A Year of Jubilee [The Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 16

Jubilee didn't get much sleep in the days following. Instead she stayed up late into the night alongside L, watching video after video of footage with renewed diligence while the latter sat at his computer station beside a sleeping Light, alternating between chewing his thumb while staring intently at his suspect, running through kill statistics on his computer, and poring through the pages of Watari's bible.

We now need hard evidence to prove what we know, L had told her. Physical evidence to support the...supernatural evidence.

Jubilee didn't have much to offer in the department of physical evidence, but she did what she could to discover any further information that could help L connect clues in the physical. Of her own accord, she would remain in front of her computer after all the other task force members had gone to bed, staying there for hours into the night. Her only companions were L and Light a few feet to her right—and only one of them stayed awake.

She and L rarely spoke to each other. Occasionally she would let him know that she had forwarded to him certain key clips with her notes attached. Otherwise they worked in complete silence. Armed with L's strategy of comparing and contrasting patterns, Jubilee had a newfound focus in her work. Sometimes though, she caught herself watching the detective while he worked. It really was a wonder to watch the man think. Wheels and cogs of light turned in the air around him, now and then producing fountains of fantastic color that would spill out and over. The whole effect seemed to make him glow despite the gray veil over him, and his eyes seemed to lighten, contrasting almost handsomely against the dark circles beneath them. Jubilee could not deny the fact that she was impressed. She had always known because everyone else said so, but now she knew because she could see it with her own eyes: This man was a genius.

Tonight, however, no ethereal light shows emanated from the detective. In fact, Jubilee noticed that they seemed to have decreased over the last few days, diminishing into a dull, default gray hanging over him. To her surprise, she found that this made her worried for him. She said nothing though. Her own brain was starting to disintegrate into a state of mush from lack of sleep. It was all she could do to keep her eyes open but she pushed on, determined to make some kind of headway. Maybe finding a new clue would encourage L to lighten up—literally.

She clicked a video file at random, barely even registering what it was through her drooping eyelids. As it started to play, however, she sat up straight and her eyes widened.

There was Light, walking from the train station to class. No haze surrounded him. No demon followed him. There was only a faint, yellow glow over the young man.

She almost called Ryuzaki's name to alert him but bit her lip at the last minute, deciding to solidify her find. Quickly she began to pull up and scan through footage from around the same date. Over and over again she saw the same thing—Light, pre-haze and pre-demon.

Then, at last, she found what she was looking for.

"Ryuzaki!" she cried in a hoarse whisper, and leapt up from her seat to bound over to the detective. Reaching his shoulder, she cast a quick glance at Light—who was snoring soundly—and then bent to speak into the detective's ear. She was too excited to wait and write it out.

"November 28th," she said, "Is when the haze first appears."

She stood back proudly. L, however, barely seemed to notice her. To her chagrin he merely nodded and murmured, "I see," then continued to stare blankly at his computer screen. Nothing permeated through the haze of gray around him.

She stood aghast for a moment. How was he not excited? Normally such a letdown of her expectations might have angered her, but she found concern welling up within herself instead. She leaned back down, bracing herself with a hand against the desk to peer into L's gray eyes.