Both of Raito's parents and Sayu had insisted on driving Raito to the airport and seeing him to his plane. He hadn't protested this, because he wasn't sure when the next time he would see the three of them would be. Sayu chattered the entire time, but Raito didn't mind listening to her babble.

"Yes, I'll make sure to call you everyday," he told her for the third time. "Just know that for every update I give you on my life, I expect on in return."

"I guess that's fair," she let out a fake and over dramatic sigh. "But you better tell me if you meet someone."

"I'm going to an all boys school," he reminded her, knowing exactly what she was referring to.

"I know," she winked at him.

He rolled his eyes, after making sure that neither of his parents had noticed their exchange. Luckily they were to focused on their own conversation. Both of them had been surprised with how determined he was to study abroad and leave with only a weeks notice. His mother and Sayu had helped him pack, this processed had gone by not without some tears from both of them. His father hadn't said much on the subject. He had allowed Raito to go, saying that it was Raito's choice and not his. Raito burned to tell him what was really going on. That L had specifically requested that Raito work with him again. He knew that his father would view this as dangerous and be worried, but he also knew that he would be proud of Raito.

"Then you'll have to tell me if you get a boyfriend," Raito pulled out of this thoughts to tease Sayu.

"Yeah right," she giggled. "I think you'd have to come back if that happens. It would give Dad a heart attack."

"You're right," Raito joked. "Better you don't date anyone until your at least my age."

"True, but," she leaned in to whisper to him. "I think it would give Dad an even worse heart attack if you got a boyfriend."

"Then it's a good thing I won't," he told her seriously. Then added: "And no heart attack it a pleasant heart attack."

"Whatever," she pouted. "Just you wait. You'll meet a super gorgeous English guy and fall head over heels for him."

"When exactly did you decide that I was gay?" he asked, partly out of exasperation and partly out of curiosity.

"When you decided to never leave the closet," she shrugged. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"Won't tell anyone what?" Their mother raised an eyebrow, thankfully only hearing that much of the conversation.

"That Raito's only going to an English school so that he'll have been top student in two countries," Sayu didn't miss a beat.

Wow, Raito thought. That was a smooth lie. Maybe she does take after me after all.

"Whatever," he rolled his eyes, going along with her cover. "You only make fun because you know I can do it."

They continued to joke around until it was time for Raito to board his plane. Sayu kept a smile on her face the entire time, but when he hugged his mother he noticed the unshed tears in her eyes. His father kept his usual serious expression. This was a relief to Raito.

As the plane took off, he didn't stop himself from sentimentally gazing out of the window. He watched his home become smaller and smaller in the distance. Once the view was gone he decided to take a nap. L had brought him a first class ticket, so he comfortably drifted off wondering how he was going to approach L's apparently 'rash and difficult to reason with' successor. L had pulled a few strings to give Raito one class with the boy. He would have to take this as his way in.

Mello was only taking art because he'd had to scramble his schedule to get into Matt's Calculus class. This is what he told himself every time that walked into the building. That and the fact that he was not actually enjoying himself. He was indifferent. He was just a very focused indifferent.

The focus part he did have an excuse for. Since the first day no one in his art class had spoken a word to him. He blamed this on the fact that it was an integrated class and none of his classmates were in the same grade as him. However, to make the fact that he sat alone in the back of the class seem a little less antisocial, Mello pretended that he was very focused on his art work. Which, if he wanted to brag, was turning out pretty damn good. The style of art that the class would learn about an emulate rotated every three weeks. It being the fifth week of school, they were currently in the middle of their third unit: sketch.

Mello was enjoying this more than water color, and hadn't glanced up from his drawing since class had started three minutes ago. Their teacher usually began each class with a short lecture, which Mello usually drew through without paying much attention. Today, however, he started the period by introducing a new student. It was only in the middle of this announcement that Mello brought his eyes away from what he was working on.

