Disclaimer! All fictional entities featured/ mentioned in this segment belong to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata; with the exception of Erin Blogger (to WhiteLadyDragon) and Acey and Jaime (to smearedliner). The ghost Kikuri is a reference to the character from the anime, Ken'ichi Kanemaki's Hell Girl.

02-1

She didn't know how, but Erin had somehow managed to fall asleep, in spite of what was to come the following day. That being said, the very first thing she did upon waking up to the overcast skies outside the window, after shaking the sleep out of her head, was check to see if she still had all of her parts attached the way they should've been.

No signs of blood or scarring. So far, so good.

Erin groped her head and neck to make sure she still had them, felt her pulse, took several deep breaths, then took all of her other extremities into account. She had just finished counting her fingers—all ten of them, thank God—and was just starting to count her toes when Acey began to stir.

Meanwhile, Jaime was staring at Erin curiously with a raised eyebrow. "M'lady, if I may ask, what exactly are you doing?"

She blushed. "Huh? Who, me? Well, I—oh, I'm just, you know, doing my morning routine. I—I always check to make sure I've got it all together in the morning."

Acey made the mistake of sitting up too fast. Her head swam, and she had to place a hand on the wall to steady herself. Her whole body was shaking, and she seemed disoriented. "I-I hate it when he d-does that," she mumbled.

Erin took her hands off of her feet. "Who, Acey? Wh-who did what?"

"M'lady, are you alright?" Jaime asked, alarmed.

Her head swam again when she got out of bed. Seconds later, she stumbled. Fortunately, a pair of arms caught her before she hit the ground. Breathing hard, she looked up into a pair of kind blue eyes framed by short black bangs.

"Ah, A, thank you," Acey whispered. "E-Erin, this is A. A, this is Erin Blogger."

Erin placed her sock-feet on the floor as she assumed a sitting position on her bed. She hesitated for a minute or two, chewing on her bottom lip before answering, "Uhm…hi! G'morning! How goes it?" Unsure of whether or not to shake A's hand—what with his being a ghost and all—she settled for waving a peace sign. "So you're the A these guys told me about."

For a moment, the room felt a bit chillier for her, all of a sudden. The A who was B's friend. The A who was L's first successor. The A who killed himself.

Erin couldn't say much else upon thinking about this. Every day, it continued to stun her to see just how easily life could be taken away. Even by the dead, apparently.

"Oh, you've heard of me? Good things, I hope," A turned to smile at Erin over his shoulder. "Let me get the Miss taken care of first, then I can better make your acquaintance."

Closing her eyes, Acey rested her head in A's lap, sighing contently as her breathing began to even out. "When B died, he somehow acquired the power to walk into my dreams. I don't know how he gained such a power, but it truly is a bother when he does it, because he has to draw energy from my aura in order to stay in the astral plane of dreaming. It takes such a physical toll on my body, as you can see. A here can restore whatever energy B drew from me and balance it out again," she explained. "The first time B did this, it put me in a coma of sorts for two days. Poor Roger thought I was dead, though I swear he was rejoicing a little bit."

Erin tried not to turn green. I swear to God, this B sounds more and more like a stalker…hasn't he got anything better to do in the afterlife except terrorize people?

A smiled somewhat down at her. "B still hasn't grasped how strong the Miss is."

Wicked glared and hissed in passing at A as he hopped on Erin's bed. He sat behind her, very displeased about another male presence in the room.

A grinned sheepishly. "I see Wicked still dislikes me. When I started hearing rumors that the Miss had befriended someone on the outside, I had to come see for myself. She doesn't like a lot of people, so you must be pretty special in some way, Erin."

Peering down at her feet, Erin twiddled her thumbs for a spell. "Aw, well, I—I'm not all that—well, I did know L, if that counts for anything. As in, face-to-face. Lived with him for a while, actually. Strictly case-related circumstances," she added hastily. "Other than that…nah, I'm not such hot stuff." She paused to make a few stretches before rising up from the bed. "Gosh, did I sleep in my clothes, last night? No wonder I feel so…funky. Better go get changed, huh?"

"Yeah, you passed right out after scolding me about smoking," said Acey, picking her head up from A's lap to grin at her. "You can use the shower in my bathroom, if you like. I'm going to stay close to A, a little longer."

"Gee, thanks, kiddo. I won't be too long, swear it."

A looked down at Acey and then at Erin. To him, they seemed like they belonged together in some weird way. They complemented one another well. "You shouldn't sell yourself so short. Any friend of the Miss's is a friend of mine."

Friends with phantoms. That killed Erin to think about it.

Figuring that Near would be seeing them sometime that day, if he wasn't already waiting for them downstairs, so it would seem appropriate to look pleasant and presentable. After all, it wasn't every day that one got to meet face-to-face with L, or his successor.

Unless, of course, he wouldn't actually be meeting her face-to-face and would instead communicate with her through a computer and a voice filter. Understandable, if he wouldn't trust her with seeing his face.

Oh, just what was he like? Well, perhaps if he was anything like L, Erin could spot him fairly easily in the crowd. Unless, of course, he stayed holed up in his room all day, just as his predecessor did before him. In the same clothes, day in and day out, rain or shine, with a thumb in his mouth.

Was he even staying at Wammy's, at the moment? Probably. Roger was supposed to be his "Watari," and he was here.

Well…here's to hoping that old Near is, above all else, sensible. At least, a little. Please, let him be just a little, at LEAST.

Unbeknownst to Erin, her five minutes under the hot showerhead had already melted into ten.

When she eventually turned off the water and threw back the curtain in a daze, she was met by a pair of purple eyes staring right at her. A ghost-child with short black hair sat on the sink counter, dressed in a dark pink kimono, swinging her legs back and forth.

