Chapter Text
L has learnt that human beings, as a general rule, are predictable. People have baseline instincts and needs they feed above all else and once you know what need a killer is filling, feeding, unravelling them is fairly simple.
The thrill, the deliciousness, of the Kira case is the sheer amount of twists and turns it takes. This killer, and L is certain it’s a single person, moves in such venomous ways its difficult to predict. Whenever L expects them to hit a wall, draw back, knuckle down behind some moral platitude, they charge forward and demonstrate their pure savagery once again. They must think themselves quite spectacular, beyond reproach, to act with this confidence but it would all fall apart if it wasn’t for the fastidious, obsessive, perfectionism of the intellect underlying everything that’s happened so far.
Kira is a very clever monster.
A child, almost certainly.
But a monster all the same.
Today, again, Kira surprises him.
“Ryuzaki,” Soichiro Yagami murmurs thickly into the cell phone, rumpling his moustache almost audibly. He sounds unsettled. Intensely so.
“Yes Yagami?”
“My son is asking to speak with L,” Soichiro reveals. “He says he has information pertinent to the Kira case but for security reasons he only feels comfortable disclosing it to L, in person.”
L doesn’t fight the surge of adrenaline that sizzles up his insides.
Light Yagami is his current prime suspect but only because there are virtually no other suspects. He fits the profile but surveillance showed nothing of interest outwardly. It suggested a lot to L, things he can’t exactly elaborate in words, but its all conjecture without proof.
And now Light Yagami wants to speak to him?
This could be dangerous but, then again, L was already considering the possibility of revealing himself to Light. If not to expose him then to possibly recruit him to work on the case itself. Light shows inklings of a sublime intellect. L doubts he could happenstance upon two wonderful geniuses in one case, but he can hope.
“Ryuzaki?” Soichiro prompts.
“Bring him to the hotel.” L instructs. “I’ll speak with him.”
Light Yagami has a bag but Watari has already searched him for weapons and the young man complied quietly, his lips very tightly pursed. There’s something hyper focused about Light’s expression today. It’s a new expression for L to read on his face but, then again, he wonders if Light ever loses concentration at all? L rarely does. Maybe Light is just better at hiding it all under that pretty exterior?
How much work goes into maintaining that exterior…?
All that promise keeping, the perfect son…
More work than it seems, no doubt.
“And you’re L?” Light supposes, shoulders pinched together.
“Yes, but for the sake of the investigation, I would rather you called me Ryuzaki. It’s a precaution, you understand.”
“I imagined as much.” Light nods. “Kira needs a face and a name after all.”
“That’s my theory, certainly,” L confirms.
Anyone clever enough could put that together but most people haven’t. Not even the media who spend countless hours digging through all of Kira’s exploits for more to televise.
“Light, you said—” Soichiro clears his throat.
“I would like to speak to Ryuzaki privately,” Light repeats. “I understand your concern, Dad, but I have information it would be dangerous to disclose to too many ears. Ryuzaki is the only person I can think of to trust with this right now. I don’t want to put you in danger until I have support.”
“You’re in danger…?” Soichiro repeats, tensely.
“It’s complicated.” Light replies, standing firm.
“I think, for now,” L grunts, “I would like to speak with Light privately also. I will update the task force on any useful information, but I don’t doubt Kira is dangerous and if Light really has something then he could very well be in serious danger. Caution is wise.”
Soichiro takes a deep breath and nods.
“If you’ll follow me, Light?” L beckons.
Light and his satchel follow L into his private office.
L takes one seat, Light takes the seat directly across from him at the desk and starts pulling out documents from his satchel.
“Seems like you have a great deal to show me,” L supposes.
“Yes,” Light nods, “I’ve been trying to gather all the evidence necessary the last two days but I haven’t slept very much because of that so please be patient with me.”
“Of course,” L rubs his thumb against his lip, “and you suspect you know who Kira is?”
“I’m Kira.” Light replies.
L freezes.
Light meets his gaze, totally certain and desperately unshakeable.
“I see,” L murmurs, “so this is a confession?”
“Of sorts,” Light prefaces. “That is to say; I was Kira, until three days ago, but now I need your help to prove it and stop whatever I’ve put in motion.”
L fumbles, breathless. “You better start from the beginning.”
“Three days ago I woke up, in my room, feeling different.” Light explains. “I couldn’t remember what I’d been doing for the past several hours and when I tried to think back I realized I can’t remember large chunks of the last six months.”
L listens.
“I know, of course, that matches up with the Kira timeline.” Light continues. “So—”
“So does stress for your exam period,” L counters, playing devil’s advocate.
“This wasn’t exam stress. Exam stress doesn’t make me black out and lose time.” Light insists. “I started looking at my computer history. Searches, activity… All of it was wiped. I had to go levels and levels down to find anything. Things I would’ve had trouble erasing at short notice, things that normal people wouldn’t find…”
“And?” L prompts, despite himself.
“I’ve been hacking into my father’s account at the NPA extensively the last six months. I’ve also hacked into Interpol and the FBI database.” Light explains laying out several documents. “That got me worried because reviewing what I know one of your concerns seemed to be a mole in the police department.”
L watches him closely.
What is playing at here…?
“I tried to look into other aspects of the case.” Light explains. “I had to hack into the NPA again, sorry, but I found there were twelve FBI agents doing surveillance in Japan. I looked at their files and I recognized this man—“
Light places down a photo of Raye Penber.
