Srry about the delay, I was on my ski trip at Blue Mountain (!)

Anyway, this chapter isn't very plot-ist but it's leading into one. i had to delete it-re-upload it a few times so srry if it disappeared while you were reading or something. i made a few spelling mistakes putting it up the first time.

Rockangle777: I know i'm kind of late acknowledging your review but yeah, I kinda forgot Mello's hair was blond. I'd change it but i'm afriad i'll mess up the chapter upload thing.

SingingSyd, i'm glad you don't think May is a Mary-Sue, i personally don't like Mary-Sues.

Btw YaoiLoverDeathNote1: I LOVE CHOCOLATE POCKY. HAND IT OVER.

Chapter 10

Light pushed his hair out of his eyes and sat down at his desk, taking a pen delicately out of his drawer. A dark figure followed him into the room.

"Ryuk, is there anything I need to know?" He watched the tall shinigami out of the corner of his eye. He had been acting quite strangely for the past day. Staring at May and L too often. It was like he knew about something they had kept a secret from him.

"Why do you ask Light? And no, there's nothing new. I wouldn't be able to hide it anyway. If your worried about some rule I haven't told you about, I assure you that you now know everything there is to know about the death note.

Light turned his chair around to face the desk again, taking out the death note from it's compartment, "alright then. It doesn't matter much anyway. I already have plans for Ryuzaki and May." Ryuk smiled, "plans?"

"Yeah. This new Kira…" he turned on his laptop and found the video files L had sent him, "he obviously wants to help me. He may be an idiot, but I can make him listen to me. And then I'll tell him to make the deal for the eyes. After that, all I have to do is introduce him to Ryuzaki at university and it'll all be finished." He smiled, "no, not finished. Finished isn't the right word. After all, that's the point where you'll see a new world being made out of this mess of crime. That's where it'll all begin."

Ryuk grabbed an apple from the basket by Light's bed and bit into it, "and what about May? You said you had plans for her didn't you?"

"Of course. You see, Ryuk, Ryuzaki thinks that he's found a real treasure with May. After all, she's smart, she sees things in his way, she strong minded, and she may not be working her butt off and getting no sleep like the other members, but she's one of the most important figures in the investigation. In fact, her presence is intriguing. I think she might know something about Ryuzaki that forced him to let her into the investigation.

"But she's not like him. She's very different. She's the type of person who listens to reason. She's not the type to stick by L when she knows Kira is winning, even if she chose L's side first. When it becomes obvious that Kira will be the victor, she won't hesitate to switch sides. I want to make her a replacement for this second Kira. He's stupid anyway, when I kill him his notebook will be mine, and then I'll give it to May."

Light leaned back in his chair, confident in his plan. May was perfect for the second Kira. Not that he made the decision based only on her intellect. She interested him. Everything about her interested him, from the way she spoke to the way she dressed. She had the type of classic but exotic beauty that many of the high school girls he had gone out with had lacked. Ever since that day when they'd gone out for lunch, he'd begun to feel comfortable with her. She was utterly perfect for him. May had the potential to play hard to get with Light Yagami without falling back into his arms halfway, and that was something he could respect.

"Humans are so…interesting…" Ryuk whispered behind him.

The knock on the door startled me awake.

That was when I realized that I had fallen asleep in my bathrobe halfway though watching the video scenes, curled around my laptop. I yawned loudly and sat up, smoothing my hair back.

"Coming", I shouted, rubbing my eyes and standing up. I pulled the bathrobe tight around me, only planning to peek out through the door so I wouldn't have to make myself decent before answering.

When I opened the door however, I raised my eyebrows, L was standing in the hallway. He actually had shoes on, the laces untied.

"Well, may I come in? I wanted to discuss the videos", he said calmly, hands in his jeans' pockets.

Why now of all times? I was dead tired. It was ten am on a Sunday morning. No one woke up this early. "Sure", I moved aside, and then went red as I noted I was still in my bathrobe, "could you take a seat and wait for a moment? I'll be right back."

He came in, slipped his shows off, and seated himself crouched in the plush hotel chair and I rushed into the bathroom and looked around for clothes. I hadn't wanted to open my closet in front of him because it was messy. I opened the towel cabinet and finally found a short gray pleated skirt and v-neck shirt that I had put in there a long time ago for some reason. It wasn't the best thing to wear since it was chilly outside and I didn't leave the heater on, but it was better than a bathrobe. I donned them and quickly dried my hair as much as I could with a towel, stepping out.

