All But The Truth

Stalemate

12.12.2003

Ash smirked as she listened into the Japanese Task Force's meeting silently, her digital presence unknown to the men and women in the room.

'Kira is in the Kanto Region... and with the information we know, they either are on the news and internet all night, or they know someone in the police force. Their rash decision during the Lind L. Taylor broadcast even gave me a good hint, though I already assumed that they were younger due to the times of death correlating with a normal high school life, but this only confirms my suspicion.' Ash chewed on her lip as she thought, lying back on the van's mattress, 'Kira, you are a high school or college student, with a high GPA and a strong sense of justice. It is obvious that he has the ability to get his hands on police information, due to the killings switching from eight P.M. through midnight to every hour on the hour. He knows that the Task Force is aware of his likelihood of being a teen or young adult in school. He isn't trying to steer us away, it's a direct insult towards L. It's unlikely he skipped school to carry out these killings-- that would be too suspicious. it's clear what he is telling us: he can set the time of death.'

'The only question is... Kira, how far are you willing to stray from your small-minded ideals to kill L? How far are you willing to go? And do you see me, Jackal, as a threat or a possible ally? For I am on neither your or L's side.' Then, a smirk slowly crawled onto the redhead's pink lips, her eyes fluttering open to stare at the metal ceiling.

'L, I have no intention of killing you, only humiliating you. I will find Kira before you, but I will only help him make you look like more of a fool. As for Kira, I have no intention of turning you in unless your sense of pride gets to your head and you refuse to work with a criminal.' Ash pushed up into a sitting position, grabbing her computer, 'Kira... a possible high school or college student... lucky for you, I'm eighteen, and I could be in either. I will find you myself, and I will confront you. You need a name to kill, after all.' after typing for what seemed like hours, she ruled out her possible suspects, quickly narrowing the list down to ten.

"What?!" a voice exclaimed, causing Ash's ears to ring as she practically jumped at his roaring voice, "There were twenty three heart attack victims again yesterday?!"

"Y-Yes, sir..." a man spoke, holding out a set of files towards the chief.

"And just like the day before, they were all prison inmates.. so we'd know immediately they died... and all 23 of them died exactly one hour apart from one another..."

"Two days in a row... and both of those were weekdays... "

"It looks like it might not be a student after all..."

"Come on, anybody could skip school for a couple days..."

"That isn't it!" L exclaimed, shushing the detectives, "It's true he might not be a student, but that isn't what Kira's trying to tell us! What Kira's saying is that he has the ability to set the time of death as he pleases."

Ash quickly interjected, "Hello, investigators of the Kira case. As you can probably assume, I am Jackal; the asshole you've all attempted to go after at one time or another."

"Jackal." L greeted dully, yet somehow seething with hatred.

"L." Ash greeted in a tone just as venomous.

"What are you doing here, Jackal?" Watari's voice spoke.

"I'm here to help. As one of the world's most deadliest criminals, I'd rather not get killed by Kira." Ash spoke, "Anyways, L, this is obviously a direct challenge towards you, along with a hint that he somehow has a way of gaining police information. You have found a piece of the information I was hinting you towards at the beginning; the estimated times of death for each victim strongly supports the possibility that Kira is a student. Even his first victim was at four P.M., roughly an hour and a half after most high schools are let out.