Chapter 10

L stared horrified at his phone for only a second. One fact rang clear in his mind, B, his nemesis had Taiyo. This meant that the odds were only about 52 in his favor of getting winning B's "game" and getting Taiyo back. One thing about B was comforting, B never broke his own rules, which meant that until L won or lost the game, Taiyo was safe, after that… L found himself not wanting to think about it.

At once L began to scan the car for the clue that B said he had left. In could be in any form, and anywhere. However, L had only to glance at the car for him to notice that piece of paper held in place under the wind-shied-wiper.

L picked up the paper and read the words written on it.

"Follow along the direction of her name. The first letter, written by an old fashioned pen, needle-points written in blue ink, the words together form an eagle. Fly with the eagle to find her again."

L was very confused by the message, but since it was B, that was not surprising in the slightest.

L immediately jumped into Taiyo's car. Taiyo had left the keys on the car seat, so L was able to drive away with any trouble. He went straight to his hotel to inform Watari and get the police involved. He knew it was likely that B would have turned off Taiyo's cell phone, so L couldn't trace it, unless it was part of the game that it was still on, but L could find their last position from the time that B had called him.

--

Taiyo came back to consciousness after having been knocked out, when the cloth was pressed over her mouth, to the feeling of the blindfold wrapped around her face taken off.

She was tied to a chair in a dimly lit, large space. Taiyo's night vision was very good, so she was able to see around herself fairly well. However, there wasn't very much too see, Taiyo could make out the walls around her a little bit, but there wasn't anything else in the room with her. Apart from her captor. He was standing behind Taiyo, so she couldn't see him. Taiyo sniffed, there was a faint smell of decay, and dust, along with chemical smells, Taiyo guessed she was in an abandoned warehouse.

Taiyo wriggled a bit in her chair, whoever her kidnapper was, he was clearly very professional, instead of tying Taiyo's feet, he had bound them so that they were strapped to the underside of the chair, this way, there was no chance of her standing up and using the chair as a weapon. Her hands were securely fastened behind the chair. There was a gag around her mouth, but just as Taiyo was about to scream, she felt the gag being untied.

"Thanks", Taiyo said, to the air in front of her, once the blind fold was removed.

There was a pause, then a voice behind her replied, "you're welcome".

"hum hum", Taiyo mused, "you sound kind of familiar, do I know you? Well, I guess I must, I mean, I don't think people usually get kidnapped by people they've never had any contact with what-so-ever. And I'm guessing you have a reason for kidnapping me, which most likely has something to do with Ryuzaki. I knew he came with a good share of danger, but I wasn't expecting to get kidnapped on only my second day of knowing him, so I wasn't really prepared." Taiyo sighed, "my stupid. Now, I don't suppose that you would mind telling me why you kidnapped me, would you? It would at least help to pass the time. And another thing, do you have my coat? I'm really cold!"

There was a shuffling noise behind her, a sigh, then a large object was wrapped around her.

"Thanks", said Taiyo again, snuggling down into the blanket.

Taiyo's eyes her closed, but she heard the person behind her chair walk around and sit down in front of her. Taiyo lazily opened her eyes, she had been thinking about ways to escape, but it looked like she would have to play cute for her captor for a little while.

Taiyo looked at the man crouched on the floor in front of her, and nearly gasped. The man was a nearly spitting image of Ryuzaki. Although she would never have mistaken the two of them, this man had red eyes, and there was just something else about him, a sinister feeling that Taiyo had never felt around Ryuzaki, there was no denying that, in terms of physical appearance, they were very similar.

Taiyo scrutinized the man crouching before her. Finally she spoke, "wow, you look like Ryuzaki. You two related or something?"

"No, not related", B replied, "but I suppose that you could say that I am him."

"Uh… ok then." Taiyo said, raising an eyebrow, but otherwise seeming to accept B's reasoning. "Have you got a name?"

"Please call me Ryuzaki", B replied.

"Wah?! No! I will NOT call you that. Even if you two look a like, I can tell that you and Ryuzaki are as different as cherries and strawberries. I know, I shall call you Gemi." Taiyo decreed B's new nick-name with perfect matter-of-fact-ness.

