[FFML] [Death Note/?] Things Left Unwritten

[DB Sommer]

I know, what the hell? He's writing again. Well, this is short.

Things Left Unwritten


A shortfic featuring Death Note and, well, you’ll see what it is.

Standard disclaimer in that I do not own any of the following characters.

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The blazing eyes of triumph were the last thing L saw.

Deep down inside, in the pit of his soul, he had known Light was Kira 
from the first time they met. But L had ignored his instincts, insisting 
on hard evidence before doing anything. Why? Justice? Egotism? 
Confirmation that he was not just another version of Kira by following 
the letter of the law and having a trial before executing the mass 
murderer penmen? Or was it more basic, L just wanting to prove he was 
smarter than Light, perhaps the most brilliant mind he had ever met? 
Whatever it was that had held L back had cost him not just his life, but 
Watari’s as well. That might have hurt him more than anything, though 
the heart attack was a close second. There was nothing peaceful about 
your heart stopping and dying as your vision slowly went black from a 
lack of oxygen. A bullet to the head would have been far better.

L had never considered the cost of failure, so certain of his eventual 
success. Now with him out of the way many others would die at Light 
Yagami’s hands. In his ignorance L had remained blind to the fact his 
failure would leave the populous to suffer at Light’s hands.

Suffering the exact same thing he was.

L felt his brain shut down and life leave his body.

And…

Then…

There…

Was…

Light.

Coming from a one hundred watt bulb in the ceiling of what appeared to 
be a standard Japanese apartment.

This was not what L had expected death to be like.

Reflexively L’s observation skills kicked in. Yes, it was definitely 
Japan: Tokyo Tower was visible from the window. He wasn’t the only 
occupant in the room either. A number of men of various ages and walks 
of life were also present, all Japanese if their facial features could 
be believed. An older man in a hospital gown. A younger man with an 
agitated look. A man in his thirties with glasses. Two other older 
males, that reeked of Yakuza, sitting against a wall. A high school age 
boy along the back wall. And to round things out, a dog that L could 
just sense would be annoying.

Oh yes, and there was a large black orb resting in the center of the 
room. That was certainly out of place. No markings on the surface gave 
any indication of its purpose. That was the real anomaly in this room.

More information was needed. Perhaps the occupants had some idea of what 
was happening. A cursory examination made L doubt it. All had the 
posture and looks of the confused and bewildered, especially the one 
with the glasses. Oh, they tried to hide it, and were dealing with it 
exceptionally well if they were drawn here in a fashion similar to L. 
That too was odd. But in any case, they seemed to have the same 
emotional state.

Wait. The high school student in back. He was different. His was not a 
look of confusion. On the contrary: it was curiosity and amusement. A 
closer examination for anything unusual revealed something odd sticking 
just above the neck of his shirt. Something black and tight. The way he 
held himself was confident. Yes, the ‘Key’ to this situation might very 
well be with that one, and L mentally designated him as such.

“Great, another one.” That was younger man with the agitated look. “You 
don’t happen to have a cigarette on you?”

“No.” ‘Smokes’ phrase of ‘another one’ was further confirmation that 
this group was not organized. The likelihood this was centered on L 
became more unlikely. Were these all victims of Light? The Yakuza, 
perhaps, but the others? None of them were familiar, and L had gone over 
every confirmed Kira kill he could find. Any high school age victims 
would have stood out in L’s mind, and he was certain the Key was not one 
of them. Older men were few and farther between as well. Although once L 
thought about it, the old man in the smock was familiar, but not in 
connection to Light. It was in a newspaper. He was a politician that had 
been hospitalized because of some sort of disease. A terminal one.

Now L noticed the enforcer half of the Yakuza fingering a hole in his 
shirt. The motion had the airs of was curiosity rather than nervous 
habit. It really was a large hole; inappropriate considering the shirt 
was in good shape in every other way.

Ideas were just starting to coalesce when what appeared to be a laser 
beam shot out of the black orb just above the wooden floor. It stopped 
in mid-air for no apparent reason, and began going back and forth at an 
incredible rate, rising up as it did. Where the beam had been, it left 
behind something that appeared solid. More of the… residue appeared 
until it revealed it was a person. L could tell, since he could see 
inside the person. Flesh, muscle, even bone. It was like it was creating 
a human from nothing from the ground up, including clothing.

Keeping one eye on the ever rising beam, L saw the others lacked the 
shock that would have been appropriate if it had been the first time 
they saw it, though confusion still reigned over them. All accept the 
Key. Oh yes, he knew something. It was probable they had all entered the 
room in the same manner. The Yakuza were the most relaxed. Perhaps they 
had been the first to arrive.

L watched as the ‘laser’ completed its task of creating the human and 
started again from the bottom up next to the being it had left behind. 
As the beam finished the completed figure moved abruptly, as though he 
had been left on ‘pause’ and then someone hit the button to pick him up 
where he had left off. Another high school male: large, black hair, 
school uniform. Not Light’s old high school, so no easy connection 
there. The youth appeared normal in every way. Only his impossible 
arrival marked him as abnormal.

There was also no open relation to the Key. The newcomer was the most 
confused of the lot. L had enough information to test a hypothesis while 
the newcomer was disoriented and couldn’t come up with a lie.

