The chief and the others then quickly introduced themselves, though I kept quiet as L's eyes turned to them in a narrowed fashion. Just as the chief started apologising about how late we were L raised his hand, forming it into the shape of a finger and stated 'bang', surprising everyone once more as they froze in place. When asked what that was all about, L let out a sigh, giving everyone a deadpan look.
"If I were Kira, you'd be dead now, Soichiro Yagami, all of you would be dead actually, except for Ms. Tsukiko back there." He stated and for some reason that surprised them and a few of them looked back at me after realizing that I hadn't said anything and had been staying out of L's line of sight, "All Kira needs to kill is a name and a face. You should already know that, right?" he said with a small sigh in his voice, "Don't go around telling people your name needlessly. Let's value our lives." He then walked into the adjoining where there were chairs and couches. Letting out a small sigh, shaking my head as the chief explained to Matsuda about the names and faces while I answered Aizawa's question about why I didn't introduce myself, stating that I was the only female in the group and it would be obvious enough to know who I was.
"Let's not stand around talking. Come this way." L interrupted, as everyone stood on guard once more, "Please turn off all cell phones, laptop computers and any other transmission equipment and leave them on the table over there." L requested as everyone looked at the table to our right. I rolled my eyes as I did just that, leaving my satchel, phone, computer and my jacket on the couch while Aizawa questioned L's motives about his request. The chief just told the man to go with it, while Matsuda became a little cautious about L, "No, I just hate it when cell phones ring while I'm talking." L answered blandly, he truly doesn't ever change.
"Also, Ms Tsukiko; if you don't mind, I prefer being able to see those whom I talk to, so please leave your hat with your other items." He added while looking back at me. I responded with a small, curt nod of my head as well as a small hum, stating that I had heard him and tipped my hat off, sighing a bit as I placed it on top of my satchel and coat while running a hand through my bangs.
'Let the games begin.' I couldn't help but mentally muse, wondering how quickly it would take L to deduce who I was. After all, I hadn't changed much either since we last met; except that I was taller and had matured a bit more. But it had always been a bit of a game to see how long it takes for him to figure me out, this was no different than it was in the past, except that he and I knew things would become dangerous if either one of us were truly exposed to others.
"Just so we're clear from the beginning: do not write down anything I say here." L started again as we entered the room. The others were taken off guard when they saw L crouching in a chair. "Please just keep it in your head. Please, sit wherever you like." He added as the others started to get over their shock.
Shaking my head once again, I walked over to a chair near L, one that just happen to be directly to his left and sat down cross-legged after removing my boots. My co-workers stared at me a bit, for they never realized that I wore my shoes barefooted before. I rested my head in one of my hands which was propped up on my knee and watched in amusement as the other sat down cautiously. L watched them closely while his eyes strayed to my form more often than not. After all, he hadn't actually 'seen' me in the office, though there would be times when my silhouette would be noticeable, as well as the identification of my voice when I spoke.
Today would have been the first time that I deliberately stood in the line of his sight. The other times that he had see me in the office; I had only made to pass documents over to someone, along with heading someplace. Though I made no indication of allowing him to see my face until now, when he asked me to remove my fedora, even the time that my fedora fell in front of the laptop, I still had my hair hiding my face. As I sat in the chair now, my face was finally exposed to L and my heart told me that it was waiting to be found out. I smoothed out my skirt, the one that was long enough to cover my knees while stilling cross-legged easily while still hanging off the edge of the chair.
I watched in amusement as L poured himself some coffee, not bothering to offer any to the others. Picking the cup up, he took a sip from it and made a face, as if he was disappointed at how bitter it was before putting the cup down. He then started grabbing sugar cubes, dropping them into the cup two at a time. The others watched this act nervously while I watched in amusement; the others were still tense and nervous about this meeting and the fact that he wasn't quite what they expected in the World's Greatest Detective.
"Uhm... L..." Matsuda started, but was cut off by L as he continued putting sugar into his coffee.
"From now on, don't call me L." L stated as he finished putting enough sugar into the coffee and started to stir it in a bit, "Call me 'Ryuzaki,' please, just to be safe." L requested and from the look on Matsuda's face, he was still uncertain.
"Okay, Ryuzaki, then. If Kira needs a name and a face to kill someone, then wouldn't the number of deaths decrease if we altered new broadcasts about criminals?" Matsuda asked curiously while L continued to stir his coffee.
