004 // survival

[sucre-justice.livejournal.com]

[L is on the scene; he glances left than right before assuming his preferred crouching position, palms laid out upon his knees. He waits a moment before lifting a hand and chewing thoughtfully on his thumb.]

B, are you here? Mr. Fang King?

Comments

[b-ittersweets.livejournal.com]

[B puts his finger to his lip again. Interesting, indeed.] Was there any difference at all?

[sucre-justice.livejournal.com]

Yes; you are an hour behind. [He chews on his fingers in speculation.] Let's continue to track this and see if there are fluctuations.

[b-ittersweets.livejournal.com]

An hour behind? Interesting. [Why would there be such a difference? B had expected either a very obvious difference, such as days to hours, or no difference at all. At any rate, he agrees that they should continue tracking time, so he nods.]

[He is silent for a moment. Eventually, he voices what he has been thinking about recently.] You have a notebook of death. And it works. [It's not a question; he's already gathered this much from observing L's conversation with Agito.]

[sucre-justice.livejournal.com]

[L had been waiting for this inevitable discussion; he gives a meager nod of his head.] Yes. It is the murder weapon, the evidence I spoke of during one of our last meetings. It's made the investigation... difficult.

[b-ittersweets.livejournal.com]

[B's not quite sure what to say. The very fact that such a thing is possible goes against all logic. He imagines it would make thinks difficult - very difficult. However, he's also somewhat glad of its existence, as it means that whoever is behind this crime has not truly surpassed B - in his mind, this is cheating. Too easy. And still, they seemed to have slipped up - had let L get his hands on the notebook. Pah. Pathetic.]

Is that notebook the only one of its kind?

[sucre-justice.livejournal.com]

...No. There is at least one more.

[L doesn't want to say that this has been what he was waiting for - a chance to test the 13 day rule for himself. With Agito/Akito as living proof of it's inauthenticity, L was absolutely positive that Light had somehow managed to coerce the Shinigami into writing the rules - or had written them himself.]

[b-ittersweets.livejournal.com]

...

[The amount of change even one notebook of death would cause was high. To bring more than one into the equation...the world would surely be chaos.]

What has the user been using it for?

[sucre-justice.livejournal.com]

It started with killing criminals, and moved on to a broader scope. Many innocent lives were taken, including those of a police task force member working with me.

[He is obviously not pleased with this fact, whatsoever.]

[b-ittersweets.livejournal.com]

[Oooh, interesting, B thinks. He can see that L is not pleased, and this makes sense to him; he knows that it must be a real blow, being that it's such an obvious loss. B wonders why L would tell him this. Perhaps he thinks it will spur him on to succeed, knowing that another person is aware of his failure.]

Ah...so the killer is playing God. [After a moment of pondering, he asks:] How is the public taking it? [He really can't guess how the public would react, especially being unaware of such things as the duration of the case.]

[sucre-justice.livejournal.com]

Yes, playing God is an accurate deduction. Reactions are mixed, but the overall sentiment is disturbing. Many worldwide government organizations have declined to continue pursuing him after several threats against public figureheads. Newscasters who objected to Kira's viewpoints were killed. Crime has dropped seventy percent in Japan alone.

[b-ittersweets.livejournal.com]

[B ponders.] Ah, so it is not only criminals, but anyone counter-productive to the user's purpose? That is quite serious. And people are bowing to the power...

Seventy-percent. [B knows that the remaining thirty percent must be people like himself. Such a punishment for crime would not have deterred him in the least from executing his plans. As a matter of fact, he would rather have been killed when his plan didn't succeed. ...Come to think of it, isn't it possible that he does eventually meet his end by the hands of this notebook user? His time is before L's...so perhaps when the user was still in possession of the notebook...] Does this person also kill criminals who were already incarcerated? And perhaps even those who have been released, having already done their time?

[sucre-justice.livejournal.com]

[L knows what B is thinking; he's been withholding this information for as long as possible. There is a long pause of silence.]

...Yes.

[b-ittersweets.livejournal.com]

[B has a feeling about that long silence. He also realizes that the other notebook L spoke of might still be in the possession of the killer, and thus B could be killed at any time. If he hasn't been already.] And the user kills criminals internationally?

[sucre-justice.livejournal.com]

...yes. They are his primary targets.

[b-ittersweets.livejournal.com]

...I see. [B pauses. Then:] When did I die?

[sucre-justice.livejournal.com]

[L slouches a bit further in his crouched position, pausing again before answering.]

January 21st of 2004.

[b-ittersweets.livejournal.com]

[It's somehow important to B that L knows the date.] I see. [Pause.] Seeing me here must have been a big shock for you. [He gets quieter.] Even moreso, anyway.

[sucre-justice.livejournal.com]

[L decides to forgo a reply, not wanting to verbalize any of his thoughts or lead B down a path that intruded too much upon his future. He sits, silent.]

[b-ittersweets.livejournal.com]

[B is silent for a little while, thinking about this. It is not so much the death that gets to him, but death by hands other than his own. He is almost...disappointed. Not angry, not depressed.]

[Eventually, he resumes the conversation about the notebook, deciding it best not to discuss his death with L.] Have you determined the owner of the second notebook?

[sucre-justice.livejournal.com]

Yes, but the notebook itself has... yet to be recovered.

[b-ittersweets.livejournal.com]

Is it being used by the original user of the first notebook?

[sucre-justice.livejournal.com]

The original user is not in possession of either notebook as things stand now, as I believe... I could be wrong... Right now, the situation is... not black and white.

[b-ittersweets.livejournal.com]

You know who the original user is?

[sucre-justice.livejournal.com]

Yes.

Kira.

Light Yagami.

[b-ittersweets.livejournal.com]

[B is surprised L is giving him the name. It makes him feel like he's not on the outside. Almost like an ally.]

"Kira"..."Killer"?