Chapter One: Mara

She didn't know why he was like this, why he was so adamant on finding this person, this person that was never more than a letter to her. There was hardly any information given to her about who this person was, just that L had known of whoever it was, and that it was rather important he learn the whereabouts about aforementioned person of mystery. But Mara hadn't questioned it. No, she simply went along with it, despite her hatred of feeling like nothing more than a tool that L was using to collect information. She knew how to get around, and how to get information. She'd been raised as a bit of a street rat - she had gotten out of it eventually - but because of this, she knew her way around town, and how to do dangerous things in a safer way.

And that was why L had asked her to join him. She'd been working with the detective since March, and only recently - since about May - had she ever truly seen the detective get this bent over trying to find whoever it was he was striving to locate. But she thought it best to remain silent, and not to ask anymore questions, as she was aware it would probably get her no where at all. L seemed to be keeping her at arms length - not that he had ever held her closer than that before. In fact, she'd never actually seen him.

That's right. Mara had never seen L before. Mara had always communicated with the detective through computer or phone calls, but never in person. The closest she had ever gotten to seeing the detective in person was a time when they met at a low life restaurant, and they had sat in booths that were back to back, so, though his presence was in the booth right behind her, Mara was asked to keep her back to him at all times. She had done so, and the exchange of information was made, and then they went their separate ways.

For now, the young woman was laying on her bed in her apartment which was located in a terrible part of town . She didn't have to live in such an area. If she so chose, Mara had the funds to buy an actual house in a nice neighborhood instead of living in a place that proved to be a hazard in and of itself. But this place was where she was comfortable. She'd grown up in the 'Underworld' part of towns, and this was where she chose to remain - it was easier to operate here. Sometimes her line of work asked her to behave in shady ways, and no better a place to fulfill such duties than the most shadiest places around. So yes, here was more convenient than if she were living in the Beverly Hills sort of place.

And as she stared up at the ceiling, her dark hair fanning out around her, Mara was thinking. L had contacted her recently, within the last day actually, and had told her that he had taken on a case, a case that surprised her to learn that L had decided to solve. It was a murder, a murder that L had taken great interest in, it seemed. He had talked to her through laptop, and she could only sit and listen as he relayed to her all the happenings.

Closing her eyes, Mara thought back to her discussion.

The time on the clock read 8:23 p.m. on the first of August. The day before, a body had been discovered. The name of the victim was Believe Bridesmaid. According to L, the victim had been drugged and strangled, then, after death, the body had been mutilated by knife marks to the chest. It all sounded so very terrible, but it was just a murder. Okay, that sounded a bit … cold. But it was what it was, and what Mara was more concerned with was why L found the need to dive into this case. It was just one, and normally L needed far more than one murder to consider getting involved. It wasn't that he was prideful - or, she didn't think that was why - but he only became involved in a case if it proved difficult for the other forms of authorities, or if it had personal interest to him. Now, considering it was one murder that had been committed only the day before, there was no proof that the police could not solve this on their own, so it had to be personal interest that made L become involved.

"So what do you want me to do about it?" She asked, staring at her open laptop. The screen was white, except for a intricate L right in the middle. Adjusting her microphone headset a little, Mara crossed her arms lightly, a confused look in her eyes.

"I want you to help me," the synthetic voice answered. L never spoke using his real voice. Well, he did, but it was altered to sound different; mechanic. The only time she had ever heard his true voice was that one time at the restaurant, but even on the phone his voice was altered.

"Why?"

"Are you saying no?"

"No, I'm not. But I want to know why you even feel the need to be involved in this case. It isn't your M.O."

There was a pause. L had worked with her a couple of times before, so he knew she could be pretty stubborn, and, if not given a proper reason, was probably not going to help. But L could be equally as stubborn when he wanted to be, so it had been fairly easy for the two to be able to work together.

"All I can tell you for now is that I have personal interest in this case, and would appreciate your help," he finally answered.

