Chapter 3

A drenched Yasuhara Osamu rushed out of his second hand car followed by an equally dripping John Brown as soon as he parked it in the Matsuzaki General Hospital's parking lot. It was like a race and, had the university student been paying attention, he would have commented on how nimble the blond priest was. But then again, he was no different; he didn't even know how much of a sprinter he could be until he heard that Mai was in the hospital from Ayako and Housho and that she had fainted. The pair weren't really clear as to how Mai lost her consciousness but worry for her was enough to send him into a tizzy.

He was the one who had called John from the orphanage he was staying at and offered to pick up his friend since he knew John had no car. The blonde priest was quite pale when he arrived at the orphanage and aside from his worried questions the drive was spent in worried silence.

Since Ayako had already told him Mai's room number over the phone, both Osamu and John did not have to stop by the front desk for information. Heedless of the doctors, patients and nurses on their way they plowed through the other people in the hallways (John apologizing almost incoherently all the way) until they arrived at Mai's room. In their haste they opened the door without knocking, both of them panting as they leaned on each doorframe as soon as they caught a glimpse of Mai on top of the bed sheets looking out towards her closed window where she could see how the scenery beyond it was blurred by the rainstorm outside, Houshou sitting beside her and looking back at them in amused exasperation.

"You guys do know this hospital has an elevator, right?" he asked both his friends as they stumbled into the room in complete exhaustion.

"For… got…" Osamu wheezed.

"Too… worried…" John panted from the floor.

"Mai…" Osamu stood up and rushed beside Mai's bed. "Are you… alright?"

"Mai-chan," John looked at her closely but she merely returned to looking back out her window. "What's wrong, Mai-chan…?"

They were startled by the weak attempt at a reassuring smile that she gave them and the distracted, guilty look on her face. It was as though she had done something terrible and she was beating herself up over it. Osamu was immediately concerned and he shot a look back at Housho who merely shook his head grimly at him meaning he shouldn't press.

He and John were exchanging silently disturbed looks. Usually Mai would be beside herself laughing them off and telling them not to worry so much by now. What was going on? Their musings were interrupted when the door opened again letting Ayako in… and a young man roughly around Housho's age wearing a paramedic's uniform with a slouched upper body and wide, baggy eyes entered the room. Ayako locked the door after he came in. The young man walked in until he was directly at the foot of Mai's bed, not even acknowledging the fact that there were other people in the room and Housho watched as the two of them stared at each other for a few moments in silence. The young man's eyes were wide but blank; as though he knew and felt nothing; while Mai's eyes were filled with more than a little pain.

Everyone except Mai was surprised at this sudden action… However no one was more surprised than Osamu himself when he got a closer look at stranger in their midst.

"R-Ryuuga-kun?" the university student cried when he finally found his voice. "Ryuuga Hideki?"

Housho blinked at him in surprise at that exclamation, distracted for a moment. "The pop star?"

"No, they just have the same name; he's a schoolmate of mine at Touo."

"What?"

But 'Ryuuga' merely ignored them and silently stared at Mai making her the sole object of his focus. A focus most people would usually find disturbing but Mai seemed merely unaffected. She was much too wrapped in her guilt and sadness to notice the interest the young man was placing on her person.

He just stared at her mutely for a few minutes in silence before the young man finally broke the stillness with a statement. "You were crying."

Mai nodded at him and continued looking down at her hands resting on her lap where the piece of notepad lay carefully between her fingers, her tears still flowing from her eyes as though she didn't know how to stop them. "I know."

"…Is it because of me?"

"Partly."

"Do you want me to apologize?"

"No… If anything I think I should apologize to you."

"That is illogical; you have brought me back from the dead, after all."

"You shouldn't have died in the first place."

"Again, that is illogical," the young man countered in a seemingly curious tone as though childishly baffled by her logic. "You could not have prevented that from happening."

"I might have had I agreed to help you."

