Truth and Justice
folder
Death Note › Yaoi-Male/Male › L/Light
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
20
Views:
4,364
Reviews:
13
Recommended:
1
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Death Note › Yaoi-Male/Male › L/Light
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
20
Views:
4,364
Reviews:
13
Recommended:
1
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Death Note, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Ownership
Warnings for this chapter: Abuse, Angst, Bond, Humil, Language, Torture, reference to N/C, Violence, WIP.
SPOILERS: All manga, all anime, L's true name, Another Note, Law and Right.
Important terms
Fundoshi -- Japanese loincloth.
~!~!~!~!~!~
Truth and Justice
Chapter 10: Ownership
~!~!~!~!~!~
It was the internet, time and again, that had provided breaks in the cases. Once again, the internet pulled through, though not in quite the way L would have liked.
"My name is Yagami Light. I am known to the world by two names. Kira and L,"
The glower, the anger smoldering in those eyes was familiar. It spoke volumes of Light's mental state, the stability of it.
The barrel of a gun, pressed into the side of his head, only seemed to make him look angrier. His hands appeared to be bound behind his back and L was pressing his thumb to his lips, toes fidgeting restlessly.
"I was not executed, as reported by the American media. As reported by L. I was not killed at that time, but instead taken into L's custody and put under intense surveillance. It was there that he attempted to rehabilitate me."
A statement, L knew, that was designed to frighten the general public. The fact that it was translated into ten of the world's major languages didn't help. He didn't have to translate them to know that they were accurate.
"I am Kira. I have been arrested by the perpetrator of the Los Angeles BB Murder Cases. I will be punished for my sins."
There was a long pause, Light looked off camera, towards the gunman, scowled and closed his eyes tightly.
"L and I were both defeated soundly by this man. He was the one who stopped me, in 2004, on the very day that I planned to murder L. I was raped. Beaten and destroyed, I surrendered to L and was spared the death penalty. Instead, I was kept close, trained to work as L's..." Light grimaced again. "As L's pet. A data cruncher. I am nothing to him,"
Light opened his eyes again, glared into the camera fiercely. "But I love him. I have been trained to feel this way. Manipulated by the greatest of detectives, and I am grateful to be free of his hold. However, L's crimes cannot go unpaid. He cannot remain unpunished for his acts. So, until such a time as L is confirmed to be dead by Roger, I will be kept and punished publicly, a reminder of L's corruption."
The image faded from the image of Light, fully clothed in a kneeling position, to Light, in the same position, with only a white fundoshi to cover him. His body was covered in sweat, his glare was darker, and there was blood trickling down one of his arms.
The gun was still there, hovering near his temple this time.
"For every hour L remains alive, I will receive one cut. For every day, a bruise. For every week, a beating. For every month," and this was where he wavered, closing his eyes and swallowing heavily. "I will be raped."
The video cut out then, and L made contact immediately with Roger Ruvie, asked him to put any children with strong hacking skills to work, tracing down the transmission. Then he ordered that Mello and Matt do the same before he contacted Aizawa.
The colorful string of words that Aizawa used to reply were quite the surprise.
One hour later, Aizawa, Matsuda and Mogi had shown up at the headquarters and shown themselves in. They had some of their best working on it, but they all knew it wasn't going to be enough.
B was too good at what he did. The signal would have been bounced around the world a few dozen times and that would certainly take more than a month to sort out.
"We need a different plan," L pressed his thumb to his lips, curled up in his chair with an entire cake sitting in front of him, untouched.
"Let's take another look at the video. Maybe there will be some way to find him with that," Aizawa suggested.
They sat down, watched it again, looked closely at the plain room, analyzed Light's words, examined the surroundings.
They discovered that the video had been pieced together from several clips, but they could find nothing truly identifying. All they knew was the room was cheap, cold, the light was provided by an overhead lamp, the camera was poorly made. Cheap.
There was nothing distinctive enough to identify the location at all.
Six hours after the ransom video had been released, a live feed appeared on the associated web site. Thirty times, the Japanese police shut down the site, only to have it pop back up within seconds.
Light was still within the same room, the camera was from a different angle, higher, like a security camera. He was also aware of the camera, gazing up at it most of the time, but there appeared to be no sound feed.