"Gah!"

She giggled childishly, "You're nervous, aren't you? Near is a meanie-head when I knock down his dominos. He sometimes lets me play with tarot cards, though. He's very selfish about his Legos. He never lets me play with them."

Giggling again, she reached out to pull Erin's wet, tangled hair. "I'm Kikuri. What's your name, silly human?"

Erin had originally reached out for her towel, but wound up reaching back for the curtain to draw it over herself, like a shield. She had to prop herself up against the slick wall with her other hand to keep from slipping. "Erin. A-and where the heck did you pop up from? Acey, there's a ghost in the bathroom!"

Honestly, she wasn't sure whether to feel terrified or humiliated. She was naked, right now, after all! Moreover, this new spirit appeared to be of Japanese origins. So, what was she doing here in England?

"You want to know something funny?" Kikuri asked, nimbly jumping off the sink counter and onto the tub ledge, peering at Erin behind the curtain, causing her to curl up further into the corner, even going so far as to peel the corner of the curtain with her to cover herself.

"She knew about the Ey—"

"Gah, go away, I'm not decent!"

"Kikuri!"

Kikuri turned her head and stuck her tongue out at Acey, who was standing the doorway of the bathroom, looking furious and a little frightened. "What have I told you about walking in on people like that! You're being rude, now come here!" She lunged towards her.

Kikuri giggled, dancing away from Acey's hands. Acey gave chase as the spirit darted out of bathroom, proceeding to make the medium chase her around the room. A watched them both run circles around him with a slightly amused expression on his face. He could recall observing L watching Acey chase Kikuri around a hotel room once, wearing the same expression.

Even the fleetest thought of his late mentor made him cringe. In all of the commotion, however, no one noticed this.

"Come here, you little runt," Acey growled, nearly falling on her face in trying to grab Kikuri as she jumped off her bed.

"All right, Kikuri, come here. That's enough," A said, suppressing laughter.

Kikuri dodged Jaime, and jumped up into A's arms, sticking her tongue out at Acey.

"Get her out of here," Acey hissed angrily, catching her breath. She pointed at the door. "Now."

In the meantime, Erin dared only to poke her head out of the bathroom door, clutching the damp towel around herself in an attempt to quell the shivers. Even in fear, her motor of a mouth didn't fail to sputter a hundred questions a minute. "I-is it safe to come out, now? Acey, wh-who the heck was that? Is she dangerous? You gotta tell me right now, if she is, 'cause she just basically tried to jump me in the shower. In the shower, kid!"

Sighing heavily, Acey slid her closet door open. Kneeling on the floor, she began to sort through clothes, tossing shirts and jeans over her shoulder. "In addition to doing business in England and United States, my father also did a lot of business in Japan, mainly in Osaka, where I was born. The little runt you just met was Kikuri. My father permitted one of his associates to take me out sight-seeing, which is how I stumbled on her. I think she was some sort of psychic or seer, because when we met, she told me a man with big eyes was going to take me away from all the blood one day."

She laughed a little. "Then she pulled my hair and asked me why it was always snowing on my head. Jaime tried to shoo her away, but she never really left. My memory of the night L found me is still pretty fuzzy, but I remember floating to consciousness long enough to see her overwhelm L, asking him if he was the man with big eyes that would take me away, and that she would gouge his eyes out in his sleep if he hurt me.

"She likes to cause me trouble, as you saw. B took a real shine to her, and it seemed like L did, too."

"Oh yeah? Sounds like you guys all have, uh…quite a history, together."

Acey paused. Biting her lower lip, her hands nervously clenched in and out into fists.

"…Did she say anything to you? In the bathroom, I mean?"

Erin had just begun dressing as Acey relayed this story to her. She collected enough of her composure to call back, "N-not much. I was kinda busy screaming my head off to hear much of it. She did say that Near was a…a 'meanie-head,' though." She accentuated the word "meanie-head" as though she were deactivating a bomb. "But I'm just gonna take that with a grain of salt. Or two. Or ten."

"Oh yeah, and that you knew something about—uh, something. Like I said, I was too busy screaming my head off to hear much."

Acey breathed a sigh of relief, taking care to make it barely audible. She was glad her back was turned to Erin so she wouldn't see how frightened she'd been. Good, she doesn't know…yet. I don't doubt for a second B sent her up here to stir things up.

"You wear your emotions all over your face, Acey. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask to stop that, it's not good for your line of work."

Her fists slowly unclenched as a shaky smile tugged at the corners of her lips. It felt like L was sitting right there in the room with her, scolding her again.

I know, I'm sorry, I just can't help it sometimes.

Having never been the type to like silence or long pauses, Erin spoke up again as she brushed the wet tendrils of her hair into a ponytail. "So she's basically the stalking type. Well, no! No, that sounds a bit strong. She's more like…a groupie for you, huh? Sorta like old Jaime is?"

When she heard Jaime being referred to as a groupie, Acey covered her mouth to hold back her laugh, but it was no use. It chugged out of her throat, anyway.

This girl is amazing. Nobody has ever been able to make me laugh like this.

"Oh Jaime, did you hear that? She thinks you're a groupie," she laughed, wrapping an arm around herself. She stopped Jaime when he opened his mouth to belt out a retort at Erin. "I've got this one."

Acey took a few seconds to compose herself. "I'm sorry," she said, turning to face at Erin as she emerged fully-clothed from the bathroom. "I haven't laughed like that since…well, that doesn't matter. Anyways, let me explain something. I guess you could refer to me as a last grasp at humanity for ghosts like Kikuri, Jaime and A, even. I can see ghosts, hear them, and touch them. When they touch me, I feel as whole to them as humans are to each other. I make them feel human, again. Death is cold and very lonely, I've been told. I have the power to alleviate them of their loneliness. And some cling to that, as you can see."

