Chapter Text
L stared at the folders in front of his computer with boredom. He hadn't had any interesting cases pop into his lap since.. well, forever.
Watari came to give him another bowl of the most nauseatingly diabetic bowl of ice cream you'd ever see. L looked up at the old man before biting the nail on his thumb.
"Are these cases not to your liking?" Mused the older man, picking up the abandoned folders. L shrugged, looking at his ice cream for a few moments.
"Really? The case about an unknown serial murder isnt of interest to you?" L shrugged, "Thats overdone. I'd prefer something more.." He stabbed his spoon into a seemingly vanilla ball of ice cream, "unique."
He mused, shoving the fudge covered sweetness into his mouth and letting it melt. "You forgot the sprinkles.." He muttered, getting up from his chair and lazily walking to the kitchen.
"We're all out," Watari hummed as L grumbled. "Perhaps you would like to look on the counter?"
L did as suggested, finding another folder. He lazily opened it, mumbling that itd be just like the other cases before he paused.
"Serial bomber in Japan. Eccentric man leaves lemon in Maruzen building, 5 minutes later, the shopping center is blown up. 28 citizens killed, many more injured."
There was an image attatched below of the building, but he was far more interested in the corner of the picture. A green scarf cut off in the corner, probably from the person who blew up the building. The longer he stared, the more he felt he knew the origin of that scarf.
Or at least the green.
"Seems like something has caught your attention." Watari hummed pleasantly, placing his abandoned ice cream bowl on the counter infront of him.
He'd been so focused on the details of a measly scarf that he'd forgotten about one of his treasures. His sweet tooth.
L stared at the desert for a moment before deciding to indulge once more. The case could wait a moment, he needed to eat the monstrosity of sugar infront of him.
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Watari kept having to fix L's scarf. The man kept trying to take it off since it was too 'scratchy', which he said would lead to errors in his 'research'.
This was the second time he'd gone to Japan this year. The last was because Near wanted an exclusive Japan Lego set and Mello wanted some chocolate (Mello never received the sweets). He really didnt enjoy air travel, saying the TSA was too strict.
He'd almost gotten flight listed for saying he was going to investigate Japanese Bombings, even joking to Watari that he'd bring one home. He got searched four times and they missed their flight.
Watari did not care much though, seeing as if anything would happen to the too smart for social cues man, he would bail him out and get him a milkshake. Maybe he did spoil him, but the kid was smart.
L had immediately taken his shoes off when he got out if the airport. He didnt care for the cold of the December ground, he just wanted to be comfortable the whole time they were there.
"Let's go to the bomb site, you told them we would come correct?" "Of course, sir."
The duo spent some time trying to get past all of the people in the streets. L kept getting lost in seas of children flocking to candy stores, or rather he got lost following them to those stores. After many one sided arguments on how the detours were necessary, they got to what was left of the Maruzen building.
Watari went inside to inspect damages and find any clues to report to the man. L was speaking with the police.
"So, the serial bomber? Do you know anything of his identity?" L asked, hunched over and sniffling slightly. His nose was red, the only color to his face at the moment besides his dark eye bags. "Well, he's with the mafia for one." Called over one of the firefighters.
The firefighter had to put out multiple fires of his, even disassembling one of his bombs when he worked with the bomb squad. "Lemons," he said with a shrug when L asked what the bombs usually looked like. ",No idea why, but he always has a lemon bomb. He usually never puts down more than two, but i guess he really hated this place."
"He's also never been successful at blowing people up either, this is the first that we know he's killed anybody. We usually thought he was some kid pranking us till we saw the fifth one go off. Pretty sure he was in handcuffs, but he escaped before we could take him in." The policeman from before huffed out, looking back at the building.
L had almost chewed off the entire pad of his thumb by the time Watari returned.
"There were some yellow shells left behind," the older man hummed, opening his gloved hands to show L the pieces. "Seems like they weren't lying.." Mused L.
"Put that in your pocket, I want to eat."
"Of course, what do you want?"
"Chocolate covered lemon slices..."
Watari paused, L was willing to eat something sour? Would the world end soon? He shook the thought away and turned his attention to a nearby Cafe. "Let's go there then."
The duo walked into the Cafe, it was much warmer than it was outdoors. There was an elderly man working the coffee bean grinder and a younger waitress handing him the beans. They were greeted by a red haired waitress with two large braids. Once she had sat them down and left to get their menus, L compared her to a Raggedy Anne doll. When she returned, L was staring at her hair and she promptly walked away.
He tore his eyes away from the lady. "Now, tell me, why would a man who works with bombs continously avoid killing people until now?" L asked, taking out the case file once more and inspecting it. "Perhaps the man was perfecting-" "nope."
Watari sighed, knowing that it would be difficult to speak to the younger man when he was focused like this. "I doubt a man of his experience would simply 'perfect' his recipe before letting it loose in the world."
"What do you presume he was doing then?"
"Dunno, thats whats got me stumped. This seems like a pathetic attempt at getting infamous but he's already acquired quite the name." L mused, pausing as an elderly woman came to take their orders.
"What can I get for you both?" She asked, smiling softly as they both turned their attentions to the menus.
