L crouched on his swivel chair, his pale toes tightly curled together, their joints bluish-white from the strain.
An enormous holographic projection covered the entire wall before him.
Red and black streams of data crisscrossed and overlapped.
They cast a dark red glow, illuminating the entire dim underground bunker.
Two striking blood-red figures hovered at the top of the projection.
Seventy percent.
Eighty-seven percent.
"Crunch, crunch..."
L stuffed a cloyingly sweet strawberry daifuku into his mouth, chewing with an impatient urgency that slightly muffled his voice.
"Watari, look. These are the internal figures the United Nations updated five minutes ago.
Violent crime worldwide is down seventy percent, and armed conflicts have fallen by eighty-seven percent."
"L, people out there are calling it Kira Peace now.
Those leading media outlets on Wall Street are even rushing to write stories overnight.
They're discussing whether he should be nominated as the sole candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Even though... he's a wanted criminal who has never shown his face and has countless lives in his hands."
"Peace?"
L suddenly sneered and grabbed a handful of macarons, stuffing them into his mouth.
"This is captivity. He's holding a lethal threat that could strike at any moment against the throats of eight billion people.
Anyone who dares raise their head dies.
Livestock penned up for slaughter don't fight each other either.
Would you call a slaughterhouse peaceful?!"
Watari said nothing. He knew L too well.
While politicians across the world cowered before this supernatural power, and even several superpowers chose to bow their heads, admit defeat, and play dead to stay alive.
Only L saw this peace as the ultimate insult to human free will.
L climbed barefoot down from his chair and stepped onto the icy floor.
He walked silently to the holographic