For the first time, B let an expression cross his face. This girl was very weird; he had already decided that. She seemed to have absolutely no fear of death, or of him.

"Why Gemi?" he asked at last.

"From the constellation Gemini, you know, the twins. I think it suits you, being like Ryuzaki's other half and all that. But Gemini is just too long to say, and Gemi sounds nicer. So, Gemi, why are you keeping me here? And what do you plan on doing with me? And you don't think you could un-tie my feet do you? The way you tied them, which I must congratulate you on, is really uncomfortable! By the way, why are your eyes red?"

B blinked his red eyes in utter shock. He had tied up a lot of people before, and this girl was a first in almost everything she had done. It was almost like she was trying to have a conversation with B, which would also make her the first to ever try to start a conversation with B. B found it almost enjoyable.

"I'm keeping you here in a challenge to L, he needs to play my game to get you back. But since I'm better than him, he will loose the game and never get you back. And I guess since my rules stipulate it, I will have to kill you."

Taiyo's eyebrows shot up, both of them, just before she started to giggle, "L? L?!" she choked out, between the giggles. "I guess I'm done-for then, there's no way that L will start looking for me. I guess you don't know much about L, but he only gets involved in cases where there are more than 10 victims, or more than 1 million dollars at stake."

"L will try to find you… he loves you."

Taiyo snorted, "I don't know who you've got me confused with, I've never even met L…" her voice trailed off and something seemed to suddenly snap into place behind her eyes. "B…" she breathed softly, and for the first time, something like fear, like, but not quite, more like anxiety, flashed in her eyes.

The muscles in B's face tightened, "how do you know who I am?" he hissed at Taiyo, who was staring at him with an amazed look on her face.

Taiyo shrugged as well as she could while tied up. Then suddenly she started laughing insanely, she laughed so hard that she nearly tipped her chair over. Tears poured down her face. When the laughter had quieted down, a tiny bit, Taiyo finally choked out, "I-I snogged L, an-and, I didn't even realize it!" With that, Taiyo dissolved back into laughter.

It was B's turn to have an epiphany, "T." he hissed at Taiyo, who nodded, still giggling.

"well, isn't this a great reunion!" Taiyo chirped, wiggling about so her chair danced. "or, well, I've actually never really met either you or L, since I was raised in the American and Japanese branches".

B smirked, "as expected of L's only female heir. If I'd known you were T, I would have taken a lot more precautions. This is most improbable, T and L, fall in love, then B abducts T.

Taiyo rolled her eyes, "yeah. Yeah. Funny isn't it. But we are NOT in love! Wish I could say that was true, but its not. Anyways, its nice, or well… not really, to meet you, B. I can't believe I didn't figure all this out sooner, at Wammy's they always referred to you as "the L gone wrong", I should have known the second I saw you."

"You left Wammy's when you were 15, I believe," B said slowly, "and you came there when you were 9. Why did you leave so soon? More training would have been good for you. And you surrendered all your rights to receiving L's title. Why?"

Taiyo looked rather comically thoughtful for a moment then said, "wow, B, you were first in line to replace L, that would make you really smart, but you cant even figure that out?! I left because I didn't want any of that life. I didn't want to be looking over my shoulder for ever more for people trying to kill me. And I moved to Scotland because of 3 little words, low-crime-rate. I didn't want to have to be a detective, ever. But I guess people like us have some kind of gravitational attraction to each other." Taiyo banged her head on the back of her chair, seeming to be quite exasperated. "And another thing!" she said heatedly "I made up my mind that I would never be anyone's Cinderella, and look where I'm stuck now! Waiting for L to come rescue me. This sucks!!" Taiyo banged her head again. "ow."

Taiyo slide down in her chair a little bit, then grimaced and straightened back up. "hey B", she said, "you don't think you could untie me, do you?" this hurts, a lot. I promise I wont try to run away. And after all, you can watch me, I'm sure you've got a gun, and its not like I've got anywhere to go, or anyway to get there."

