Chapter 8: Debate

Do note that this is rather a drier chapter, and you could skip it if you wanted. L and Rae will have many more such conversations, but I will not type them out in full because it will make the story drier. This is just to give an example.

CHAPTER SUMMARY:

The police decided to release Kira's video indicating their refusal of the terms. After being convinced that what she told him about DN events can be believed, L now puts his mind to analyzing whether Rae herself can be trusted. L askes Rae various questions, like where she stands with regard to the Kira issue. I believe he asked questions of this nature to the task force members when they first meet him in the hotel room, in order to profile them, and that's why each interview took so long. Her answers surprise him, because they are lucid but nuanced. She has proven she is less likely to be swayed by Kira's ideology, and has successfully given L and Watari a diplomatic answer. It remains to be seen whether she has convinced them of her trustworthiness.

PLEASE READ THE CHAPTER SUMMARY. THIS IS A DRIER CHAPTER. THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL ADVANCE THE PLOT A BIT.

AN: (Information below comes both from tons of Quora answers, interviews with INTP people I found online, and my own experience.)

Do you know what kind of person an INTP is most likely to fall in love with?

INTPs are fascinated by people who can take and give the truth, but who may appear to be a walking contradiction.

The INTP puts up emotional walls because they are used to being misunderstood and treated harshly as if they have no feelings. A willingness to sympathise/understand/see their point of view melts them a little.

INTPs live in a world of grey, not black-and-white. Therefore, they like engaging in discussions with those who show nuance and logic in their viewpoints and ways of looking at the world. It doesn't really matter whether the viewpoint is right or not in the first place, as long as there is an attempt at justification, and the other person is open-minded enough to participate and listen in such a discussion peacefully. INTPs enjoy debate for its own sake, and are usually conflict-averse, so this last point is very important.

I am trying to follow the above points to make this LxOC thing believable. L, however, is a… damaged INTP. He doesn't regulate his emotions well, and he is more paranoid than your typical INTP. This makes getting closer to him a one-step-forward, two-steps-back thing.

April 19, 2004

They would delay it for as long as they could, but Ryuzaki, and by extension the task force, had already decided to release the video sent by the Second Kira to indicate their rejection of the terms she set. Essentially, the police were to choose whether the Director of the Japanese police force, or L, were to die, or the Second Kira would kill off several members of various police agencies around the world in vengeance.

Rui had sympathized with Misa when she'd first read Death Note. But observing her actions now, she could not help but suspect that the model had more than a few screws loose in the head. She resolved never to let Misa or Light, but especially Misa, see her face. Even if she had to fake an autoimmune disease.

April 19, 2004; 21 06

"Ah, Rui-san," Ryuzaki immediately turned around from where he'd been staring out the window at the cityscape. "I've been wanting to talk with you."

This guy sure had no chill – she'd just stepped out of the adjoining bathroom and had not been expecting anyone to be lurking around in her room. But hey, Ryuzaki does as Ryuzaki does, and perhaps it had been his intention to catch her off guard.

"Yes, Ryuzaki-san?" she replied peaceably, padding closer to him. She did her best to stand up straight even in her teddy bear pajamas. Someone, she forgot who, once said that dignity could never be taken away unless surrendered. Or something like that.

"What is your stance on Kira and justice?" he inquired outright, staring unblinkingly at her.

That surprised her. She'd expected him to want to discuss the events that happened, or the events that would happen. "May I have a seat and have a couple of minutes to organize my thoughts about it, Ryuzaki?"

His eyes never left her as she sat herself down and began fiddling with some paper and a pen. Finally, she began.

"Justice is often defined as a principle where people receive that which they deserve. For the innocent, that would mean to keep their basic human rights to dignity, work, to be safe, and more. For criminals, that would be their right to a fair trial, the chance for rehabilitation. When a crime is committed, justice often means that the criminal is punished. Speaking as a layperson with no background in law, I think that justice is a fine balance between the rights of two parties, a need to find the optimum where crimes are redressed and deterred, but criminals themselves have a chance at redemption. Some turn to crime as a result of their life circumstances. It doesn't make what they do right, nor does it negate victim suffering, but these should be taken into account or the world will always remain rotten."

He poured himself a cup of tea from the tray Watari had brought in. "Go on."

"Kira's ideals, on the surface, are noble. But they are so childish that they are doomed to remain that. Ideals," she continued. "He is doing some good, and I daresay crime statistics will reflect that, but he does not seem to have accounted for those who have been wrongfully convicted. In my world, there was a famous case where a black man had been wrongfully convicted of rape and sentenced to 80 years in prison. He spent 44 years behind bars. Kira would have killed him here and now. What justice would have been served?"