He stopped at that before reluctantly nodding his head. "…I'd say there would have been a 50% chance of that probability."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa wait a minute!" Housho finally cut into the seemingly intimate, private conversation as he stood up from his chair in alarm, dread crawling up his spine at the words he had just heard and suspicion crawled into his chest. One look at Ayako told him she was also thinking the same thing. What had their Mai done this time…? "What do you mean Mai 'brought you back from the dead'? Who are you, anyway?"

The young man looked him straight in the eye in a way that took the monk aback. He reminded Housho of a gloomy evil spirit that had a Goth fetish. "Who are you?"

Housho took a step towards the other man threateningly. "Takigawa Housho and I demand an explanation right now!"

Instead of answering him, the young man turned his face back to Mai instead, cocking his head to the side curiously like a small puppy much to Houshou's discontent. "What is he to you?"

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" the monk practically exploded at being ignored.

A pleading look from Mai stopped him though before she turned back to the baggy eyed Goth guy. "It's okay; he's like a brother to me. They're my closest friends; they're like family to me."

Housho felt a measure of pride in his chest at having her verbally acknowledge this. He certainly felt like an older brother to her but they never spoke nor confirmed it in any other way other then their actions so hearing her actually say the words touched him deeply and made him doubly determined to protect her. Even if it was from freaks like this Ryuuga guy. "And I don't like strange guys sniffing around her, you hear me, pal?"

"Bou-san, calm down!" John tried placating his taller friend while Osamu watched with growing calculation to see what his schoolmate's business with one of his closest friends was.

The baggy eyed sloucher turned to the ex monk again and stared him directly in the eyes with such blank intensity that it had Housho almost backing up a step. The fact that he wasn't even blinking was so… creepy!

"He seems to handle his self proclaimed duty as guardian with dedication… although he may not be the smartest, he seems to be 80.16% dependable." The young man finally commented. "Interesting."

"Hey!" Housho growled. "I didn't exactly understand what that was all about but I don't think it was good! What's that supposed to mean?"

"L-san, stop teasing him, Bou-san isn't your chew toy!" Mai growled out, snapping out of her self imposed self pity because of her growing irritation of the detective's childishness.

L looked back at her and slightly shrugged. "He reminds me of Matsuda."

The former monk, the university student and the exorcist froze when they heard what she called this odd stranger as they stared numbly back at the Goth guy who still had his eyes on Mai. Ayako poked Housho in the ribs to get him back to reality again but he hardly even felt it until the self proclaimed priestess sighed and shrugged in exasperation leaving him be.

Osamu, on the other hand; froze on the spot, his glasses reflecting the light in his shock.

"Idiot." They heard Ayako mutter.

"Y-you're L…?" Housho finally managed to ask after a while, not hearing Ayako's words. "The famous international detective L?"

"Hm," L muttered thoughtfully. "I should have asked you to refrain from telling others who I was before we met again. I should have thought that the probability of you blurting out my identity would come to about 95%. I miscalculated."

"You were dead." Mai deadpanned, sweat dropping. "How could you have possibly been in the state of mind to compute those kinds of probabilities?"

"He… L… God…!" Houshou babbled incoherently at this, his eyes practically swirling in their sockets as he flailed around to Ayako's disgust and Osamu and John's grimaces.

"Hm, I've never been called that before," L blinked at the appellation. "I have to admit, it has a nice ring to it."

"L…! I mean… L!" Housho continued to babble.

L looked back at Mai, exasperation in his low lidded eyes. "Not very bright, is he?"

"Don't be mean, L-san!" Mai scolded him.

Housho didn't seem to mind; he looked like he was run over by a dump truck. "I don't believe it… I just… don't… believe it…!"

Annoyed, L turned back to Mai. "Will he be like this all night?"

Mai remembered the time when they came across the Urado case and answered matter of factly. "I've seen him go through worse; he's actually being pretty coherent right now."

Houshou merely continued acting like a fish out of water as he pulled his confused and excited gaze from L to Mai. "B-but how? When…? Why..?"

