Chapter 5: Through the Secrets and the Lies
True to L's instructions from the wee hours of this morning, Watari dialed the phone number that their informant provided. L was busy munching on pain au chocolat from some ritzy café across the hotel when a woman's voice answered and her voice filtered out through the speakers.
"Am I speaking to a member of the Kira task force?"
"Yes. For safety purposes, kindly end this call and dial the number I've provided just now. Someone will be with you shortly."
Line 2 was designated as Watari's phone and when it rang, the butler picked it up to continue the conversation with the woman on the other line. L assumed it was Cera.
"I am calling to ask for an audience with either L or Watari. It concerns the Kira investigation and Marion Lamperouge has video evidence that suggests the identity of Kira."
L caught Watari's questioning glance and he gave a small nod. "Very well. I will share an encrypted online drive with you and you may upload the evidence there."
"That's not good enough. Marion wants to present a theory that Naomi Misora discovered before she disappeared, in addition to the video evidence."
"Could you please hold for a moment."
If this was the same person, they didn't mention Naomi Misora when they called the tip line that the task force set up. Ukita would have mentioned that crucial bit of information if they did. Withholding Naomi Misora's involvement from the previous tip was deliberate. Marion was insistent. L had to give him that. Watari was waiting for his cue and L gave his assent in the form of another nod, lowering the pastry from his lips.
"Your information has been sent to L. He will contact you shortly, along with specific instructions you need to follow."
=OoOoO=
"Well, this is working better than I expected."
Lelouch commented after the line went dead.
The smug smirk on his face disappeared behind the rim of the coffee cup. They had successfully spoken to someone from the tipline, received a return call from a member of the task force, and had themselves an audience with the world's most famous detective himself. Lelouch knew better than to expect L to show his face or even speak with his real voice, and considering the number of hoops they'd had to jump through and the type of evidence they had to get their hands on just to capture the secretive investigator's attention, L would likely speak to them the way he'd confronted Kira on live broadcast — with his signature call sign and through a voice changer.
L's instructions came through not a moment later when both C.C. and Lelouch were in front of the computer. To say that L was careful was an understatement and inadequate. It was quite obsessive, bordering on paranoid. Lelouch was actually a mix between impressed and vexed.
C.C. released a sigh. "And here I thought you were cautious."
Lelouch only nodded. The instructions included switching off all phones and communication devices in their room, and accessing the channel for their calls by getting through a password-protected firewall and everything. Nevertheless, both parties agreed to an audio-only conference, and Lelouch followed the other detective's instructions to a T and set everything up so that when they only had five minutes left before L was supposed to reach out, Lelouch was already wearing a hole into floor from his incessant pacing. C.C. occupied one of the armchairs in the sitting room.
Thoroughly distracted by the sound of his own shoes scuffing the suite's hardwood floors, Lelouch all but jumped when the laptop beeped in warning and L's infamous callsign popped up on screen.
"Greetings. I am L. Am I speaking to Marion Lamperouge?"
"Yes. I am Marion Lamperouge."
"As you have mentioned to my colleagues, it appears you have information concerning the identity of Kira and you are in some way connected to Naomi Misora. Am I correct?"
"Of course." Lelouch agreed and continued to explain, never faltering even as deceit sprinkled with kernels of the truth spilled from his lips. "The NPA brought me in to investigate concerned citizens' reports regarding Ms. Misora's disappearance. She was last seen in her apartment building by select staff and specifically the concierge on the 1st of January. On that same day, she pays a visit to the NPA at 1:30 PM. I am sending the surveillance footage through the channel you set up at this very moment along with a scanned copy of a page of the visitor's logbook, dated January 1st. Her name does not appear in the book, but the face captured in the cameras matches the images we have of Naomi Misora in the National Security database."
Lelouch paused and waited to see if L had something to say. When he was met with a wall of silence from the letter 'L' in Cloister Black, he took that as a cue to continue.
"At 1:40 PM, a young man walks in by the name of Light Yagami, according to the logbook. He leaves an item at the front desk and engages Naomi Misora in a conversation. If you review the footage I sent your way, you'll see they carried on this conversation up until they both left the station at 1:55. They eventually move out of the frame. That is the last time Naomi has ever been seen, both on camera and by acquaintances and associates."
"Mm… As interesting as the presentation is, you're not giving me the whole picture."
