Chapter 3

"This is not good… not good at all. Oh, why the hell did I agree to this? We're all going to be dead by midnight! This was a huge mistake! What're we going to do? We're bound to slip up. He's just waiting for that to happen so he can finish us all off! What the hell was I thinking?"
"Hey, I hate to break it to you, but you're frustration is burning a freaking hole in the back of my head. Just calm down for at least a second, would yah?" Mello complained.

"Oh, I apologize," L nervously apologized with his thumb nail still under the intense pressure of his grinding teeth.

"No need, I just don't want you stressing so much about this on our first day here. Just relax for a bit and enjoy the town. This is a fantastic place to be and none of us want you to be like this," Mello replied, a concerned look in his eyes.

"I know… I just can't help worrying about this."

"Yeah, you can help it. Now just calm down already."

L had nothing to say to this.

At the moment, it was about 1:30 in the morning. The investigation, after about a 14 hour flight, had set foot in the big apple of New York City. Since L had booked this agonizingly long flight late in the airport's schedule, all four of them had been stuck sitting next to the strangest of people. Matt was stuck next to a fat New Yorker who kept ranting to Matt and the person on the opposite side of himself about the Yankees and fast food. Mello was stuck sitting next to a gay guy who kept asking him where he got his clothes and how he does his hair. These were both foolish questions being the fact that Mello hardly knew where Dagas had bought the tight fitting disguise he was wearing and the only thing he had done with his hair is pull it up into a pony tail and brush his bangs to the side to cover the parts of his right eye that couldn't be covered with makeup to cover his scar. Dagas was placed next to a die hard goth kid whom she had ended up discussing hair styles, dark nail polish, bands like My Chemical Romance, and the activities of society with for most of the flight. L was a row across from Dagas and was placed next to the goth kid's parents who wouldn't stop arguing about each other and their son until the wife finally fell asleep at 9:30. Sadly enough, L couldn't get any of his work done to prepare for this case with the two parents sitting next to him which became another cause of his stress once the plane had landed.

Though a long and stressful flight, the four had made it out alive and well and were ready to start the new case ahead. So at 1:30 in the morning, the four were standing anxiously at baggage claim, hopping that all of their things had made it with them unharmed. All together, the total baggage count was 12 bags, so they would be waiting for quite a while in that same spot. As if waiting for one bag wasn't long enough.

By 2:15, all of their bags had been retrieved with everything still in place. Not a charge cord out of place, not a paper torn, not a disguise bearing extra fingerprints. For the next five minutes, the four stood in front of the airport as Mello struggled to hail a cab. The way he executed this, some passers by assumed that he was a natural born pissy New Yorker himself. True, some people would think that trying to hail down a cab for five minutes straight would be ridiculous, but that thought only truly applies if you're in Washington D.C. In this town, you'd be lucky to get a cab within twenty minutes. No, to get a cab this fast, you've gotta be loud, forceful, and know the right tricks to get the cab driver's attention.

"Where to?" the driver asked once they had all piled in with all their things.

"Holiday Inn on 5th," L immediately replied.

"Alright then, I'll have you there in 15 minutes," the driver replied in a thick New York accent as he pulled away from the curb. "So where're yah from?"

Before anybody could even consider an excuse, Matt immediately replied in a laid back tone, "Ah, we're taking a vacation from Cleveland."

"Huh, yah know, I've never been able to go there before. How is it?"

"Musty, always under construction and it's got bad local art," Dagas replied in a mild groan.

"Hah, I guess I'm not going there for my next break," the man chuckled.

"I guess not," Matt replied.

"So are you guys' friends, neighbors, family?"

"College room mates."

"No way. What're yah studying?"

"Politics and such."

"Uhg, God only knows how bad we need better politicians!"

"Yeah, no kidding."

For about the rest of the cab ride, the driver, unlike most Mexican drivers who stay silent, occasionally placed some small commentary every few seconds. Most people would appreciate their cab driver staying silent, but in this case, this was the perfect opportunity to observe the behavior of an average New Yorker. Although, as opposed to the friendliness of this man, it had to be kept in mind that a lot of the people in this big City were nothing like him. Yep, if you were to find any place that held picky, cynical ass holes around every block, this would be the place.

