A Year of Jubilee [The Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 15

L gazed at her, his eyes large and dark. "You can see all that?"

"Yes," answered Jubilee, feeling distinctly unproud of the fact. "So what? It's the same thing over and over. People, angels and demons. I can't see a connection between any of them, I can't see it how it relates to the case, and I can't see a way to catch Kira. So," She turned to the detective, agitated, "What is the point of being able to see all that I can see?"

L took her in silently for a moment, before responding, "Never say never, Miss Amachi."

Jubilee quirked an eyebrow. "I didn't. I said—"

"That you can't," cut in L. "Principle, not semantics, Miss Amachi. Specifically, you said that you can't see, three times; which you then contradicted in the next sentence by acknowledging how very much you can see. Has anyone ever told you—" He leaned closer, his eerie eyes boring holes into hers, "That you don't give yourself enough credit?"

Jubilee stared back. She had the sudden vague realization that his eyes—which had always struck her as two soulless black holes rimmed with sleepless dark circles up until this point—were, in fact, gray. "I might have heard that once or twice," she said weakly.

Just once or twice? snorted Hellenos.

"Miss Amachi," L continued, "Might I suggest that you are in fact much more competent and capable than you are making yourself out to be, that you have plenty to contribute to the case—which I can confirm, given the multiple clues you have already provided—and that you ought to, as some would put it, buck up."

She blinked as her brain fought to keep up, and then when it had, warred between feeling flattered or offended. Had that been more of a compliment or an insult?

That would depend on how you choose to take it, said Hellenos dryly, from where he was standing between them. Might I suggest that you choose differently, for once?

Jubilee swallowed down a lump of pride mixed with self-realization. "I—I'm not like you, Ryuzaki," she said at last, softly. "I don't know how to connect all the dots to what I see. And despite all that I can see, I...I still struggle with being able to see the big picture sometimes." She looked away, suddenly unbearably uncomfortable.

There was an intolerably long silence before L spoke again. "Look for patterns," was what he said at last.

Jubilee looked back at him. "Huh?"

"Look for patterns and similarities," L repeated himself patiently, "And then compare and contrast any differences that you find. That is how you see the big picture. That is how you do what I do."

She continued to stare at him uncomprehendingly for a second. Later she would bemoan how slow she seemed to be getting these days. But, perhaps, she would also come to realize that it was more a matter of the heart catching up than the mind—for this was the first time ever that she began to realize L was actually trying to help her. At the moment, however, all she could do was gaze back at him stupidly.

L let out a gentle exhale that could have been a sigh and leaned forward to access her computer. A few feet away Light gave a grunt of mild annoyance as his hand was tugged over even further, and he shifted in his seat to make up for the difference.

"Here," L was saying as he tapped her screen with a finger. "Pull up one of the earliest footage videos of Light that you have viewed so far, as well as one of the more recent ones."

Wordlessly she obeyed.

"Now play them side by side," he instructed.

She did so, and within a few seconds her brow furrowed as she watched. At last she stammered, "It's—he's—"