Chapter Two

"Hey! Hey!" A man's voice was shouting over the loudspeaker as I walked into the Tokyo airport. Yup, the man I was seeing here was definitely Matsuda. He was waving at me wildly. Couldn't L -Ryuzaki, I corrected myself in mid-thought- have sent someone who would be more discreet?

"Hi Matsuda-san. I'm Ayano Tayama. Call me Ayano-san." I said, trying to hide my annoyance and bowed slightly.

"Hi, Ayano-san! Nice to meet you." He said and bowed back. "Ryuzaki told us some about you. I'm honored to be working with you."

"Thanks." I said. I got into his car and we drove off.

"So, can you give me an update on the Kira case? L...um, I mean Ryuzaki hasn't updated me in a week." I asked Matsuda.

"Oh, uh, sure. Well, Light Yagami and Misa Amane just got released from confinement, but Light's chained to Ryuzaki and Misa's living in the top floor." Matsuda said.

"Chained? What exactly do you mean by chained?" I asked.

"Literally. Ryuzaki put on handcuffs that chained him and Light together. He still suspects Light and Misa but there's really no way they could be Kiras." Matsuda said.

"Hmmm. So then there are no new suspects then?" I asked.

"No, not yet..." He said.

"Now I can see why he wanted me over here." I said and sighed. "He's almost never been wrong before, but if Light and Misa were proven innocent..."

"Ryuzaki obviously still suspects them both, but he has no evidence against them." Matsuda said.

"Well, if you can't find evidence there's not much you can do." I said and leaned back in my seat. "Poor L...oops, Ryuzaki. It's really frustrating to seem so close and then find out you were barking up the wrong tree."

"You got that right." Matsuda sighed. "But it's nice to know Light's innocent."

"You just said that L still suspects him." I said.

"Ryuzaki. And he does, but there's no possible way. The killings began again after Light's second week of confinement and we were watching him. There was no way he could have killed anyone." He said.

"So it would appear, but there's something odd about this." I muttered. "Why would he take a rest for two weeks?"

"That's a good point." Matsuda said.

"We still don't know how he kills, though. If he can kill by just thinking about them, it's possible that Light could have loaded up on names and faces before he went into confinement, but unless he has an abnormally good memory it's unlikely that he'd be able to remember them all." I said.

"Yeah, haha." Matsuda said. "I'm getting kinda confused..."

"You'll get it soon." I said. He pulled into the garage of an enormous building that gleamed in the sunlight. "This is it? No way. It's huge!" He smiled as he leaned out of the car to get his retina scanned.

"Haha, yes way." Matsuda laughed. "We just moved into it yesterday. It's awesome."

"Wow..." I got out of the car once it was parked and slammed the door shut.

"You want me to get your stuff?" He asked.

"Sure, that'd be great." I said, picking up my purse and one of my smaller bags and walked into the door. I put my bags up onto the x-ray machine and walked through the metal scanner. Matsuda heaved the rest of my luggage up onto the machine and walked into the scanner. It made a loud screeching noise.

"Dang, I forgot my belt..." He instantly took it off and walked into the scanner for the second time. He sighed with relief.

"The last time I came in here I had to take off my pants." He said and grabbed the rest of my bags.

"Whoa, too much information Matsuda-san." I said. He blushed slightly.

"Sorry, Ayano-san." He said. We walked into the elevator and he punched a button. "Ryuzaki's set up your place already. We'll drop by there first before going to where the magic happens." I laughed.

"Fine with me." I said. When the elevator door opened, Matsuda pointed to a door and it flew open.

"Hiiiiii Matsu! Oh...who's she?" A young woman who couldn't have been older than twenty was in the doorway. Her blonde hair spilled down her back and she had two tiny pigtails on the sides of her head.

"I'm Ayano Tayama. I'm working with...Ryuzaki on this case." I said, almost slipping up again. I'd almost forgotten Misa Amane didn't know him and L were the same person. Although she seemed way too cheerful to be the second Kira, I didn't want to accidentally slip up and give it away, just in case she was.

"Oh, well nice to meet you! I'm Misa Amane. Ryuzaki's told us some about you." She said. "You're going to be sharing my floor?"

"...Apparently..." I said, giving Matsuda a quick glance. He turned a bright red.

"Well, come on in! Follow me." She said. I walked inside and followed her into a big bedroom. Matsuda heaved the luggage onto the large bed with a huge sigh.

"Wow. This is nice." I said, looking around. I had a walk-in closet and a gorgeous bathroom.

"Yeah, it's cool!" She said. "I hope you find everything niiiiiice and comfy."

"Thank you, Amane-san." I said.

"Call me Misa-Misa!" She chirped. "I'll help you unpack if you want."

"Actually, Ayano-san has somewhere she has to be." Matsuda said, checking his watch.

"Yeah, I'll unpack later. Thanks for the offer, I'll take up on that if you're still here when I get back." I said.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere thanks to that pervert." Misa muttered. I assumed by "that pervert" she meant L.

"Haha, well then see you when I get back." I laughed, then walked out of the room with Matsuda. My heart was beginning to pound loudly. I wondered if he could hear it as we got back into the elevator.

"Are you excited, Ayano-san?" He asked. "Ryuzaki says he hasn't seen you in awhile."

"It's been a couple years since I last saw him, but we've been keeping in touch..." I said.

"Really? A couple years, huh...?" Matsuda asked. The elevator dinged and the doors opened. The room was dark, with multiple TV screens and computers. A familiar crouching figure with the messiest black hair I'd ever seen was sitting in a chair, chained to a sandy-haired, straight-backed figure who I could only assume was Light Yagami.

"Hey! Ryuzaki! Ayano-san's here!" He shouted. Both of the men turned around. Those familiar panda-like eyes focused on my face, and L smiled one of his rare smiles. Yes, the ones that used to turn me inside out when I was a hormonal teenager. I still felt a slight quiver in my stomach as my eyes met his.

"Ayano-chan." He said.

And an evil cliffhanger! ...sort of. Please review!