A Year of Jubilee [The Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 47

Another ding sounded from the laptop. She looked up. A message box had popped up on the screen.

Please view attached kill stats and research accordingly, it said, followed by the letter L.

Warily, she clicked on the attached file. A long list of names and times appeared before her eyes. After a moment of staring at it, she dropped her head into her hands.

"What am I supposed to do with all this?" she moaned.

Doubtless most if not all the names were of criminals. Beyond that, she could deduce no pattern from them, let alone figure out who might be writing them down into a Death Note from afar.

Taking off the headset with a sigh, she got up from the couch and wandered over to the kitchen, Hellenos trailing after her. Reaching the oven, she crouched down on her heels to hug her knees to her chest, and stared despondently through the glass pane at the rising cake within.

Now what are you doing? questioned Hellenos.

"The same thing I was doing before," responded Jubilee moodily. "Nothing."

Ah. Just wanted a change of scenery then, I see, he commented dryly.

"At least this scene has hope," she said scathingly, glaring at the cake.

The angel sighed and looked skywards, crossing his arms but saying nothing.

"You think I'm being overly cynical again," she observed, not looking up.

Oh, are you the one hearing my thoughts now? he inquired with light sarcasm. When she didn't respond, Hellenos uncrossed his arms and knelt down to crouch beside her, gazing into the oven. After a moment, he remarked, You ought to make frosting for it.

"I was going to." She gave him a sidelong glance. "Which you should have known already."

He shrugged. Just making conversation. I hear that sometimes helps when humans are in a mood.

She sighed, resting her chin on her knees. "If only solving this case were as simple as baking a cake," she said, staring forlornly at the dessert. "If only my life were as simple as baking a cake."

Hellenos tutted. Don't knock the complexities of baking. The Father is rather fond of it, for one thing. For another, He cocked an eyebrow at her, You needed my assistance, remember?

"Yeah, yeah, but in the end it's still a clear set of steps and directions," she protested. "You know what your end result is going to be."

Do you? the angel countered. Do you know what the exact response of every taste bud on the tongue, every cell in the body, every synapse that fires off in the brain, will be...for you and for anyone else who takes a bite? Jubilee didn't answer, and he continued, For that matter, if you had no access to a recipe—or better yet, if you had no foreknowledge of what a cake should be—would you still have any concept of what your end result would be?

Jubilee rubbed at her temples. "We're getting awfully philosophical here, for just talking about cake. What's your point?"

My point, said the angel smoothly, Is that the only difference in difficulty between the two things you are comparing—baking a cake and solving this case—is your perspective, because you happen to have a point of reference for the former.

"I think that's an overly simplistic way of putting things," she objected. "The only difference? Having a point of reference makes all the difference!"