"yeah, it's me, chief. ...another six inmates were found dead last night? ...all were heart attacks? it's him... what? bizarre behavior before they died? could you be more specific? what do you mean? so they didn't just die from heart attacks."
(y/n) sighed for what seemed the umpteenth time in the last twenty-four hours before drowning her sorrows in some extremely sweet coffee that managed to make her lip quirk up into the smallest of smiles, despite the current situation she was in, sweets never failed to make her feel better.
"chief, what i'm saying is they all died of heart attacks, but it wasn't quite that simple."
L shuffled the images towards her side of the table, with a small nod of appreciation she got back to the matter at hand while explaining what she saw in the various pictures.
"before one of them died, he drew a pentagram on the wall of his cell with his own blood. another left a letter, but it doesn't seem to be a will or anything meaningful. as for the third victim, he escaped from his cell and ran all the way to the staff bathrooms before he died."
(y/n) rubbed her temples, clearly frustrated by the whole situation. she felt as if she were standing idly by as she watched innocent people die before her eyes, because some freak decided to go on an immature murdering rampage. it shook her to her very core, and she wanted nothing more than to put a stop to whoever this person was.
after exchanging some thanks and goodbyes, the chief hung up the call and (y/n) shakily put the phone back down.
"it's so... shocking, how kira thinks he's really doing something good."
L nodded, closing his laptop and giving her his attention. he conveniently decided that he'd take a small break, just to talk to her.
"well, you know what they say. the path to hell, is paved with good intentions," she said tiredly, feeling her head droop down. L immediately shuffled closer to the girl, hoping to give her the comfort that she so desperately needed, despite his complete lack of ability to do so.
"kira believes life is a matter of good or bad, black or white. when life has an array of different colors, different perspectives."
she was rather surprised by his words, they were very similar to her own thoughts on the matter, life has many truths and it's nearly impossible to know them all.
she yawned, her eyes fluttering closed as she begrudgingly welcomed a dreamless sleep, guarded by her one and only friend.
______
as the young detectives, lawliet and (y/n) talked out their different ideas about kira and who they might be, the door to the hotel's living room burst open and watari presented himself.
"L, kami."
they nodded in acknowledgment, clearly he was troubled by something and they wanted to know what.
"another victim, this one appears to have left a suicide note."
(y/n) put down her tea, furrowing her eyebrows as L immediately took action, snapping her out of her trance.
"please send it to me."
L skimmed over the information given to him, (y/n) shuffled towards his side of the couch to be able to see the data provided by watari.
"L, do you know..." she murmured softly, rather appalled by kira directly addressing L. as she looked at L concerned for her counterpart's reaction to being called out by kira personally, she couldn't fathom that.
"...gods of death like apples?"
"gods of death- ichigo, what does he even mean by that?"
she wracked her brain for answers, she knew she'd heard god of death somewhere before, shinigami. she remained silent, thinking of where she had heard it and L quickly took action.
"listen, watari. tell the police to monitor prison populations closely for the next few days. kira may use other suicide notes to communicate with us."
watari nodded and picked up their dirty plates from the coffee table.
"understood."
(y/n) quickly went for her old laptop and swiftly typed down "shinigami" billions of search results popped up, much to her delight. ah yes, the internet.
"L, i've heard about gods of death before."
he looked at her intensely, desperately waiting for an answer to his questions about what kira had said. what were shinigami? what did they do? how did this all tie in with kira? what connection did kira have with a god of death? were they even real?
"i'm sure you haven't heard of them before, you're not from here, are you?" she said, sighing softly. tousling her hair around nervously, she quickly turned around to face L completely.
"i'm from the countryside, hearing those folk tales is more common over there than it is here; my mother used to tell me about them."
L nodded, his eyes momentarily wide from the shock of hearing her reveal something that seemed so personal, showing he gave his undivided attention to her tale.
"shinigami... can be many things, it depends on where you look. they're bringers of death, creatures of darkness. although, they've been said to be helpers, when they want to be."
she made a pause, recollecting her thoughts, as though she didn't want to say too much to L.
"they can posses humans and make them want to die, decide when and how they die, or they can make them kill themselves- really, it depends on the tale you're told. but then again, he could just be talking about himself. maybe kira just likes apples or perhaps he gained the favor of a god of death."