The Girl With No Name

Chapter Twenty-Four

It wasn't too long before Light and L reappeared inside the workroom, soaked and sullen, drops of water haunting their every step. I snorted at the state of them, looking like drowned rats plucked straight out of the sewer. Not that I had any room to talk. I was sure I didn't make for a better sight, still wringing what felt like half of the ocean from my hair.

I opened my mouth to crack a joke (less so directed at L than it was Light, who was obsessed with his appearance) until I noticed the tension between them both. Melancholy lingered in their eyes and I found myself wondering what they'd been talking about up there. Part of me expected them to have beaten the crap out of one another again, but there was no testosterone fuelled hatred or blossoming bruises to be seen. Just a lingering sense of sorrow. Weird behaviour for them, but these were weird times.

As soon as the rest of the task force saw the pair, they descended on L like a pack of hyenas ganging up on a zebra.

"Ryuzaki, what is the meaning of this?" Soichiro asked, making no attempts to mask his outrage. "Apparently, you've gotten approval from a foreign body to test the notebook?"

L was in no rush to elaborate, slowly taking his seat before the monitor and clicking a button on the intercom to speak.

"Thank you for your efforts, Watari. Please can you arrange to transport the notebook immediately?"

"Yes, sir," answered the old man before his symbol flickered off the screen.

Soichiro drew near to L's side, face grave and tone even sterner than usual.

"There's no need for us to test the book when we've already seen its power in action," he said brusquely, making his stance on this new development very clear.

"And surely it's too dangerous!" Matsuda added. "Once you start writing in the notebook, you have to continuously write names every thirteen days or you'll die. Who's going to take that risk?"

"That's already been decided," L replied. "A criminal, scheduled for execution in thirteen days. If he is still alive after the thirteen days conclude, he will be pardoned."

"Are you serious?" the young detective whined, happening to catch my eye as he turned to face the rear of the room. "C'mon Kat, even you have to agree this is too much!"

Trying to ignore the insinuation that I always agreed with L without thinking (I think everyone had forgotten I was taking L on 1v1 during the early days of the investigation), I held my hands up.

"I don't love it," I admitted. "But it's the only logical way forward, Matsuda."

Beside him, Aizawa scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief. "So now someone else has to die to test another one of Ryuzaki's theories?"

"But that's the point: they might not die," I argued in L's defence. "And if they don't die, then—"

As though predicting my exact trail of thought, Light turned his attention to me, bearing a look which seemed to dare me to finish that sentence. I matched the heat in his gaze, refusing to be subdued into silence.

"— then it opens up our options. A major detail like this could actually help to close the case."

The boy shifted his weight to face me fully then, eyes twitching as he asked, "You really believe that?"

Ah. There it was again. That switch in behaviour.

Ever since being released from his imprisonment, Light would have moments where he seemed frustrated and fed up with constantly being accused of being Kira. A reaction like that was understandable, but this was beyond that. Light didn't seem upset by the implication of my statement itself. Rather, he seemed offended that I dared to voice them.