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Matsuda and Soichiro walked towards the Teito Hotel. It was a large, high-end hotel, and produced enough light that it didn’t seem like it was midnight. Matsuda had passed by it before a few times, but he’d never really paid attention to it before – no one he knew had ever stayed there.
He guessed L must be rich. Which made sense now that he thought about it – it must take a lot of money to fly all over the world for cases. He probably earned a lot from solving cases. He felt kind of stupid to not have thought about it sooner. At least he hadn’t said anything about it aloud this time. He really needed to learn how to keep his mouth shut.
It took all of Matsuda’s effort to make himself act normal walking into the hotel. If he acted half as excited as he felt anyone who might be watching might notice. And it would make a horrible first impression if he caused L’s location to be traced. Besides, the Chief would probably yell at him – he always said that Matsuda was too excitable. He had to be in his best form for meeting L. He had to make a good impression.
Never mind the fact that he’d never made one of those before. Never mind the fact that everyone always thought he was stupid, and that he had to spend all his time trying to prove them wrong, and in attempting to do so usually ended up proving them right. This time would be different. He’d make sure of it.
They were silent as they entered the elevator. He guessed the Chief was just as nervous as he was. Or maybe he just didn’t feel like talking. He couldn’t really tell. He probably wasn’t nervous, on second thought. Matsuda didn’t think the Chief got nervous. That was what made him such a good cop.
They reached the door to the suite, where the other three were waiting for them. He wondered if L had made them wait outside or if they’d just been trying to be polite. They paused for a moment before it before the Chief lifted his hand and knocked.
From inside, a voice called, “It’s unlocked. Please, let yourselves in."
The voice was higher pitched than Matsuda had expected. He’d been imagining something deep and suave. He wondered if L had another person in there with him. But he seemed like the loner type, so maybe not.
The Chief pulled open the door, and Matsuda couldn’t help letting out a gasp. Luckily, the others shared his shock.
In the doorway stood a woman, or at least Matsuda thought she was a woman. She had breasts, but otherwise her appearance was perfectly androgynous. She was tall, like Light, with messy black hair that only just touched her shoulders. A rumpled white shirt and somehow even more rumpled blue jeans hung off her gaunt frame. Her features were masculine, and her face was deadpan. She had deep bags under her eyes.
“I am L.” Her voice was completely monotone. Matsuda wondered if she was just like that or if she was trying to play up the cool factor. Probably she was just like that.
“Hmm. He’s nothing like I thought he’d be.” Or she’d be, he guessed. There he goes again, speaking without thinking. He hoped this didn’t offend him-her. Her her her. He had to make sure he didn’t forget. He might have already messed up once but he could still salvage this if he tried. He was sure of it.
L stared at them, black eyes narrowing. Matsuda knew enough to stop talking. He could still salvage this. He could still salvage this.
The Chief had fallen silent after the initial shock, stoic as always, but Aizawa, Mogi, and Ukita continued to murmur to each other. Matsuda wondered if they didn’t notice her look or didn’t care. Probably they didn’t notice.
After a second the Chief held up his badge and said, “I’m Yagami of the NPA.”
Matsuda fished out his badge. “I’m Matsuda."
That seemed to prompt everyone to follow and stop their mumbling.
“I’m Aizawa."
“Mogi.”
“Ukita.”
“I’m very sorry we’re late. Currently, the five of us are—"
The woman interrupted the Chief with a finger gun pointed at his head. “Bang.”
Matsuda wondered what the heck she was doing. He could hear Aizawa say, "What the hell was that?" behind him, so at least he knew he wasn’t missing something.
Was this really L? She didn’t look all that impressive.
L made a little noise to herself, and in that same monotone voice continued, “If I were Kira you would be dead, Mr. Soichiro Yagami, Chief of the NPA." She paused for a moment, as if to let it sink in. “Kira needs a face and a name in order to commit murder, but I’m sure you’ve already figured that much out, haven’t you? Please do not give out your names so carelessly. Instead...let's value our lives.”
She turned and walked out of the room. Matsuda wondered if she wanted them to follow or if she was going to get something.
“I knew that he needed a face to kill someone, but I don’t remember any evidence that showed he needed a name too.”
“There’s no way to verify it is related, but criminals whose names were never released publicly, or whose names were spelt incorrectly in the media have not been targeted. We briefly went over it at one of our meetings."
Right. He should’ve known that. Now he looked like even more of an idiot. And he’d been doing so well up until now!
“That’s enough small talk for now. Come this way.”
He guessed she had wanted them to follow her, then.
“Oh, right.” Matsuda was so nervous and he was really hoping it didn’t show in his voice. Come on, he’d been doing so well. He just had to keep it together. He really hoped he hadn’t offended her earlier.
"Please turn off all your cellphones, handhelds, and any other communication devices and leave them on the table right there.”
“What, do you think we’re gonna be using our cellphones during this meeting to leak information?” Aizawa, of course. He always jumped to conclusions.
“It’s all right. Just do as she says.”
“I realize she’s been cautious from the very beginning, but I still can’t tell if she trusts us or not.”
