Evening!
I hope you all decide to have a read of this chapter.
Feelings and relationships are changing slowly but surely as the case progresses further and something will shock you in this chapter! :O

Disclaimer: Death Note belongs to Tsugimi Ohba & Takeshi Obata, but the OC's are mine!

Chapter 10 – The Fall

Tsuki actually laughed.

She didn't really know why, but L just looked so hilarious right now. Enough for her to break that icy cold, emotionless, unrevealing exterior and actually laugh out loud instead of just smirking behind her mask, or huffing lightly in amusement.

Because she didn't have her mask on, he could also see the smile appear and disappear, only to be replaced with a slightly confused but surprised look, as if she had only just remembered how to smile and how to laugh. He didn't know why or how his hand being numb and feeling like it wasn't even on the end of his arm was amusing enough for the composed and calm Tsuki to actually laugh, but he was glad it did.

The only other time he had seen her smile like that was when she was petting Hisuiro, and that time he barely took his eyes off her. She just looked so...different and so much more alive in a way that he could really explain. She looked so much more attractive when she smiled.

It emphasised the brightness of her eyes, the high cheekbones, and the curve of her small, but full lips. Her vibrancy was shown through her momentary smile, and now he'd never get the image out of his head. It was burned into his memory, just as when she had pinned him and put a kunai to his throat to warn him about sneaking up on her.

When he recalled that moment, the warmth of her body and the cold metal sitting against his vulnerable neck, and her blue eyes that stood out even in the darkness of the room, and midnight black hair falling all around her.

He needed to go to the bathroom. Now.

He tried to be casual, but she was too observant to not pick up on his abrupt onset of discomfort. It was only moments after she had laughed, and he realised that he must have been staring at her ever since. It seems that she was becoming more and more distracting of late, and especially when his body was reacting like this.

Only moments later, he reached the bathroom and shut the door behind him. A young man, he most certainly was, but those kinds of urges didn't really occur to him or present themselves to him at all. He could freely acknowledge if he thought a woman was attractive, pretty, beautiful etcetera, but Tsuki was something else. Her mystery only increased her appeal and he was starting to wonder about whether he could control himself around her.

Would he just continue staring at her all the time? Or would he keep to himself and pretend she wasn't there unless he had to acknowledge her presence?

'I guess that it would be hard for men not to be in the least bit attracted to her. Like Ame for example. She is incredibly smart, trustworthy, brave, honourable, and very self-sacrificing, not to mention beautiful...' he thought to himself as he paced in circles - since the bathroom wasn't long enough to pace up and down - whilst he bit his thumb thoughtfully.

Normally, something like this wouldn't phase him. But since he had met Tsuki, things had been a bit different. He'd become a little more considerate, since he was the victim of her burning glare if he wasn't, and he didn't really treat people like they were all under him. He didn't mean to do it in a belittling or demeaning way at all, it was just that he was on a higher level on thought than most and he didn't know how to interact with most people.

But Tsuki...well, she was just as smart as him, so he didn't have to. The only other person he was around on a regular basis was Watari aside from when he was a very young child, and he always made sure to be very polite to Watari, even though the father/grandfather-figure would do anything for the young man.

Speaking of which, he pulled his phone out of the pocket of Ame's pants and he rang Watari's number. Watari would already know about what happened, and he had already contacted him when they had gotten here telling him that he was alright and that he would talk to him soon.

The old man answered his phone only a few seconds after it began to ring, signalling that he was still worried. It made L smile a little before getting down to business. He asked Watari where he was, and the man told him that he was at the Sora Ops headquarters with Taiyou. He also mentioned that Taiyou had planned on calling Tsuki when he got out of the meeting he was currently in, and that he needed everyone at headquarters asap.

He informed Watari that he would tell Tsuki, Ame and Kumo now and they'd be there as soon as possible. After he hung up, he smiled again glad to know that Watari was safe and sound. L opened the bathroom door and told Tsuki about what Watari had said, and she immediately got up and started getting ready to head off.

Firstly, she went over to Ame and Kumo's room and woke them up, telling them that they needed to be at headquarters as soon as possible and that they'd meet them there. She didn't really feel like waiting around for their lazy asses to get out of bed and get ready, so she could just go now and let them take their time.

It didn't take her and L long to be ready, and she asked him to carry Hisuiro again, but this time a little nicer and they walked out of the inn and to the motorbike that was still parked outside. They both hopped on, L being a little less hesitant this time and headed straight for headquarters.