The small swell of warmth that Erin had felt upon hearing the younger girl laugh at her poorly aimed joke cooled upon hearing this. Jaime had told her almost the same thing, the night before they'd departed for England. If Acey was saying it, then it had to be true.

Death is cold and very lonely…

"So…okay, so in that case, have you ever, like, talked to—"

Erin stopped herself before the lump had the time to wedge itself firmly in her throat. Somehow, in a way, she would already know the answer to her question, anyway. For a moment, the ominous purr of a certain apple-craving shinigami drilled through one ear and out the other.

Humans who use the Death Note don't make their way to Heaven or to Hell.

So what awaits them after death?

Nothing.

She never did figure out what "nothing" meant. But whatever it was, it must've been very cold and lonely indeed.

"Uh, on second thought, forget it. I'm decent now, so let's scamper down to breakfast. I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse—n-not your horse! I don't even like horses. Ah, not in that way! I'm just saying—gah!"

Acey barely heard Erin speak. Normally, she would've hushed the journalist's rambling with a finger pressed to her lips. "I'm sorry, but no, I haven't. It's like trying to catch smoke with your fingertips. Every time I've reached out to him, it feels like something is jamming my senses, somehow."

She put her hand out in front of her face, like she was trying to see beyond something. "If I ever find a way to cross into Mu somehow, I'll take you with me. I mean, if there is a way to reach him, which I'm afraid may not be the case."

Acey suddenly shook her head as if to clear it. "I'm sorry. Nothing I say makes any sense, anyhow, so close your ears to my rambling." To Erin, she sounded awfully like L, for a minute there.

A had been lingering the doorway the whole time, having returned once he'd handled the issue of Kikuri. He was shaking with anger. "Unbelievable!" he spat venomously. "Why would you risk your life and hers just to see him?"

After that outburst, he wasn't the only one shaking. The hairs along Wicked's cat prickled as he bared his teeth.

"Whoa, hey, wh-what's with the temper, all of a sudden?"

"Stay out of this! This is none of your business!" A snapped, turning his furious gaze to Acey.

That was enough to make Erin draw back by at least five inches. What a volatile place this House was. She wasn't sure of the exact nature of L's relationship to the residents of Wammy's, past and present, but this creeping, tingling feeling in her gut warned her that A's outburst had something to do with him, since she and Acey had been discussing him just moments upon his abrupt return.

Acey told me that A cracked under the pressure of getting L's title…wonder if…?

"No, as long she is with me this is her business, too! This isn't a fight you can win, A. I don't think you understand the full weight of what he did for me," Acey countered calmly. She wasn't angry yet, but it would rise to the surface soon. She would be damned if anyone would speak to her that way.

A scoffed. "You seem to be under the impression he gave a damn about you because he saved your life. Don't think for a second that he wouldn't have left you to die if you weren't of some use to him, because he would've. He only did what he did for his own personal gain and you know it!"

Erin looked to Jaime in the corner, helpless. Wasn't this about the time he stepped in to defend his "lady?"

"Don't make it my problem that you chose your own back door out of life," Acey snapped. She couldn't quite say that what A said was wrong, because it wasn't. Not entirely. "He had the perfect chance to achieve a personal goal in exchange for my life years ago. Hell, I practically handed the opportunity to him, but he didn't take it."

"You still stick up for him, despite how much he used you. It makes me sick." He turned to Erin. "Did you know there wasn't so much as a whisper of his presence when I died? It would've been the same way if B had succeeded in killing her before those three people in Los Angeles, but she's just too brainwashed to believe it."

The instant he said that, it felt as though ten thousand volts coursed through every fiber of Erin's being.

Three people…Los Angeles…murder…

"H-hold on, a sec," Erin squeaked. "B killed people? In L.A.?" By this point, her eyes darted into practically every nook and cranny in the room as her memory fizzled and sputtered. "T-there was something crazy in the media a couple years back about three murder victims in L.A…the L.A. Serial Locked Room Killings. Some guy named Beyond Birthday—oh my God."

Erin stumbled so far backwards that she had to cling to the knob of the bathroom door like a lifeline. The memory of reading up on such a gruesome event on the Internet made the knob feel like ice under her touch, adhering her to it.

"No way. You're telling me that was B? B was Beyond Birthday? B was the guy who did that? Stop me if I'm wrong, please, somebody stop me!" She gagged, "That was the 'hobby' he ran off to pursue? Oh my God, oh my God, oh. My. God." She couldn't say much more than that. How could she? Her hand reached over her chest to ball up the fabric of her blouse in her fist, her knuckles pressed against her heart as it thrashed to break out of her sternum.

A laughed a bitter, almost disgusted sort of laugh that clashed with Erin's initial impression of him. "Oh, she kept that from you, huh? She used your naïveté to her advantage. She's more like him than I thought. It's a shame, because there was such a perfect trust in your eyes for her."

Acey lunged to her feet, her fist curled to punch A, but Jaime stepped in between them, swiftly catching her fist in his hand. "M'lady, please stop. Go see to her," he pleaded.

Acey narrowed her eyes in an acidic glare. "Fuck you, A. Fuck you."

She turned to close the distance between her and Erin slowly, as if she were dealing with a scared, distrusting horse. She steadied Erin with both hands on her shoulders. "Erin? Erin, I want you listen to me, all right? I swear on my life I'm not going to let him hurt you. You have to trust me, okay?"

Provided A hadn't destroyed the trust between them already.

"I'm going to protect you, I promise. I'll let him kill me before he lays a finger on you. I'm not going to let anything happen to you, understand?" There was a frantic, frightened look in her eyes that clearly conveyed what she was thinking.

