A/N: Here comes another chapter! Many thanks to those who have read and left reviews for me. The input and support really inspires me to keep going, so thank you very much. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own the brilliance that is Death Note.

Warnings: Okay, this happened earlier than I expected it to, but I'm going to let you guys know now that at this point in the story, we are now straying from the main Death Note storyline that we know. Initially I hadn't planned on this to start happening until around Naomi Misora's appearance, but...my stories tend to write themselves. For this reason, we are now edging our way into AU territory in terms of Death Note...or perhaps I should call it AS since it's really an alternate storyline rather than an alternate universe but then again...I'm babbling aren't I?

Chapter 12

Countdown Part 3

12:49 p.m.

Since the initial televised confrontation with L, Light Yagami had continued with his killings like nothing happened, in fact he had been writing names a little more vigorously, partially to spite L and partially just to expel his frustration over the entire ordeal.

More than anything he wanted that detective dead, but in order to kill L he would need to put himself in a position where he could get close to him. To do so would mean keeping track of the investigation and the only way Light could do that was through hacking his father's classified police files through their home network. It wouldn't be a difficult task, but Light was loathe to stoop to such cheap measures so soon. Why not let L see how much he can figure out if he's so intelligent?

With that in mind, Light set about grabbing a bite to eat before his next class, but the turkey sub he ended up grabbing from the cafeteria was too dry for his liking. In fact, the sandwich tasted as if it were made from sand. Well, that was unfortunate.

The only thing worth eating in the few things Light grabbed for his lunch was the crimson-red apple he held in his right hand. Ryuk was practically salivating over the sight of such a delectable treat and would continue to do so until he gave it to him. For a moment, the young genius contemplated eating the apple anyway, but realized the Shinigami would more than likely kill him if he did, especially if he laughed vindictively while eating it...not that he would ever do such a thing in public...or in private for that matter.

Once standing outside the science building away from any campus cameras, the young man reluctantly handed the apple to Ryuk. "I hope you appreciate this." As if to emphasize the sacrifice he was making, a very low, irritable rumble echoed in his stomach. It was suddenly very apparent to the teen that becoming the god of a new world would never eradicate his human need to eat.

The Shinigami barely responded to Light's disdain, having already sunken his teeth into the juicy fruit. He let out a soft sigh, tossing his bangs nonchalantly along with the soft autumn breeze. There was a definite chill in the air now, signifying that autumn would soon pass into winter. It was going to be a cold one this year.

As Ryuk quickly devoured his apple, he snuck a glance around the building. "Hey Light, your girlfriend is sleeping over there."

Light just scoffed without any hint of interest. "Are you still going on about that? What's with you and pairing me up with that troublemaker?"

"I'm just looking to spice up your life," Ryuk answered while licking his fingers. "You know, make things more interesting."

"You sure are one greedy Shinigami," the brilliant teen stated bluntly while stuffing his hands into his pants pockets. "Doesn't my struggle with L provide you with enough entertainment?"

"Nope, not really."

"Of course not." With another sigh, Light slowly stepped around the science building, looking toward the spot Ryuk had indicated. Sure enough, underneath a dying Kuromatsu tree, Crystal Makano lay asleep on the grass, seemingly without a care. Light scowled at the sight before glancing at his watch. The warning bell would ring within forty seconds. How ironic.

Feeling a little more generous than he probably should have been, the studious son of Souichiro Yagami strode purposely through the grass lawn toward Crystal, noting upon closer inspection that while her breaths were even and her body relaxed, her facial muscles revealed a great deal of tension. She definitely wasn't asleep, and if she was, she was probably having a nightmare of some sort.

The warning bell rang a couple seconds after he knelt by the girl. As per his expectation, she didn't respond to the shrill noise blaring throughout campus. He almost groaned in annoyance because of this, but restrained himself. Dealing with Crystal was never an ideal way to spend time; however, his use of the Death Note had been affecting her and Ryuk's shady involvement in the girl's past gave him more than enough reasons to keep an eye on her regardless of how reluctant he was to do so. It was a necessary evil right now.

