Not being able to sleep was normal for L, but usually he slept better in his childhood bedroom. This time around it didn't seem to be working though, he lay in bed staring up at the gently spinning ceiling fan with glow in the dark stars littered on the roof.

He found himself up and thinking on the warm summers night. Something about this most recent case closing made him realise the loop he'd been stuck in since he was 10. Yes he did love solving cases, but it gets repetitive after a while.

Wake up, solve something, try to go to sleep.
Wake up... solve something, try to go to sleep...
Wake up
Solve something
Try to go to sleep.

Would he be living this life until he dies?

He doesn't have friends, or family aside from Watari, he found socialising confusing and draining. But he was lonely... he just wanted something fun to do, something different. Someone to go on a wild adventure with. But if he didn't break the tiresome routine he'd been trapped in, he'd never have that.

Being cooped up inside was driving him insane, he was a bit of a hermit but even hermits need air sometimes.

Throwing the blanket off, he got up and stuffed the only shoes he had on. He wanted to just... escape for a while.

The orphanage was silent as all the children slept, but he being much older didn't have to abide by the bedtime rule. Walking down the spiral staircase he was headed for the back door. The best place to get away from the world right now would be the woods behind the orphanage. He used to play there as a kid, but never wandered in too far. Most kids were scared to go to far and get lost, but he was older now. He didn't have that fear.

Jumping the back fence, he headed into the woods. Every so often he'd pass a lost toy from one of the kids, making a mental note to pick them up on his way back. He just wandered, almost as if he was reflecting how he felt at the moment. Like he was just lost, doing the same thing over and over.

He liked solving things, but he was so lonely. The true definition of a hikkigomori.

"What am I doing? I'm 23 and haven't had a single friend, never dated, never made a found family, I've been doing the same thing for 13 years..." he mumbled to himself.

As the orphanage disappeared into the trees behind him, he wandered. Pondering and off in his own mind palace, the case? His own life path.

He'd never thought about himself before, his mental well-being, his identity, his life goals and ambition. He just solved cases because they were a challenge, they were engaging. But was that it? Was that all he was? A detective to solve crimes in under a week and move onto the next one?

"L Lawliet, world's greatest detective and worlds biggest loser it'd seem. God what am I doing with my life? I just want friends... I wanna do something different for once..." he complained to himself.

It seems the world was answering his questions though, because in his dazed state where he wasn't looking where he was going his foot snagged on something and down he went. He expected to land in grass since it was the middle of the woods, but instead he landed in something hard.

"Ow- son of a-" he complained, pushing himself up and rubbing his chin where it made impact with the ground.

He looked back to see what he tripped on, being greeted with a perfectly round rock sticking out of the ground. Next to it, another one and another... and another.

He looked around in confusion to find he was in the middle of a circle of perfectly round rocks. All the same size and shape, all smooth and a little mossy. The more he looked around, the more he realised this area wasn't naturally occurring, it was too perfect to be. It had to be man made.

The trees around the area were thinner and let the moonlight illuminate the area. In the centre of the rocks was a large circle made of seemingly old marble on the ground where he'd landed. That was the hard thing.

"What the-" he mumbled to himself, standing up to get a better look.

On the marble were carvings, some kind of pattern. Flowers and butterflies, some kind of rune like lettering, a sun in the centre. Who made this? And why out in the middle of the woods. Looking around told him it was pretty deep in the woods too, the orphanage was already very out of the way, and this was even more out of the way.

Despite the perfect shapes, it was clearly old since moss and vines had begun to take over some places.

It looked like... ruins of some kind.

Did anyone know this was here? The orphanage staff or the other kids? Or was he the only one who'd wandered in this far?

Suddenly he found himself in detective mode, but this time way more intense than usual. He'd found a particularly odd mystery out in the woods and he wanted to know the answer to it. He continued to look around for some kind of plaque or carving saying who made it, or maybe some kind of evidence someone was here like old tools or something.

"What in th- huh... wait..."

He noticed something.

The pattern on the marble, it seemed to make a trail. It started with a rose on the outermost edge. And a trail of butterflies lead it to a daisy. It went flower, butterfly, flower,  butterfly. Swirling form the edge of the circle inward until it made it to the sun in the centre.  If it weren't for the runes around the outside of the carvings he would have just chalked it up to being a fun little design.

Something told him those runes translated to something. But he couldn't read it.

Bending down to get a better look at the runes, he put a foot on the rose absentmindedly and proceeded to jump out of his skin when the carving... lit up.

The rose glowed a golden tint, the butterflies around it glowing silver, stopping before the daisy.

"What the fuck-" he whispered to himself.

In sheer shock and curiosity, he stepped on the daisy which did the same glow as the rose. He figured out pretty quickly he had to follow the flower and butterfly trail in a swirl until he reached the sun. Slowly he walked along it, hesitant but absolutely awestruck.

There were no wires, no sensors. Only marble and a mysterious glow. If it wasn't electric lights like an LED strip... what was it.

When he reached the sun, he stood on it and watched as the glow began in the centre and expanded into the rays. For a moment there was silence, until he felt the ground move beneath him and he panicked for a moment catching his balance back.

The glow became almost blinding, and he felt as if he was falling for a moment. Shielding his eyes from the blinding light, he waited a moment until the glow died down before bringing his arms back down.

And again, almost had a heart attack.

He was somewhere completely different. Still on the marble platform but the woods were gone and replaced with some kind of... gazebo? Frantically looking around, he took in the surroundings in utter confusion.

Golden pillars, trees blooming with purple flowers that seemed to sparkle, the night sky so clear he could see every constellation, statues of various winged creatures scattered here and there. Where the hell was he? What just happened?

Hesitantly, he stepped off the marble platform and looked around. It was still a wooded area, but a completely different one. Well lit, almost glowing and completely abandoned. No one was around, he couldn't hear civilisation. It was just him and this strange place he'd ended up.

As if suddenly transporting to an unknown place wasn't strange enough, on the side of the cleared out area he was in, there was a waterfall... but it didn't have water in it. It was almost like it was raining glitter or something. A golden substance, like dust flowed down a rock formation into a small pool.

Completely gob smacked at what he was seeing, he approached it for a closer look.

"Did someone drug my cake? Am I tripping right now?" He asked himself, with no idea what he was witnessing.

In what may be a risky move, he reached out and out his hand under the flowing substance. It was dry, soft and felt like tiny bits of fabric. Warm to the touch and didn't stick to him. He'd never seen anything like this before, he had no idea what it was. Bringing his hand back with a small pile of it, he looked at it intently trying to make sense of it.

"What in the world? I wish I knew what the hell was going on right now..."

As soon as the words left his mouth, the dust substance moved in his hand, changing its shape and forming into something completely different. In his hand sat a scroll.

"I'm going to have an aneurism what the-"

Unwrapping the paper, he was met with a cursive note from... something? Or someone...

Journey east.

That's it? That's all?

He looked in that direction seeing a small path through the flowers. He looked back at the scroll.

If he was going to do this, he needed to be way more prepared. But he couldn't exactly just walk into the orphanage and tell Watari 'hey I was transported to a weird place from this circle in the woods' because that's a one way ticket to a psychiatric ward.

It wasn't too hard to figure out that marble circle was the gateway to whatever this place is. So if he got in by following the flowers and butterflies, he could get out by doing the same.

He had to know what this was, but he needed to be more prepared if he was going to 'journey east' in unknown land.

He'd go back home, gather what he needed and the following night... he'd come back. He couldn't just ignore this, this was a mystery like nothing he'd ever done before, it was new and exiting.

It was the answer to his problems.