This was confirmed when B entered the room, wearing a mask to protect his identity, with a knife in hand. Light struggled when he was grabbed, cried out when the knife was drawn along his arm, fresh blood dribbling down over the earlier wounds. There were eight of them. Eight hours, he had been missing. Eight cuts.
Ten minutes later, a fresh notice appeared on the web site, a simple warning that for every time the site was shut down from that point on, a burn would be added to Kira's punishments.
Aizawa agreed to L's request that the Japanese police stop shutting down the site and gave the order.
The building was quiet. There was a single door and, carefully, Near pushed it open, stepped into the warehouse. He didn't bother hiding his face, even though he was dealing with someone he knew was extremely dangerous.
"Aizawa-san," he nodded, then turned his gaze to the woman. "This had better be good."
"Don't worry, it is," Lidner's lips drew up in a soft smirk. "I figured this place would be appropriate enough for the meeting. You gave me a pretty bad scare, back there. How did you know I wouldn't die?"
"You can see him," Near tugged on a bit of his hair, stepped forward slowly, Ryuk flying along behind him.
"Yeah. We can see him," Aizawa replied quietly. "I'm armed."
"As am I," Near let his gaze shift to Aizawa for a fraction of a second, then back to Lidner. "What were you able to uncover?"
"The person that contacted me on Kira's behalf was affiliated with the mafia. I traced his connection to a Yakuza branch and, eventually, tied it to one of your possible suspects. I also traced the package that the Death Note was sent to me in, as you ordered. The United States Government did not believe I had been Kira because I had been through various forms of testing and showed no physical reason for any memory loss and no indication of lies."
"Due to ownership being given up when the notebook was destroyed," Near nodded, tugging a little more on his hair. "How many people did you kill, Lidner?"
"I don't know. My memory has not been restored. I don't have ownership of a Death Note at this time. All I know is what you've told me and what I've managed to dig up since my supposed death," Lidner shook her head.
Near stepped forward, pulling his notebook from inside his shirt and holding it out with both hands. "Touch it, and tell me what you remember."
Lidner reached out, touched it, gasped. Several moments passed before she looked at the notebook and spoke. "I wrote one hundred," she replied. "The last one was Yagami Light."
Slowly, Near's eyebrows rose. "You wrote Yagami Light's name in the real Death Note?"
"I did, yes," Lidner glanced at Aizawa. "Isn't he still alive right now?"
"He is," Aizawa said firmly, frowning deeply. "I'll have to bring this up with L."
"Yes, that would be a good idea," Near replied, then returned his attention to Lidner. "How long did you have the notebook in your possession?"
"One day," she replied without hesitation.
"So Kira had it up until that point?" Near tilted his head slightly, resisted the urge to reach up and tug on his hair. He needed to keep a firm grip on the notebook.
"Doubtful. There were at least ten separate styles of handwriting, in three different languages, listing the names and causes of death," Lidner sighed softly. "I'm sorry, Near, about what happened."
"That is why you sent me assistance, isn't it?" Near smiled thinly.
"Yes. I called in all my favors to make this right."
"And now you're asking me to help you get your life back, isn't that right?" Near shook his head. "If the United States was willing to put you into Witness Protection, I can't offer you anything better."
"I have that angle covered, myself," Lidner replied dryly. "At any rate, I have tracked down the most likely Kira and connected him directly to the man who sent me the notebook. It seems the notebook was shuffled around quite a bit and I was the last to receive it."
"I want to know just one thing," Aizawa said softly. "Why?"
Lidner sighed deeply, looking between the two for a long moment before she finally replied. "There was a note, stuck in with the Death Note. It promised that if I failed to obey the orders, my family would be killed, my head of government would be killed, and I would be killed. In that order. The orders were simple. Use one side of a full page to kill criminals with heart attacks, and on a fresh page, I was to eliminate all the taskforce members that I had been given information on."
"And there was a picture and the name of all the major players, wasn't there?" Near scowled.
"There was. Aizawa, Mogi, Matsuda, Light. Everyone except L," Lidner closed her eyes. "Yours was there."
"And there was one other who wasn't on the list, wasn't there?" Near gazed up at her. "Tell me who."
When she did, Near closed his eyes, sighed weakly and slipped the Death Note back into his shirt. "Very well. Aizawa, find a secure way to pass this information to L. My channel is likely being watched by B."
"The one who kidnapped Light?" Aizawa's eyebrows shot up.