Mara sighed, leaning back in her chair, taking a moment to think over it. Personal interest, huh? So there was a pretty big chance this whole thing would end up entertaining for her if she played along. And yes, she realized that he needed someone to use as his … representative. But she was a terrible choice for something like that. She would help, but more often than not, Mara didn't follow the rules enough to be considered a true pet. She was just a person who had the means, ability, and will to help bring criminals to justice. So if L was looking for someone to be his shield, he'd have to look elsewhere. But if he was looking for an accomplice of sorts, then he'd asked the right girl.

"Okay, I'll do it. I will help you," she answered after a moment.

"Good. I'm asking another person to help us. I think she'll be useful."

Her eyebrows raised in surprise. Someone else? "Who?"

"Someone from the FBI," the synthetic voice replied, earning a scoff from Mara. "She is good at what she does. I think she'll be very helpful."

"Whatever you say," Mara muttered in reply.

That had been a few days ago. Now it was August 15th at two-thirty in the morning, and there had been two other murders. During the days between when L had first contacted her, Mara had been striving to get as much information as possible. In fact, she had just returned from a day in the alleys, seeing if the murderer had been any of the scum that she forced herself to live among. It got her no where, as, apparently, it hadn't been any of those rats who had committed the murder. So, coming home tired and frustrated, Mara had showered and changed, flopping down onto her bed.

She hadn't been there for more than five minutes before a beeping sound from her laptop brought her to attention. Looking up over the dark purple duvet, she groaned at what she saw. There on the screen of her laptop, against the white background, was the letter L in all it's glory.

"What does he want now," she mumbled, slowly getting up from her bed and walking over to flop down in the chair in front of her desk. Putting on her headset, she spoke into the microphone. "What?" She asked, glaring at the giant L on her laptop screen.

"There's been another murder," the mechanic voice said. This news caused Mara to lean her head back and close her eyes, taking a deep breath and exhaling it as a heavy sigh before focusing back on the laptop. She had already knew about the second murder, the one of Quarter Queen, a thirteen-year-old girl who had been found in the middle of an apartment with her head bashed in and her eyeballs crushed. Like all the other murders, there had been the locked door, and the Wara Ningyo

"Who?"

"A 26-year-old female named Backyard Bottomslash. Her body was found in a room in her home, her left arm and right leg were chopped off at the root. She died from strangulation, extreme blood loss, beating, stabbing, and massive hemorrhaging, The Wara Ningyo were found at murder location as well, only two this time."

"How delightful," Mara muttered sarcastically.

"Also, I have contacted the FBI agent; Naomi Misora. She has agreed to help us."

"Wonderful," she said again, just as sarcastic as before.

"You will be meeting up with her in a few hours," the artificial voice added.

"What?" Mara asked. She would much rather spend her time sleeping, than meeting up with some FBI agent to investigate murder scenes. But, they needed to catch the killer, and that was all that matter. So, with a resigned sigh, Mara nodded her head, despite knowing that the detective couldn't see it. "Okay, what time?"

"Misora will be at the scene of the first murder at about noon."

"I'll be there."

"Good," the synthetic voice said. And then the connection was cut off.

Mara got up, turned off her laptop, set her headset aside, and crawled into her bed. If anything was a relief to her, it was that she didn't need to worry about getting up too early, which gave her plenty of time to get substantial sleep. And that was exactly what she did. Sinking down into her covers, Mara was asleep within minutes.

The next morning, Mara was awake at ten, getting up and taking another shower - just for the heck of it - and then getting dressed. When it was about 11:30, she left the house, heading on her way to meet with this Misora woman at the Hollywood Insist Street.

Mara arrived at the house at noon, and waited patiently until half past noon when the sight of a woman with long black hair appeared. When the woman caught sight of Mara, she walked straight over to her.

