Ok confusing thing about this story number one:

When exactly in the timeline is this supposed to be being narrated by Mello? He talks about things as if he already knows all there is to know about The Kira Case and shinigami and death notes and how the case will turn out in the end, yet also obviously hasn't died himself yet, and clearly it's also taking place after L has died.

My best guess so far is that Mello must be writing it some time after he learns about shinigami and notebooks. So that would be like some time after getting the notebook from the task force and meeting Sidoh in late 2009? Seems to be the thing that would make the most sense. And I guess L would've had to tell Mello about all of this stuff that went down with B sometime prior to the Kira case and before he died, too (between 2002-2003, when Mello was around ages 13-14). I mean MAYBE L could have told Mello that stuff WHILE he was working on The Kira Case in 2004, but Mello implies that he met L in person when he was told about it. And meeting up with a 13-15 year-old Mello in person to tell him about his past cases just doesn't seem like something that L would ever do, especially not in the midst of working on such a challenging and confidential case as the Kira Case.

It's also incredibly confusing to try to make sense of L apparently being Mello's source for all this stuff he tells us about B's case, like Beyond Birthday having shinigami eyes. Because (1) even B wasn't fully understanding of his eyes himself and never knew about shinigami nor death notes, and (2) B seemingly never told Naomi nor L nor anybody at Wammy's about them, and L wasn't ever directly involved in this case the way Naomi was, and (3) if L and/or Naomi DID know about B's shinigami eyes whilst chasing down Kira that would've drastically altered how they approached the Kira case and everything they thought about the supernatural aspect of the investigation going in...

Alright I tapped out after the prologue and getting instantly confused and frustrated lol I just knew I wasn't in the right relaxed mood for some goofy B shenanigans. But this time I'm gonna actually get to the end I hope. So I can finally answer that B ask I got recently... wish me luck

lmfao L you rude-ass

"Oh? I am."

Here's an interesting possibility I hadn't considered before... what if the L that Naomi is chatting to on the computer and the phone is ALSO B doing an L impersonation... she never talks to them both at once or stays in the room with B whenever she's talking to L, after all.. and it would make certain things like L asking her "was he cool?" After she meets B for the first time make a little more sense...

(I don't actually think it is intentionally implied/written as though that is the case, since Mello narrates it all like L himself IS involved too, and since there's that cringe scene at the end which seems to be the real L attempting to give Naomi a hug as a thank you or whatever, but still... I think it could potentially be a fun angle to view everything from, and imma see how well it would actually hold up as a theory while I read it through this time. As it's very possible that I'm forgetting some big conflicting things that happen later on which would make this impossible to be the case)

Hah. If the L on the phone was ALSO B then this would be B tooting his own difficult crossword puzzle creating horn...

"Don't be dismissive. It was a very difficult puzzle..." etc. etc.

Ok, never mind, theory cancelled because I forgot that B was IN THE ROOM while she was on the phone with L, just lying there silently in the dust bunnies under the bed...

Actually cracking me up how much of a massive walking red flag B is to Naomi from the split-second he appears, and that she's just immediately like "hmmm seems like he's the killer" as well 😭 Like. How did they STILL end up working together on this entire case, and how did L not bother telling Naomi he knew exactly who the killer was until like halfway through the book? lmfao

Omgggg what do you MEAN Mello.... she literally only meets L in person when he awkwardly tries to hug her at the end, and also if I was Naomi I think I would actually despise L after the way he treated me throughout this whole case... Also be so for real with me right now, Light would NOT hear the details of this case the way you're laying them out to us and then go "omg, better not kill Naomi right now then..."

"If we divided everyone in the world into those that would be better off dead and those that wouldn't, there's no doubt in my mind that he'd be the former" is such a raw fucking line you'd think it came from Kira the criminal capital punisher himself, but no, it comes from Naomi Misora...

