A/N: … Please don't kill me. I don't have free time anymore you know, and when I have it, I use it to talk to friends I see less because of my time-consuming school, and my part-time job.

Besides that there have been exchange programs, a trip to Budapest and tests and reports and blahblahblah .

But now, I have time for writing ^^

Lately, I have been addicted to listening to the song Nobody's Wife, by Anouk. Are there any others out there that share this?

joselive: Ahahaha don't explode like that! You'll miss the end, you know ; )

Maiannaise: Well, the second Kira is going to appear in the next chapter. I had already written this lot and adding the second Kira would take a bit too much time since I figured it was best to update as soon as possible. And thank you sooo much ^^

: Sarryyy, I did it again :(

delahwly: Thank youu, and you may have some more now hahaha. I like your username by the way!

DeadlyShadows-KuroOni: Thank youuu, your review made me realize I had to update again, because I have neglected fanfiction for wayyy to long. Enjoy the new chapter!

Ace of Hearts

Two days passed since he had kissed her and they had finally found the criminal. Their job was now to bring him to castle Araluen. On their way back, they decided to sleep in a monastery, in case the criminal would escape, he would be held back by a strong acquaintance of Halt. Myuna didn't really like the thought of them sleeping there. She preferred the open starry sky above the building with men, who didn't try to hide the fact that they thought a female ranger to be extremely vulgar. Surrounded as she was by all these men, Myuna was surprised when she saw the beautiful girl walking through the hall.

She was tall and slim, had golden hair and green eyes in an oval shaped face. She was wearing a brown, plain dress that somehow emphasized how extraordinary she was. Myuna was shocked when she saw her. She was sure she had seen her somewhere before, although she didn't know when. The girl raised an eyebrow when she saw Myuna staring at her.

'Kan je het zien?' *Can you see it?

Myuna was shocked to hear the girl talk to her in her mother tongue. And that she made such a rude, typical remark.

'Nee, maar ik kan het wel horen.' *No but I can hear it. Now it was the girls turn to be surprised.

'I didn't know Dutch is a language that exists here.' She said in Dutch.

'As far as I know, it isn't.' Myuna replied. She was so confused that she almost wished she had never met the girl. But now she really wanted to know what was going on.

'Are you a Vaastra?' The girl asked.

'Whoever those people are, no.'

'What's your name, then?' The girl said impatiently.

'Myuna Lewis.' The girls eyes widened.

'Oh my god.'

'What do you mean 'oh my god'? And what's your name anyway?'

'Meranda van Bohemen.' Meranda van Bohemen. The old grumpy lady that had desperately tried to make a lady out of her. The woman that wanted her to wear old frilly summer dresses in the summer. The one that was proud of her, whatever she did. And she was to believe that that woman was this young girl, that resembled her so much in her behaviour?

'Myuna, he isn't in the room anymore, he must have escaped!' Myuna shook her head, as if it could make everthing go away. After that, she grabbed her knife.

'I'm coming!'

When she ran away as fast as she could, a small, yellow paper with a red heart, somehow escaped from her cloak and fell on the ground. The young Meranda van Bohemen picked it up and stared at it in wonder. It was one of those cards they use to play solitaire. Meranda took a closer look. It was the card Ace of Hearts.

'Jade-chan?' I sighed.

'What is it now, L?'

'Please call me Ryuzaki.'

'Please call me Jade. When did you start calling me Jade-chan again?'

'When I prevented you from falling.'

'Oh, yeah.' Why did he have to remind me of that?

'Jade-chan, you told me that you already knew Light Yagami, yet he acted as if it was the first time he was actually spoken to you. Am I correct if I deduce that the two of you haven't interacted before you threatened him?' I grimaced.

'Yes, that's true.'

'Yet, you seem to ... have an extreme dislike towards him.'

'I hate him with all my heart.'

'Then, that emotion has formed itself pretty quick.' L remarked. Pfft the guy was being awfully cautious with me today. I sighed.

'It was hate at first sight.'

'Yet so bad that you wanted to throw a knife at his throat?'

'I didn't actually throw it.'

