This one's based on one of my two favorite chapters in the entire series, as Matsuda and L are tied as two of my favorite characters and it was the first time in the series Matsuda got any actual recognition.
And the first scene here is just for all of my awesome commenters.
And replies:
ActionFry: Maybe not a catfight, but there probably will be one or two kicks or punches thrown at some point. Not quite in this chapter, though.
Volital: Haha, the "I see" bit is going to stay through right to the very end. And, as I said to ActionFry, Wedy may get kicked at some point in time.
Baytail: Yep, it probably will.
White Alchemist Taya: I also doubt it, but it was in the manga and it seemed like a good closing line for the chapter, so I wanted to keep it. And he might find out, he might not. Either way, the Wedy-Kat issue is going to be important down to the end.
Jillian Jiggs: I'm glad you liked it :) And yeah, L probably won't ever understand women. He doesn't understand most humans in general as is, except probably serial killers. I'm always happy to have my stories serve as a distraction to exam studying :D As it is, I should be working on typing an essay, but I'm doing this instead. Hoorah for procrastination! XD
Marisol Akyri: Well, even if he doesn't, he's still the greatest insomniac ever, lol.
Eliza Morra: Thank you :) I don't know if it's really one of the best, but still, many thanks. And I'll still keep trying to make it better, anyway :D
Madeline Cullen: Thanks!
All righto, then. Disclaimer: Same as always. See any previous chapters to find it.
Warnings: Minor profanities, minor bitch fits, bloody noses, bruises, top of the line bakery research, annoyed Light, amused L, mucho Matsuda, Imagay jokes, Misa annoyingness, and so on.
Quick-sum: L finds a very effective way to annoy Light, and to apparently wake up the investigation room's upstairs neighbors. Matsuda (unintentionally) finds a very effective way to annoy L, and to apparantly cause his life to flash before his eyes.
Light was lucky to have been the first to wake up out of the rest of the investigation team (L excluded, as he never slept anyway). Otherwise, someone else would have found him chained to a sofa. He didn't realize it immediately when he woke up. He sat up, stretched as much as the chain connecting him to L would allow him, and looked around. L was already working, or had been working all night, one or the other. Neither would have come as much of a surprise to Light. But then, what did come as a surprise was that the handcuffs were long enough to reach from the couch to the computers. After rubbing his eyes a few times and looking back towards the computers, he noticed something a bit strange.
The handcuffs weren't attached to L's wrist.
Thinking this to be a bit odd, Light stood from the couch and lifted his arm – and there were the handcuffs. The most obvious solution was to follow the chain, and upon doing so, he found that –
"Ryuzaki," he said slowly.
"Yes, Light-kun?" L said, not looking away from his computer.
"Is there a reason I'm chained to the sofa?"
"Yes, and a very valid one at that," said L. "I found that I didn't have enough information on my laptop to work on the Kira case with just it, so I needed to find some way back to these computers. So, I unhooked my handcuff and hooked it back to the leg of the sofa so I could work where I do have enough information on the Kira case to get anything productive done."
Light rolled his eyes at the detective and decided to get himself unstuck, since L seemed to be making no move to do so himself. However, he found himself unable to lift the corner of the sofa even a little. It was small and looked light enough, but it apparently wasn't. Scratching the back of his head in a mildly bemused manner, he looked back and forth between the couch and L.
"And… why isn't the couch lifting?"
"That would be because I think ahead, Light-kun." Light raised his eyebrows, but the insomniac was at least kind enough to elaborate. "You see, I figured that in the event that I was required to be somewhere without someone chained to my wrist," he said, turning his chair around, "then I would need to make sure that you wouldn't leave headquarters. Therefore, most of the furniture here is welded to the floor."
Light's eyes narrowed as L turned back around, in what L considered a rather Kira-like manner. Indeed, it was exactly as he had looked durring his first few days of confinement, which would have been enough confirmation for L even if he hadn't known Light was Kira in the first place.
"Ryuzaki."
"Yes?"
"Would you mind unlocking me from the sofa?"
