Hey, I'm back! Next chapter here.

This chapter has a slightly different style to it, and the reason is as follows: Originally, I had planned for this story to be separated into two, with Chapter 7 being the end of TBOYH and this chapter being the start of the sequel, but then I decided to leave them as one story, hence why the length will be increasing. From now on, the story will jump from the present to the past tense as we find out more about the woman and L's plans.

There is still more to this story than meets the eye. I hope you continue to enjoy it.

One final thing: The fantastic Hethetheth has done some fanart! It is a picture of her and scared the bejeezus out of me. http://i27 dot tinypic dot com/29cmc7l dot jpg Just replace "dot" with actual dots.

If you were to ask the handful of people who had met L in person to describe the detective, you would get a wide range of vague adjectives and similes, but the most common word would likely be "emotionless". Indeed, it often seems as if L is incapable of feeling any emotion at all. But this is not true. Over the years of his time as a detective, L has learned that any emotional display can be seen as a weakness, that allowing himself empathy would only hamper his work, so he has to ignore any feelings he has. However, this does not make him emotionless. He still feels as strongly as he ever did; he simply hides it and pays little attention to these insignificant emotions that interfere with his cases.

Well, usually.

It is impossible to tell, but L is furious. His face is passive, his voice blank, but the anger boils in his blood as he stares the woman down.

"You deviated from the plan," he states.

"I did indeed," she replies, grinning. There is not the slightest hint of remorse in her words. "But I had fun."

L's eye twitches slightly. He is surprised at how much this is affecting him. "The intention was not for you to have fun, but for Kira to confess. I highly doubt that inflicting such injuries on him was entirely necessary."

The woman walks towards him, chuckling darkly. Despite knowing that she would not be able to harm him, L is decidedly unnerved by the predatory look in her eyes. Coupled with those metal teeth – which, for some reason, she had refused to take out once they had been returned to her – L can easily see why a lesser-minded person would be terrified if this woman jumped out at them in the dead of night.

"But, detective," she whispers, one finger running lightly across her steel fangs, "he did confess. He killed hundreds of people – I see no reason why he should not suffer for it."

Taking a deep breath, L looks pointedly at the body at his feet. Still unconscious, Light appears less like a megalomaniac mass murderer and more like an innocent boy – or, L amends, taking into account the bloodstained shirt, an innocent torture victim. L himself is not fooled by this appearance, for he knows the real evil behind the façade, but he is not naïve enough to think that a jury would be so rational.

"This does quite defeat my objective of having him confess with no apparent influence."

The woman cackles, the sound reverberating down L's spine. She slaps him on the shoulder, making him flinch away. He does not like her touching him.

"What difference does it make? You got what you wanted, didn't you?"

L flips through the Death Note once more. The shinigami has gone, perhaps no longer interested now its master has been defeated.

"Yes. I have captured Kira."

-x-

The woman is Setsuko Fumiko. The first time L met her, she was in a mental asylum.

Technically, he had dealt with her before then; he was, in fact, the reason she was in said asylum.

Whilst he was working on the Kira case, one of L's less significant aliases had been hired by a rich businessman who owned a large company in Tokyo. The man claimed that someone had been repeatedly breaking into his house, despite all the security he had put up, and that they were leaving unsettling items whenever they came. Further interrogation found that the perpetrator was, for all intents and purposes, a malevolent spirit trying to terrify the businessman.

Intrigued, L had taken up the case, working on it from his laptop and sending an agent under his alias whenever necessary. He was certain that there must have been an actual person behind this, but the setup was so fascinating – eerie writing on the walls, the appearance of a creature that could seemingly disappear at will – that he almost found himself wishing it really was a ghost. It would definitely have made the investigation a lot more challenging.

L finally found Fumiko when the businessman mentioned the teeth of the spirit. The man had not allowed L to put any surveillance equipment in his home, something that the detective had found somewhat hampering to his case, leaving him with only photos and descriptions to catch the woman. As soon as the man had spoken of her having "horrible teeth, metal and needle-sharp, like a shark", L had hunted down a cosmetic dentist who had made something fitting that description. This led him to Fumiko.

However, the day that L intended to tell the businessman of his findings, the man had turned himself into the police, begging them to lock him away for as long as possible.

It transpired that the businessman wasn't exactly a saint. Not only had he been embezzling money and selling products that did not pass even the most basic of quality checks, he had drugged and raped at least four of his secretaries and personal assistants. During the police interview, he ranted wildly about how "vengeance had come to him" for his actions, and even once yelled, to nobody in particular: "Are you happy now? I did what you asked, now please, leave me be! I can't take it anymore, the fear, it swallows my soul!"

L was stunned. A quick search discovered that one of the abused secretaries had been Setsuko Fumiko's sister. Clearly, Setsuko had not taken kindly to her sister's mistreatment, and had concocted a plan to terrify the businessman into confessing. Her methods were so ingenious that L very nearly considered letting her get away with it.

But there was a chance that she would decide to do this again, perhaps to someone less deserving. He placed Fumiko under silent observation for a week, monitoring her every move and conversation. At first, she had seemed deceptively normal, but after the first couple of days she began to behave more erratically. L determined that she had some kind of psychological condition, possibly Dissociative Identity Disorder, and concluded that the safest option would be to have her committed. He had left a message with the relevant authorities and thought no further on the subject.