When they got there they went in through the pathologists lab, who was thankfully at lunch and didn't get a chance to see L. He was thankful that she was still going to all this effort for him and it was just furthering his almost infatuation with her. She was right, she really did protect him. She risked her own life not just to protect herself, but him too.

As he thought more about it while they were standing in the elevator, he realised how much of a responsibility that was. Sometimes he forgot how important he could be to society and to the world. Maybe because he didn't take up cases that often, since most of the time the police could solve it themselves.

They walked through the big metal door that led to the their office after Tsuki swiped her clearance card, and Tsuki felt much more comfortable here than in various hotels in the city. Clearly, staying in hotels, no matter how often they switched, wasn't going to protect them anyway.

Now it was time for them to sort out what their next move would be.

She took Hisuiro out of the backpack, and was relieved when she remembered she put a tank here for when she was working on a case and didn't get home often. L greeted Watari while they waited and spoke quietly to him for a moment before Taiyou came out of his office and seemed glad to finally see them there.

"Where's Ame and Kumo?" he asked, noticing that there was still two people missing.

"Here!" Ame's voice trailed through from down the hallway, signalling that they'd just walked in the big doors.

"Good...We have a lead. Another agent of ours is currently undercover, working to try and find a chance to bust this illegal weapon manufacturing and shipping ring. The man who is in charge of the whole operation is a well known criminal named Hetoshi Kitaro who the police have been trying to get hard evidence so they can convict him, but it just hasn't happened yet. And apparently, he makes a lot of custom weaponry. One of them, is this..." Taiyou explained, and held up a weapon that looked exactly like the murder weapon that had killed all the police officers, as well as Kotone Fuyuko and Hoshi.

Tsuki currently was standing at the table that had all the files from the agent's case on it and she had one foot up on the table, and L noticed that her hand twitched over her boot when she saw the weapon Taiyou had. He thought nothing of it, because usually that happened when she was angry and mentioning something that was directly involved with Hoshi's murder would undoubtedly get to her.

"Let's move on him as soon as possible. Bust him for accessory to mass murder. Let's use him to find out what the Aka Sora are planning." Ame said, just so angry that this man still hadn't been caught and he was the man who sold weapons that killed so many people, and probably many more that weren't involved in this case.

"No. That's too swift. We need to use him to flush them out somehow. We should get one of us undercover. This is a chance we cannot miss." Tsuki countered, knowing that they couldn't just move straight in on him because if they did, the Aka Sora would disguise their movements even more.

"I know of the perfect chance to slip someone in. And you all aren't going to like this idea, but I think it will work." Taiyou spoke up a little hesitantly, knowing that the idea he had already come up with would definitely not go down well, so much so that it might not even happen.

"What are you thinking?" Kumo asked, wondering what could possibly be so bad when all of them would do mostly anything to make good use of this guy to help catch the Aka Sora.

"Our agent said that he's quite a man of high tastes, and it happens to be his birthday and he is planning a large formal party at his manor outside of the city tomorrow night. Also, he seems to have a problem controlling himself with women." his voice became more and more reluctant, even though that only Tsuki could really tell because any kind of emotion in his voice was so minimal that only she could pick up on it.

"What are you trying to say?" Tsuki interrupted, her eyes narrowed in anticipation, having a feeling she knew what he was going to say next.

"I think you should go undercover, and see what you can get out of him."

Tsuki's already blank expression went completely dead-panned, and showed only a hint of bewilderment, as if she hadn't really expected him to go that far, even though he knew her thoughts about something like that, as well as everyone else. Kumo averted his eyes from Tsuki, knowing that this was undoubtedly going to cause problems. Ame glared at Taiyou, being very worried about what might happen.

L for one was terrified. He also knew that Tsuki was strong and wouldn't be harmed too easily, but he was still incredibly concerned that somehow she might get put into a situation where she couldn't fight back without blowing her cover and destroying all chance of them getting information that may help them track down the Aka Sora.

In a rare display of emotion, Tsuki inhaled deeply and sighed long and slow. At this point, she was prepared to try almost anything. But this would mean unmasking herself, to more than just the general public. She would be unmasked in front of the enemy themselves, putting her in more danger than ever before, especially because she'd be in their territory.

But at this point, they were running out of options and this chance would be almost perfect to finally make some sort of progression on this case so they could stop the needless murders that were being committed.