Lelouch couldn't resist smirking with unchecked glee. There were holes in the story he'd given and L would be an idiot to not sniff it out. He deliberately left information out to give the other detective cause to question. So that left L with two ways to respond: to engage or to let Lelouch continue with his bullshit and eventually end the call so L can figure the whole thing out for himself with the limited info that Marion Lamperouge gave him. Lelouch believed that L was capable of uncovering the whole story eventually, but he needed to make the other detective see that he needed Lelouch.
And L gave the exact responsehe was hoping for. He needed L to press further… to ask questions and to engage. Because this call was more than just trading valuable information. This was about establishing intrigue and a rapport of sorts (as flimsy as that was to establish through an audio-only call with images and voice changers). In the absence of both their faces and the sound of their voices that gave away their humanity, Lelouch hoped to create a link through discourse instead.
That was the best way to eventually get L to trust in their discussions, and in time, let him and C.C. into the Kira case late enough that the task force would already have a suspect. From there, he and C.C. would go about removing Kira's Geass from the world and disappear back into the shadows like they were both meant to do.
But that was for later…
L continued, "Why do you presume that Naomi Misora's disappearance is linked to Kira? What made you make that association?"
Telling L of Naomi Misora's engagement to Raye Penber was the information to share if he wanted to hide his and C.C.'s association with Naomi herself… But Lelouch wasn't after concealing that connection. Doing so would discredit the theories that Naomi shared with C.C. concerning Kira, and Lelouch didn't want that. L needed to hear those theories — if only so that it could help the task force catch Kira faster, establish Marion Lamperouge's value in L's eyes, and bring both him and C.C. to this Geass-abusing murderer even faster.
"She was engaged to one of the twelve IBI agents killed by Kira in Japan. And… Naomi Misora also happens to be a close friend of my assistant, Cera."
"You have a personal interest in the case." L commented, his tone as flat as ever in spite of the voice changer. "Would you care to hear my thoughts on matters as they are?"
"Please."
"Naomi Misora came to Japan with her fiancé and depending on where you and your assistant were at this time, she may or may not have made contact with you. Regardless of this information, she met with her friend Cera in Japan. And on the 27th of December, 12 IBI agents died of heart attacks. Raye Penber is among them. Grieving the loss of her fiancé, Naomi Misora approaches Cera to confide with her and express her suspicions about Kira and the deaths of the agents. And as she was an IBI agent herself before resigning up until four months ago, Naomi Misora pursues the Kira investigation on her own and finds a lead she wants to share with the task force — which explains her appearance at the NPA. Is that the story?"
"More or less. You sound as if you know her." Lelouch narrowed his eyes, though L couldn't see.
"You're correct, I do. She worked under me during a murder case in Britannia. But that is not relevant to the Kira investigation."
"Right… About her theories. We will have to go back a little bit."
Lelouch began to explain, glancing now and then at the notes that C.C. generously made for him, detailing the times and dates and the theory that Naomi had shared with C.C. countless times before she'd decided to get involved with the police's Kira investigation.
"There was a bus jacking incident on the 20th of December. According to news reports, a convicted felon, Kiichiro Osoreda, experienced drug-induced hallucinations in the middle of hi-jacking a bus en route to Spaceland. He scrambles out of the moving vehicle and dies of a car accident at 11:45 AM. If we are to believe what Naomi told Cera, Raye Penber was on that bus, carrying out an assignment, and was put in a situation where he'd had to show his ID to someone. And just a week later, on the 27th of December, 12 IBI agents died of heart attacks. Naomi, and even I, think the timing of prior events and the following death of a criminal during a bus jacking incident was too convenient. It suggests that Kira can kill in other ways, and that it doesn't have to be a heart attack. If we go by the premise that it was Kira who saw Raye Penber's ID on the bus, Kira could have used that bit of information to get the identities of the other IBI agents in Japan. With this theory in tow, Naomi approached the NPA to ask to speak to someone from the task force personally. She obviously did not get to share this information with you, otherwise you wouldn't be speaking to me. And the last person she was seen with is Light Yagami. Your thoughts?"
"The person Raye Penber showed his ID to on the 20th of December could be Kira. Her theory warrants a second analysis… Assuming Naomi is right and Kira does not have to resort to heart attacks to kill his victims, it does strengthen the suspicion that Kira could be responsible for her disappearance. But what could possibly compel Kira to kill her? Her existence must have appeared—"
Lelouch pursed his lips. "—As a threat."