"Yes. He is trying to destroy L. He is keeping a very close eye on the investigation and his hacking skills are the best, so far as I am aware," Near replied.
"Then I'll send the information to L by messenger. Safer that way, anyway," Aizawa agreed. "Your name will be cleared soon, Near."
"Count on it," Near smiled, turned and strode from the warehouse, back to his vehicle. He slid into the driver's seat, pulling away again, glancing at Ryuk in the back seat. "You can have an apple now."
"Hyuk, hyuk, what are you planning, Near?" Ryuk asked between bites.
"Me? I'm just going to sit back and watch what happens. I've done what I needed to do. She only confirmed my suspicions, added weight to my circumstantial evidence. Now, we know who Kira is, and it's just a matter of letting L handle it. Until then, we'll help him hunt down B," Near pulled onto a highway, began the long drive back to Kyoto.
"You sure like to be out of the way," Ryuk dropped the apple core into his mouth, chewed loudly.
"They won't be looking for me in Kyoto. They all believe I'm still in Tokyo, as they are meant to. I'm staying under until my name has been cleared. After that, I'm going to have some questions of my own for Mello,"
The shinigami's laughter rang in Near's ears as he shifted lanes.
~!~!~!~!~!~
A/N: Two, maybe three more chapters and I'll be wrapping this up. I hope the story's been as good as the last one, I'm trying very hard not to slip outside the rules, though there are two that I'll be forced to break before it's over. That, however, will be explained fully in the bonus materials. =3
Selim: Wow, I'm glad I checked the reviews before I posted this chapter! ^^; I'm glad to know you've enjoyed it so far, it's been one crazy ride for me. I've only finished one multi-chapter piece before and, well, it was 10 years ago, so you can imagine what looking back at it now must be like! And really, having a fic be the highlight of your day isn't bad at all. I've been there more than once in the past with Gundam Wing fanfiction. (If you like GW and haven't discovered the joy that is Maldoror yet, she is undoubtedly amazing! And as much of a 2x5 fan as I am. XD) I didn't realize volume 13 was so... so... out of place until I got home and there it was! My dad had bought it for me finals week last semester. I was really quite irritated with the size, but since I have the Death Note notebook that also doesn't fit, I just... do what I did with the Gundam Wing books and make a little staircase. XD I'm afraid this will have some pretty big spoilers for the pilot chapter, so I hope you've at least seen it!
SPOILERS: All manga, all anime, L's true name, Another Note, Law and Right.
Important terms
Fundoshi -- Japanese loincloth.
~!~!~!~!~!~
Truth and Justice
Chapter 10: Ownership
~!~!~!~!~!~
It was the internet, time and again, that had provided breaks in the cases. Once again, the internet pulled through, though not in quite the way L would have liked.
"My name is Yagami Light. I am known to the world by two names. Kira and L,"
The glower, the anger smoldering in those eyes was familiar. It spoke volumes of Light's mental state, the stability of it.
The barrel of a gun, pressed into the side of his head, only seemed to make him look angrier. His hands appeared to be bound behind his back and L was pressing his thumb to his lips, toes fidgeting restlessly.
"I was not executed, as reported by the American media. As reported by L. I was not killed at that time, but instead taken into L's custody and put under intense surveillance. It was there that he attempted to rehabilitate me."
A statement, L knew, that was designed to frighten the general public. The fact that it was translated into ten of the world's major languages didn't help. He didn't have to translate them to know that they were accurate.
"I am Kira. I have been arrested by the perpetrator of the Los Angeles BB Murder Cases. I will be punished for my sins."
There was a long pause, Light looked off camera, towards the gunman, scowled and closed his eyes tightly.
"L and I were both defeated soundly by this man. He was the one who stopped me, in 2004, on the very day that I planned to murder L. I was raped. Beaten and destroyed, I surrendered to L and was spared the death penalty. Instead, I was kept close, trained to work as L's..." Light grimaced again. "As L's pet. A data cruncher. I am nothing to him,"
Light opened his eyes again, glared into the camera fiercely. "But I love him. I have been trained to feel this way. Manipulated by the greatest of detectives, and I am grateful to be free of his hold. However, L's crimes cannot go unpaid. He cannot remain unpunished for his acts. So, until such a time as L is confirmed to be dead by Roger, I will be kept and punished publicly, a reminder of L's corruption."