L had taken my laptop and had it in his lap, probably reviewing the videos, "have you watched all of them yet?"

"No", I walked over, intending to sit on the bed, which was the only other seat in the hotel room, "I started with this one and then fell asleep. I'll finish them tomorrow morning." I yawned, hoping I was giving off the "I'm really sleepy and therefore am not myself" aura, "What is this idea?"

I sat down on the bed and crossed my legs, taking my glasses off the bed stand and slipping them on. L turned the laptop toward me and played the second Kira's first message. We sat there listening to it. I thought I could see worry in his eyes.

"So what do you think? Did you find anything strange?" He asked after it finished. I pondered my answer for a while, "it's unlike Kira to do something like this. He wouldn't kill innocent people. And the character of this person seems very different. Unprofessional, not as good", I told him, "I don't think it's the Kira we've been hunting. It's like someone else was doing this. Did the criminals mentioned really die?"

He looked at me curiously, "yes, they did...I came to the same conclusion. That this isn't Kira. It's someone else."

"A second Kira?" I asked, knowing the answer. "Exactly", he replied, "A second person with Kira's abilities. Thank you for confirming my suspicions on the case, May. I believe I'm getting a boost of motivation from this event. I plan to test Light on this as well when he's fine again."

I smiled, "Glad to be of help. Do you ever actually sleep?" I took the conversion in a different direction just to get to know him better. He looked like he had something on his mind. I stressed the word sleep, hoping my amateur linguistic skills would make him a little sleepy so he would open up more easily.

"Yes, I do. I use sleep anchors to force myself to sleep when I really need it. I've found that the average human only essentially needs around four hours of sleep every three days to survive", he put the laptop away and looked around the room. I laughed, "I'll try that then, just to see how long before I collapse from exhaustion."

"If you don't mind me asking, who's that?" he then asked, pointing. I turned to see what he meant and saw that he was pointing at the framed photograph sitting on my still mostly-packed baggage. It was a picture of me and Lena doing the James Bond pose.

"It's a friend of mine from Canada. Her name is Lena. Now that you mention it, I haven't called her in days..." I paused worriedly. I saw L give me a strange look, as if he was astounded that I had a 'friend'. It's like he was trying to convey his disappointment that I was so different from him, that I had friends and other normality's.

I remembered all of a sudden that his first friend had been the man who'd killed him and felt a pang of sadness before shutting it away. It wouldn't take long to convince him otherwise. It was the perfect time to build some connections that would make him trust me further.

"When I was in highschool, I didn't make friends very easily. I had lots of acquaintances, groups I was part of just so I wouldn't be a loner at lunch. But I never had any real friends. I didn't know why. I wasn't picky or anything, I was polite to everyone. It's just that everyone had already formed their own close friendships before I appeared. So I had lots of people who knew me, even liked me well enough to vote me student council president, but there was no one who's house I could appear in anytime I wanted. No one who I could really get to know.

"Lena only came to my attention around my junior year. We had the same biology class, and her interest in it was so… inspiring. I'd never even liked biology, since my main science course was physics, but Lena immediately appeared next to me when I mentioned to my lab partner that I kept mixing up the definitions for the larynx and the pharynx. She guided me through a picture of how the voice box worked. I never had to ask, she just started explaining it to me. I guess she was my first friend. She was insanely smart in anything to with the human body, and she approved of my hacking skills to for some odd reason. Lena's studying to be a doctor now, and I guess when all this is over I'll study project management and work my way up to being a director", I finished on that note, "did you ever go to high school Ryuzaki?"

He cocked his head to one side, "no, I was homeschooled. I've never experienced it." I knew the answer already but it was still strange to hear. I'd never met anyone who'd been homeschooled before. "Ryuzaki...if you don't mind me asking, how did you become L? How does a person suddenly become a world famous detective?

He was silent for a while, "I'm afraid I can't tell you that."

"I understand", I sighed, "do you want to go outside? I need fresh air. I can already smell the takeout the people in the room next to us are eating." I hoped he would say yes. This was a great opportunity to get to know him, the greatest detective in the world. I felt so at ease around him, like I felt around Light.

"Outside?" He sounded worried.

"Yeah, I don't the area very well so I usually just go for a small walk in the mornings. Everyone is really nice to me cause they think I'm a tourist. I get discounts while buying candy."