L ignored the interruption and continued musing. "Which means, she must have shared this same information to Kira or at the very least, let him know she was investigating Kira and the murders."
Lelouch ignored the horrible feeling twisting in his gut. If L's assumptions were accurate, that meant Naomi could have carried a conversation with Kira — a conversation long enough to clue him in to her intentions. How could he have missed that?
But L was speaking again. "If you had to put a percentage on the likelihood that Light Yagami is the cause of Naomi Misora's disappearance and is Kira, how much would you give it?"
"I find it odd that we haven't found a body. So until there is solid evidence or if someone builds a case against Light Yagami somehow, the chances of this boy being Kira isn't very high. Around 10% perhaps. In any case, my priority is locating Naomi."
"Thank you for investigating her sudden disappearance. This discussion was incredibly productive and I appreciate the help you've lent in the Kira investigation. You've helped us narrow our leads down further."
"Judging by those words, I suppose you already have a short list of suspects."
"I have. But right now, it's not prudent to share that information with you. I'm sure you can understand why. You may carry out your investigation as you please."
L's tone was clipped and overly polite — albeit evidently flat. But his words did strike a nerve somewhere. He didn't work for L, never so much as alluded to being subservient to him, but the detective talked as if he owned Lelouch's time and was expressly giving him permission to contact him — as if Lelouch wasn't capable of doing just that on his own.
"Should we come across new information regarding the Kira case or about Naomi Misora's missing status, we'll contact you again." He would not stoop to begging L to stay in touch.
"Very well. Please reach out through the number that my team has provided and always wait for further instructions from me. I will contact you. Good day."
"Why didn't you just ask to join the task force?" C.C. piped up from her seat on one of the sofas. She'd been silent throughout the entire exchange, content to listen to L's and Lelouch's discussion.
"He would have said 'no' anyway. He's cautious and he's only right to be."
=OoOoO=
The members of the task force were due to show up to L's suite in under an hour, and he himself had just finished reviewing the footage from last night. It revealed nothing but sleeping individuals.
Needless to say, the early morning conference with Marion Lamperouge had been…interesting.
He could have used Naomi's theory and Marion Lamperouge's cooperation days ago, before he'd had Watari plant wiretaps and surveillance cameras in the Yagami and Kitamura households and especially after that informant called to tell them about Naomi Misora's disappearance. Where before he figured the Yagami siblings fit the profile of Kira, L was now past 95% sure of his suspicions concerning Chief Soichiro's family.
From their conversation, L could tell that Marion did not have all the information to precisely pin down a suspect, but L did.
What did their current Kira profile look like and how was their murderer executing his victims?
Kira is a student. He is childish and hates to lose. He has access to classified police information. Kira is with the police or he is associated with someone from the police. Kira was one of the individuals that Raye Penber was investigating between the 14th and 19th of December. Kira needs a face and a name in order to commit murder, and to some extent he could control a victim's time of death and the actions leading up to their death.
And based on his own personal knowledge about Naomi, she would indeed be trying to catch Kira after Raye Penber died. And this was now a fact if he were to believe what Marion told him — that Naomi and his assistant, Cera, were friends. Naomi Misora found a lead and before L had met with Marion, he'd already suspected that Kira managed to get to her first. That was why he decided on shifting the focus of the investigation to the people Raye Penber was tailing in the first place.
Going off of Naomi's theory, Kira killed a bus jacker through an accident. He could have killed Naomi and made it so that she would hide herself so completely before her death that if law enforcement came looking for her, they would find nothing.
Light Yagami was the last person Naomi Misora had spoken to before she disappeared… Based on the camera footage Marion had shared, if both Light and Naomi had left the NPA, they could have gone their separate ways and Naomi Misora simply ran into Kira and engaged them in a conversation somehow. But what were the chances that she had continued her conversation with Light Yagami long after they left the NPA? She obviously revealed enough information that Kira— no, Light felt threatened and opted for killing her.
Is Light Yagami really Kira?
At this point, their surveillance devices in the Kitamura household were useless. He would ask Watari to remove the devices. For the Yagami household on the other hand, he needed to keep those cameras and wiretaps in place. Now he only needed to know how Kira kills people. He couldn't bring this case to a close without finding out how Kira committed these murders from a distance and without his physical presence.
Equally as important, did Lamperouge give him the whole truth?
