Chapter 3

Editor/Coauthor: Kugnae-san

The room was swathed in darkness, the only source of light coming from a rather tiny lamp in the farthest corner of the room.

"When are you going to finish telling me the plan?" Mello asked throwing a chocolate bar in the direction of the iridescent green eyes; never doubting that she would be able to snatch it out of the air.

"There is no plan," she said simply, tearing the foil off of the bar with her claw. "Just let you and Near quarrel until it is out of your system." And assuming we are right, that will lead to the death of Kira. That is, as long as Lawliet does not choose to have a change of heart again.

Mello huffed. "That's stupid. Knowing you and him, there is a plan—you just aren't telling us because you're scheming behind our backs." And by "our" she guessed he meant Near, Matt and himself.

K shrugged noncommittally. "Possibly. But either way, for one of us to capture Kira, whether him, Near, you or I, we will need to act as if we have no prior knowledge of what is going on. We must surprise Light, confuse him, it will be the only way to corner him. To gather the necessary evidence that Yagami Light is Kira," She paused, looking at the blonde as his eyes narrowed at her. She flicked her hair back. "And if I'm right, you couldn't give two shits about prosecuting Kira. That's only a plus to defeating Near once and for all."

Mello gave K a half-hearted glare, ignoring the last part of her little monologue. "And the chances of this plan succeeding?"

K paused, mulling it over before pursing her lips. "There are three possible outcomes. The first, a successful plan, with no casualties—I'd give it a solid twenty percent. The second, a failed plan, with Kira killing the majority of us—I would deem it twenty percent as well. And the last, a successful plan with casualties," her eyes glimmered with an unknown emotion. "Sixty percent, at best."

Mello nodded, running a hand through his hair before starting on his third chocolate bar of the morning.

-

"Selena, stop being such an idiot," Ryuuhei told his younger sister as he zipped up his windbreaker, his lips twitching down.

"What the heck am I doing wrong now?" she asked, hands on her hips, eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. She was her mother's daughter, that was for certain.

Ryuuhei scowled irritably. "Prancing around as if we weren't doing something that could potentially get us punished for life."

Selena froze before walking stiffly over to her younger, less grouchy brother. "Toshio, what does 'potentially' mean?"

Toshio gave a soft smile as he pulled a beanie on over his ears, tail safely hidden under his own windbreaker. "It means, 'possibly,'" he provided.

Selena nodded before tightening the bow on her head, frowning when she felt her hair tickling her neck. Itchy! How does Momma handle it?! I wish I could put them back up into pigtails!

"Are you sure dad's asleep?" Ryuuhei asked, glancing in the mirror to make sure his hat was on properly, his short gelled hair sticking in all directions from under it.

"Uh, yeah," Selena said indignantly. "My eyes aren't going bad."

"Good, then we should be set to leave to go into town," Ryuuhei said, determination flashing through his eyes.

All three of them had heard of the legend that their father was, Mello even once said his knowledge was more than five ordinary investigative bureaus and seven intelligence agencies. Their mother wasn't quite at that level but she was made for stealth, therefore, the children had the ability to achieve that feat as well.

So, taking advantage of the fact that their mother was off on some long term mission, and their father was worrying himself into exhaustion, they (or rather Ryuuhei) decided to take a little trip around Winchester.

He and his siblings may have only been four, but their intelligence certainly was not. He had those files his mother had left lying around to thank, and his Aunt Suture.

-

"Karin."

The blue eyed woman continued shooting at the bull's eye, taking another drag from her cigarette.

"Karin!"

I should try obstacle course five, see if I can beat my last time, maybe catch up to the guard's level of endurance, she thought, ignoring the person in the corner of her eye.

"Bloody hell, Karin!" he said, clapping a hand down on her shoulder.

She pivoted on her heel, swiping the barrel of her gun through the air, only to have her wrist caught by a man with hazel eyes and unruly chestnut colored hair.

Her mouth quirked down and she shook out of his grip, taking off her muffs. "What is it, Artemis?"

"Well, now you ruddy hear me," he murmured sarcastically. "Eve sent Matt, said she needed him to do some sorts of business with you, and something about discussing some stuff as well."

"Oh really? And how come the Boss didn't tell me this herself?" she questioned, her lips pressing into a straight line and eyes flickering with an intense annoyance.

"Don't ask me, you know how she is. She has so many mood swings, they're hard to keep track of," Artemis said truthfully, recalling their one encounter in Japan—the way she shifted from emotion to emotion in only a short span of time.

Karin rolled her eyes, taking out her cigarette and blowing the smoke in Artemis's face. "Well then, bring him in."

"No need," came a voice from the door. "I'm already here." He flashed Karin a grin, red hair falling into his goggle clad eyes.

"Matt," Karin half-whispered placing the safety on her gun and putting it back in her holster. "What brings you here, buddy boy?"

-

Kew frowned at Sayu as they unloaded her from the truck and prepared to set off for the Mojave Desert.