"I suppose I could," said L slowly. He really had enjoyed not being chained to someone, he had to admit, but Light was likely to throw an all out tantrum if he didn't unchain him from the furniture. It was too early for him to even consider wanting to listen to that.
"Then why don't you?" asked Light, sounding as though he was growing impatient.
"Well," said L, "I believe I've almost made a breakthrough. Would you mind waiting a few minutes?"
"Yes I would."
"Oh. Then I'm quite sorry."
Light glared at the detective, who still showed no signs of standing, before choosing to sit back down on the couch himself and glare at the wall instead. he wasn't sure what type of a breakthrough L thought he had made, but it better have been a good one. L arrived at the couch to unlock him from it around five minutes later.
"Anything?"
"Regarding my breakthrough? Yes. There are five highly esteemed bakeries within walking distance of the investigation building."
The next story up in the building, Katherine and Misa were both awakened by angered yelling, garbled by the soundproofed walls that Light had somehow managed to penetrate. This signaled Misa that her love was in trouble. It signaled Katherine that L had probably just done something to get himself punched again. It was around eight in the morning, so she figured that was a decent time to get up, anyway. When she finished getting dressed and headed out into the living room, she found Misa waiting for her at the door leading down into the investigation room.
"Kat-chan!! Open the door for Misa please!!"
"Did you hear it, too?"
"Yes, Misa thinks the pervert tried to hurt Light!" she whined.
"Probably did, you should get him for that," said Katherine, who was quite sure the result would be amusing if Misa agreed. Katherine used her keycard to unlock the door, and Misa was out it like a blond flash. Katherine hurried down at a quick pace as well so she wouldn't miss anything interesting. She stopped at the foot of the stairs to see Misa telling off L, who was sitting at a computer with a bruise developing on his right cheek. Light's nose was bleeding. Even so, the expressions on their faces differed greatly. L almost looked triumphant, whereas Light just looked annoyed. Katherine took her seat at her regular computer after a moment and looked between the two.
"So," she said when Misa had finally calmed down and decided to go see if she could do anything to help her 'Knight', "what happened, since no one has had the time to explain yet?"
"I woke up chained to the couch, which is apparently welded to the floor. He took five minutes to unlock the handcuff, as he said he may have found a 'breakthrough.' And, it turned out, his breakthrough was that there are apparently five bakeries within walking distance of –"
"Seven, actually," said L, "but only five are highly esteemed."
"See?"
"So basically," said Katherine, "you had a bitch fit about being chained to the couch," she said, pointing at Light, "and you decided to lengthen his suffering by looking up shops that sell cake."
"I wasn't aware there was suffering involved."
"I didn't have a 'bitch fit…'"
"Either way, you woke me up, so it was still stupid. And yes you did," she added to Light, before turning her computer on.
"Why are you–?"
"What's your family name backwards again, Light?"
"Why the hell do you keep pointing that out?"
"Because it's true."
"Kat-chan needs to stop calling Misa's boyfriend gay!" said Misa in slight annoyance.
"Sorry, Misa. Won't happen again."
"Good! It's really mean. Oh!" Katherine looked over at the blond as she proved how short her attention span was yet again. "Can Kat-chan let Misa back into her room with the key? Misa-Misa has a movie shoot today!"
"Oh, that's right," said Katherine. "I think I'll be going along as well, I don't feel like being confined to the investigation room today."
Though she didn't say it, Katherine was sure that L and Light both knew that she probably wanted to add on something along the lines of "Especially not if that bitch Wedy's going to be here," just by the way they both immediately focused on the computers in front of them after she spoke. Katherine stood up. "All right, then, let's go. Could one of you alert Mattie to be ready to leave by noon?"
Without waiting for an answer, Katherine headed up the stairs as Misa said goodbye to Light and told L not to touch her boyfriend while she was gone. She had unlocked the door by the time Misa got there, and Misa rushed passed her to go to their shared bathroom. Katherine hurried to her room and locked the door behind her so she wouldn't have to listen to Misa talking about her choice in disguises.
