The entire lot of people started over to the stairs, I didn't go just yet, I waited for L to come close to me.

" Hey, just wanted to say good luck," I extended my hand. He looked confused, so I laughed and explained. "It's like a handshake, except a little different." He took my hand; I pulled him close, and used my other hand to give him a short hug. His hands were warm and when I was near him, I smelled something pleasant. Normally such a casual gesture wouldn't be too awkward, but for a second I felt an emotion I didn't recognize. It was as if I had forgotten to breathe, and I felt burning hot. This feeling scared me, but not as much as it made me giddy.

While I was walking towards the stairs, I kept thinking about that strange enjoyment, that is until I realized nothing was being said between L and me.

"So, who has the tragedy of having to be chained up with Light?" I asked with a nervous laugh. I am a hopeless loser.

"I gave him to Watari-kun, now hurry up. If you are as slow as this going up stairs, then I should beat you with ease," He said smugly. I stopped and stared at him with disbelief.

"Did you just talk trash to me?" I started grinning madly.

"Of course not, I would ever bring myself to that level of stupidity. I was merely pointing out an obvious fact." L started running towards the stairs.

"Why I oughta, Hey! Get back here you little punk!" I chased after him, and I almost caught up to him, but then I realized I was very close to the stairs, so I played it cool and casually walked to the rest of the crowd.

"Could L-kun and Tara-san please come to the bottom of the stairs?" asked Mogi's voice. We both stepped forward and looked up at Mogi, who was standing a few steps up. "Alright, Light-kun and Watari-kun are waiting at the top of the stairs, if they do not see you come to the very last step, you automatically forfeit. Now, on your marks. Get set," I looked over at L, who wasn't even preparing to run.

"GO!"

I started bounding up the stairs, going as fast as I could. I thought I was making great time, except I could see L keeping up at almost the same amount of speed. I kept a steady breathing, doing my best not to fall. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get L far enough behind me as I wanted. I knew if I let up on just a tiny amount of speed, he would pass me without turmoil.

By the time we finished the first flight of steps and was on Misa's level, I was only ahead of L by a slight amount. It was such a tiny difference, that the race could still go either way. I did my best to increase the number of steps passed per stride, but L still matched me step for step. I could see we were arriving at the top of the stairs; Watari and Light were there too.

When I reached the top step, I pivoted sharply on my heel and started descending the stairs at a rapid rate. I heard a cheer for me from both Light and Watari, while smiling to myself; I heard a slight snort of frustration. I turned my head a small amount and discovered that I was putting more and more distance in between L and me this made me smile even more.

As I was approaching Misa's floor, it occurred to me that I was, with absolute certainty, going to win the race. I reached her floor, and turned to continue down the rest of the steps. Without warning, the tip of my shoes lost traction and I could feel myself flapping in the air trying my best not to trip. My other foot gave away, and with a sickening crack and a terrible burst of pain, I started to fall. Irony truly hates me, doesn't it? The marble floor rose to greet my head, and then everything blackened out instantly.

I became conscience due to the great pain and the strange bobbing that seemed to be doing. I moaned, hoping the bobbing-bouncing would stop, but it did not. With a great deal of strength, I managed to open my eyelids only to see L face. He looked down at me with concern, I groaned again. I slowly turned my head, and understood why I was bobbing and bouncing. L was carrying me bridal-style down the stairs.

"Do you know who I am?" He asked, I could tell by his face that he was having a hard time carrying me.

"Of course, you're that jerk that keeps correcting me, L." I managed to squeeze out sarcastically. "Now tell me, am I dying?"

"Possibly, it all depends on whether you suffered a concussion or not. Now tell me, are you experiencing any nausea?" L answered back stiffly.

"I will if you keep bouncing down these stairs. Right now, I'm only experiencing a lot of pain, but other than that, I feel ok. Why don't you let me down, I don't want you to pull a muscle or anything. I can still walk as long as you give me some help."

"Nonsense, you must be brain damaged to suggest such a thing." I snorted, and shook my head.

"I suppose you're going to say your being a gentleman? You want to know what I think? I think your using this as an excuse to forget the race. Also, I think your perverted side is showing." L glanced down at me.

"Stop this psycho-babble at once, or else I'll drop your heavy body immediately. Now we have approximately 30 more steps to go down."

"I suppose I should be mad about you calling me fat, but I think I'll let that one slide." I quipped slowly. "Now smile for me, and tell me that I am going to definitely survive so that I can kick your ass at stairs later on."

"Tara-kun, I would like you to be quiet, and perhaps rest, so that we can finish this little tête-à-tête at a later date." He looked down and into my eyes, and actually gave me a smile.

While I was thinking about how nice "Tara-kun" sounded coming from him, I didn't realize that I was becoming quite flushed. It wasn't until I caught a whiff of the pleasant smell wafting from L that I realized my body felt warm all over. Instead of being afraid and pulling back from the strange feeling immediately, I let it take over.

