A Year of Jubilee [The Death Note Fanfic]

Chapter 52

Mello paused. "Maybe not," he said. "But right now, the only thing that gives it value is how I perform on this case."

In her mind's eye, Jubilee could see a straight line hovering over the strawberry blond boy's head. The sight of it made her slam her fist down on the coffee table. "False," she snapped, shooting his own word from earlier back at him. "How can you believe something like that?"

"Because it's true, isn't it?" he retorted. "I mean, that's essentially what Near and I are for. Matt too. It's all to succeed L. To solve cases. If we can't do that well, then what are we good for? You could probably already tell from Near and his weirdness, but it's not like any of us are exactly normal and could just find some other niche in the world to fit into. And honestly, I don't know what else I would want to be doing anyway."

His tone was matter-of-fact, but Jubilee felt her heart ache at his words. "Your worth isn't measured by how good you are at things," she argued.

He snorted. "What world do you live in?"

She stared helplessly at the M on the screen. She suddenly remembered her father, how he had taken over driving her to soccer practice everyday after her mother died, even though it was a strain on his work schedule and on their gas money—but he had done it simply because Jubilee loved soccer at the time. There was never a question of how good she was at it...except, perhaps, from her coach. She always knew she wasn't good enough to pursue it past high school. But regardless, her father had always been there to cheer her on at every game, whether she was scoring a goal or falling flat on her face. Because of him, she knew—even if she forgot from time to time—that true worth wasn't measured by performance.

But she also knew that not everyone in the world had the luxury of experiencing love from a loving father. Working at Wakahisa had made that abundantly clear to her. And now, knowing that L's successors had grown up in an orphanage like him, she knew that trying to explain such a concept to any of them, in words alone, would be like trying to describe colors to a blind man.

So all she said was, "Okay. Let's just agree to disagree." Giving a resigned sigh, she decided to change the subject. "So...what's the plan, Mello?"

The boy paused. "You're letting me make the plan?" he asked incredulously.

"You're going to do whatever you want anyway, aren't you?" she pointed out. "And it's going to be better than anything I can come up with. I may not agree with how you view your own worth, but...I do trust that you know what you're talking about when it comes to cases. So. What's the plan?"

Mello hesitated once more, as though unused to getting to this point without a fight. At last he said, "Well, like I said, I'll wiretap Takada's apartment and her personal line, while you have Aiber keep an eye on her in person when she's out and about. Other than that...I don't really have a plan. I'm just going with the flow."

Jubilee put her face in her hands and bit her lip to keep from saying anything. Going with the flow to catch the world's deadliest killer. What an idea.

"Something's gotta be done to get to Light, though, and draw him out of his safe zone," continued Mello. "That way he'll slip up and reveal more of his hand, and then I can make a clear plan. Not sure what to do yet to make that happen, but something'll come to me. Maybe I'll kidnap his sister."

Jubilee's head snapped up. "What now?"

"In all likelihood, though, he's the type who would kill his sister if he had to," Mello went on like he hadn't heard her. "So, sentiment's not gonna work for us here. Next logical person to kidnap would have been Misa—"