L02-3 Hope

The wave-shaped terminal of Kansai International Airport was lit up against the night sky. Blue guide lights along the runway spread out like a sea of fireflies as airplanes jetted off one after the next.

Having pulled away from the gate on time, UA Flight 718 for Los Angeles crept slowly toward the runway. Inside the business class cabin, Maki, made to look like a patient in need of an emergency surgery, slept on a specially installed bed. The bed was blocked off from the rest of the cabin by a curtain. Kujo, dressed in a long white physician s coat and sitting next to Maki, kept a close watch on the girl from the other side of the curtain. Relaxing in the seat next to Kujo was Matoba, who also wore a doctor's coat with a satisfied air.

"It was touch-and-go for a moment, but everything appears to be going as planned," Matoba said. "We brought the girl to guard against L, but that might have been an unnecessary precaution." Matoba looked down on Maki as if she were a lab animal, then glanced at his watch. "The virus dispersion device should be activated by now. By the onset of the symptoms in two weeks' time, the virus will have spread across the country. Professor Nikaido's name will go down in history as the devil who wrought the annihilation of Japan," Matoba said joyously. He smiled as if the plan's success were all but assured.

"Yes," replied Kujo, smiling quietly.

Matoba detected something unnatural in her expression. "Is something the matter, Dr. Kujo? You don't seem quite yourself."

Kujo shook her head. "When I think about how our plan is very nearly a reality, I suppose I'm a little emotional. And I seem to be coming down with a cold. I'm a little feverish." Kujo's eyes looked watery.

"Oh, is that so? Fortunately, we have some time until we arrive in America. I hope you'll get some rest on the plane." Kujo nodded and checked on Maki on the other side of the curtain. There was a ping overhead, which was followed by an announcement.

"Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking. The control tower has instructed us to hold our position. It appears a vehicle has wandered onto the runway."

Kujo looked out the window as she asked, "May I ask you a question, Mr. Matoba?"

As suspicious as he was of her unusual behavior, he answered, "Of course."

"Do you recall the mysterious explosion of an infectious disease lab on East Serras Island in 1980, twenty-six years ago?"

Although it was old history, Matoba's reply was immediate. "Of course I remember. That job was something of a debut for me in this business. An efficient job, as I recall. After all, the cover-up itself was orchestrated by the American government."

Kujo continued without a hint of emotion. "Then I suppose there were three truths covered up in that incident. One, virus weapons were being developed at the research facility, and two, in order to conceal that, the U.S. government blew up the facility along with its researchers. Three, the biohazard, which was a direct cause of the explosion, was a terrorist act linked with the presidential elections—"

"You've done your research," Matoba said, impressed. No doubt Kujo had looked into Matoba's history prior to teaming up with him. There was little reason for Matoba to feel bad about having been investigated. After all, this was a world where yesterday's enemy could become today's ally. If Kujo were not as cautious as Matoba, she would hardly qualify to partner with him.

"Mr. Matoba, would you mind explaining how you infiltrated the facility. For future reference?"

Matoba crossed the other leg and thought back to the time twenty- six years ago. "There was an Asian couple among the researchers working there. We were close in age, so we became fast friends. We threw parties and went camping together with our families, and they shared some valuable information. The security in the lab, vulnerabilities of the security staff, the firearms the guards were equipped with—''

"Do you recall an eight-year-old girl in that family?"

"Why yes. An adorable little girl. I felt sorry for her." Kujo's shoulders twitched at his almost nostalgic tone. It was then that Matoba realized that Kujo was speaking of details that she could not have researched. The eight-year-old girl, all those years ago...He attempted to superimpose the girl's innocent smiling face over that of the woman before him. There was no resemblance. Yet Matoba sensed something. "You're not...?"

Yoshizawa and Hatsune forced their way past a flight attendant and rushed to where Kujo and Matoba sat. "Mr. Matoba! L is in the vehicle on the runway!"

"What? You said L was dead."

"Yes, we were certain of it!" Hatsune pulled back the curtain to look out the window, and her heart stopped. "She has the symptoms!"

Maki moaned in pain as a bloody tear trickled down her face.

"What's happening, Dr. Kujo? You were supposed to have given her the antidote," Matoba lashed out.

Kujo looked at Maki and dropped her head. "I was hoping to keep up the charade until we were over the United States." Suddenly she stood up and looked across the cabin of the plane. "Fairman, Konishi, switch to Plan B! Let's move!"

