To Catch a Killer

By: KitKat411

Author's Notes: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NO MORE FINALS,

NO MORE BOOKS,

NO MORE TEACHERS' DIRTY LOOKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hard to believe I'm going to be a sophomore in high school, no?

But I'm officially done with all my finals. YAY ME! And yeah, I'm a tad overexcited about this. But screw it; high school is one-fourth over with! Then I go to college, and then I enter THE REAL WORLD.

Gasp. So, in celebration of the fact that I am a sophomore, here's another chapter! YAY! No more crack songfics, Charlie the Unicorn crack stories, or SHOES crack. Weehee.

Although, if you have any ideas for a crack songfic, let me know. I'm looking for Misa, Near, and Mello songs, so if you have any, let me know!

Oh, and I also wanted to do another one-shot, another "I Believe" type of story, but with a different character. If there is someone you would like to suggest, or if you have a different idea for a one-shot, please let me know.

Oh, and post reviews! If you don't, my writing abilities decrease by 40.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

"Misa? Don't you think this might be going a bit overboard?"

"Never, Miko-chan! Just look at yourself!"

I am looking at myself, Misa. Hilary thought to herself. That's the problem! She stared at herself in the mirror and tried not to gag. She was wearing Misa's black dress/loincloth, black-and-white striped thigh socks, and heels the height of the building. The only thing I need now is a gun. That way, I can shoot myself.

But Hilary's further protests were interrupted by a large commotion from somewhere down beneath them. Hilary stared at the ground below her, confused at the noise. Misa, however, squealed excitedly.

"The rest of the Kira team must be back from lunch, Miko-Miko!" She screamed happily. "You just HAVE to meet them! Especially Misa-Misa's father-in-law!"
"Father-in-law, Misa?"

"Light's father, Miko-chan!"
"Isn't that a little presumptuous, Misa?"

Misa, who had been busy primping at her vanity, turned to face Hilary. "What does that mean?"

Hilary inwardly rolled her eyes. "Nothing, Misa. Let's go meet the investigation team."

The two girls left Misa's "wing" of the building and returned to the "main room." A/N: You know, the room with the computers and the couch.) They stood in the entranceway for a moment, watching the cluster of men shrug off their coats and return to work. Misa, however, could only be silent for a short time, and then shouted,
"HELLO, KIRA TEAM!!!!!"

Everyone stopped moving. They stared at Misa, taking in the perky blonde and the obviously uncomfortable brunette beside her. No one spoke for a few moments. Finally, one of the men-a younger man, Hilary noted-spoke up.

"Misa!" The man shouted. "Who's your friend?" He grinned at Hilary the way a bear would grin at a bee's nest.

Hilary flushed. She pulled the "dress" down furiously and tried to hide her blushing face.

"Matsuda-san!" This cry came from an older man. Hilary looked up at the older man, who was glaring angrily at Matsuda.

Misa ran up to the older man, dragging the still embarrassed Hilary along with her. "Miko-chan," Misa said happily, "Misa would like you to meet Soichiro Yagami. This is Light's father and Misa's future father-in-law! He is a very nice man."

Hilary stuck out her hand politely. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Yagami. I'm helping Misa with her modeling career."

After this introduction, however, Hilary felt another wave of embarrassment wash over her. She had referred to this man as "Mister," as Americans did. Hilary, who had grown up in America, still did not quite understand Japanese honorifics. She could barely speak and understand the language! Still, Hilary was embarrassed.

But Light's father paid no attention to her grammatical errors. Instead, he introduced her to the rest of the team, ending with the man called Matsuda.

"And this is Tota Matsuda." Light's father said. "But we refer to him as just 'Matsuda.' Matsuda, this is Miko-san. She will be assisting Misa, as well as aiding our investigation. Be nice."

"He..Hell…Hello, Miko-san." Matsuda was stuttering, obviously nervous. "N…Nice...nicetomeetyou. I'mMatsudaandI'mreallyhappyyouarehere,honest."

