DISCLAIMER: I do not own Deathnote, any of it's characters, or any of the random other things that may be referenced. Scorche is property of Asheiya, Kurai is property of evilanimeninja, and Mizu is property of an anonymous friend of mine (I have their permission to use these characters!). However, Azami and the plot belong to me!

Zepheira: Uggh, well chapter 10's finally out.

Azami: You'd better get chapter 11 up faster.

Zepheira: *sigh* I will, I'm almost done writing it.

Azami: Good. Now, let the reading begin!

"What are you doing?" I frowned, uncurling so I hung down straight, holding my arms open in defeat.

"I'm stuck." L smiled. "Want me to help?" I nodded shamefully. 'What use is an escape artist that gets stuck in a situation like this?'

My face grew warmer when L's hands wrapped around my elbows and started to pull. When I was finally free I tumbled out and hit my head on the floor, also managing to pin L underneath me.

'Ow, that wasn't such a great plan...' My thought slipped away and I fell into blackness.

-Kurai's POV-

I was running with Mizu, and Near towards the crashing noise that had happened only moments before.

When we arrived my jaw dropped, Mizu started laughing and Near remained apathetic. Mizu leaned towards me. "Rape?" Even I couldn't help smirking a bit at that.

'But seriously, what's going on here?' Azami lying on top of L on the floor, unmoving, while L struggled to get up. He looked over at us.

"She was stuck in the air vent, I helped pull her out, but she fell wrong and hit her head on the floor."

He managed to stand up holding the long lost unconscious Azami in his arms bridal style. Near turned around and started walking towards an exit. "We should take her to a hospital."

We met up with the others and headed out. Again.

-Azami's POV-

"-no permanent injuries or brain damage." Were the words I woke up to. I pretended to keep sleeping.

'I don't want to answer any questions yet.' "Well, we should get going." L said as he placed his hand on my arm. This action caused me to briefly stop breathing.

"But she's not awake yet." The doctor commented confusedly. "Azami please get up." I now realized that I felt a bit different than usual... Strange.

I pushed my eyes open. In the room stood only L and the doctor who now had a surprised look on his face. "Well, come on. You've made me miss quite a bit of investigation time already."

'What! How could I do that to L! The length of time that you get for an investigation can be the result of success or failure, by my weakness L could lose this case! I must make myself stronger.'

He gave my sudden depressed mood a questioning glance, then ignored it, waiting for me to stand up.

'Wait a minute... L took precious time from his investigation to come get me? Why would he do that?'

"Are you coming?" I stood slowly, my legs slightly wobbly from lack of use. L took my arm so that I didn't fall, which caused my face to turn rose colored.

He pulled me out of the room, out of the building in fact, and to a bench nearby where I sat down and he crouched on it beside me.

"I need to ask you some things." I nodded slowly, a headache starting to crawl behind my eyes. "First, why did you come here?" I froze.

'Now... Now's finally my chance to tell him...' ... "Well?" "...Do you remember about five years ago, you were in a park and you found a girl sitting beside a bench?"

"...That was you?" I sighed. "Yes, that was the first time I escaped. By then I had given up all hope and was considering what I meant to the world. You walked up to me and I barely noticed because of how deep in thought I was. At first I was a little scared, but I felt something trustable about you, that was the first time I'd ever felt something like that about a person. You gave me a lollipop with an 'L' on it which caused me to throw a random one in a million guess that you were THE L. I was right, though I doubted it at the time. So I followed you until you got into your car and drove away. Because of you I didn't give up my life, and actually started trying to do my best. You inspired me, you gave me a new goal: I wanted to become as admirable as the great detective L, or at least get a chance to meet him. You are the reason I am still living today... Thank you."

L stared at me, seeming absorbed in my gratefulness. "I'm happy I was able to make a difference, and especially if you're still living." I blushed deeper at that statement.

"So... Yeah, I came here to tell you that." He smiled. "I greatly appreciate your effort." I looked away. "Ok, question 2: how old are you actually? Your DNA test said you were 16, but you seem to act older and your new passport also disagrees."

I mumbled the answer towards my feet. "What?" I looked up at him. "21, though I have been living the life of a 16 year old for a long time now since my DNA test had gotten mixed up and my passport says I'm 19 because 16 is too young for a good amount of freedom, and most people don't believe me if I tell them my real age."

L brought his thumb up to his lip. "And you're not lying?" "Why would I? You can take another DNA test if you want." He breathed out.

"One more, there's something that Mizu suspected that I'm kind of curious about." I frowned. 'Who's Mizu? Probably one of the orphans who came looking for me I guess.'

"So, what did she think?" The intensity in L's gaze seemed to almost burn through me. "Mizu's team thought you came here because they guessed that it had something to do with me, and they were right, in a way, since you came to tell me something, but they thought you wanted to follow me for a different reason... Mizu believes you have a…crush on me, is she... right Azami?"

My mouth fell open and my face turned a shade of red that would put beets to shame. "W-wh-w-..."

The headache suddenly grew much stronger and my breath felt like it was being squeezed from my chest.

I quickly recognized that this was no ordinary response to a shocking piece of information when my vision blurred and I started falling. 'Thank god we're still by the hospital.'

-Return to consciousness, back in the hospital-

"Uuuh what happened?" "We don't quite know, but you were out for about 10 minutes." 'Oh great, well I hope that's over.'

"Is she alright?" L's voice drifted over. "She seems fine, but we're not really sure what happened." L stepped over to me. "How do you feel?" "Well, um, way better actually..."

"Good. So about my question..." He trailed off suggestively leaving the doctors in confusion. Thankfully I was now feeling much more level headed and was ready to answer.

"You're a detective aren't you?" He nodded. "Well, figure it out yourself then." I said cheerfully, I practically jumped from the bed and skipped outside, L trailing after me quickly.

"So, where are we going now?" I asked happily as he watched me walk around him in circles.

"I'm going back to help with the investigation, and your going to a hotel where you'll wait with the others until I can contact Rodger so he can come deal with you." I pouted.

"If you're good I might let you help out." He added more quietly. I smiled. "Ok, I'll try my best!" He eyed me curiously. "Are you sure you're alright? You don't seem yourself..."

I frowned questioningly at him. "What do you mean?" He looked away and pulled a cookie from his pocket. Taking a bite from it he said: "Nothing, never mind."

I sighed. 'I do feel kinda different, but not a bad different...huh.' He dropped me off at the hotel and the next few days passed surprisingly slowly and uneventfully.

I got so bored that I started exploring the outsides of the hotel, it was on one of these wanderings that I found something lying on a bench around the back.

'What is that? It's black and flat... A notebook? Maybe someone lost it... I wonder if there's anything written in it...'

I walked over, sat down on the bench and picked up the notebook. The cover was sleek and black with some sort of odd foreign writing on it. I slid that open to see that it was filled with many snow white pages.

But the first of these pages were the most interesting, they seemed to be filled with directions. I decided to scan through the first ten.

I) The human whose name is written in this note shall die.

II) This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.

III) If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.

IV) If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.

V) After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

VI) This note shall become the property of the human world, once it touches the ground of (arrives in) the human world.

VII) The owner of the note can recognize the image and voice of it's original owner, i.e. a god of death.

IIX) The human who uses this note can neither go to Heaven nor Hell.

IX) If the time of death is written within 40 seconds after writing the cause of death as a heart attack, the time of death can be manipulated, and the time can go into effect within 40 seconds after writing the name.

X) The human who touches the note can recognize the image and voice of it's original owner, a god of death, even if the human is not the owner of the note.

Reviews/comments are greatly appreciated! ;)