Chapter 16
Hi again excited for more DNTOS? I am! So let's go!
Ryuzaki, Chief Yagami, Matsuda, Aizawa, Mogi, and Ukita; counting Watari and myself that's 8 members. Right after they sat down I had asked if anyone wanted anything, because playing Watari is in my job description. Not really, but it oughtta be…
"Can I get anyone anything?"
"Can you make us some coffee, please?" Ryuzaki looks up at me and I smile.
"Sure, no problem. You want the usual, Ryuzaki?" He nods and I turn my attention to everyone else.
"We're okay." The Chief answers to everyone and no one shows any sign of feeling different so I turn and leave.
It doesn't take me long and I return with a tray with a tea set, a bowl of Sugar Cubes, spare cups just in case they change their minds, and a Mt. Dew for myself. I place the tray on the table and begin to pour Ryuzaki some coffee. Before I can even add sugar he takes a sip and makes a funny face at the cup.
"I made it normal just in case they wanted some." He gives me a look and pulls the sugar bowl toward him; I take that as my cue to sit down. I take my can with me and open it and take a sip before I sit down. Ryuzaki ignores us and begins to put sugar cubes in his cup two at a time.
Two…four…six…
"Excuse me, L" Matsuda catches my attention and I place my can on the table.
"Mm, from now on I'll ask that you stop calling me L. It's Ryuzaki now, just to be safe."
"Okay then, Ryuzaki. If Kira needs a name and a face to kill, couldn't we cut down on the number of victims but keeping criminals names out of the media?"
I inch forward in my seat. "Matsuda, imagine for a minute that you're Kira. You believe that it's your duty to cleanse the world of criminals. Then all of a sudden you don't know the names of the people you wanna kill. The only names you can find are the normal reporter stories and the reporters themselves, not to mention, celebrities and officials. If you were Kira, wouldn't you be angry and just kill, say, a reporter, just to make a point?" Everyone seems to be hanging on my every word. Matsuda says something like 'Yeah I guess'.
"Kira is childish and hates to lose." Ryuzaki says it like it's obvious and we all turn to him.
"What do you mean?" Chief Yagami asks.
"Well, I'm also childish and I hate to lose…that's how I know." Ryuzaki sips his coffee, I lost track after 8 at how many cubes he put in there.
"Ryuzaki, would you mind explaining that?" Chief Yagami seems lost, I don't blame him.
"Early on in the investigation I tried to provoke Kira with that broadcast, until then we thought that he would only kill criminals. As we all witnessed he didn't hesitate to kill my stand in." My mind goes back to Lind L Tailor but I take a sip of my drink and push him out of my mind. "Also as soon as I said he was in the Kanto region, in defiance, he made sure that his next victims came from within Japan as if to say, 'what are you gonna do about it?'" Ryuzaki pauses and sips his coffee. "He's met each of my challenges head on and he's never missed an opportunity to return the favor. Now, just as Suzuki said, if we tried to use media restrictions to hide the names from someone like that he might just start killing petty criminals or the innocent. 'If you don't release the names of criminals I'll hold the world hostage, so who's it gonna be? I'm not the evil one here, those of you who are holding those names back, you are the true evil ones.'" Ryuzaki breathes in uneasily as he begins again. "That's exactly how Kira thinks, but in any case let's think of another way to use the media to draw him out…"
They're hanging on every word, but no one presents him with a suggestion. Suddenly I have an idea.
"What if we lied about how many of us there are…" Everyone turns to me and I place my feet on the ground and inch forward in my seat. I use my knees as a prop for my elbows as I begin to explain. "Hear me out, something like 'U.S. is pissed over death of 12 FBI Agents, latest killings anger INTERPOL leading nations to send over 500 investigators to Japan. Since they don't exist, Kira can't kill 'em." Everyone stares at me dumbfounded. Was my Japanese off? I don't think so…
"That's a good idea, but 500 is not enough, well need something higher like…1500. Kira will feel overwhelmed because unlike the FBI that only sent 12 there will be enough to where everyone will be a suspect. He'll begin to feel cornered and will probably make some drastic action, revealing himself. Very good, Suzuki, that was a good idea." I smile and nod, but I feel my face beginning to blush, the only thing that could make this worse would be if Ryuzaki patted me on the head in appraisal.
Aizawa looks from Ryuzaki to me and back. "That's a great idea, he'll be so busy looking for 1500 people that don't exist we'll make a mistake, meanwhile the 8 of us will be able to investigate him."
Ukita seems excited too. "That just might work!"
"Well before we celebrate I'll tell you my other thoughts on the Kira case." Ryuzaki seems either annoyed or bored, his face is the epitome of 'resting bitch face'. "Kira works alone; he had access to all our classified information."
"What evidence do you have for that?" Before Ryuzaki can finish Aizawa interrupts him.
"Hold on Aizawa, let's listen to all he has to say before asking questions." The Chief doesn't seem to scold him, but more…give him a friendly suggestion.
"We know he needs a name and a face to kill, and to some extent he can control the time of death and actions before dying. We already know that much, so let's keep it in mind and listen carefully to what I'm about to say next." Ryuzaki pulls out a marker and removes the cap, but I notice there is only the table near to write on.
"OH HELL NO! You are not writing on the table!" I jump up and walk quickly to our printer and grab a piece and slap it down on the table in front of him. Everyone seems shocked and stares at me, like how dare I talk to the great Detective L like that. I put my hands on my hips and stare down at him. "Do you know how long it would take to get permanent ink off a wood table?!" Ryuzaki ignores me and pulls the paper closer, placing the sugar cube cup on one corner and his saucer from his tea cup on another as some form of paper weight.