L sighed. 'Jade-chan. The only reason you are with the task force is the fact that you might have valuable clues for the case. If you don't share anything with us anytime soon, I'll be forced to hand you out to the police.' Oh wow he suddenly got threatening.

'Hand me out? Don't talk about me like I'm some kind of object! And I did give you a clue, the bus-jacking, remember?'

'Unfortunately, I found very little information on that. It could be that the criminal was murdered by Kira, but that was about all the witnesses could remember. Also, Light Yagami's talk with Naomi Misora is not enough proof. There must be other knowledge which you could provide.' He gave me a calculative look.

'There is… but most of that wouldn't make sense right now. Just… don't forget what I told you.' I didn't know how I was going to help L. I didn't know how I could get evidence. I felt so stupid and helpless but the truth was… right now, I couldn't do anything.

'Is Light Yagami Kira?'

'You'll have to find that out yourself for now, all right? I really want to help you but right now I just can't! I don't want you to get the wrong idea about me, okay? I might be a murderer. I might be stupid, but I am not a supporter of what Kira does. I just don't want you to use me like some pawn in your game, okay? I don't want you to have… some sort of control over me.'

I already felt like that more than enough times. I was in a story. A story written by someone who had all the characters in his power. And after all these years, I had the idea that I too, was nothing less than ink and paper. Even though everything seemed so real.

'I understand. I shall try to be patient but you have been warned. I am not uncomfortable working with a murderer, although there is no proof on that except for your confession, which has been recorded. I will investigate that case later…' He got a chocolate out of his pocket and chewed on it.

'I do like to be in control, Jade-chan. Unfortunately, I seem to have absolutely no control over you.' I smiled.

'And you don't seem to like it one bit.' He didn't answer. Instead he lasted chewing on the chocolate for the entire car ride.

I sat down in my hotel room. It felt good to finally be alone without any know-it-all's or grumbling afro-haired police officers. God, I needed a break, even the Ranger's Apprentice universe hadn't been this tiring. And that was the very universe that had made me kill people. Don't think about that anymore today.

There were other things that really needed my precious thinking time.

Alright, let's start from starch. Again. When I was thirteen years old I was addicted to a certain book, that I had found in the private library at home. I fell asleep while reading it and woke up in its world. Every time I die in a fictional world I appear in another. When that happens the last thing I see are blue flames.

And those blue flames had also appeared when I had dreamt about the King of Spades. I was certain L would remind me of that after some time. That was probably one of the reasons for suspecting me of knowing more about the Kira case. Everyone knew there was something totally screwed up about me.

And then there is Meranda, my grandma. I need to find a way to get in contact with her. Wherever she is . Light knows where she is and that she is related to me. Meranda must have been using her real name in that case. Because of my stupid alias he was able to make the connection. I don't even know who told Light my name before I did. Because before I introduced myself to him he already had the picture of my grandma with him to throw it my face. Though he didn't even know he would meet me, or did he? Then who told him? What if… what if there was someone else on his side.

Oh fuck, that was something I also definitely shouldn't think about right now. It was already bad enough that Misa Amane would join him in the future.

But how can I contact Meranda? I don't know where she lives and I can't follow Light around. I can't exactly just leave this building whenever I want. If I had my cloak. I would have a chance but L has hidden it… somewhere.

That cloak was my chance. I had to somehow find it. There was a chance it wasn't even in the building but I had to at least investigate that further. My grandma's safety and possibly her life depended on it.

No police officer was present. Only L. Watari was probably out doing some errand for L. I had hardly spoken to him at all.

Alright L, it's between you and me now.

I went to the closet in my room and picked out that terrible white sweater with some kawaii-ish sort of polar bear on it. It was very fluffy and sweet. But it was also very comfy. But most importantly, it had the exact same colour as most of the furniture in the hall. And it had a hoodie, the thing a true ranger must never forget. Except for coffee.

Oh, Halt would have been so proud.

I opened the door that would lead me to the hall. I did it fast, so that if the door would creak, it wouldn't last long. I sighed when I saw that the floor. It was one of those solid, shiny ones. The ones that make the sound of high heels last forever. Thank god I was at least able to use my soft leather ranger boots. I looked around. No visible camera's. It was a pity Halt had never taught me about that. And that I didn't have one of those handy shinigami to search for them. There were shadows in the room tough. And with shadows, I could create illusions. But if I would fail, everything would look weird.

