A/N – I'm so sorry everyone! I was gone on a cruise all week and then I went on a four day road trip. So happy to finally be back home. Please enjoy this next chapter! And remember to review!
"Look up, I'm over here," a deep computerized voice rang throughout the room.
Everyone turned their heads toward the ceiling, and sure enough, situated in the left corner of the room was a computer screen on the wall. Displayed on that screen was a big letter "W" written in fancy lettering.
Mello was so startled by the mysterious voice that he fell over backwards on top of Light who in turn decided to greet him with a nasty blow to the face.
L instantly reacted by turning his body wildly around and proceeded to kick Light. Unfortunately, he wasn't used to moving around in Matsuda's clumsy body, so he slipped and accidentally hit Mello instead.
"Ah what the fuck! That's twice now," Mello snarled, spitting out blood and stroking his left cheek where a bruise was now beginning to form.
"Look at what you did Light," L complained, his eyebrows creasing in worry as he leaned in super close to Mello so he could carefully examine his now damaged body. "Look what you did to my face. The possibility that you are Kira has now increased to eleven percent."
"Are you freaking serious right now? He landed on me. What do you expect me to do? Just because I look like Near doesn't mean I'm going to sit around and play with toys all day. I'm a man! I don't take lightly to people knocking me to the ground like that, so of course I'm going to fight back."
"Tsk, tsk. Dear me, Light. Before this incident you've acted cool and collected throughout the investigation, and now that I've seen you lash out over something as trivial as that, well I can only be certain that you are indeed responsible for all those deaths. I have suspicion to believe Kira is a person, who on the outside looks calm and composed, but on the inside, he's secretly a sadistic and violent maniac. Now the tough part is pushing Kira to his breaking point, but in this past moment you have only proved to me that my theory is correct."
The inside of Light's head right now was an absolute disaster. He was screaming at himself for being an idiot and messing up like that, but he had to remain calm, no matter what else L threw at him. The only problem was, if he tried to act cool and collected right now, that might only further raise L's suspicion. It's probably what he's expecting. Then again, he can't freak out and start yelling. Either way he was pretty much screwed.
There was only one other option.
Light's eye twitched as he stuttered, "I...uh...I...I have to use the restroom. It's an emergency! Get back to me on that later!"
Crossing his knees and wiggling around to fake having to go to the bathroom, he stumbled away from L and sprinted to the door that led to the hallway.
Once it was silent Watari spoke up.
"Are you people done yet? It's very frustrating when you constantly argue amongst yourselves. I'm trying to help you."
"Yeah right! Help us my ass!" Mello's outburst wasn't unexpected and everyone inwardly groaned, except Matsuda who happened to be clapping and cheering him on.
Mello turned to Matsuda with a very nasty look on his face. "Shut the fuck up Matsuda! I know it's you in there. I don't want an idiot like you agreeing with me."
Matsuda frowned and turned away, hurt that no one seemed to like him. Light hadn't even sent him an invitation to the party. He had to follow L around and beg him to find out what they were planning. When L finally cracked and revealed Light was having a party for the Kira investigators, he suspected L didn't tell him out of pity, but out of annoyance.
'No one even stands up for me when someone calls me an idiot, or stupid, or tells me I'm useless and mess things up,' he thought to himself, feeling miserable.
Glancing back up at Mello, he felt a surge of anger run through him. Mello may be in L's body, but L pissed him off too. Both of them are the worst when it comes to calling him names. And now that Mello was in L's body, well it's like the two of them combined to create this new, even worse asshole. And L was in his body! The whole situation was a huge mess. His face contorted with rage the more he thought about it and he clenched his fists.
'I'll show them. I'll show them all. I'm going to be the one to expose Kira whether it be Light or Misa or some random person we haven't met yet. I'll prove to everyone I'm not some useless idiot who's only skill is fetching coffee. Sometimes I wish I had the power Kira does...they wouldn't laugh at me anymore. In fact, they'd be trembling with fear.'
Oblivious to his surroundings, he shook his head, still deep in thought when he felt someone tackle him from behind.
"What the-"
"Don't be so mean to Matsu!" he heard Misa cry. She buried her head into the shirt he was wearing and squeezed him tightly, a happy expression on her face.
"Misa Misa? What are you doing?" He took a few awkward steps forward and kind of shrugged her off him. She was still in Mello's body and this was just creepy. Plus, Mello was the last person who he'd allow to touch his body. Well, technically it was Light's body, but whatever.
It was definitely weird to see Mello beaming at him, his eyes shining, and a huge smile on his face.
"Standing up for you of course, silly! Mello's so rude!"
Mello couldn't stand it anymore. He was ready to tear his hair out, no matter who the hair belonged too.
"Is there anything large and heavy in this room I can use to knock that bitch out with? I don't even care it's my body! She's making me look fucking ridiculous!"
Noticing that Mello was growing more and more unstable, Near put a hand on his shoulder, assuming it probably wasn't enough to calm him down, but he had to do something.
"Ah! I can't get rid of that bitch. And even worse, Near's taken over her body. This is definitely my worst nightmare," Mello snarled, slapping Near's hand away.
Near cursed himself. Has he been getting stupider since he entered this girl's body? Obviously Mello would hate him if he even looked to him. He was like a mixture of Misa and himself, the two people who Mello hates most at the moment.
Sighing, Near thought, 'Well, it couldn't hurt to try anyway I suppose.'