The boy standing awkwardly at the front of the class looked a few years older than Mello. He immediately identified his nationality as Japanese. This wasn't very surprising, there were a few students from foreign countries at the school, but Mello had yet to talk to any of them. The boy was slender and probably at least three inches taller than himself. Neutrally, Mello observed that he was good looking. The honey brown hair that fell perfectly around his face complimented the boy's fair complexion. Mello hand't caught what the teacher had introduced him as.

After the teacher finished talking, the Japanese boy was given some art supplies told that he could choose a seat anywhere in the room. The boy politely thanked the teacher, there was a slightly distinguishable accent in his voice, but if Mello had not been looking for it he doubted that he would have noticed. The boy chose a desk in the back of the classroom. The desk that just so happened to be right next to Mello's.

A plan immediately formed in Mello's mind. This boy probably knew next to no one in the school. The fact that he was older and significantly handsome would make up for the fact that he obviously had no friends. Mello knew that if he was nice the poor new kid would be grateful and hopefully want to hang out with Mello and Matt. Having someone like this guy in their social group would definitely improve that area of Mello's cover.

"Hello," he greeted the boy who had just sat down, holding out his hand for him to shake. "I'm Michael."

"Light," the boy replied, accepting the handshake.

"That's an interesting name," Mello observed. "You're Japanese, right?"

He realized only after he had spoken that this probably wasn't the most polite thing to say. To Mello's relief the boy chuckled at this.

"My name's actually Raito, but I figured that it'd be easier to go by Light," he explained.

"Light is the English translation," Mello wasn't sure why he was stating this.

"Exactly," Light confirmed. "Do you speak Japanese."

Practically fluently. I also speak Russian and dabble in French, Mello did not say out loud.

"A little," he shrugged.

They stopped their conversation for a few minutes, so that Light could get started on his sketch.

"Who are you drawing?" Light leaned over Mello's desk to get a better look at his drawing. Mello resisted the urge to cover it.

He had been drawing Matt. The only reason that he had opened himself up to the humiliation that he knew he would feel should anyone see his work, was because he had been confident that on one aside from his art teacher would see it. They had been encouraged to draw something or someone that they knew well, and Matt's face was the only one that Mello could clearly picture at the time.

"My roommate," Mello mumbled the answer.

"It's nice," Light said after a split second of hesitation.

"Thanks," Mello hadn't expected the positive comment.

"Why is his hair the only thing that you used color for?" Light asked.

"I wanted it to stand out," Mello shrugged. "It's exceedingly bright in real life."

Light didn't say anything. He just nodded and went back to his drawing. Mello took this opportunity to return the favor and look over Light's artwork.

"Who's she?" Mello gestured to Light's picture.

"My sister," he didn't look up as he answered.

Mello intently observed as Light's pencil carefully etched each line. He decided that Light must have had prior art training, for his drawing was far from amateur. The girl's face came to life on the page. Mello could almost hear the laugh coming from her wide smile. He could see the joy in her eyes.

"What's her name?" Mello asked still staring at the picture.

"Sayu," Light noticed Mello's stare. "What?"

"Nothing," Mello brought his gaze back to his own drawing. "You're good at that. Why are you taking beginner level art? I'm sure the advanced class would love you."

"I don't know," Light shrugged. "I haven't taken a real art class since middle school. I don't want this subject to add any stress to my work load."

Was he being serious?

"Your sister's pretty," Mello only said this because he was curious to see the reaction he would elicit.

"She is," Light said in a far too neutral tone.

"How old is she?" Mello prodded.

"Why?" Light's expression contorted into one of vague amusement.

"No reason," Mello said half-heartedly. "I'm just making conversation."

"Does your roommate know you draw pictures of him?" Light asked, most likely deciding that two could play at that game.

Mello's eyes narrowed.

"I'm just making conversation," Light mimicked.

"I draw pictures of whatever I'm thinking about," Mello said this before realizing what it sounded like.

"Oh," Light raised an eyebrow.

"Not like that, sicko," Mello rolled his eyes.

"I didn't say anything," Light pulled an innocent face.