The image faded from the image of Light, fully clothed in a kneeling position, to Light, in the same position, with only a white fundoshi to cover him. His body was covered in sweat, his glare was darker, and there was blood trickling down one of his arms.
The gun was still there, hovering near his temple this time.
"For every hour L remains alive, I will receive one cut. For every day, a bruise. For every week, a beating. For every month," and this was where he wavered, closing his eyes and swallowing heavily. "I will be raped."
The video cut out then, and L made contact immediately with Roger Ruvie, asked him to put any children with strong hacking skills to work, tracing down the transmission. Then he ordered that Mello and Matt do the same before he contacted Aizawa.
The colorful string of words that Aizawa used to reply were quite the surprise.
One hour later, Aizawa, Matsuda and Mogi had shown up at the headquarters and shown themselves in. They had some of their best working on it, but they all knew it wasn't going to be enough.
B was too good at what he did. The signal would have been bounced around the world a few dozen times and that would certainly take more than a month to sort out.
"We need a different plan," L pressed his thumb to his lips, curled up in his chair with an entire cake sitting in front of him, untouched.
"Let's take another look at the video. Maybe there will be some way to find him with that," Aizawa suggested.
They sat down, watched it again, looked closely at the plain room, analyzed Light's words, examined the surroundings.
They discovered that the video had been pieced together from several clips, but they could find nothing truly identifying. All they knew was the room was cheap, cold, the light was provided by an overhead lamp, the camera was poorly made. Cheap.
There was nothing distinctive enough to identify the location at all.
Six hours after the ransom video had been released, a live feed appeared on the associated web site. Thirty times, the Japanese police shut down the site, only to have it pop back up within seconds.
Light was still within the same room, the camera was from a different angle, higher, like a security camera. He was also aware of the camera, gazing up at it most of the time, but there appeared to be no sound feed.
This was confirmed when B entered the room, wearing a mask to protect his identity, with a knife in hand. Light struggled when he was grabbed, cried out when the knife was drawn along his arm, fresh blood dribbling down over the earlier wounds. There were eight of them. Eight hours, he had been missing. Eight cuts.
Ten minutes later, a fresh notice appeared on the web site, a simple warning that for every time the site was shut down from that point on, a burn would be added to Kira's punishments.
Aizawa agreed to L's request that the Japanese police stop shutting down the site and gave the order.
The building was quiet. There was a single door and, carefully, Near pushed it open, stepped into the warehouse. He didn't bother hiding his face, even though he was dealing with someone he knew was extremely dangerous.
"Aizawa-san," he nodded, then turned his gaze to the woman. "This had better be good."
"Don't worry, it is," Lidner's lips drew up in a soft smirk. "I figured this place would be appropriate enough for the meeting. You gave me a pretty bad scare, back there. How did you know I wouldn't die?"
"You can see him," Near tugged on a bit of his hair, stepped forward slowly, Ryuk flying along behind him.
"Yeah. We can see him," Aizawa replied quietly. "I'm armed."
"As am I," Near let his gaze shift to Aizawa for a fraction of a second, then back to Lidner. "What were you able to uncover?"
"The person that contacted me on Kira's behalf was affiliated with the mafia. I traced his connection to a Yakuza branch and, eventually, tied it to one of your possible suspects. I also traced the package that the Death Note was sent to me in, as you ordered. The United States Government did not believe I had been Kira because I had been through various forms of testing and showed no physical reason for any memory loss and no indication of lies."
"Due to ownership being given up when the notebook was destroyed," Near nodded, tugging a little more on his hair. "How many people did you kill, Lidner?"
"I don't know. My memory has not been restored. I don't have ownership of a Death Note at this time. All I know is what you've told me and what I've managed to dig up since my supposed death," Lidner shook her head.
Near stepped forward, pulling his notebook from inside his shirt and holding it out with both hands. "Touch it, and tell me what you remember."
Lidner reached out, touched it, gasped. Several moments passed before she looked at the notebook and spoke. "I wrote one hundred," she replied. "The last one was Yagami Light."
Slowly, Near's eyebrows rose. "You wrote Yagami Light's name in the real Death Note?"
"I did, yes," Lidner glanced at Aizawa. "Isn't he still alive right now?"
"He is," Aizawa said firmly, frowning deeply. "I'll have to bring this up with L."