B wasn't sure why, but he believed Taiyo when she said she wouldn't run away, and he did have a gun, and if Taiyo was T, then she wasn't stupid. B got to his feet, and untied all of Taiyo's ropes. B had a hard time undoing the knot that bound Taiyo's feet to the chair, he didn't want to crawl under the chair, because once Taiyo's feet were free, she would be able to kick downwards and connect directly with his face, B had just been on the receiving end of Taiyo's kicks, and he had a nasty cut above his eye. (it was his blood that L found on the ground). B eventually crouched behind Taiyo's chair and blindly, and quite awkwardly, untied the knot. B backed quickly away from Taiyo has she tottered to her feet. She was quite unsteady due a lack of blood in her feet.

B sat down on the ground again, and watched Taiyo, thumb in mouth, as she tottered comically about for a while, then she to sat on the ground. They sat in silence for quite a while, then Taiyo finally spoke, "well, this is awkward isn't it?"

B tipped his head to one side, confused by this last comment, there was nothing that they needed to talk about, so why should they? Talking to simply pass time? That thought seemed strange to B.

"Well its fine," said Taiyo, "I'm getting tired, so I'm going to bed-I mean sleep now."

Taiyo lay down on one half of her blanket, and threw the other half over herself. She closed her eyes, then promptly opened them again and sat up. "What about you?" she said to B, "don't you need a blanket? I've got this one; do you have another one? Won't you be cold?"

B was finding himself in a similar position to how L had found himself in when he had first met Taiyo. Nearly everything she did confused him. B wondered why on earth would be concerned over whether he had a blanket, when he had just told her flatly that he might have to kill her.

Taiyo, however, continued to patiently watch B, and, when B shook his head, Taiyo held up her blanket and said, "we could share this one, if you think you'll get cold. Its only like 40 degrees out." B was confused, again. What B had really meant was that he didn't need it, he wasn't planning on sleeping, and although he was a bit cold, he could manage just fine, although he was slightly curious about what Taiyo had meant by "share this one".

"I don't need it." B said rather bluntly.

Taiyo shrugged and lay back on her blanket.

B thought she had fallen asleep, until Taiyo said loudly, "I miss my hot water bottle!"

After that, Taiyo really did fall asleep, B sat and watched her for quite some time, she was fascinating to him, in many ways, he couldn't have picked one, but one of the strangest things was the way that she sometimes seemed so innocent and clueless, and at other times, she showed her true genius.

B law down on his side so he could still watch Taiyo, he wasn't sure if she was going to try to escape or not, but he didn't want to take any chances.

--

L sat in his chair, chewing on his thumbnail. The riddle that B had left his was sitting in front of him. B hadn't given him a specific time frame in which he needed to solve the puzzle, L wondered if that meant something as well.

L took a pencil and underlined the first sentence.

"Follow along the direction of her name."

L accessed a map of Scotland. From where they were now, in Edinburgh, they were right next to the sea. Taiyo had told him that her name meant "ocean", if the clue was read one way, it could be interpreted to mean that L should go in the direction of the sea. But L thought that wasn't likely, if that was the case, the clue would more likely read "follow to her name", or similar. Instead it suggested that the ocean itself was the source of the direction.

L went back to the computer and researched the ocean as a direction. Nothing came up.

L sat curled in his chair, his hands balled into fists, his head resting on his knees. He thought about Taiyo; and for the first time in his life, L felt panicked, and sad. He felt something hot on his face, and touched his cheek. His hand back wet, and L realized he was crying. Water. That made him think of the time when Taiyo had taken him swimming in the lake, L thought of how Taiyo's hair had looked wet, shining in the moonlight. Water. Suddenly, something snapped into place in L's mind. Something he had learned as a small child, studying various religions in school. L's head snapped up and he began to frantically type on the computer.

Well, well, well! Taiyo's secret is out! I actually wasn't planning that from the start, but after I started thinking about how smart she was, I got the idea. Hope you guys like it.

x-D

And yeah, yeah, I know it's a pretty short chapter, but my friend Chantelle wanted to read it sooner, so I just chopped it, chapter 11 should be following soon.

I also think there may have been some things sort of… left out. If anyone has any questions, let me know. :-p thanks everyone! And please please review!

And oh yes, another big shock coming soon! (just to keep everyone reading..) ;)