"Isn't it the middle of the school year in Japan?" Mello changed the subject.

"Yeah," Light answered shortly.

"Why'd you transfer?" Mello asked.

"Lowood offered a scholarship," Light looked slightly embarrassed about this.

"Oh," Mello was caught off guard.

"My old school was kind of expensive, and with one more year until college I wanted to save my family the money while I could," he said humbly.

"That's cool," Mello said slowly, wishing that he had chosen a better word.

"I guess," Light shrugged.

They talked throughout the rest of the class period. Light seemed surprised when class was over, and hurried to pack up his things. Mello was ready to leave the class room in thirty seconds, but waited two minutes since he and Light were talking.

"Do you mind if I eat with you at lunch today?" Light asked. "I don't really know anyone here."

"Sure," he faked a smile.

Mello could not believe how easy this guy was making his job.

Raito could not believe how easy Mello was making his job.

Aside from when he was in class or working on the case, Raito spent his time shamelessly following Mello and Matt around. Neither seemed annoyed by this, and Raito was confident that he was pulling off the "shy new student" act. However, from what L had told him, Mello wasn't the type to volunteer to help out someone for no reason. It had occurred to Raito early on that Mello was probably using him as part of the his own cover. This made Raito laugh internally. He couldn't wait until the case was solved and he could see the look on the boy's face when he found out that Raito had been working for L the entire time.

It was currently Saturday. Raito had gotten through his first school week without anything odd or suspicious happening. He had been hoping to use the weekend to scout out the rooms where the crime scenes had taken place, but L advised against this. The detective seemed to think that nothing could be gained that Raito couldn't find out through looking at the police reports and already collected evidence.

"Whatever leads were there are long gone now," L had explained.

Raito hadn't argued. However, he had read each police report three times, and was itching to do some sort of investigating. Deciding that he could explore the campus later, he had planned the spend the day wandering the town surrounding the campus. The town and community were rather isolated, being miles away from the nearest large city. Raito understood that there was a high chance that the killer resided in there. Although he didn't expect to gain much information, at least he would be able to gage the community and hopefully get some opinions on the suicides.

He spent the entire morning walking into shops and making conversation with whomever would talk to him. It was nice to exercise the social side or him that he assumed he would have to keep suppressed while on campus in order to stay in close proximity of Mello and his roommate.

The buildings were interesting, and soon he learned that a good few of them were historical. This meant that those who owned the shops were obligated by law not to perform any major construction. Although the buildings were nice to look at, Ratio didn't doubt that the stone walls of some of them felt more than a little outdated to those who had to work there everyday.

"Excuse me?" Raito's train of thought was broken by a high (and thickly accented) voice, he turned his head to see a pretty Japanese girl with bleached hair. "I think I'm lost, do you know where West street is?"

"No, I'm sorry," he replied in Japanese.

"You're not from here either?" A huge smile flashed across the girl's face, also speaking in their first language.

"No," Raito gestured to the general direction of Lowood. "I got to the boarding school. What brings you to England?"

"Work," she sighed dramatically and then giggled. "My modeling agency is trying remote venues."

"You're a model?" the girl didn't look much older than he was. Raito assumed that she must have skipped college to follow this career path.

"Yes," she twirled one of her mini pigtails around her fingers. "I'm Misa."

"Raito." He held out a hand for her to shake, and this sparked another giggle. "Did you say you were looking for West street?"

"Yeah," she sighed again. "Leave it to Misa to get lost on her first day here!"

He ignored her use of third person.

"I'm not doing anything right now, I'll help you find it," he offered.

"Thank you!" she squealed.

They started walking in the opposite direction that Misa had come from. Misa took this as an opportunity to babble about back home, stopping here and there to ask Raito a question. Raito knew that, had he met this girl back in Japan he probably would not have paid much attention to her. However, it was nice to speak Japanese with someone instead of having to mentally translate his thoughts to English. Of course, hew knew that if he really felt the need to speak in his first language he could always talk to L. Yet, he enjoyed showing off how smooth his English was to the detective.