By the time they reached 5th avenue, there was a pile up of cars in front of the hotel which were only there due to the massive club across the street which had run out of parking spaces. Because of this, the cab driver was forced to drop his talkative passengers a block and a half away from their destination. A minor set back, but this guaranteed more observations of the local people.

Walking down the street about half way down the second block, just a few feet away from the hotel, the four were halted by several waves of people walking away from the club across the street. Some were drunk, some were still buzzing from the vibes of the club, and others were partied out from dancing and drinking till quarter to 3:00. Although the waves weren't all too big, the stumbling party-goers were forceful and had a knack for nearly pushing others on the sidewalk into walls or the edge of the curb. The four were often stopped every other slow step which began to become quite frustrating. In an act of impatience, Mello forcefully decided to break out of the thick barriers of the masses to get to the front of the hotel. This obviously wasn't the best idea, which he found out the second he barreled into a blond bimbo who didn't seem all too happy with the unexpected encounter.

"What the hell was that, bitch?" the woman snarled as she hiked up her hot pink tube top which had rolled down about an inch or two upon impact.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to run into you," Mello apologized as he picked up his shoulder bag that had fallen off his shoulder perch.

"Naw, you soooo meant to do that! What the hell is your deal, dumb ass? Huh? What's you're problem?" the woman barked at him, her face getting up to his, her finger prodding his chest and the strong smell of alcohol wafting off her breath with every word she yelled at him.

"Listen, bitch! You better back off before I teach you the meaning of having a problem!" Mello snarled back at the woman, her hand now being crushed by the force of Mello's malicious grip.

"Hey man, back off!" Matt yelled at his furious companion as he came forward and held back Mello's arms away from the drunken whore.

Knowing he had to give up this pointless argument, Mello loosened his tensed muscles and shot Matt a distressed sigh as his arms were released.

"Yeah, that's right, walk away and never come back, yah son of a bitch!" the blond called back as the group filed into the hotel.

"Damnit, why the hell did you do that?" Mello snarled with a seething resentment in his tone.

"You were about to start a pointless squabble that would most likely lead to an unwanted trip to the police station, and I'd rather avoid that, wouldn't you?" L replied, a disgusted glare pointed at Mello's tensed face.

He sighed and loosened his fist. "Yeah, but I still could have taught her a lesson."

"The law enforcement system will do that for you eventually, I'm sure," Matt replied.

Once inside the hotel, L asked for four separate rooms on the same floor. Luckily, this wasn't one of their busy weeks, so they got the rooms that they needed. Once inside their own small rooms, everybody unpacked what they could, climbed out of their strange disguises and put on more suitable clothes. Leading after this, Matt, Mello, and Dagas all passed out by 3:20 in the morning. Sad as it was, L was forced to stay awake until 4:45 to look for any leads to B's location. After that, for one of the rare times in a month, out of stress and a sever lack of energy, L passed out for one of his long power naps.

By nine in the morning, just about everybody in the hotel was awake and ready to start a new day. With the new morning light shining down on the city, it was clearly easier to see how crowded the streets were the entire day. Some people were bustling to work by foot, and others were wasting their time to take a cab during morning rush hour. An interesting sight to see on your first day in the huge City.

"Hey," Matt greeted Dagas who was shuffling down the hall in a daze.

"Hmm, 'morning," she replied as she rubbed her eye with a bunched up fist. Looking at what his hands were filled with, Dagas questioned, "What's with all the food?"

"They got a complimentary breakfast downstairs. I got you something while I was in the lobby," Matt said as he handed her a blueberry buttered bagel and a lemon poppy seed muffin.

"Aw… finally, I've met a man who actually listens when I say things," she said humorously as she looked down at two of her favorite breakfast foods.

"Yeah, it's pretty hard to find people like me now a days," he gloated.