Konishi, who had come up to check in, pushed Yoshizawa and Hatsune aside and rushed to Maki's bedside. He pulled out the guns stowed away in the medical equipment next to the bed. The man who had been idly leafing through a magazine in the row ahead jumped to his feet and took the gun from Konishi.

"We are taking control of the plane!" the man announced in English, then in Japanese. His voice sounded odd. He leveled the gun at the passengers. Keeping a watchful eye on the cabin, he asked Kujo, "What happened? We were supposed to make our move after we took off."

"Fairman, L is here. Take control of the cockpit and get us out of here!"

"Right!" Fairman tore off the beard, removed the stuffing out of his cheeks, and winked at Matoba. "It's been a while, Matoba.

Although, I guess Im supposed to be dead. Think of me as a ghost with a grudge. This time you may not get off with just a scar."

Fairman headed for the cockpit as Konishi took over watching the hostages. Matoba's hand traced the burn scar on his cheek. "I thought he died in Brunei..."

Yes, instead of you. It seems all the enemies you made in the past have finally caught up with you." Kujo laughed and fixed her eyes on Matoba. "Can you believe that little girl from twenty-six years ago has been waiting for the chance to exact revenge on the American government and the ringleader of that cover-up?"

Matoba could only stand there in shock. Just as Kujo had investigated Matoba s past, Matoba had also checked Kujo's history. "But Dr. Kujo, we had your—"

I appreciate your being so easily duped by my fictionalized past." She bowed in mock deference. Finally Matoba realized that the woman before him had an agenda utterly her own. Kujo continued, Oh yes. I forgot to tell you. That drug I injected all of you with wasn't the antidote. It was the virus. Which makes all of the members onboard carriers of the virus."

Matoba stared dumbly. His expression, eyes wide, jaw nearly to his chest, was a far cry from his usual affected self. "What about how you obtained the antidote from the girl?"

"I never obtained the antidote."

So not only is the girl infected, we are all ticking bombs of the virus? "Kujo!" Matoba advanced in Kujo's direction.

Did you really think that I believed in your fairy tale about a world for a chosen few?"

"Fairy tale?" Having lost all semblance of composure, Matoba simply blubbered and twitched.

Kujo confronted Matoba with a cynical smile. "This was my mission all along. To lead you to the depths of despair just before your plan was on the brink of success. And I will change the world, just as you desired. By making you the virus bomb."

"Damn you!" Matoba lunged at Kujo. But he relaxed his grip on her upon seeing her face. He began to inch backward.

A single bloody tear trickled from Kujo's bloodshot eyes. It was the first stage of the onset of the virus.

"It looks like Im beginning to show symptoms." As Kujo wept bloody tears, a smile came across her face.

"N-no! Get away! Help me! I don't want to die!" Matoba said. "I don't want to die, I don't..." he said again and again. He collapsed on the floor and continued to retreat on his backside until he bumped into Hatsune's legs.

"What an ass." For all Hatsune had respected, even worshipped, the man, her change in attitude was all the more drastic after witnessing Matoba's humiliating display. Hatsune looked at Kujo, who pointed a gun at her, and shrugged. "Do it, if you want. I won't fight you. I knew all along that you were badder than the rest of us." She turned her back on Kujo and returned to her seat, humming a song.

"What the hell is going on, Konishi? We're all going to die," Yoshizawa said.

"Oh, did you have it in your mind that you'd survive, Yoshizawa? Only the elite who are necessary to the new world survive," Konishi jeered.

"What are you so high and mighty for? Since when did you become Kujo's lackey, you nerdy bastard!" Yoshizawa didn't care about Konishi's gun. All he saw was the meek computer nerd.

Though Konishi continued to stare at Yoshizawa with unfocussed eyes, his laugh grew into a dissonant screech. "You always mocked me, called me a geek! And rode me and rode me!" Konishi's eyes took on a dangerous glint. The gun in his trembling hand was aimed at Yoshizawa's chest.

"W-wait! I-I'm sorry!" Yoshizawa realized for the first time that he had pressed a button he dared not in a weak-kneed man, but it was already too late.

"You deserve to die!"

Konishi squeezed the trigger once, twice, three times in all. And Yoshizawa crumpled to the floor in his own pool of blood.