"I hate to say it, but I don't think we have much choice at the moment. We've got to do something, make some sort of move that can help us get ahead or at least give us a starting point. I have to do it." she resignedly said, feeling an almost obligation to accept.

Ame made no further verbal objections, but his tone spokes in volumes. "Well, if this is some fancy party, it seems that we need to get you something to wear."

"Are you sure about this, Tsuki? I'm sure we could figure something else out." Kumo said loudly enough for her to hear behind Taiyou's office door, where she was currently getting changed to make sure that the dress Watari had gone out and chosen for her would fit.

She had taken her hair out of her usual plait, and straightened it, since the waves the plait left looked ridiculous and as unfamiliar as it was, she had used a bit of make-up, knowing that this was a formal event, and she actually had to look like she fitted in there. The lower level agent had been sworn to secrecy about ever telling anyone that Tsuki was the one attending the event with him, and she was pretending to be his sister.

The agent's 'name' for this operation was Daichi and hers was now Mizuki, which meant beautiful moon. Funnily enough, and to everyone's surprise, Tsuki's especially, L had actually suggested it, almost making her blush at the sudden compliment, but thankfully she kept herself composed aside from a slow blink.

With one last look in the mirror that had been brought into Taiyou's office after being removed from the bathroom wall, she shrugged since no one was around to see it, feeling like a fool, but thinking that she'd probably fit in well enough and took a deep breath, knowing the bombardment she would receive would be irritating as hell, and she'd never hear the end of it unless she killed the lot of them.

A murderously blank expression came over her face as soon as she opened the door and Kumo noticed her. His jaw dropped instantly and his eyes were as wide as saucers. Ame also noticed at a bad time since he was leaning back on his chair, and ended up losing his balance and falling backwards, breaking the silence in the office with a loud crash and grunts of pain.

Taiyou and Watari both looked as shocked as they could, surprised at how quickly she changed in such a dramatic way. Watari was almost certain that in his old age that she had switched herself with someone else, but that murderous glare couldn't be pulled off any better by anyone else other than Tsuki.

L finally looked up from his computer screen, and almost keeled over and died right there. He was taken so off guard that his brain didn't even remember to make him look shocked and he just stared at her.

She was wearing a full length black dress, with one side cutting off a little higher and showing some toned calf-muscle. It came down her neck and chest like a 'V', stopping just between her average size breasts and when she turned around to pick up Hetoshi's file and inspect it over once more, he saw that the back on the dress barely existed. It was also a 'V' shape and stopped only about 5 inches higher than were he presumed her rear end would start.

The long black hair that he had only seen out of the usual plait once was falling around her shoulders, gleaming in the lights and perfectly straight. Her black eyes were framed with eye liner, and long eyelashes made longer by mascara and eye-shadow that started in the corner of her eye as white, and went along, gradually fading to a dark grey and she was made a little taller by a pair of shiny black heels.

If he thought that he was near infatuated with her earlier, well he was definitely infatuated with her now. He continued to stare at her, just so enamoured with her transformation, and the fact that she actually wasn't wearing her cloth mask for once, meaning that he could see the slightly turned up corners of her mouth, almost as if she felt kind of flattered by the men staring at her.

She put Hetoshi's file back down, satisfied that she knew enough about him to know what to do when the time came and turned towards the three youngest men in the room sitting near each other, still gawking at her.

"Why do I see dilated pupils?" she asked loudly with a tone that said 'Stop staring, or die' and looked between L and Ame, and Ame suddenly looked embarrassed and turned away while L was left confused.

Kumo noticed L's confusion, and answered the silent question for him. "Dilated pupils means that your sexually aroused." he casually informed the scruffy haired man just loud enough for him to hear and enjoying the slight widening of his eyes and the surprised then thoughtful expression as if he just had an epiphany.

The computer whiz smiled, knowing exactly what was happening in the detective's head, and he'd been seeing it happen lately, increasing in frequency. At first, it had made him a little cautious and concerned, but after a while, he'd realised that these two were too stupid to figure it out by themselves, unless given a bit of a push, let alone act on it.

L had a massive crush on Tsuki and Tsuki had noticed his behaviour, but not realised the full extent of it, most likely because it was directed at her, and not at someone else. She already knew that Ame was head over heels for her, but only because Kumo had told her to watch how he acted towards her, and of course, with her being able to read any expression on someone's face and their body language, she had figured it out pretty quickly.

