, lowering his thumb from his mouth and switching his gaze to the files in front of him. "Well, let's continue on then. You must be wondering why I called you here." It wasn't a question.
"Um, yeah, I am."
"I wished to share some of my old cases with you, sort of like story-time," L stated happily, his eyes lighting up at the word 'story-time'.
I felt decently sick to my stomach. I was hoping for…well, I didn't know what exactly I was hoping for, but it certainly wasn't some sort of children's game with the man.
"Story-time?" I asked incredulously.
"Yes. Well, not exactly. I just wanted to tell you about some of my better and more exciting cases. Isn't that okay?" He seemed saddened by my non-excitement.
"Well, yeah. Uh, of course that's okay," I said, trying to sound more thrilled than I was.
L smiled. "Good. So, I'm going to tell you three stories. Which would you like to hear first? I can tell you about the Los Angeles BB Murder Cases. That's really the only 'case' I have to share. The other two stories are detective wars of how I claimed Eraldo Coil and Denuve's titles as well. So, which first?"
I looked at the man before me, shocked. How was I supposed to know which I wanted to hear first? I wasn't even sure I wanted to hear any. Still, if I had to pick, I might as well get the boring stories out of the way and save the most interesting for last. Not to mention, it sounded like these detective war stories weren't going to take long to tell. This BB Murder Case story on the other hand sounded long and interesting.
"Uh, one of the detective war stories. I don't care which," I said, sounding mildly intersted.
"Alright then. I'll tell you about how I got the title of Denuve first, since that's the third best detective in the world. Then I can go on to Eraldo Coil, the second best. Is that okay?" L asked politely.
"Yeah, that's fine," I answered with an equally polite smile.
"Good. Okay, so how I got the title of Denuve: Before I beat the man called Denuve, he was a high-ranking detective. He wasn't quite third yet, but he was well on his way. You see, Mello, I feared that he may surpass me if I allowed the situation to continue, so I waged a detective war on him. A detective war, as you may or may not know, is a race between two or more detectives to see who can solve a case first. The prize of the race can be any number of things, but most commonly the winner takes possession of the loser's detective title. As I'm sure you've already figured out, these were the stakes of my war with Denuve."
L paused, licking his lips and looking at me as if wondering if he should continue. To be honest, the story did sound decently interesting, so I urged him on. The man smiled in return, before continuing:
"Denuve and I were racing against each other in a bank robbery incident that was sweeping across the United States at the time. Multiple banks had been stolen from, and it seemed it would only be a matter of time before every major bank in the country had its vaults emptied by the culprit. So, obviously, it was a serious case, and first Denuve was called in. When I heard about it, I immediately arranged a meeting with the president and convinced him to let me assist Denuve. Of course, that was just a cover story. In reality Denuve and I were aggressively working against each other, trying desperately to win the other's title.
"It was a long and difficult case, taking me nearly a year to solve. Eventually I did solve it though, and Denuve lost our little war. The poor guy was devasted; he'd been certain he would beat me."
L paused here, remembering some long over battle with some long forgotten guy.
"And who did it?" I interrupted his thoughts.
"Who did what?" L asked, distracted and unsure what I was talking about.
"Who was stealing from all those banks?"
"It was just some government type. That's not really the important part of the story, Mello. The whole point in explaining this is so that you know what detective wars are and the most common way of fighting them. And actually, that brings us up to our next story, the detective war I had with the original Eraldo Coil."
Yet again, L paused. I was beginning to wonder whether he had a mental condition invovling a short attention-span.
Again, I urged the detective on, "What happened in that detective war, L?"
"It was quite different, Mello. You see, I was called to do a case right here in England, to my enjoyment, for that ment I could work from Wammy's. My joy quickly turned to worry and despair, however, when a man named Eraldo Coil challenged me to see who could solve the case first.
"He was a very strange man. When he first challenged me, he didn't even tell me what he wanted to bet on the battle. He just called me saying how he wanted to challenge me with the case and I didn't hear from him for another month. I had no idea what I might be gaining or losing or how far he'd come with his investigation. Eventually he called back saying how he wanted to bet money on the detective war. He said he needed some money to help him fund an investigation and that this would be the perfect way for him to get it. Well, I agreed, though I didn't really want the guy's money.
"Awhile later he called back and said he wanted territory. You see, in a detective war, you can wage territory, meaning where you can and cannot accept cases. He wanted to be the only one that could take on cases in England. So, if he won I would never be able to work on a case in all of England ever again. If I won, he'd never be able to investigate on a case in England again. I agreed to these terms as well, not too concerned about losing anything as I was almost finished with my investiation."
"What was this case about, L?" I interrupted.
"Mello, as I already explained, the cases themselves are not important right now. I'm trying to teach you how to fight a detective war. You need some background knowledge if you're ever going to succeed me. Now, will you allow me to continue?" L asked, raising a brow.
"Yes, I'm sorry."
"Alright. Now then, where was I? Oh yeah, Eraldo Coil's wish for England. Well, it was barely two weeks after Coil asked for territorial rights to England when he called back wishing to bet our detective titles instead. Little did he know that I had just solved the case, though it was not public yet. Again, I agreed, knowing that he had already lost his title."
"Isn't that playing dirty though?" I interrupted again.
"All is fair in love and war, Mello, as I'm sure you know."
"Yeah, I guess. It just seems kind of rude to do to someone. I mean, technically you'd already won territorial claims on England, correct? Withholding information just to get his title instead seems pretty shady to me."
"You are a very kind boy, Mello. You must understand, though, that sometimes shadiness here and there in a detective war is necessary. The world has been better off with me in the real Coil's place. It was all for the sake of justice. Surely you understand, don't you?" L questioned.
I was just shocked at being called kind. It took me at least a minute to get over that disturbingly wrong comment. Finally my mind was able to absorb everything else L had said. He sounded rather arrogant when he said it all, and that saddened me. I'd always looked up to L, and here he was acting all high and mighty.
Realizing I hadn't answered L's question, I quickly said, "I get it."
L beamed at me from across the desk. "Would you like to hear about the Los Angeles BB Murder Cases now?" he asked with a mischeivous glint in his eye.
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Well, here's chapter 11. Finally. Sorry to keep you all waiting for so long. Chapter 12 should be up pretty quickly too, since it'll be L explaining the BB Murder Cases which should be pretty easy to write. I'm sorry this chapter is pretty lame and boring, but I wanted to include L telling Mello the three stories mentioned in Death Note: Another Note. Thanks for still reading my story all this time, and I hope you continue to enjoy it somewhat. -Bloodmuffins