Please! Please don't leave me now!

In a twisted way, it was understandable that Acey wouldn't have wanted to tell her the truth about B. Erin wouldn't have necessarily wanted to hear it. But now that it had been thrown out into the open, along with the fact that this maniac was now dwelling somewhere in this very house, waiting in ambush…Erin realized that there wasn't really very much she could do about it. She couldn't leave, for more reasons than one.

Not to mention, it somehow killed her even more to see Acey look at her like that. It reminded her too much of L when he was sad.

After what felt to her like an eternity, she swallowed hard. "You should call the Ghostbusters, is what you oughta do. I'd rather not have anything to happen to you, either, kid." She said the first part to horse around, an attempt to make the situation a mite easier, but she certainly meant the second part.

Suddenly, she didn't feel all that hungry, anymore.

Erin managed to push herself off the wall, having only a vague idea of what she was doing at this point. She was trying vainly to change the subject. "C-come on, guys. I thought we were all friends. Why all this hatred, all of a sudden?"

"It's not hatred," Acey whispered, leaning up against the wall next to Erin. "Not specifically. It's…"

"Bitterness," A finished for her. Looking away from both girls, he searched for the best way to explain this. "I remember hovering around outside his hotel room, one night. It was a week or two after he'd found the Miss. The Miss walked over to him, and said, 'I want to be close to you, now.' He had such a startled look on his face as she took his legs down off the chair so she could rest her head in his lap. He had such a stupid look on his face. It was after she fell asleep in his lap that I saw his eyes soften for a moment.

"This may not make any sense to you, but I hated the way he looked at her. Never once did he look at me that way. Single-handedly, all in a few seconds, the Miss accomplished what I could never do, if you can understand what I'm trying to say…"

He trailed off, forcing himself to look Erin the eyes, begging her to understand without having to admit it out loud.

And by some sort of miracle on Erin's behalf, she did.

"You wanted him to care about you?"

She reached her arms out in front of her without moving from her spot, as though trying to gather everyone into the room into the hug. "That's nuts. I bet he cared about you as much as he did for Acey. Now, I'll admit, I didn't know him as well or for as long as either of you knew him, but I knew him just enough to say now with no doubt in my mind that he did care. Acey, L didn't always treat you all nicey-nice, did he? He acted like a wad, more often than not, didn't he?"

The girl nodded in affirmation.

"That's right. He was the same way with me, almost. But…he's the reason I'm still here, today, in spite of that. And just because he didn't show up at your funeral, didn't mean he wasn't grieving for you, deep down."

She was only vaguely aware of the fact that she was becoming such a preacher, right now—a preacher preaching to the choir. But she could not find it in her to stop. "He just…I dunno, he didn't know how to show it, I guess. Was it pride? Was it fear? Was it inexperience, or some crazy idea of his to isolate his emotions just so he could do his job? Or was it a little of everything? Who knows? All I know is that he didn't know how to show it when he cared about you. I thought you guys were geniuses; you oughta know better than that."

At this point, Jaime thought it was time to add his two cents. "That's right. L used to say many insensitive things to m'lady, and to Lady Erin, as well. It got to the point where they both almost hit him, though Lady Erin took a much different approach. The reason they had a better response from him than you did was because they could stand up to him. L may have been an imbecile when it came to handling people's feelings, but that didn't take away from the fact that he cared."

In the room next door, the phantom pressed his ear against the wall. There had been quite a fight going on there until now. Kikuri sat on the bed next to him, swinging her legs back and forth off the edge.

"I made Onee-sama mad, Nii-chan. It was fun," Kikuri giggled, turning to look up at him. "Are you going to kill them?" Her eyes sparkled with excitement. Her smile suddenly disappeared. She didn't really want her Onee-sama to get killed, or her new friend, for that matter. She remembered how she'd stamped her foot and told him not to ever do that again, but still, she wondered what this place would look like in total chaos.

He absentmindedly reached over to ruffle Kikuri's hair. "No. I have bigger plans than that. But who knows, I could always change my mind."

What he had planned was much worse.

Smiling gently, A crossed the room towards Erin. Bending down, he brushed a kiss against her cheek. "Thank you. I can see the Miss is in good hands."

Jaime and Acey turned to the look at the wall at the same time. Frowning, Acey walked up and promptly slapped her hand against it, making the spirit on the other side jump away. Acey prayed the soft, muffled cackle that echoed on the other side went unheard to Erin.

It did. She was too busy pressing a bewildered palm against her flushed cheek, on the spot where A had dropped that peck. What was it with everyone wanting her kiss her cheek, all of a sudden?

"Uh…"

The curt rapping of knuckles against the door turned all of their attention to the doorway. "Sorry if I'm interrupting something, but Near wants to see you both," Mello announced once he'd swallowed his chocolate and invited himself in. The look on his face reflected his annoyance more than adequately enough about being Near's messenger.

"What? Oh. M-morning, Mello," Erin managed to say, suddenly wondering in the back of her mind if he or anyone else in the House were aware of the spirits who dwelled with them, and more importantly, whether they were aware of the ghost of a serial killer lurking among them.

Though upon hearing Near's name, those worries had to scoot over to the side-burner. Too many things were happening at once!

"What's that? Near wants to see us? Erm…that's great! I-I'm decent, so I guess we can get that over with. So…where do we find him?"

Gritting her teeth, Acey pinched the bridge of her nose. "What is my room, Grand Central Station? All right, listen up! Everyone whose name is not Erin, get out, now!" She pointed to Jaime and A. "That means you, you!"

Walking over to Mello, she shoved him with a hand on his chest out the door. "And you! Out!"