Placing a hand on her shoulder, he gently shook her. "Makano-san. Wake up."

Almost immediately, Crystal released a dejected sigh, though she didn't open her eyes in the slightest. "Light-chan, why must you always ruin a peaceful moment?"

The current owner of the Death Note rolled his eyes. "The warning bell just rang, Crystal. If you don't hurry you're going to be late to class again and this time you'll end up expelled for excessive tardiness."

Opening one eye, the slightly younger teen gave him a pleading look. "You know, that shouldn't sound like an appealing option, but if I never have to deal with the likes of you again, I think expulsion might actually do me some good."

And right on cue, Ryuk started laughing. He must find Crystal funny or something. Well, either way, Light wasn't about to sit there and take on yet another round of verbal abuse from this girl. He had much better things to do with his time.

"Insufferable as always," the prodigy inwardly moaned as his neutral demeanor quickly mutated into one screaming his aggravation. "Fine." With stiff movements he got up on his feet, glaring down at his female nemesis as if he could burn holes through her flesh with just his gaze. "Consider this the last time I bother trying to help you."

Light Yagami had every intention of marching straight to class after calmly delivering that line, but before he could...

"Wait, Yagami."

Her call shouldn't have stopped him. The request for him to pause in his movements wasn't particularly friendly. In fact, the words slipped out of her mouth like acid.

However, her use of his last name instead of the usual "Light-chan" made him pause.

When Light turned around to meet her gaze, he saw a very slight tingle of regret in her mint-green eyes as she lifted herself up into a sitting position on the grass. Looking unsure of herself, she tucked her legs underneath her before patting the green fibers beside her, inviting him to sit down.

Ryuk's chuckle was slight, but it almost convinced Light to keep going on his way without another glance at Crystal Makano.

"Have a seat for a second," she whispered, looking away from him with a weary expression on her face. After a moment she shifted her stare so that her eyes locked with his.

"Please?"

The boy who was secretly Kira found himself complying to Crystal's request after a few seconds of quiet contemplation. Though slow to move, he eventually took a seat next to one of the banes of his existence. A tint of red was beginning to rise on her cheeks. That surprised him.

"Makano-san?"

"I'm sorry," she blurted, clearly embarrassed with herself though trying awfully hard to hide it. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."

Light blinked in wonderment. "Where did that come from?"

"It's just...I shouldn't tell you this," she babbled, looking anywhere and everywhere but at him, "Seeing as you're one of my rivals and all, showing any sort of weakness is a foolhardy move on my part, but...this useless pride of mine..." She stopped for a second to catch her breath before continuing. "I guess I'll just have to get rid of it."

"What are you..."

"I'm a complete emotional wreck. My mind is going a million miles an hour trying to piece everything together, and at this point I don't know what to do anymore. Quite frankly I..." Once more she turned away from him, muttering something about how she was going to be sick before inhaling sharply. With a slow exhale she finished her previous sentence.

"I need advice."

For Light's part, he just sat there, frozen in confusion until his usual air of superiority kicked into gear.

"Really?" he questioned, a very evident smirk appearing on his handsome face. "You're asking me for advice? What a change."

Crystal groaned before speaking again. "You aren't funny, Yagami and you're the last person I would normally ask for advice, but the situation I'm dealing with is one that requires high investigative abilities." She paused to let out a breath in an angry huff. "Unfortunately for me, the only other person with deductive abilities as strong as yours is someone I have no way of reaching at the moment."

"Someone she can't reach?" Light wondered, narrowing his gaze a bit. "What do you need to investigate exactly? I mean, granted I don't exactly feel inclined to help you, but if it's something important..."

Before he could say anything more, the chorus of Nightmare's Alumina started blaring from the inside pocket of Crystal's blazer. She was quick to retrieve the device emitting the music.

"Sorry, got to take this," the cashew fanatic bellowed with the brightest bravado Light had ever seen her exude. "Why talk to you about my problems when I could just talk to..." she trailed off to glance at the caller I.D. "Misa? MISA!" Without another thought toward Light and his clear astonishment at the abrupt change in attitude, Crystal answered the phone. "Hey! How have you been!? I haven't talked to you in..."