I pulled my hoodie over my eyes and lay down on my abdomen. I crawled to the next shadow spot and pushed myself forward on my feet to the next one. If I would have been outside, I would have been obliged to do everything much faster. Thank god the situation inside wasn't as irregular as the one in the woods of Araluen. Although, if L was watching me right now, I still had to be very careful.

In the next few hours. I crawled, jumped an ran the hell out of myself. I didn't find anything on the floor of my room. Kinda obvious, I know but maybe L was one of those geniuses that hid things were you didn't expect to find them. He did things you didn't expect all the time.

We weren't at the point in the story with the whole headquarters yet, we still switched hotels sometimes but L didn't neglect it to just keep whole floors to himself…and me.

I was now forced to go investigate his floor. I decided to take the stairs. I hadn't had much time to train myself lately, and a true ranger never stopped practicing. So I climbed the stairs using the same technique as I did earlier.

There was no cloak to be found in any of the chambers. I knew it had to be somewhere else then but I didn't know how I would find it. At all. And I felt miserable about it. But then again, how would I even find my grandma anyway? I sighed and sat down on the floor. Still in a shadow spot.

I knew she somehow had this strange power to come to fictional worlds as well. I knew that but I didn't think that through. I had done that already, for a long time and it had honestly driven me nuts. To me, everything seemed a bit like a dream, or a game. Not completely but for a big part. I mean, if I would die, I wouldn't even actually die. I would just leave people behind who thought I died. I mean, Halt, Gilan, Horace and all the others I had met. They all thought I was dead. And that somehow made me feel even worse than thinking about my family, because for the past four years, they had been my family.

'Jade-chan shouldn't sit still if she doesn't want anyone to discover that she is trying to find her cloak back.'

I had been so absorbed in my thoughts that the deep voice I heard behind me made me react instinctively. I turned around and kicked L –who else would be such a creeper- in the stomach. My eyes grew big when I realised what I was doing. I didn't apologise though. I wasn't really the kind of person to apologise. Then again, so was L. The former was now looking at me like an offended panda, while standing completely still.

'You caught me of guard.' I said, as some sort of excuse.

'Well, you still seem rather… guarded.' His voice sounded muffled somehow. Had I seriously hurt him?

'Still, whatever the reason-' Oh shit. I quickly remembered the fighting scene in Death Note. And tried to make a run for it.

'Yeah, an eye for an eye and all that shit. Bye!' I felt something clenching my wrist. It was a hand, a very large hand with thin, long fingers. Still, it felt more like a handcuff. L's grip was very strong.

'I am not very fond of being interrupted.'

'Oh girl, how awful.' I shouldn't have said that. That was pushing it way too far. Still, I couldn't help it. It was always in the dangerous situations when I went overboard. Just like when Light tried to kill Naomi. Or when I was almost killed in Araluen.

'You make the strangest remarks sometimes. I do not seem to truly understand you at all.' I cautiously turned around, looking him right in the ink black eyes. They only showed genuine confusion.

'That's something to hear form the world's greatest detective. But I could say the same about you. Sometimes, you seem to genuinely care about me. At those moments, I almost feel like we are friends. Just to give me the cold shoulder again after that. I just… I just really don't get why you keep doing that. I have worries enough on my mind right now. In the beginning, I thought that I could trust you, but you keep being bipolar towards me. You tried to manipulate me even, to get details about the Kira case. Hell, you're probably even doing that right now!'

L slowly let go of my wrist. He stared at the ground. He scuffed with his feat. I knew he was twenty five years old, but he looked like a little kid that just had gotten a lecture.

'My concern… to be honest I myself am not secure of what my concern for you truly is. I admit that I did try to manipulate you, in the belief it would help the Kira case. I realise it was wrong. And I apologise.'

He already had known from the beginning. Of course he had. And I hated him for it. It made me want to kick him again. Yet, seeing him standing there like that made me change my mind.

'The day at the university… and the tennis match, was all of that fake as well?'

'I do not recall exactly what phoney and what was not. Although I can say for sure that giving you your cloak back was a part of the plan.' That made me smile, for some reason. I didn't always like L but I did like 'Ryuga'.