Mello had to brace against the wall to keep from falling over as Jaime and A scurried from her room. "Hey! Don't shoot the messenger!" he snarled, snapping off another piece of his chocolate. Since Acey barely scaled five feet, he sometimes forgot how strong she was. She could be an unstoppable force when she was annoyed.

"I will if you don't leave now!" she snapped before she slammed the door in his face.

"By the way, tell that bastard to give me back my case! It was mine, first!" Mello hollered from the other side of the door.

Acey delivered a swift kick to the barrier between them to let Mello know she met business before she finally turned to Erin, who was now incredibly flustered. "If you thought sibling rivalry was bad, you haven't seen anything until you've seen Near and Mello fight. Or rather Mello try to fight with Near, and Near totally blowing him off. I thought they'd grow out of it, but sadly, they haven't, yet. And they probably never will. I've seen Mello blow a gasket if Near did even one percent better than he did."

"Going out on a limb, here. I'm going to bet that the title's got something to do with that? Is Mello, like, jealous of Near for being the new L?"

Once she'd retrieved a pair of jean with a rip in one of the knees and a black tank top to change into, Acey set about to prepare Erin for meeting Near. There was something she wanted to say to her beforehand.

"Don't feel obligated to answer right away to whatever Near has to offer to you. We at Wammy's play a dangerous game. Mello, Near and I alone have a whole list of people who want us dead a hundred times over, and you'll more than likely acquire one yourself if he offers you a job. So, I would sleep on it for a few days before deciding to get wrapped up with us, all right?"

Huh? A job? With these guys? Why would old Near want to offer me a job? Probably to keep me under his thumb, since I know so much…

Oh yeah. I'd definitely like to sleep on anything he'd want to throw at me.

"Th-thanks for the warning."

Acey grabbed two jackets from her closet, tossing one to Erin. "After we meet Near, I'll take you down to meet Damien. It's always good to keep a jacket on hand, 'cause it's usually chilly year-round here."

Not knowing what else to say, Erin replied, "Once again, thanks for the warning."

Before Erin was aware of it, she had been guided to a massive room in the upper stories of the house, what appeared to her to be a toy room. And Lord, what a toy room! Acres upon acres of hardwood floor leveled by Lego towers, streets of dominoes, stacks of puzzles, and wind-up robots loitering in the free nooks and crannies. Erin found it a wonder how there was even an inch of floor left to stand on in here.

"Whoa! Did the Toys-R-Us giraffe come in and toss his cookies here, or something? Look at all these toys! You kids sure are spoiled, aren't ya!"

Are these kids playing with me? Why would Near be in here? Well, L liked to mess around with people, so it wouldn't be far-fetched if his protégés liked messing around, too…

Somewhere in the midst of all this whimsical mess, Erin could make out a hunched, disheveled cotton-white shape nestled in the center of a house of tarot cards under construction. The shape looked like a boy's. A very short boy, almost Acey's size, his too-big pajamas as bleached out as his thick mane of bed-head.

Erin stood on tiptoe and stretched her neck to make him out more clearly inside the tarot scaffolding. Already, something about him was striking a cord in her. But her mouth ran before her brain could establish a connection: "Oh! Hey, kid, I-I didn't see you there, for a second. G'morning! Uhm, we're, uh, looking for someone named Near. Is he in? M-my name is—"

"Erin Blogger. Yes, I've been expecting you. Please do take care to step around everything. I won't be pleased if you knock anything over," Near cut her off, without even looking up to acknowledge her directly.

Acey smirked at Erin. "Now do you understand what Kikuri told you?" She took hold of her elbow. "Follow my steps exactly," she instructed before helping the older girl step, bob, and weave around Near's toys. The ease in which she guided Erin with suggested she'd done this more than once.

Unfortunately, that ease only lasted until a rouge marble rolled under her foot, setting off a chain of events that had chaotic results. Almost like those of a miniature earthquake.

Acey took Erin down with her as she fell, successfully burying them in Legos as they fell into the tower behind them. The marble was sent flying into a line of dominos, knocking all but the front four down.

"He may not look it, but trust me, he's horrified," Acey said once the clattering of falling Legos and dominos ceased. "Well, that sure did suck, but at least we missed the tarot card tower. I know I can't possibly erase the awkwardness of this moment with introductions, but Near, this is Erin. Erin, meet my boyfriend, who I swear has Peter Pan Syndrome."

As soon as Erin could establish that they had in fact survived the ordeal, she found her back pressed against the wall. "Ah! No way! You're Near?"

Near sure was shorter than she had imagined.

She waved her arms out in front of her as though creating an imaginary force-field to shield her from his wrath. If he had any. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry for the mess, kid! Wait, I mean sir! I mean Near! I mean L! I mean Near-L-sir-kid—"

Just what on earth was she supposed to call him? He was so short, and rather dumpy-looking. Oh, but the way he practically glowered at her with those glazed, vacant eyes of his…something about his gaze reminded her of the way L had looked at her when she'd thrown the whole kettle of tea at a shinigami.

This boy was the spitting image of L, only shrunken to fun-size and bleached. And not a pastry in sight. The lack of confectionaries was probably the only thing keeping Erin from believing that she was looking at L himself.

Although, in a sense, was that not the intention?

Without putting much rational thought into it, Erin began frantically scooping up Lego blocks to click back together, fever pricking every pore of her face like pins and needles. "H-here! I'll clean this right up!"

Twisting a lock of hair, Near quietly regarded Erin as Acey took her wrist, and made her drop the Legos she'd picked up. "Don't bother," she said, "he'll just go about setting things up again after we leave, so just leave everything where it is."

"Huh? Really? H-he's gonna set all this up by himself? Where does he find the time for that?"

L used to like stacking things, too: sugar cubes, empty coffee cream cups, marshmallows. The meticulousness of this habit had killed her, sometimes. Apparently, this habit had passed down to the Junior.