He had to admit that Misa was attractive, but that did not mean that he was attracted to her. Sure, she was cute and talking to someone so energetic was refreshing, but he had never fancied girls like her. In fact, Misa's bubbly energy was starting to remind him of Sayu. Although he could never picture his sister wanting to become a model or wearing Misa's skimpy black dress that he was firmly pretending not to notice. He was sure that Sayu would not be aloud out the the house if their parents ever caught her wearing clothes that resembled Misa's.

"Found it," Raito announced once he stopped the address she had told him she was heading to. "You're only twenty minutes late."

"You saved my life," she declared. "Thank you so much!"

"That's a bit of an exaggeration, but you're welcome."

"You said you go to the school here, right?" she asked.

"Yes," he confirmed.

"I'm going to be staying here for a few months," she twirled her hair again.

"You want to meet up sometime?" he guessed what she was hinting at.

"Misa would love that!" The third person was back. She rummaged in her purse before pulling out a business card. "Here's my number."

She winked as Raito pocketed the card.

"I'll see you later," he told her.

Raito knew that he'd have to find a way to be around her without getting trapped in a relationship with the girl. Yet, for the moment, he would put off worrying about that.

"So, did you solve it yet?" Linda asked the second that Mello answered the phone.

"You're not supposed to call me," he said dully. "Or know about the case, for that matter."

"Everyone knows about it." Mello imagined the girl rolling her eyes as she said this. "And everyone wants to know what's going on."

"But you're the only one brave enough to call me," Mello finished.

"Obviously," she stated. "You don't have to be here for the others to fear your wrath."

"Good," Mello liked that.

"You can still tell me though." He imagined her leaning on a desk or chair. Linda liked to lean on furniture.

"It's top secret," he would have crossed his arms haughtily if he was talking to her in person.

"Come on," she whined.

"If you really want to know, then why don't you hack the reports that I'm sending to Roger," he suggested.

"You have to send him reports?"

"One every week," he huffed. "It's as tedious as it sounds."

Not like I tell him everything, Mello mused.

If Mello had to explain everything that he did to Roger, then he didn't see the point of him working on the case alone. He also knew that Roger would not approve of some of his present actions and actions to come. Matt, for example, had stayed a secret.

"Not even you can hack his computer," Linda dismissed.

"You don't need to actually hack it," Mello informed her. "Just sneak into his office during his lunch break. His passwords are incredibly easy to guess."

"Only you would do that," she laughed.

"And only I know top secret information," he countered with a grin that he knew she could hear.

"You're no fun," she was probably pouting.

"What's going on over there?" Mello admitted to wanting to know. "Did I miss anything exciting?"

"Not really," Linda paused for a few seconds to think. "We have some new kids, but they don't talk much. Actually, without you there's a lot less talking."

"Interesting."

"I think Near missed you," she added.

Mello gave a loud laugh.

"I'm sure he doesn't," he told her.

"Well, he's more distant and bored than usual," she explained. "I think that's is equivalent to missing you."

"I doubt it," Mello dismissed .

At that moment, Matt entered the room with his laptop under his arm. Mello nodded in greeting at him, but instead of doing the same he began gesture wildly.

"I have to go, Linda," Mello said into the phone.

"You better call me again later," she warned him. "Since you insist on blocking your caller ID."

"It's for safety purposes." He hung up on her and turned his attention to Matt. "What's with the freak out hand motions?"

"I think I have something," Matt excitedly placed his laptop on the desk that Mello was sitting in front of and opened it. "Remember when you had me look into the computers of all the new teachers?"

"Yeah." Mello honestly hadn't thought that anything would be discovered by this, but had felt it was a step in the right direction. "Did you find something?"

"No, I found nothing!" Matt exclaimed.

"We're not going to do the 'nothing means something' game," Mello told him flatly.

"Sorry," Matt muttered with some degree of defense. "What I mean is, I didn't find anything suspicious in any of the computers that I got into. However, there was one computer I was not able to find because it was not on the school system."