Meanwhile Fairman ripped the microphone away from the flight attendant's hand and announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your hijacker speaking. I'm afraid we're going to be spending the next several hours together. First, you should know that we are not only armed with guns but with enough plastic explosives to blow up this plane. The one with the finger on the switch is sitting somewhere in this cabin. If anyone attempts to resist, that person will hit the switch without a moment's hesitation. We are also in possession of another weapon. You might have heard the news of a deadly virus. A patient who already has symptoms of that virus is onboard this plane, and you are all already infected with it. If you resist us and somehow manage to escape, know that the antidote does not exist in Japan. However, if you come quietly to the U.S. with us, we promise you will receive proper treatment along with the antidote. I urge you to keep this in mind and act accordingly."

The plastic explosives and the claim that the antidote would be available in the U.S. were bluffs, but it was enough to quiet the hostages.

Fairman then ordered the flight attendant to patch him through to the cockpit. "Captain, as you may have heard, the passengers aboard this plane are as good as dead if we don't fly to the U.S. So do as I say, and quietly."

Once the door was unlocked, Fairman entered the cockpit, tied up the pilot and copilot, and took over the pilot's seat. "All of the preparations have been made for this day. Get a load of what we've got planned for the U.S." Fairman cursed. "Chewing people up just as fast as they can spit them out. We've got a very special present for that no-good country."

Slowly the airplane slid forward toward the runway.

As the passengers grappled with the reality of the hijacking and virus, the cabin was enveloped in an eerie silence. Fairman's announcement was proving effective; no one appeared to make any sign of resistance.

"I'm sorry, Maki, for involving you in all of this." Kujo sat back down at Maki's bedside and gently stroked her head. "But by the time you're an adult, this earth will be a world devoid of dreams and hope, ruled only by despair. You're better off going to heaven now to be with your parents.''

Maki tried to gather her thoughts, muddled by a high fever. "I won't give up on my life, and I won't give up on the future of this earth. I have to live...for my mother and father.'' A voice that refused to abandon hope. It was only a source of agony for Kujo now. "Besides, Ryuzaki promised to save me. I believe in him. You shouldn't give up hope either, Dr. Kujo...it's always possible to start over."

Kujo tried to still her wavering heart and answered, "It's too late. We have already hijacked this plane. We're about to take off and are headed for America; we're both infected. We will wipe out the U.S. and then annihilate the world. This world has no need for humanity anymore."

After Hatsune left Kujo, she started listlessly thumbing through a magazine. She did not even bat an eye when Yoshizawa's death was made known to her by gunshots just after she had returned to her seat. Death was a mere trifle to Hatsune, who had killed her first victim at fifteen. People always stood on the precipice between life and death, and death was nothing more than a result of a tiny change of balance. Hatsune was simply incapable of being affected by the death of a stranger, a loved one, or even herself.

Then she realized that nothing she read from the magazine had sunk in.He was stupid, but we did make a good team...

Hatsune got up and pulled out an umbrella from her carry-on luggage. She unraveled the tape wrapped around the tip of the umbrella to reveal that the handle had been shaved into a sharp plastic spike.

"Move it." Hatsune pushed a flight attendant out of the way and heaved open the emergency exit. The wind blasted inside the cabin and the passengers began to scream. The flight attendant tumbled to the floor, and inflight magazines, true to their name, fluttered around the interior of the cabin.

As she readied herself to jump onto the wing of the airplane, Konishi rushed at her with a gun in hand. "Hatsune, w-where do you think you're going?"

"I'm bored, so I'm getting off. See ya!" she shouted over the din.

Konishi raised his gun. "S-stop..."

"Hm, a little high. These heels have to go." Hatsune broke off the heels of her high-heeled shoes and prepared to jump.

"I'll shoot." Konishi pointed the gun at Hatsune's chest.

Hatsune eyed the gun as if a sidewalk survey-taker had inconveniently thrust a clipboard in her face. Suddenly she kicked the barrel of the gun upward. A shot went off toward the ceiling. Without even lowering her foot, Hatsune promptly kicked the gun a second time as Konishi stumbled, and knocked it out the door.

Konishi let out a terrified cry. Flopping on the floor, he began to retreat on his backside. "Hatsune...I'm sorry...pi—"

"Aw, shut up." Having lost all interest in Konishi, Hatsune took the fastest method of silencing him. The umbrella penetrated deep inside his throat and stilled Konishi from ever speaking again. "Don't hesitate if you're going to shoot, you nerdy bastard." By the time Hatsune opened the emergency exit, Suruga had pulled the takoyaki truck alongside the moving plane.

"Aim for the door, Mr. Matsuda!" L shouted from atop the roof of the truck.