Also just realized that "such a complete freak that it amazes me he hasn't killed himself" is some unfortunate foreshadowing for B's final locked room shenanigans as well 😭

omggggg how could I forget about “Insufficient Relaxation” by Permit Winter, is that not the most pretentious-sounding book of all time

Ok confusing thing about this story number one:

When exactly in the timeline is this supposed to be being narrated by Mello? He talks about things as if he already knows all there is to know about The Kira Case and shinigami and death notes and how the case will turn out in the end, yet also obviously hasn't died himself yet, and clearly it's also taking place after L has died.

My best guess so far is that Mello must be writing it some time after he learns about shinigami and notebooks. So that would be like some time after getting the notebook from the task force and meeting Sidoh in late 2009? Seems to be the thing that would make the most sense. And I guess L would've had to tell Mello about all of this stuff that went down with B sometime prior to the Kira case and before he died, too (between 2002-2003, when Mello was around ages 13-14). I mean MAYBE L could have told Mello that stuff WHILE he was working on The Kira Case in 2004, but Mello implies that he met L in person when he was told about it. And meeting up with a 13-15 year-old Mello in person to tell him about his past cases just doesn't seem like something that L would ever do, especially not in the midst of working on such a challenging and confidential case as the Kira Case.

It's also incredibly confusing to try to make sense of L apparently being Mello's source for all this stuff he tells us about B's case, like Beyond Birthday having shinigami eyes. Because (1) even B wasn't fully understanding of his eyes himself and never knew about shinigami nor death notes, and (2) B seemingly never told Naomi nor L nor anybody at Wammy's about them, and L wasn't ever directly involved in this case the way Naomi was, and (3) if L and/or Naomi DID know about B's shinigami eyes whilst chasing down Kira that would've drastically altered how they approached the Kira case and everything they thought about the supernatural aspect of the investigation going in...

Alright I tapped out after the prologue and getting instantly confused and frustrated lol I just knew I wasn't in the right relaxed mood for some goofy B shenanigans. But this time I'm gonna actually get to the end I hope. So I can finally answer that B ask I got recently... wish me luck

lmfao L you rude-ass

"Oh? I am."

Here's an interesting possibility I hadn't considered before... what if the L that Naomi is chatting to on the computer and the phone is ALSO B doing an L impersonation... she never talks to them both at once or stays in the room with B whenever she's talking to L, after all.. and it would make certain things like L asking her "was he cool?" After she meets B for the first time make a little more sense...

(I don't actually think it is intentionally implied/written as though that is the case, since Mello narrates it all like L himself IS involved too, and since there's that cringe scene at the end which seems to be the real L attempting to give Naomi a hug as a thank you or whatever, but still... I think it could potentially be a fun angle to view everything from, and imma see how well it would actually hold up as a theory while I read it through this time. As it's very possible that I'm forgetting some big conflicting things that happen later on which would make this impossible to be the case)

Hah. If the L on the phone was ALSO B then this would be B tooting his own difficult crossword puzzle creating horn...

"Don't be dismissive. It was a very difficult puzzle..." etc. etc.

Ok, never mind, theory cancelled because I forgot that B was IN THE ROOM while she was on the phone with L, just lying there silently in the dust bunnies under the bed...

Actually cracking me up how much of a massive walking red flag B is to Naomi from the split-second he appears, and that she's just immediately like "hmmm seems like he's the killer" as well 😭 Like. How did they STILL end up working together on this entire case, and how did L not bother telling Naomi he knew exactly who the killer was until like halfway through the book? lmfao

Omgggg what do you MEAN Mello.... she literally only meets L in person when he awkwardly tries to hug her at the end, and also if I was Naomi I think I would actually despise L after the way he treated me throughout this whole case... Also be so for real with me right now, Light would NOT hear the details of this case the way you're laying them out to us and then go "omg, better not kill Naomi right now then..."