"Are you Mara Hana?" She asked. She looked almost nervous to Mara, like she wasn't sure she wanted to be here. For a split second, Mara began to wonder just what kind of FBI agent L had asked to help. She wasn't so much thinking this in a derogatory mindset, but more along the lines of: 'Did he choose a field agent? Or someone who's never done something like this before?' But that would be underestimating L, and if you did that, then you were wrong. So, she pushed the thoughts aside.

"Yes. And you are Naomi Misora?" Mara asked in return. Of course she was, who else could she be? Still, she felt obligated to ask.

The woman nodded her head, a friendly smile on her lips. "So shall we go in?"

Mara stood from where she had been leaning against a lamp post, and nodded, motioning for Misora to lead the way.

Following after the woman, Mara's gaze swept over the outside area, taking everything in as she walked. The place was pretty big, nice, but big. By the look in Misora's eyes, it seemed she was having the same thoughts.

"Wait," Naomi said, holding up her hand and coming to a halt, Mara doing the same. "How are we supposed to get in?" She said, looking suddenly concerned, and, at the same time, frustrated with herself as though she was trying to figure out why she hadn't thought of that before.

"L has us covered," Mara responded simply, resuming the walk up to the door of the house, opening it. Letting the door slowly swing open on its hinges, Mara looked over at Naomi, who smiled in a relieved way, and walked in.

"Now, the murder was in the bedroom," Misora said, her voice taking on a slightly thoughtful tone. "Which would probably be somewhere over in this direction."

Mara followed after her, looking around as she did so. Since the FBI had already been through here, there was a very small chance of finding any visible clues. And, beside that, according to L, the killer had been very thorough in cleaning the place down, leaving no trace at all that he'd been in the house except for, of course, the dead body and the Wara Ningyo. Maybe their killer was a neat freak? Or maybe ha had OCD? As amusing as the thought was, when taking into consideration the other two murders, it could really only be taken as a joke, and not seriously. Which was all well in good, as Mara had only thought it as a joke.

Looking over at the FBI agent, Mara was a little curious as to the slightly troubled expression on her face. Misora must have noticed Mara looking at her with such a quizzical expression, because she spoke up just a second later. "What is it we're hoping to find?" She asked. "I mean, what could there possibly be for us to find? The FBI have already been through hear, so there probably isn't a single thing here for us to find."

Mara shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. But think of it as a game. Can you do better than the FBI, or can you not? If we don't find anything, then we'll move on. If we do, then we win. Simple rules," Mara replied, looking around the house. This didn't seem to do much by ways of appeasing Misora's concern, but the woman did continue on.

When they finally found the bedroom, the first thing they looked at was the door. It had a thumb turn lock, and, remembering the information given them on the murder, it was a locked room - like the other murders that followed.

Walking into the room, the two women found that it wasn't especially big, but it was clean and had a bit of space due to lack of furniture. By lack of furniture, I mean, the guy didn't load his bedroom up with pointless furniture like unnecessary chairs and desks and things. It was neat and it was clean.

"Should we contact L?" Misora asked, looking over at Mara. The other woman had more experience dealing with the estranged detective than she had, so her opinion mattered quite a bit to her on things like that. But, judging by what L had told her of Mara - which wasn't much - she had had very little contact with the detective. But still, very little was better than none at all, which was what Naomi had.

"If you would like to do, then by all means do," was the response.

So very helpful, Naomi thought to herself. But she pulled out her phone nonetheless and dialed the number to contact L.

While Mara talked to L, Mara was busy looking around the room. She didn't know what she was looking for, but if she found something worth the time spent searching, she would recognize it. She also listened in on a bit of the conversation Misora was having with L, as it was rather difficult not to seeing as how they were in the same room. She never heard a thing L said, but only got Naomi's side of the conversation - which was something about abnormality and things like how finicky the murdered must be to go to such an extent on cleaning things, which made Mara smirk. It was true, their killer had been quite thorough in the cleaning process. Misora spoke of finding the criminal's mistake, which Mara agreed on mentally. The only problem was, how do you find a mistake that isn't there? Seriously, this place was perfect. Whoever this killer is, he definitely knew how to cover his tracks.

