A/N: Alright, Part Fourteen is finally up!

Just to let you know, this changes from Adelynn's view to L's somewhere in the middle.

Keep in mind that Adelynn's view is always in first person, and L's is always going to be in third person.

Hope you like it!

Part Fourteen – Death of a Manager

"A meeting?" asked Chief Yagami, and L nodded.

"Yes… I suppose that would be the best course of action. It would have to be here at headquarters. That way we can monitor what's going on, and also keep an eye on all of the Yotsuba members." He finished his sentence and stared thoughtfully at the empty teacup before him. "And from there we can see how much of a threat they are to us."

I had been half-asleep at the desk when Matsuda had called L's emergency cell phone. He had just gotten Misa and himself out of an introductory meeting with Yotsuba, and they were interested in having her in their next commercial. To further things, Matsuda had also offered to have another meeting with them tonight. I wondered how this would get Matsuda and Misa out of danger, but thought better of questioning the detective.

I listened interestedly to their plans for tonight, and sat up as a thought popped into my head, "Ryuzaki-san, do you think I'd be able to help with the meeting tonight?"

He didn't say anything for a moment, but then said, "It would be too dangerous, Adelynn."

I glared at him. "Misa-chan is in danger too."

He sighed, then said reluctantly, "If you're willing to take that risk…"

I grinned, "I've got nothing better to do." No one replied, and I stood up and stretched, "So… when Misa gets back we'll discuss what to do, right?" I asked, and he nodded. I began walking towards the exit to head to my room.

"You're sure you want to do this, Adelynn?" L asked, and I turned back towards him.

"If Misa can get herself out of a situation like this, then I sure as Hell can, too."

He smirked, and I knew that I'd won.

*******

"Misa!" I whined, "You have got to be kidding me!" I stepped out of the model's large closet and pointed at my reflection in the mirror.

"What?" she asked dubiously, "I see nothing wrong with that outfit. You look gorgeous!"

I gaped at her, "I don't know how you put up with this thing! It's so... revealing." Misa snickered at my response.

To be able to help out with their meeting with Yotsuba, I had to dress as Misa would. I regretted ever volunteering now as I glanced at myself in the mirror. The black dress she'd lent me was shorter than anything I'd ever owned in my life, and was sleeveless with a very-low cut, lacy top. I looked at myself in disgust once more, then turned to Misa, who was applying thick black eyeliner to her already dark eyes.

"Misa." I said firmly, "I can not wear this. I will not wear this." I turned on my heel stubbornly and began marching back towards her closet. As I knew she would, Misa grabbed my arm and dragged me to the couch farthest away from it.

"Now," she said patiently, "You will stay here. You're the one who volunteered for this." I stuck my tongue out at her and she sighed, now impatient, "Look. Matsuda needs you and Misa to get him off the hook. Do you want him dead?" She had both of her hands on my shoulders, holding me down, and I had no choice but to glare at her darkly.

"No." I said stubbornly. Misa released my shoulder, satisfied that I was finally giving in, and walked to her desk, which was littered with different make-up supplies. I folded my arms across my chest and turned away from her as she gathered an armful of make-up and sat next to me on the couch.

Misa sighed, frustrated, and said, "Turn around, Adelynn." I stayed still as stone, knowing that I was fighting a losing battle. "Even if I have to knock you out to get you ready for this meeting, I'll do it." I noted how she hadn't referred to herself in the third person, and rolled my eyes. Now she was getting serious.

I turned around slowly, giving her the best evil glare I could. She smiled back, delighted that she wouldn't have to attack me, and began 'painting' my face.

Several minutes later, Misa got up and squealed excitedly. "Oh! You look adorable!" I sighed half-heartedly and stood up. Ignoring Misa's constant babbling, I crossed over to the mirror to assess the damage.

I was prepared for the worst when I first glanced at the full-length mirror, but was genuinely surprised at what I actually saw. I looked completely different, but not in a bad way. Instead of seeing the average-looking girl I had always perceived, I saw a tall beauty. For once I had curves to show off, and I was shocked by it. My normally non-existent self esteem was kicked up a notch. I reached up and touched my face. 'Is this really me?' I thought, and heard Misa clear her throat pointedly.

"Well," she said expectantly, "What do you think?" I had no words to describe what I felt, and turned to her.

"Weird." I stated, and she huffed in irritation at my stubborn composure.

"You look beautiful, and you know it." She pouted childishly, "And it was all because of Misa-Misa!" She made a peace sign and struck a ridiculous pose. I laughed outright at how idiotic it looked, and she glared at me. "Just because you're unappreciative of Misa's hard work doesn't mean that they will be."

I froze. "They?" In response, Misa rolled her eyes.

