Hilo everyone! My first Death Note story. Before I begin, I just wanted to let you all know that yumihoshigaki90 created Charlotte and the basic plot line (the date), after that point, I write it from my own imagination... I guess. It's kind of hard to explain. Hope you like it. Please review.

"I don't care what people think. People are stupid." -- Charles Barkley

L's P. O. V.

The chief was, needlessly to say, furious when I ordered his home to be tapped, but he made the ideal sacrifice for the sake of capturing Kira. He is a great chief and a great husband and father, but I knew right off the bat that he didn't know his son as well as he thought. Raito Yagami, my prime suspect, even though it was only a less than five percent chance and mostly a gut feeling. While Raito was reading an explicit magazine, Someone came to the door with a key. I waited for Chief Yagami to say something expectantly.

Raye Penbar had reported of a young girl staying at the Yagami's, but it didn't occur to me to pay much attention to her at the time. She was a girl with a clean record, although she ditched a few classes and sometimes the entire day, and a solid 2.0 GPA (all C's). Her parents were both military so she moved around a lot and her parents weren't home most days and sometimes weeks at a time. With parents who were gone almost all the time was bound to take a toll, so the parents decided to let her live with her uncle, Chief Yagami.

"Oh, Charlotte's home," Chief Yagami said.

The young woman of about seventeen went inside the house and went directly into the room she was staying in, which was Sayu's. She placed her backpack on the bed and reached inside for her purple spiral bound notebook a black pen, and white-out tape. She piled the pillows against the head board and lied back and began writing. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a clear enough angle to actually see what was being written. She adjusted her thick black framed glasses on the bridge of her nose every few minutes and constantly reread what she wrote to edit it.

"Tell me more about Charlotte," I said, not taking my eyes off of the monitors. "What kind of person she is. Any likes or dislikes? Hobbies."

"Why? Is she a suspect?" Chief Yagami asked. His voice raised a bit at the second question.

"That's highly unlikely. If she was Kira it would be only less than a percent chance. So I'm not too concerned with her, but I am still a little curious."

He softened up a little bit and sighed. He looked back at the screen. "I don't know. The last time I saw her was when she was twelve and she hardly said a word. I don't know what she likes or doesn't like and I don't know what she's interested in." He thought for a few more seconds before he finally came up with something. "Oh, wait, my brother said something about being accepted into a specialized school. What was it? I think it was a school specialized in writing articles or books or something."

"East Crest Writing Club?" I asked with a raised brow.

He looked at me with amazement in his old eyes. "Yes! How did you know?"

"Because there's a big three inch ring binder that says 'East Crest Writing Club: Course Manual.' on the computer desk." Chief Yagami sagged in his seat a little. Probably mildly embarrassed for his lack of observation. It truly wouldn't take a genius to figure that one out. "How long ago was she accepted?"

"Over three years ago, I think," Chief Yagami said, raising his hand up to his chin. "Yes, I'm almost positive it was over three years ago. My brother gloated about it over the phone."

I chuckled a bit. Sibling rivalry, no doubt. I had Watari look up the information on the program as soon as the school was named. The printer rolled out several pages that I quickly scanned through. "She must have completed the program then, because the maximum length of it is only two years. Even though it's a go at your own pace kind of school. Wow, it gives out five college credits and even recommends the student to a suitable job that most suits the student's writing style. All for only a little more than $900 all together. That's a good deal."

I didn't particularly care about the school though. She looked very familiar, but I couldn't place her face anywhere. I know I saw her somewhere a long time ago. It was annoying and only slightly frustrating, but it wasn't important at this time so I left it alone. Didn't mean I couldn't observe her more from the monitors; it was my job after all and I could focus on many monitors at once.

The girl on the said monitor paused in her efforts and sighed. She probably ran out of ideas to write. After a few taps of her pen she closed it and put it off to the side. She reached over and grabbed her grey laptop case with bright neon yellow sakura-like flowers scattered around and got out her laptop. According to the reports there was only searching through the internet, emails, and documents of her stories and other kinds of random teenage girl stuff.

"Tricked by the cover again," Raito said, putting the dirty magazine back in it's hiding place.

