Death Note: Sweet Sacrifice

Chapter Fourteen

While Light was struggling, the figure holding him remained calm. "You cannot escape Death." Spoke the voice, altered in the same way L's was when he spoke to the general public, by a computer device. The figure raised their head so they were looking at the camera. "Allow your web camera and audio access, L."

L saw only one disadvantage in this. To prevent himself from being the one at a disadvantage, he rummaged through the drawers of his desk and grabbed a mask which he promptly placed over his face before allowing the person on the other side the ability to see and hear him.

When L allowed the figure to to see him, the figure simply said, "I see you're still an armchair detective." While L thought this was an odd statement, he did not let it show that he thought this was odd. Even still, a lot of people thought L was an armchair detective who did no real physical work on his cases. This of course was not true. When he thought something was important enough he would get involved. Just as he had introduced himself to Light Yagami and Kitagawa rather than simply observing and looking for clues from afar or sending someone to pose as him. So it wasn't so odd that the figure had called L an armchair detective... But what a blunt person they were.

"There's no point in trying to mock me or whatever it is you're attempting to do with your drivel." Spoke L through the plastic mask covering his face. "Go ahead and make your demands." The members of task force standing by watching this were taken back at how L was handling the situation. Not only was he remaining calm, he seemed rather impatient, like he just wanted to get it over already. Seeing how the person being held hostage was someone who L cared for, they all found this strange. Soichiro Yagami seemed a bit insulted over the little care that L seemed to be showing for Light.

Still the figure didn't seem fazed at all by this response. They knew L well and knew that this was simply how he handled things. "Alright. I won't send you on a wild goose chase. I'm going to be direct and give you the address I want you to meet me at. Although, know that if you bring any of your task force, I will end the life of Light Yagami immediately. When you arrive here, I will be expecting you to answer whatever questions I have before I let you and Light Yagami go."

L took a moment to think over this. He needed to visualize the game board in his head- to see where his opponent's player had moved and what moves he would have to make to take them out. Although L may not have seemed it to most of Japan after the slow progress he had been making on the Kira case, he was a quick thinker, and managed to create his plan without much hesitation.

"I will go without task force to meet you." Of course, the members of tasks force were now in protest, yelling at L that it was absurd for him to agree with the conditions of "this psycho!" The protest was silenced by the figure from the other side of the screen giving L an address to go to within the next hour. The screen was then encased in darkness as the figure cut the connection.

Immediately after the connection was cut and L started to get up from his chair, everyone in task force resumed their protest. Soichiro Yagami was especially upset. "How dare you gamble with my son's life like this!" He cried out at L. "Do you really care for him? Or are you completely unbothered at risking a human life for the sake of this case?" This of course sounded ridiculously, seeing how solving this case could save many lives.

It wasn't in L's nature to visually show being upset and this was no exception. While Yagami yelled at him, L remained calm. When Yagami had finished yelling, L gave a cool, calm response. "Yagami-San, I am fully aware of the risks that I take. I will give Kira or whoever is holding Light hostage whatever they want. At this point, Light is more important than the case to me."

This sounded awful. Saying that a single human was more important to L than saving humanity from a narcissist with a god complex was horribly biased and showed a lack of compassion. It was completely of L's nature to say something like this but to Yagami this seemed to be the correct response and he soon let L leave.

I didn't take L to locate the rendezvous point at which the abductor of Light wished to meet him. It wasn't the typical abandoned warehouse you would see in a movie. For starters, it was not in an uninhabited area. Rather, it was close to the outskirts of the city, with several small apartments and other factories and warehouses in close proximity. The building was not crumbling to pieces, though the grass surrounding it appeared to have not been cut in a long time. Trees surrounded the warehouse, their branches blocking windows. Though L could tell the windows were too covered in grime to see through, anyways.

As L approached the entrance to the building which he had been instructed to enter through, he observed his surroundings and the state of the building. The fact the building was in the city, where there would be people around to hear screaming, gunshots or something to that effect, could mean several things. It could mean that the abductor had no plans of resorting to violence. It could mean the abductor had a method of disposing of L and/or Light in a way that would not be noticeable to those surrounding the area. Or perhaps the abductor wanted the event to be heard. Perhaps the abductor had a plan to kill themselves or Light in a way that framed L, thus kicking him off of the Kira case and allowing Kira a free path to taking control over humanity. L would have to approach this carefully and be prepared for anything.

Once inside the building, L looked around to see himself in a large room with cement walls and tile flooring. There were papers scattered everywhere and at the opposite side of the room there was an entrance to a narrow hallway. The papers could have simply been documents left behind by whatever company owned the building before, though the detective doubted that was the situation.

Getting down to one knee, L collected several papers off of the floor and inspected them. Scrawled in dark ink were obscene messages and drawing. Written on one paper was: You can't kill the demons without becoming a demon like them. Another paper simply stated: The Great Detective will fail. These papers had sketches of wide eyes with dark rings surrounding them covering the page. Drawn on another page was a wide grin in a dark red substance. The same substance which had drawn the grin was splattered all over the rest of the page.

The detective got up off of the floor, leaving the papers behind as he started to approach the hallway. L didn't allow the messages and drawings on the papers to faze him. For he already knew that the messages which had been left here for him were true.