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XVI

Meet Noel

All in all, a lot happened with Misora Naomi.

Nothing neither Es nor L anticipated, but a lot nonetheless.

Es figured out that Beyond Birthday would have used thread to lock the door after a cursory sweep of the room. That was the only clue that Es had needed to conclude that B's final victim might be himself. Though simple, it required at least two points for the mechanism to work. In the first three cases, the number of wara ningyo had decreased sequentially. Thus, in the fourth murder, there will only be a single wara ningyo. As such, the method used to lock the door from the outside would not work.

Essentially, the case would become impossible to solve.

Es, on the other hand, did not worry about that happening — B's life was not over yet, after all.

The first day, after returning to the hotel where Watari and L anxiously waited — worrywarts, Es thought with a fond sigh — he informed the two of the events that transpired and his suspicions.

L accepted his words as truth and did not question his reasoning, though Es knew that it was only because the other detective saw from the same perspective as himself.

He did, however, ask Es how probable it was that the Rue Ryūzaki that Es had met was B.

Es had replied with ninety-nine per cent.

After all, he had recognised Es as Dr Noir and Es had not attended many functions with the alias of Simeon Noir due to the attention that it drew. Moreover, he saw the name atop Rue Ryūzaki's head. It matched that of B whom he met during the tour of Wammy's House that he had received from L before. The remaining one per cent was the uncertainty stemming from him being unsure that others were incapable of concealing their true names. L did not ask for his reasoning and Es was grateful.

As expected, Naomi managed to find the last link on her own in the end and had rushed to the apartment which B was supposed to watch over just in time to put out the fire. Though B's plans had been meticulous, the biggest mistake he made was underestimating Misora Naomi. Well, that and his lack of proper grasp of his own date of death. If B launched his plan a year and a half later then perhaps he might have succeeded.

Es did not do much besides ensuring that Naomi remained safe from B — that she was not yet fated to die did not mean that she could not be incapacitated. That, at least, was Es' excuse to remain out and about on a case for once. A change of scenery was surprisingly pleasant.

The Japanese woman had somehow gotten the black-haired detective on an obsession for that martial art which she practised — capoeira. He had learned aikido after Es' suggestion to learn martial arts to protect himself, but it simply did not click well with L. As such, he had closed his training early on. However, Es returned from following Misora like a personal bodyguard only for L to grab him and shake him while demanding that they learned it together. Es had no reason to refuse and simply agreed to watch the videos together with L.

When L was truly passionate about something, he really did not stop talking about it. That was something about L that Es learned that day. He would never have expected L to display such talkativeness when he was excited.

L was so delighted that he even did something completely uncharacteristic of him.

"It was good working together with you, Misora Naomi," Es stated with a smile and a slight bow.

The two of them had gotten fairly close by sharing their caustic remarks directed at B. Naomi was especially grateful, having the impression that Es led her to the final clue. Es himself was not sure how he had done so — he had solved it himself in advance, but all he could only agree when faced with her bright and expectant gaze. When she had reached the correct idea of there being a thread and again when she finally brought up the idea that the series of murders was a cover-up for a suicide that was disguised as a murder instead, Es only nodded and nothing else.