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XXVI

Complacency Kills

"Don't you think he's getting careless?"

Hearing L's blatant comment, Es shook his head.

Light was peacefully snoozing on the bed beside them.

"Not at all," Es explained. "I have been gradually lowering his guard against me over the past weeks. He might have been wary of me, at the start, but he cannot continue being cautious if I remained on the sidelines for so long. From his point of view, I have known that he was Kira even before he met Kira the Second. In this vein, if Suzuki intended to arrest Yagami Light -- if he considered the police's tendencies, he would have long since done so. Though Light may only be captured as a suspect, the team and, more importantly, L will not let him go should they know of his confession."

It seemed as though Es was unveiling this information without fear in Kira's presence, but Light had long since been drugged with a sedative.

"They would have gone through with the arrest even if they had insufficient evidence, which will result in us being unable to convict Yagami Light as Kira even if we had him within our grasp." Es did not have to mention this for L to understand this reasoning, and the latter continued, "What prevented that undesirable outcome was you holding them back with distorted rationalisation. I would not have been able to achieve this result even if I took the time to explain our true motive. Sensibly, he did not anticipate that even his father distrusted him from the start."

L caught on easily.

He, too, understood criminal psychology well.

"He was under the impression that Suzuki Sue supports neither Kira nor L. In the end, he did not maintain any fronts when faced with me. He would only become suspicious if I were to suddenly express a desire to support him at this stage. He has already mentally labelled me as a spectator, a mere nonthreatening bystander. He forgot the fact that he still knew nought of my motivations. His perspective is already flawed and, even if I were to appear in the wrong situations, Kira-kun's bias would ensure that he would not guard against me. From this alone, he has already fallen," Es elaborated further.

This was an approach that combined his knowledge from both worlds.

It was manipulative and indirect, burrowing into his opponent's psyche without resistance.

"Plotting against him like this... I'm actually starting to think you're quite cruel, Es dear," L noted.

"Is that so? I would have thought that you noticed this side of me much sooner, L," Es responded without fear of his friend's scorn.

"I was always ruthless," L corrected mildly, "but you used to invariably choose the soft route. You are too kind, or so I thought."

Es could not help but chuckle.

It was incredulous.

"I was never that type of character," Es compulsively confessed. "This is my original nature."

Indeed. When was it that he tried to think for others? He had never been a considerate person. In his heart, there had never been room for anything besides his precious people. Abstract matters such as saving the world or serving justice have never been his strength. His personality was just so straightforward that there could not be anything more to it. There were people he deemed important, people that he despised and people that he liked. Any thoughts of characters beyond these three categories would not pass his cognisance on a normal day. He had no impression, whether good or bad, of the others residing within the same world as himself regardless of whether he had interacted with them before.