Chapter 6: Eavesdropping

Note: Most of the description on L's daily routine is taken from L: One Day, a manga chapter found inside L FILE No. 15, though I took some liberties with it to make it more plausible. I didn't just pull it out my a** or something.

EDIT: Changed the dates from 2020 to 2004, as they should be.

April 7, 2004; 06 00

I should've known, she grumbled inwardly, as she gently brought the small electric shaver to the stubble along L's eyebrows. There was no way I could've been involved in the task force the way I expected to be.

There was no discernable reason that she would be allowed onto the force as a civilian, so she was now working as L's personal assistant, supporting Watari in more menial tasks (such as L's upkeep) so that he could go and do things like order weapons and oversee headquarters construction, or at least that's what she guessed to be the case. They were to take shifts in caring for L, especially since L was the only one who would spend 100s of hours awake and everyone else, Watari included, needed sleep.

In a position akin to Watari, she would then be allowed to come and go as she pleased while the task force members did their work, having been sworn to secrecy. She'd probably have to bring them coffee. Which reminded her, she'd better start practicing.

L's daily ablutions were a real eye-opener. He liked to be clean but found cleaning himself a real chore. Consequently, Watari invented a human washing machine for him, complete with dryer functions. In Rae's world, human washing machines existed, but they were highly expensive and left the head exposed*. This washing machine, however, resembled any normal front-load clothes washing machine, except for its loading capacity. When asked how he was able to use the machine without having to breathe, Rae learnt that L could hold his breath for twenty minutes, though he usually only did it for ten. He also elected to shave his eyebrows, which both added to the social weirdo image he wanted to maintain as well as made him more expressionless.

Huh. The man in question was fixedly staring at the screen in front of him, his brilliant mind no doubt working overtime to plot and rehearse all possibilities to do with engaging Light Yagami later.

"Now it's 'banzai'," she said, indicating for him to raise his hands so that she could slip the characteristic white shirt over his torso. L had about twenty to thirty pieces of the same outfit, which he changed into twice a day with Watari's help. According to Watari, he was fully capable of doing so, he just lacked the interest. He would wear trousers, but probably just walk around shirtless if he were left to his own devices. She wondered how L's teeth maintained its cleanliness, but Watari had told her that task was best left to him.

"Watari will be seeing to your new wardrobe," L suddenly stated. "You'll be picking it out, of course. Expense is no object, but please adhere to a more formal style for believability."

She laughed. "Don't take this the wrong way, but everyone around you dresses formally but you. That just reminds me of Bollywood line-ups where the lead female and male dress differently from the dancers in the background. Except, you know, you do the opposite." He merely gave her a flat stare. Imagining L in that kind of scene, along with that flat stare, just made her laugh harder.

Watari suddenly came forward, chuckling. He was one hell of a butler – appearing in the most unexpected of places at the most unexpected of times, or perhaps he had the gift of making himself unnoticeable until needed. He passed her a boar bristle brush, which she proceeded to use on Ryuzaki's raven mane, to the detective's visible consternation. He probably still didn't trust her, which begged the question of whose decision it had been to employ her as his assistant.

To her surprise, his hair, though untamed from the machine's drying function, was soft and tangle-free. Some people were blessed with all the genes, she marveled. Or perhaps it was the conditioner Watari invented.

April 7, 2004; 13 03

In an auburn wig, dressed in Mori girl fashion**, Rui casually entered the small, cosy coffeehouse and took a seat as per Watari's instructions. He ordered her a milk tea and then left her to her own devices.

Ryuk was so huge that she didn't need to be that close in order to watch him. Observing him from the corner of her eye, Rui pretended to be engrossed in a fashion magazine as she listened intently through the transmission earpiece Ryuzaki had on his person. Thus far, the Shinigami had done nothing except float at Light's shoulder like a particularly evil balloon.

Her ears picked up a rustling sound as L took some pieces of paper out of his back pocket. "Here is the order that the twelve FBI agents died and the order in which they received a certain file," L said. "Secondly, these three are the letters that some victims wrote on the prison walls before they died."