“How did you die?” L asked.

“What?” The youth was still bewildered, trying to process too many 
things at once. No, definitely no inside information here.

L prodded him. “What was the last thing that happened to you before you 
found yourself here?”

“The train. Kei and I were trying to outrun… what the hell is that?” he 
asked, in reference the beam that was creating a second person.

A pity the laser had distracted him. Still, L had more information. 
‘Trying to outrun a train’ rarely met with success. Sudden death, no doubt.

Was L dead? A hard curl of his fist revealed pain. His body felt like it 
had before. No. It felt better; a throbbing in his ankle that had 
bothered him was gone. The orb’s light was creating, no, recreating 
people somehow. Such technology was impossible. Then again, until a 
couple of months ago shinigami were thought to be ‘impossible’ as well.

The latest arrival was a high school male identified as ‘Kei’ by his 
larger friend. A pair, just like the Yakuza. People snatched from the 
moment before death, or maybe a moment after, all put in the same room 
with a black orb. And the quiet youth in the back, trying to make 
himself unnoticed, knew something about it. L decided it was best to 
play dumb until more information could be gathered.

The light was making another person, this one unclothed and female. She 
was much more… bouncy than Misa, L noted. There was some blood on both 
wrists. Suicide? Probably, though there were no wounds now.

The girl all but collapsed in the arms of the person nearest to her: 
Kei. L noticed that once the initial surprise from her gender, state of 
dress, and figure became evident, there was a look of lust in all of the 
guys’ faces, especially the Yakuza thug. That could cause problems. As 
long as the thug wasn’t armed, L could take him. No, being armed 
wouldn’t matter. Looking deeply into the thug’s eyes, L determined he 
lacked any true intelligence. He wouldn’t think someone with L’s… 
unthreatening appearance a danger until it was far too late.

L offered his shirt to ‘Suicide Girl’, hoping it would head off the 
potential mess. No, even as the others talked with the girl, trying to 
make sense of things, the thug rose up to his feet with only one thing 
on his mind. L knew talking would be useless, so the moment the thug got 
into range, L gave him a hard kick into the crotch, one that would have 
the man pissing blood for days.

“Now you don’t have any urges to give in to,” L said.

The others stared at L in surprise, even the youth in the back. Caution 
had replaced lust on the faces of the men. That was for the best.

Further discussion ended as the ball began blaring morning work out 
music. In poorly written Japanese it declared their lives were its to do 
with as it pleased. That was not reassuring. It proceeded to tell them 
they needed to kill something called a green onion alien, complete with 
an accompanying picture. A joke? A test of their reactions? The 
technology involved was beyond that of anything known by humans, so 
perhaps not. And L found the idea of aliens far more realistic than 
shinigami.

The sides of the orb popped out, revealing racks filled with several 
different types of futuristic-looking weapons. L stepped close and saw a 
man inside the orb, curled into a fetal position. He remained there, 
unmoving, naked, totally hairless and with some sort of breathing 
apparatus over his face. L didn’t have the faintest idea what that was 
about, and had a feeling now was not the time to delve into it.

In addition to the weapons there was a rack filled with metal suitcases, 
one bearing his real name on it. How had they discovered that? Were the 
shinigami involved? No, this was too high tech for them. Some other 
agency that operated on some level beyond easy understanding, then.

L took the case and opened it. Inside was a jet black body suit with 
studs of some kind along the border. An idea dawned. He looked closely 
at the neck of the outfit. Ah, so that was what had been sticking out 
the Key’s shirt. That confirmed he wasn’t new to this situation. Was he 
some sort of control for an experiment, or a previous, well, ‘hunter’ 
seemed to be their new role, if the information on this orb was correct? 
Probably the latter, since Key seemed excited and eager, but was trying 
to hide it. Not in charge then, but he knew more about the situation 
than anyone else, and was keeping it to himself.

L decided to play along and grabbed one of each type of ‘weapon’. 
Getting into the suit was going to be a challenge. It looked skin tight, 
and even he didn’t think he was much of a fashion plate. “I recommend we 
all do what the orb says and grab these weapons as well as put on these 
suits,” L informed the others.

“Why? They look stupid,” Smokes asked.

L doubted the attitude was coming from nicotine withdrawal. He’d take 
the personality into consideration. “Do you think someone would bring 
you back from the dead just to make you look stupid?”

Everyone looked at one another in indecision, even the thug, who was 
just rising to his feet, tears in his eyes. The Key broke the silent 
deadlock by grabbing weapons, the others following suit. That settled 
it. L had been made de facto leader to all but the previous participant, 
and he was sure that would change in time.

The Key was no Light Yagami.

Once in charge, L would divine the mystery behind the mysterious ball, 
and even the aliens (should they exist) in time. But there was one other 
matter to take care of once this hunt was over. One case that needed 
wrapping up.

Light Yagami was about to have the worst day of his life, and nothing 
could stop it. After all, you couldn’t kill someone twice, even with a 
Death Note.

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[Writer’s notes: Just an interesting postulation. And you just know L 
would actually be able to do what no one, including the creators, have 
been able to accomplish so far in figuring out the mystery behind Gantz.

Gantz is indeed the manga that was crossed over with Death Note.