Futatsu no Tsuki

Futatsu no Tsuki

Chapter 23

Darkly shadowed eyes stared at the TV, focused on the headlines flashing across the screen; L picked up a panda cookie from the box beside his teacup and popped it into his mouth. The small, chocolate filled cookie crumbled apart beneath his teeth, delivering its sugary taste to the detective's tongue and stimulating his brain. Behind his crouched form the taskforce officers too watched the TV screen, horror heavily depicted on their faces.

"This is a disaster…" One of the officers muttered, and though the detective recognized the voice, he was too preoccupied to place it; knowing who said what wouldn't change the headlines or the drastic flip they caused to the Kira investigation. Thirty minutes had passed since the mass-murder around the globe of the world's religious leaders by someone claiming to be Kira.

"….Kira has actually declared himself god…." Another voice from behind the detective spoke, his tone filled with disbelief. The officer almost forgot to breathe as he listened to the playback of what the News stated was a message from Kira. The voice on the tape wasn't at all distorted and the speaker did nothing to hide the laughter inherent beneath his soft tone as he spoke, demanding the world to bow down to him.

L tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowed beneath the black strands of hair that fell onto the detective's face. He recognized the voice, though even if he hadn't the purpose behind the message and deaths gave it away. He reached for his empty teacup and refilled it with 90% sugar and 10% tea. "This isn't Kira."

" 'Isn't Kira?' Ryuzaki-san, this is….they were ALL heart attacks! It has to be Kira…."

"It is Kira's power, but it isn't Kira. The real Kira wouldn't risk something like this – or rather he wouldn't need to…." The detective took a sip of his tea, holding the cup with his right hand while his left clung angrily to his leg. "...this is the worst thing to happen for the investigation."

"That's right...if the public accepts Kira as God..."

"That's not what I meant." L placed the teacup on the saucer, his bare left foot scratching his right – the next second he picked up another panda cookie and pressed it against his lips. He breathed in its sweet scent and glared at the TV screen; his brain swimming with thought upon thought. He pooped the chocolate filled cookie into his mouth and savored the sweetness. "The purpose of this maneuver isn't to strengthen Kira but to destroy him..."

"How does this...?" Matsuda began, his voice trailing off as he scratched his head and glanced around.

"I get what Ryuzaki means. By killing the world's religious leaders and declaring himself god, this 'Kira' will actually turn the majority of people against him."

"Correct. The world isn't ready to accept anyone directly declaring themselves God – and the fact that this 'Kira' has killed religious leaders to enforce his declaration will only succeed in alienating those who truly believe in Kira from those who don't."

"But isn't is a good thing that Kira will lose public support? It'll make more people want to find him..."

"Ryuzaki-san, how can we be sure this is real and not a fake broadcast? Like the Lind L Tailor one?" Aizawa eyed the detective as the question rolled from his lips, arms folded across his chest.

L slowly glanced at Aizawa, his eyes shadowed a little, but not obscured, by his hair.

"...while I do have influence over the media and governments worldwide, I do not have the power to create such a hoax." The detective slipped his forefinger and thumb around the teacup's handle and lifted it to his lips. He took a sip of the amber liquid, sweetened to excess. "It is further impossible to plan something it never occurred to me to do." L tilted his head back and drunk the rest of the tea, the last drops the most saturated with sugar. After emptying the cup he placed it down on the table, a slight pout on his lips. The dejected mien remained for a handful of seconds longer before L glanced upward and tapped his bottom lip with his thumb. "Even if it had occurred to me to pull such a stunt, I wouldn't chance using such a dangerous, uncertain trick. This current maneuver is a double-edge sword. While the general public, who favor their own religions more than Kira, will be vehemently against Kira, justice won't matter to them. Not justice of the law. They'll want Kira's blood. The public will demand the police produce Kira, and there will be riots if we cannot. And if we do produce Kira...if Kira is killed by a mob, justice won't be served and Kira would possibly die a martyr in his follower's eyes."

"Ryuzaki-san..." Aizawa paused and glanced back at the television displaying the coverage of the recent development. He understood, and believed, the detective's denial of orchestrating the possible hoax, but the voice on the tape gnawed at him.

L glanced at Aizawa again, reading the conflict on the man's face – he tilted his head. He grasped the origin of the officer's suspicions immediately and was slightly disappointed that the other officers hadn't picked up what Aizawa did.

"...I already know the identity of this Kira." The detective picked up a sugar cube from a bowl beside the box of panda cookies and popped it into his mouth. He hardly blinked as his words and his nonchalant tone drew his companions' attentions. Before the questions escaped their startled lips, he left his chair and approached the TV. "The culprit behind this is B. He used his own voice on the tape."

"His voice? But the voice on the tape sounds like..."

L merely tilted his head a few degrees to observe Aizawa, waiting for the officer to finish – instead Aizawa's voice trailed off. In the seconds that proceeded, the news station rebroadcast the message in which 'Kira' declared himself god. L narrowed his eyes slightly, listening to B's voice – it was the same tone and speech pattern his failed replacement had used during the Los Angeles B.B murders under the alias of Rue Ryuzaki. The voice that could be mistaken as his.

"Ryuzaki...this voice..."

"It doesn't sound exactly like yours, but..."

"It is B. When he challenged me two years ago he copied all my mannerisms and dressed up in similar fashion...I won't go into how he was able to figure those things out since it endangers more than just myself, but I will provide any other information needed to capture him."

"Ryuzaki..."