"Yeah, takes one to know one," Dagas scoffed.

"Touché, mademoiselle!"

"Damnit, don't speak Spanish to me right after I wake up," she drowsily demanded.

"Heh, okay then," he scoffed with an amused smile.

"That for Ryuzaki?" Dagas asked as she looked down at the plastic plate holding two sugary doughnuts and a couple complimentary candies from the front desk.

"Aw, how'd you guess?" he said sarcastically.

"You might wanna give that to him soon. When I woke up earlier, I tried to see if he had found anything on the case last night and… well, I think he was asleep."

"Good, after how nervous he was at the airport he deserved that sleep. No person should have to stress the way he did last night."

"True that."

"Stress about what?" L asked as he immerged from his room, refreshed and ready for most anything.

"Being here last night. We were just talking about how you needed that sleep you got last night," Matt said as he politely handed L the Styrofoam plate in his hand.

"Oh, thank you. And you are right, that sleep did help me to pull myself together," he admitted.

"Well that's good to know. So, is anything going on today?" Dagas asked.

"Actually, I do have something for you three to do today."

"What would that be?"

"It's true that the internet provides fantastic answers to many things, although they don't give a full in depth description of human behavior related to region. Simply put, all I want you three to do is go around the town and observe the behavior and activities of the average New Yorker."

"So, does this mean that we can just walk around and go where ever we want?" Matt asked.

"As long as you're keeping visual, then yes."

"Well that sounds like a hell of a fun time," Dagas said.

"Yeah, if we're not recognized," Mello said as he leaned on the door frame of his open door.

"By who? B? It's not like he's looking for us. We're the ones who're looking for him," Dagas said.

"True, but I'm referring to other things, such as street cameras that could pick up a picture of one of us and put it on a conveniently recorded tape."

"Well, that's nothing we need to worry about at the moment. Although, I would put on a disguise, if I were one of you, just to be safe," L replied as he took a bite of his glazed doughnut.

"We'll make sure to keep that in mind," Mello replied.

"Alright then, good luck with that. You have no specific time frame, so just take your time to note everything that you observe," L said as he walked back into his room and closed the door.

"Kay," Dagas replied.

"So, what're we doing?" Mello asked.

"Wow, you put in this foreshadowing commentary and yet you don't even know what's going on… real smart," Matt sarcastically scoffed.

"What ever… so, we're going out into town?"

"Yep, we gotta go observe the people of New York and learn how to blend in with them so we don't seem like such out casts," Dagas said.

"Well, doesn't that sound interesting…? Can't wait to start!" Mello exclaimed as he glided back into his room to prepare a disguise for the rest of the day.

Once the three had all finished remaking their images beyond recognition, they left the hotel and migrated to Central Park, each with full notepads, two pens and enough money to last 24 hours in the city. Once there, they agreed to meet back up at that same spot at 5 o'clock sharp. If either one was more than ten minutes late, this meant that something was wrong. Once the arrangements were made, the three split up to different sides of the city; Mello took to the subway stations to observe the activity under ground. For the entire day, he planned on going back and forth from the seats in the under ground stations to the different trams that ran non stop all day and all night. Matt planned on checking out the atmosphere in the establishments around the area. He would stop at Cafes, department stores, clubs; basically anywhere with people. Dagas decided to take things the harder way and loom about the parks and busy streets in the area. Any where she would go would most likely be packed, and that's exactly what she was hoping for. At the end of the day, the three would compile all of their notes taken throughout the day and make a full analysis of the people of the big apple.

By about 12 o'clock, things were going quite smoothly. The people of New York, with their unique personalities, were pretty easy to describe and categorize off the top of one's head, so this made their jobs pretty easy. But there were still five hours of observation left, and those hours were not very easily filled.

On Dagas' side of things, her observations were difficult to put on paper, especially with the uniqueness of the people around her, and her bad hand writing wasn't helping all that much either. But, never the less, she was making great time with her discoveries on the locals. At one point, while making observations on Queens Boulevard, Dagas found herself in a whole mess of ongoing traffic up and down the sidewalks. It was quite hard to see much of anything through the thick layers of rushing people; all that could be seen from beyond the people were the taxis putting down the road and crowded stores crammed onto the edge of the block.