He had little cause to doubt Naomi's theories or Marion's association with her. He witnessed Naomi's excellence as a field agent and her deductive prowess was invaluable in the BB Murder Case. How she came to her conclusions and how she constructed her theories was in-character of her. He didn't doubt that at all. But was he really supposed to believe that the NPA hired Marion to investigate Naomi's disappearance? If that was the case, shouldn't a member of the task force have been apprised?
L looked up from where he'd been staring at the floor and back to the monitors that displayed separate footage of the Kitamura household and the Yagami household.
That was right… Marion Lamperouge's intentions and the truth behind his employment with the NPA was secondary to the Kira investigation.
To cover all their bases, he would go back himself and review the list of suspects Raye Penber had been tailing… Specifically, who was Raye Penber assigned to investigate on the 20th of December, the day of the bus jacking.
=OoOoO=
It was a relief to be away from the house and from the constant surveillance. But even while he was outside, he knew better than to be comfortable. L put cameras and wiretaps throughout his home because he was a suspect. He wouldn't put it past the detective to have someone from the task force follow him around when he was out and about too.
"Are you sure about this?" He glanced at the hulking bit of twisted monstrosity hopping alongside him on one foot and tangled knees. "Ryuk."
"Yeah, I'm sure nobody's following you, okay? Now hurry up already, will ya? The symptoms are getting worse." Ryuk complained loudly.
"I really hope you're not saying what you think I'd want to hear just to get some apples."
"Woah hold it right there. I just flew out and checked a 100-meter radius around you, and there was no one there. So yeah, for the last time, I'm sure okay?"
"All right… But on the news they said they were dispatching fifteen-hundred investigators to Japan." Honestly, he was having fun at the shinigami's expense at this point.
But the death god was so desperate for an apple-fix, he would do anything to get his hands on a single piece at this point. That was how he'd subtly manipulated the shinigami into finding the cameras and wiretaps in his room for him. It was just an unfortunate side effect that Ryuk failed to find a blind spot where he could safely eat his apples. And so the shinigami had been suffering from his so-called 'withdrawal symptoms' ever since that day.
"They're bluffing. You said so yourself." Ryuk nearly spat, still desperately hopping along on one foot. "If it were really happening, they wouldn't announce their arrival, instead they'd come and investigate secretly."
Pressing his lips together, he hid a smirk. "I suppose you're right. Well then, I'll buy you some apples."
"Nice!" The shinigami hissed with glee.
Ryuk was bizarre in every sense of the word, but he supposed that couldn't be helped. He was a death god, after all. He hastened his way to the nearest produce vendor and ignored Ryuk desperately whining his name while doing handstands in the middle of the road — dragging out, "Liiigghht" in the most ridiculous manner possible. He waited until they arrived at a secluded part of the neighborhood before he deliberately went out of his way to feed Ryuk his apples — just so the Shinigami would stop being grouchy and making empty threats.
It didn't take much to keep Ryuk happy and content. If Light had the finances, he would have secured a truck load of apples by now — if only so that he had enough to bribe the Shinigami to do his bidding. As uncooperative as Ryuk was, he was still an asset rather than a liability. He did find all of the cameras and wiretaps, and that gave Light a good grasp of where they were all hidden in his room, so lately, he had resorted to other methods of keeping up his work as Kira.
When L decided to riddle his home with cameras and listening devices, he should have bugged Light's clothes too. In his failure to do so, he'd found a loophole and exploited it. He was prudent enough to store pages of the notebook in his wallet and write down criminals' names weeks and months in advance in preparation for situations like this, so as far as criminals dying consistently went, there were no issues. But there was a chance that L would notice how these lesser criminals broadcasted on TV weren't dying when he wasn't receiving information, where before, Kira would have snuffed them out so easily.
He had no way of knowing how long L planned to keep him and the rest of the family under surveillance, so there was nothing to do but deal with it.
Sure he may leave the house more often nowadays, but his outings could easily be chalked up to his age, the fact that he went to cram school, and that he had friends.
To get around 24/7 surveillance, all he needed to do was remember the identities and the faces of the criminals he either saw on TV or while he was online on his computer. Regardless of the severity of their crimes, he could always kill them at random times whenever he was outside, writing the names on a piece of the Death Note that he'd previously hid in the folds of his wallet.
For the time being, it was the perfect way to deal with L's pesky hidden cameras.
