AN: OMG I didn't expect to be away for a while after that last chapter! It's just that the year's wrapping up, and I've been thinking about things a lot. Gosh, it becomes a little harder to start once one has been away. I'd better get back into things. You know the DeathNote fandom wiki has a background that changes depending on the season? Currently L is wearing a Christmas hat and Light carries a present while glaring evilly. It's hilarious. Well, to me at least; then again, I find most things funny.

By the way, just to remind everyone, I tend to follow the manga plot-wise. So for example, in the anime, Yagami Sr. supports Amane Misa's imprisonment, but in the manga, he's much more hesitant, agreeing with Ryuzaki to convince himself.

Thank you everyone for reading, kudo-ing, subscribing and commenting! Yes, kudo-ing is a word now. (What do you mean I can't make up my own words?) Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukka, Happy End of Year and Happy New Year, everyone! This chapter wasn't really complete, but I decided to cut it off where it is now and post more later.

Chapter 16

May 28, 2004; 16 05

Rui had been terrible at pickpocketing, even after Ryuzaki had allowed her to practice on him on the way back, chattering to him all the way as he shuffled silently next to her with hands in his side pockets. Still, he'd been surprisingly fun company, and he hadn't done anything to dampen her enthusiasm, which was rather nice of him.

Ryuzaki entered the hotel suite rather triumphantly, closely followed by Rui who ceased her tomfoolery, straightening up and following along behind him at an appropriately professional distance as the task force looked up at them. "Ah, Ryuzaki, the evidence all makes sense now," said Aizawa, turning to him. Ryuzaki's previous levity had disappeared, to be replaced with the authoritative stoicism he usually presented to the world. Rui couldn't help feeling a slight sense of loss as she saw that.

Misa had said nothing, and Ryuzaki decided to have Watari send the feed over. Watari evidently didn't think this was a good idea, and Rui agreed, for she knew the team members would not approve. She braced herself.

"UWAH!" Aizawa and Matsuda exclaimed in shock.

"Ryu… Ryuzaki, this…" Even the usually-stoic Yagami Sr. could find no words.

Misa was restrained in a way that looked straight out of a porno, if Rui were being honest. She was blindfolded, wearing a straitjacket, and had leather straps crisscrossing her front. She was forced to remain upright, even when sleeping. Raising an eyebrow, even Rui briefly looked askance at Ryuzaki who was staring at the screen. She'd thought he was asexual, but was he… actually… one of… those people?* To his credit, he was all business.

"She's suspected of being the Second Kira, it's only logical to restrain her this way," Ryuzaki explained. "Sure, if she's innocent, this will have been a bad idea, but I'm quite sure that it's her."

Aizawa was the first to agree. "Yes… Even though the fingerprint isn't hers and there were no machines found in her room, we found a notebook that has the same paper as the diary entry and she has the same stamps as those on the envelopes. Also, the ink in a pen of hers is identical." Oh, L… Why did he end up sending Aizawa away, again?

Matsuda next gave his support, finally convincing Yagami Sr. "… Yes, with all that evidence… There's no doubt that she's it," Yagami Sr. agreed, more to convince himself than anything else.

The atmosphere became less tense. Well, until Ryuzaki requested Watari to 'do everything possible within the limit of keeping her alive to make her talk, even moderate torture'. Moderate torture? Wasn't it slight torture? Rui took a deep breath, silencing the prick of conscience that threatened to rise.

Wasn't Watari an inventor? Why did he know how to do these things? His grandfatherly image was spoiled for Rui forever.

"Also, Yagami-san, I have already restricted access for Yagami-kun to come in here. In the near future, I may summon him here for questioning, I hope you will prepare yourself for that," Ryuzaki informed him, mincing no words. "Amane moved to Kanto in April and then started going out with Yagami-kun. Amane's parents were killed by robbers and those robbers were killed by Kira. Also, Yagami-kun had Misa's cellphone. While this is normal for couples, I don't think Yagami-kun would normally like that sort of stuff, considering his pride. If Yagami-kun is Kira, he'll probably kill Amane to seal her mouth, but since there are only a handful of people who know that Amane has been captured, he may be worrying that he'll draw attention to himself if he kills Amane now." L now displayed a new layer of conviction that he previously hadn't. As a reader, Rui had often wondered how L could have been so sure of his suspicions even after both Light and Misa had lost their memories. Seeing this, she now wondered if this had in fact been the defining moment at which he'd truly decided that yes, Light was the first Kira and Misa the Second.