"Okay!" Matsuda leaned his body out the passenger seat, aimed the harpoon gun, and pulled the trigger. The harpoon attached to a rope line pierced the open door of the plane.

"Well done, Mr. Matsuda. Your sharp shooting skills alone are reliable."

"Alone..."

L clambered up the rope, his feet leaving the roof of the truck, as the wind blew him about. The wounded right arm was weak and slipped off the rope. The rope swung in front of the jet engine, nearly sending L into the turbine.

"Go, Ryuzaki!" Matsuda's cheers were carried out of L's earshot by the wind.

"Hrgh!" Righting himself, L mustered all his strength to climb the rope. He grabbed the edge of the wing with one hand. Then a shoe came down on it hard.

"I should have killed you when I had the chance." Hatsune wobbled clumsily as the plane accelerated, lifting her heel from L's hand.

"Who do you think you are, Mary Poppins?" Though L mocked the woman standing over him with an umbrella, his eyes were trained on the sharp end of the handle.

"See? It's even sharp enough to stab someone." Hatsune smiled and took aim with the umbrella between her fingers, as it if were a pool cue.

"Then you won't be needing this back." L let go of the wing. He disappeared under the wing, swinging like the weight at the end of a pendulum. When he swung back up to reappear before Hatsune, he gripped her stiletto knife in his hand. He evaded Hatsune's umbrella thrust and plunged the knife clear through the arch of her foot. Hatsune let out a scream loud enough to be heard over the whine of the engines. Then she lost her balance and fell.

"Tit for tat." L watched her tumble down the runway, climbed up onto the wing, and crept toward the inside of the plane. The plane slowly picked up speed as Suruga followed on the cable and then made his way to the wing. The wind blowing in from the emergency exit whipped throughout the cabin.

L stayed low and hunched over, nearly walking on all fours. He made his way to the medical cabin and smiled at Kujo. He held an ampule in his hand. "Let Maki go, Dr. Kujo. I have only one dose of the antidote. Stop involving her in your affairs."

Kujo grabbed Maki from her sickbed and held the girl in her arms as if she were a shield. "Why do you try to save people?" Kujo wasn't surprised or angry; if anything her face betrayed a sense of pity. "The world s top detective, L. How much better is the world because of you? How much closer is the world to becoming a fair and just place under the law? Just how may lives has the law saved?" Kujo's voice cracked from anger and from the swiftly sinking air pressure in the cabin.

L stood before her, unflinching. "People aren't perfect. And neither is the law; it was created by imperfect people. But the law is the essence of people's desire to protect those they love, those they value. If there is even one person who continues to have hope in justice, I will continue to believe injustice under the law and protect it. For as long as I am L."

To Kujo, it was nothing more than the chivalrous ravings of a mad knight tilting at windmills. "How is it that you continue to have hope in humanity? After all the human folly and ugliness you've witnessed. And to still be able to believe in people, what a fool you are!"

"Dr. Kujo, is your time at Wammy's House perhaps a cause of your despair toward mankind?"

"You knew?"

"One can always tell a Wammy's student, even if they do change their face and hide their past," L said.

"If you knew who I was, then you should also know the reason for my actions."

"I do not," L answered bluntly. "I know that an operation you carried out led to your leaving Wammy's. But that operation—"

"Don't!" Kujo screamed. She looked away from L, her face twisted with self-loathing. "The operation was a success. But I made an error in the endgame. The hostage we saved turned out to be a child of the terrorist plotter, and the child's suicide attack was what the terrorists had planned all along. There were many casualties. I failed Watari's trust..."

The memories of the days after she had fled Wammy's House at sixteen flashed before her eyes. The overconfidence, the oversized ideals, her repeated failures...Amidst the futility of trying to change the world alone, Kujo's soul had grown darker than the world around it.

"Why do you think that?" L asked curiously. L, the overprotected, carefree detective, had taken up her position of mobilizing the law enforcement agencies of the world after Kujo abandoned Wammy's.

Kujo glared at him for mocking her. But L was smiling gently. The smile reminded her of someone. Someone she had not seen in years.

"Dr. Kujo, are you aware that you had been assigned a letter by Wammy's?"

Kujo's eyes grew larger. "Why? Assigning a letter to someone who abandoned Wammy's? That's impossible."

The designation of a letter in Wammy's alphabet held a special significance for those who graduated Wammy's House. It signified that they were charged with changing the world. There were only twenty-six letters to exist every generation, and these young people were part of an illustrious list of past letters who had time and again been instrumental in saving the world from catastrophe. Above all, the designation signified Watari's trust.