“If we divided everyone in the world into those that would be better off dead and those that wouldn’t, there’s no doubt in my mind that he’d be the former” is such a raw fucking line you’d think it came from Kira the criminal capital punisher himself, but no, it comes from Naomi Misora…

Also just realized that “such a complete freak that it amazes me he hasn’t killed himself” is some unfortunate foreshadowing for B’s final locked room shenanigans as well 😭

Ok confusing thing about this story number one:

When exactly in the timeline is this supposed to be being narrated by Mello? He talks about things as if he already knows all there is to know about The Kira Case and shinigami and death notes and how the case will turn out in the end, yet also obviously hasn't died himself yet, and clearly it's also taking place after L has died.

My best guess so far is that Mello must be writing it some time after he learns about shinigami and notebooks. So that would be like some time after getting the notebook from the task force and meeting Sidoh in late 2009? Seems to be the thing that would make the most sense. And I guess L would've had to tell Mello about all of this stuff that went down with B sometime prior to the Kira case and before he died, too (between 2002-2003, when Mello was around ages 13-14). I mean MAYBE L could have told Mello that stuff WHILE he was working on The Kira Case in 2004, but Mello implies that he met L in person when he was told about it. And meeting up with a 13-15 year-old Mello in person to tell him about his past cases just doesn't seem like something that L would ever do, especially not in the midst of working on such a challenging and confidential case as the Kira Case.

It's also incredibly confusing to try to make sense of L apparently being Mello's source for all this stuff he tells us about B's case, like Beyond Birthday having shinigami eyes. Because (1) even B wasn't fully understanding of his eyes himself and never knew about shinigami nor death notes, and (2) B seemingly never told Naomi nor L nor anybody at Wammy's about them, and L wasn't ever directly involved in this case the way Naomi was, and (3) if L and/or Naomi DID know about B's shinigami eyes whilst chasing down Kira that would've drastically altered how they approached the Kira case and everything they thought about the supernatural aspect of the investigation going in...

Alright I tapped out after the prologue and getting instantly confused and frustrated lol I just knew I wasn't in the right relaxed mood for some goofy B shenanigans. But this time I'm gonna actually get to the end I hope. So I can finally answer that B ask I got recently... wish me luck

lmfao L you rude-ass

"Oh? I am."

Here's an interesting possibility I hadn't considered before... what if the L that Naomi is chatting to on the computer and the phone is ALSO B doing an L impersonation... she never talks to them both at once or stays in the room with B whenever she's talking to L, after all.. and it would make certain things like L asking her "was he cool?" After she meets B for the first time make a little more sense...

(I don't actually think it is intentionally implied/written as though that is the case, since Mello narrates it all like L himself IS involved too, and since there's that cringe scene at the end which seems to be the real L attempting to give Naomi a hug as a thank you or whatever, but still... I think it could potentially be a fun angle to view everything from, and imma see how well it would actually hold up as a theory while I read it through this time. As it's very possible that I'm forgetting some big conflicting things that happen later on which would make this impossible to be the case)

Hah. If the L on the phone was ALSO B then this would be B tooting his own difficult crossword puzzle creating horn...

"Don't be dismissive. It was a very difficult puzzle..." etc. etc.

Ok, never mind, theory cancelled because I forgot that B was IN THE ROOM while she was on the phone with L, just lying there silently in the dust bunnies under the bed...

Actually cracking me up how much of a massive walking red flag B is to Naomi from the split-second he appears, and that she's just immediately like "hmmm seems like he's the killer" as well 😭 Like. How did they STILL end up working together on this entire case, and how did L not bother telling Naomi he knew exactly who the killer was until like halfway through the book? lmfao

Omgggg what do you MEAN Mello…. she literally only meets L in person when he awkwardly tries to hug her at the end, and also if I was Naomi I think I would actually despise L after the way he treated me throughout this whole case… Also be so for real with me right now, Light would NOT hear the details of this case the way you’re laying them out to us and then go “omg, better not kill Naomi right now then…”