Besides, Ashford University entrance exams were only two days away. Even if the task force chose to keep cameras and wiretaps in the house throughout the break (which was unlikely considering the purpose of 24/7 surveillance in the first place was that they were planning to make a decision within a short amount of time), he would move out eventually. If he chose to stay at the university dorms, he would have more freedom to act as Kira even if the task force pulled this sort of stunt again.
Either way, this was the closest the task force would get.
=OoOoO=
2 Days Later…
"For the past two days, I've listened to all of our audio recordings and reviewed the video footage we captured. I've gone over them many times, and I've come to a conclusion. Our surveillance of the Kitamura and Yagami households has revealed..." L trailed off and popped a single mini-peanut butter cup into his mouth. He let the task force stew as he chewed before finally finishing whatever he was about to say through a full mouth — in spite of the other men's expressions ranging from miffed to slightly relieved, "—Nothing. We will remove the cameras and wiretaps."
From his chair, Soichiro Yagami sighed in complete relief. All the while, he remained oblivious to L's suspicions and evidence that linked Light Yagami to Naomi Misora's disappearance — Naomi Misora who was engaged to Raye Penber. The Detective Superintendent didn't take the news well when L told him he suspected his family and especially his son, he could only imagine how much more distraught the head of the Yagami household would become.
"All that and we still don't have any suspects." Matsuda sighed gloomily.
"It's okay, Matsuda." Chief Yagami straightened up from his relieved slouch. "We'll have to pursue other leads, but we'll get them."
L chose the moment to interrupt, lest they get their hopes up even further than they already have. "Please don't get the wrong idea. I only said that we were unable to reveal anything suspicious based on our surveillance."
"What?"
"Even if Kira was among them, I'm sure he wouldn't make it obvious. No, in fact, it means he was able to continue killing without doing anything outwardly suspicious."
"Well then you believe that Kira is among one of those families." Soichiro responded and did his best to sound enthusiastic.
"As I've said, there's a 5% chance."
It was a lie… He was 95% sure of Kira's identity.
With the theories that Marion Lamperouge shared, they kept up 24/7 surveillance in the Yagami household not with the intent to find Kira, but to find out how Kira kills. As things stood, Kira was able to continue killing people even with the absurd amount of cameras in place. Was it possible that Kira committed these murders simply by wishing death upon them? Any human being would have shown at least some emotion, some sign that they were knowingly committing an act of murder, but every suspect they've observed so far (and especially Light Yagami) had appeared so…innocent. Innocent to the point of abnormality. And L would know… He'd reviewed the footage they captured as many times as possible, doing his best to glean any bit of evidence splayed across their faces.
But there was nothing…
So the obvious conclusion is that Kira couldn't be one of them.
This was inconvenient. His latest observations disproved his previous assumptions about Light Yagami based on the evidence and the theory that Marion Lamperouge presented.
But that couldn't be it… Not when all the given information pointed to Light Yagami.
What makes a person completely disregard the value of a human life?
Given the way Light Yagami acted on surveillance, L could only assume that Kira's psyche had reached godlike proportions — punishing evildoers without the slightest change in expression. It was almost enough to make him believe that Kira himself doesn't even exist, and that all of this was just the wrath of a vengeful god, crying out for justice and purity in the world he supposedly created. But then again, that was a completely absurd idea, wasn't it? To think that a god would need a person's name and face to pronounce death upon them.
No… No, these couldn't be acts of a divine deity, but someone very childish and immature who likes to pretend that they're a god.
Light Yagami — Kira — was out there and L would catch him, but based on what he'd witnessed so far, he couldn't count on Kira making any mistakes.
It didn't matter if he left those cameras there for a week or a whole year. Light had found a way to continue being Kira even while under surveillance. He would never expose himself to L or to the task force. Light was clever, cunning, and careful…
So what was the best thing to do?
Ideally, he'd have to get close and get to know Light Yagami long enough that the boy would admit to being Kira and show him how he kills.
Would that even be possible? Could he make it happen?
=OoOoO=
"Hey, Light!" Ryuk called out excitedly, limbs and legs plastered to the wall like some grotesque and overgrown arachnid. "I just checked and all the cameras have been removed! All of them. Every single one."
Light Yagami, as calm and poised as ever, pushed back his chair and rose to his feet. Ryuk kept babbling like an eager toddler above him, following him down the stairs on misshapen wings.
"Hey Light! Are you listening to me?"
Rolling his eyes, Light impatiently gestured towards his ear.