On the other hand, L was much more used to being blank faced and unrevealing, like Tsuki was, so it would be a bit harder for her to read him, especially when he contemplated things in a completely different way, and his deductive abilities were through the roof compared to Ame, who was still very intelligent.

Kumo couldn't help but think that Tsuki would like L because he was just like her in many ways. They were both smart, perceptive, observant and kind of socially retarded, although Tsuki wasn't as bad since she had been working with other people for many years.

For the moment, he thought it was best to leave it, and he was sure that L could get a hold of himself sooner or later.

"Okay, here's your microphone and earpiece, both wireless." the brown-haired man said while he got up and walked over to Tsuki, and handed her the technology, and helped her put it on, since she wasn't exactly used to doing undercover work like this and being in a dress for what was probably the first time in her life seemed a bit confusing to her.

"You look wonderful." he whispered quietly to her with a shadow of a smile on his face before being satisfied with the set up and going to sit back at his computer.

"Testing." she said a few times into the microphone so Kumo could adjust the volume, and also her earpiece volume, which they wanted to be almost silent, so that they would only say something if they absolutely had to.

When everything was set and good to go, as if on queue the doorbell went off, signalling that Daichi was waiting for her. Kumo wished her good luck and L said almost to himself for her to be careful, but she noticed it anyway, and Ame just smirked at her. Watari was going to be their driver for the night so he stood up from his chair and walked out with her.

The large metal doors opened, and Tsuki could swear that Daichi looked faint for a moment after laying eyes on her.

"Tsuki-sama, is that what you really look like?" he asked breathlessly, absolutely shocked at the sight of the woman before him.

"Do you really think I would reveal my face when we are heading into enemy territory, let alone at any time in public?" she retorted sharply, with a blank tone, reminding him of who he was speaking to.

"Ah, that's true. So it's a disguise? It's a very good one." Daichi said, clearly feeling a little stupid after what Tsuki had said to him.

She brushed off his comment, resisting the urge to roll her eyes and they continued towards the elevator and went all the way down to the underground car park. Minutes later, they were well on their way to this party, and Tsuki was feeling very unnerved about all of this. She knew that revealing her face in public would be difficult, but what better way to outsmart the enemy than to do the one thing they'd never expect, something like this in particular.

If the Aka Sora were there and knew what she looked like underneath it all, they'd more than likely attack her, which would turn everything into a shit fight, but she was entirely prepared for that. In a way, she was kind of hoping for it.

All she really wanted was to catch these slippery bastards and either kill them herself, or have them locked up for the rest of their worthless lives, and then some. This was one of the best chances they had to track them down and she'd be damned if she messed it up. She would get every ounce of information she could from this, Hetoshi, and then if she had even the slightest hunch that he knew something, she'd bring him in. Enough said.

It took them quite a while to get out to Hetoshi's estate, which was massive, and rather beautiful. If Tsuki was ever going to have a big mansion, garden, pool and whatever else, it would probably look something like this.

They pulled up at the security check and Watari lowered the back driver's side window, where Daichi was sitting. The security guard recognised him immediately, and then looked over to see Tsuki, who purposely put on an amazed and excited expression. It felt extremely odd making actual expressions instead of just raising a cynical or slightly amused eyebrow, and she was very uncomfortable about revealing her face, but he didn't seem to recognise her at all, and let them through without another word.

When they drove into the estate, you could see even more and it truly was an amazing place. There was a small area for all the black, shiny cars to turn around and exit the estate as well as area for parking and Watari was kind enough to drop them off at the front door, before going to park.

As Tsuki expected, the security at the front door was tight, but it wasn't anything they couldn't handle. Daichi got straight out and walked around as one of the security guards was opening her door. She smiled at the guard who smiled right back after looking her up and down as she gracefully got out of the car.

Daichi, playing the part well, took her arm and smiled at her while they walked into the massive room that was just like in the movies with the two large staircases leading up each side at the end of the room. Security wasn't as plain to see in here, but there were cameras everywhere, and more than likely Hetoshi had men undercover as well.

Most of the people recognised Daichi, and came over to greet him, and he continued to introduce 'Mizuki' to every one of them, and Tsuki played the part better than she expected to. These people were so stupid and self-absorbed that she was sure that she could say anything to them and it wouldn't phase them because they'd be too busy looking in their reflection off some surface that allowed them to do so.

