Light's POV
It was relatively silent in the room. The most you could hear was the clink of L's spoon against the side of his teacup.
"Are we seriously stalling our investigation to wait for a girl? Aren't we supposed to be trying to catch Kira?" I was getting seriously irritated.
"Why don't you have patience, Light-kun? It's only been about twenty minutes." L told me in his monotone voice.
"Why do we have to wait for her? She's trying to make Matsuda good at something, which, by the way, we have no idea what it is, so that has to take hours at the least. Can't we keep ourselves busy with doing our job? We've known this girl for what, four hours? It isn't like our world stops simply because Saya walks out of the room."
"That is very true on everybody else's part, actually," L took his thumb and started chewing on the nail, "So why don't you all get to work?"
Everybody turned then, and began resuming their work. I didn't understand why I was so on edge. Scratch that, it's for the same reason as before.
Everything had been going perfectly according to plan up until yesterday. First L survives the Death Note and then some mysterious supergirl shows up claiming to be his maid. I wasn't stupid, there was something wrong with her. Was she a shinigami? No, that couldn't be it. Ryuk knows though, and that didn't sit well with me.
We continued to work for another twenty minutes in near silence. The tension in the room was rising for no apparent reason. I didn't like this. The way this team was being affected by a single girl was pissing me off. I would have to get rid of her.
"Seven." A voice said rather loudly. I looked over at L.
"Six."
"Ryuzaki?"
"Five."
"What are you doing?"
"Four." The others turned around and looked at L as well.
"Three."
"Stop counting!"
"Two."
"One, Master." Saya was standing at the bottom of the stairs, Matsuda behind her. He looked as if he had been awake for days. He seemed utterly exhausted, but other than that he looked a bit... determined?
"How did you two get there so quickly?" Aizawa asked. Saya and Matsuda both ignored him as L began typing quickly into the computer. He pulled up a dark webpage full of randomized numbers and letters. In the top right corner was an insignia that all of us knew rather well.
"Ryuzaki, why are we about to log into the files of the Japanese government?" I asked.
"Now Matsuda," L pushed his chair away from his monitor and slid over to Saya, "I want you to hack this website and change Ide's legal name to Phil McGraw." Ide jumped up and almost knocked over the coffee that Saya had brought out for all of us.
"Excuse me? Why would you even ask him to do that?"
L shrugged, "Well, I've somewhat gotten into American television lately, and I happen to like Dr. Phil."
"Ide, just stop arguing," My father spoke up, "This is about seeing whether or not Matsuda can actually do something like this."
"There's no way." I scoffed, "The girl worked with him for not even half an hour. Even if she were the best teacher in the world, it isn't logical that she could've taught Matsuda to hack into an official government website." While the others voiced their agreement with me, I noticed that Saya's eyebrow slightly twitched in annoyance, but her composure remained as she walked over to Matsuda. She placed her hands on his shoulders and led him over to a chair that she pulled in front of the monitor.
"Now Mr. Matsuda, if you would please do as the Master ordered." She gave a light smile. A really… disgustingly cute smile. I didn't think I would ever hate anybody as much as I hated L, but this girl was proving to be an anomaly.
Matsuda nodded tiredly and his hands moved slowly over the keyboard. I smirked, there was no way he was going to be able to do anything on this. There were so many firewalls on this website and so much defense on those files that not even I could hack it if I tried.
Suddenly Matsuda's hands began moving at a rapid speed, basically flying over the keyboard. The screen kept changing as he continued pressing buttons, and multiple windows began popping up before disappearing just as quickly. I felt my jaw drop slightly as firewall after firewall came down. Matsuda's expression didn't change once though his eyes were moving all over the screen everywhere.
Finally all of the jumbled numbers and letters disappeared, replaced with a massive folder of documents. The names of them gave away how obviously confidential they were.
"You've got to be kidding me." Aizawa whispered.
"Well I'll be damned!" My father got up and patted the happy-looking Matsuda on his shoulder. Soon all of them, minus L, Saya, and myself, were crowding him. I looked at the red haired girl.
