A Year of Jubilee [The Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 65

Alone in his bedroom, Light watched as the first rays of dawn peeked over the horizon outside his window. This was the day.

The day that he would win, and finally become God of a new world.

As long as everything went according to plan, that was. He had spent the whole night going over in his mind every detail with agonizing scrutiny, to assure himself that he had not missed a single thing. That he would not fail again, despite the unexpected hiccups which had occurred along the way.

Such as Takada and his father both dying. True, he approved of the former's passing due to the circumstances, and he had been prepared for the latter's death at some point. With Takada, he had actually discreetly written her name himself onto the scrap of Death Note paper hidden in his watch, while on the very car ride over to "rescue" her. Along with her name he had written one other, single kanji character—"fire." Had he not been restricted in movement due to the rest of the Task Force being there in the car with him, he would have written down more specific details, which was no doubt what Mikami ended up intuitively doing for him. His "hand of justice" had done very well, beating him to the punch and ensuring that any evidence left on Takada's person was completely eliminated by the time they had arrived.

However, Light was wary of whoever it was who had kidnapped Takada. Was it one of L's agents? He certainly wouldn't be surprised if that were the case; although given the notoriety of Kira's name at the moment, the chances of it being someone else were fifty-fifty. If it was an associate of L's, however, could it be at all related to the mysterious new ninth person who would be joining them at the warehouse today?

He hadn't argued when L volunteered to replace Soichiro Yagami with one of his own associates. Honestly, it saved Light a whole lot of trouble. Matsuda had already been moaning that they were all dead because Kira's email specifically said nine. Mogi had seemed in agreement, and Aizawa had that look on his face that implied he was about to suggest dramatically altering the plan. L's suggestion had gotten Light out of being stuck between a rock and a hard place. After all, he couldn't be the one to tell them that they didn't have to worry about it. He could only play along with their anxiety. And they'd been on the verge of reaching out to Kira to propose an alternative meeting. If that had happened, then he'd have to come up with an entirely new plan, with a whole new set of factors at play that may or may not guarantee his victory. And Light was too close to that victory to want to change course now.

Still, a sliver of doubt niggled at him. This new person was also a new, unexpected factor. An arguably negligible one, but what bothered him was that there were multiple unexpected, arguably negligible factors that had been introduced all at once. Takada's kidnapping, his father's premature passing, a new person. It all made him decidedly nervous, which he hated. He wanted to feel confident, to know that he would win. That's how he had felt on the day L had died. On the day he was supposed to have won already. And he would have too, if not for the existence of Julie Amachi. Or rather...Miss Jenkins.

Light gnashed his teeth. It was irrational, perhaps, but now that his father's death had occurred outside the parameters of his expectations, he pinned the cause of his grief on that girl. He had been prepared for his father to die today, along with the others, in a mass death that could have been framed as heroes falling in battle—a tragic event which would have, for him at least, been overshadowed by the sealing of his own victory. But instead, his father had been taken out by a stray bullet in an unplanned event that had severely threatened his own plans—and he hadn't been ready for it. As such, he did feel grief, and he wanted someone to blame for it. And he was sure that somehow, one way or another, that Jenkins woman had something to do with the chaos raining down on his plan.