"You are Wammy's K. Your letter was taken from Watari's last message to you before you left."

"Watari's message..." Kujo echoed in a raspy voice. A door, which had long been closed, seemed to open again.

L smiled, mischievously at first and then respectfully at the woman and letter who came before him. "KEEP YOUR WAY." The words directed at Kujo were simple, yet full of feeling.

Kujo saw Watari in the figure of L standing before her. The smile of the man, whose existence she had been trying to put out of her mind, was revived. The warm smile he had greeted her with when she had closed herself off from the world in the wake of her parents' deaths.

"Even after you left Wammy's, Watari refused to give that designation to anyone else. Do you intend to denigrate the letter assigned to you by having it stand for 'Killer'?"

Kujo let go of Maki. The doctor looked defenseless, as though all of the armor around her had fallen away.

Suddenly someone jumped at L from behind, tackling him to the ground. "Give it to me!" Matoba cried. He scrambled for the antidote in L's hand, and ate a kick from L's shoe.

"So you value your own life even after you tried to annihilate Japan."

"Shut up!"

The two crashed into the seats as they wrestled each other in the narrow aisle. Matoba mounted L, landed a hard punch to L's jaw, and wrested the ampule away from him.

"Not so fast." L was looking not up at Matoba but over the assailant's head. One of the overhead compartments had popped open. A large attache case fell from it and slammed down, corner first, on Matoba's head. The syringe fell out of his hand and rolled toward Maki.

"Maki, inject yourself with the antidote now!" L shouted.

Suddenly the airplane swerved off course, sending Kujo tumbling to the floor next to Maki's feet. Maki hesitated for an instant and then snatched up the ampule and injected Kujo with the antidote.

"Maki. Why?" Kujo stared at the mark left on her skin, her mouth hanging open.

"You're the same as my father, Dr. Kujo."

"The same?"

"My father used to dream about his research helping everyone in the world be happy. But he worried that things didn't go the way he wanted. You're the same way. You aren't a bad person after all." Maki smiled. Her gentle smile shook Kujo's soul stained with vengeance and hatred more than anything Maki could have said.

"Don't you hate me for killing your father?"

Maki looked away for a moment, her facial expression turbulent. Then she said, "We have to help the people who are suffering right in front of us no matter who that person may be. And more people can be saved if you survive. I'm the one who should die, to save everyone else."

"You still believe in me, even after I tried to wipe out the people of the world?"

Maki smiled, and a bloody tear rolled down her cheek. "My father used to tell me that no one was born bad. People can...always... change..." Maki faded and fell unconscious.

Kujo could do nothing but hold Maki in her arms and break down in bloody tears of her own.

Matoba, who had been struck dumb after the only antidote was taken away from him, snatched a baby out of the arms of the woman sitting nearby. The mother howled and scratched at Matoba, but he kicked her to the floor. "You won't get in my way any longer, L! If you want to save this child's life, bring me the antidote now. You must have another somewhere!" As the scar on his cheek twitched, a smile as wide and wicked as that of a shinigami crept across his face. "The earth will be a hell when this child grows up. He's better off dying now."

"Dr. Kujo, please stop him,'' L urged.

"Mr. Matoba, you must stop toying with the future of mankind."

"Shut up, Kujo!"

The plane tried to rise into the sky and shuddered. Wind whipping through the cabin pinned Matoba, L, and Kujo against chair backs and the floor of the aisle itself.

In the cockpit, Fairman cursed, "Shit! I can't take her up with the emergency exit open!" He slammed a fist against the control yoke. "No choice but to move onto Plan G." Fairman scanned the runway in search of something and gripped the yoke.

The plane veered off course, and the cabin shook violently. Losing his balance, Matoba grabbed the edge of the door with one hand and kept the baby clutched in the other.

The plane's rear wheel rode up against a light fixture along the runway, shaking the cabin again. Matoba tumbled from the airplane, the baby still in his arm. Amidst the mother's scream drowning in the turbulence, Kujo beat L to the door. Kujo jumped from the plane and seized the baby from Matoba's hands. She angled herself expertly and rolled, shoulder first, to the ground, cradling the baby in her arms. Suruga, still pinned to the wing and hanging on to the flap with a death grip, could only watch the young woman flash by his eyes, babe in arms.

The precious life in Kujo's arms laughed as it reached out with its tiny arms toward Kujo, unaware of the danger it had been in. Am I still able to feel something for an innocent life?