L led them into yet another room and clambered into an orange armchair. “No, I just find them distracting. I can’t stand it when people’s cellphones are ringing when I’m trying to talk.” The way she sat was odd, with her arms wrapped around her legs and her butt not touching the seat. Matsuda wondered if there was a reason why she did that.
“Let me start by saying nobody takes notes on anything that’s said in these meetings. That means, when we leave Headquarters, any information we need is committed to memory.” She looked up from her chair, seemed to notice nobody else was sitting, and said, “Please, make yourselves comfortable.”
The Chief let out a mystified “Right” and led the group into the room. Matsuda followed, his eyes pinned on the strange woman who said she was L. L’s eyes followed them. It was eerie, the way she stared.
L waited for everyone to sit down, and then poured herself a cup of tea. She sipped at it loudly, as if there was no one else in the room. She seemed to think to herself for a moment before adding a few handfuls of sugar cubes to it.
“Are you really L?” Matsuda asked.
L stared at him for a long moment, the same empty gaze. “From now on, I’ll have to ask that you stop calling me L. It’s Ryuzaki now, just to be safe.”
“Okay…but you didn’t answer my question?”
L’s eyes narrowed. “I already said that I am. I led you directly to this hotel room. If you didn’t trust me, you shouldn’t have come.”
“No, I trust you. It’s just that I…didn’t expect you to be a woman…”
“And why is that? Now is not the time or place to be having this discussion, but I would suggest that the next time you get some time to yourself, you reflect upon some of these unexamined biases you seem to have. I assure you I am perfectly capable. I believe I’ve already made this clear, but I will reiterate it for you; none of you are under any obligation to be a part of this investigation. If you do not trust me, you may leave. After I confirm that none of you are Kira, of course.” L’s gaze was hard and steady while she said it, and Matsuda heard the first hint of real emotion creep into her voice.
Now he’d really done it. This always happened; he didn’t know why he bothered. He should’ve just kept his mouth shut after his first screw-up, but of course he just had to open his mouth without thinking. Of course she was L. Who else could she possibly be? He was such an idiot, and now he’d offended her, and now she would hate him and probably kick him off the investigation, and—
No, he couldn’t let himself spiral right now. He was here to do a job. He’d just make sure he thought through everything else he said.
“You’re right, I-I’m sorry that was really disrespectful of me. I-I promise I’ll make it up to you!” The apology came out so fast and quivering that Matsuda wasn’t sure anyone could understand what he’d just said. He both hoped they could and couldn’t at the same time.
L didn’t respond. He hoped that meant she hadn’t understood and not that she was too angry with him to even accept his apology. God, he was such an idiot. Maybe if he asked a question, it would show he trusted her and valued her opinion? Yes, that would work.
“Uh, Ryuzaki, I had a, uh, question for you. If we know that Kira needs a name and a face to kill, couldn’t we cut down on the number of victims by keeping criminals' names from the news?”
“If we do that, we’ll only be putting the general public at risk."
Matsuda didn’t understand, but luckily no one else seemed to either. It was nice to not be the only person confused for once.
“Kira is childish and he hates losing.”
“But how do you…?” God, why couldn’t he just shut up? The question was already half out before he realized he was speaking at all.
“Just what do you mean?” Even the Chief was confused. She really must be legit if she could trip him up. He shouldn’t have doubted.
L stared at them, emotion again absent from her gaze. “Well…I’m also childish and I hate to lose. That’s how I know.” She took another sip of her tea, like it was perfectly normal to compare herself to the most prolific serial killer of all time.
“Ryuzaki… Would you mind being a little more specific for us?”
“Early on in the investigation, I tried to provoke Kira with that broadcast. Up until then, we thought that Kira would only go after criminals. But as we all witnessed, he didn’t hesitate to kill my stand-in. Also, as soon as I said we knew he was in the Kanto region, in defiance, he made sure his next victims came from within Japan, as if to say, “What are you gonna do about it?” He’s met each of my challenges head-on, and he’s never missed an opportunity to return the favor. Now, what do you think would happen if we tried to use media restrictions to hide criminals from someone like that?”
She was right. Of course she was. She really was a genius.
“I guess…”
She started again before he could finish. “”If you choose to withhold the names of your worst criminals, I’ll kill petty criminals or the innocent. I’m holding the whole world hostage, so who’s it gonna be? I’m not the evil one here. But all of those who oppose me by hiding criminals, you are truly evil.”” She let out a long sigh and scratched one bare foot with the other. “That’s exactly how Kira thinks. In any case, let’s look at another way we can use the media to draw him out.”
It was kind of scary how well she could get into Kira’s mind. But on the flip side, she evidently thought it was a good idea to use the media. Even if he’d only suggested it indirectly, it still felt really good. Maybe he could earn back her respect.
“But how?” Aizawa had jumped into the conversation while he’d been distracted.