"How did you-"
"Satisfactory job, Saya. Although, I'm a little disappointed that you didn't have him understanding this sooner." L spoke monotonously. Saya bowed to him.
"My apologies, Master. Mr. Matsuda was quite a hard shell to crack." She was so irritating. How did she even…?
I stood up and walked over to her, "That is amazing Saya! How did you get Matsuda to be good at anything?" I smiled, but it faltered after a second. She didn't even look my way when I spoke to her.
So. Damn. Rude.
"Why don't you ask Mr. Matsuda yourself?" I looked over at Matsuda, who was staring proudly at his hacking job.
"She lectured me for hours and wouldn't let me leave until I had memorized every data configuration there was. I have to say, I don't even remember half of it, but I knew what to do when I got on!"
"Hours? Matsuda, you were in there for less than half an hour." My father said.
Matsuda laughed, "Yeah, right."
"He's telling the truth, Matsuda." I told him, "You were hardly in there any time at all."
Matsuda's smile fell a bit, "T-That isn't possible. We went over hundreds of configurations and substitutions… It was hours, trust me."
"They're correct, Mr. Matsuda. You learned all of that in about 24 minutes. The last minute I spent dragging your almost lifeless corpse back down here." Saya told him with a small smirk. I swear her eyes were dimly glowing, illuminating her already red eyes. But it was gone after she blinked. She was different.
"You've got to be kidding me," Matsuda plopped his head down onto the keyboard, "After all of that I still have to work?"
"Actually, I would suggest you go home and rest," L interveined, "Now that I think about it, all of you can go home early today. Except for Light-kun and his father. They can stay here and sift through the files that Matsuda has pulled up for us. We need a record of anybody affiliated with any of the companies mentioned in the files gathered yesterday afternoon."
"Excuse me?" I asked, "Since when do you dictate when we can and cannot work?" L turned to look at me.
"Nobody else seemed to mind. They've already fled. None of them are very good at skimming files quickly and effectively without asking a million questions. Also, if you haven't noticed, I am lead investigator. Do you have a problem with my directions, Light-kun?" Was L blatantly challenging me? Or was he trying to irritate me?
"... No. I don't have a problem, Ryuzaki." My pride died slightly, "Just… What are you going to do?"
"I have a few errands to take care of," L got up, "Let's go, Saya."
"Wait, you're not going to tell us what you're doing?" My father asked, "What if something happens?"
"Don't worry. As long as Saya is with me I'll be fine." L walked to the door.
"Master, would you like some footwear?" Saya asked.
"No."
"Very well." She followed him out. It was silent for a moment until I heard the light tapping of the keys on the keyboard. I decided to follow my father's lead and begin working.
How could I continue my work as Kira now? I couldn't follow the same pattern as I was before. L was already so close to figuring me out before. I would have to contact Misa soon, and possibly recruit another to continue Kira's work. Either way, I was completely certain of one thing:
I needed to do something about Saya, and fast.
L's POV
"Master, I thought you said that L was just as smart as you are." Saya asked as she swerved through a barricade of vehicles. We were currently in a car so expertly stolen by my butler. She was breaking so many rules on the road, but she was a damn good driver.
"I did." I answered.
"Then how did he not know that you were lying to him?"
"Which time?" Saya rolled her eyes. Her eyes were so big and round, yet they perfectly accompanied her pale face. If I looked closely, I could see faint, very faint, freckles on her cheeks under her eyes. Her beauty definitely wasn't human.
"When you told him that you were going to run errands. If he had told you that, you would've caught on in a second-"
"Less, actually." I interrupted.
"So," She resumed, "If you're telling me that his mind is on the same wavelength as yours, why didn't he pick up on your fibbing?"
"How do you know that I was lying?" I questioned.
"I am your servant, my Lord, as well as a demon. It is my job to understand you, and lying is my specialty. Now, if you would answer the question."