It was midday when Misa had started complaining to the director of her movie about keeping any love scenes rated PG since she had a boyfriend. Katherine was standing by with Matsuda when the director, in his annoyance at lack of compromise on Misa's behalf, told the entire cast to break for two hours. Misa took a seat with an annoyed look on her face, really showing her actress side just from the look on her face – if she couldn't have it her way, then no one else was going to be happy, either; particularly not Katherine, who she had just called over as a person to complain to.
Matsuda was focused on other things. It seemed the entire task force thought everyone else was more useful to the Kira case than he was lately. Kira was almost definitely a part of Yotsuba. Even L had to be sure of that at this point, it was obvious that the deaths were all surrounding that company. The main offices were in Tokyo, not even very far from the movie set they were on. The deaths were all occurring on the weekends, late Friday to mid Saturday. Could that mean… was there possibly some sort of clue as to what was going on at the Yotsuba Tokyo main office? It was Friday, so there might have been. If he could find something, it should prove to everyone else that he isn't as much of a hindrance as they all thought he was.
"Whew!" Misa said exasperatedly to Katherine. "That director pisses me off!"
"Misa-Misa," said Matsuda, handing her a coffee she had asked for a minute ago, "today's shoot runs pretty late, right?"
"Yeah," she said, "it's not over until after ten."
"I might kill myself before then…" Katherine grumbled, sitting on the ground next to Misa's chair and glaring at the numerous pairs of legs that passed by her.
"Good," said Matsuda, turning. "I'll be back then."
He had spotted a sign on one building close by that clearly read "Yotsuba." He ignored Misa's yelling after him ("What?! Where are you going??") as he walked toward the exit off of the set. Katherine would be able to keep a watch on her for the next few hours. She had only gone to the set to avoid Wedy, but she and Misa were technically friends, so she probably wouldn't be too angry with the arrangement. He had more important things to be doing.
Katherine gaped at the end of the set. If that ass planned to leave her there alone with the devil's daughter until ten o'clock at night so Misa could complain at her, she would kill him. Just her statement of, "Jeez, what's with everyone today?" was more than enough to make Katherine want to strangle both Matsuda and Misa. Then again, she supposed Misa was the lesser of two evils. She could either be faced with the devil's daughter here on the movie set or the embodiment of Satan back at headquarters. She preferred to spend as much time away from Wedy as possible. She had promised L she would be civil with the bitch, and the only way she was to do so was to stay as far away from Wedy as possible at any time she got the chance to. But still – Matsuda could have given some insight as to where he was going.
But then – then, she saw it. On the skyline of Tokyo, standing as tall as Big Ben in London, as bold as Lady Liberty in New York City, were yellow characters on the side of a skyscraper that read as clear as day, "Yotsuba Company." Was that it? If he was going there, she wouldn't have to kill him. He was destined to be murdered by Kira. Katherine quickly reached into her pocket for her cell phone and dialed his number once she got it out and open and – voicemail. Bloody voicemail. If she didn't love that phone so much, she'd have thrown it on the ground and stomped it into the sidewalk. Misa watched her curiously as she shoved it back into her pocket.
"Is Kat-chan all right?"
"Kat-chan's just brilliant," Katherine said venomously, and Misa took it as a clue to stop asking questions.
Matsuda had just arrived at the entrance to Yotsuba after sneaking past security and hurrying inside. He had found himself in a hallway after entering through a back door and looking around. As he looked carefully around a corner into the adjacent one, he had to quickly duck back behind – around ten people were getting on an elevator. He was debating with himself over whether or not he should just try to blend in with them and go back – but then it would have been pointless to have come in the first place. He needed to hide out, maybe until after everyone left, and look over the building to see if he could find anything. But then, he would be arrested for trespassing if he was found. Maybe he should just leave…?
It was too late, as the elevator was already leaving. He waited for a few minutes, then heard more voices. He listened closely and peeked around the corner to see one of them pressing the up button for the elevator.
"Man," said one of the men, "this again today…."
"But it's the weekend," said the other. "They take a while, but at least the secret meetings aren't on Mondays. It'd be a lot harder to get up to come to work if they were, you know?"
"Yeah, that's true," said the other.