The phone conversation went on for a few more minutes, in which Naomi left the room, closed the door, then came back in. All this Mara ignored, leaving Misora to her own, waiting until the phone conversation ended. Though, one thing she heard interested her quite a bit. A mistake? She was on leave from the FBI? What had she done? Mara gave these questions some thought, then dismissed it, deciding it was better to leave it alone due to the fact none of it had any sort of influence on her, and would get them no where with the case worrying about it.

"L said we should be looking for something the killer left behind deliberately," Misora said.

"Like those pretty little voodoo dolls?" Mara replied, a bit of sarcasm to her words.

Mara nodded. "Yes, but different. More like, a clue that wasn't meant to be easily seen."

"Like the crossword puzzle sent to the LAPD?"

"Exactly. But there hasn't been anymore of those sent, so it's something different."

"Of course," Mara said with a nod, looking over the books in the bookshelves. Misora joined her a moment later, and the two began the painstaking job of trying to pry out a few books from the shelf, flip through the pages, and shove them back in. This went on for a few minutes, and, then, when they both decided there was nothing there, Naomi looked over at her.

"Where could he be hiding something?" She muttered. There could be any number of ridiculous places to hide a clue in this room, and they were not finding a thing. But then Misora paused. Maybe they shouldn't be looking for something in the room, but more like, something that isn't; something missing. What was missing …. The victim was missing.

Mara watched Naomi get out the pictures and look through them, tilting them this way and then that way, getting a new angle for the body. "If you look at the body this way … then the slash marks sort of look like … almost like letter," she said. Mara quirked an eyebrow, walking around to stand next to Misora, looking at the picture. Yes, she was right. They sort of did. Sort of.

"Is that an L?" Misora asked, more to herself than to Mara.

The two stood there in silence for another three minutes, just looking at the victim's body and seeing if they could get some form of a message out of the slash marks on the body. After a while, they gave up. Putting the pictures away with a heavy sigh, Misora looked around the room.

"Maybe there could be something on the bed? Or something like that?" she suggested.

Mara glanced over at the fairly large bed, staring at it for a moment. "Sure, why not?" It seemed so far that there was really nothing at all for them to find on the bookshelf, or anywhere else in the room, so maybe the bed would be their winning piece.

The two women walked over to the bed, and together they looked through the blankets and sheets, under the mattress, in the pillows. Nothing.

Mara heard Naomi mutter something like, 'Maybe under it … ' And then she watched as the woman started to kneel down, only to jump up with a sound that was mixed between a gasp and a scream, causing Mara to jump. Just as she was about to ask what it was, someone scrambled out from under the bed. He was tall, though you couldn't quite tell due to his slouched posture, and his hair was raven black. Moving around to stand next to Misora - who looked like she was torn between being insanely scared, and ready to kill the guy in front of her. The stranger was wearing faded jeans and a baggy white, long-sleeved shirt. He was nibbling on his thumbnail, and his eyes seemed rather lifeless.

"Who are you?" Naomi asked, clearly unhappy that he had spooked her. Mara just wanted to know how long he'd been under there for one. She was had a nonchalant sort of look on at the moment, but she was just as freaked out as Naomi, readying herself in case of a fight.

But the stranger didn't seem the least bit perturbed by any of this. "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Ryuzaki.."

Chapter Two: Ryuzaki, the Jam-Loving Detective

Mara's eyes flickered over the man in front of her, taking in his rather strange, creepy almost, appearance. Said person, who had introduced himself as Ryuzaki, looked over Misora, and then turned his gaze to her. As he looked at her, his eyes lingered at the air above her head, a troubled looked appearing faintly in his eyes, though he quickly dismissed it from his expression, turning his attention back to Naomi, though his gaze flicked over to Mara once or twice. This behavior left Mara feeling questionable as well.