I decided to study this strange sensation; my heartbeat was quickening, I could feel myself sweating profusely, and I noticed that my body temperature was greatly elevated. For the second time today, I thought incredibly hard about the cause of the bizarre spell that overcame me. I wonder, could it be? I looked up at my gentleman, could it be L that's causing this? Maybe I'm allergic to him or something.

"Hey," I muttered meagerly. "Are you going to let me walk? I think I can handle it, all you need to do is give me a little help."

"If you remain silent until we reach the last ten steps, I'll consider it." L scolded at me for speaking, I gave a very bad pouting face. I waited for him to go down enough steps until I could see the floor.

"So I guess I'll have to call you Ryuzaki-coon from now on?" I asked, my headache was throbbing, my cheeks were burning, but I still couldn't stand the silence.

"I cannot believe that even though you have successfully broken your ankle, hit your head on a marble floor, and are almost indubitably in pain, that you still are thinking about the race outcomes. And I wouldn't start calling me Ryuzaki-kun just yet." L teased conspicuously, and then he stopped at the third step from the bottom. The people were rushing towards us, but he shooed them to get away. "Alright, this is where I let you walk the rest." He slowly lowered me down to the step.

I wrapped my arm around his shoulder for support, it was a little difficult because he was taller than I was, but I managed to get down the final steps. When I reached the base floor, L spoke to the gathering crowd.

"Please escort Tara to the nearest hospital and see to that she gets a brain examination, and also have her ankle treated. And if anybody else is curious, Tara won the race." A murmur rippled through the crowd, and I turned my head to look at L.

"Are you serious? I won the race? I mean, just because I fell, doesn't me you have to feel guilty about winning against a cripple."

"Oh, I am serious, besides I placed a bet on you winning, splitting 6200 three ways gives me about 2,066 yen. I would imagine you would be happy to hear that you won." By the time L finished saying this, the Matsuda came with a rolling chair. Before I had time to resist, I was forced into the chair and taken into a black car. I should be thankful that I'm not in the limousine.

We got to the hospital in a very short amount of time; it was even more surprising when Matsuda opened my door with a wheel chair waiting for me.

"Matsuda! I have a broken ankle; I'm not going to have a baby! You saw what I did with L, just try to copy that." I joked; Matsuda laughed along with me, and apologized. He escorted me to the desk and after checking into the hospital, he accompanied me into my assigned room.

"Hey Matsy?" I called as he was departing from the room, He stopped and turned around. "Are you and the others going to visit me?" He smiled sheepishly.

"Of course! I don't think anything could stop the Ryuzaki-san and the others from visiting you. By the way, why am I always nicknamed? I've always thought 'Matsuda' was a decent name, but even when I was in college, I've always been nicknamed!" I thought about it for a moment, and then chose a wise answer.

"I think it's because your like a cute little puppy dog. You have a certain way of looking ridiculous, but in a cute way. Please don't take this as a suggestive explanation, I harbor no over-friendly feelings to you, I was merely giving you an answer." Matsuda grumbled inaudibly. "What was that?" I snapped at him.

"I said, you sound an awful like Ryuzaki-san," he admitted begrudgingly. I let out a half-hearted laugh.

"That moron? Oh please, you have to be kidding me." There was silence for a minute, an unspoken joke. Then I remembered about something important. "Hey Matsuda, you have your cell phone right? Can it call Watari?" Matsuda nodded, and I continued. "Do you think I can borrow it for a while, I need to talk to him about something important?"

"Um sure, but if I get yelled at for not having my phone you better take the blame!" And with this threat, he tossed the phone at me. I was barely able to catch so I yelled at him for throwing projectiles at a doped up cripple. When I was sure that Matsuda was definitely gone, I hopped over to the door to close and lock it. After safely hopping back into my bed, I called Watari.

"Hello?"

"Hey Watari! It's Tara, listen the day we rescued Matsuda, I saw the Yotsuba officials leaving the hotel. I noticed that one seemed to be talking to himself, but I couldn't hear exactly what he was saying. Do you know how you equipped a video camera to my nametag, well I took a video of what he was saying, do you think you could upload that and find out what he was saying? I think it might involve Kira." I waited a few seconds for Watari to respond, silently hoping that he had the technology to decode read lips.

Watari cleared his throat,

"The man you have on you video-file is known as Kyosuke Higuchi, he is the head of the Technological Development sector. As for what his words were, I don't think that my machine is broken, but his words don't seem to make sense. Never the less, he said 'Well Rem, it looks like I won't have to use the Deathnote after all.' I hope this helps in your own private investigation."

"Thank you Watari, I'll see what I can discover using this new information. Goodbye Watari!"