"Further, I will remain indoors with Watari until B is found – if you come across anyone who resembles me, inform Watari or myself immediately and bring that person in for questioning. But please practice extreme caution since B obviously now has the same power as Kira, and he will not hesitate to use it to kill anyone connected to this case."

"...Ryuzaki-san. What are we going to do about Yue-san? We need to find him..."

L chewed on his thumbnail, his eyes inexpressible as he continued to watch the TV screen.

'Yue's actions are enigmatic – is he being controlled or is he not? If he's being controlled we should follow him, but with caution...and if he's not being controlled we should still follow him...no, our priority should be finding and catching B, Kira's power in his hand is more dangerous than it being in Light's or Yue's...but, how did B get Kira's power? Could he have found Second Kira and stolen it...? Or did Yue perhaps...?' L loosened his teeth around his thumbnail and rubbed the digit over his bottom lip. 'Second Kira showed up after Yue threw himself into traffic...and it wasn't just predestined deaths, Second Kira killed some of the police officers who showed up to stop the broadcast...Second Kira disappeared afterward and it couldn't have been Yue who stopped him...'

"Finding Yue is important, but our priority should be tracking down B...he's more of a threat..."

"Ryuzaki! Yue's my son and whether he was controlled or not, he tried to kill himself...he's a danger to himself!"

L closed his eyes, listening to Souichiro; part of him agreed with the police chief – the part that made his heart ache and feel heave. 'I shouldn't have become involved with Yue...it'll make it harder to prioritize B...'

The pale skinned detective opened his eyes, biting roughly on this thumb. The pain steadied his thoughts, allowing him to split them from his emotions. "...B takes priority in this case." L began, still chewing on this thumb. He paused, tasting the rawness of his flesh as he bit deep enough to draw blood. He dimly heard Souichiro and Aizawa's shouts of protest behind him, his thoughts bombarding his brain. 'That's wrong...it doesn't make sense. If this is B's doing now, then the recent open-air suicides that point towards B were not his doing...and that Hirose was the first victim points toward it being Yue's doing. That I'm sure of...which means he'd got his hands on either Second Kira's or Kira's power...and he got it before his latest suicide attempt. Before Second Kira showed up...it, it seems absurd but it is possible that he found Second Kira and controlled him some how, perhaps got rid of him...in that case, Yue's suicide attempt is then a method for him to escape suspicion...at least temporarily. And if he gave Second Kira's power to B before he...that's were it is most absurd. Yue doesn't know B is alive, so how could he transfer Second Kira's power to...' L blinked, his eyes widening a miniscule amount before narrowing twice as much. A frown on his lips.

"Ryuzaki, I won't just..."

'Of course. It's simple. Yue doesn't know what B looks or sounds like. Their only communication was over the internet through that website. Neither knew what the other one looked like, but that wouldn't have stopped B from tracking Yue. All B needed to do was approach Yue using a pseudonym...then he'd...'

"Ryu..."

"...we should look for both B and Yue." L piped up, cutting into Souichiro's protest and surprising the police chief. Before Souichiro could misunderstand the reason for his words, L explained. "There's an 80 percent chance that Yue could lead us to B – which could then lead to finding evidence that can aid in arresting Kira."

"Ryuzaki, you still think that Yue's the one who..."

"Yue had a motive to kill Hirose, and he's the only one who has a motive and the knowledge necessary to try to hinder the investigation by pointing the clues towards B being Kira..."

"But that...you suspect Yue planned this out to lead suspicion away from Light...that...but why would he try to kill himself then? He..."

"That was probably part of his plan as well. As an alibi..."

"Ryuzaki! Yue could have died!"

"...yet he only sustained light injuries..."

"That doesn't mean it was an act! His method wasn't something less risky like taking an overdose – he ran straight into traffic! It's a miracle that he didn't get seriously injured..."

"That is peculiar..." L pulled at his bottom lip, the next moment staring at the ceiling in thought. His eyes widened and his skin paled a shade as an idea flashed through his brain, engulfing him with a wave of certainty. He lowered his hands to his sides and stared back at the floor, eyes obscured by his black hair. "We'll focus on finding Yue."

0

Yue stared numbly at the department store's display window, the stack of television sets showing the news.

'What is Tenichi doing? This will ruin everything I set up...this voice though, it sounds like...' Yue shook his head, dispelling the thought. "...I don't have time to deal with this. I..."

Yue shivered at a sudden breeze that passed by and pulled the thin hospital shirt tighter around him. In order to not take too much time upon sneaking out he'd simply changed his pants and kept the hospital shirt on. A decision he began to regret as the night sky darkened with cloud.

"Was it a mistake to give the notebook to Tenichi?" The college student mumbled before turning away from the display window, his bare feet sore. The hum and whoosh of cars passing by filled his ears, somehow soothing to him though his heart thumped. 'I wonder if I can go through with it all, I...what am I thinking. It is already set. I've already written their names...' He dug his hand into his pocket and felt the heavy-duty glass bottle he'd pilfered from an hospital storeroom. Slowly and deliberately he breathed out, attempting to calm his threatening-to-race heart.

"All that's needed now is to make sure Tenichi doesn't screw everything up."

The sudden intake of breath behind him and the laugh that accompanied it immediately after froze Yue. It was a sound strangely familiar and at the same time chillingly unknown. Like the voice echoing from the television News.

"Heh, sorry for ruining your plans, but they didn't interest me."

"Tenichi!" Yue pivoted around, his eyes widening as they locked on his friend. "Wha...wait, you..."

B laughed as he punched Yue in the gut, winding and knocking out the teen. The next moment he slipped his cell phone from his pocket and dialed a number.