'Then, how about I become your first friend?' It had always bugged me that L's only friends had been two psycho killers. And that his first friend would kill him eventually. I held out my hand. L slowly looked up.

'You are not considering to impinge my abdomen?' I smiled.

'I didn't say that… but I won't do it now, if you'll shake my hand already. You really don't have any experience with human contact, do you?' He reluctantly took my hand and shook it briefly.

'There haven't particularly occurred many occasions which obligated me to experience that.'

'Whatever, let's move upstairs, I'm tired of these corridors.'

'I can imagine. You have crawled for exactly two hours, forty minutes and thirty seconds.' I raised an eyebrow.

'I see you aren't only OCD with percentages. And how did you notice what I was doing anyway?'

'Anyone else wouldn't have noticed. I just happen to have had experiences with master thieves.' I nodded. That was actually quite logical. I was not going to ask him how he knew that I had been searching for my cloak. He was the world's greatest detective after all. Suddenly I felt so stupid. If he was the world's greatest detective, why didn't I just ask him for help? Sure, it took some pride to swallow, but was all for my grandma. He was my friend after all now, right?

'Ryuzaki, I have to show you something.' He frowned when he heard that I was saying his name without any weird suffix.

'I thought you were determined to continue to call me Ryuzaki-tan until I would stop calling you Jade-chan.' I shrugged.

'Well, if you insist.'

L was sitting in a giant armchair in his usual position. Studying the picture. I was sitting on a nearby couch. I didn't know L that well, personally, I mean. I had watched him countless times, on the screen of my computer and on the paper of the Death Note manga. Occasionally joined by my best friend Diederik. Still, when I saw him there, sitting like that, I felt relieved, as if him sitting like that in that armchair could make up for four months of worrying.

It partially scared me to feel that way. It was a way of making myself vulnerable and I really didn't need that right now.

'It is not evident that this is a threat. Still, if something occurs, it will be valuable evidence.' I groaned impatiently.

'I want to find my grandmother as soon as possible.' L nodded curtly.

'That can be arranged.' He picked up one of the various laptops on the table.

'Watari. I'll need you to take a picture to forensics, and to research Meranda van Bohemen.'

'Right away.' Was Watari's brief answer from the other line. When L clicked Watari away, I stood up from the couch. L had apologised today, and for a creature like him, that was a great deal. I felt like I had to loosen up and swallow my pride a little bit more.

'Ryuzaki-tan?' L didn't frown like he normally did when he heard the nickname. No, it was more like he was relieved to hear it again.

'Yes, Jade-chan?'

'Thank you.'

That night, I slept very long and it was the first time in a while that I didn't have any nightmares. That was strange, though. With all the memories of brutal murders I had expected them to last all night.

I took a long shower that morning, to avoid the daily dilemma in my life in Death Note. Which one of the clothes that Watari had bought for me was the least ridiculous?

I had already made a selection of the things I could use: yellow sweater with a sheep, a blue shirt with a moustache, a sweater with a unicorn and rainbows and last but not least, a dark blue frilly sailor-ish dress that reminded me of the one I was forced to wear by my grandma once. At least Watari had thought of buying me a huge collection jeans. Most of them had holes in them, also something I liked. I choose to wear the sweater with the sheep and a jeans with a very light blue colour. I knew what was coming today. The second Kira, aka Misa Amane. She already knew my name but at least she didn't know I was on L's side yet.

I thought of Ukita, the one that wouldn't survive today. I had to try to save him, and not mess up like I did with Naomi. Luckily for me, I had thought ahead.

When I got downstairs, I walked in the way I always did in Araluen. Soft and silent. It was something I usually did when I didn't pay attention. One of the few things that I had obtained from Araluen that would actually last.

'There is no data on her. None at all, Jade van Bohemen doesn't seem to exist, though there is someone in Japan whose name is Meranda van Bohemen and she is also Dutch.' Oh, so they were gossiping now, huh? That had been Aizawa's voice.

'Aizawa, you make Jade sound like some scary criminal. But she really is a good person, you know.' That, of course, was my loyal friend Matsuda.