"Well, Ryuzaki," Naomi started, clearing her throat. She was obviously still a little shaken from the precious moment's happenings. It wasn't everyday you investigated a crime scene of a murder and someone came out from under the bed of the victim while you yourself was just about to look underneath aforementioned bed. "Or, Rue Ryuzaki," she adjusted, reading the business card he had handed her. Mara glanced over at it, quirking an eyebrow. Apparently he was a detective of some sort then, huh? Interesting. "How about we go sit down?"

A few minutes later, they were all sitting around in the living room, a sort of silence that had fallen down between them all. On the couch sat Ryuzaki, who was sitting in a very strange position with his legs brought up to his chest, and then Mara and Misora were sitting in chairs in front of him. Misora was staring at the business card Ryuzaki had handed her. Eventually, she looked back over at the strange man.

"So it says you're a detective, is that private detective?"

"No, not at all. I'm a detective, but a less egotistical one," he explained.

The two women shared a look, but Naomi carried on easily. "Okay. So would you like to explain to us what it was you were doing under the bed?"

"I was merely doing the same thing you were. Investigating. The family of the first victim to do some investigating, and now I'm investigating all the killings."

"And did you find anything?" Misora asked again. Mara herself was beginning to feel like this was becoming an interrogation - which was rather called for seeing as how he had just been hiding under a bed, and had never made himself known until just when it was absolutely necessary. That is, he only appeared when she and Naomi were about to discover him on their own. It was all very suspicious, so she felt that Naomi had every right to ask her all these questions. Besides, Mara herself was still curious about him, and, apparently, Ryuzaki was fairly curious about her for some unknown reason, which could be why he continuously glanced at her with that slightly troubled look in his eyes.

"I'm guessing you two are detectives as well?" Ryuzaki asked, ignoring her question.

Misora glanced over at Mara before nodding her head. "Yes, we are. I'm Naomi Misora, and this is Mara Hana. Our employer's identity is confidential, but we have been hired to investigate the murders as well." Actually, that was a partial lie. Yes, they were here to investigate, and, yes, Misora was a detective, but Mara was not. But what Ryuzaki didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

"We should work together," Ryuzaki said with a nod, causing Mara to quirk her eyebrow in surprise. Do what now? No. This guy should leave and let them be - he was seriously weird.

"Did you find anything of usefulness under the bed?" Naomi asked, repeating her question.

Ryuzaki smiled slightly, and shook his head. "No, nothing. When I heard someone come into the house, I hid in case it was someone like the killer himself. But when I decided neither of you were the killer, I came out."

Likely story.

Apparently, judging by the flicker of an expression that appeared and then vanished on Misora's face, it was obvious that she was thinking the same thing. There was chatter about the exchanging of information, though Naomi disagreed with that. But that didn't seem to stop this Ryuzaki. Instead, he simply said he would give her some information, and then, if they chose to do so, they could give some to him. And then he brought out a folded piece of paper from his pocket, giving it to Naomi - sending a glance at Mara.

It was becoming increasingly obvious to Mara that there was something about her that he didn't quite like, which was okay with her she supposed, but nevertheless, she would really like to know what it was that had him looking so confused every time he looked at her.

Turning her attention over to the paper that Misora now held in her hands, Mara was a little bit surprised to see the crossword puzzle. She had seen a copy of it that L had sent her. Well, he more of dead dropped it to her, but whatever. Either way, she'd seen a copy, and that was most definitely the crossword puzzle. It had stumped the LAPD, but, L had figured it out, and the result was the address of this same house.

Misora looked over at Mara, then at Ryuzaki. "Is this the …?"

Ryuzaki looked a bit gleeful. "So you do know what this is!"

"Only a-"

"Yes," Mara said, cutting Naomi off, causing both Ryuzaki and Misora both looked over at her. "It's a crossword puzzle that was sent to the LAPD on the 22nd of July. If you can sort out the puzzle and get the answer, you'll find it's the address of the first victim, or, this address."