L must've looked idiotic with the way he opened his jaw in shock at all of the sweets on the back of the menus.
"Chocolate covered lemon slices.. strawberry cake and... this weird looking donut." He pointed at everything he wanted as though the woman had never seen the pamphlet before. She nodded, turning to Watari.
"And you?" Watari closed the menu, taking L's before he could order anything else. "A black coffee is fine. I get enough sugar watching him eat." He muttered, earning a laugh from the woman. "Oh I understand, my daughter is the same. Oh how i mourn her taste buds, they've almost never had anything savory." She mused before taking the menus.
Once the woman was out of earshot, presumably talking to the man who was focused on brewing coffee by the counter, L began chewing his thumb again. He looked through the file again, trying to decipher where he'd seen that green scarf.
Another person entered the cafe, he didnt dare look up from the papers infont of him. As smart as he was, he was stumped. Usually his memory was the best, but a simple green color threw him off his cool demeanor. He frowned, turning the page and landing on the words "ability user."
He'd heard of the idea of an ability user, but he wasnt sure how important it was that the bomber was one. It didnt even list what ability he had!
The red haired waitress returned, having all of L's desired sweets and Watari's coffee. "Looks like someone's got a sweet tooth." She said with a smile, wide enough to flash her braces at the two. L took note of this, "Pink and silver, nice" he hummed, giving her an awkward thumbs up.
The red head stared at him for a moment before smiling awkwardly and leaving quickly. Watari sighed in disappointment as L focused back onto the nauseating group of sweets infront of him. He took a big bite of the strawberry cake as watari took his turn inspecting the case.
"Pardon, may I have a lemon for my water?" The stranger who walked in earlier asked to the elderly man.
L finally looked over to see who had walked into the little Cafe. He almost choked, quickly ripping the case file away from Watari and looking at the image.
He swallowed the piece of cake and pointed at the sliver of green in the picture.
"I belive our serial bomber is here." He said quickly, looking over at the man again.
The stranger wore a green scarf, the same color as in the picture, a lab coat, and geta sandals.
Watari glanced over at the unknown man before raising an eyebrow, he'd never been one to question L but surely this eccentric looking man couldn't have been their suspect.
Before he could speak on the matter, L had gotten up and walked over to the man. He had also taken the chocolate covered lemons with him. The man, justifiably confused, turned to look at L. "Could I assist you?" He asked curiously before quickly eyeing the chocolate covered lemons slices.
"Do you happen to have a fascination with lemons?" L asked with his usual monotoned voice, picking up one of the sour treats. The man hummed, "of course. The berry is a man made product of experiments!" The scientist mused, receiving the lemon slices from the cafe owner and placing it into his cold water.
L hummed, bringing the lemon to his mouth and cautiously chewing on it.
He immediately lost his cool attitude when he realized the sourness of the berry was too much for even chocolate to disguise. This earned a chuckle from the brunette across from him.
He cleared his throat, pushing the deceptive treat away from him and focusing on the man. "Your appearance intrigues me," he began, still eyeing the man before offering him the lemons.
The scientist gleefully took them off his hands, eagerly biting into one. "Perhaps we could grab a drink?" He suggested, glancing over at Watari. The last time he'd been forward about his identity or intentions he'd been placed under house arrest for three weeks for harassment.
The man infront of him considered it, "Are you coming onto me?" He joked, a large grin on his face as he teased the man infront of him. L shrugged, his forever unblinking eyes transfixed on the scarf. "If thats what youd like to call it, sure. Although, I'm not a local so you'd have to introduce me to a bar." He mused, shifting his pupils for a moment to the man's face.
The scientist hummed, taking a nearby napkin, plucking a pen with a lemon theme from his coat, and scribbling something down. He passed the note to L, still grinning ear to ear. "May i know your name, oh kind stranger?" "Ryuzaki." L hummed, pocketing the napkin.
"And your name?" L asked, boring his eyes into the man's goggles. The scientist shifted ever so slightly, revealing a singular green eye under the dark purple tint of his goggles. "Nakahara Chuuya." He said gleefully, extending a hand. "Nice to meet you!" L cautiously took the man's hand, quickly regretting it from how enthusiastically it was shook.
L awkwardly left the man after a few more word exchanges and returned to watari. His delightful sweets were getting stale from being unattended. He would've shed a tear had it not been for his mouth watering at the thought of combining the cake and donut.
Watari had long finished his coffee, simply closing the file when the man had returned to finish his 'meal'.
Before the duo could resume their conversation on the nearby topic, it sounded like someone was coming downstairs. 'Chuuya' quicklt placed down some money and left as quickly as he could. A young adult with an unfortunate haircut came down, quickly motioning over the red head and the two went back upstairs.
L shrugged it off, already having a rather large bite of the new concoction in his mouth. Watari passed him a napkin to clean off his mouth from the colorful array of stains.
L took out the napkin that the scientist gave him as well, inspecting it only to find his email and a small doodle of a lemon. This man intrigued him very much, even if he already knew the guy was the bomber he was after.
He was sure Watari wouldn't mind if he hung around his new suspect for a while longer than the case needed. Perhaps he could even get to the bottom of his biggest question; where the hell had he seen that scarf before?