The girl was trembling so badly and her face was flushed. If it weren't for the gag, she surely would have been pleading for her freedom. Or who knows? She might've received the same intellect as her brother and planned something that would result in her escape.

We've captured many other people and treated them worse than this, what's the problem with this one? K asked mockingly.

Quiet, Kew murmured. Yagami Sayu is not entitled to this simply because she is the younger sister of Kira. She is an innocent child.

Yeah, and the chances of her not coming out of this traumatized are…? Kat added. Face it, Mello can be even more reckless than we are…He's said it himself a million other times, he just wants to beat Near. The title of "L" is lost to him, just as is "K" and all other letters. He is looking to prove himself to all of us, but what he will do when he accomplishes that is a mystery.

Wow, never knew you had that much insight, bubble head.

Just because we were all blinded for the first twenty five years of our life does not mean it will carry on as such. However, you remain to be as blunt and vulgar as usual, Kat retorted.

Calm down.

"All is set?" she asked for the sake of asking, placing her thumbs in her pockets.

"Yeah, I already contacted Yagami. Now we just sit and watch," Mello told her, observing the screen with a lax attitude that made K swell up with unseen pride. He takes everything I taught him into practice. Always be aloof, it will frustrate others, but it also conveys confidence. And that frightens people. Fear is a powerful thing; it can gain you authority and command in a situation.

"Hmm, and after this?" she asked. "I'll be leaving for the week of November eleventh."

Mello grunted, not even bothering to look in her direction. If she thinks I am unable to decipher her true meaning… "I'm not a child anymore, Eve. You have to understand that. I'll be fine by myself."

K clicked her tongue in a reprimanding way. "Yes, I know, and you know that doesn't stop me from asking. Oh look, it's Yagami."

-

L clicked through some windows before settling his eyes on the murder scene for the umpteenth time that afternoon. By now he had it memorized and was simply going through the motions.

It was a fairly simple case—the murderer being completely obvious.

But once again, L found himself having to work backwards to prove that the mother of three children had been the one to arrange for a hit man to kill off her husband and eldest child. Which was difficult at times, since most people didn't think in the same way as Lawliet did.

He stared at the scene harshly, teeth clamped on his thumb before turning around in his swivel chair to look at the evidence splayed over his desk, next to his coffee.

Cornelia Walsh, 46, upper middle class business woman who just so happened to have had a grudge so large that it compelled her to kill off her husband Andrew and son Anthony. He scrutinized the weapons even if he already knew that they wouldn't just randomly choose to come out and give him the answer.

But any self respecting person would not just act on their grudge unless severely provoked. The hit man remains in jail while she walks around.

Unless, he plopped some sugar cubes into his tea. Unless this woman is mentally unstable and had a grudge against her son. Yes, that would connect everything together. The neighbors all said that she was fairly detached from her son when he said he was part of a collaboration of people called the Anti-Kira Association. And apparently, according to what the younger children said, the father was set to join as well. But, is this woman a Kira follower? And is there some sort of pathological problem with her husband and son being against her views?

L picked up his phone, the one that didn't have a voice synthesizer in it. "Watari, could you please ask the police to investigate Cornelia Walsh's job? Have them ask if this woman was a Kira follower and have a psychiatrist analyze her. It could be possible that we have a mentally unstable woman here who killed her son and husband merely because they opposed Kira's views and were going to join an Anti-Kira Association," he explained.

"Yes, L," Watari said before hanging the phone up.

Everything just links to Kira, doesn't it? It's ironic that someone who believes in Kira kills someone off, thereby committing a crime. But what seems to be even more depressing is that with Kira, these are the most interesting cases. No other criminals are brave enough to do anything that might peak my interest in the least.

Lawliet turned to his computer, quickly saving all the information he had discovered before reaching for opening up a drawer and taking out Kat's old laptop and opening the ICPO's video feed, the one Kat discovered the Kira case from in 2006.

"This is outrageous! Anti-Kira Associations are popping up all over the place!" L cocked his head to one side (much in the same way Kat does), there goes that organization again.

"Yes we know," said one rather elderly man. "These organizations are a product of the Scarlet Snowflake broadcast, which were aired in many different cities around the world, in different languages."

L frowned, Scarlet Snowflake is the mafia company that K leads. Or rather her alias Eve leads. This could only mean that she is straying from the original plan of letting Mello and Near solve it with us lending a hand—the one safe plan we both agreed would be easiest given that we have a family now.

And if she is straying from the plan, she is doing it in a reckless way. One that only could mean that she is being drowned in emotional turmoil once more—but, the question is; what is the cause of it?

"But how to stop it?" Asked the head of Parisian police. "If they go against Kira, they might be in danger. They might provoke him into killing them for their foolhardy decisions."

"We are not going to participate with this. There are already two different task forces working to capture Kira, even if it means the crime rates go back up," Announced the American agent. "We will leave it up to them, K and L are still working on it, if you have forgotten."