Misora nodded her head slowly, but Ryuzaki just looked at her, soon a smile spreading onto his face. "Yes, you're right. Very good."

There was a bit more chatter between Ryuzaki and Misora about the puzzle. Misora was making sure that they were sure it really did have the address as the answer, and after Ryuzaki assured her on it, he stood up with an "Excuse me,." This brought curious looks to the faces of both women, as he went on opening the jar as if it were simply ordinary for him to do so. The sound of the refrigerator door opening met their ears, but not the sound of it closing as he returned. When he did come back, Ryuzaki had what appeared to be a jar of strawberry jam. No bread, no crackers, just the jar of jam. He didn't even have a spoon or butter knife with him, just the jar of jam.

"I-Is that yours?" Mara hesitated to ask, afraid he might say no, and that he had just gone into the fridge of a dead person and got their jam. True, they wouldn't been needing it anymore, as they were dead, but it still seemed a bit … Odd.

"Yes, I brought it with me," he replied. "I'm rather hungry and I do believe it is time for lunch." He looked around then, as if searching for a clock. When he didn't find one, Ryuzaki merely shrugged his shoulders indifferently, opened up the jar, and stuck his hand in, scooping up the jam and beginning to lick it off his fingers. This brought the women's thinking to a stand still, and, well, everything else.

Who the hell was this guy?

"U-Uhm …" Misora stuttered, seeming to not know what to do or say now.

"Yes?" Ryuzaki asked, looking over at her curiously as though he wasn't eating jam with his hands. His glaze flicked between the two girls, as Mara was busy trying desperately hard not to start laughing now, looking around the room, biting down lightly on her bottom lip in a way that might be described as thoughtful.

This guy … This guy … Was all she could think as she refrained form laughing. He was both odd, creepy, and then completely ridiculous.

Misora, who noticed Mara's attempt to hold back her laughter, looked back at Ryuzaki, clearing her throat. "You .. You uh, well, you eating habits are …. Strange."

"I never thought I did," came his simply reply before eating yet another handful of jam. "The more I think, the more sweets I crave, so jam is vital for obvious reasons."

Misora just nodded her head slowly, still very unsure. Mara, who had gotten a handle on herself, just about lost it again when he tipped the jar back and, very noisily, began eating the rest of the contents by pouring it into his mouth.

"Excuse me," Mara said, getting up and walking into the kitchen, waiting till she was out of sight till she covered her face with her hands, shoulders shaking a little bit with suppressed laughter. After a minute or two, she finally calmed herself down, taking a deep breath and exhaling it as a sigh.

"Are you alright, Miss Hana?" A voice asked behind her.

Mara blinked in surprise, turning around to see Ryuzaki. He had the empty jam jar in his hands, and was apparently going to rinse it out or something, or maybe he was using it as an excuse to talk to her without Naomi's presence. Either way, he set it down on the counter, and then fixed her with a questioning look.

"I'm fine," she replied, clearing her throat a little. "And, please, just call me Mara." She really hated the whole 'last name will be used for identification purposes' thing. Naomi seemed to be used to it, as she was, after all, a FBI agent. But Mara wasn't, and she preferred her first name be used instead.

Ryuzaki nodded his head. "Okay, Mara," he said before turning to leave.

"Wait," Mara said, deciding now would be the best time to ask her question. Ryuzaki stopped, but didn't turn around. He just looked at her over his shoulder in a curious way. "What did … Have I done something to upset you or something?" She asked.

Ryuzaki chuckled a little. "No, of course not," he replied simply, before walking back to the living room.

Mara waited a moment or two before she returned herself, sitting down in the chair next to Misora like before. Ryuzaki had returned to his own strange sitting position on the couch, and, when Mara sat back down, Naomi looked over at her, giving her a questioning look, though Mara brushed it off. She was fine, just not sure whether she should be more confused, or relieved.

"So are you two ready to go?"

Go? Go where? "What do you mean?" Misora asked.

"To continue our investigation of course," Ryuzaki answered.