"Yes, that would be a good idea," Near replied, then returned his attention to Lidner. "How long did you have the notebook in your possession?"
"One day," she replied without hesitation.
"So Kira had it up until that point?" Near tilted his head slightly, resisted the urge to reach up and tug on his hair. He needed to keep a firm grip on the notebook.
"Doubtful. There were at least ten separate styles of handwriting, in three different languages, listing the names and causes of death," Lidner sighed softly. "I'm sorry, Near, about what happened."
"That is why you sent me assistance, isn't it?" Near smiled thinly.
"Yes. I called in all my favors to make this right."
"And now you're asking me to help you get your life back, isn't that right?" Near shook his head. "If the United States was willing to put you into Witness Protection, I can't offer you anything better."
"I have that angle covered, myself," Lidner replied dryly. "At any rate, I have tracked down the most likely Kira and connected him directly to the man who sent me the notebook. It seems the notebook was shuffled around quite a bit and I was the last to receive it."
"I want to know just one thing," Aizawa said softly. "Why?"
Lidner sighed deeply, looking between the two for a long moment before she finally replied. "There was a note, stuck in with the Death Note. It promised that if I failed to obey the orders, my family would be killed, my head of government would be killed, and I would be killed. In that order. The orders were simple. Use one side of a full page to kill criminals with heart attacks, and on a fresh page, I was to eliminate all the taskforce members that I had been given information on."
"And there was a picture and the name of all the major players, wasn't there?" Near scowled.
"There was. Aizawa, Mogi, Matsuda, Light. Everyone except L," Lidner closed her eyes. "Yours was there."
"And there was one other who wasn't on the list, wasn't there?" Near gazed up at her. "Tell me who."
When she did, Near closed his eyes, sighed weakly and slipped the Death Note back into his shirt. "Very well. Aizawa, find a secure way to pass this information to L. My channel is likely being watched by B."
"The one who kidnapped Light?" Aizawa's eyebrows shot up.
"Yes. He is trying to destroy L. He is keeping a very close eye on the investigation and his hacking skills are the best, so far as I am aware," Near replied.
"Then I'll send the information to L by messenger. Safer that way, anyway," Aizawa agreed. "Your name will be cleared soon, Near."
"Count on it," Near smiled, turned and strode from the warehouse, back to his vehicle. He slid into the driver's seat, pulling away again, glancing at Ryuk in the back seat. "You can have an apple now."
"Hyuk, hyuk, what are you planning, Near?" Ryuk asked between bites.
"Me? I'm just going to sit back and watch what happens. I've done what I needed to do. She only confirmed my suspicions, added weight to my circumstantial evidence. Now, we know who Kira is, and it's just a matter of letting L handle it. Until then, we'll help him hunt down B," Near pulled onto a highway, began the long drive back to Kyoto.
"You sure like to be out of the way," Ryuk dropped the apple core into his mouth, chewed loudly.
"They won't be looking for me in Kyoto. They all believe I'm still in Tokyo, as they are meant to. I'm staying under until my name has been cleared. After that, I'm going to have some questions of my own for Mello,"
The shinigami's laughter rang in Near's ears as he shifted lanes.
~!~!~!~!~!~
A/N: Two, maybe three more chapters and I'll be wrapping this up. I hope the story's been as good as the last one, I'm trying very hard not to slip outside the rules, though there are two that I'll be forced to break before it's over. That, however, will be explained fully in the bonus materials. =3
Selim: Wow, I'm glad I checked the reviews before I posted this chapter! ^^; I'm glad to know you've enjoyed it so far, it's been one crazy ride for me. I've only finished one multi-chapter piece before and, well, it was 10 years ago, so you can imagine what looking back at it now must be like! And really, having a fic be the highlight of your day isn't bad at all. I've been there more than once in the past with Gundam Wing fanfiction. (If you like GW and haven't discovered the joy that is Maldoror yet, she is undoubtedly amazing! And as much of a 2x5 fan as I am. XD) I didn't realize volume 13 was so... so... out of place until I got home and there it was! My dad had bought it for me finals week last semester. I was really quite irritated with the size, but since I have the Death Note notebook that also doesn't fit, I just... do what I did with the Gundam Wing books and make a little staircase. XD I'm afraid this will have some pretty big spoilers for the pilot chapter, so I hope you've at least seen it!