The atmosphere in the room was really tense. How had Watari defused the tension back then? Ah yes, coffee.

"Thank you for your hard work, everyone!" Rui announced cheerily to the room. "Would you like coffee?" She ignored the tension as she cheerily filled the cups without prompt. They were probably surprised as she usually didn't draw attention to herself.

"Here too, and here, and here as well!"

"Eh, who're you?" Matsuda asked her curiously. "I see you around Ryuzaki a lot but you never speak."

"Oh, I'm Rui. Ryuzaki-san's … butler," Rui replied. Butler was stretching it a lot, but she didn't know what she was in Japanese. A helper, an assistant? "Do excuse me, but my Japanese isn't good!" That put an end to the conversation real quick, at least for the moment.

May 30, 2004;

It was late. Rui had no idea what time it was, but the task force members were exhausted, collapsed in the plush armchairs surrounding Misa's feed. Well, at least they were better off than they had been last time. Rui had personally collected toiletries and changes of clothes for the task force members from their family members. In that time, she'd gotten a picture of the detectives' family dynamics, at least for those who were present.

Aizawa's wife, Eriko, was a young woman with sharp eyes and chin-length brown hair who was distinctly cool in manner the moment Rui introduced herself as an assistant to the head of the task force. Rui couldn't blame her resentment of everything to do with Aizawa's work, considering what she knew of her in canon. It probably didn't feel nice to have an absent father and husband, even if he was a hero. Considering what a fiery woman she was hinted at to be (hadn't she punched Aizawa when they'd gotten into a fight?), Rui was surprised at her small stature – she didn't even reach Rui's collarbone in height! In any case, the Aizawa family lived in a pretty nice apartment, with a large park close by.

Mogi and Matsuda had lent her keys to their apartments, for they lived alone. Matsuda's family was in a separate precinct, while Mogi had a young daughter who currently lived with her grandma. He didn't say much about the circumstances surrounding that, and Rui did not feel it her place to ask.

As for the Yagami family, Rui had made sure to drop by when Light was at school. Yagami Sr.'s wife, Sachiko, had answered the door. A nondescript woman with kind brown eyes and short brown hair (Honestly. Did the DN creators think all housewives had the same sense of style and the same physical features?), she had nevertheless pressed a large container of food into Rui's arms, along with the package of clothes and grooming articles that her husband needed. She hadn't asked any questions that Rui had been unable to answer (such as when Yagami Sr. would be able to return, the identity of his boss, his whereabouts, etc), but simply wanted to know that her husband was alright. Rui demurred, telling her that he was as well as he could be given the circumstances and progress of the investigation. Sachiko only smiled rather resignedly – it must be difficult being the spouse of someone in law enforcement.

At this present moment, she'd lost track of how many pots of coffee she'd fetched.

"Ryuzaki," Watari suddenly said. "Misa has something to say."

Ryuzaki perked up. "Stream the video and audio over here!" he exclaimed. Well, he was speaking in his usual monotone, but there was a slight anxious undercurrent in his tone. Was he expecting anything different from canon?

If so, he was to be disappointed. As expected, Misa had bigger stones than that. "I… can't take it any more…" she muttered. "Kill me."

"Kill me," she pleaded. "Please kill me now!"

"I heard she hasn't drunk water for 3 days…" Aizawa said uneasily.

"It's too cruel for a 20-year-old girl… She's probably at her limit…" Matsuda added. Did Matsuda always imitate the first person to voice his opinion?

"Amane Misa, can you hear me?" Ryuzaki asked, calmly. "Are you confessing your identity as the Second Kira because we found a lot of evidence against you?"

Rui perked up, for she had heard something new.

"Mi…Misa… You mean…" A deep feminine voice spoke. Rem! She cleared her throat, sending Ryuzaki a telling look.

"Yes, kill me," Misa said.

"You're telling me to kill you?" Rem asked.

"Yes… Do it…" Misa pleaded.