Light raised an eyebrow at the pause.

"Mi-Misa...Misa, slow down."

Another pause.

With widening eyes, Crystal took the phone away from her ear, just now remembering that she was standing within five feet of one Light Yagami. "I have to go. Let's pick up this conversation never." Taking off into a sprint, she started off for whatever building held her next class.

All the while, Light continued to sit in the grass, completely blindsided once again by Crystal Makano, the infamous troublemaker.

12:55 p.m.

Crystal thanked God for Misa's call, for she realized quickly after retrieving her ringing phone that telling Light anything about her situation and her suspicions of Principal Yamamoto would be a huge mistake, even if it was just to bounce off ideas of what her next move should be in figuring this mess out. On top of that, she hadn't narrowed down her search enough to rule Light out as a possible suspect. He was certainly petty enough to be Kira as far as she was concerned, but aside from that annoying detail Crystal didn't know enough about Light's character to determine if his ideals matched with the man that had saved her life.

There was that dilemma too, the feeling that she owed Kira for saving her life despite his existence being an immediate threat to her family's well-being. On the one hand, Crystal wanted him to be caught before he could do her family any harm...and on the other...

She didn't want Kira to pay for her mistake. The fact that he was killing at this magnitude was already a horrible consequence. Crystal imagined that Kira was a good person inside. Though clearly misguided, he cared about people and hated injustice. She could certainly relate to his ideal. In some ways she was a lot like Kira. After all, though she ultimately decided against it, using the notebook to kill criminals was an idea she herself thought about. The world was pretty rotten and for a while, Crystal hoped the Death Note could be used to ease the worries of the few truly good people out there.

And in moments like this, Kira's ideal became much more compelling.

"They let him go!" Misa blubbered tearfully from her end. "The man that murdered my parents...those idiots let him go free today!"

Crystal wasn't sure how to respond to Misa Amane, her friend of four years. The two girls met online when they were both thirteen through a social networking site, and within a couple months after the initial conversation, the two of them became extremely close to the point where they considered each other sisters. They both had a like for gothic fashion, although Misa seemed to enjoy it ten times more, and the two often talked about all the things normal girls talk about: boys, their families, school drama, day to day struggles with homework assignments, and other such things. There probably should have been a language barrier as Misa could only speak Japanese at the time, but luckily for her, Crystal was pretty fluent at it thanks to her adoptive father's lineage and the fact that she was vastly gifted in learning languages.

Eventually, about two years ago, Crystal and Misa met in person in the Manhattan area of New York City. It was all thanks to Misa's parents planning a family vacation to the famous city where the Makano family just happened to be staying.

Unfortunately, this vacation was to be their last.

Six months after Crystal and Misa met in person, the unthinkable happened.

A man by the name of Toshi Sato broke into the Amane home and killed Misa's parents right before her eyes.

Having been used to talking to Misa every day, Crystal became worried but didn't reach out too quickly, thinking that perhaps her friend was just sick and needed time to rest.

However, when three weeks went by without a word from her best friend, the cashew fanatic suggested moving to Japan in place of Brazil, the originally planned destination for the Makano's new home country. Her father wasn't too keen on the idea at first given that he was native to the country and could possibly be recognized there, but Crystal was adamant about it, stating that she wouldn't leave America otherwise. On top of that, she presented a thorough argument over the subject, bringing up her father's age, name change, and the fact that he had a family put him outside the bracket of what police would be searching for. She also made sure to mention that he had broken out of prison more than a decade earlier. Any investigator would consider the case cold. Very few people would be looking for him and none would look for him in Japan.

In other words, they would all be hiding in plain sight.

With these arguments and a few others, the entire family eventually agreed to go to Japan.

Upon arrival, Crystal immediately set about finding Misa with a mailing address and a couple thousand yen. Sneaking away from their new apartment, the adopted prodigy took a late train to Nagano knowing after a couple minutes that her brother hadn't been too far behind. Though angered by his following her, when the two met up on the moving train, she made no attempt to scold him or explain herself. For his part, David didn't ask any questions. Riding the train in companionable silence, Crystal let her brother come to his own conclusions about the situation.