Ayako finally took pity on him and stepped forward, her hands in the pockets of her white lab coat and eyes directed a pointed look at Mai. "He was the one Mai told me to meet; I declared him and his friend dead earlier," she then turned her accusing and curious eyes at Mai who flinched and looked away from her guiltily. "Interestingly enough, he also told me to declare him dead for the police. He told me that 'he could not stress the importance of keeping his well being a secret from the authorities…' or something like it. So, Mai, care to tell us what's really going on…?"

"I…" the young woman swallowed, a hard lump preventing her from saying what she wanted in the face of the expectant looks from her friends. "You see I…"

L frowned at her (though the action was unnoticeable to everyone else in the room) and decided to take things into his own hands. Mai was obviously in no fit state to divulge such a life altering detail at the moment so he might as well act as a catalyst for her. He was the one who broke her silence. "She brought me back from the dead."

L watched, partly amused as the two other adults in the room tried to grapple at his words in search of the logic behind it.

Mai wasn't too happy with him, though. "L-san!"

"What?" L looked back at her from over his shoulder, noting how frail and delicate she looked beneath all the white sheets of the hospital bed and how her dark brown hair made her pale skin glow almost as brightly as she did when she projected herself in front of him as a spirit.

"You don't just spring something like that on people; what were you thinking?" she half shrieked at him, supremely annoyed.

He raised a nonchalant eyebrow at her, though. "I believe I was thinking logically. No problem can be solved by hedging."

"That still doesn't give you the right to go ahead and break it to them just like that, you should consider their emotions!"

"That is illogical."

"Emotions aren't logical, idiot!"

L raised a brow at him. No one had ever called him an idiot since he was seven back when no one understood his genius yet. But then again… he contemplated this for a moment before humming. "That's the reason I find emotions largely insufficient in a case…"

Mai sweat dropped. What in the world…?

"What…?"

She froze at Housho's voice. Slowly, the young esper looked up to see Housho and Ayako staring at her with their faces as pale as her bed sheets; a mixture of anger, frustration and shock seemingly painting a Noh mask over their faces in a way that made her cringe.

"What did he mean, Mai?" Ayako slowly stepped toward her but stopped when she was about three feet away. The female doctor had eyes for no one but her. "What is he saying?"

"Uh… well…" she found that again she was lost for words. She really had no idea how she'll explain something so complicated to her friends. "You see, Bou-san… Ayako… Look, guys, I can explain—"

"I died," L again interfered; ignoring the glare the young high school senior sent him. "Although at first I didn't really realize I was dead at the time. And then she came and took me back to my body… at least that was what I think happened. Taniyama-san appeared while I was at this dark place with a lot of little lights in it and dragged me somewhere and next thing I knew I was breathing again. It was kinda weird."

Mai watched; shrinking away as Ayako and Bou-san's faces twisted into several different emotions in several different ways. She wasn't really sure what they were but her inner instinct told her it could not possibly be good for her. They looked mad; and worried; and mad. And all that stupid L was doing was look at them back and forth, tilting his face this way and that like a bloody bird.

She couldn't help but glare at the seemingly oblivious detective.

How dare he blurt out her secret and then just stand there like a slouching post and leave her to face Bou-san's and Ayako's wrath alone after she got him back from the dead and brought him his stupid notebook page? She was starting to regret bringing him back, the idiot.

"Mai?"

Everyone looked up at the new voice that filled the room and all of them saw Masako's shocked face looking at her; eyes wide and sleeve covering her probably gaping mouth.

"Oh, hey, Masako-chan," Osamu greeted her nervously as she started stepping towards the cinnamon haired esper lying on the bed abruptly a few moments later. "When did you arrive? You were so quiet; we didn't even hear you come—"

SLAP!

"—in." the bespectacled Touo student winced at the red handprint staining Mai's cheek and a flushed, angry Masako beside the bed. Looks like the medium heard what she needed to hear.

"You idiot!" Masako practically shrieked at her, near tears. "You stupid, thoughtless, reckless little idiot!