"If we did that, then civilians would die." L or rather Ryuzaki replied casually and unemotionally, without bothering to look up. When Ukita and Aizawa asked why, Ryuzaki paused in his stirring and looked up at the others with a neutral look on his face as he stared at the others unwavering as he answered, "Kira is childish and hates to lose."
"Childish and..." Matsuda trailed off, not really knowing how to take the answer as I tapped my fingers against my cheek.
"...hates to lose?" the chief asked as if he couldn't truly believe he was hearing this either. I wasn't surprised that L came to that conclusion as I tucked a few stray pieces of hair behind me ear. I noticed that the dye that I used for my hair was starting to fade a bit, much to my relief. I preferred my regular hair colour over any other colour available, but as my occupation usually has me going undercover, I had to dress and look the part, which often meant that I had to dye my hair different colours all the time.
"Yes." Ryuzaki replied as he looked back at his cup of coffee and picked it up, "I'm also childish and hate to lose. That's how I know." He stated before taking a sip of his now overly sugared coffee.
"Ryuzaki..." the chief started, probably unsure as to how he could ask his question, "Could you explain a little better?" he clarified, though I was still amused at how careful they were being with their words. Ryuzaki looked at them from over the cup before pulling it away, his expression not changing from its neutral expression, except for that one time when tasted his coffee.
"When I declared war against him on TV, Kira, who until then had only killed criminals, killed my stand-in without hesitation. Then, when I declared he was hiding in Kanto, in Japan, he concentrated only on Japanese criminals, as if to say, 'Yeah, so?'" he said as he took another sip of coffee before putting it back onto the table, "He responds unflinchingly to any challenge with another challenge." He let out a bit of a sigh as he continued, "What do you think someone like that would do if we censored the media to hide the criminals?" he asked letting everyone think about the question.
His eyes flickered over to me as the others considered an answer. I held his gaze unflinchingly, only to close them and turn back to the table while curling a stray piece of hair around my finger when Matsuda started responding. When I opened my eyes, I noticed L's eyes narrow slightly before they went back to their neutral expression.
"He'd..." Matsuda trailed off, not knowing how to answer it, thus Ryuzaki started once more.
"'If you don't bring out the felons, I'll kill those who've committed small crimes or even the innocent. I'm taking the whole world hostage. It's not my fault. You, who hide evil people from my judgement, you are evil.'" He stated, quoting what Kira would think as he scratched a foot with his other one. I let out a small hum at L's reasoning, thinking more on it, for he was on the right track, "That's Kira's thought process. Let's think of some other way to use the mass media." He suggested after casting me curious look at my hum.
"Like what?" Aizawa asked as he leaned out of his seat a bit. I took a quick look around at the others here, noticing that they were hanging onto L's words as if it was law. It was quite amusing, though I kept this to myself while scratching a small itch on my leg with my foot.
"How about something like this..." L mused while looking up at the ceiling a bit and scratched his cheek, 'America angered at murder of FBI agents. Kira becomes known throughout the world, 1,500 agents from the world's leading nations enter Japan.'" He offered and I had to hold back a disgruntled snort of how imprudent that sounded, "That would be totally different from Kira's run-in with the FBI agents. Everyone around him would seem like an enemy. Kira, feeling cornered, would react in some way." He offered and everyone sitting around the coffee table took the idea as if it were a diamond.
I sat back in my chair, crossing my arms over my chest and let out a small sigh, shaking my head a little while feeling my twin braids lightly hit my back. While the others praised the idea of a deception plan like that, I couldn't help but think that Kira would never believe such nonsense. When I looked up from the coffee table, feeling eyes on me again, I noticed that this time it was the chief. When I raised an eyebrow at him, I saw his own turn downward as if he just realised that I wasn't fazed by anything being said in the room and started creating suspicions within his own mind as to why.
"Okay then, let's discuss my thoughts on the Kira case." Ryuzaki stated, cutting the tenseness between me and the chief as the others agreed, "Kira is working alone." He said while bringing his thumb up to his mouth and his eyes turned to the table a bit, closing them partially as he thought, "He was getting information from inside the investigation before." He mused, though before he could say anything else, Aizawa spoke up, wanting clarification about Kira working alone and asked why L thought that.
"Wait Aizawa;" the chief interrupted, forcing everyone to turn to him to hear what he had to say, "Let's hear all of Ryuzaki's deductions first."
