Chapter Text
L finished his latest case in Russia. It was a mafia trying to overthrow the government, but in less than two weeks, L easily pulled some strings to get the entire scheme to fall apart.
All it took was a few thousand dollars, really.
Far too easy for L.
And now, the 17 year old was back to boredom. Back to taking on the smaller cases he could solve in a matter of hours.
How tiresome.
How lonely.
The thought in of itself shocked L; the prospect of loneliness not typically crossing his mind. But the more he thought about it; who did he even have to talk to?
He had Watari, but Watari was more a father figure and...servant? It was complicated
He used to have his successors, A and B, but...that didn’t turn out very well.
So, once again, L was alone. And bored. Lord, he was bored out of his mind.
“L, there’s a new case in the Kanto region of Japan,” Watari spoke as he wheeled the cart of sweets towards L.
L’s mood instantly improved. “What type of case?” L asked, now eating a slice of cheesecake.
“Well, there have been fifteen murder victims; all High school students, all involved in crime in some way. I typically wouldn’t bring it up, but the NPA has been working on it for more than a year and they still have no leads. They’re begging for your help.”
L considered the case. All High school students? Why High schoolers? The case seemed to be complicated enough to entertain L for a while.
“Hmm...okay, tell the chief to get a few trusted individuals and I will work with them remotely for now. I don’t want the public to know I’ve taken the case. I will also need the case files.”
With that, Watari left to retrieve the files.
*****
The case file was small enough to cause concern. The information the NPA had gathered was almost nonexistent.
There were no fingerprints, no hair fibers, no DNA evidence at all. All they had was when and where each body was found along with cause of death.
Each body was found a moon cycle apart, thus dubbing them “The Tsuki Killing”. They were all found in alleyways in garbage bags.
But what was truly interesting was the cause of death for each victim and how they varied.
The first six victims were killed using barium acetate, which caused a heart attack.
The next four victims were killed by a bullet to the skull.
The next three were stabbed.
And the final two were heavily mutilated while they were still alive.
L squinted at the word ‘mutilated’ before flipping to the crime scene photos. The first thirteen photos were nothing L hadn’t seen before. But the last two were incredibly disturbing. The hands and feet were missing. They were disemboweled and had their intestines hanging out. But possibly, the most disturbing was the heart that had been removed from between the ribs and shoved down the throat of the victim.
Indeed, they were mutilated.
And perhaps even more disturbing was autopsy reports that showed they suffered through all of this and, most likely, didn’t die until they were already inside the garbage bags.
From this, L deduced five important facts about the killer:
- They were self righteous and arrogant. Why else would they only kill those involved in crime? Some were involved in drugs, others in harassment; it didn’t seem like the killer was murdering for personal reasons.
- They will continue to gain confidence as they go on killing, getting more and more morbid as time goes on.
- They are decently smart as to not leave fingerprints and evidence behind.
- They follow a strict schedule.
- The killer is probably a student.
L pondered the last point.
“Watari, book a flight to Japan,” L said.
“Okay...may I ask why this case in particular? I thought you said you would be working remotely. You’re reluctant to show your face for most cases,” Watari questioned.
“Well, it seems as the case is going now, I may need to go undercover,” L explained.
Watari has a surprised expression on his face. It was very rare L would actually interact with suspects or crime scenes. But Watari didn’t question it. “Understood, should we leave tomorrow?”
“Yes, sounds good,” L stood and walked to the window of they’re Russian suite.
‘Who are you? ’ L thought.
*****
“Ryuzaki, our guests are going to be arriving soon,” Watari informed.
L nodded his head. He knew he was taking a large risk, but that only added to the entertainment. He wasn’t being reckless, no, he was only making things more interesting.
There was a knock and the door and L called for whoever it was to enter.
There stood 4 men in the doorway.
“Hello. I am L,” L spoke calmly, although his heart was pounding. It had been quite a while since he’d come into human contact with anyone other than Watari.
“I’m Soichiro Yagami, chief of police. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” a well built man spoke in a deep voice.
“Shuichi Aizawa,” a man with broccoli shaped hair spoke.
“Kanzo Mogi,” the tallest and most intimidating one spoke.
“I’m Touta Matsuda! It’s nice to meet you,” the youngest looking one spoke and held his hand out for a handshake. L ignored it.
L walked towards his chair and gestures for the others to sit down. After everyone’s phones were set aside, he began to discuss.
The discussion was simple, a quick rundown of the case, small details from forensics, the usual. After a few minutes of review, it was time to lay down the plan of action.
“With the information gathered previous to my involvement in this case, I was able to deduce that whoever the murderer is, they are in high school,” L stated, “and I believe it would be of great benefit if I went undercover as a high school student to continue to gather information. It would increase my chances of coming in contact with the murderer or one of their possible victims.”
“Wait, what makes you believe the murderer is a high school student?” Aizawa asked.
L couldn’t help but sigh, “I believe the fact that all the victims are high school students is enough of an indicator. Not to mention, some of the supposed crimes committed by these individuals would most likely only be known by students. For example, victim 5 was known for harassing students for money, but was never formally convicted. This also applies to victims 3, 9 and 10,” L explained.
“So you’re going to go undercover as a high school student...isn’t that a bit of a small task for...you know, L?” Matsuda asked and vaguely gestured towards L. L shrugged.
L knew that Matsuda was right, but damn. L was bored out of his mind with these small cases. Maybe some undercover work would spice things up; especially for a case like this.
Was it a bit stupid to put this all at risk? Yes, probably. But that’s what made it fun.
“Which school are you going to?” Matsuda asked with sparkling eyes.
“Considering the first murder victim went to Daikoku Private Academy, I believe it would be a good place to start,” L explained.
Soichiro reacted to that before saying, “My son goes there.”
L tilted his head at that.
“How coincidental; although, it should go without saying that you are forbidden from telling anyone about me or my relation to the case,” L stated.
“Of course,” Soichiro Answered.
The rest of the meeting went smoothly as L explained various details of the case and certain predictions of who the murderer is.
Within no time, the meeting was completed and the task force left.
L was back to boredom. His mind went back to the meeting and then stumbled upon the small detail of Soichiro’s son.
L decided to indulge his curiosity and looked up the Yagami family information. He found the name Light Yagami and decided ‘Fuck it, let’s google him.’
L was thoroughly surprised when articles popped up raving about Light. Some talked about cases he had solved in his early teens, others talked about his tennis accomplishments, but most importantly, one article ranked Light as the number one student in Japan.
L dove deeper into more private files and found that Light had helped with cases in the past, but stopped suddenly at the age of 14.
The case he was working on dealt with a string of murdered boys ranging from ages 8-16.
L clicked on the long closed case file and found gruesome images that would easily damage someone as young as Light was...but why? Why did Light suddenly stop solving cases? Did he become disgusted with criminals to the point where he decided to take matters into his own hands? Was Light the murderer?
L looked again at Light’s name and found the kanji for Light was actually moon, pronounced “Tsuki”.
The Tsuki Killings.
And that is how Light Yagami became the prime suspect of the Tsuki Murder Case.