Chapter 9

Yatsuki sat on the desk in her classroom Indian style and stared out at the students as they worked. Light and L were late. She sighed and ignored the feeling that they were making idiots out of themselves.

Sure enough, another teacher came into her classroom. "Miss Okida," he said. "Two of your students are causing quite a stir." She sighed irritably, already knowing who it was. "They're playing a game of tennis. I don't know what started it, but they've drawn quite a crowd. They even have their own referee."

She sighed again and massaged her temples. "There is no point in stopping them." She told him. "Let them play it out. I'll deal with them when they get here."

A few minutes later, both men walked into the classroom looking slightly frightened. The teacher from before had told them that Yatsuki was not happy with something and them missing class just made it worse. "Front and center." She told them calmly. You knew something bad was coming when she seemed calm. "Gentlemen." She started. "What the hell were you thinking!"

They both flinched. "It was just a game of tennis." Light said.

Yatsuki fixed him a hard look and he seemed to shrink away. "You see this assignment?" she asked, pointing to what was written on the board behind her. "The page count is doubled. For both of you."

"But, Tsuki-chan-"

"No but's, Ryuuga." She said. L shut his mouth. You knew she was serious when she didn't use any nicknames. "Now take a seat."

As they headed to the only two free seats, which were conveniently on separate sides of the room, Yatsuki stopped them. "Who won, anyway?" she asked, reclining into a more relaxed position.

"I did." L said.

Yatsuki turned and looked at Light. "You got beat." She said. "By a panda."

A few of the others in the room snickered and Light blushed slightly. But before he could respond, she just shook her head and motioned for him to sit before taking out her laptop and working on it.

L watched her closely. That laptop of hers never left her person, and if it did, she locked it in the garage that no one could get into because of the security that was placed on the only working door that led to the garage. She had beefed it up after they had removed the cameras the first time and he wondered if she knew that there were cameras to begin with.

What is on that laptop that is so valuable to you, Tsuki-chan? L wondered as he watched her typing away. She looked up and they made eye contact briefly before she looked back down to the screen, a smirk on her face.

You can look, L. she thought. But you can't touch.

L was once again observing Yatsuki and her habits as they worked in the hotel room. The way her head would tit slightly when she was listening, the way she would bite her lip when she was thinking, the way she acted with everyone. Everything about her was exactly like Sora.

He watched her as she worked on her laptop, curiosity about its contents obvious in his eyes. "What is on that computer, Tsuki-chan?" he asked.

She glanced at him before going back to work. "Case files." She said.

He picked up on the partial lie. Her right ring finger twitched when she lied. The same as with Sora. "May I have a look?" he asked, already reaching for the computer.

"No!" she exclaimed, snatching it away. Everyone stared at her, but she ignored them and focused on L. "It's none of your business."

"If you are keeping information that could help with the case, then it is my business." He replied.

"It has nothing to do with the Kira case."

Again, her right ring finger twitched, but only slightly. Another partial lie.

"Don't lie to me, Miss Okida." He said, calling her by her formal name to show that he was serious. "I know when you're lying."

"Apparently not."

He looked at her right hand. "Your right ring finger twitches when you're lying."

Yatsuki looked at him oddly before looking at her hand and then back at him. "How do you know that it doesn't twitch when I tell the truth?"

L sighed. This was a favorite game of Sora's. To lead a person around in a circle until they are utterly confused. "I'm not going to play this game with you."

"What game?" she asked innocently.

"Tsuki-chan, just give him the laptop." Soichiro said with a sigh.

She glanced at him before picking up her purse and leaving, not even bothering to give them a response. "We may have to place bugs in her house again." L muttered and everyone else let out a collective sigh.

Meanwhile, Yatsuki made her way home on her motorcycle. Once she was at her house, she made a beeline for the garage and locked herself in there for the rest of the afternoon. "What happened?" Envy asked, phasing through the door.

"L's a nosey ass." Was her only reply as she got to work on a new laptop. She had a feeling that she'd need it.

Yatsuki sat at her desk, noticing that L wasn't here today… again. His absences were getting more and more frequent, but she understood it. He was busy on the Kira case and couldn't spend all his time following Light around. But it only made the feeling that he was up to something grow.

She was proven right when her phone vibrated, telling her that she had a text message about halfway through class. She glanced at it and her eyes went wide. She shot out of her seat and ran out the door, ignoring the questioning looks. She quickly called the principle, telling him that someone tried to break into her house before jumping on her bike and gunning it off of the campus.

She didn't bother putting her bike away, she just ran straight inside the house. Nothing was moved or disturbed, it seemed. She slowly walked into the house, inspecting everything, but nothing was out of place.

"They got into the garage." Envy whispered, walking out of the kitchen. "And they placed cameras everywhere. I couldn't do anything without implicating you. I'm sorry."

Yatsuki's eyes grew wide at the mention of the garage and she rushed to the door. The lock on it had been hacked. She could tell because it was blinking red instead of green. She held her breath as she opened the door and she felt her blood run cold. "He has the laptop." She muttered.