"But as far as we know, their reliability has become nonexistent! They have not contacted us or handed in Kira in the six years that they have been working on the case! This one contingency that we should have seen coming! L and K cannot capture Kira because Kira is justice himself, just as both the aforementioned people claim to be!" The man panted, smoothing his suit in an attempt to retain his composure. "For all we know, K and L have changed their minds and been swayed over to the side of Kira," He finished coldly.

L disconnected the feed before he heard any further. Swayed to the side of Kira? Not only does that sound incorrect grammatically, but also in the way that we would never think that Kira is justice. The very thought causes me to lose my appetite, he put down his cookie.

"Papa? Can we come in?" Toshio called, knocking on the door.

Lawliet quickly stowed all the bagged evidence into a box and shut it tightly before telling his children they could come in.

He eyed them for one moment. They look like they haven't bathed in ages. Is…is that a ring of dirt around Ryuuhei's neck?

"Papa, when's Momma coming? I miss her," Selena said, her ear twitching.

Lawliet scanned them all once more. They did look on the sullen side today. "Your mother will be coming for the whole week of November 11th." He said simply, reaching over to pet Selena's hair before giving a small grin. "Would you three like to go to the Orphanage today?"

Needless to say, their reactions were predictable.

Selena beamed before jumping up and down, expressing her enthusiasm.

Ryuuhei pumped his fist in the air and Toshio had a very small grin on his face.

"But all of you must go bathe before we go."

This was not met with streamers and cheers.

As they all marched off to one of the many bathrooms in the house, L set to fixing the one problem on his mind. She can't act this reckless. But to try and persuade her to think things through a tad bit more cautiously, I must act as if I am treading on egg shells. She is far too analytical and…I'll admit, a bit on the paranoid side when it comes to K herself, so to try and convince her without the equivalent of World War III and IV erupting in our house would mean that I would have to play to her weaknesses.

-

Kat only had one thing on her mind as a subordinate of Rod Ross's wrote down the majority of the SPK's names down in the notebook. I have found a more repulsive weapon than a firearm. If it only takes being able to aim with the skill of a three year old to shoot a hand gun, then to use that disgusting notebook all it takes is the ability to write. The most cowardly thing in the world, surely.

She turned her head away from him, a scowl itching to appear on her face as her stomach churned with the same anxious emotions as before. "Excuse me, I have to make a phone call," she announced blankly, already striding to her quarters.

Her boots made that insufferable clicking sound as she made her way through the dimly lit hallways, words from what seemed like lifetimes ago entering her head.

"It's so flattering of you to suggest I would go commit suicide," she said flatly. "No. In another time and place, I would have. I want nothing to do with the task force as it is now, they are far too biased. As it is, you actually have some potential to see around everything. Just…Please remember that first Kira is to Light, as L is to Ryuuzaki. And the second Kira is to Misa as Agent K is to Kew Keikan," she muttered, before giving him some orders to abide by and shooing him out.

She made sure the thumb turn lock was secured before she went to the farthest corner of the room and pressed the speed dial nine, glancing at the clock momentarily.

"Hello?"

"Why hello there, Aihara-san," K addressed, switching over to Japanese without skipping a beat.

"Who is this?" he asked, a slightly irritated tenor entering his voice.

"You forget me after only four years of departure—that truly is sad. And I went through all of the trouble of acquiring your new cell phone's number as well," she said blankly. But on the inside both Kat and Kitten were off pouting somewhere about how easily people forgot about her.

"I won't ask again, if you do not tell me who you are, I will hang up and report you to the local authorities," he said firmly. K nearly guffawed. Me, captured by local authorities? Sounds like a load of bullcrap to me.

"I assure you that from the information that I will replay to you that you will be able to deduce my identity without much trouble," she said, still completely apathetic, not that the voice synthesizer would convey any emotion anyways. "First of all, the authorities would not be able to catch me because this number has been scrambled five times—and you know only two people who have ever done that. Second, does the phrase 'porcelain heart' mean anything to you? Third, to quote a movie I once saw, 'remember remember, the fifth of November,' however, I suggest you apply it not to the 1600s but the 21st century, if you will. And fourth, do you recall when I said the following: We may seem like two sick and twisted delinquents, Aizawa-san, but we have solved a great many cases with these methods of ours. Be thankful that Ryuuzaki chose to confine them, for what I was thinking was more vivid then your worst nightmare."

Silence in which K counted off to one hundred and fifty-seven.

"Kokoro?"

"Yes. Finally, Aihara. Now, are you alone?"

"Yes," he answered, still sounding a tad bit star struck.

-

A/N: And I am dead set on something here. Me and my editor-slash-coauthor Kugnae-san have something planned, how you all react to it is…well, a mystery since we are "testing the waters," so do speak. Please excuse any late updates, Kugnae-san has exams coming up and I am going to be on a trip this week. But I will try to get another chapter out! Please review! (And thank you to all of you who have read my other stories as well!) If you want a better summary of this sequel, feel free to go to my profile and scroll down to where Obvious Vexation is. Much better than the limited one I had before.

-Maddy