"We've come all this way just because you're worried about a friend, eh?" he murmured when the train was nearing the station. "Are you sure you aren't just overreacting?"

"Positive," Crystal had told him tersely without sparing him a single glance. "Something is definitely wrong."

"How do you know?"

The younger Makano sibling felt inclined to give her brother a solemn glare. "I just do, okay!"

Letting out a sigh, David had looked at her somewhat oddly. "Even with all your genius intellect you have a bad tendency to act on an impulse."

"I'm aware of that," Crystal told him while exhaling a sigh of her own. "But I'm not usually wrong."

No more words were exchanged between them, and when the two of them arrived at Misa's home, it was marked off with police tape. No one was allowed inside.

Forced back to the drawing board, Crystal went to Nagano on another day and asked neighboring residents about what had happened at the Amane household. A friendly old woman living across the street told her the gruesome tale. When Crystal asked if Misa had survived, the woman was able to confirm that her friend was still alive; however, she didn't know her current location.

The search for Misa went on for nearly two months. Crystal hit dead end after dead end during that time. She was able to find plenty of information about the murderer and details about the ongoing case against him, but in terms of what had happened to Misa or where she had gone...nothing. Each day Crystal continued to send messages through the same social networking site where they met, hoping that her words of encouragement would reach, and each night she would pray for her friend, knowing in her heart God would help as only he can.

It wasn't until earlier this year that Misa finally contacted Crystal again.

The two of them met up in Tokyo, where the blonde animatedly told her about all the things she had been doing in the last year. She talked about movies and games, fashion and the fact she had moved to Kyoto briefly to spend time with a distant relative, and almost everything else under the sun...

The only thing she didn't mention was her parents.

Crystal decided not to bring it up. Misa had seen her messages. She knew that Crystal had learned every detail about the case. She also knew that Crystal talked her family into coming to Japan specifically for her. In summation, Misa was well aware that Crystal would be around whenever she wanted to talk about her parents, Toshi Sato, or anything else that was bothering her.

The two of them no longer talked daily, but they were still close. Periodically they would hang out in malls or see a movie together, and anytime either girl called the other, they usually talked for hours on end about anything and everything, just as they always had.

Misa only discussed the death of her parents with Crystal once, when the trial first began. That conversation was a long and difficult one for both of them.

Another conversation like that one was about to start, and the timing of it was not what Crystal would have preferred.

"That monster is out in the streets right now," Misa continued, practically screaming now. "It's not fair! He's going to hurt someone else! He's going to ruin another person's life!"

Crystal narrowed her gaze as she entered into the school building. "Is there anyone out there who feels that way about Kira? Probably not yet, but soon..."

"He's been on trial for almost a year now...and I've been called a liar!" Crystal could hear Misa blowing her nose on the other end as she wept. "Me! The only witness to the crime! What sense does that make!?"

"None. Absolutely none."

Misa's sobs grew louder and with each sob, Crystal felt her heart break a little bit more.

"There are some people in this world who are truly despicable," she thought angrily, fighting the impulse to ram her fist into her locker while turning the knob to input her combination. "Toshi Sato...a man like that deserves to die, doesn't he? Would someone like Kira killing him be such a bad thing? Is Kira really wrong at all?"

On her end, Misa was slowly calming down. "I'm sorry...I know you have class."

"Don't worry about it," Crystal replied, trying her best to sound like her mind wasn't elsewhere. "You know I'm here for you whenever you need me, regardless of where I am or what I'm doing."

Once again the sound of Misa blowing her nose filtered through the phone. "And that's why you're the best friend ever." She let out a sigh. "It just isn't fair, Crystal. I mean, what did I do to deserve this?"

With a softening look in her mint-green eyes, Crystal glanced down the hall toward the clock hanging above the archway near the stairs. She couldn't afford to be late, but she didn't want to leave Misa hanging either.