"Even though it may not seem like it sometimes, we do live with full-grown men. And they will notice these kinds of things."

I stared at her incredulously, "I don't think so." Turning on my heel, I began walking briskly to her bathroom door.

"Where are you going?" She demanded, and I smirked.

"To fix my face," I stated simply, "And you can't stop me." I reached the door and twisted the handle.

"But... didn't you want to impress Ryuzaki?"

Once again I froze, and then turned to face her.

"Excuse me?"

She had a smug smirk on her face as she said, "Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. Misa has seen you staring at Ryuuzaki. You can't take your eyes off of him."

I wasn't sure what my face was showing at the moment, but Misa certainly seemed to enjoy it. She giggled girlishly and pointed at me.

"You're blushing." She taunted. I turned my face away from her. "You like Ryuzaki!"

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said curtly, and stepped into her bathroom, locking the door behind me.

"Don't worry!" Misa yelled outside of the door, "I won't tell anyone; not even Light!"

I groaned. What a nightmare.

*******

I cringed at the thought of wearing heels. I had a feeling that I would trip and fall at any moment whenever I wore them. I walked out of the bathroom slowly, meeting Misa outside of it, grimacing as she rummaged through a duffel bag full of shoes. "Even if I did like Ryuuzaki, he wouldn't notice me. He's too…" I didn't finish my sentence. I didn't even know myself how to describe him, and 'exceedingly adorable' wouldn't be the best way to lead Misa off the subject.

"Sure he would," she said distractedly, "Just be yourself and he'll see you soon enough." I stared at her as I processed this. Soon enough wasn't… soon enough. I wanted to be able to actually talk to him, not stare at my feet whenever I was near him.

She handed me a pair of black high heeled shoes, and smiled at me brightly. I smiled half-heartedly back, but really wanted to turn and run. But I knew I couldn't do that; Misa might tackle me as she had threatened earlier.

We both walked down to the lobby, Misa chattering excitedly about her shot at being in the new Yotsuba commercial, and me staring down at the floor wordlessly. The dress Misa had lent me swished uncomfortably as I walked awkwardly down the hallway. What was I getting myself into? I sighed and entered through the double doors into the spacious lobby.

Chief Yagami and Mogi weren't present at the time we got there; it was only Light and L sitting in the same places they always were.

I stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, feeling not for the first time that I wanted to disappear. Misa huffed in irritation and yelled, "Hello?" Light turned around in his chair, but L stayed in place.

Light grinned, "Hello, Misa. Adelynn. Ryuuzaki and I were just discussing the plan for tonight's meeting. I see you're both ready."

Misa nodded excitedly, "Yes, and Misa got Adelynn-chan to finally wear make-up! Doesn't she look so much better?"
I glared at her and mumbled, "I wear eyeliner… sometimes…"

"Oh, hush. Stop being so stubborn, Adelynn." She chided, and I rolled my eyes. "What do you think, Ryuuzaki" Misa asked, and I saw as she grinned mischievously at me, and then turned to him expectantly.

"Yes, what doyou think, Ryuuzaki?" Light asked, smirking devilishly at him. Had I missed something?

He halfway turned around and glanced quickly at me. "Yes, I suppose she does look quite nice…" he muttered, and turned back to his laptop.

Misa glared at him, and I gave her an 'I told you so,' look. She rolled her eyes at me. There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment, and then Light stood up.

"We'll be watching the meeting from in here; since, for obvious reasons, we can't be up there ourselves."

Misa and I nodded in agreement, and he continued, "It will be dangerous, but it's the only way we can get Matsuda out of this alive. So…don't do anything stupid." He looked at Misa when he said this, and I held back a laugh.

"Oh, don't worry, Light-kun, Misa and Adelynn-chan will stay safe!" Misa squealed, and I nodded my head to show I understood. Light checked his watch, and said,

"They'll be arriving in a half hour; so I'd advise you both to go up to the meeting room, in case they're early. Watari-san will show them the way up." Once again, Misa and I nodded, and we both turned to go.

"Be careful, please." L said quietly, "Both of you."

*******

I looked around the room at the Yotsuba employees. None of them really looked sinister on the surface; but then again, the real Kira would have to be a good actor. Misa was sitting on one of the couches in the middle of the room, a slightly disgruntled look upon her face. There was a middle-aged man sitting in very close proximity to her, with his arm slung around her shoulders. She looked as if she were trying to get away from him without being rude, but was failing miserably. I felt sorry for her, and decided to help her out.

I crossed over to the couch across from Misa and the red-headed man, and smiled widely at the young model. She instantly looked relieved, and smiled back.

"Misa-chan, could I have a word with you?" I looked apologetically to the man beside her, "I'm sorry, Mr.-?"

