Disclaimer: Characters are the property of the Death Note franchise. Salt a concept from Shio no Machi by Arikawa Hiro.

Author's Note: Thank you for reading and standing by me.

And so L lowered the sheet over Light's face and returned to his desk, resolve hardened at last. He hunched at his desk and typed, one digit at a time.

Watari didn't know what he was doing, but what Watari didn't know wouldn't hurt him and it was preferable that Watari didn't get hurt.

L didn't forget his adversaries, especially the ones that made their business personal, and he had never seen any reason to forgive. Japan was still in lock down, still stifled behind a blanket of international media silence. There were governments out there watching but also a world permitted to turn a cheery, blind eye.

How dare they.

When L had been made to watch.

He waited until the taskforce had gone home after another unproductive day and Watari had disappeared to contact Roger before hacking into a major international conference on climate change and population control, attended by journalists, hungry for scandal and tales of tragedy and misfortune, from all around the world.

"Greetings."

He had a feed from a security camera in the conference hall, so he saw the startled faces of the conference attendees snap up to the great 'L' on the screen like chicks to a shadow over a nest.

"My name is L. You may have heard of me."

He had plenty of serious cases lined up in his backlog from every attending country for leverage if needed be.

Somehow, he would have them listen.

"And I am calling now from the centre of silence, in the memory of a friend."

Transcript of a presentation from the All Japan Anti-Salt Blight Symposium, October 30th

The case of Asahi Light was extraordinary for a number of reasons, least of all the record twenty three days which his blight crystallisation period extended and the five hours ten minutes continued consciousness within a majority living crystal body.

This remarkable feat is likely in part due to Asahi's unique character as seen in his interview footage - highly intelligent and very much aware of this fact, a young person of exceptional gifts, whose loss is a tragedy not only to his nearest and dearest but to the nation of Japan; but more importantly, Asahi had an extraordinary sense of purpose, the like of which I have never seen in a man so young.

Now, perhaps his sense of his own importance was rather disproportionate to the reality, but, nevertheless, it was what, we believe, kept him going and the process of blight at bay. He was accompanied by a good friend, a work colleague who became our acquaintance over the course of his ordeal and made it his role to reaffirm with Asahi on a daily basis that they still had unfinished business, playing on Asahi's considerable pride and sense of duty to push him to survive.

We have evidence to suggest from other cases that instilling a sense of purpose in the listless young, in such a way - although some might think the attitude of his friend, as present in our record of this case, to be cruel and perhaps too demanding, and perhaps prone to wilful blindness to much that ought to have been addressed during the patient's last days - can greatly help to prolong the blight period until complete crystallisation.

I would like to take this time to thank Asahi-kun's family, colleagues and friend for allowing us to record this case. He surprised us, time and time again, with his tenacity, optimism and drive. This record is a testament to Asahi's own extraordinary will to live and to the efforts of those who stood by him, whose constant unwavering companionship served to remind him of the irreplaceability and necessity of his existence.