Having retrieved the textbook she needed for Math class, the teen started jogging down the hall with her school bag slung over one shoulder and her phone pressed against the other as she stuffed the heavy textbook into her bag. "You aren't being punished, Misa. Evil rules this world and for that reason, good people end up suffering."

"But...that will change soon."

Crystal almost stopped walking. "Are you referring to Kira?"

"Um...well, yeah," Misa answered with a slight sniffle. "So far, he's been getting rid of a lot of bad people."

"Yeah, he has, but..." Crystal's thought tapered off as her mind drifted to her family. She couldn't let this continue for much longer. Regardless of whatever good Kira was doing, he had to be stopped. If she couldn't get her Death Note back, then at the very least she had to do something to safeguard her family and fast.

"Anyway, I know you have class, so I'm going to let you go," Misa stated quickly. "Call me tomorrow?"

"You bet," Crystal answered with her usual bravado. "And if you'd like, we can meet up on Sunday. Sound good?"

"Sure. Talk to you tomorrow!"

"Bye."

Closing her phone, Crystal strode into class. The sunny attitude melted away as quickly as it emerged and now her expression resembled a blank mask of indifference. The other students stared at her warily as she passed, having noticed the abrupt change in her demeanor. One of the boys in the class who usually asked her for a last minute check of his homework wisely stayed rooted in his seat.

"Yamamoto is placing me back in the permanent records room after school today." Taking a seat, she opened her backpack and slammed her textbook and binder on the desk. The sharp sound echoed through the room, alerting everyone to Crystal's deteriorating emotional state.

"He could be Kira," she murmured mentally, her expression now showing hints of anger. "But I could be overanalyzing what he said before. If I'm not and he is Kira, how would I go about getting the notebook back from him? Where would he hide it? How did he even get ahold of it in the first place. Furthermore, should I go ahead and tell L my theory on who Kira is? Should I tell him about the Death Note? Would he even believe me if I did?"

Feeling antsy, Crystal reached into her backpack again, searching for her emergency can of cashews. "As it stands, contacting him at all is going to be a long, difficult process and time isn't something I have. I need to take action now."

"Good afternoon class," Ms. Tanaka moaned, looking miserable as per the norm. "Please pass up last night's homework."

Stopping in her search for cashews, the young woman flipped a couple pages in her textbook before turning to the page where she had placed her homework. Once the pages were in her hands, she twisted in her chair to collect the papers from the other students before passing them up to the girl in front of her. After doing this she thrust her hand back into her backpack and began her search for cashews again.

"Now class, please turn to page 240 in your textbooks." Shifting her body so that she was facing the board, Ms. Tanaka continued, saying, "Today we will begin our study of the Law of Sines or Sine Rule as it is commonly called for Trigonometry."

Crystal, having finally found her can of cashews, took a handful out of the can and threw them into her mouth while Ms. Tanaka's back was still turned. The taste of her usual salty snack calmed her down slightly and after a few seconds of chewing, she came up with an idea.

"Well, it looks like I don't need help from the likes of Light Yagami after all."

Two hours later

"You want to take the exit exam? Tomorrow!?"

Crystal nodded. "Yes, I do. You see, my family and I are going to be moving a lot sooner than I expected, and I would rather not have to go through the process of transferring schools again when there's only a month left of school for me here in Japan. With us moving, I'd end up with four extra months of school. Also, I'm confident that I can ace the exam. After all, I was ranked number two in the nationwide practice exam."

Principal Yamamoto frowned. "Ms. Makano, I'm not certain if I can arrange our school's exit exam in such a short time, especially since it's technically the weekend now."

"How soon can you do it then?" Crystal asked, her resolve unwavering. "It's really important that this is taken care of as soon as possible."

"Do you know exactly when you are leaving? Perhaps I should call..."

"Next weekend," she lied, giggling nervously. "My mom actually called me about it earlier. It's a bit of a last minute arrangement."

"I see," the principal stated, laughing a little himself. "Where are you moving to?"

Crystal smiled brightly for him. "Winchester, England."