"On December 14th 12 FBI agents entered Japan. On December 19th Kira used prison inmates as experiments manipulating their actions before they died. In other words; sometime between the 14th and the 19th, this 5 day window, Kira became aware of the FBI agents presence and felt threatened." Ryuzaki draws on the paper as he speaks and I remember too late how that particular marker tends to bleed through one piece. Guess I'll be cleaning the table after all… I sigh and sit back down with a huff, crossing both my arms and my legs. "Because he didn't know any of the names or faces of the FBI agents he was at a disadvantage and couldn't kill them. He needed to know how much control he had over the victims before he could use them against the agents. An as we all know on December 27th they all died. During the period of December 19th through December 27th, to the best of our knowledge, 23 victims died of heart attacks, but they were different than most victims. These were all ex-convicts, alleged criminals, and people in ongoing investigations. That being said, from a legal point of view, they were all innocent."
Chief Yagami agrees and as I lean back in my chair I realize the connection, surprised I hadn't noticed it before.
"What this indicated is that Kira had to control these lesser criminals in order to kill those FBI agents. He killed so many people so we wouldn't know the difference between the decoys and the people he actually used. In truth he probably only needed a few. Then he waited 8 days so that the FBI could investigate more; which meant there would be no timeline linking Kira to their deaths. I suspect Kira had to be one of the people the FBI investigated between the 14th and the 19th of December. In fact…I have no doubt." Everyone seems surprised as Ryuzaki reaches down by his chair and grabs a stack of papers. "These are files provided by the FBI. They contain additional information you might find useful as well; for obvious reasons they are not to leave this room but-"
"Amazing!" My head snaps to Matsuda. "There may be only 5 of us but with this much information we should be able to cover a lot of ground." I glare at him. Matsuda you idiot I'm here to help too.
"We'll split into two teams; one traces the FBI agents and the other looks at the heart attack victims." Aizawa startles me as he seems rearing to go.
"There weren't many people who had access to information from HQ and of those the FBI only investigated a small group in the first 5 days!" Matsuda flips through some pages as Aizawa agrees.
"So, does anyone have any questions?" Ryuzaki seems stressed all of a sudden. Maybe all these people are too much for him…
"Actually Ryuzaki, I do have a question for you." The Chief speaks up after being silent the entire time. "It pertains to what you said about how you hate to lose. Does the fact that you've shown your face to us mean that you've lost? By just being here are you admitting defeat to Kira?"
Yikes…
"That's right. By showing my face to you now and sacrificing the lives of 12 FBI agents I have lost the battle, but I'm not gonna lose the war. This is the first time I've ever put my life on the line. I want to show Kira that we're all willing to risk our lives if that's what it takes." A smile, a real smile appears on Ryuzaki's face. I'm shocked, but to be honest…it's kinda adorable. "I want to show him that Justice I'll prevail no matter what."
"Hey, yeah that's right." I turn to hear Mogi and see him smile. So that's what he sounds like…
"I like the sound of that." Matsuda gets excited again.
"Alright, let's do this Ryuzaki." Aizawa straightens himself in his seat beside me with the files in his hand, he's obviously pumped.
I smile at our merry band of misfits. You've done it Ryuzaki; they may have been hesitant to believe it was you before, but with that little speech they're ready to follow you, to their graves if they have to. This is a great moment.
"Before we go any further I'd like to be absolutely sure that none of you are Kira so I would like to talk to each of you individually before you leave today."
And great moments gone.
Aizawa looks to his coworkers "Guess he still doesn't trust us."
"No, I feel it's a fair request. Try to see it from his perspective; Kira's been getting information from our headquarters from the very beginning, so there's a good chance that he's one of us." Chief Yagami to the rescue.
Ryuzaki stands and walks to his spot at the window, I stand and meet him there. I stop a few inches behind him.
"Things are going well…just one clue, simple decisive factor is all I need…just one thing." Ryuzaki looks to me with that same yearning look from before, like he wants to say something but can't. He opens his mouth a few times but then turns back to the window. "I'd like to speak with Chief Yagami first…" I nod and return to the men, still wondering what's on Ryuzaki's mind.
"Looks like you're up first Chief…" Chief Yagami stands and joins Ryuzaki at the window, but it's too far and I can't hear what they're saying. I sit back down and lean on the arm rest with my head in my hand.
What was he going to say…
OH MY GOD I'm FINALLY DONE. *looks at how long CH 17 is and cringes* I need a better set up, my back is killing me…I can't wait 'till my office is built…My laptop from like…2011 is also like on fire right now…ugh I need new things…Well how is everyone enjoying it? Once again I'd like to thank Wolfy and Silhouette for their comments and input. Silhouette thank you also for having a name with the ONE WORD I HAVE A HARD TIME SPELLING….*sighs and puts fingers on the bridge of nose* I'll think about a jealous L, but I have no real intention of anything with Matsuda, he's just dumb and he's fun to pick on. I thought the best way to integrate her into the group was make them laugh. The whole thing with the fact that they are all speaking Japanese is interesting too…you don't usually think about it but she had to learn it while she was with L. Lol *famous Hamburger scene pops into head. 'da bugha' * Anyway there is a lot upcoming and something major with her is going to happen. I am going to pull an M. Night. Shamalamadingdong on your asses. As far as Light goes he's going to be roughly the same you'll just hear her commentary on how she thinks he's creepy and the weirdness that follow. *Laughs because I know something about it you don't* She also probably won't wanna spend much time near him. *Hears heavy breathing and looks to my right at my 16 year old cat Kiki* Yes? What? You want Sam/Suzuki to find a cat out on the street and bring it into task force to love and keep? I don't know I'll think about it. What? You also want to use my laptop as a heating bed? No I don't think so. Oh, you're gonna lay on my pillow instead? Okay…*looks back to audience and ignores the cat climbing on her arm* I better get goin' on chapter 17, see ya