Matsuda heard the elevator doors open, then shut. He rushed out to watch the numbers light up red next to it. He followed them from one to nineteen, where they stopped. So he needed to be on the nineteenth floor for this "secret meeting," then…. He started to press the up button to summon the elevator, but he stopped himself – he might have been found if he used the elevator. He instead decided to look for a stairwell. He found it and hurried upstairs to the nineteenth floor. It took him a while, but when he turned a corner, he spotted two double doors at the end of a hall. That had to be it, right? He approached cautiously so as not to be heard, and listened through the door. It was hard to hear anything, but he did hear garbled voices. He couldn't understand a word they were saying, but he heard them well enough. It was a secret meeting, one with just a few people, from what he could hear. So maybe – just maybe – this was it….
It was an hour before he heard a word that struck him as even a little odd: kill. He definitely heard it, but he didn't hear what context it was used in, so maybe it wasn't anything – Kira! He knew heard Kira – and there it was again! And then…
"… the one to be killed by Kira will be…"
That was it. He, Matsuda, who everyone thought to be so useless, had just found the truth. Kira was working with Yotsuba, there was no doubting it, he had just heard it himself. He also knew they held these meetings every Friday. All he had to do would be to get that information back to L, L could have Wedy sneak in and install cameras into their meeting room, and they would be able to identify everyone in the meeting. It would be perfect! He had found –
His eyes widened as he heard footsteps close to the door – then it opened. Had they heard him? Regardless, he had to do something – he still had the belt buckle Watari had given everyone on the team in the beginning, the one that was supposed to send a distress signal to Watari's phone. He pressed the button quickly before the door opened entirely.
"In order to escape notice –"
"Ryuzaki."
Everyone in the investigation looked at L's computer, where the voice had issued from quite suddenly as L was in the middle of reviewing the plan to infiltrate Yotsuba. "What is it, Watari?"
"Matsuda has sent out a distress signal from his belt."
L paused for a moment. That obviously couldn't mean anything good. Had it been a good idea to assign Matsuda to be Misa's manager? Perhaps he had just pressed it by accident walking into a door. That definitely seemed like a Matsuda-like situation. There was hope that it wasn't anything serious, as it was Matsuda. This being Matsuda, it would either be something trivial… or absolutely horrible.
"From where?"
"Well…" Watari said slowly, "it appears to be coming from inside the Yotsuba Tokyo Main Office."
L glared at his computer. It was far from being his computer's fault that Matsuda was mentally challenged, but what else was there to glare at? Definitely not Matsuda. Now, even if he had just walked into a door, it was inside the Yotsuba building, which meant he already had his nose somewhere it didn't belong. This situation could be nothing short of disasterous. The easiest solution would just be to leave him, but there was every possibility that the rest of the investigation team might have something to say about that, particularly Katherine. With as much as he seemed to be unintentionally crossing her lately, it probably wouldn't be the best idea to do something he knew would only anger her further. He would have to think of something to do to save Matsuda. He pulled at a piece of his hair in frustration before turning his chair around.
"What's Matsuda doing there?!" Yagami said. "If he got caught…"
"The distress signal probably means he did get caught," Light said.
"He'll probably be killed if that's true," said Aiber.
"Please forget everything I've said up to now," said L. There was no other way. He'd have to come up with some sort of amazing and miraculous plan to save the dunce's life. "We need to rethink our strategy." Then, under his breath, he added, "Matsuda, you idiot…"
Now, mind you, this chapter in the manga/episode in the anime made me feel bad for Matsuda, but he was in it so much that it was just awesome.
Now, questiomonenies:
Shall Matsuda survive another of his blunders? You should know the answer to that. If you don't, reread/rewatch anime immediately or there shall be spoilers.
Will Katherine ever stop calling Light gay?
Will Katherine kill Matsuda for leaving her alone with Misa if he survives his Yotsuba escapades?
Will L ever find a way to stop Matsuda from giving him headaches that doesn't involve our dear dunce's death?
Find out next time... or the time after... or the time after the time after... or – okay, you get the point! – in The King's Note!