"I believe morning walks are rather healthy…I've...just never been outside without Watari. That's all. I'll come along", he slipped into his shoes while I put on knee high socks so I wouldn't freeze. We walked out of the hotel and onto the sidewalk.

"What are your interests Ryuzaki? I've never seen you when you're doing anything but solving cases", I asked since it was too quiet.

"I play tennis, and keep up with scientific discoveries, that is all. What about you May? Apart from hacking."

"Well I like painting and sketching and playing the piano and...well...there isn't much I don't like", I replied

We found ourselves walking past a tourist souvenir store.

"Looks interesting", I said, walking in. Stores here in Japan had such neat stuff. L hesitated a moment before following me. I grazed my hand over the shelves, looking at all the interesting stuff, when I stopped next to a jewelry stand. I turned to see L mixing up a five by five Rubik's cube. I turned back to the stand and touched a pink bow-wrapped skull necklace. It reminded me of Ryuk for a moment. I looked back to see L holding the cube fully solved again.

"How do you do that? I've never seen a five by five before..." I said, coming up beside him.

"The algorithms are basically the same, May. It's just that you perform them with the outer squares instead of the inner squares. And the end is done a little differently, like this.." We stood there, him teaching me the equations for the cube. It was interesting, it was like he was in a different world whenever he talked about things like this. Cases...puzzles. They were his passion.

Soon we decided to leave. L was walking a little straighter now for some reason.

"May, what do you think of my idea of making Light write a reply script to broadcast, as a response to the second Kira?" L had his thumb in his mouth again. I thought about it, "it's a good idea. But you won't be able to prove much about him from it. Unless he tries to imbed a code into it, but I don't think that's something Light would be careless enough to do unless he knew for sure that only a Kira would understand. But then again, we'd find out when we learn more about Kira so I doubt it."

His eyes took on a faraway look, "I guess that's decided then."

We were halfway back to the hotel when I saw him. It was Light, walking out of a grocery store along with his sister. He was dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt and carrying a bag overflowing with apples. Ryuzaki waved at him when he turned around to see us. I wondered how he was doing. It was only yesterday when he had been stabbed in the shoulder but he was up and walking already. Judging on the way he squared his shoulders a little awkwardly while walking, I assumed they had bandaged it up and given him blood loss supplements.

"Ryuzaki, you're...well...outside! I don't know why that's so surprising but it is", Light said sheepishly, coming over. He said the last part sarcastically and it made me smile.

"I know right? I should get an award for dragging him outside", I said, winking at him.

He laughed, "anyway, this is my younger sister Sayu. We were just out shopping", he gestured to Sayu.

"Are these friends of yours Light?" she asked. He nodded, "they're from university, Sayu. The two other exam flyers I mentioned."

"Really? Thank goodness. You see when Light mentioned that there were two other people who had aced the exam apart from him that he was hanging out with, I thought they'd be total nerds, but you guys look ok so it's a relief", she saluted the air an gave us a genuinely happy smile. I suddenly felt sorry for her, she would be captured by Mello because of her brother's plans.

"So do you two want to come over for tea while Ryuzaki still actually outside his room? My mom's starting to think I'm a total loner since I don't bring girls home anymore. I used to all the time in my senior year just to satisfy her but all these university girls are too smart…", he rubbed his head sheepishly.

"Well I have no work to do as of late so I see no problem in it. And May looks like she needs a rest from work too", Ryuzaki replied.

Sayu squealed and we followed her and Light to a medium sized house. It was just like it looked in the anime, homely and bright. I remembered that Chief Yagami lived here as well and wondered how we were going to explain it. We entered and took of our shoes when Light's mother appeared.

"Friends of yours Light?" She asked, smiling at us. "Yeah mom. They'll be over for a while, we're studying for the start of the year. They usually give you a small test in the beginning but that determines your starting grade" Light answered.

"Studying in the beginning of the year, studying at the end of the year, studying in the middle of the year, Light you're always studying. Anyway, mom, they're the other geniuses Light mentioned who aced the entrance exam!", I heard Sayu squeal to her mom. Suddenly Chief Yagami appeared, stupefied. He spent a while staring at the fact that the world's greatest detective was standing in his own house. There was a few minutes of silence.

"Hello Mr. Yagami. We're friends of your son", Ryuzaki finally said, breaking the silence. The chief understood and walked away normally with his newspaper, nodding to acknowledge us. He gave me a glare before he left and Light winced.

Light led us upstairs to his bedroom. He pulled out fold-up chairs and we seated ourselves.