"If Misa dies, I will kill Yagami Raito too, is that okay?"

"No… no… just kill me…" Misa replied desperately. "Misa was supposed to die at that time anyways…" Rui quashed the little wave of pity that threatened to rise on behalf of the petite model, gritting her teeth. Misa was even younger than her younger bro- NO. The Second Kira was a murderer in a pretty package. Nothing more.

"If I die now, I'll be happy… Kill me while I'm still young and pretty…"

"If I didn't give you the Death Note… 'The human stalked by a god of death will suffer great misfortune'…," Rem lamented. "I am sorry, Misa." Could we use that to prevent Ryuzaki's death in the future? Rui wondered, trying to take her mind off Mis- no, the Second Kira's plight.

Watari prevented the Second Kira from biting her tongue just in time. Ryuzaki looked sideways at Rui. "Maybe she's being controlled by Kira before her death…" She shook her head, but continued listening intently.

"Would you give up your Death Note for Yagami Raito?" Rem asked, only for the Second Kira to smile and nod.

Misa was no longer the Second Kira.

May 31, 2004; 20 00

"Stalker-san! Kidnapping is a serious crime! Let me go!" the ex-Second Kira screamed, the tone of her voice different from before, ringing with indignant innocence this time. "If you stop now, I won't tell anyone. I'll forgive you!" Rem was no longer in the room.

Ryuzaki glanced at Rui, then asked Matsuda to call Mogi. "Did you tell Amane Misa that she is suspected of being the Second Kira?" Ryuzaki asked. He listened to Mogi's reply gravely. Mogi confirmed that he had told her why she was being arrested, and that she had not resisted, as if accepting that she had been guilty.

Next, he chose to check on the state of her memory. "Amane Misa," he addressed the restrained model. "Why are you tied here?"

"Why? Because I am your idol?" the murderer replied. "But you're probably the first stalker to go this far!" Yep, she didn't even remember why she'd been arrested. This left the task force members uneasy. Misa-no, the Second Kira certainly was not stupid. Upon realizing that she was in a precarious situation, held at the mercy of some unknown captor, she had immediately humanized herself, trying to make her captors feel bad about themselves by putting their actions into the baldest terms possible. Because, taking the justification of law enforcement out of the equation, that kind of was what they were doing, wasn't it? Kidnapping? Stalking? The investigation team had, well, investigated the Second Kira's background and followed her schedule, to the point where they had known she'd appear near Light's university. It was a fact that they'd subjected her under torture, sorry, moderate torture, for three days and nights without giving her a chance to clean up in any way but answer nature's call. And how did she do it when she was restrained and blindfolded? Probably with Watari's assistance. A strange man's assistance. Rui wanted to throw up.

When Rui thought of the situation in this manner, she was a little surprised that Misa's, no, the Second Kira's reaction wasn't more extreme. Though, what could she do? A frisson of unease ran through her psyche before she could catch it. No, that wasn't right. It was undeniable that she had killed in cold blood. Rui should not be feeling anything for a selfish murderer. Hell, this wasn't even her world. She should not be feeling anything for anyone. Particularly not the Second Kira.

The task force, too, weren't immune to this guilt trip, if it could be trivialised as such. Matsuda, the least experienced, the most outwardly emotional, and the most idealistic, was, on hindsight, unsurprisingly the one to lose control at the prospect of their law-enforcing acts being reframed in a less palatable way. "Amane!" he yelled into the microphone, to Ryuzaki's mild surprise and Rui's shock. She stared at Matsuda. The man was usually the most cheerful and positive that it had been difficult to imagine him angry. "Stop joking around! This is serious!"

Should she go make more coffee?

"Wha…" Misa started crying. "…So scary… what do you want from me? I don't want this… Release me! Release me now!" Rui's heart clenched. She no longer had her memories of killing. For all purposes, this was a physically small and helpless young woman they were threatening. Could they- couldn't they afford to treat her better?

"Ah… That's right… I need to go to the restroom!" She continued. "The restroom!" She twisted and strained against her restraints insistently, and Rui was almost worried that she'd hurt herself. Rui decided that she didn't want to know for sure how Misa had to relieve herself. Where was she, anyway? She looked like she was in an abandoned attic somewhere, but Rui couldn't be sure. The room was too dark, and only Misa herself was illuminated.