"England?" Yamamoto inquired, raising an eyebrow. "How intriguing. Well, I'm afraid I can't arrange the exit exam any earlier than Monday afternoon. Also, you'll still need to complete the whole of your detention hours. In other words Ms. Makano, you'll have to spend at least two days of what would be your normal school day in detention. That's at least sixteen hours."

"I can handle that," Crystal told him confidently, her sunny bravado back in full-swing once again. "In fact, I can spend a lot of that time finishing up in the permanent records room. There's a lot that still needs to be organized."

Principal Yamamoto started laughing again, though this time the sound was much fuller. "Volunteering for the soul sucking work, eh? My, Ms. Makano, you're a better student than Tomoshi-san and Tanaka-san say." Collecting himself he rose from his desk. "Very well. I'll allow it. My secretaries are hardly any good with big tasks like that. Makes you wonder why the school board hired them at all."

Crystal shrugged, mentally celebrating her victory. "Who knows?"

Having risen from his desk, the principal gestured for Crystal to follow him. "Well, for today you can continue where you left off this morning." With that said, the old administrator walked the teen to the door of the permanent records room. While unlocking it he added, "I'll have Mrs. Ukita check in on your progress and she'll notify you when your punishment is done for the day."

"Are you not going to return, Principal?"

"Nope," Yamamoto replied, yawning as he pushed the door open. "I'm headed home for today. Don't worry. Mrs. Ukita has the key to the room. She'll lock it up."

Crystal gave him a questioning stare, but otherwise acted normally. "Well, then I guess I'll see you Monday, Yamamoto-sama." With a subdued smile, Crystal entered the permanent records room, shutting the door behind her.

Outside the permanent records room, Yamamoto traveled back to his office to collect his things, more than ready to go home for the night.

However, as he was putting on a lightweight, grey coat, his cell phone began vibrating in his pocket.

"Just great," he whispered sarcastically while adjusting his collar. "Duty calls once more." Sighing he removed the phone from his pants pocket and answered it without bothering to check the caller I.D. "Moshi-moshi."

"Greetings Yamamoto," a gruff voice began. "Tell me, did the princess take the bait?"

Yamamoto remained cordial and reserved. "You already know the answer to that question, don't you, sir?"

The man on the other end of the phone chuckled sardonically. "It's never a bad idea to check. After all, the future is never set in stone. However, given your answer, I'm guessing that Ms. Makano now suspects you as Kira."

The principal of Daikoku Private Academy closed his eyes. "Tell me, do you know the real identity of Kira?"

Once more the gruff voice chuckles. The sound is hollow yet full of amusement.

"Kira has many identities. The Kira emerging now is just the first to gain fame."

7:39 p.m.

For twelve hours, Detective L Lawliet has sat crouched before his laptop, contemplating a new development in the pattern of Kira's killings.

Just days earlier, most of the deaths were confined to a set timeframe. On the weekdays, Kira killed between the hours of six a.m. to eight a.m. and then resumed his killings from three p.m. to eight p.m.. Usually there was a break within the evening hours, enough time for dinner, an evening program, or perhaps studying. On the weekends, the killings were a bit more spread out, indicating a free schedule during those particular days.

This evidence strongly supported the theory of Kira being a student in school. Given the killer's childish nature, L determined he was most likely in high school at the second or third-year grade level.

However, thirteen hours earlier, something drastic had changed.

A/N: But to find out what that something is, you guys will just have to read the next chapter. Note: In Japan second-year means 11th grade and third-year means 12th grade. Some of you may know that already, but that was something I learned while writing this chapter. Another thing that I wasn't aware of before is that the school year begins in April for Japan and ends in December. Like their summer vacations start in late July and end in early September. I was like, "WHAT?" But they have a longer winter break though. Their school term ends late December, around Christmas, and lasts up until April where they start the new school year. In a way it's like the usual system but in reverse in terms of what time of year. Anyway, stay tuned! Things are heating up. It won't be long now before the main storyline kicks into gear. Thanks for reading! If you have time, leave a review for me. Let's see how many we can get for this one.