Hilary smiled. He was obviously uncomfortable. She could almost forgive him for being so…ah…inappropriate before. "It's nice to meet you too, Matsuda-san. I'll be taking over your job as Misa's manager."

Matsuda looked up at Light's father hopefully. "So I get to be a part of the investigation team? A real member?"

Light's father opened his mouth to speak, but a voice interrupted him. L had "walked" over and was now standing behind Matsuda. "Yes, Matsuda, you are now a real part of the investigation team."

Matsuda spun around. "Ryuuzaki! Oh wow, Ryuuzaki! This is such a great honor! I'll find that Yotsuba Group and hunt down Kira if it's the last thing I do!"

L nodded and Hilary noticed him for the first time. Hilary noted the way L stood-slouched over, as if he was trying to hide himself from the world. Hilary smiled to herself. She, too, often slouched over when walking and standing.

But L opened his mouth to speak again. "Yes, Matsuda, I know you will be an excellent addition to the team. And to start, would you mind running an errand for me?" He gave Matsuda a brown leather wallet brimming with money. "Would you please go to the store? I'm out of sugar and Watari is busy finding Kira."

Matsuda glared at the ground, then, after a long moment, swallowed. "Yes, Ryuuzaki." He took the money and left.

Hilary watched him go, and a strange feeling overcame her. She recognized it immediately, of course: guilt.

"L…I mean, Ryuuzaki," Hilary said, "I could have gone to the store for you. Matsuda obviously wanted to help."

L looked at her closely. "No, Miko," he told her. "We all have our place in catching Kira. Matsuda's is fetching my sugar. Your job is to accompany Misa. She has a photo shoot today, and I need you to be there with her at all times."

Hilary nodded and turned to look at the peppy girl behind her, but did not see her. "Shit!" Hilary whispered to herself. Had she lost Misa this quickly, this soon? She whirled around the room, trying to find Misa and trying to act like she had a clue as to what she was doing. This was a hard medium. She could feel L's eyes on her back, even if the boy had slouched-Hilary couldn't call it "walking"-back to his computer station.

After a moment, however, she located Misa near the wall of computers. Well, somewhat near the wall of computers. Misa was actually with the boy who was near the wall of computers.

"Light!" Misa was saying happily. "Misa is so pleased to see her Light! Misa would do anything for her Light, even die for him!"

From Light's facial expression, Hilary was willing to bet Light wanted Misa to die, even if it wasn't for him. She decided to "rescue" him from Misa, if only for a few hours. She walked over to the happy couple and tapped Misa on the back.

"Misa?" She asked. "Ryuuzaki says you have a photo shoot starting in thirty minutes. We'd better leave now or you'll be late. You can speak with Light later, all right?"

Misa nodded. "Misa does love being a model!" She gave Light one more hug and started to walk off. Hilary watched her leave the room, then turned back to Light. He didn't say anything to her, but Hilary could see the relief plastered across his face. She laughed, but so quietly that no one else could hear. Then Hilary turned around, braced herself, and followed Misa out of the room.

Thirteen Hours Later…

Hilary tossed and turned in her bed uncomfortably. It wasn't the bed that annoyed her-in fact, this was probably one of the nicest beds she'd ever slept in. However, this bed was not her bed. It wasn't in her house with her family and her life. This wasn't Hilary's bed, not really, anyway. This bed belonged to "Miko," Misa Amane's manager and Kira hunter. She wasn't sure if she liked her new role in life, her new name, or her new job. All she knew was that she sure as hell didn't like this bed.

And so, ignoring the clock that read 2:53 A.M., Hilary crawled out of bed. She had finally convinced Misa to give her "plainer" clothes, and Misa had left a pair of jeans and a white shirt at the foot of Hilary's bed. The long-sleeved shirt was too tight for her tastes, but the jeans at least fit well: baggy, faded, and comfortable, exactly the way Hilary always wore her clothes. She always tried to buy the most faded and baggy clothes possible. She often disappeared within her clothes. She liked hiding within layers and layers of clothes-they hid her from the real world.

Hilary walked downstairs. She didn't know exactly where she was going or what she was going to do once she got there. Right now, Hilary's only objective was to get as far away from that bed as possible.