Acey shot Near a brief look over her shoulder that said, Be rude to her and I'll rip off your head, in addition to many other things.

So, this was the woman Acey had taken a shine to.

Near had quick, easy ways of obtaining information. In addition to the information Jaime had provided, he'd already gathered everything he'd needed to know about Erin, the previous night.

"In short, Ms. Blogger, I'd like to put your skills to good use," Near began, knocking down the remaining dominos with a casual flick of his fingers before he began lining them up again. "I'd like to put you on retainer as a media informant. You job will be simple. You'll forward anything that turns up in the media concerning the cases that Acey or I may take up. You may not be required to go undercover, seeing as how your espionage skills leave something to be desired."

Erin rubbed the back of her neck, her smile twisted into an odd expression of both shame and disbelief. "Oh. Wow. You just, uh—cut straight to the chase, don't ya? Hm, I know about the espionage thing. You're not the first guy to have said so…"

God, L, he's even got your straightforwardness.

She quickly took her hand off of her neck as soon as she realized that it was there. "But other than that, a-are you sure you'd want someone like me in your crew in the first place? I mean, I haven't even told you anything about me: where I live, what I do—I'd prefer it if you didn't go after my family, by the way. I swear, they don't have a clue. I didn't even know you guys existed when I named Lawliet—my cat, I mean."

"All of those things are irrelevant to me, Ms. Blogger. If there was something I'd need to know concerning any of those things, I could find out in mere minutes. Also," Near pointed to Acey, "she isn't the type to trust anyone, not right away, at least. You wouldn't even be in here at Wammy's, much less occupying the same room as I am, if she didn't trust you. If she's trusted you up until this point, I'm fairly certain I can invest the same amount of trust in you."

Biting her lower lip, Acey turned her back to both of them to hide the way her cheeks flushed. Unbelievable, I've been with him for nearly three years and I still blush like an idiotic schoolgirl at the tiniest compliment from him.

Erin rested her jaw in her hand, rather touched by his words as the sentimental type she was. "Aw, shucks! It's great to know that you think that highly of me, Near. Um, wait…a-am I supposed to call you L?"

A vague yet indisputable sense of apprehension nibbled at her insides like a tapeworm, however. If Near was anything like L, he was sure to be a liar. Something in her had difficulty believing in his words.

For all I know, he could only be offering me a job so he can keep tabs on me, now that I know him and the others at this place and what they're all about. Even if I said no, would he accept it? Would he and Acey both accept it?

A chance to work with the world's greatest detective and his group…quite possibly one of the most romantic positions this great blue marble had to offer. The adventure, the travel, the restricted bragging rights to have assisted in solving some of society's greatest cases—

But experience had made her wiser. Or perhaps, more cowardly. Even today, sometimes she couldn't find the border between the two.

"I…I need to think about it, if that's okay. I'm sorry. I mean, I'm honored that you would ever—it's just that, I don't know if I could handle it. I'm not exactly the bravest, or most resourceful. I tend to crack under pressure, and I don't usually do things that would compromise my morals just to reach an end. Like you said, I can't spy for beans. Not to mention, I'm almost certain that working with you guys means I'd have to give up my entire identity, leave my parents behind, always moving from hotel to hotel…"

Erin winced upon replaying her words in her head. Could she get any more pathetic?

"Still, I thank you for the offer! I can't even tell you how great it is to have yours and Acey's confidence."

"Very well, take the week you are here to think about it as much as you need to. If you refuse, I'll just find someone else," Near replied bluntly. He set a few dominos into line. "If you do accept my offer, and you are that hesitant to leave your family, I'd be more than willing to accommodate the situation to your liking."

Quite surprised that Near, L's successor, could actually be the negotiating type, Erin bowed her head. "Really? Ah, thank you for understanding! You know, I couldn't help but notice how you two are keen on looking out for each other. You and Acey. Ha, if I didn't know better, I'd say that you were married! Or at least, engaged."

Glancing up at Erin, Near held up his left hand to indicate a silver band that was identical to the one on Acey's ring finger. "We are engaged, Ms. Blogger. Acey has been my fiancée for quite some time now. In a few years or so, it is my direct intention to make her my wife." After placing a few more dominos in line, he reached up to twist a lock of his hair.

"Awww, really? That's cute!" Erin chuckled. These crazy kids and their games. "Hey, you know what? Maybe I'll come to your wedding; I think I can do that much. Heck, if you don't already have one, I could even be your maid of—"

Before Near could say anything else, Acey approached him. Kneeling down on one knee, Near's long fingers curled under her jaw, and tilted his head up to accept her kiss. Acey only intended it to be a small peck on his lips, but Near didn't let her pull away, making her mouth linger against his with a hand on the back of her neck.

"…hon…or…"

That kiss seemed a bit intimate to be one shared in mere jest.

Acey had a dazed look on her face as she made her way back to Erin, the dazed look of a girl head over heels in love. It had felt so good to kiss him again after nearly two months of being apart from him. No matter how many times she kissed him, it still made her see stars, a delicious delirium she could not get enough of.

When she processed what Erin had said, her eyes lit up. Shrieking softly with joy, she threw her arms around her. "Oh, really? I would love it if you were my maid of honor! This means so much to me!"

By that point, Erin could feel her face glow as red as a beacon. "W-wait…are you guys being serious? You're getting married, like, for real? You're not—"

"We rarely kid, Ms. Blogger."

It was moments like this that made Erin wish it wasn't proper etiquette to have one's hat off while indoors. She sure could've used it. That, and a paper bag.

But now that she had found out they were in fact being serious, she couldn't take back her offer, especially not with the way Acey was looking at her. Her word was her bond.