"Higuchi." He added, and smirked at me. I watched and squirmed uncomfortably as his eyes travelled from my face to the rest of my body, shamelessly coming to a rest where my dress cut off on my thighs. I resisted the overwhelming urge to slap the lecherous man, and instead got up and grabbed Misa's arm. I dragged her to the wall farthest away from him. She sighed happily, "Thanks for getting me away from him. He's been asking for my number the whole night, but I've only given him my email so far."

I nodded thoughtfully, a plan forming in my mind. "Misa… do you really think Kira is among the people in here?"

She looked around the room thoughtfully, and nodded. "Yes. If Light-kun thinks he is, then Misa does too!"

I grinned mischievously, "So do you also think that we should try and get information out of them, by any means possible?"

"Light-kun and Ryuzaki-san said that this was just a meeting to help Matsuda to get out of trouble…"

"But if we find out who Kira is, then won't it make Light happy?"

"Yes, it would…"

"So why not try and speed things up now?"

Misa sighed, "Misa only does what Light-kun tells her to do." She looked at me quizzically, "Adelynn-chan, what are you up to?"

I smirked, "Just a bit of investigative work."

"Well, Misa can't stop you from doing anything. But be careful." She chided, and I nodded. She turned on her heel and went to talk to another member of Yotsuba. I looked back to the couch where the lecherous man had been, but saw that he had now moved to a wall farthest away from the rest of the people.

I took a deep breath, then let it out slowly, feeling disgusted with myself. I walked slowly to the lone man, keeping my eyes trained on his face. He didn't notice me walking over until I was almost there, but when he did he smirked and appraised me once again with his eyes. 'Well, here goes nothing…' I thought, and smiled back seductively.

****

L's hands tightened impulsively on his knees as he watched Adelynn and Higuchi on the screen before him. She reached up and rubbed Higuchi's shoulder playfully, and a wave of fury coursed through him. He was caught off guard by his own reaction. This wasn't like him, not at all. He pried his eyes away from the screen, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. What was she doing? She wasn't sticking to the plan! He'd specifically told Misa and Adelynn to keep a low profile; this was the only way to save Matsuda. And now she was ruining their hard work, by fraternizing with the enemy! She'd put Matsuda in even greater danger with the way things were going now.

He glanced once more at the screen, and saw as the despicable man she was with looped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him. She smirked alluringly and said something to him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

A fresh wave of fury hit him, and he winced as his nails dug painfully into his knees. 'The plan, Adelynn, stick to the plan!' he thought angrily. He ignored the silent nagging in the back of his mind that was telling him that maybe he wasn't only concerned for the plan…

He removed one of his hands from his knees and brought it up to his mouth, chewing on the nail thoughtfully. 'No…' he told himself, 'your only priority is to get the three of them out of this situation alive.' He repeated this over and over to himself, all the while fighting the impulse to run up to the meeting and rip Higuchi to shreds.

He wished that he could hear what they were both saying; but the only speaker was plugged in to the biggest screen, not the small one that no one but him was paying attention to.

He detached his furious gaze from the smaller screen to the bigger one, and noted that Matsuda was making his exit to the front of the room. He stopped at the door and rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Well, I, uh, I'm heading to the bathroom. Please excuse me." He announced, and walked at a fast pace down the hallway.

Adelynn, in the meantime, seemed to have moved even closer to the lecherous man; tangling one hand in his hair, and her face dangerously close to his. He was talking animatedly to her now, a mischievous smirk on his face. Just as she began replying back to him, L was startled out of his reverie by his emergency cell phone going off right next to him. He shook his head, clearing it of the absurdly out-of-character thoughts it had been perusing, and pressed the talk button.

"Ryuzaki, are you watching?" Matsuda said hurriedly, and L noted that he was hiding in one of the bathroom stalls down the hallway from the meeting room.

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, I-"

"That doesn't matter right now."

"Right. Those eight were in a meeting about murdering, by using Kira. It's them, I know it for sure."

L nodded thoughtfully, "You're sure… then I'm certain that they will try to kill you." There was a tense moment of silence, and then Matsuda sighed.

"Ah, I knew it. Is there anyway that I can get myself out of this alive?"

"We're lucky that they let you live this long. I believe the only thing you can do is… kill yourself, before they kill you."

*******

My plan had been working perfectly so far. At the rate I'd been working, this disgusting pig of a man was willing to tell me anything. I giggled girlishly and smiled alluringly, "I like a man with power…" I said, continuing a conversation that we'd been having off in the secluded corner.

He smirked, an excited light dancing in his eyes, "I have more power than you could ever imagine."

'What a pig,' I thought disgustedly, and ran a hand through his red hair. "Oh, yeah? How so?" I asked. He grinned expectantly and began to say something when the front door to the room was kicked open, and Matsuda barged in, tripping over his own feet as if he were drunk. Higuchi released my waist.