"How could you? Did you have any idea what could have happened? Do you understand what you just did? You would not have been able to come back! You would have fallen into an endless coma! There are a thousand and one malevolent spirits out there that would have torn you apart for your power, don't you realize that?" the young medium was half hysterical as she shook her fellow psychic's shoulders. "Don't you even think about yourself? Don't you even think about us? What would we do if something happened to you?"

Housho had to pry Masako off Mai and as soon as she allowed herself to be separated from the other girl, she sobbed uncontrollably into the monk's chest.

Mai's face was riddled with guilt and sadness as she stared at the medium. In the course of the last two years without Naru between them, they have become the best of friends and it was times like these when Mai would be in danger when their friendship was tested the most.

"I'm sorry," Mai's voice filled the room at last after a few minutes of Masako's sobbing and the others silently trying to comfort her. Everyone turned to Mai who now sported a red mark on her left cheek. The slap was sobering and it rocked her out of her anxiety. Right now, she felt she owed them to understand her reasoning. They deserved that much from her, at least. "I can't tell you just how sorry I am for making you guys worry about me so much…"

"Mai." Mai flinched at Bou-san's disappointed voice. It felt like the hospital was about to topple over by the sheer force of it. "You can't go on unbalancing the astral plane by bringing back a spirit! You have no idea what kind of imbalance that would do!"

"I'm sorry, Bou-san…" she squeaked meekly. "But… I had to…"

"What do you mean you had to?" Ayako practically screeched at her, face almost as red as her hair. "Mai, what you did was extremely dangerous! Masako was right!"

Houshou nodded sternly at the young woman sitting in front of him, almost shaking in worry. "What if you weren't strong enough to bring him back? We don't know anyone who could have brought you back from there!"

"What possible reason could you have that you have defied taboo and brought him back to this side?" Ayako yelled, shaking in her lab coat, not trusting herself to touch the younger woman.

A tense silence followed as Houshou, Ayako and Masako all glared at the cinnamon haired young woman while John looked on worriedly, looking for a way to help and defend her as Osamu watched in awe while shooting L calculating glances.

Finally, Mai's voice broke the silence. "…He died because of me."

Silence so deafening it would have sucked in the air around them filled the room again. It was a little different from the other silences earlier though. This silence was filled with confusion where the earlier one was filled with fear. This confusion she felt in the air between her and her friends gave Mai the courage to look up and sorrowfully meet their eyes, willing them to look into the misery and guilt she held inside her.

"He asked me for help when I told him about Misora Naomi-san because she asked for my help to inform L where she was and to give her a decent burial beside her fiancé and he found out that I can see the shinigami;" she whispered to them brokenly. "I refused him then and there and didn't want to think about it anymore. I didn't want to be involved in anything like that anymore, you guys know that! And then… I never really thought he'd die…

"It shouldn't really matter; it's not the first time I refused helping someone supernaturally before after… he left but this time…" she took a deep breath and swallowed when her voice broke at this. "It was like he called me there. And my soul answered his call… I was literally pulled away from my body this time only to meet him on the astral plane. I had no choice but to meet him there and when I did and I found out what happened… Something inside my soul told me he wasn't supposed to die yet… that I should take him with me…"

Stunned, Ayako stepped towards the younger woman. "Mai, do you mean to tell us your intuition told you to take L back to the world of the living?"

Mai hung her head and nodded sadly. "I know what you guys said about these things being taboo but I couldn't help it, Ayako; it just felt like the right thing to do… Like letting him die would cause so many bad things to happen…! I just… couldn't…"

The first person to approach her was Masako. The ebony haired medium wrapped her slender arms around her neck and hugged her softly. "Idiot."

Mai buried her face in her kimono and whispered. "Please don't be mad…"

John stepped over to her next. There was neither condemnation nor judgment in his cornflower blue eyes and the warmth of the hand he placed on her shoulder somehow told her everything would be alright. That no matter what he was going to be there for her.