"Oh. Okay. In that case, I'm being serious, too, about being the—just…be sure to take it nice and slow, I guess. Getting married is…you know, a really big deal and…everything, and…you can't go back once you do it. Not really." What a hot one: giving relationship advice to the world's greatest detective and his girlfriend when she herself was still rather guy-shy.

Acey hugged Erin a little tighter. She was beaming at her when she broke the embrace. "This seriously means so, so much to me. There almost was no maid of honor. Or I would be forced to have Mello wear a dress. A little mascara and eyeliner, and the rest would work itself out." She stifled a giggle with a hand over her mouth. "I'll make sure you catch the bouquet," she added with a wink.

Erin must've turned so red by then, they could've used her face to advertise the Red Light District. "Erm…thank you."

Thinking about her wedding made Acey's heart ache strongly for a moment. Before he'd died, Mr. Wammy would've been the one walking her down the aisle. She suddenly wondered if it would be weird to ask Erin to give her away.

"Was there…anything else that you wanted to discuss, Near? I mean, L? I mean—oh, help me out here, what am I supposed to address you as?" It felt so strange, calling this boy L when he clearly wasn't the L she knew from so long ago, no matter how much his personality resembled his.

She wondered if B had ever tried to pull anything funny on him, too. Or on any of the other kids. After all, wasn't he supposed to bear a grudge against anything and anyone that mattered to L? Did they even know that his restless spirit lurked among them?

"Simply address me as Near, Ms. Blogger," Near replied simply, making one of his robots "swoop" through the air to "attack" Godzilla.

"Before we left, Mello was making a fuss about you taking his case away from him. You wanna tell me what's going on with that?" Acey asked with a hand on her hip.

The way Acey cocked her hip made her tank top ride up, and exposed her tantalizing hip bone, which Near found distracting for a moment. "My reason is quite simple. Mello overlooked something that I didn't."

Acey raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"Did you know a man by the name of Victor Chappick?"

Acey's face suddenly turned a little paler. She swallowed audibly before nodding. "Yeah…he was my father's right-hand man before he found out Victor was stealing opium and money behind his back." She could tell Near was concerned about this. It was something serious if he put down his toys.

And frankly, hearing Victor Chappick's name concerned her, too.

Erin didn't know the guy from Adam, and the name made her bladder twitch.

"Apparently, he changed his identity and kept himself well-hidden, and he managed to escape Kira's radar. So far, all of the victims had two things in common: blonde hair, and according to testimonies from people who knew the victims, they were all involved in the occult. I used Aiber in order to apprehend an accomplice—"

"Aiber!" Erin perked at the mentioning of that alias. "Aiber's working with you? Oh man, so he's working with you, now? How is he? H-how's Wedy, too, if she's with you?"

Near answered her question with a very long, glazed look. Almost the same way L used to look at her when she blurted over him.

She begun wringing the sweat out of her hands in her lap. "Aiber was on the…Kira case, too. With L. That's how I know him," she mumbled.

"…I'll be sure to give him and Wedy your regards," said Near, leaving Erin unsure whether he was being sarcastic with her or he truly meant that. "As I was saying, it didn't take much time to get him to tell me what I needed to know. Victor Chappick is the killer, and he is trying to find and kill you, Acey."

Near glanced at Erin. "I'm sure you can see my reasoning in taking the case from Mello. Anything that directly concerns my fiancée in this manner concerns me. I may ask you to take Acey back to New York with you for a while until I apprehend Chappick."

Acey had to brace a hand against the wall for support. Swaying a little bit, she slid down the wall to sit on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest. She was understandably quiet.

"Huh? W-wait, you mean, like, you may ask me, or you will ask me? As in, to have her live with me until you catch this guy?"

Oh, great. Now I really DO gotta deal with the mafia, too? Last thing I want to do is bring home anything that could hurt my folks, especially since they've got nothing to do with anything. But…

This was the trouble with meeting with people like L. They became deeply ingrained into your life, placing it on the razor edge where you normally would've had no business to be, in the first place. But oh, the look on poor Acey's face…

Erin reached over to squeeze her shoulder, swallowing the bile rising up her throat. "Well…if I really had to, maybe I could make something up to my folks. Tell 'em that she was exchange student looking for a place to stay awhile, or something. But it would be awfully helpful if you caught this guy before then."

After a brief, tense pause, she decided to add, "Not trying to tell you how to do your job or anything, but maybe you don't have to take old Mello off this case. M-maybe you could, I don't know, put your differences aside and work together on it? You would close this case so much sooner with two melons working on it instead of one. Not to mention, I think it would make him feel better. He seemed really unhappy about it…"

One more pause.

"While we're on the subject of serial killers, did you know that you've got a crazy dead one running around here, too? A ghost, I mean? Last night, he tried to slice some kid's foot off with a pair of scissors. You might want to do something about that, too."

Acey rose to her feet, all of a sudden. "He knows. And Mello would sooner cut off his fingers than work together with Near." Reaching into her jacket pocket, she extracted her cigarettes, and perched one between her lips. News of Victor Chappick warranted a cigarette, as far as she was concerned.

Being considerate of Erin, Acey tiptoed through the masses of toys scattered in ruins around them and headed for the door, deciding to smoke in the hallway. She took a long drag after she lit it. Tilting her head up, she paused in the doorway, exhaled, and said, "Erin, you don't gotta worry about hiding me in your house. If it comes down to it, I'm more than capable of taking care of myself. I can't ask you to burden yourself or your family for my sake."

Click.

Near sighed, maneuvering Godzilla to "knock" the robot out of the air with his tail before glancing up at the door. "You have to understand, Acey is very proud and stubborn."