Wile stuck in the thick traffic, many people were in such a rush that they would shove people in their way to the side to get where they needed to go. Due to this, Dagas soon found herself being shoved in all directions. Panicking at the massive traffic, she clutched onto her notebook and two pens as she was thrashed about the street. As more people shoved, the less she seemed to need to use her feet to propel herself forward. This came to a point where she was eventually violently shoved into the next person in front of her, sending the other person, herself, and a group of other people to the ground like a row of dominos. As the two causes of the commotion fell to the ground, Dagas dropped her observation notebook and pens while the girl she ran into dropped a large sketch book and several pencils and erasers.

As Dagas regained her boundaries, she picked up the first notebook she could find and flipped through it to see if it was hers. Inside this notebook were none of her notes, but instead an array of beautifully crafted, hand sketched art work that you would think could bring sight to a blind man. Realizing this was the other person's notebook, Dagas looked up to look the artist in the eye. What she saw was nothing she would have ever expected. The girl before her was a skinny thing wearing all black clothing aside from her black and red striped gloves that came up to her elbows. Black boots, black shirt, black jeans, black nail polish! Atop her head lay a tied up clump of wavy black hair with yellowish streaks running through several small clumps surrounding the blackness. Her nose was slightly bigger than most and pointed straight down as opposed to most noses that would curve a bit at the tip. The vibes that she gave off gave you a sense of friendliness and serenity as you stared into her brown eyes. Observing all of these features, Dagas soon realized who she had just come in contact with.

"I'm so sorry I bumped into you. Here's your notebook and pens back," the girl nervously apologized as she handed Dagas the notebook.

"Oh my god…" Dagas whispered under her breath.

"Oh crap, please don't be the third person to bitch out at me today. I said I was sorry!" she pleaded.

"I can't believe this… it's you…" she stuttered.

"Seriously, I don't have time for this, I've gotta be somewhere," she urgently said as she picked her supplies off the ground and began to walk forward. Before she could make her way away from the destruction behind her, Dagas grabbed hold of her wrist and refused to let it go.

"Ah! What is wrong with you?" she gasped as her thin body swiveled around to look back at Dagas.

"Josie…?"

"Wha- how the hell do you know my name?"

"Oh my god, it is you! I haven't seen you in ages!" Dagas exclaimed as she looked back at Josie with tears forming in her eyes.

"What the… who the hell are you?"

"Josie… it's me… Alex…"

There was a long pause before anything was said. For the next few seconds, all they could do was stair at each other's blood shot eyes. From middle school to the time that Dagas had split town, this was one of the people in her world who she could consider a best friend. When Dagas had been reported dead after a three month search, Josie was in one of the groups of people who had mourned her the most. For the past five years, Josie had thought the girl standing before her had been dead. This assumption was now proven false.

After Dagas had let her grip go on Josie's arm, the blackened artist came forward and gave Dagas one of the warmest hugs she had given in the past years.

"Oh my god! I can't believe this! Is this really you? I thought you were dead!" Josie cried as she pulled herself away to get a good look at Dagas' unfamiliar face.

"Hey, come on. Gimme a little credit here. Did you actually think I would die after three months? Please! It'd take at least a half a year to kill me off!" she joked with a joyous smile spread across her face.

"Haha! No kidding! Oh my god… You're alive! Y-you're, you're here! Of all the places!" she exclaimed as she looked over her long lost friend. "Damn, life has been treating you well!"

"More than you think, I can tell you that!"

"Oh my god, you know what, I was going to go to a coffee shop to go sketch. You have to come with me! Drinks are on me!"

"Well, that's nice of you bu…" she paused in her sentence to reconsider what she was about to say. "You know what, I've got until five. Let's do it!"

And as those words were said, Josie's eyes lit up with a joy that is simply indescribably by any human in existence.