Less gracefully, Matoba bounced off the roof of the takoyaki truck, smacked against the hard concrete and tumbled down the runway. Matoba, his body broken and limbs twisted, couldn't even raise his head. But he could smile and say, "Checkmate, L."

Suruga, who had climbed onto the wing of the plane after L, held on as the plane's landing gear once again hit the runway and finally managed to pull himself to the cabin door. Rushing inside he shouted, "Ryuzaki, we've got trouble! They're trying to crash this plane into a refueling truck!"

"Mr. Suruga, the cockpit!"

"Right!"

Suruga drew his gun, drilled a bullet into the lock, and kicked down the cockpit door. "Fairman! We have a score to settle!" He immediately shot Fairman in the thigh, and before he could let out a sound, kneed him in the jaw, knocking him unconscious. Suruga was actually showing mercy—he wanted to spare Fairman the pain. Entering the cockpit, L jumped into the pilot's seat and punched the switches on the console in an attempt to cut the engine.

Outside, Matsuda had driven the takoyaki truck toward the refueling truck and was scrambling to move it out of the way. But neither the key nor driver was anywhere to be found. "What'll I do..." He jumped back into the takoyaki truck, pointed it directly at the airplane streaking toward him, and slammed down on the accelerator. He screeched to a halt just in front of the airplane's landing gear and flung himself out of the truck.

"Stop!" L, Suruga, and Matsuda yelled at once.

The enormous front wheel of the plane collided with the truck. The vehicle was pushed backward by the overwhelming momentum of the massive aircraft. There was the crunch of metal as the plane's wheel rolled up the hood of the truck and crushed it. The plane slowed down slightly, but it was enough. UA Flight 718 bumped its nose against the tank of the refueling trunk and rolled to a halt.

A VTOL fighter jet touched down on the runway, which had been shut down and cordoned off" by an alphabet soup of law enforcement and public health authorities.

"It appears you made it in time," L said.

The canopy popped open and out crawled Takahashi from the rear seat of the fighter. "Ryuzaki, you sent this thing to land right in front of my house! Blew off roof shingles all over the neighborhood!" He dug into his medical bag. "Here's what you asked for."

"You've done it. Thank you."

Following L's instructions, the flight attendants inoculated the panic-addled passengers aboard the plane. Kujo was sitting slumped in the aisle.

"Dr. Kujo, please inoculate Maki with the antidote." L handed Kujo an ampule. "Dr. Kujo—no, I shall call you K—people are indeed foolish. But they also have the capacity to change. Don't you believe the world can change if children with a sense of justice, like Maki, are allowed to grow up with their innocence untouched?" The same watchful eyes that had looked over Maki were now directed at Kujo.

Such strong, kind eyes...

Overwhelmed by the sure hope imbued in L's eyes, Kujo had no choice but to recognize her defeat. The countless setbacks, loneliness, and despair. L exuded the gentleness and steely resilience of someone who had surmounted such obstacles and continued to follow the path in which he believed.

"Dr. Kujo...even a genius cannot change the world alone. It isn't for us to change the world. We can only aid that process. When you have paid for your sins, please use your abilities to help children like Maki."

Kujo simply nodded. Of course, she could not know L had only two days left to live. Nevertheless, she could sense that something

precious was being entrusted to her.

Kujo gave Maki the shot and broke down in tears.

"It was Maki who taught me what I should do in this situation." L knelt down and held both Kujo and Maki in his arms. He stroked their heads gently. "You did well. You're both going to be all right.''

The police were taking the Blue Ship members into custody, a long line of misguided idealists now hunched over and hiding their faces in shame.

"Our job is done here, Watari. Now, how about something sweet—" L spoke to a man who was no longer at his side. It had been customary for Watari to bring him a previously unsampled confection on a silver tray after the completion of a mission. "No... perhaps not."

L watched Kujo being taken away in handcuffs. Kujo walked, head high, looking directly ahead, as if she were setting her sights on a new path she had recently discovered. For L, it was a sight sweeter than any dessert that might have been brought to him at that moment.

"Watari, I think I'd like to stay here a while longer."

The pilot of the fighter jet held out a laptop in front of L and opened it.

"I'm glad I was able to assist you, L," said a synthetic voice. "The answer to the puzzle will be made public in two days."

"No doubt the United States will be put in a difficult situation. Perhaps it will ease Dr. Kujo's mind a little."

L looked at the computer screen. Only the letter "N" was floating onscreen.

"Thank you, Near."