"He needs a name and a face to kill." Ryuzaki went on, unfazed by being interrupted as he looked over at Aizawa a bit, "Plus, he has some way of controlling the time of death and a person's actions before they die." L then proceeded to pick up a marker as he looked at everyone, "Please keep those two things in mind as you listen to what I say now." He stated as he took the cap off the marker, a serious look was on his face as he slid into a mode I liked to call 'Deduction mode'. I let out a small hum, switching to rest my head on my right hand instead of my left as L started writing dates on the table.
"December 14th: 12 FBI agents come to Japan. December 19th: Kira is obviously conducting some sort of test on prisoners, controlling their actions right before they die. So, somewhere in these five days, Kira noticed the FBI's presence and felt threatened." He said as he drew a line between the two dates, his eyes focused on what he was doing, "Then, in order to get rid of the FBI agents, whose names and faces he didn't know, we can assume he had to conduct tests to find out to what extent he could control people's deaths. Then on December 27th those twelve FBI agents were killed..."
My eyes narrowed at this, but before I could mull over anything, my phone went off in the other room, cutting L off from what he was saying as his eyes looked at me narrowly, "Ms Tsukiko; did I not request that your cell phone was turned off?" he asked me, almost daring me to respond. Rolling my eyes I slipped my feet onto the ground as the eyes of everyone else watched me.
"Yes, you did Ryuzaki," I stated blandly while standing up, "but for it to ring while it is off, then it is an urgent, personal matter that I must attend to. If you wish to, you may update me of what I missed when I return. Excuse me." I stated brusquely and walked out of the room, grabbing my phone and satchel before walking out of the hotel room, leaning against the wall while punching in the key code needed to access my phone before bringing it up to my ear.
"You know, it can be seen as rude to disturb a meeting like this." I mused, bringing up my foot to scratch the back of my leg, though I was smirking in amusement.
"Che, you were the one who told me call if I found something of interest." The familiar young male scoffed while I chuckled at him, "Anyway, I've sent the information to your computer, so you should already have it." He stated and I furrowed my brows a bit at that.
"You know you don't have to call me to tell about that right?" I asked in suspicion, hearing him scowl a bit at the other end, "What are you up to?" I narrowed my eyes a little, though before he could answer, I heard him wrestling with the phone, yelling at someone at the other end about something.
"Hey, happy birthday big sis, it's been forever since I've talked with you!" I heard another male voice pipe up and there was no doubt that he was grinning at the other end while the one I talked with before was yelling at him to give him back the phone. Chuckling, I couldn't help but let myself relax and smile at the two.
"Thank you Red, it's nice to know that at least one person cares." I said teasingly as the male voice from earlier let out a yell and I knew I was on speaker.
"I was going to tell you that before this idiot stole the phone from me!" the male from before whined as I chuckled once more at how flustered he sounded.
"I know my dear brother, but you really should work on your timing." I teased him, hearing Red laugh while my brother scowl some more, "Now tell me...how's lil' White doing?" I asked curiously, for I hadn't spoken to the youngest of that bunch in a while, "And please don't tell me you've locked him in a cupboard... 'cause I swear if you did, I'll contact..."
"He's fine sis... though locking him a cupboard is a good idea for next time. Thanks for the idea." My brother mused while I rolled my eyes at him, "But he said that he sent something to you for your birthday." My brother huffed, "But we all did actually. It should be at your apartment right now." He stated.
"Yeah and you'll totally love what we sent!" Red added with no doubt a grin on his face while I shook my head at them.
"You three don't need to send me anything, just knowing you are alive and well is more than enough..." I was cut off by my brother and Red scoffing on the other end.
"We know we don't need to sis, we just want to. After all you practically raised us for who knows how long and the fact that you still do take care of us, we wanted to show you our appreciation." My brother stated in a 'matter-of-fact' tone of voice.
"Yeah sis, we owe this to you. Just swear that you'll come back from this case." Red told me and I couldn't help but smirk at the unspoken threat in his voice.
"I will come back, after all I did promise to return for a bit after this one." I told them in reassurance, "After all it's been two years since I was last there and I'm due for another visit with my favorite boys." I stated honestly and it was true. I did promise that I would come back to be with them until I was called away again for an urgent case.
I talked with my brother and Red for a little longer before hanging up, promising them I would let them know what I thought about their gifts. I also made a mental note to get in contact with White to thank him for his gift and catch up with him. White was extremely quiet and antisocial, much like the other two, though he often opened up more to me when I talked with him. After hanging up with the boys, I looked at my phone and let out a small hum, making a few more mental notes before stuffing the phone into my satchel and walked back into the room. I placed my satchel on top of my jacket, placing my hat on top of it before walking back into the sitting room.