Apparently the walls were thin enough to where Charlotte could hear. "Ugh. Pervert," she mumbled, rolling her brown eyes from behind her thick black framed glasses. She opened up her laptop, typed in her password, which only I and whoever put in the cameras and searched the room know, and browsed through the internet. From what I could recognize it was sites about Kira. She merely read through it, site after site, article after article, news report after news report.

"Has she ever given any sort of opinion to Kira?" I asked.

Chief Yagami knew where I was getting at as soon as he took his eyes off of his son and on to his niece. "No. She hardly speaks at all, let alone talk about Kira. You don't think that she agrees with what Kira's doing, do you?" The chief seemed a little uncertain.

"Either she doesn't agree and is just going on with her daily life or she does agree, but is keeping quiet about it because she knows you're working on this case. At this point, we can't be sure, but it doesn't matter, because we both agree that she is not Kira."

"Ryuuzaki, what makes you so sure that it's more likely my son than Charlotte?"

"Are you saying that you are hoping that Charlotte is Kira?"

"No, of course not. It's just that I don't understand why Charlotte isn't more of a suspect than Raito. It seems like she's hiding something all the time. She seems more suspicious to me," he said. He was being brutally honest, hoping he could save his son.

"Because, Kira likes showing who's boss; he has self-assurance. Where Raito is outspoken, she is definitely not. Raito is confident both at home and at school to where he has this ray of light that shines down on him that says 'I will be successful.' Charlotte, just doesn't seem to want that attention. Understand?"

After a few seconds of hesitation, he said, "Yes. You're right. I know she can be smart, but she doesn't apply herself like she should. She's definitely not like Kira."

"Exactly."

Charlotte's P. O. V.

These sites are just Kira groupies, I thought as I scanned article after article starring Kira. They have no real information about Kira. They just state that he's right for killing the criminals. Gosh, are these people complete idiots? I know the system today is pretty fucked up, but come on. He's just some stupid and childish person who's playing God.

I took a deep breath and ran a hand through my curly brown hair to calm my hand got caught in a few tangles so I tugged at it painfully until it was freed.

Kira is probably just some guy who adores attention. He believes he's a great person because he can kill people without solid evidence against him, so he's mass murdering hundreds of criminals so he can gain the attention he thinks he deserves. Consequently, because of the killings, people are starting to believe that he actually is God; Kira is probably believing this as well. But, he absolutely hates losing, hence the Lind. L. Tailor incident. That in itself proves that he has some sort of supernatural powers and that he wants to show the people not to mess with him. I can safely bet that he was pissed when he found out that L didn't give himself up and that he found out what area in the world Kira was hiding.

The police obviously don't trust L because his face and name are a mystery and that's partly understandable, but he wants to capture Kira. That's all that should matter. As for L being Kira, that is not true. Schizophrenia my ass! Tyler worked with L and often wrote about his genius in his books and emails to me. That's just how L works, but he's being bold in this case. I heard that Uncle Souichiro is actually working with him face-to-face. That's something that has never happened before.

"I'm home!" Sayu yelled from the door.

"Oh great. She's home," Imumbled sarcastically. "Time to go." I cleared the history and I shut down my laptop, put it back in it's case and tucked it under the bed. Right when she entered the room I grabbed my backpack and the journal and headed towards the exit.

"Why do you always leave when I come home?" She asked with a huff. She was annoyed.

"Because," I said. I quickly went out of the house before she asked anything more. I definitely didn't want to elaborate what I meant, and she would probably forget about it by the time dinner came around. Or when Ryuga Hideki came on television. Girly infatuations; yuck.

I just wandered around the city, looking in on bookstores, and visiting a café. I was thinking about the call I received from one of my best friends after I came to Japan. Sumi wanted to discuss something important with me; why me, I didn't really know. Unfortunately she died a few hours before I was able to arrive to our favorite meeting place. A heart attack at the age of twenty-one. I concluded that it was Kira who had done it.

She must have seen something she shouldn't have. She was probably afraid of sending what she knew to her editor or the police. Maybe I could have kept that information safe or maybe I could have given it to my uncle. I don't know what she wanted to tell me or what she wanted me to do, but it was obvious that it was very important. I had a plan but I had to wait.

L's P. O. V.

The family was so painfully normal. I was starting to wonder what Charlotte was doing right before she came home. She dropped off her shoes at the front and went to her room without a single word. She put down her backpack at the side of her bed and lied down with her feet still firmly planted on the floor. She reached up above her head, and arched her back. There was a row of pops that came from her spine. She moaned and sighed afterwards; it must have felt good. Then she sat up and cracked her neck.