"They took some other things as well." Envy said standing next to her. But she didn't care. Nothing there could make her a suspect in anything, and she didn't break any crimes. However, what was on that laptop was a different story all together.

L watched with interest as Yatsuki muttered to herself, pacing the living room of her house angrily. Who do you talk to? He wondered before turning back to the laptop, busying himself with trying to crack the password. He heard her mutter something about leaving Japan after she "takes care of some business" and shook his head. She wouldn't be leaving. Not if he could help it.

He entered a word as the password. Denied.

He looked up at the T.V screen when Yatsuki's ranting stopped. She stood in the middle of the room, her head tilted to the side as if listening to someone. She started to nibble on her lip before pacing again, only slower than last time and she didn't mutter to herself.

He turned back to the laptop and entered another word. Denied.

"You need to stop talking to me out loud like that." Envy told Yatsuki, making her stop in her tracks. "There're cameras and bugs, remember?"

Yatsuki stared at him for a few seconds before she started pacing again, only slower and without muttering to herself and Envy. "Why don't you just crash the computer?" Envy asked.

Yatsuki glanced at him. "The other one isn't finished yet." She muttered, even though she knew L was listening.

"But you have all the information from the one L has on that disk, right? They didn't take it. Finish the one that you're working on later and load the info from the disk."

She glanced at the garage door then looked at Envy with a raised eyebrow, silently asking if there were any cameras in there. When Envy shook his head, she headed to the garage and shut the door. She'd have to fix the lock later. "Don't you think that I haven't thought of that already?" she asked him once the door was safely closed. She walked over to the main computer and turned it on before running a program that would tell her if anyone had placed some kind of tracker that would tell them what she was doing.

L typed in another word. Denied.

He sighed in frustration before glancing at the T.V screen. Yatsuki had gone into the garage almost fifteen minutes before and it made him uneasy knowing that they couldn't place any cameras in there without them being easily found.

He typed in another word. Denied.

Maybe he was going about this all wrong. If Yatsuki was Sora, then he might have to think like the real woman, not the alias.

He typed in a word. Denied.

Maybe it wasn't a word, but a name?

He typed in Beyond. Denied

He typed in Birthday. Denied

He combined the two. Denied

He sighed in frustration again, wishing that he had the right hacking equipment. Everything that he had tried so far had failed and the ones that might work had to be ordered and shipped, and that could take days.

He entered another name. Denied

His eye twitched. If he were Sora, what would he use as a password?

He remembered something from the orphanage and his eyes widened. Of course. Why didn't he think of it sooner? He typed in the name. Access Granted.

The main computer had just finished the sweep, finding and destroying a tracking program when Yatsuki's phone vibrated again. She froze and pulled it out, only to read a text that told her that someone had accessed her computer. She had programmed that to happened of someone had gotten access by some kind of hacking device or had tried to type in her password more than once and somehow succeeded. She cursed silently until the phone rang.

She answered it, knowing it was L. "What?" she asked, surprising herself with the venom in her voice.

"Is that necessary, Tsuki-chan?" L's synthetic voice said over the phone.

"It is when all you're doing is gloating." She responded.

"But I didn't gloat."

"Isn't that what you're calling to do?"

"No." he said. "I'm calling to tell you that I'm extremely impresses with your laptop. It was very difficult to get through the firewalls, and even more so to figure out the password." Yatsuki was seething, but bit her tongue. "I wonder what Near would say when he learns that S-chan is alive and well, and remembers everything."

"Blackmail, L? And here I thought that you couldn't sink any lower."

"Not blackmail. Just thinking out loud."

Yatsuki ground her teeth. "Why are you doing this? It's none of your business!"

"You made it my business when you ran away all those years ago, and even more so when you withheld information for the Kira case."

"I'm telling you, there's nothing on there that has to do with the case!"

L made a noise that said that he didn't believe her before falling silent. "This is interesting." He muttered. "Tell me, Tsuki-chan. What is in the file labeled 'Death Note?'" Yatsuki drew in a breath as her blood ran cold. "It has three more passwords protecting it. It must be something important."

"Don't you dare look in that file, or so help me I'll remove all that makes you a man."

"It must be important." L continued, seemingly unfazed by her threat. "Especially if you threaten me so."

Yatsuki turned back to the master computer and started typing furiously. "I'm warning you. Don't. Look. At. That. File."

"One password down."

She started to type faster.

"Two passwords down."

She copied and pasted it to an email.

"Three passwords down. I'm in, Tsuki-chan."

"Not for long."

She hit send.

L let out a startled cry as the laptop in front of him started to spark and the screen shut off. The computer had crashed.

However, he did manage to see a line from what looked like a list of rules.

"1. The person whose name is written in this note shall die."

He picked the phone back up and glared at the T.V screens, mostly at the one that Yatsuki was facing, smiling triumphantly. "I hope you like Bar-B-Q." she said before all the screens went to white noise and she hung up.