This is an article I wrote for the 'Justice Prevails?' Fan Word challenge. I hope you all enjoy!
Note: This is meant for people who actually watched the entirety of Death Note, not just understanding the basic story.
The Bells…
Two men were standing outside of an iron gate, waist high. The sky was blue, with clouds lazily drifting across the great azure canvas. The gate’s fences bordered a beautiful meadow, full of rolling green hills, dotted with wildflowers and daisies. It seemed to go on forever, as if it were to stop, the rest of the world would run out of room. The two men faced each other, about ten yards apart. They wore the most calm and still expressions on their faces, not letting the other witness any emotion.
The Bells…
They rang, with deep and resounding chords, making the most pleasing sound, yet tolling a fate to its eternal melody…
L opened his eyes wide. He had not moved from his crouched position on his office chair since he had dozed off. Anybody observing from behind would have no doubt that he was remaining vigilant over the many flat screens that loomed over everything else. L looked around, saw no one, and then looked at a nearby clock. It read 3AM. He returned his gaze to the screens. Nobody would be here, he thought. Light is sleeping upstairs, and the rest of the team has gone home. Even Watari is asleep…
The Bells…I have never heard them so loud before, thought L, while he placed his fingers over the nearest truffle. Only when I convicted a criminal to his death, did I hear them in the distance. He popped the truffle into his mouth, chewed twice, and swallowed. He reached for another, only to feel the lonely rasp of skin on paper.
“I’m out…” L said aloud, with the slightest bit of sadness in his usually monotone voice. He exhaled softly, then once again, stared at the light emitting from the screens. His head was empty of any investigative thought; he simply could not find the next link to finding the mass murderer Kira. Only the nonstop sound of bells resonated through his skull, tormenting him relentlessly. This is no good…, he thought. His eyes wandered to the Death Note, the artifact that was responsible for hundreds of killings; criminals, both free and put to justice, dying from an unknown vigilante armed with this book of mass destruction. L picked it up, and flipped through the ancient pages. So many names filled the white squares with ink of judgment. He stopped and focused on a page that stood out. A corner had been torn. Somewhere in the world, a piece of Death Note is unaccounted for…
L sat in a chair in his usual crouched pose, holding the Death Note upside down.
“Would a person still die if their name was written on a torn-off part?”
The Shinigami stood opposite of the sitting detective, it’s face unreadable as always. Rem answered without hesitation. “Who knows? I never used it that way, so I wouldn’t know.”
L looked into the Death God’s eyes briefly, studying them, to see if it was possible for a human to detect a lie in a Shinigami. He gave up. He put the Death Note down slowly, somewhat put down. “Is it true that Death Gods only eat apples?” He eyed Light quickly, who was standing behind them next to the staircase. Rem seemed slightly confused at the odd question that seemed to have no relevance to finding more about the Death Note or Kira. “That’s not true,” he answered anyway. Rem kept talking, but L only half-listened. He was focused on Light. No matter what anybody said, or any events that followed, Light was the only one L believed to hold a missing clue. L put his mind back to when he first interrogated Rem about the Death Note, stumbling across the thirteen day rule. The one barrier, thought L, to the final conclusion…
The Bells…
A few hours later, L was at his usual station in front of the screens, alone. One screen in particular caught his eye, as the headline “Kira strikes again!” flashed across the news channel. He picked up the remote and switched other screens to various news stations, all bearing similar stories.
“So…” L murmured… “Higuchi wasn’t the Kira to end all Kiras…no surprise…”
By the end of the day, sixteen people had fallen victim to the unknown named Kira.