“How about something like this? “Death of FBI agents infuriates the U.S. Latest killings anger the international policing community. Nations agree to send 1,500 investigators to Japan.” For Kira, this will be way beyond what he faced with the FBI. He’ll see everyone as a potential threat. Psychologically, he’ll start to feel cornered, and that will cause him to take some kind of drastic action.”
“T-that’s interesting.”
“So he’ll think there are 1,500, when there really are only seven of us. And since none of these investigators exist, Kira won’t be able to kill them!”
Seven? Matsuda wondered if Aizawa was counting Ide or Watari as the seventh.
“It just might work!”
“Well, before we celebrate, I’ll tell you the rest of my thoughts on the Kira case.”
Matsuda fought to keep his expression serious, even as he burned with excitement and residual nervous energy. He just hoped he’d be able to follow along. At least she’d been very careful to explain all her thought processes so far.
“Kira works alone. He had access to all our classified information.”
“What evidence do you have that he’s working alone?”
“Hold on, Aizawa. Let’s listen to her entire theory before asking questions.”
Matsuda was glad other people were asking all the questions he wanted to ask. He really didn’t need another scolding.
“We know he needs a name and a face to kill. And to some extent, he can control a victim’s time of death and their actions before dying. We already know that much. Please keep that in mind…and listen carefully to what I have to say next.” She picked up a black marker that Matsuda hadn’t noticed was on the table, and began to draw directly onto it. “On December 14th, twelve FBI investigators entered Japan. And here we are on December 19th… Using prison inmates, Kira conducts experiments, manipulating his victims’ actions before they die. In other words, during this window of only five days, Kira became aware of the FBI’s presence and obviously felt threatened. Because he didn’t know any of their names or faces, he was at a disadvantage. He needed to know how much control he had over his victims before he could use it against the twelve agents. And as we all know, on December 27th... During this period, to the best of our knowledge, at least twenty-three individuals died of heart attacks. But these victims were different from Kira’s previous targets. They were all alleged criminals, ex-convicts, or suspects in ongoing investigations. So, legally speaking, they were innocent.”
“That’s true."
L’s stare had grown even more intense, as she stared at all she had written on the table.
“What this indicates is that Kira had to manipulate these lesser criminals in order to kill those FBI agents. He killed that many people so we’d be unable to tell the decoys from those who were actually used. In truth, he probably only needed a few. He waited eight days so the FBI could investigate other suspects, which meant there’d be no timeline linking him to their deaths. I suspect Kira had to be one of the people being investigated by the FBI between the 14th and 19th of December. In fact I have no doubt.” She paused for a moment, as if anticipating the gasps from the Task Force. “These are files provided by the FBI, and they contain additional information you might find useful. For obvious reasons, you’re not permitted to take these out of this room, but—"
“Amazing! There might only be five of us, but with this much information, we should be able to cover a lot of ground.”
“We’ll split into two teams. One team traces the FBI agents; the other looks at the heart attack victims.”
“There weren’t that many people who had access to information from headquarters. And of those, the FBI only investigated a small group in the first five days.”
He was getting back into the swing of things. Work always cleared his head.
“Yeah. Yeah..."
“So, does anyone have any questions?”
And that was when Matsuda realized he’d interrupted her in his excitement. Shit. Every time.
“Actually, Ryuzaki, I do have one question for you. And it pertains to what you said earlier about how you hate to lose. Does the fact that you’ve shown us your face mean that you’ve lost? By just being here, are you admitting defeat to Kira?”
“That’s right. By showing my face to you now and by sacrificing the lives of twelve FBI agents, I have lost the battle. But I’m not going to lose the war. This is the first time I’ve ever put my life on the line. I want to show Kira that we’re all willing to risk our lives, if that’s what it takes.” A small smile grew on her face, and she let out a little chuckle. It was somehow charming and creepy in equal measure. “And that justice will prevail no matter what.”
She was certainly a good motivational speaker, for all her oddities.
“Hey, yeah, that’s right.”
“I like the sound of that!”
“We can do this!”
“All right then. Let’s do this, Ryuzaki.”
“Before we go any further, I have to be absolutely sure that none of you are Kira, so I’ll need to speak with each of you individually before you leave today.”
“What’s the deal? She still doesn’t trust us?”
“No. I think it’s a fair request. Try to see it from her perspective. Kira’s been getting information from our headquarters from the very beginning. So there’s a good chance that he’s one of us.” L had stood from her chair during Aizawa’s outburst, and had wandered over to the window.
“Chief’s right. Working this case has given us a chance to see her in person.”
He was always right. He was the type of cop Matsuda aspired to be. The type of cop he knew he’d never be, no matter how hard he tried.
“She’s risking her life to be here.”
L didn’t respond to any of it, just stared out the window like she was a thousand miles away.
Aizawa was right; she was risking her life to be here. She was clearly very smart, but she was also very brave. Far smarter and braver than he was. Matsuda just had to find a way to make it up to her. He’d show her he was sorry he’d ever doubted her. Maybe he hadn’t made a good first impression, but maybe it was the second and third impressions that really mattered. He’d show her he was sorry, and then everything would be okay. She’d forgive him, and then everything would be okay. Everything would be okay.