'Damn it, Matsuda!' I thought resentfully, 'I was just getting somewhere…'

Matsuda drunkenly stumbled to the back of the huge meeting room, and clapped his hands. "Ah that was good, good feels so good..." He laughed insanely and opened the sliding glass door leading to the patio. "Hello everyone! I will do something fun. Watch this! It'll be fun!"

He then proceeded to stand up on the ledge, balancing despite his intoxicated demeanor. I stepped away from Higuchi and walked over to Misa, who was watching him with interest. "Now everyone, thanks for waiting! This is Matsui Show-Time!"

He began walking on the ledge, periodically doing little leaps and laughing stupidly.

"Wooo! Matsui, go for it!" Misa yelled, clapping her hands excitedly. I gaped at her. What the Hell was Matsuda doing? He'd get killed! And she's encouraging it?

"Aha, here I go!" Matsuda yelled, and bent down to touch his toes. He then kicked his feet up in the air, doing a handstand on the narrow ledge. He was swaying dangerously back and forth, grinning like an idiot.

"Matsui!" I yelled desperately, "Stop that! It's dangerous!"

Matsuda giggled in response, "Oh, don't worry, I do this all the time!"

Everyone gasped as he lifted one hand up and waved slightly at all of us and grinned. The people in the meeting all shouted warnings at him, and he just shrugged them off, telling them not to worry. After a few seconds I had had enough of his drunken nonsense, and began walking hurriedly towards him. "Matsui, stop! You'll fall, you idiot!"

I had gotten halfway to the ledge when he yelled, "It'll be fine!" and began walking forward on his hands. His left hand slipped, and everyone screamed as he fell off the ledge, towards the street below. There was a sickening thudding sound as his body hit the ground, and then dead silence.

"Matsui!" I shrieked, and ran to peer over the ledge. His body was sprawled on the street below, and I felt my head spin.

'Not Matsuda…' I thought, and then heard a woman screaming at the sight of his dead body. The members of the meeting had all gathered behind me, peering over the ledge as I had done.

"This is bad…" muttered one of the Yotsuba employees, "We shouldn't be here!"

"Everyone, please leave fast. Leave it all to us!" Misa said authoritatively, and the man looked back at her.

"What? Are you sure?"

"It's fine." She said calmly, "Just think about our offer, okay?"

I looked at her incredulously. One of our friends had just fallen to his death, and the only thing she was worried about was her commercial?

"Uh, alright." He replied nervously, then ordered the others in the room, "Fast! Let's leave! It wouldn't be good if they caught us here…"

Everyone except Misa and I exited the room.

I stood at the ledge and watched as a crowd of people gathered around Matsuda's dead body. An ambulance drove up quickly and loaded his body onto a stretcher, then drove off quickly down the road. So that was it...? Matsuda's… dead? My knees began to tremble as my head began spinning even more rapidly, and I sunk to the floor. 'No, no, no!' I kept repeating in my mind. 'This can't be happening! Not Matsuda…"

Misa walked up to me and laid a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to her, and she had a wide grin on her face. "We did it." She said triumphantly, and I stared at her, shocked.

"What the Hell do you mean? Matsuda's dead. We weren't able to save him…" Tears pooled up in my eyes and I rested my head on my knees, trying to blink them away.

"Oh, Adelynn-chan. That was all planned! Matsuda's not dead; he's down in the lobby."

"What?" I said darkly, and looked up at her. "That's not possible. I saw his body on the ground… and the ambulance just came. Everyone saw him fall." I figured she might be in denial. She was grinning even more now, and I could tell that she'd been bursting to tell me something the whole time.

"That was Aiber, dressed up as Matsuda! Light-kun and Ryuzaki-san had it all planned out from the beginning! They were the ones who drove away with the ambulance, and the lady who screamed was Wedy! It was all so that the Yotsuba members won't get Kira to kill Matsuda off when the meeting was over! Clever, huh?" She laughed happily, and I stood up, furious.

"And you couldn't have told me this earlier?" I spat, and glared at her darkly.

"Nope." She said, smiling still, "Ryuzaki-san and Light-kun weren't sure if you were a good enough actress to pull it off. So… they asked Misa not to tell you!"

I was beyond furious at this point; I'd had enough. "Not a good enough actress, eh?" I said, grinning crookedly, "I beg to differ."

I left Misa standing out on the patio and stormed into the room and out into the hallway, making my way down to the lobby. There'd be Hell to pay for this.

--

A/N: So... that took a lot longer than I expected to write. But hopefully it was worth the wait! I think it's the longest chapter on here...

Leave comments and constructive criticism, please! ^_^

-Sydney