"I haven't gone a single day without lying to Light," I explained, "If you incorporate a word into your daily vocabulary, those who are always around you don't even think about it when you say it. The same goes for lying. It isn't few and far between, it's almost every other sentence. It becomes harder for those around you to differentiate between the lies and the truth, thus making everything easier. Light thinks that I don't know when he's lying or uncomfortable with a topic, and that just makes him an even bigger suspect in this case."
Saya was silent. I looked over at her and was slightly surprised.
"Saya, why are you smiling?"
"I am not, Master."
"Smirking, then."
"I just…" She paused, "I think I picked a very delectable soul this time around." I didn't know how to answer that. Part of me wanted to accept it as a compliment, and the other part of me was slightly uncomfortable with her choice of words.
"I'm sorry Master, did I make you uncomfortable?"
"No, not at all." I answered immediately.
"I do apologize, I'll make a better choice of my words next time around." Of course she would know I was lying. Demons always lie, right? They're bad. Evil. That's what humans are brainwashed to believe. It couldn't be that black and white. After all, I was here, conversating normally with one. Never in my life was I able to speak with someone honestly, but this happens to be the one person-demon-whom I could not lie to.
"Are you evil?"
"Pardon me, Master?"
"We are brought up to believe that angels are good and demons are evil. I wanted to know if that was true."
"You're asking if all of the stories you hear about demons are true."
"Sort of. More detail would be nice."
"Yes, they are," She explained, "But you have to take into consideration that your race is filled with evil as well. Simply because we happen to have more freedom to bend earth and space doesn't make us very much different. I mean, imagine if every being was petrified by the fact that a large portion of humans were under the control of Hitler. Or Osama Bin Laden. Or Mao. There are always horrible beings no matter what species you're looking at. You think angels are saints? Well, they are, but not in the way you think. They do horrible things too, much worse than you've ever heard of a demon doing. Only they get by with it because it's 'in the name of their lord'. Nobody is ever completely good once they've been exposed to the real world. Purity is just a fantasy created by those who want to feel special for being too scared to do anything in the world. Put very simply, yes, we are evil. Everybody is. To pretend there is no bad is to concede the certainty that there is no true good in the world."
"So you're saying purity is a farce?"
"Yes, I am. There are pure qualities in some humans, but purity itself is a very powerful thing. An illusion."
"That's very interesting. So you're saying that you and I aren't so different."
"It depends on what aspect you're speaking of, Master."
"The only real difference in us is our species. What we are. But we have the same goal: To survive. To live. To be selfish."
"I suppose you're correct."
"Of course I am, it comes with the territory of being a genius." I began biting the nail on my thumb.
"I hope you know that if Light is Kira, he's probably going to-"
"Get rid of me? Yes, I've already considered that." Huh. And I thought that I was the only one who interrupted people.
"But what would you like me to do if the person who is Kira, be it Light or not, attempts to do anything in my presence?"
I thought about that for a moment, "Just do what any normal person would do. That is, until I order you to do otherwise. Like I said, this case does nothing for me if I'm not the one to catch Kira. Hey, stop here." Saya pulled the car over in front of a store.
"I want you to buy food for the kitchen back at the station."
"What kind, Master?"
"I don't care. You're the one that cooks, and it's been proven that your cooking is exceptional. Just go and get some." I handed her the credit card that I swiped from Ide's pocket earlier.
"Right. Are you not going to come in?"
"No, I'd like to stay in here and listen to some music." Her eyes roamed mine skeptically. Eventually she bowed her head and got out of the car, "Yes, Master. I'll return shortly." She locked the doors and quickly sped into the store. No doubt she'd be good on her word to return in a short time. I pressed the button on the door and heard the click of the doors as they unlocked.
Not a minute later, my door was flung open and I was dragged out of the car. I felt cold metal press against my back as disgustingly warm breath fanned over my neck.
"You're going to keep quiet, you hear? You're gonna get into the van, and you're gonna keep your mouth shut." With that he pulled me over to the awfully stereotypical white van parked just on the other side of our car and threw me in the back. I felt the pull of gravity as the van quickly pulled away. I brought my legs up to my chest and sighed.
"Well, now we wait."