August 21, 2001

5 years, 3 months, 2 days prior to Incident

L stared blankly at the mess of papers in front of him, a thumb thoughtfully playing with his bottom lip. This specific case was one that he took up as Deneuve whenever there were no other cases interesting or important enough. 5 years of on-again off-again work had revealed a series of seemingly important details... but no culprit.

L currently knew more about him than anyone else in the world, but due to his highly elusive nature, the Shi no Kage murderer had been nigh uncatchable thus far. Until yesterday, L had known only the following information about this particular killer:

1. The Shi no Kage's first kill was on December 12, 1996: a certain businessman named Yamaguchi Hiroto, who had been in Tokyo, Japan at the time - indicating that the killer had begun his spree there - was found in a high security hotel room with his throat slit in a manner that suggested professional training. There was no struggle, which, considering the man's character, was strange. The door remained locked from the inside, all windows tightly shut. The room was 50 floors high and the building impossible to scale, especially without witnesses. There wasn't a single piece of evidence that could be used to trace the culprit; not a DNA sample, not a fingerprint, not even a speck of lint. After a request from the Tokyo Police, L had sent Quillsh to personally take a look - nothing.

L had later found that this was a scenario shared by most of the Kage's future kills. Those that had been reported, at least.

2. All of the Kage's kills were spread throughout the country of Japan, and not focused in any one locale. The greatest number of kills was in the Kanto area by two people, lending credence to the theory that the killer had begun there. The latest one was on Sado Island, suggesting that he was currently located there, but this was unlikely.

3. The deaths always maintained two characteristics:

I) There were one or more people who had motive(s) to see the victims dead.

II) The deaths could never be traced back to the aforementioned people. Nor could it be traced back to anyone else.

From this information, L was 84% sure that the Shi no Kage was a mercenary rather than a normal serial killer, killing for money and not for the thrill or for fun.

4. The passage of time also revealed three different trends:

I) The victims became progressively high profile, whether in polite society or in the underground world of criminals.

II) Victims of the unscrupulous, debauched variety became considerably more common after time; all of the Shi no Kage's recent victims were members of violent gangs, corrupt politicians, or otherwise had history of abusing of human rights, such as rapists or, ironically, murderers.

III) There was a steep increase in count from 1996 to 1998, but after 1998 the number of deaths had begun to decrease.

It was clear that the Shi no Kage was finding himself in higher demand and could now pick and choose between the various requests to suit his 'moral' tastes. It was also very likely that he was receiving greater pay for each completed job. Either that, or he was finding himself in less need of money. Quite possibly both.

5. L was 92% sure that the Kage had a strangely pronounced sense of honor, despite his profession.

Of the victims, there were no children, and no one younger than 21. Less than 12% had children. Only 4 were female (which was why L had presumed the killer to be a man - women were rarely as sympathetic to their own gender), and, to date, only 6 victims were younger than 32. The deaths were always quick, clean, and as close to painless as possible.

However, this had not been enough for L to deduce the identity of the Shi no Kage. There were no other patterns that suggested a schedule of any sort, no way to trace the deaths back to any one person, nothing. Exactly three murders under the calling card of the Shi no Kage had left traces, but the crime scenes were too messy to be him - those murderers had obviously been copycats, and it went without saying that he'd caught all of them.

But now...

Twelve days ago, they'd caught a wakagashira, a first lieutenant, of the yakuza group Sumiyoshi-kai. After an impressive eleven days of receiving a very specific form of L's hospitality, the man had finally cracked and revealed how to contact the Shi no Kage.

He had dropped into a coma immediately afterwards, without warning and without perceivable cause.

Curious and curiouser.

Well, with this new information he'd be able to track down the killer by sending him to a bait criminal. L would be there, lying in wait; yes, it would be dangerous, but after investing so much time in this particular case, how could he possibly miss seeing the Kage for himself?

In all honesty, L was rather disappointed that catching the Kage could end up being so... easy. It almost made him want to abandon the case altogether.

Almost.

He was still curious enough to keep working on it.

World's Greatest Detective L - age 18, formal education unknown

AN

Everything deduced/found by L in this chapter is correct, except for the gender. Sakura's first assassination was at age 6, though I guess she had the knowledge of a 19 year old kunoichi at the time. From 1996 to 1998, Sakura was saving up for an apartment and then for school fees so she could enroll for elementary.

Killing people without a trace pays surprisingly well.

Candy dream: I hope this chapter answers your question. :) She pays for everything herself. When she needs to pretend to have a guardian for whatever reason - like enrolling for school or buying a home -, she just uses kage bunshin and a henge.