Disclaimer: I can try all I want, but I'll never own Death Note. Those geeky, weird, and slightly crazy OCs, however… yeah… they're mine…

Warning(s): N/A.


Chapter 7

Friend of a Friend

December 3rd, 2007

"'Now that I think about it,' he thought aloud, swallowing a big chunk of the red fruit, 'I wonder if she's still around here, in the human world.'"

Justin took a bite out of his ice cream. The caramel stuck to the corners of his mouth, but he enjoyed every bite. He could always wash up after the treat. Sheri sat next to him, watching his every move. She had joined him some time ago, but had yet to say anything. In the back of his mind, Justin wondered how she got to Japan with him. He hadn't seen her on the plane…

"What flavor?" It took Justin a second to register what she had said. The plane ride had exhausted him, and not even the sugar from the ice cream could hold him for much longer. Sheri leaned in anxiously, biting her lip, waiting for his response.

"Vanilla with caramel and chocolate chips," he replied between bites. Justin watched her reaction. She was fidgeting, and he concluded that she didn't just want to know what flavor he was eating. "What's wrong?" She relaxed, seemingly grateful he had read her well enough to know something was on her mind. Neither of them were good at starting difficult conversations, but his question had given her an opening, and for that she was thankful.

"It's just…This is Japan, right?" At this, Justin raised an eyebrow. How could she not be certain of where they were? Sometimes, the things Sheri said made no sense whatsoever.

A breeze swept through the small park, and the two shivered as it tickled their skin. Weather here in Japan was different than in America, that much was for sure. It wasn't too bad, however the park was nearly desolate. Justin was curious as to what other kinds of activities Japanese people did on their days off if they didn't go to the park. But, there were other, much more important things than to think about that today.

"Yeah, we're in Japan. Didn't you know?" Justin questioned, his gaze firmly locked onto Sheri's eyes. She pulled her legs up against her chest, rocking slightly back and forth, and let out a sigh as she shrugged. "Sheri… how did you get to Japan? Were you on the plane?" he pressed. Another shrug. Justin gave up, retreating back to his ice cream. She would let him know when she herself figured it all out. It was obvious she knew some of it, but not enough to feel like sharing with him yet. He could wait.

Sheri pulled Justin's small laptop out from his backpack and flipped open the shiny lid. She logged in, something she had done so many times before, and begun typing. "Oh yeah, I learned a cool trick while looking through videos online the other day. I experimented a bit while you were on the plane. Here, watch," she said, pointing to the screen. Justin rested against her to look at the laptop with her. "You know L, right?"

"Yeah." Justin's eyes lit up at mention of the world's greatest detective. It was something exciting to think about, plus L seemed like a good potential challenge in the future. Sheri kept on typing, her hands moving gracefully over the computer's keyboard as if she'd done it for all of her life. "What are you doing?" The screen was filled with the language of code, a language that Justin had never been able to fully understand, but a language that Sheri seemed to be proficient in. Perhaps it was all the videos she'd been watching lately, but it was also possible that she just had a knack for it.

"I found something regarding L while you were sleeping on the plane. Check this out," she giggled excitedly, turning the screen around to face Justin. Strands of numbers with captions underneath them popped up. If he had to guess, it was close to hundreds of thousands of numbers, if not more. His brows furrowed in annoyance. Did she really expect him to understand any of this?

"I don't get it." At his response, Sheri huffed, and snatched the laptop back over, still holding it where he could see. "This," she explained, pointing at one of the number strings, "is an IP address. And these," she continued, pressing on the numbers to expand the tab, "are the emails sent out through the IP address." Justin admired the extent of her knowledge with computers, and read some of the emails from the open tab. Only three of the emails contained anything interesting, and those three were all emails that L had, at some point or another, been sent to authorities regarding cases. The rest were some sort of… baking newsletters.

"No way… Are you sure these were his?" Justin asked in disbelief. "That means you can trace the IP address, and-"

"No. Well, I tried, but the person living there now is an old lady who is obsessed with cats and pastries. Which means that L temporarily used the IP address as a cover. Think of it like a smoke screen at a magic show, hiding away what's really going on behind the scenes. What's interesting is this." Sheri pulled up a small notepad dotted in flowers from her jacket pocket. She flipped open to a page and handed it to Justin. "These are all the IP addresses I discovered that have peculiarities in the normal patterns of sent and received emails. Look at the similarity between the numbers. He goes for the same kinds of combinations when choosing the 'disguise' IP."

Justin was stunned, butterflies swarming around in his stomach. "This is incredible, Sheri!" She flushed and smiled at his praise.

"That's not all. With this, I was also able to track down the email he uses underneath all the decoys and disguise IP addresses." Her grin widened, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "What do you say to sending the famous world's greatest detective L an email?"

Nodding, Justin returned her smile, thoroughly excited and anxious at the same time. His face fell as he ran back through the conversation. "Sheri… where were you when I was on the plane?"

Sheri shrugged again. "I was always there. You just didn't see me again, and I didn't feel like talking." She pulled up a web browser and handed Justin the laptop. "Now, go on! No one else will ever get this chance. Take it!"

...ooOoo…

"So, let me get this straight," Light said, resting his chin against his hand. This was turning out to be quite an interesting night. "You, Ryuk, are a shinigami. You dropped this Death Note because you were bored, and I just happened to pick it up. And now we're here?"

"No, I didn't just drop the Death Note 'cause I was bored. Didn't I tell you?" the large, looming shinigami chuckled. He snarfed down another apple, enjoying the sweet juices and crunchy texture with every bite. "Man, these are good."

"Ryuk," Light sighed, eyes narrowed. "You might've left out that detail." He managed to retain a relatively calm demeanor, but the fire in his eyes served as evidence to his burning curiosity.

"Mm, well, you see, mhm, another shinigami dropped her, mm, Death Note a while back. Mhm, gave me the idea," Ryuk explained, taking numerous bites out of the many apples Light's mother had provided. "Now that I think about it," he thought aloud, swallowing a big chunk of the red fruit, "I wonder if she's still around here, in the human world. Actually, that's possible. She wasn't in the Shinigami Realm when I left…" At this point, Light had stopped listening. Someone else had the Death Note?

"Interesting…"

...ooOoo…

The room was dark, the only source of light emitting from the large computer screen. The world's greatest detective sat in front of the desktop, hunched over in a position that would seem uncomfortable for most. The speakers let out the beep of a notification, signaling a new email. Curiously clicking open the pop-up and reading the message, L chewed harder on his thumb. He would need to ask Watari for more sweets.


A/N: I have a lot to say about this chapter, but first things first… Thank you, Comet Tail, for your kind review! I dedicate this chapter to you. Reviews like that really make my day. I'm glad you like the concept; it's something I've thought about for quite some time. I wanted to have an OC with a different motivation for getting involved with the Kira Case other than "they're a smart person who wants to be a detective someday." I warn you, though, things may get more confusing, and you may end up having more questions than answers. ;)

Anyways, I'm really nervous about portraying the characters from now on. A warning for the future: this is my first time writing a fic, so, yes, the characters will end up being slightly OC at some point. I know I said it at the beginning, but now as the more iconic characters are starting to come in, I just want to make that clear.

I tried putting a "Chapter Teaser" at the start of this. Let me know if you like it/hate it/have another idea.

Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! More to come soon.

Warning(s) Details: The only thing about this chapter is the somewhat slow pacing.