'Actually, Aizawa has a good point. Although it is hard to believe Jade would truly commit a crime out of her own free will, because she seems sensible enough not to do so. However, she did say that she would go so far as to kill someone for self-defence.' That was L's deep voice speaking.

'But that's a very logical thing to do!' Matsuda objected.

'Matsuda, a crime is a crime, no matter the circumstances. Jade van Bohemen has confessed to have killed people. If I find any evidence that confirms this, I will be obliged to imprison her.' I wasn't surprised at that exclamation. L had already told me this. Although we were friends now, it was obvious that friendship wouldn't make the world's greatest detective back off. Besides, I wished him luck on finding evidence. All the people I had killed lived in another world.

However, I wouldn't let this little tête à tête go unpunished. They hadn't heard me coming, though I wasn't so sure about L. I, as I had done before, kicked the door open.

'Good morning everyone, I hope I didn't disturb a lovely conversation?' I gave them a big grin. L was sitting in the same chair as last night. A plate with cake and a cup of coffee with a huge amount of sugar was placed in front of him. I got nauseous at only the thought of eating it. Except for honey, I wasn't really a fan of sweet food.

Matsuda, with a look of horror on his face, was sitting next to Ukita, who only seemed a little amused. He wasn't really someone I had talked to. I knew he could die and if I had formed a bond with him, it would only make things harder.

Aizawa's face only showed annoyance.

'We were just talking about you.' He said.

'How honoured I feel.' I snarled.

'Jade-chan, please refrain from arguing with Aizawa and take a seat. We need your opinion on the next topic.' I glared at him.

'Yeah, just spit at me behind my back until you need me.'

'None of us has ever 'spit at you' we were just discussing important pieces of information that might even be valuable for the Kira case. '

'That is the same thing.' I said, before I squeezed myself between Ukita and Matsuda. I knocked the latter on the shoulder.

'I heard you saying very kind things about me though. You're a really good friend. Unlike someone else I know.' Bastard started being stupid again after we had become friends. Whenever he did one kind thing, he just had to erase it again by a bunch of annoying actions.

L ignored my references on his account. Ukita changed the topic.

'As for Naomi Misora, the only lead we have is the hotel employee's statement that she hasn't been back since late at night on December 27. Isn't it about time we started an official search? There's a limit to how much we can find out with just a couple people asking around.' I had always found it very frustrating that Naomi Misora hadn't been able to tell her tale, however, I couldn't provide them with her information. I would only make myself very suspicious.

'So if we open an official investigation, we should keep quiet about the Kira angle and release only sketches of her, not photos.'

'Kira might be able to find photos of her anyway, even if you don't release them.' I commented, my paranoia I had developed during my time in fictional worlds showing.

'Man this is really hard. If we don't tie it to the Kira case, people won't be interested. But if we do . They'll be interested all right but they won't get involved because they're afraid of Kira.' Ukita said.

I tuned out after that. I knew Watari was coming soon, and it would all start after that. L had assured me last night that he would do everything in his power to save Ukita's life but would it be enough? Did I have the power to change a story, or did some things just happen because they had to happen? I had never really changed everything in the first story I had reached, and the books about the rangers I had never even read.

However, it was too late to think about that now, because a grey-haired man in a suit burst into the room.

'Ryuzaki!'

'And you are sure she cannot be persuaded for my case?' The brown-haired boy said.

'Not if I know her very well.' He was blond, tall and self-assured. He had the air of someone who could have been a very kind and noble young man but when you looked in his eyes and saw the maniacal glint, you knew that it was nevermore possible for him to become who he had been.

'And why again can't you provide me the information?' Light Yagami asked.

'I didn't see the end. I can't say what will happen to you. I already…' He grabbed Light's desk. His arms were trembling and so was the rest of his body.

'Go on,' Light said, unaffected.

'I already disappeared around that time.' Light nodded.

'That is a pity for me. It is good that you are here to win her over. Now, please tell me your name, in order to close the deal.' The boy nodded. In order to reach the goal he had , he had agreed to make this deal with Light Yagami. They would help each other get rid of that girl and build a new world. If he would ever betray Light – he would never do so- the boy would kill him.

'My name is Diederik Vaastra.'