"Kira takes action without being fully informed, nor does he seem to have set guiding principles in place for the use of his power, or he would not have killed Lind L. Tailor," she stated firmly. "These guiding principles would ideally strike a balance between the rights of the criminal and of the victim, and they should be informed by research. For example, if it was found out that the recidivism rates of murderers on their second kill drops below a certain threshold, then perhaps Kira would be justified in killing second-offense murderers but leave first-time murderers alone. To put it bluntly, there has to be some sort of happy medium between the kill rate and the rate of crime."

"I-" she coughed. Her voice had given out. "Excuse me." Pouring herself a cup of tea, she picked up her teddy bear to cuddle. L's expression was unreadable, so she didn't try.

"Besides Kira, there are other entities in the legal system that have to be optimized. You would need good policemen and detectives who are able to gather the right clues and come to the right conclusions without bias. You would need good judges to make the fairest decisions for the accused and the victims. Issues like corruption taint this. Perhaps the ones Kira should be killing are the corrupt, but true evil is often hidden. Kira is too childish," she repeated, emphatically.

"It takes not one, but the efforts of many capable people, over hundreds of generations, for humanity to approach this ideal scenario. Even then, it probably won't be perfect, because there are always exceptions that cannot be accounted for. My point still stands, however. This kind of change can only take place over decades, eons, and it may be longer if certain individuals, like despotic leaders, set humanity back. Perhaps I am being too naïve, but I still think that the world could slowly get to this point. I mean, just look at how far humanity has evolved, from Neanderthal killing, to having a justice system at all. Kira is still looking for a shortcut. Those exist only in games."

"So.. so what I'm trying to say is that as it is, I don't support the use of Kira's power, but perhaps if there were clear regulations in place…" she trailed off.

"Your idea has merit. But this would have to be applied uniformly throughout the world," Ryuzaki prompted.

"You're right," she agreed readily, a little disappointed. "Who would form the regulating body for this? Who would fund the research, even? Most countries are more likely to use their money for national interests like economic development. Even power divided among the hands of a few still corrupts."

"Let's shift topics a little. How would you define good and evil?" Ryuzaki queried, leaning forward in his customary owl-like perch on the other side of her bed.

She found this trickier to define, so she took her time mulling over it. Ryuzaki seemed fully prepared to wait all night for her answer if he had to, and she had to force herself to stay awake. "Good is Rui, and bad is Yagami Light and Ryuzaki," she retorted tartly. Watari stifled a chuckle while L simply looked on, blank-faced, until she relented.

"Good would be actions that respect justice as a balance between rights," she said slowly, "and evil would be the opposite. By that definition, some evil actions can be done for a good purpose and vice versa. The problem with that is that even people who have good goals but do evil actions, end up evil because they get used to doing things in evil ways. I'll have to think on the opposite a bit more, however. I can't think of an example where people have evil goals but do good things to get there."

"Perhaps one example could be people who put on a social act to appear good," Ryuzaki suggested, beginning to get absorbed in the discussion.

"It could be debated that that in itself is not an evil goal," she responded. "Oh! Perhaps our example could be like, pimps taking in and caring for impoverished girls, but then pimping them out?"

The corners of his lips lifted a little, and his eyes gleamed. "That could be the case. How would you apply your definitions of good and evil to the Kira case?"

She supposed that he was really asking 'am I evil? Is Kira evil?'

Restlessly, her fingers drummed a frantic rhythm against her teacup, a tic that did not go unnoticed by Ryuzaki. Shifting her weight uneasily, she nevertheless took a stab at an answer.

"Kira's goal is to cleanse the world of criminals, and his actions to back this up are to kill. His methods are evil, his goal is not completely evil. But some criminals are good and so his goal is partly evil. Therefore, he is evil.

The task force's goal is to stop Kira's killing, and their intended actions are to investigate Kira within the law. Their goal is good, their actions are good, and so they are good.

You…" She hesitated, looking away from Ryuzaki uncomfortably. "You know, there are many fan theories about your motivations. Some say that you do care about justice, and that's why you do what you do. Others say that you are interested in the puzzle, that actual justice means very little to you and you are stimulating your genius."

"And what do you think?" This time it was Watari who spoke, his visage resembling less of a kindly old man and more of an experienced, hardened warrior.

"When there is evidence for two arguments or facts being true, I generally like to accept both and try my hardest to reconcile them," Rui replied tersely, knowing that her answer could determine how she would be treated in the future. "What I like to believe is that Ryuzaki somehow realized that he alone could not root out all the evil of the world. It doesn't really matter whether he saw solving crimes as a series of puzzles first, then understood the consequences of his actions, or whether he wanted justice, and then realized he would do better to pick and choose the crimes he solved. Ryuzaki is brilliant, but he is but one man."

The tension eased a little in the room, but their faces remained blank. Exhaling a shuddering breath, she wasn't sure if she'd passed the test or not.