"Mai," he told her softly. "We're not mad; we're just worried. You know this is the reason why spirits are usually after you… You need to take better care of yourself."

Ayako's shoulders slumped down in defeat before walking towards Mai as well and affectionately roughing her hair up. She then forced her grim features up to an exasperated one before she spoke. "What are we going to do with you, Mai?"

She looked up at them through her ruffled coffee bangs hopefully as she meekly answered. "Love me…?"

The adults snorted. She was just too cute, really. It was her greatest weapon.

"You're asking for too much, pestilence." Ayako teased as she quirked an eyebrow at her but then she glanced at L who was still staring at them as though they were ants inside a glass jar he was studying. "Although this doesn't make any sense. Why would you be allowed to bring a soul back from the dead?"

"Well would it have been possible that she was allowed to take him back if he hasn't been dead that long?" Osamu suggested with his chin in his thumb and forefinger, thinking deeply on the subject. "Similar cases where people have had near death experiences have happened before. I should do a little research on it."

"So I'm not the only person who had ever been brought back from the dead?" L commented, staring at them wide eyed like a small child listening in on a bedtime story. "So there really are such things as… ghosts?"

Everyone blinked and looked back at him; momentarily forgetting he was there in the first place, so focused were they on Mai.

Ayako blinked at him. "Shouldn't you already be aware of that? I mean, you were one for a while, weren't you?"

"Uwaahh… I suppose I was…"

Everyone sweat dropped at the wondering tone in his voice.

"Anyway, Ryuzaki-kun," Osamu stepped towards him. "What are you planning to do now that you have a new lease on life?"

He blinked wide eyes at the bespectacled younger man before answering. "Catch Kira of course."

Everyone in the room gasped and Housho was the one who broke the silence that followed it. "So you already know who Kira is?"

"Yes, however there were several factors confusing me and preventing me from pinning him with solid evidence. It is the reason why I ended up dead."

Osamu blinked at him while the others gaped. "So you know who Kira is but you can't prove it?"

"…That's what I said."

"Are you sure you want to do that?" everyone turned towards Mai once again, especially L who eyed her with that same blank look but with a hint of curiosity he seemed to only reserve for her. Mai ignored all of them and crawled over to the edge of her hospital bed, never breaking eye contact with the detective. "He's already killed you once; he can do the same again."

L returned the stare. "I already told you once; I will do anything to solve a case, Taniyama-san."

"But you just died—"

"It is part of what I do," he cut off her pleading. "It is why I am L."

Mai bit her lip and glared back at the dark eyed detective in front of her before sighing deeply and then sitting back, resigned, on her haunches on the bed. "Fine. I suppose I can't stop you. But don't you come crying to me when you get lost in the astral plane again."

"I'm pretty sure you won't have a problem making sure that doesn't happen again." L told her breezily.

Mai blinked and looked back at him. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"Because," he started, using a tone reserved for toddlers. "You, Taniyama-san, will be helping me catch Kira."

"What?"

"Whoa there, wait a minute!"

"You can't be serious!" Mai wailed at him, leaning over her bed and clutching tightly at the metal foot bar until her knuckles were white. "I already told you I don't want to get involved in this!"

But L just spoke calmly as though they were talking about the stormy weather outside. "It is as you said earlier, had you agreed to help me in the first place, there would have been a 50% chance of me not having to die."

"But—"

"Because of your refusal, you have cost me a close and trusted retainer in the form of Watari; whose skills, I assure you, will be very hard to replace."

"Hey—"

"Furthermore, isn't there a Japanese saying that once you save the life of a person, you should be responsible for it?"

"That's Chinese and you should be responsible for your own life!" she yelled at him in frustration knowing she was losing the argument.

"Nevertheless," L said a hint of steel in his voice. "You still owe me… or are you saying that Watari's life isn't worth whatever your reason is to disassociate yourself from this case?"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Ayako glared fiercely at the man as she moved to stand in front of Mai. "Are you blackmailing her?"