Erin swallowed. "Uh…yeah. I can see that. Birds of a feather, huh?" All of these kids were proud and stubborn; she could expect nothing less from students of L's.

But that was what worried her. It was L's sense of pride and stubbornness that precipitated his downfall, as Light's had brought about his own. Stubbornness and pride were the reasons why B's spirit haunted Wammy's House. Why Mello and Near were rivals. Why Acey had just walked out for a cigarette, in spite of the numerous times she'd gazed at her with eyes that pleaded her not to leave her.

Why, even she had suffered for her own stubbornness in the past. Erin's may not have gotten her killed—yet—but she couldn't even begin to measure all the trouble and grief it had found her, all the same.

"Does…she do that, a lot?"

Erin wished Acey would come back in soon, preferably without a cigarette in her tiny mouth. B could've been out there harassing her, or someone else. She was vulnerable, no matter which way either of them looked at it, and it was for this reason that her abrupt departure from the room killed Erin.

Perhaps because L had been almost the same way.

Near could tell that Erin was extremely worried about Acey. The string of fate had tied them together, and they would be in each other's lives until the very end. He had little doubt that it may have been L's intention to put the girls in each other's hands.

"Yes, she does. Acey only pushed you away like that just now because she knows better than anyone else that Chappick is a dangerous criminal, and she would rather face him head-on on her own than put you in danger," Near explained, picking up another tarot card deck. He shuffled it before laying three cards face down on the polished hardwood floor.

"However, I still would like for you to keep Acey safe for me until I apprehend Chappick. I wouldn't want to get your family involved, so I will could arrangements for you and Acey to go stay in the safe-house L has in New York."

Near flipped the three cards over, out of Erin's view: the Lovers, Strength, and Justice.

"L had a what?" A dull shiver danced down her backbone. To think that L himself could've been, at one point or another, in her own neighborhood at least once…was a bit unsettling, to say the least. She didn't know why it felt unsettling exactly, since that definitely sounded like something that maniac would do, but it did.

All she had to say to this was, "Oh."

"Near, you don't have a problem working with Mello, do you? Surely, you guys can work something out?"

Maybe, if the two weren't such crazy geniuses. Erin had seen firsthand how guys like them usually got along together. Between this, Chappick, Acey's persecution from the other residents, and B, she no longer knew which issue to focus on. It was a wonder all by itself how these problems even came to become hers, in the first place.

"I myself don't have a problem with working with Mello. Rather, he has a problem working with me. He generally likes to make his inferiority complex my problem. I'm afraid us working together would be difficult, if not impossible."

An inferiority complex, huh?

Hmm…it was a stretch, a long stretch, but maybe…?

"Well then, I guess somebody will have to reason with him. The way I see it, he'll just get more and more resentful about the whole thing if he doesn't get involved, and I think you two could catch this Chappick fella together in a heartbeat. Maybe Acey and I could talk to him, or at least Acey. I've only just met him, so I don't think he's too keen on trusting me right now, but he and Acey seem pretty tight. Him and her and that other guy…Matt, right?"

Near stood up, and started to make his way around his toys toward the door. His gait was stiff but steady and slow, the kind usually found in folks who spent much of their time sitting down. "I would appreciate it of you and Acey could try and reason with him. It would be beneficial for me to have his help. I know for a fact the power of persuasion of a woman is powerful; two women would be unstoppable."

Erin tugged lightly at the collar of her blouse. "Oh, well, I…uh, hey. Where're you going?"

Opening the door, Near walked towards Acey, who was blowing wispy tendrils of smoke from her lips towards the ceiling. He caged her against the wall with his hands on either side of her head. Cupping her jaw, he stroked her lower lip with his thumb before leaning down to kiss her roughly on the lips.

The way he was kissing her blew Acey's mind, sapping the strength from her knees. Had he demanded to have her right there and then against the wall, she wouldn't have put up a fight.

As she moaned against his mouth, Near took the opportunity to slide his tongue into her mouth. Cupping one of her breasts, he stroked her nipple outside her tank top with his thumb, teasing it to the point of hardening while he thoroughly explored her mouth. The cigarette, once dangling from her fingers, dropped uselessly to the floor without a sound.

Acey was left feeling breathless with want when Near pulled away. She grabbed the collar of his shirt to pull him in for another kiss. He smirked. He had her right where he wanted her. "Let me protect you," he demanded softly. "If I haven't apprehended Chappick by this weekend, you are to go to with Ms. Blogger to L's New York safe-house. Is that understood?"

Acey nodded weakly.

She wasn't the only one feeling dazed. However, she and Erin were not dazed for the same reason.

Well, that was one thing that set Near apart from L.

Erin hastily shielded her eyes in the palms of her hands, shrinking against the threshold as she squealed, "Aw, guys, c'mon! I'm sorry, but h-have a little class! I'm standing right here!" Not quite the most polite thing to say to a pair of lovers, but on the other hand, Erin didn't step out into hallways to watch people make out.

"If you didn't like what you were seeing, you could've averted your eyes, Ms. Blogger," Near replied, taking up a lock of Acey's hair to twist around his finger. "There's no need to be so serious." It was a bit shocking, how cool-headed the boy was about the whole thing. Just like someone else the three of them used to know.

"A-avert my eyes? What's it look like I'm doing, right now?" Erin never took her hands off her eyes; she peeked through the cracks between her fingers as she fumbled past them to pick up Acey's cigarette before it could set anything ablaze. These kids were nuts.

Meanwhile, the conservative in her hoped that however exactly far these two took their relationship, that they were at least being safe. She realized that teenagers did things like this all the time, all around the world, but it killed her, all the same. She dared not speak any further on the matter. That was none of her business, nor did she want it to become her business. She'd had too many problems that had become her business, already.