It wasn't supposed to go like this. I'm not supposed to be here. I should be in college somewhere learning how to do things that I'm not going to use; I should be somewhere safe. It shouldn't be 2AM in central Tokyo, and I shouldn't be surrounded by shield carrying policemen. I should, however, have listened to mom. Maybe those teachers and physicatrists had something when they told me to make new friends.

My hands shook and I rubbed my ankles together roughly as I sat in a terribly small box-like chair next to an even bigger box-like chair with a judge sitting there. My mother said that it was the kindness of his heart… I say it was out of boredom that the L took up my case….

"Toidiami, Kitsune," the attorney started, trying to scare me as he stared angrily into my eyes; "why?"

"Objection," my lawyer said.

"Overruled," the judge said.

"Why did you shoot Drater-san?" the attorney continued.

"I did no such thing."

"We have solid proof that you did- mostly that we caught you at the sight holding the gun, next to the bodies of the Drater family and friends."

"Mostly?" I asked casually. "You have proof beyond this?"

"DNA on the gun," he started to list.

"It was thrown to me, and I caught it."

"Motives."

"Everyone has a motive for everything."

"Please," L-san's distorted voice said from the computer held by a tall, long-coated man, "You aren't giving any proof to anyone that can't be easily contradicted by Toidiami-san."

"Well she has no proof that she wasn't the one who killed this large group," the attorney exploded.

The daughter of the Drater family was only 11 or so, and sat as the plaintiff behind a large, polished stand, her cheeks wet with hatred- hatred for me. She wanted me dead and killed in such horrible ways that the human mind can only start to comprehend them… She wants revenge but toward the wrong person.

"Yes, but, though not caught on film, she was with a group. A group named 'Vampiro Del Norte' for their dark ways and many murders and battery attempts. This was only the first full-fledged homicide, especially in such a large number," L-san told them. How could he know of the VdN?

"And how would you know this?" the attorney challenged openly.

All eyes in the court, besides the Drater Daughter, went to the fancily drawn L that adorned the otherwise blank screen. It flashed slightly before he went on.

"Angle, for one- please, if you would, play the video again."

There was a security camera that had been around the corner, and they used the tape, watching it repeatedly, but finding nothing.

"You can see Toidiami-san's shadow against the jewelry store window nearly parallel to where the bodies and she were found. She stays in the position the entire time, and, even though you can only vaguely tell that someone is there, you can see the pink tips of her hair throughout, and as she checks her cell phone, a light can be seen, and the window shows her face. Like I said, she stays here for the entire time, and using simple math, you can see that where the bodies were and where she stood were completely wrong."

"Maybe she moved the bodies," the Drater Daughter spoke up, her voice soft and cracking.

"No," L-san said simply; "the clothes of these victims were completely untouched by Toidiami-san. She could have used gloves, yes, but no gloves were found anywhere near where she was. Plastic-latex gloves, however, where found 4 miles away in a trash can with every Drater and other victim's blood stains, and the wearers of these gloves, for there were 6 pairs, were all outward members of Vampiro Del Norte, the notorious gang with which Toidiami-san spent her time with as an escape from her…" -he paused, and I knew that if he was actually here, he would face me- "life and school didn't you say, Kitsune-san?"

My breath caught. I'd said that only to my psychiatrist… had he leaked it?

"How would you know that?" the attorney towards whom my hate had grown rapidly questioned.

"She told me," L-san answered.

Suddenly the music that I had heard in my head became mute, and all of the voices in the court room disappeared.

"Why do you hang out with them if they are only going to get you into trouble?"

"I hang around them because they're so different- it's like an escape from…. everything."

"Why would you need an escape? Your life seems more than perfect. You're getting an award tomorrow for your exam scores, aren't you?" the dark haired boy asked me.

"Yes… but that's all so shallow. Every now and then you need an escape from your life… and your parents…."

"What's wrong with your parents?"

"Well my father's over in America teaching Japanese and my mother's at home trying to make the best of my not having a fatherly figure- instead of helping all she's done is create a hellish environment for me. She puts up pictures of him in one room, but not in the next, and she greets me as if she hasn't seen me in the last 4 years or something. She writes notes and letters to him and never sends them, but instead throws them away and starts again, then calls me up to help her…"

The boy next to me wasn't really a boy, but not really a man- just a male human. He sat with his knees held level with his collar bone, and looked incredibly tired, while still stunningly alert towards all around him. We'd met only last week on the train when my best friend and I'd lost her little sister in the crowd, and he brought her back. My friend had been Aneko-chan, and her sister the girl behind the stand that clearly read 'PLAINTIFF', named Midori- this girl with hatred burning through her eyes.

"Toidiami-san!"

Had the boy that brought Drater, Midori back smiling with a chocolate bar in her hand really been L? Or had he been linked to L? Had L just simply heard us from another close connection? Surely the dark haired, sleepily attentive eyed one who I'd opened up to that day hadn't been the world-renowned L…

"Toidiami-san!" the attorney yelled again.

"I'm sorry… yes?" I looked at his angry face.

"What do you have to say to this?" L asked calmly.

"I have to say… that L is completely correct. I could do nothing; I wasn't old enough or strong enough to overpower the Vampiro Del Norte without putting myself in a position of being killed."

"Kitsune-chan had always been loved by my family, and we acted with her as if she was our sister. She never acted hostile around us, but she also did not kill the Drater family excluding me," Midori told the court-room.

The court room completely silenced- no one even seemed to breathe.

"Go on," L told her finally.

"I only hate her because she stood watching the time on her cell phone as my family and our parents' friends were shot to death in front of my sister and I, then they took Aneko-chan, at which point Kitsune-chan started to intervene, but stopped when the police sirens came really close, and all of the men of the gang dropped Aneko and shot her twice in the head before leaving me and Kitsune-chan to face the police. I was trying to keep myself from simply falling and probably passing out from the shock of my sister's and parents' blood mixing on the ground before Kitsune-chan and me."

The room was silent.

"Why was this never brought to our attention?" my lawyer finally asked.

The bull-dog-faced attorney stumbled around his words- he'd tried to get a recess before Midori was let onto the stand, and now I know why; the bastard had wanted to win this case so badly that he'd with-held evidence that would've completely freed me.

"Notori-san, you fool," my lawyer spat, and stood. "Your honor, I would like to now like to point out the obvious to everyone in this court: Notori-san has with held critical evidence, and can now be held in contempt. We rest our case, your honor," he finished smugly.

"I-I…" Notori looked around, and to the judge.

Wow, even I wouldn't have sunken that low.

"Obviously this case is solved with proof, and a witness who denies all charges against Toidiami, Kitsune," L said from the computer.

Always I have wanted to thank L for saving my life. Without him, Midori would've been seen as simply a child with a crazy story about the tragic death of her family.

Without him, I wouldn't have gotten my award for the exam he'd known well about, and I'd never had gotten myself into this new mess…