"Like I said, Matsuzaki-sensei," L's eyes were pitiless as he stared at Mai's wide, incredulous eyes, letting her know in no uncertain terms that she will not refuse him again. "I will do anything to solve a case. Anything. Especially this case."

"You can't do that!" Masako could barely contain herself, even forgetting to hide her angry face behind her sleeve. "Mai is not a weapon or a tool!"

"Please understand, L-san," John tried to plead with him. "Mai is a delicate girl still in high school. Aside from the many jobs she takes she needs to pass and take care of herself. She needs to take care of—"

"I don't care what she is or what she needs; the important thing is that for the duration of this case," L ignored them all, his eyes still never leaving Mai who was now staring helplessly at her bed sheets and he could read from her body language that she was all but ready to cave in. "She is mine."

Mai could feel him and, despite his uncaring words piercing through her still hurting self esteem from Naru's rejection. It didn't matter since she never expected to be anything important to this man. But the reminder of the case made his aura dramatically colder that when she first met him. Her intuition had told her the first time they met that, though truly driven, he was not a cold man, but now… she could feel the need and the near obsession he was feeling for this case. He was like a train without breaks and she understood why. It was because— even though he denied feeling anything about it— that old man Watari, were his brakes.

And Kira took Watari from him.

She still didn't want to take the case no matter what he said but… could she leave him like this…? He'd only become reckless and plunge headlong into another death and somehow, she knew she won't be able to save him twice.

"Fine," she finally said, resigned. "I'm going to help this time."

"What?"

"MAI!"

Mai ignored everyone else and looked him in the eyes once more. "Just until the case is over?"

L couldn't explain the relief in his chest at her answer which confused him. Was he… nervous of her response? He thought he was fairly confident that she would agree, judging from what he studied of the girl's body language and characteristics, he knew he was had a 90% chance of convincing her to help him despite her friends' protests.

How odd for him to doubt himself.

Watari would have laughed at him.

His musings were interrupted by Housho's boisterous voice. "Well that's all well and good but don't you think you can just drag our Mai around like some rag doll."

Osamu nodded slightly, his face carefully composed into one of his trademark smiles. "Where Mai goes, we go. We're a package deal."

Mai looked up, surprised. "Wait, guys, no—

L couldn't stop his brows from climbing up to his hairline. "This will be extremely dangerous. Kira can kill people by just seeing their faces and knowing heir names. He has even found a way around people who are using aliases and I still have to gather data on the murder weapon used for the killings."

"That doesn't matter," Houshou declared, gritting his teeth as he looked fiercely back at L with semi calm eyes. "She's our Mai. Nothing hurts my little sister, you got that? Nothing."

Everybody else on Mai's side of the room nodded in unison at this declaration.

"Guys…" Mai breathed, her protests dying at the resolve in her friends' eyes. Heck, even John looked implacable. She knew enough to know that when they all had their exorcism faces on it would either take a miracle or a serious ultimatum to change their minds.

L seemed to understand this as well since his stance softened into a more relaxed slouch and he began ruffling the back of his head in exasperation as he looked at the entire group before him. Perhaps he can use them. After all, Kira's power seemed to be of supernatural origins; why not fight the supernatural with the supernatural? It just might work.

"Fine," he breathed into a sigh. "I'll brief you guys at what I've learned so far and then we'll start making plans. For now, though, anybody here who has a celphone with international dialing?"

Everyone blinked at that for a few moments before some of them shrugged sheepishly at each other and looked at one another questioningly until Ayako pulled out a read PDA from the pockets of her lab coat.

"I do, why?"

"I'll need to borrow that for a while." The famous detective told her, taking possession of the device. Everyone noted the odd way he held the phone. As though he were gingerly picking it up from a toilet bowl he just peed on. "It'll only take a few minutes."

"Huh? Wait a minute!"

But it was too late; L had already dialed the number.

/*****/

"L is dead."

A moment of silence covering the room like a veil and suffocating it like a blanket. Even the unflappable Near stopped his game while Mello stared back at him; gaping in stark disbelief and horror.