She went to wash her hands for dinner and went down stairs just in time to hear the mother say, "Sayu, can you go get Charlotte." She was setting up the table and putting the food on the ceramic plates.

"She's not here. She left hours ago," she said in an almost whiney tone.

Charlotte had a small devious look on her face. She pushed up her glasses with a little smirk playing on her thin lips. She crouched down behind Sayu and jabbed her pointer fingers on both of Sayu's sides.

Sayu screamed in fright and waved her arm violently behind her. If Charlotte hadn't have ducked then she would have gotten smacked. With the amount of force behind that smack, Sayu tripped and fell on her behind. "I thought you left!" She yelled.

Charlotte stood up with a serious face. "I came back," she said casually, as if she wasn't the one who just played a trick on her little cousin. "So what? Am I not welcome?"

"Well, it's not as if you're here at all during the day time."

"Neither are you. It's called 'school.'"

Sayu was obviously getting annoyed. She growled and narrowed her eyes at Charlotte.

Raito came down from a few hours of studying to find his cousin and little sister standing in the middle of the living room having a staring contest. "Cut it out Charlotte. You're so immature."

"Says the guy that only studies and looks at porn," Charlotte mumbled a tiny bit too loudly. Luckily only Raito, and not Sayu, had heard.

Raito merely gave her a quick glare and they all headed to the kitchen for dinner. Ryuga Hideki was on the television set because Sayu had wanted to watch it. There were comments between Raito and Sayu about it.

"Hey, Charlotte? Who's your idol?"

She blinked a few times before looking at Sayu right next to her. She looked up and hummed lowly, thinking of an answer. She itched the side of her head and looked back at her food. "Don't know. Don't care," she said, taking a bite of her food.

"Oh, come on. There has to be someone you admire."

There was another hum. "My mentor then," she said. I had the feeling she was only saying those things just for the sake of answering the questions and to keep Sayu quiet.

"Your mentor? I didn't realize you had a mentor. Is it because you don't do your homework?"

"No. I already graduated from the class. Please let me eat in peace. There's already too much noise by the name of Ryuga Hideki."

Sayu's eyes widened greatly. She was mad that her idol was made fun of.

"That's enough Charlotte," the mother said.

"Sorry," she mumbled. It wasn't at all sincere.

I decided now was a good time as any to put up the fake broadcast. Raito figured out the bluff almost immediately.

Charlotte then added on with a question. "Then is it L making up the bluff? The police definitely wouldn't use this tactic; it seems useless. If they don't know what they're looking for then they wouldn't find it, even if they looked in the right spot over and over again. So L's trying to draw Kira out or look for any signs of activity that may give him away, right?"

She was good.

Raito and Sayu stared at her, but I noted that Raito looked more shocked than amazed like Sayu. I looked at the Chief and he looked a little stunned as well. From what I gathered so far, Charlotte probably was a lot smarter than what she lead on to be. "Wow," I said. "She's very intuitive, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Yeah, he was stunned. "I didn't think that…" He let the sentence trail off.

After finding the staring uncomfortable, she excused herself and went to the bathroom to wash her hands and brush her teeth. She went to her room and took out a blue spiral bound notebook and started writing again. I could tell that she was thinking about a lot of stuff other than what she was writing. She was probably thinking about the broadcast. If she quickly came up with me sending out that fake broadcast then she can probably guess at a lot of other things about the Kira case.

Maybe she's not leading them on on purpose, I thought. Maybe, because of lack of a serious response from her(it's obvious that she prefers to keep her thoughts to herself), they are actually the ones that think that she doesn't really know what's going on. No, not 'know,' but that she just doesn't care to know. So, in thinking that, Charlotte is merely a shadow in this family. It's very obvious that she's highly underestimated.

After dinner was finished the mother did the dishes, Raito got a bag of chips as a study snack, and Sayu went to her room to do her homework. She often commented to Charlotte about her C's because she didn't do her homework. She compared her to Raito indirectly. Charlotte reached for her laptop, went to an website, plugged in her headphones and played her custom online play-list at full volume. I couldn't tell if she was annoyed at Sayu for silently comparing her to Raito, or telling her that she could do better and be successful if she just applied herself more. Either way, it was definitely something even I (if I was her) wouldn't want to listen to.