Then L had discovered Light's fear of ghosts.

L knew Light was Kira, had known since the first moment he saw him. It was just so hard to find any proof, and he doubted Soichiro would appreciate his son being put under observation yet again, so L had opted for slightly less conventional methods.

A quick search of his databases and a couple of enquiries determined which hospital Fumiko was in and how her treatment was progressing. L learned that Fumiko's more … eccentric side had become far more dominant over her shy, reclusive personality, but that she was calm and aware for the majority of the time. She had never acted violently, and the only thing of note was that she occasionally would try to scare her doctors. L deduced that there was a 96.4% chance she would be a great aide were she to agree to help capture Light. He had no qualms about using her as an agent – after all, he had previously worked with thieves and criminals, not to mention using a man sentenced to death as a stand-in.

The main issue would be whether Fumiko would want to fight against Kira. Her methods of terrorising the businessman through fear were akin to Kira's control of the public, and L wanted to ensure he was not handing Kira another pawn in Fumiko. He decided that the best method to determine Fumiko's loyalties would be to meet her in person.

-x-

L padded down the white corridor in sterilised shoes provided by the hospital. The man by his side, Dr Asato, had agreed to take L to Fumiko's room out-of-hours so that the detective would not arouse suspicion.

As L approached the door to Fumiko's room, he had a number of ideas of what he might find. The institute records had noted that Fumiko was on an unusually high amount of medication considering her lack of violent behaviour, and L predicted that she may not be lucid after her evening dosage. He was therefore unsurprised when the doctor unlocked the door to reveal Fumiko sprawled across the floor, clearly unconscious.

Dr Asato did not seem so calm. He quickly bent down over Fumiko's prone form, checking pulse rates and response to stimuli. After a few seconds, Fumiko's eyes flickered open and she looked blearily at the doctor, placing one hand on his knee. She gave a weak smile, reminding L unsettlingly of a tiger waking to find its prey helpless before it.

The doctor seemed to have also noticed, as his voice was tight and his breathing shallow as he spoke. "Setsuko, you gave me a bit of a scare there," he muttered. Turning to L, he explained, "We've had a number of suicides in this room over the years. I know it's superstitious nonsense, but I couldn't help fearing…"

L nodded silently, watching the doctor, who realised after a second why the detective was there. Stammering an apology, Dr Asato quickly left the room, closing the door behind him. L had been assured that all security footage of this meeting would be destroyed, but the room would have to be monitored in case Fumiko became violent.

L crouched before Fumiko in his usual position, thumbnail in mouth as he observed her. She was shakily pushing herself up from the floor, her smile gone with the doctor. She was pale, paler even than L, and her skin had a paper-thin quality to it, translucent and fragile. Her eyes were dull, lifeless, and her face was gaunt and starved.

She looked like she was dying.

"May I ask if you are ill, Miss Fumiko?"

She shook her head. "Not Fumiko. Fumiko is fine. Ojike is hungry."

Ah yes. The files mentioned that Fumiko's alternate personality preferred to be called "Ojike". Japanese for "fear". An interesting choice.

"Is the institution not feeding you correctly?"

The woman seemed to find this hilarious, a husky laugh rattling her frame. "No, they feed Fumiko fine. All the mush she could want. But there's too much medicine, it's too soft, they take away all the edges in here. Nobody screams at night. I feel like I've been wrapped in plastic and pills."

L chewed a nail thoughtfully. "I must say, you appear to have suffered from the effects of the medication. Perhaps some time out of this institution would better suit Ojike? Allow her to recover?"

Fumiko's head snapped up. "You serious about that? You'll let me out?"

L drew back slightly. This was the dangerous part. He did not want to let an unstable mental patient loose in the streets of Tokyo. "I am considering something of the sort. Of course, you would be under supervision, and you would have to continue taking your medication, albeit in a lower dosage, and you would have to assist me with something, a case."

Fumiko narrowed her eyes. "A case? How could I be any help?"

L paused. "I assume you have heard of Kira?"

Fumiko's grin widened. "He causes a lot of fear."

"Are you supportive of his actions?"

She seemed to consider this. "I think that he is wrong."

"But you yourself took justice into your own hands when you terrorised that businessman."

"Yes, but I let him go through the justice system. I could have killed him many times over as he slept in those silk sheets. No, I prefer criminals to be alive and terrified than dead." The talk seemed to have rejuvenated her slightly, some colour returning to her cheeks.

"So you are not a Kira supporter?"

"Not really, no."

L took a deep breath, noticing with some surprise that his heart rate had increased. He must have been more concerned about her response than he had thought. "Would you be interested in assisting me in the capture of Kira?"

"What would I have to do?"

"In essence? Scare him."

Fumiko chuckled. "Oh yes, I'll help you."

-x-

Within days, Fumiko had been granted leave from the institution.

At first, L had just given Fumiko a detailed profile of Light and access to whatever funding she required, intending to leave her to her own plans and play no active part himself, other than monitoring her actions to ensure she did not run away or let slip what she was doing. However, he did have to step in directly when he noticed she had purchased a worrying array of surgical equipment and a canister of chloroform.

In hindsight, L should have realised at that point that this was not the most sensible of plans.