So far, it was going wonderfully, and after saying hello to all these different people, the man himself, Hetoshi appeared at the top of the staircases, dead in the middle, holding up a glass of champagne. He was dressed in a white suit, with a white undershirt and a plain red tie. Pretty proverbial for a man like him.

He hit his champagne glass gently with a spoon, and the light sound echoed through the room, bringing everyone's attention to Hetoshi. The room was completely silent in waiting for him to speak.

"Thank you everyone for coming. This is a wonderful birthday gift and I appreciate each and every one of you for taking the time to come out here, I know some of you have come quite a distance. I truly hope that you will enjoy this night, and I will try and come around to personally thank you all." he said with finality, and his voice rung through the large hall, reaching even the people in the back.

With a single nod to the small orchestra, music began to flow all around the room. Tsuki watched as Hetoshi descended the stairs and begin talking to people who were waiting to speak with him. Daichi gave her a gentle nudge, and she snapped out of it and he took her to the dance floor, completely ignoring her hissed protests.

A minute or two later, the song finished, and they moved off the floor towards Hetoshi who noticed them very quickly.

"Ah, Daichi. So glad you could make it." Hetoshi greeted him with a smile and turned to Tsuki, who was standing next to him, looking innocently at a glimmering chandelier that was hanging from the ceiling. "And you must be Mizuki. I've heard a lot about you from Daichi."

Not missing a beat, the second her 'name' was said, Tsuki looked down and straight into Hetoshi's eyes, and smiled happily at him. "Yes. It's lovely to meet you, Hetoshi-dono. You have such a beautiful estate." she returned kindly and politely, still smiling even though she wanted to punch him in the face for how much his eyes were roaming over her figure.

"The pleasure is all mine, my dear. And please, just call me Hetoshi." he spoke as smoothly as he could and took a gentle hold of her hand before pressing a light kiss to the back of it, making 'Mizuki' smile and try to blush, and making Tsuki want to rip his head off for even touching her and for those thoughts that she could see passing behind his eyes.

The next song started, and Hetoshi turned to Daichi and asked him if he could dance with 'Mizuki', to which of course he accepted, and as much as Tsuki still wanted to rip his head off, she knew that there would be no other way to get close enough to him to find out whether he knew anything or not, so she'd just have to live with it for the moment.

Fortunately, he was very gentlemanly while they danced, and never let the hand on her waist drop and pull her closer to him than was necessary and she was incredibly glad for that. The song continued and he began to make small talk with her.

"So, Hetoshi. What kind of work do you and Daichi do?" she asked innocently, lacing her voice with as much sugar as L had in his coffee.

"He hasn't told you?" he answered with his own question, seeming a little surprised at her question.

"No, I'm not sure why, but it makes me worry about him." Tsuki said and down slightly with her brow pulled together, faking all these expressions perfectly.

"Well, we do weapons manufacturing and shipping." he replied, much easier than she expected, but glad that she could get that much from him so soon.

"Wow, and that's how you could afford this beautiful house and land? Maybe I should look into a similar line of work." she laughed at the end of her sentence, making Hetoshi smile, but she noticed straight away that it wasn't a genuine smile.

"No, it's really not that good. The money is wonderful, but I don't really like the people that I have to deal with sometimes." he admitted quietly and that seemed true.

"Whys that?" Tsuki looked at him with sympathetic blue eyes that she was sure just begged him to tell her everything.

"Being a weapons manufacturing company, you deal with large groups who are quite clearly hostile and want customised weaponry. I'd much rather get out of the business if I could." he continued, and again he seemed like he was telling the truth.

"Do you mean gangs? Like that Aka Sora that's been on the news?" she almost whispered, trying to sound truly worried and concerned.

"Y-yes, something like that. In fact, I'm quite sure that recently one of my clients that asked for customised weapons recently has been committing crimes."

She didn't understand how he seemed to feel remorse for his work, yet continue to do it. But right now, that wasn't the important thing. His suspicion level had went through the roof the very moment he had stuttered and his eyes had widened after she mentioned the Aka Sora. There was no denying it.

Hetoshi Kitaro was involved with the Aka Sora.

Well, well, well! It seems that our team may FINALLY have a lead on the Aka Sora!
I'm sorry I left you with a cliff-hanger, but I already had to cut out a few hundred words because I like to keep these chapters around 5,000 words each.
Either way, I'm sure that I'll be able to update soon enough to make sure you all don't go insane :P

Til next time!