Roger stared solemnly at the two young men in front of him; one on the floor finishing a huge jigsaw puzzle and the other staring back at him with equal solemnity. He couldn't believe and he didn't know how these two would react to the message that he had just received.

Even he was having a difficult time believing it. But the message was clear. It was recorded and written precisely on the screen of his celphone; a device he had learned to despise despite its necessity. He hated the fact that it gave him such bad news. News that he was now required to deliver to these two boys.

"You mean he was killed by Kira?" Mello asked breathlessly.

"I would assume this is so since that was the last case he was working on."

"No," Mello shook his head at him, his shock giving way to anger. "That's not true! He can't be dead!"

"Mello—"

"No!" Mello threw himself over the desk and grabbed Roger by the lapels of his coat. "He was going to catch Kira and bring him to justice! He can't be dead!"

"Mello!"

The tension was dispersed when Near threw him jigsaw puzzle up and allowed the pieces to fall down onto the ground, catching both of their attentions. Then, after a while, he began all over again.

"If you can't play the game then you lose," the white haired child remarked without looking at either of them. "That is what happened to L."

At his words Mello fell silent before letting Roger go. He had known these children enough to know when they were both in complete agreement since it did not happen often. Wasn't L the one who had pointed that out to him once?

"What about his successor," Ah, of course; there's that issue as well. "Which one of us did he chose?"

Roger sighed at that before responding. "Since L died because of Kira he was not able to choose which one of you will become his successor."

"What? No way!"

"How about this?" Roger presented the idea as lightheartedly as he possibly could. "Since L was not able to name a successor, why don't you and Near cooperate with each other to solve the Kira case?"

Mello was silent for a while before he glanced at Near from the corner of his eye before snapping back at Roger. "Absolutely not! You know Near and I don't get along with each other!"

Roger fell silent, feeling a major migraine coming up as always in the presence of this loud mouthed genius. Granted that Mello would always be his secret favorite, it cannot be ignored that the child was far too emotional and noisy. Plus the fact that he had this ongoing rivalry with Near was not helping them any. He was about to give into the urge to sigh when his phone suddenly buzzed.

It was ringing.

Roger's brows furrowed at that. This phone was a private line, after all; and the only people who would send him a message through this would be Quillish or…

He flicked on the button and greeted the person on the other line cautiously. "Hello?"

"Roger?"

Roger's eyes windened, catching the attention of both boys before him. "Wh-who is this?"

"…It's L;" the silence. "I'm alive."

Roger looked up at Mello and Near, both looking back at him with various looks of concern which was unusual enough in itself, his eyes still wide with shock. His mouth opened and closed several times before he could finally voiced out a sentence. "L… L is… alive!"

"What?"

"Is that him?"

"Give me that!" Mello practically flew over Roger's desk to grab the phone from him and immediately barked through the lime, accidentally turning on the speakerphone. "Hey, I don't know who you are, you sick bastard, but if you're playing a joke on us I'll—"

"Watari is dead. Justice will prevail," Said the familiar calm voice on the other line, stopping Mello's tirade effectively. "And I am Justice."

Both candidates to the successorship of L's title understood this clearly enough. Only one person would send them such a short and perfunctory message.

L was alive.

Mello couldn't stop smiling and blinking back tears (though not for lack of trying, though); and Near (though one couldn't tell from his face) was elated. Both of them were silent but a mutual understanding flowed between them.

L was alive…

And he was going to catch Kira!

"How would you and Near like to help me out this one time with this case?" L continued on the other line as though they were discussing the latest game on the computer. "Since I can't seem to decide which one of you will become my successor then I can choose from whatever data you provide me and the feedback that you can send out."

Mello grinned at Near who was now listening over his shoulder clutching at his giant jigsaw puzzle and the spark of excitement, diluted only by his dark eyes looked back at him with a small, calm nod.

"We'd love to, L!"

"Then listen to me very, very closely…"

/****************************/

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