Chapter 1

"Hey! Why you're doing there? Stop!"

The girl ran up to the four boys who were standing in front of the grave.

"Oh, look – it's her," one of the boys said, smirking. He grinned at her widely before stepping forward and stomping on the flowers planted before the grave.

"No!" she screamed, stopping in her tracks. "Yamete!"

At this, the boys began to laugh.

"Like we can understand your Japanese babbling! Go back where you came from! Nobody wants you here!"

She balled her hands into fists and looked at the boys defiantly.

"Urusai yo! Get away from Nii-chan's grave!"

The older boy's laughter only increased.

"Who's Nii-chan? Do you even know who's buried here?"

Another boy smirked as he said: "It's the crazy kid. The first successor - the failure! A!"

"Shut up!" the girl shrieked. "He wasn't crazy!"

"Yeah, right. He wasn't just crazy – he had totally lost it!"

The boys burst into fresh laughter while small tears appeared in the girl's eyes. She wiped them away angrily with her sleeves and refused to back away even as the boys advanced upon her.

"That's not true," she said. "You're lying. Nii-chan wasn't crazy."

"What did you say? Are you still going on about that?"

The tallest and probably oldest of the boys came closer to her, towering over her and looking down menacingly.

"I dare you to say that again," he said, his voice dangerously quiet.

She shrunk back a little, but then looked up at him defiantly and said:

"But it's true. Nii-chan knew exactly what he was doing. He was smarter than all of you!"

"Why, you-"

The boy slapped her across her face, causing her to stagger backwards, away from him.

"I'm the smartest person in the orphanage! I'll succeed L one day! How dare you say that!"

He slapped her again, and she fell to the ground. But even then he didn't stop. He began kicking her, and stomping dirt into her face and eyes and all over her clothes, while his friends laughed.

They came up behind him and began joining in, kicking the younger girl, who by now had stopped moving, her arms over her head and cowered into a small ball on the ground.

"Hey, look" – one of the boys exclaimed suddenly – "how about we use this?" He held up the candle that had been standing on A's grave.

The oldest of the boys, the one who had slapped her first, smirked and took the candle from his friend's hand. He held it up high so it shone bright against the evening sky.

"Let's mark her," he said, "so that she never forgets who she defied!"

There was more laughter, but it was suddenly interrupted by a voice from overhead.

"That's far enough."

Two boys were standing not too far away from the group, having just emerged from between the tombstones.

"Stop hurting her. She's not even moving anymore."

An angry look appeared on the oldest boy's face.

"Mello. Matt. What the hell are you doing here? I told you to stay away from us!"

"Oh, yeah? And you expect us to watch while you hurt a girl who hasn't done anything to you?" the red-haired boy, Matt, shot back.

"It's not like she doesn't deserve it," the boy retorted, still holding the candle. "She called us stupid."

At this, the other boy, Mello, started laughing. "So that's it. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but she was right – you are stupid. And even stupider so for attacking a helpless girl, kicking her when she's already down, and now going against her with fire. Cut it out."

The two of them came closer, and even though the larger group of boys was clearly older than them they seemed to be without fear of them.

The oldest boy raised the candle and frowned. Mello and Matt's attitude seemed to have taken him a little aback – he hadn't expected them to be so confident.

"And what are you gonna do about it?"

Matt smirked. "Oh, I don't know. What do you think, Mello?"

Mello grinned back at his friend. "I'd advise them to leave before Roger sees that light of theirs… they might get in trouble. Don't you agree?"

The boy looked up at the candle and cursed.

"Damn it. He's right," he admitted through gritted teeth. He really seemed not to have considered this. He turned to his friends, who were all looking at him as if they were awaiting orders.

"Let's get out of here. She got what she deserved."

He carelessly dropped the candle onto A's tombstone, where the flowers that they had crushed instantly caught fire. The stone fence around them prevented the fire from spreading – but the flowers were ruined.

Laughing, the group of boys left the scene, headed for the large house on the other side of the hill they were on: Wammy's House, the orphanage. This graveyard was just outside the fence around the grounds of the orphanage, and the boys had found a small gap they could sneak out through. In fact, they had followed the girl out here a couple of times before ambushing her that day.

Mello and Matt watched them leave, and as soon as they were gone they hurried to the girl's side.

Mello went straight to the fire and stomped on it to put out the flames, while Matt knelt down beside the dark haired girl on the ground. He shook her shoulder lightly, but she didn't move.

"This is bad," he said to his friend, who had turned away from the remains of the burnt flowers and knelt down beside him. "She's not waking up."

Mello bit his lip. "Let's get her out of here."

Matt nodded. "What do we do? Tell on them?"

Mello seemed to consider this for a moment. "What would L do?"

Matt looked at his friend and frowned. "You're really serious about this, aren't you?"

"Of course I am!" Mello said with determination in his voice. "I'll definitely beat Near and become L's successor! So I have to think like L would!"

Matt sighed and shook his head slightly. "Then we've got to tell on them. After all – who says they won't do it again?" He looked down at the girl on the ground.

"You know, I don't even know her name. Do you?"

Mello shook his head. "She was always with A, remember? She's always been sort of… small, and never doing anything wrong… I don't know, but isn't she too normal to be here?"

Matt frowned again. "Now that you mention it… I don't even know what she's good at. She must have a talent of some sort, though, if she's here…"

Sighing, Mello moved to the girl's other side. "We'd better get going. And how are we gonna explain to Roger what WE were doing out here?"

Matt grinned. "Following them, of course. He won't punish us if we bring her back. Come on, let's go."

When they tried to lift her together, the small girl groaned quietly. Her chest rose and fell with ragged, wheezing breaths.

"They really hurt her, didn't they?" Matt said quietly – much too considerate for his usual self.

Mello nodded. "And that even though she was right – they ARE idiots. She must have been pretty brave to stand up to them. We should get her inside quickly and have the nurse look at her before we go tell Roger."

The two boys lifted her into a standing position and each draped one of her arms around their shoulders – and in that manner they walked her all the way back to the house. All the while her breathing rattled in their ears, and she did not wake up.

The girl was dreaming – a dream where A was still alive, and a dream where he proved to everyone that he was not insane, but that it was the others who were in the wrong. She never did understand what had really happened to make everyone think he was insane, and she didn't understand what had led to his death, and she didn't understand why he had left her alone.

She was overwhelmed by sadness and hopelessness. Nobody was going to believe her, anyway! She was the only one to fight for her brother's sake, even though he had gone and left her behind.

Should she just give up on him? Was that the only way?

She felt her resolve crumble as she remembered the pain of being slapped and kicked moments earlier. She didn't even have the energy to open her eyes and see who was carrying her.

She could not stand up to those boys who believed her brother had been crazy.

Then she remembered the promise she had made before his grave directly after he had died. It felt like a lot of time had passed since then, but in reality it had only been a few months, little over two years. She was now eight years old, and hopeless.

But that promise, at that time… she had promised to become L's successor and show them all they had been wrong that way. Somehow, over time, she had lost sight of that goal.

Despite the pain, she balled her hands to fists.

I promise, nii-chan. I'll prove them wrong. I will become L's successor. For you.

Hello, everyone!

So here is the next chapter :D I hope you like it! Since my holidays have finally started now (thank goodness!) I'll hopefully be able to update more frequently. Until then, please review and tell me what you think of this chapter!

~ZoeTsunami~