Soon enough, at about 11:30 pm, everyone went to sleep. Well, at least I thought so. At about two in the morning (Raito was asleep by then) Charlotte got up and changed into an AFI T-shirt and jeans and reached in to her backpack for her cell phone. She grabbed a pair of black sneakers from the back corner of her closet and went to her window. She slowly opened it and stepped out onto the roof. She sat on the sill and put on her shoes and when she got them on, she closed the window and carefully climbed down one of the pillars. She hopped off and onto the grass, landing on her feet and then falling on her side.

She reached for her phone and called someone, unfortunately we could only hear half of the conversation because we couldn't bug her phone. "Hi, this is Charlotte Yagami," she said in a low whisper. "I'm a good friend of Sumi's and I was wondering if she had anything to give to me. She died the day I was supposed to meet her a few weeks ago, and it seemed very important." She slowly walked around the perimeter of the house, heading to the front gate.

I looked at Chief Yagami. His mouth was agape. I guessed that he could hardly believe that his 'quiet innocent and naïve little niece' was sneaking out in the middle of the night. No less looking for something from her dead friends. It was a little confusing, even for me. What could be so important as to sneak out in the middle of the night? I thought.

"Really? You have her notes? Do you know what they are about or if she was going to write an article about it?"

Article? I remembered that she attended a writing school. Could her friend be a journalist? It certainly is possible that she was referred to someone in the journalist field when she finished the writing school. I had Watari look up a "Sumi" in the casualties list and I was immediately graced with a result. I thanked Watari.

Her name was Sumi Hagetaka. She died only a few days after Raye Penbar was murdered and by heart attack at the young age of twenty-one. She's a journalist for a popular magazine article that depicts the latest news. Lately, of course, has been Kira and apparently, she was the best at writing about Kira. She even said that she was doing her own investigative work. I had Watari print out some of her latest articles. I quickly scanned through them. They were mainly opinionated statements about Kira being wrong in killing criminals. She had valid points, and some great observations on Kira's profile, even made points about the showed evidence. My guess was that she followed too closely on a lead and ended up paying for it by Kira, but not before letting someone (Charlotte) know that she had something.

I looked at the photo of her. I recognized her as the witness at the train station of where Raye was murdered. Kira must have seen her… And she must have seen him. He must have not known her name at the time so it gave Sumi a few days head start. Whoever Kira was must have seen the article and learned her name, since her picture was in the magazine. Why Sumi didn't tell the police is what I didn't know. I looked at Chief Yagami and then back at the screen. Of course, if Raito is Kira, then that is a good of any reason to keep it quiet until substantial proof is found.

"What does it say Ryuuzaki?" Chief Yagami asked. I gave him the papers for him to read for himself.

"This niece of yours has some friends in high places. According to Sumi's articles, your niece most likely isn't on Kira's side. So you shouldn't worry too much about her. However I will need to talk to her alone very soon. There might be a chance that Charlotte has more information on Kira that can help us. Understood?"

"Yes."

After three hours and fifty two minutes, Charlotte returned to the house and snuck in the same way she went out. She had a manila folder stuffed with papers of information in her arm. She looked almost distraught, but she was keeping calm about it. When she closed the window and put away her shoes, she stuffed the folder in her backpack and, in turn, took out another spiral bound notebook, but it was green. She went to the desk and turned on a lamp and began writing. It must have been her way of relieving tension and stress. After a while of writing, she quietly said, "I should have known."

After that, the family acted relatively normal. I kept a close eye on Charlotte, but even she went back to normal; it was possibly an act. She didn't take out the manila folder out of her backpack at home, but there could be a possibility that it was in her school locker. If it was, she must have thought that it was safer there than at home to where there were prying eyes. She never snuck out again. It was a good thing that we installed the cameras when we did then, or we would have missed it. The cameras were uninstalled after five days, but we still had audio monitoring systems just in case. I didn't hear anything suspicious from Raito, and hardly anything at all from Charlotte.

I figured out a way to talk to Charlotte alone though, so my plan would be into action as soon as a few conditions were met. First, I had to meet Raito face-to-face.

Hilo again! Please, let me know what you think. Review. Please.

"The thing women need to learn is that nobody gives you power. You just take it." -- Roseanne Barr