“I don’t know who he was trailing officially. But I met him during a bus jacking two weeks before he died. He showed me his badge. I also wasn’t at cram school the night he took the subway and died on the platform.” Light presents more documentation.
What’s the goal here?
This is it.
These are L’s missing puzzle pieces.
But why is Light, why is Kira, showing them to him now?
“Furthermore, this woman,” Light pulls out a photo of Naomi Misora. “I met her two days after her last recorded sighting. She was at the police station, trying to talk to the Kira Taskforce. I was dropping off clean clothes for my Dad, and I walked her out of the building. I did try to call my Father three times that day but then I shut my phone off. And, interestingly, the NPA dumped all their metro office surveillance footage in a 'system error' two weeks later.”
More perfectly aligned pieces of paper.
Light’s got the intellect to be Kira, certainly, but—
“Why tell me this?” L has to say. “If you’re Kira this evidence will see you executed, if—”
“Good.” Light hisses.
L hesitates.
“I don’t remember the last six months very well,” Light repeats, “but something happened to me. I did something awful, I can just taste it, and that’s not who I am. So I’m going to make it right. I’m going to stop it.”
L’s shoulders sag.
He’s telling the truth.
It’s the only avenue which makes sense.
He wouldn’t tell L all this otherwise.
“What else do you have?” L murmurs.
“You believe me?” Light lifts his head, fingers white knuckled in his lap.
“I do,” L promises. “So I need to know everything you can tell me, Light.”
Light wheezes, seeming to let go a gulp of air he’s been holding for hours, maybe days. “I was so worried you’d think I was insane…”
“You have all the evidence,” L gestures over the spread, “and this case is nothing if not insane.”
Light swallows, pulling more out of his satchel. “I didn’t make any interesting purchases or new friends during the last six months. I didn’t develop any new hobbies. But I did make several alterations.”
“Alterations?”
“There’s a new compartment, hidden, sewn into my wallet.” Light explains, putting it on the table. “And in my desk, at home, there’s a hidden compartment rigged to explode with gasoline. It took me ages to even find it.”
Light has pictures.
L strokes his chin.
“I assume,” Light explains. “That however I was killing people, as Kira, there was some kind of physical element. Something worth hiding. That thing, that weapon, is gone now. Which leaves two options.”
“Yes…” L ruminates. “I see that.”
“Right,” Light nods. “Either someone took it from me, or I wiped my memories, on purpose, as part of some kind of plan. Either way that murder weapon is currently unaccounted for and if we don’t find it—”
“Then we’re going to be in a lot more trouble.” L whispers.
Light nods.
L swears softly, tumbling into a laugh.
“This isn’t funny,” Light spits.
“No, I’m sorry, it’s not.” L apologies. “This is just so surreal. I never expected you would be handing yourself over to me like this.”
“I’m not the kind of person who kills people,” Light insists. “But I know from all this I must’ve been Kira. And I can’t let that stand. I have to turn myself in and stop this before things get worse. While I’m clear headed then—”
“That’s the thing, Light,” L cuts him off, “something happened to you. I can’t say I explain it all yet, but we certainly need to discuss the specifics when we have all the details because it doesn’t sound like you were entirely in control of your faculties for this.”
“Maybe,” Light murmurs, “but that still doesn’t make it right. If I killed all those people, even if I was mentally unfit, I still—”
“This is something unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” L hushes him delicately. “And promising young men from good homes don’t just go on murder sprees without incentive or cause. You were dangerous as Kira because you are so intelligent, but you can’t dismiss the prospect that someone was manipulating you in this either. We need to know more.”
Light takes a deep breath. “Until this is cleared up, I don’t think I should go anywhere without supervision.”
“No, I agree,” L nods, pulling Light’s wallet closer to inspect the hidden compartment. “That said you’re much too valuable to this investigation to put in a cell somewhere. Are you willing to work with me to set this straight?”
Light nods sombrely.
“Whatever this was…” L rues. “This thing had very, very, small components. Something you could fit in this wallet without causing an obvious distortion in the shape from the hidden compartment…? It would have to be tiny.”
“Yes, you’re right.” Light digs in his bag again. “The false bottom in my desk was also fairly slimline. You’d barely notice anything was amiss. And whatever was hidden in there was small enough that I could also fit the gasoline in alongside it.”
L rubs the wallet, feeling the hand stitching.
“We need to bring in your whole family for questioning,” L murmurs. “We need to build a moment by moment timeline of the twenty four hours before you lost your memory. We need to determine if you hid the weapon or if you exchanged it with someone, first and foremost. That will determine the risk level we’re dealing with.”
If Light gave the weapon to someone else, then L is less worried. Another person is unlikely to be as smart as Light; easier to catch, easier to disarm.
But if Light hid the weapon? As part of some plan?
Then they could be in serious impending peril.
Light drags his teeth along his bottom lip. “We’re going to have to tell my father something.”
L sighs, “the safest cause of action, for me, is to tell him the truth. It will insulate us if something happens to you again. But I understand that’s going to be difficult for you.”
Light looks into his lap for a moment, stewing. “I know you’re right. But can I have a couple of hours? There are some things I want to get out of the house and after he knows I don’t think he’ll ever want to speak to me again.”
“Of course,” L grabs his phone. “I’ll have Watari, my assistant, take you home. Grab everything you want or need. You’ll be staying with me during the investigation so please don’t be concerned about providing necessities.”
“And afterward I suppose they’ll supply everything in the prison before my execution,” Light scoffs dryly.
“One step at a time, Light,” L directs.