"What do you mean?" Mello was interested now. "I thought all students and staff members had to have their computers registered on the school system."

Mello knew this only because his personal computer was not registered.

"Exactly," Matt grinned. "So why isn't Ms. Seto registered? Why would she want to break school policy in the first place?"

"Ms. Seto? Our maths teacher?"

"Yeah," Matt nodded.

Mello considered what Matt had just told him. True, it was suspicious, but was that alone enough for him to suspect Ms. Seto? She could have just forgotten to get her computer registered or not know that she had to? Maybe she didn't want to register it? He wasn't sure why it would bother her, but she was American and they usually had strange opinions about privacy. Still, this was the closest thing to a lead that he had. If this were L or even Near, they would probably be doing something about it.

"Tomorrow's a Sunday," Mello thought out loud. "Teachers usually go off campus during weekends…I'm going to tail her."

"You think she'll do something?" Matt wondered.

"I don't know enough to assume anything," Mello admitted. "But I need information on how she behaves outside of the classroom, so this can't hurt."

Mello did not know the exact floor or room that Ms. Seto lived in, but he knew the building where all of the female teacher stayed. On Sunday morning he headed out early, leaving the room before Matt was even awake. He found a bench to sit on that gave him a good view of the entrance/exit that he was sure Ms. Seto would walk through at some point. He brought a book with him, wanting to look natural incase he ended up sitting on the bench for a long period of time.

Fortunately, the waiting period lasted only for an hour. When Ms. Seto left the building in the direction of the exit of the school, Mello was pleased that she had not noticed him. He waited until she was a good few feet ahead of him before following. Once they were off campus, it was easy for him to stick to the shadows and alley ways.

Ms. Seto wore her long dark hair down so that it fell around her shoulders. Her appearance was one of the reasons that she was Mello's favorite teacher. It wasn't that he was attracted to her, but he liked that she didn't make the effort to dress in the sophisticated manner that his other teachers felt inclined to. Her class was difficult, and he was fairly certain that she enjoyed the fact that her students needed to work a little harder than they were used to in order to get a good score from her. Today Ms. Seto looked even more casual and young than she did on weekdays. The dark jeans and leather jacket reminded Mello of something that he himself would wear, had he been able to bring any of the clothes that he liked with him to the school.

The first stop that she made was at the post office. When she went in, Mello sat down at a table at a cafe across the street from the building. Mello knew that the school was supposed to take care of both student and staff mail (he had learned this back when he was still researching the case from Wammy's House), so it was odd that Ms. Seto felt the need to stop by here in the first place. He watched as she dropped two small envelopes into the public mail box. A few seconds later she exited the building and continued on her way. Mello waited thirty seconds before following her.

It took him another minute to gain a closer distance, his goal was to get as close as he could without her noticing him. This seemed to be going well until her pace began to slow down. Anticipating that she would glance behind her, Mello ducked into a corner. He didn't trust the 'hiding in plain sight' tactic to work thrice in a row. When she turned back around, he was confident that he hadn't seen him.

Well, at least he had been confident up until she bolted down the street at an alarming fast pace. Taken by surprise, Mello ran after her. He turned the corner that he was certain she had, only the find an empty alleyway. Either his maths teacher was the fastest sprinter that he had ever met, or knew the side streets of the town like the back of her hand. Both seemed unlikely.

"What the…?" he whirled around and ran in the other direction, but he was not able to find her for the rest of the day.

Mello was excited. No, that wasn't the right word. He was happy.

Happy because his favorite teacher might turn out to be a murderer.

Well, at least he didn't delude himself into believing that his thought process was healthy. Mello knew very well how messed up in the head he was, and this had never been something he that bothered him. Mello knew that Matt probably thought that Mello was just glad to have some sort of lead. Matt saw everything that Mello was doing as a selfless attempt to save lives. In reality—sure, Mello wanted to save the future victims—but he also wanted to prove himself. He wanted recognition from L and wanted to be viewed by Roger, Wammy, and the other orphans as more than just Near's backup.

