Chapter 10: Confluence

Manga Summaries >> Chapter 10: Confluence

The summary of Chapter ten, written by Collin.

Basic Information

1. Chapter: 10 (Confluence)
2. Characters: The Yagami Family, Ryuk, L, Watari, The Japanese Police, Raye Penber’s former Fiance (still as yet unnamed.)
3. New Characters: A glimpse into the future Task Force members.
4. Known # of Deaths: n/1

Summary
This chapter opens with the deceased Raye Penber’s fiance’. Her goals up until now have been unknown,

but it seemed that she is determined to find out how her husband died, and to find out who Kira is. Here she is at the bus station. It seems she is forming her own investigation of the case and is asking around questions about the bus jacking a week ago. She is speaking with a driver and is showing him a picture of her husband. The driver tells her that he recognizes the man in the photograph as the man who tried to help everyone during the incident. The woman asks if the man would recognize any other passengers if she brought in more photographs, but the driver is uncertain. She thanks the man for his time and moves on. Later she is walking down the streets of Japan, still trying to figure out all of the answers and the missing link of just what happened that day on the bus. She reveals that her belief is that Kira was in fact one of the people on the bus that day with Raye.

We go over to the Yagami house and Mrs. Yagami is cleaning. Sayu, Light and the shinigami Ryuk just seem to be relaxing while Light reads the newspapers and Sayu snacks. Light complains about how dumb the reporters are. He reads that there will be a New Year’s Eve marathon of special television broadcasts on the Kira Case, and the Mystery of L television special. Sayu teases Light that he will probably be the one to watch those shows, and Light begrudgingly asks his sister to tape them for her. He then goes up-stairs with Ryuk to “study.” Before he heads up however, Sayu asks her mother if dad will be home for the holiday. Mrs. Yagami tells her however that her father intends to keep working on this case, so he probably won’t take any more holidays. Sayu comically states how much she “hates Kira” as Kira himself heads upstairs.

Meanwhile Soichiro Yagami is at the Japanese Police Station. He is speaking to all of the policemen working the case and with typical leader-ship fashion informs them that there is in fact danger of death for everyone investigating the Kira case. He tells everyone that they should think about the well being of their families, and if they want out of this case and the police to go ahead and do so. He tells them that he will return at 5 o’ clock that afternoon to find out how many police officers will remain and try to stop Kira for the good of mankind.

It’s hours later and Soichiro returns to Headquarters, to find out how many policemen are willing to stick with this case and stop the murderous psychopath “Kira.” He opens the door to see these brave men.

Only 5 officers are willing to stay. A young optimistic cop mentions that with the chief himself, “L” and L’s assistant “Watari” make 8 willing detectives. Soichiro looks troubled, and

Watari turns L’s laptop around as L’s jumbled voice pattern comes through it saying he has great faith in everyone willing to put his or her lives on the line during this case. Two cops sitting next to each other meet eyes, and one speaks up. He has an interesting haircut that looks like an Afro. He says to the chief that they don’t actually have faith in “L.” He makes a good point that everyone is putting his or her lives on the line, but “L” isn’t in any real danger being completely hidden. Watari listens in the background with his dark jacket and fedora covering his faith and L listens through the computer. The other officers speak up to say that they can’t trust a guy who no one has even seen, and “orders them around” without being in any real danger. Apparently not even the public trusts L. Suddenly order disrupts as the Chief points out that many criminal psychologists believe that “L” is in fact “Kira” and suffers from a split personality. All of it makes sense since it was in fact L who brought the 12 agents to Japan who were ultimately murdered by Kira. Making a bold move, Soichiro stands up and hesitantly asks L “Why don’t you work with us in person?” All the officers agree and state that they will work with L if he unveils himself to them. L’s voice changer comes through the laptop as he repeats that he has faith in the police, and Watari turns the laptop around to reveal that infamous “L” logo. On the laptop is an instant message from L saying:

“Please keep what is about to happen a secret among the eight of us”

The officers grow nervous and wonder what is in fact “about to happen” as another message is sent by L.