"Oh good point… We still don't know if they've removed all the wiretaps from the house." Ryuk mused in a comical whisper.
Sometimes Light found it odd that Ryuk occasionally felt the need to act like other people could see and hear him when they both knew that was impossible. But Ryuk's weird habits aside, this was one piece of good news. The task force couldn't find anything suspicious, so they had the cameras removed — just as he wanted and just as he planned. L was brazen in his methods, so willing to disregard people's basic right to privacy in their home for the sake of unearthing a clue. He wouldn't give up that easily.
Chances were, L was still working closely with the Japanese police, which meant he would have to use his father to find out L's identity.
This was the plan he had originally settled on from the start, but the International Bureau and the planting of surveillance cameras got in the way.
Either way, he would find L and eliminate him.
=OoOoO=
"How has your task force been faring?"
"They're busy…"
"They're not suspicious in the least?"
"They could be, but they're choosing not to. I've had them scraping news reports and other official documents available on L's previous cases."
The NPA could thank his and C.C.'s connections with the UFN and Britannia's national law enforcement for that.
"That seems like an odd place to look."
"Yes, but what choice do they have? Apart from public knowledge and official documents about his previous cases from law enforcement agencies in Europia and Britannia, L does not exist. A simple search on the internet only brings up rumors and conspiracy theories — none of which hold weight."
"So what's the plan?"
She was right… What was the next step?
It was that same question that ran through Lelouch's head day after day, ever since L himself hung up on their conversation.
Fighting a yawn, Lelouch gave up on reviewing information on his tablet halfway through C.C.'s questions. It was the middle of the night, they should be asleep, yet just like the days prior to this one, Lelouch couldn't stop obsessing over their Geass hunt. Even now with his torso propped against the headboard and with C.C. lying down next to him clutching a pillow to her chest, Lelouch was still busy scrolling and reading.
For the past few days, Deputy Director Kitamura and Officer Matsumoto and the rest of his colleagues involved in the investigation of L's identity had been hounding him for an action plan to locate L. Lelouch included his audio-only call with L in an official report and shared the details he felt the NPA could use, excluding any mention of Kira in the call — a good diversion to keep them from prying into Lelouch's real agenda.
Apart from keeping constant track of the five members of the Kira task force, Lelouch added an extra task on their list of duties. He asked the other officers to analyze L's previous cases (at least seven hundred of them)… If only to distract Matsumoto and the others longer, giving him and C.C. enough time to pursue a personal interest of theirs: finding Naomi Misora.
To find Naomi Misora, they had to speak to Light Yagami.
Lelouch's access to official records from the NPA provided most of the basic information about Chief Soichiro Yagami's family. So through the father, Lelouch now knew where Light technically lived. Days after their meeting with L, he'd thought of having C.C. find Light at his high school and confront him directly, but that would draw unnecessary attention to C.C. and likely freak out Light Yagami — probably enough to tattle to his father (and they didn't want that). If that happened, it would bring scrutiny on the fake police name he would have C.C. use and it would blow their cover. It wouldn't be enough to divulge the truth immediately, but it would invite the prying eyes of the task force.
Lelouch already told L that Light could be a Kira suspect, so it was likely that Chief Yagami's son would have been added to L's list of suspects after their initial call. The boy would be under investigation.
He had no way of confirming any of his suspicions at the moment of course, not until he stumbled across new information to share with L, or until L would reach out to them again to ask questions.
So in the meantime, he would gather as much information as he could on Light.
It wasn't that difficult… A simple search on the internet brought up two of Light Yagami's incredibly outdated social media profiles (which suggested a disinterest in social networking sites), the boy's name on last year's article about Japan's top ranked students, Light's achievements in tennis, and… a news article headline from an educational institution that Lelouch knew all too well.
BEHIND THE BRILLIANT MINDS
Meet Ashford University's Most Promising Freshmen
Ryuga Hideki and Light Yagami tie at no.1 on the recently concluded entrance examinations.
A fond smile gracing his lips, Lelouch answered C.C.'s long-standing question at last.
"Let's pay my old home a visit."
A/N: Thank you for reading and leaving feedback on the previous chapter! :D I really appreciate that.
Also I apologize for my tardiness :D I don't exactly have a schedule, but I do aim for weekly updates. This time around, I was getting way too ahead of myself and got distracted with fleshing out details for an upcoming chess match between 2 of the 3 Ls in this story — which I think will play out next chapter. xD