Chapter 9: Confusion

'Unbelievable… I start out looking intelligent and then I fall to pieces in front of him! Babbling fool! Does he really suspect me of being KIRA? … better for him to think that I suppose, than for him to know the truth…' she thought as she slowly walked towards her hotel room. "There is no way I can call him Ryuzaki… that's just going to be…. Painful."

A loud sigh of relief came from her lips as she closed the door behind her. Not bothering to lock the door, she leaned against it and slowly allowed herself to fall to the floor… she tucked her knees into her chest and placed her arms around her legs.

'Maybe if I just don't address him at all... that may be best… less chance for me to slip up…'

'…then again, I wouldn't have to worry about slipping up if it wasn't for him in the first place… one person… just one person has altered my life so drastically it's ridiculous… if it wasn't for him, I'd still be the 4th greatest… no… I'm sure I would have beaten out the 3rd by now if I hadn't abandoned everything…'

She sat silent for a while until she finally whispered… "This is all his fault" before standing up and locking the door. She sighed 'No… it's not… I should have seen it! I shouldn't even be here… what happens if my scars are seen? I'm never going to be able to leave… he'll probably think I'm out for revenge or something absolutely absurd and lock me up forever… this is so dangerous…. Why did I agree to come here? God I have been so stupid lately!'

Still… she couldn't help but feel resentment towards L even if things weren't his fault.

Before turning around she wondered. 'Have I completely sabotaged myself here?'

She couldn't push away the next concern that crossed her mind '… or worse… have I put the greatest detective in harms way just by being here?'

By now she was standing at the window, she didn't even remember walking over to it. Looking out she sighed again. "What have I done?"

~ Flash to Ls hotel Room ~

"Ryuzaki, is everything alright?" He heard Watari's voice behind him, but didn't turn around. He kept his hand on the glass of the balcony window as he stared out.

"It's that girl"

"Oh?" A faint smirk could be heard in his voice, but he shrugged it off.

"… There's something… not right… something just doesn't fit with her. I can't put my finger on it…"

Watari waited for him to continue

"I originally began to think she could be KIRA…"

"Is that so? What makes her a KIRA suspect?"

"Her mood has changed recently, along with how she's treating others.. in the beginning she was quite serious, for some reason she is showing more emotion now…"

Watari softly laughed "I'm afraid you'll have to get used to women eventually Ryuzaki.. mood swings are quite normal for the female gender."

He glanced back at him and rolled his eyes before returning to the window. "Even so - she blatantly hid her true identity from everyone just to get on this case, she comes to conclusions as quick as I… which I haven't seen before… which doesn't make sense unless she had some in-depth prior detective history or she knows too much… which could only mean she is, or knows KIRA…. Her choice of seating was the closest to me during the meeting, and she showed no sign of intimidation… the others sat there like statues… but she… she actually got comfortable, even poured herself a cup of coffee… and when I brought her in here, she spoke to me at first, as if we were familiar with one another… it's all very strange"

"I can see why you would be suspicious, why have you let her go then?"

He sighed heavily as he put his hands in his pockets.

"Because nothing fits after what she told me… the suspicion is heavily based on how much she knows… and it seems that she is.. well, was, the 4th greatest detective at one point, and she didn't even try to cover it up after I accused her of hiding something."

"Really?'

He turned around, "Yes… but I am curious to know why she isn't STILL the 4th… no one has replaced her in that slot yet, and the first 3 still belong to me, so why is it that she refers to herself that way? No one has beaten her record, besides me of course… the slot is still hers if she is who she says."

"How close was she to beating the 3rd slot?"

"Last I checked, very close. Only about 100 cases away…"

"Both interesting and impressive I must say"

"…Indeed… but why has she chosen to come back… on this case nonetheless? If she considers herself retired, what is she doing here?... looking back at everything it just doesn't fit…. She doesn't make any sense to me… and she confuses me even more because she has repeatedly shown concern for me or supported my decisions while the others haven't"

Watari nodded his head to show he understood his frustration.

"And there's one other thing…"

"What's that Ryuzaki?"

He paused, returning to the window of the balcony and resisting the urge to say what he really wanted to…

"Do we have any strawberry shortcake left?"

Watari smiled and disappeared to retrieve some for him, but all he could think was

'Those damned eyes!'

Okay, so, super super SUPER freaking short chapter. Sorry : ( … but I wanted to show the aftermath of the meeting between the two, and I don't need 2000 words to do that. I got to say, I love how much Mishca is tweaking out :) I know, I'm terrible…. But at least shes tweaking out internally so she doesn't look like a total crazy person to the team :)

Hopefully L is believable… he has no idea what to think of her at this point and it's driving him nuts :) He's clueless to why he keeps thinking of her eyes and wants an answer, but doesn't let himself ask Watari what it could be… makes me excited to write more… : )

Let me know if you're enjoying the story : )