This must be the point where L hid a trap within two traps for Kira – where Light fixated on the fact that deflecting suspicion required him to ask Ryuzaki for more information before conceivably being able to comment on the documents, but then forgot to account for the fact that someone of his intelligence who was not Kira would likely not have made the assumption that there were only three pictures that formed the message. And then the real trap – him being able to come up with the best course of action to find out if a suspect were Kira.

She'd forgotten much of the nuances of the scene, and was greatly amused at the way Ryuzaki then began to gaslight the hell out of Light with his hints that he might not be L after all.

Evidently, she was not the only one. She listened intently as a deep growly voice said, "Hohoho, Raito is completely pinned down." She was mildly impressed at how Light went on with nary a flinch nor pause despite the interruption, and found herself wanting to laugh again as he claimed that Ryuzaki looked more like Kira than himself.

Light sure talked a lot, but Ryuzaki gave as good as he got, throwing him verbal curveballs here and there. She could see why Ryuk was so attached to Light; him and Ryuzaki sure put on a good show. Unfortunately, it was interrupted by phone calls for both of them.

Rui got her answer as L informed Light about his father. Ah, the stress-induced heart attack, she thought. L was carrying a long-distance transmitter, so she was able to continue listening in, even as Watari picked her up and drove around the hospital, waiting for Ryuzaki to be done. Perhaps she was lucky to be able to work for L after all, if she got to bear witness to these cat-and-mouse mind games. They were so much better when viewed in reality. Also, he'd made it possible for her to work in Japan. The creators of DN were Japanese, and it stood to reason that DN's Japan would resemble its Rui-world counterpart the closest than any other country would. Who knew what differences there were between say, DN's Britain and Rui-world Britain, coloured and shaped by the perceptions of DN's creators. It was only natural that she'd want to work in the place she currently had the most accurate knowledge of.

Honestly, Ryuk didn't say anything useful – he mostly snickered and made snide comments at Light. And of course, Ryuzaki himself was a real riot. Upon Light's request to lock him up in a place with no media access to prove his innocence, Ryuzaki said, "No, we can't do something so immoral.. And arresting someone who is a mere suspect is ridiculous."

Is anyone else getting a load of this? Rui snickered to herself, noting again that this was the same guy who later arrested Misa-Misa and put her blindfolded and gagged, in confinement where he repeatedly tried to coerce a confession out of her. And then he turned his words around again and told Light that his conversation with Yagami Soichiro was beginning to make him think that Light was not Kira.

Ryuzaki keeps waffling between different conclusions, doesn't he?

*Human washing machine: trends/human-washing-machine-avant-santelubain-999-applies-seaweed-packs-too#:~:text=The%20automatic%20washing%20device%20is,Seaweed%20Pack%2C%20and%20Body%20Lotion.

**Mori girl fashion: /single/wearing-the-forest-facts-about-mori-girl-fashion/

AN (just some thoughts): Why did I create Rae to be the way she is? I wanted someone who would stand on equal terms with L in terms of emotional maturity, but who also knew when to roll with the punches, as she does. She has to be the one to understand him first, obviously, so I think a slightly older, more worldly woman would be better. At the same time, she needs to have a childlike side to be able to connect with L. I think people like her don't tend to connect well with others irl, so she has learnt to mask the more spontaneous sides of herself with politeness, just as L himself does at times. And of course, to survive in the Death Note world, you kind of need to have a sense of humor.

What L wants, L gets, as he has consistently demonstrated in canon. Thus, I personally don't think someone who is as stubborn as him could get along with him. At the same time, because she's a female, or perhaps because of her no-nonsense, practical attitude, he does vaguely feel the need to be more independent in order to be less self-conscious, though he himself doesn't realise it. L is a textbook INTP (Myers-Briggs test), so I think Rae would have to be an NT type as well. He isn't that unreasonable, but if you're disagreeing with his suggested course of action you better have a logical explanation and alternate course of action to suggest, or he has no time for you. L is that kind of person. L is also more open-minded than most, even though he doesn't like being questioned, as the task members keep doing.

Reference: /2019/11/18/death-note-l-lawliet-intp/