"Listen." Near started to say after a moment of thinking, "Why don't we listen to what Watari has to say? I want my own body back as much as you do, believe me. He probably knows how to undo this, but he's not going to talk over us. It's not in his nature. We may as well stop fighting and stop to hear what he has to say."
Mello crossed his arms, glared at Near, but chose to lean against the wall and surprisingly remained silent. He took a chocolate bar out of his pocket, bit into it angrily, and turned to face the monitor where Watari was waiting patiently for them to pay attention.
"Thank you, Near," the computerized voice said making all eyes turn towards him.
Near wasn't the least bit surprised that Watari knew it was him inside this feminine body.
He was brilliant after all and could always see through everything.
Everyone turned when the door opened, and Light strode in, returning from his "bathroom break".
"You must have really had to go, huh?" L said suspiciously.
"Still think I'm Kira, do you? When are you going to give this a break? I'm not Kira! If I have to spend the rest of my life proving to you that I'm not, than I will," Light said, hoping his performance was convincing. It was incredibly hard to deceive L though. No matter what he said, he knew he was still L's number one suspect.
Turning away from his number one enemy (whether L knows it or not), Light glanced up at the screen to see if Watari was going to start talking.
"Ah Light, nice of you to join us."
"You know, I don't remember informing Watari he was allowed to use my voice changer. In fact, I would say I'm ninety five percent sure," L said, his eyes wide and tapping his mouth.
Light, who was still standing next to L, overheard this and muttered, "How the hell do you go from throwing out small percentages during the Kira investigation to saying ninety five?"
"Oh wouldn't you like to know," L said, walking away with his hands in his pockets.
Mello, who was still leaning against the wall, now on his fourth chocolate bar, shouted, "Alright old man, tell us what the fuck is going on or else you're gonna pay the consequences! I can't be stuck in this body forever!"
L frowned when hearing this. "What's wrong with my body?"
Just as he was about to reply with something foul, Mello caught himself. He had to choose his words carefully around L. It was still his goal in life to finally beat Near, become L's successor, and earn his rightful title as number one. Pissing L off wouldn't win him any points.
Near, who felt the need to interrupt this particular conversation said, "Nothing. There's nothing wrong with your body L. Mello obviously possesses no self control. It's evident by the way he overreacts to every situation. You may want to consider this when deciding who the next successor will be. It would be unwise to place something who acts without thinking in a position of power such as that.
Smirking, Near twirled a blonde strand of Misa's now short hair.
Before Mello could retort, L spoke up.
"I'm going to be honest with you Near, it's hard to take you seriously when you're in the body of a person with the intelligence of an acorn."
Mello raised his eyebrows in surprise. That was certainly unexpected. It's not like L to insult his number one student.
"Are you done now?" Watari said. His patience was wearing thin.
After a response of muttered yeses Watari continued, finally satisfied they were done bickering.
"Now, I thought you all didn't appreciate each other enough, and wasted too much time arguing when you should be focused on the Kira investigation. You may not like to hear this, but I used my latest invention in an attempt to fix this problem. For the next thirty days, you are going to be someone else. My goal here is to help you guys understand each other and become closer as a team. Only then do I believe you can set aside your differences and solve this case."
L covered his face with his hands. This is exactly the kind of thing Watari would do. And right in the middle of the most important case too. Wow, perfect timing.
"Are you fucking serious?" Mello hollered throwing his chocolate down in anger.
"I don't think I can last that long as a guy," Misa whined. "I miss my feminine body! I'm not pretty anymore! Light's not going to like me like this!"
Somehow Misa managed to turn Mello's deep voice into a shrill, high pitched one. Everyone covered their ears pissed that they would now have to live with her for the next thirty days.
Light was trying to remain calm but he still couldn't help but think of the whole Ryuuk situation. Hopefully Ryuuk listened to him when he stopped by his house earlier. He couldn't know for sure though.
Near was also trying to remain cool even though he was trembling from this information. Where was his toys when he needed them?
'Alright, thirty days Matsuda. You have thirty days. Plenty of time to find Kira!' Matsuda thought with a grin.
Watari's voice, still computerized, rang throughout the room once more, and everyone fell silent, even Mello.
"Please listen and try to understand, I'm doing this for you're benefit." He paused a few seconds before adding, "And my entertainment. You will stay in this room for thirty days. You may use the bathroom and walk around the halls if you wish, but other than that, you're not allowed to leave. Have fun!"
"Wait a second! What about food?" L asked, worried. He needed his sweets!
"Don't worry, I will have my assistant supply you with food and other items. But for now, try to get to know one another. If at the end of thirty days I see you haven't made any progress, than further action will be necessary."
Everyone exchanged glances. What was that supposed to mean?
"Matt! You're supposed to be taking notes!" Watari's voice said in a stern voice, clearly not addressing anyone in the room.
"Stop playing video games and do what you agreed to do."
"Yeah yeah yeah, alright," a laid back male's voice said in the background. And this one wasn't computerized.
Mello's jaw must have dropped at least halfway to the floor. What was Matt doing working for Watari? Has the whole world gone insane?
"Wait, Watari, before you go I have a question."
"Yes Matsuda, what is it?"
"Well, how did you switch our bodies? I don't understand. What happened that night?"
Watari chuckled and said, "I thought it would be obvious. And that you of all people would remember. It was all thanks to you Matsuda! You were a big help in setting this whole thing up."
Matsuda gulped. He didn't remember!
Everyone slowly turned toward him, an evil look in their eyes.
"What does he mean by that Matsuda?" Light asked through gritted teeth.
Matsuda slowly took a few steps backward and tripped over his own feet.
"I...I don't know..."