The message says that L does in fact wish to meet with the 6 agents as soon as possible. The message also says to keep the meeting a secret and not to tell anyone about it. No one outside of the room right now can know that they are about to meet L. Not even their family. It says to leave the building and discuss whether or not this is acceptable and L can in fact be trusted. Whoever trusts this plan can return to the room and will receive more conditions for meeting L through this computer.

They leave Watari and the laptop alone in the room as the cops go outside to fully discuss this plan. One officer says he doesn’t want to work together with L as his “proxy.” The optimistic young looking cop from before says he fully trusts L and it’s imperative at this desperate time that they all fully combine forces. The pessimistic cop irritably says back that they’ll just be killed like those 12 agents. After all, why would L expose himself now if he could solve all those other difficult cases by himself? At this time, Soichiro chimes in.

He expresses his thoughts on how L said from the beginning that he would need help and cooperation from the police. Soichiro also suspect. that L was waiting for this moment to happen. He says that there were people in the task force who didn’t trust L from the very start of things. As more officers left the force, information on the case was leaked more and more. Because of this, L couldn’t fully trust the task force. It’s right to work with L. However the pessimistic cop disagrees, and leaves them all behind as he leaves. This means that the force is now down to 7 people. As soon as the cops re-enter the room, the laptop is already turned around towards them, and a message is awaiting them.

I am now in a room in the Imperial Hotel.

The young cop is astonished as that hotel is just around the corner! Soichiro also realizes that L was in fact ready for this moment to finally happen. L sends another message to the task force saying he will move to a different hotel in Tokyo every few days, while the NPA building acts as a front for the case, and L’s hotel room is the actual headquarters for the investigation. L reveals that this is a defense mechanism to prevent Kira from finding out what L really looks like, meaning L will have an advantage of out-living the other members of the task force. However this is the only way this meeting can work.

If the task force agrees with these terms, then at midnight that night, they will split into 2 groups of people and come to L’s room group by group. After group one leaves, 30 minutes later group two can leave. Watari will hand them a memo with L’s room number written down.

“I’ll be waiting.” The message ends.

We jump to L’s current location. It is true that he is now in a hotel room. He stands with his back to us looking out at Japan’s busy streets. He thinks to himself that he and Kira are closing the gap between each other. L is upset that the crucial clues he finds come at the price of deaths of other agents. So L will reveal himself to the task force but if Kira ever finds out that L has come out of hiding he will be one step closer to the end. L makes a fist and challenges Kira yet again. L knows that even if Kira somehow finds out what he looks like, he can’t kill him without knowing a name. And L can’t prove Kira is in fact Kira unless he catches him in the act. Since killing those agents put Kira on the defensive L wonders what he is thinking right at this moment.

And at that moment Light is sitting at his desk in his room. He knows that since there are so many people working for the N.P.A, he can’t risk showing that he has access to secret police information his father’s information. Light is wondering why only 12 agents were sent to Japan and why he was one of the few people being investigated at the time. It might have been just because his father was in charge of the investigation. In any case Light is sure that he left little evidence pointing towards himself. The most important thing however is that Light can’t be proven as Kira unless someone gets their hands on the death note. Light also realizes The Real Game is about to Begin.

We jump to the outside doors of the illustrious Imperial Hotel of Japan. Soichiro Yagami stands outside with the young cop we’ve grown so fond of. They enter the hotel and get onto the elevator they climb up however many floors and reach their destination. They approach a room as the Chief realizes that the most mysterious and brilliant detective of all time is behind this door. What does he look like? Old? Young? He knocks.

A voice comes through the other side:

“Please enter. I’ve been awaiting you.”

Unanswered Questions
So what’s next…

1. What does L LOOK LIKE?!?!?