"You have a very nice house Light", L said.

"Yeah, well I've been living here all my life and I would actually like a change of scenery. A person can get bored seeing the same thing every day", he pushed stray hairs out of his face. L glanced at his shoulder, "and how is your shoulder? I presume the hospital had it taken care of?"

Light winced slightly, "yeah, it's fine now. I kept it a secret from my parents, they would probably say the investigation is too dangerous for me if I showed them."

"I apologize that you were put thought this, my workers were ordered never to actually harm you but it seems someone forgot to inform them of such. Watari was with me watching the broadcast at the time you called so he wasn't able to receive your call. It caused a lot of problems, but both of you did well for people who have never been trained", Ryuzaki put his thumb into his mouth, "I had everything videotaped and watched it already."

I skipped a breath for a second. He had seen what happened in the bathroom! Hopefully he would take it as me feeling helpless in the situation or something like that.

"Well I'm glad. It was my own fault that I made the knife skip on the container I was holding. If not for that it would have been just fine", Light smiled, "there's something else you look like you want to ask, fire ahead."

"Well you see, I had an idea about Kira's message and I wanted to ask you on your analysis for it", Ryuazki asked softly. Light eyes narrowed, it was very subtle but I knew what to look for.

"He…doesn't act like Kira. Not how I imagined Kira to act. And he killed petty criminals who's only crime in his eyes was insulting him on TV. I don't think the Kira we're after would do that. I think there might be another Kira", he said, hesitating a little. Ryuzaki smiled a little, "I see you've come to the same conclusion as myself. There is another Kira around. A second Kira. I propose a plan to confirm this. I want to broadcast a message to this second Kira as the real Kira. Just to see how he reacts."

"That's an excellent idea. If he's intent on helping kill criminals then he'll probably try to meet up with the "real" Kira and we can catch him in the act", Light added.

"Yes, exactly. Why don't you play the role of the original Kira, Light?" Ryuzaki put his thumb into his mouth.

"Well…uh…sure I guess I could do that", Light stuttered. I hid a smile at his reaction.

"It wouldn't be wise to support his idea of luring L out though", I said, "because that could actually work, with a little planning. Not that L would be caught out, but this second Kira could potentially hold everyone against him."

"Yes I was rather worried. He seems to be quite rash but his forceful methods might ruin L's status if the public sees no other way", Ryuzaki added, referring to himself in third person just as I had.

At that moment, Sayu came in through the door, "Light, it's lunchtime! Mom wants to know if your friends will be staying over, she's ok with it but she wants to know so she can lay out extra plates."

Light looked at us, and immediately noticed Ryuzaki's worried look.

"Light what do you normally eat at lunchtime?" he questioned with a weird look on his face. Light shifted, and then turned to Sayu, "Sayu do we have any cake or ice cream here? Anything sweet?"

She thought for a moment, and then answered, "we have lots of ice cream…oh and yeah we have the cake that mom made from the cake mix this morning…and donuts. We have donuts that one of my friends brought over. Why?"

Ryuzaki visibly relaxed, "that is sufficient. I'll be sure to explain my dietary disorder if you'll have us over Light."

"Sure. May, you'll love my mom's cooking, she's amazing when it comes to it. We'll leave you craving Japanese food for the rest of your life", Light joked, gesturing us over. We followed him downstairs.

Lunch was lively. Chief Yagami seemed strangely resigned and remained quiet most of the time. Sayu never stopped talking, and Light and I chatted with her all through the meal. Ryuzaki added in now and then and ate his plate full of cake and donuts. It was fun, I'd never eaten a family meal since I left for university residence when I was nineteen. Even before that, my parents had been computer junkies. Their jobs, and their entire lives revolved around technology. Their idea of dinner was a slice of pizza at their desk while working on some project. I was submitted to pretty much the same and was used to eating pizza on a plate all alone at our large, expensive glass dining table under the almost equally large, soft yellow chandelier. Every night that happened, I'd sit there thinking about how it was the type of table that deserved to be used by a huge family of six, and not by one lonely girl.

When we'd complemented Light's mom on her cooking and said goodbye, we ended up back at headquarters. I did my usual for the day. Also known as sitting on L's couch researching random things and create viruses. Tomorrow was the day Light would make his message for Kira, tomorrow evening. In the morning, we had our first day of University at To Oh.

I got a review saying there are a few grammer mistakes, should i get a beta? what do you guys think?

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