"You just went to the restroom 4 minutes ago," Ryuzaki replied drolly. "Hold it in." Rui raised an eyebrow at him. That was a little…

"What! You want me to do it here?! You want to see me pee?!" Misa yelled. No, no, no, that's disgusting, Rui thought. Nobody wants to see anybody pee! "You're… a pervert!"

Ryuzaki hesitated, biting his thumb hard and causing Rui to frown. Was he seriously asking himself if he was a pervert? She supposed the way he'd gone about doing things was a little suspect – well, VERY suspect – but he was only doing his job. She would want to have a talk with him about where this case was going, but now was NOT the time for L to be having a quarter-life crisis.

Rui nudged his chair a little, being mindful of his need for personal space. "You're not a pervert," she affirmed, trying to smile encouragingly at him. It probably came out a little constipated and twitchy though, from the stress she was under. Yep, Rui got stressed easily, even if she tried to make a joke of things.

That must have provided the needed levity for Ryuzaki, for his eyes took on a sudden air of mischief just as he was about to say something. "Indeed," he agreed in his customary monotone, but there seemed to be a smug glint in his eyes. Did he mean- Why that little-!

Rui had been really proud when her first attempt at using the clothes washing function of the human washing machine had gone well. Admiring the clean, warm pile of Ryuzaki's clothes in her arms, she triumphantly pressed her nose against the cloth and breathed in deeply. Mm~

Ryuzaki had chosen that very moment to walk into the bathroom.

She wasn't a pervert! This wingding! Rui fumed.

Huh, that was a good way to take her mind off the unease.

AN: I wanted to discuss/mention two things.

First, Amane Misa. The common perception is that she's not very smart. Frankly speaking, intellectually, that may be so, since she probably only finished high school and then went into modeling. In fact, if she had started doing small freelance modeling gigs in high school to build up her modeling portfolio before starting her career proper, she might have missed many lessons in school. But then again, there are many definitions of intelligence. I do think that Misa was blessed with a preternatural knack for socialization, and at the same time enhances that by calculating how she presents herself, as she has demonstrated in the Yotsuba arc and even beforehand. She's pragmatic too; she's always accomplished all her goals, even if she doesn't set very lofty ones in comparison to the intellectual titans of the DN series.

She even has many fans (including myself) fooled! Reread the series again, she was in fact a demented stalker. She literally went to Light's house and threatened him to be her boyfriend when he had never seen her before. I had to reverse the genders for me to see this (hidden gender bias at play here, unfortunately). It's NO WONDER Light loathed her so much, even when she was devoted to him! He never asked for any of this. And yet, for a while before I reread DN, I was laboring under the misconception that Misa was abused, used by Light, and that she deserved better. Well, she did deserve better, but not from Light, for Misa held the power in that relationship, at least at first. This is so ironic, because all Misa wanted was a white knight in shining armour to keep her safe instead of ending up like her parents, but she in fact, threw in with Light, the one person who was most likely to loathe and kill her due to her own direct actions towards him, which were completely out of line. Misa was a victim of her own maladaptive coping strategies (she doesn't seem able to form deep connections in her life), and I daresay what she needed was therapy, not a white knight. So, in conclusion, Misa is able to present herself as so innocent that she even has fans fooled. Taken in that light (haha), we shouldn't be surprised that she got two Death Gods to fall for her. We shouldn't be surprised that in some adaptations, she got away scot-free despite being the Second Kira. (I know it's probably not what the creators intended, but this is how I'm choosing to interpret Misa, devoid of author intent and circumstance.) This is why even Rui might end up loving her (platonically) despite knowing what Misa's really like.

Second, my decision to keep a lot of the plot the same. The thing is, I wanted to discuss many of the canon events in DN through the eyes of us fans, which was half the reason I wrote the story in the first place, so I really want to keep a lot of it the same. But I also see places where L should've been more proactive. Sigh, perhaps I should've chosen a slightly different premise. Perhaps OC should not have told L in the first place? I don't know, what do you think? Should I modify the premise a little, and if so, how? Feel like my inexperience is really showing here. -_-