Mello liked Matt. He liked him more than he let on.

Matt was overly friendly, and Mello often saw him as more book smart than street smart. Yet, the boy's cheery and helpful nature had a positive affect on him. Making genuine friendships had never been something that Mello thought worth his time, but he would make an exception for Matt. All of this did not change the fact that, right now, he was using Matt. He couldn't tell Matt the truth, but he knew it was wrong to let him believe the lie. Mello knew this, he felt very little guilt, but he knew this.

"Um, Ms. Seto, can I ask you a question?" Matt asked loudly at the end of class.

Students began to pack up an file out of the room. Usually Ms. Seto didn't like last minute questions and would ask students to come to her room after or before school if they needed help. Luckily, since Matt was one of her brightest students, she let him talk.

"You see," Matt played the embarrassment well. Mello knew this was because he had not wanted to pretend that he could not understand what they were learning in class. "For problem five on last night's homework I got radical four over seven, but when I checked the answer key the answer wasn't a fraction. So I was wondering what I did wrong."

Mello slowly put his books away, waiting for the right moment to exit the classroom.

"I think my first calculations were wrong, but it might have been in the third part," Matt continued.

Unable to answer his question without seeing the problem, Ms. Seto rose from her desk and walked over to Matt's. She carefully served his work, turning her back on the front of the room. This was Mello's cue to move. He swiftly stood from his desk, swung his school bag over his shoulder and headed to the classroom exit. He paused in front of the door. Directly to the left of it was the coat rack where Ms. Seto hung the heavy coat that she wore on weekdays when ever she was outside (apparently she was used to a warmer climate than the chilly fall Lowood was exposed to). Mello paused in front of the coat, and pulled the bead-sized listening device that he'd begged Roger to let him have for the investigation. A quick glance over his shoulder, informed him that Ms. Seto's attention was still on Matt. Without waisting a second, Mello slid a bead into the pocket of her coat and left the classroom.

So far, so good. He smirked.

When Mello arrived at lunch, Light Yagami was already sitting at their usual table. Mello had wondered how Light managed not to make any friends his own age and insisted on spending his time with Mello and Matt. Not that he was complaining, he noticed early on that Light had a way of avoiding negative attention and judgement from his peers. This kind of reputation was the sort that easily wore off on those in close proximity, meaning that Mello and Matt wouldn't have to worry about being seen as loners or easy targets as long as Light Yagami was around.

"Where's Matt?" Light asked when Mello sat down.

"It's nice to see you to," he remarked dryly before answering the question. "Still in maths, he's having issues with the homework problems."

Light nodded sympathetically and Mello wondered how irritated Matt would be when he found out that Mello had said this. His thoughts were interrupted by a repeated beeping sound coming from the phone sitting next the Light's food. Light rolled his eyes when he looked at the device.

"You know, we're not supposed to have those on during the school day," Mello informed him. This was a rule Mello obviously did not abide by, but he had more than just his rebel attitude as an excuse for that one.

"I'm not in class right now," Light said back, but pocketed the phone.

"You're not going to answer those?" Mello asked.

Light shook his head.

"I told her not to text me when I'm at school," he said this more to himself than to Mello.

"Her?" Mello raised an eyebrow.

"No one." The fact that Light didn't want to talk about this only made Mello want to know more.

"You've only been here a week and you've already met a girl?" Mello almost didn't believe this. "What did you do, wander around the town until you ran into one? Or did you pretend you were lost and wait until a pretty passerby took pity on you?"

"Actually she was the lost one," Light corrected. "But it's not like that."

"So you're leading some poor girl on, then?" Mello accused with a smirk.

"It's not like that either," Light answered even though it did nothing to change Mello's stance.

"Then what is she texting you?"

"Nothing," Light looked embarrassed now.

"Really? Because that was at least four or five nothings," Mello grinned wickedly.

