Mazzaroth - The Only Thing I Have Left Of You

22nd September, 1988

Mazzaroth, I managed to find the answer to one of my many questions about L. It is not definitive, but definitely the most probable and, therefore, acceptable.

It concerns his computer – why he has one of his own. And it pains me to say it, but it's because he bought it with his own money or, rather, that he repaid the debt to Watari.

I know it sounds absurd, because I couldn't believe it myself that an eight-year-old boy had the resources to afford it, but I acquired some information yesterday that helped me put the pieces together. That's not to say that it doesn't bother me that he has one of his own, because if my calculations are correct, he has the ability to provide one each for all of us, but he's not doing it.

Besides, I think I know where he's been during that week spent outside Wammy's House, but everything calmly, point by point.

Yesterday, I unfortunately found myself having a private conversation with L. Because of him, most of it was based on a misunderstanding. He wasted my time, in a nutshell, and didn't even admit he was wrong.

How can he be the head of a project dedicated to justice if he can't even be responsible for his actions? I hope he hasn't wronged Ayla in any way, other than interacting with her. I could ask her, but she would diminish the intensity of the fact and I wouldn't want my appropriate reaction to end up seeming exaggerated.

The confusion was because he indicated 'exchange' instead of 'stock' in a newspaper headline. I thought he was referring to the exchange in a game of chess and I think everyone inside Wammy's House would have interpreted it the same way.

From the books I have read and from what I understood, stock is a part of the capital of a joint-stock company – clearly –, an enterprise whose members' participation is based on the transfer of these assets.

On one of the newspaper clippings that L had around, there was this big skyscraper. I managed to identify it and it is the London Stock Exchange. And the most appropriate way to describe what L did to earn enough pounds to buy a computer is 'playing the stock market'. In doing so, L asked Watari to buy stocks at a certain value on the LSE and they resold them at a higher price. The difference between these two resulted in a rather large profit – which I will avoid naming, because I am not supposed to know –, which went to confirm the fact that Watari trusts him because he has demonstrated this skill.

However, many critics on the subject argue that this type of market or investment is not infallible and L himself told me that he has to 'hope'. You too understand that, consequently, his was luck and not skill, and that Watari is wrong in believing him capable; above all, because he also has a 'broker'.

The Broker in question – whose name I will not write down and merely capitalise on the common noun when referring to him specifically – is in charge of buying stocks and selling them on Watari's behalf, as well as providing advice. This means that it was not exactly L alone who earned that money.

But, knowing the latter's personality, it is not difficult for me to imagine him insisting on a certain stock that led to that achievement and, since I am a person who can admit that even those I can't stand can be good, I am not going to say that it is not thanks to him. I'm simply going to say that he doesn't deserve all the credit, because without Watari, the Broker and all the possibilities that Wammy's House offers him, he wouldn't have reached that point.

Now, about that week. In Watari's agenda, I noticed that he had made several appointments with the Broker, and they were in-person, as he had marked several locations. The owner, of course, did not go, as he was here the whole time. The only plausible explanation is that it was L who met him.