AN: HOLY HOLY HOLY HOLY HOLY CRAP! The chapter I consider the most epic of all the ones yet published HAS ARRIVED!
I honestly was thinking about making this whole thing last a lot longer, because that would be the awesome thing to do... but then I thought about it, and I was like, "Oh CRAP, Light wouldn't do that and that and that, but rather he'd probably attempt this because he doesn't know about so and so and whatever!" So if you think I should have made this out to be longer, then sorry, because I don't think it would work in-character.
Well, this is the last author's note I'll be sticking in for a while, because I don't want to make any stupid comments that take away from the action. Sound okay? Good.
I also promise to update ASAP, because our crappy internet no longer works and I'm forced to use the computers at the library (my mom thought it would be a good idea to try and adjust our satellite on her own without professional help... WHAT ON EARTH POSSESSED HER TO DO THAT EXACTLY?).
Last thing: notice the important addition of the seconds ticking down on the clock... O.o
May 28, 2011
8:11:23 PM
L was alone in the basement.
For the first time that evening, he didn't feel pressed for the seconds that were slowly slipping away. Light would be caught: it was inevitable. So now L simply was there, in the room where he had woken up. Waiting for something.
He'd asked to be alone. He'd never been much of a social person, obviously, and he needed time to just sit there and think. Think, and hear the nearly-silent ticking of the clock on the wall.
Tick, tick, tick.
It came down to Light dying. An unavoidable part of the cycle was that someone had to die, and L was certain it wouldn't be him. He wouldn't let it happen. A phone call was all he was waiting for: Aizawa should phone him at any time, say that Light was in custody, and L would have to opprotunity to rub it in his face-how utterly defeated he was, for the second time.
The clock helped to pass the time, somewhat. It reminded L how forty seconds could completely change the status quo.
And how the right (or wrong) person at the right (or wrong) time with the right (or wrong) motives could give the world a different destiny.
At least L knew that Mido, the person this ordeal largely revolved around, was on his side now.
"Because I wanted to see Kira caught."
And really, seeing Kira caught was all that mattered as the seconds passed.
Tick.
Tick.
Ti-
Wait a moment.
"Now why would he say that?" L murmured aloud.
Mido had lied.
Kira was a threat to the world; there was no doubt about that. Kira should be brought down in any way possible; L agreed with that. It was definitely a philosophy he endorsed: the ends justify the means.
So... Mido had brought L back to catch Kira, eh?
An entire year after Kira had disappeared?
It hadn't been just a fib in context, or even a partial truth: it was a downright dishonest statement. Kira was long gone by the time that L was alive again-the notion of him being brought back to catch Kira was preposterous. L even remembered a conversation that had taken place the day he'd been brought back, in which Mido had said that he had waited until then because he didn't want Kira to kill L again.
So... why do it?
Soichiro Yagami had been dead by that point; Mido had definitely known that, and besides, his apparent debt to Soichiro was why he had brought Light back to life, not L. It wasn't just that L was the three greatest detectives in the world either, because that would have been another reason to bring him back to catch Kira.
There wasn't any rhyme or reason to it, it seemed.
One thing humans all had in common: they did things for a reason. Serial killers don't act purely for entertainment except in extreme cases. Mido is smart, and he wouldn't bring go and reverse death just because he was bored...
Or would he?
That got L thinking even more. Ryuk the shinigami had been bored, so he dropped the Death Note that started it all down onto the earth. Light had been bored, and it had inspired him to use the notebook to make the world "a better place."
...Perhaps the whole thing, spanning for seven and a half years, hadn't been a true competition or a battle at all. Maybe it was just a way to be entertained on all fronts.
Just a game with lives of countless people hanging in the balance.
...
No.
It had started out that way, certainly. But it was a game no longer.
It was a battle to the end, and this was the last chance Light and L had.
It always came down to this.
It had occurred to L that, perhaps, while the investigation team might catch Light with the tracking dot as they supposed, it was very possible that Light had completely outwitted them in that aspect. L had not discovered the dot in his shoe because he hated shoes anyway and would never have thought that there was something in it that should not have been. Light, however, was a different story: he looked over every single miniscule detail of his life, and especially his appearance.
A tracking dot in his shoe would be noticible to him.
A tracking dot was something Light probably would have gotten rid of the instant he noticed it.
It didn't matter what he'd done with it-he could have dropped it into some old woman's purse for all L knew-but there was a 68% chance that the investigation team was tracing a completely irrelevant person. So what would Light logically do next?
...He'd been capable of pulling off the façade as a high school and college student.
Why couldn't he pretend the same way in Mido's basement, so long as he didn't think he was in any danger?
It was extremely likely: Light would do it.
...
Somewhere down the hallway and up the stairwell, L heard the outside door slam.
For a few minutes, there was only quiet. He sat there in the near silence, listening to the clock.
Tick, tick, tick.
At some point, he heard footsteps emerge seamlessly into the same rhythm.
Step, step, step.
"Mido...? Hello? I'm sorry I disappeared like that. Yamamoto said something that kind of freaked me out, and I just needed to cool down."
I forgot how convincing he can sound sometimes.
The footsteps were much closer. L, who was facing away from the door, noticed that they stopped about nearby.
"Hmm...?"
The footsteps backed up, and L could have sworn he heard a gasp.
"No!" an angry voice seethed.
L turned around, a sickly sweet smirk on his face.
"Hello, Light."