And so, Hilary found herself once again in the main investigation room. The room looked quite a bit different than it had thirteen or so hours ago. No one was here, for one, and all the lights were off.

Well, almost everybody was gone. As she stared into the near dark of the room, Hilary could make out something by the computers. His laptop was the only light in the room, but the light illuminated someone with black hair, a baggy white shirt, and horrible sitting position. Hilary walked over to him and sat at the chair next to L.

"L," she said, somewhat surprised. "What are you doing here? Don't you ever go home? Or to bed?"

L stopped typing and looked at her. "I'm going through Kira investigation files. There is a twenty-seven percent chance I have overlooked something. I do this every night, Hilary." He leaned slightly towards her, his eyes large, luminous, and slightly creepy. "Or, should I say, 'I do this every night, Miko'?"

Hilary looked down. "My alias is that bad, Ryuuzaki?"

"No." He told her. "Not until you refer to Soichiro Yagami as, 'Mister Yagami,' anyway."

Hilary flushed, embarrased at being caught. "Did anyone else notice?"

"No. Frankly, Hilary, no one else cares enough about you to bother. Well, other than myself, Misa, and possibly Light Yagami himself. The others are too concerened about catching the Yotsuba Group."

"Oh."
He peered intensly at her again. "You were not raised in Japan." This was posed as a statement, not a question. Still, Hilary answered.

"No. I grew up in America. New York City, to be exact. My father is the Japanese ambassador to the United Nations, which is why we moved here."

"I see. I too did not grow up in Japan. I was raised in Britain."

Hiliary nodded, unsure of what L wanted her to say. She wondered if this was another "test" of his, a test to see if she would check to see if he was lying. She felt her locket faintly, but saw nothing. If she was honest with herself, she wasn't surprised L wasn't lying. He didn't look Japenese, nor did he speak with an accent.

They sat in silence for a few moments until L spoke again. "I wanted to apologize for Matsuda's behavior, Hilary."

She looked up. "Hmm?"

"It was highly inappropriate."

"Oh." She laughed. "No, L, it's okay."

"No it isn't 'okay.' It was nowhere near 'okay.' It was unnesessary and uncalled for."

"Mmm. I suppose."

L said nothing further, and instead returned to typing on his laptop. As he did this, Hilary thought about her day. Most of it had passed in a perky, overly cheery blur. However, one thing Misa had said to Hilary had been stuck in Hilary's mind all day, and she thought about it now. Misa had said that Hilary would be in debt to Kira after Hilary forced him to kill the man who killed Hilary's mother.

Hilary furrowed her eyebrows and thought. Would she really be in debt to Kira? And would she want to be in debt to a murderer? Or was Kira simply the protagonist, the "good guy," the guy killing the "bad guys" in a battle between good and evil.

Which is worse? Hilary asked herself. Killing for a more perfect world, or stopping the killings? Is Kira right for killing criminals? Or is L right for trying to hunt Kira down? What is the true definition of "justice"? Is "justice " killing a few for the better of society? Or is "justice" bringing down the killer, no matter how noble the killer's intent was?

Both "sides" claim to be in the right on this one. Kira thinks he is good because there are less "evil" people in the world. L thinks he is good because he thinks Kira is a murderer, and murderers must be caught.

Who is right? And won't I be siding with Kira if I use him? If I get Kira to wipe out my mother's killer, aren't I just as bad as Kira? Killing someone who killed someone else…That's what I'm trying to do. What I want to do. And yet…That's what Kira does every day, on a massive scale.

Do I want to be like Kira? Hilary asked herself. Kira is a murderer! Kira has killed so many people now…I would never want to do that. L is right; Kira must be stopped. No killings can be justified. Murder cannot be explained away.

But then…if I want to bring Kira to justice, then how can I first use him?

Then it boils down to one question. Hilary finally realized. Which is more important to me: Stopping a killer or becoming a killer for my personal gain? The satisfaction of putting away a murderer or the sweet taste of revenge?

What is my definition of justice?