Light removed the phone from his pocket, and looked over the messages that the girl had sent him. Before he could return the device to it's hiding place, Mello snatched it from his hand.

"Hey!"

Mello's eyes scanned the texts before he handed the phone back.

"She's asking you out," he stated.

"I think she just wants to talk," Light tried.

Before Mello could ask why on Earth a random girl that Light had met that weekend would want to talk to him, Matt joined them.

"That was all your fault," he muttered at Mello, who made a mental note to thank him later.

"Light has a girlfriend," Mello announced.

"Really?" Matt seemed even more surprised than Mello had.

"No," Light said sharply. "We're not dating. I'm not interested in her."

"Prove it," Mello crossed his arms.

"You sound like a third-grader," Light informed him.

"Don't care," Mello retorted.

"He's a third-grader at heart," Matt muttered, but they both ignored him.

"Fine. Why don't you two get dinner with us tonight?" Light suggested.

"Okay," Matt accepted before Mello could think of an excuse out of it.

"Sure," Mello answered now that he was stuck.

The rest of the day passed faster than Mello had expected it would. Before he and Matt left campus to meet Light and his 'not girlfriend' at the only decent restaurant within the next five miles, he decided to check on the listening device that he had planted in Ms. Seto's coat. Pulling up the feed on his laptop, Mello skipped through the three hours of recorded lessons. He stopped when the recording was at the end of the day, which was only a few minutes ago. Despite being encased in the wool of the coat pocket, the audio was distinguishable. Mello listened to Ms. Seto pack up her things, and then to her footsteps as they approached the door. There was a slightly muffled noise that Mello assumed was her pulling the coat on. However, instead of stopping after a few short seconds, the muffling became louder and louder. Then abruptly ceased.

Realization hit Mello. Ms. Seto must have put her hand in her pocket and found the bead. Yet, this was supposed to be nearly impossible! Of course it had occurred to Mello knew that she might happen to put her hand in the pocket of her coat, for it was common for people to walk with their hands in their pockets out of comfort. In case this happened, the bead was designed to stick to the wool, not to mention the fact that the size alone should have made it go unnoticed. The only way Ms. Seto could have possibly found the bead was if she had been looking for it.

Mello listened to the silence intently, holding on to the hope that he was wrong and she didn't realize what the bead was. The quiet was cut of by a loud thud, and Mello assumed she had dropped the bead onto the floor. A second later the feed cut off to the sound of a metallic crunch. Ms. Seto had stepped on the listening device.

"Ready to go?" Matt asked, breaking Mello's train of thought.

"She did it," his own voice sounded distant. "I don't have any proof, but she's the murderer. She has to be."

"Ms. Seto?" Despite the fact that they were investigating her, this information seemed to shock Matt as much as it stunned Mello.

"Let's go," Mello stood up from the desk chair. "I need to clear my head."

This is the longest chapter I've posted for a fanfic (but it won't be the longest in this story). Thanks for reading, please visit the review box on your way out!

I'm intrigued to know what you guys are thinking so far. Since this is somewhat of a mystery fic, I'd love to hear some predictions or theories. (Such as "Is Seto really the killer?", "Are Matt and Mello going to hook up?", "Is Misa here for a reason?", "Does Piper fish for reviews too much?", extra.)

Review responses:

Cyinamas, yes this is the fic that I wrote for NaNoWriMo. Thanks for remembering!

Wizard-Party-Forever, I'm glad that you liked the Lawlight bit in the last chapter. I wasn't sure if the relationship was going to come off too subtle for a romance fic, but I wanted to establish their friendship first (despite the fact that they don't know each other in person yet).

KnowNonsense, I'm happy that you like the pacing! My stories tend to come off as slow build, and I'm never sure how reader's reactions will be to this. Thanks for the review!

m3la, thanks for your review!

Corliss, I think that a lot of people forget that Raito's pride existed before he picked up the death note. It's true that he is a nicer person without it, but his personality is far from perfect. Thanks for noticing that I'm trying to emulate that! (And I agree with the room thing.)