Author's Note: I'm posting this early by--one hour and ten minutes by my watch. Next chapter is titled 'Second' and should be out Tuesday-ish. On another note--I've just reach 2000hits! Yay! Also, I'm considering going back and ironing out all the wrinkles in the previous chapters but if I do it will be quite a while yet. Remember to check out my live-journal. I've been sticking peices of didn't-happen/never-going-to-happen/teasers! of Ink in there for fun. Thank you all for your support. It makes me blush and giggle like the school girl I am.

By the end of the day the task force was reduced to a third of its previous size. Light could feel accomplishment hum in her veins. Everything is going as planned. There had been a steady decrease of officers who would willingly take the Kira case for weeks and within a few hours time she had slimmed the numbers down to less than a dozen. She had to fight to keep the smile off her chapped lips.

"Now back to college I go." She murmured quietly to herself; squashing the urge to skip the rest of the way. "Just have to turn in that extra assignment into Yokisho-sensei and I'm free for the rest of the week." Screw skipping. Light wanted to dance.

Would Kira dance? She wondered. If L was here, watching her, would he think she was Kira because she was doing a jig in a public street or just think she was crazy? Did matter?

No. It doesn't. I'm safe. I'm free. He'll never catch me! Light bounced out of the way of a harassed looking business woman talking on her cell phone. Hey, that rhymed.

Nothing could ruin her day.

Except, of course, that guy who was staring at her on a nearby park bench. Creepy. He doesn't even blink

And how the hell can anyone sit like that?

…better question. Why?

Light thought maybe if she ignored him he would go away. Not that it worked with the FBI agent. Or homework. Or Sayu's sad attempt at cooking. It might work this time? Of course it didn't. He was still there when she came out of the building. Light didn't think he had moved the entire time.

Um, oookay. Best walk quickly then.

Usually Light's highly developed sense of paranoia would alert her to the presence of people who she should avoid. Usually she is impossible to sneak up on. Usually she didn't have an annoying death god swoop down like a crazed bird and start begging for apples when all she really wanted to do was go home and sleep until the new year.

"Hello, Yagami Light." The boy's voice was strangely musical, if a bit rough. He mustn't talk much. Light thought as she stiffened. How the hell does he know my name? And who the hell is he? …You know what—I'll ask him.

"Excuse me, not to be rude but who are you? And how do you know my name?" The boy (was he really a boy? He was at least her age—probably older) shrugged and Light didn't have to use her amazing observational abilities to notice he had absolutely horrible posture. In fact, if she didn't notice she should probably visit an optometrist.

"I work with your father." The scruffy youth replied. Light wanted to ask 'and so?' but slammed the urge back into her subconscious with a force that could shatter marble like play-do. Light also wondered where the hell she kept coming up with these comparisons.

All she said was "A lot of people work with my father." and slowed her pace to a more comfortable walking-and-talking stride. Ryuk was still waving his arms like a giant peacock and begging for apples. Light ignored him with all the grace and elegance of an Egyptian Mau.

"I was actually hoping you could clarify a few things for me." Light stopped and shot him a look and was terribly disappointed when he didn't even look vaguely terrified.

"I guess?"

"I was wondering how you came up with that ingenious idea concerning the FBI agent." Light smiled a Cheshire cat grin and her steps seemed to lighten.

"Sure."

The next day she had some how been corralled into accepting a tennis match with a guy whose name she didn't even know.

Why am I doing this again? I mean really, waking up early on a Saturday to go play tennis with a guy my dad works for. It's finally happened. I have lost my mind.

Light raised a hand in greeting to the scruffy haired kid. This early in the morning left only the two of them (and an annoying, tone-deaf finch) as the only occupants of the tennis court. That guy (I should really ask him his name.) seemed to be in the same clothes as yesterday—namely a loose white sweat shirt and jeans. Light just hoped (if they were the same clothes) that they had been washed recently.

"So, just one set. Whoever wins six games first is the winner. All right with you?" Light nodded.

"It's fine." Who the hell is this guy? He said he works for my dad but he looks too young for it. Matsuda is at least in his late twenties and this kid doesn't look older than me. Dad should have mentioned him by now. A thought struck; unwanted. What if he has been sent to make sure I'm not Kira? But then why a tennis game?

"Ready to go?" He asked. Light nodded.

PHWOOSH

"Haven't you ever heard of warming up?"

"Nope." He replied."He who moves first always wins." He explained.

"Or she!" Light interjected. This guy is nuts-o

ZWAP

ZWOK

Where did this guy learn to play!? Light thought franticly. She nearly tripped trying to reach the tennis ball in time for another swing.

THWICK

Waitaminute. Can someone tell if I'm Kira through a tennis game? She wanted to dismiss the thought entirely as ridiculous but felt a nagging itch at the back of her mind. If I try too hard to win, does that make me seem like Kira? On the under hand…

ZWAP

ZWOK

ZING

…If I lose on purpose, he'll think that I thought trying too hard to win would make me seem like Kira. So loosing makes me seem like Kira too—right?

THWACK

THWUMP

"Screeeee!" Said the annoying finch from earlier as it dodged under a speeding tennis ball. Screw it. Don't think like Kira. Think like Light. What would a completely-innocent Light do?

ZINGZWAPZWOK

She would win.

DASH

FWOOSH

"Arg!!You stupid bird!"

"This is one of my favorite coffee shops. If you sit here in he back, nobody can hear what you're talking about." Light said softly.

"I've noticed you have chosen the perfect place for this." The incognito detective replied. Kira nodded and decided not to comment on his rather unusual sitting position.

"I have some questions that I'm sure you can answer." L noted how she said 'can' and not 'will.'

"Do you?"

She nodded. "Yes, I do…" Light saw the waitress coming from the corner of her eye. "…but first—coffee."

Only after Light ordered her daily dose of scalding hot liquid caffeine and cream did she decide to stop dancing around the subject.

"You said you work with my father yet you haven't once mentioned your own name. Hardly fair for you to know my name when I don't know yours."

"I haven't, have I?" Didn't I just say that? "It's Ryuuzaki." Is it? Really?

"No. It's not." Light lightly shrugged off his lies. L's black rimmed eyes widened at her lack of subtly. "You want to know what I think?" Too bad. You don't get a choice in the matter.

"I think that you are either L or someone who works under him." L's, already wider than usual, eyes widened further. Light smoothed a giggle at his surprise. What does she think she is doing…? He thought slowly; trying to focus more on his own drink than her willingness to toss discretion out the window.

"I see…and do you have any proof to support that assumption?" Light paused; considering.

"Kind of." L raised obsidian eyebrows in an unvoiced question.

"First off there was the FBI agent. Now why would someone working for the U.S. government follow the daughter of the Detective Superintendent of the NPA? There is no reason other than I was a suspect of something but even then the FBI would not get involved with Japanese affairs unless I was a suspect of something that involved them—the Kira Case." Light took several delicate sips from her coffee. L noticed she held the cup gingerly, barely even touching the handle of the porcelain mug. She must be afraid to be burned. "Or do you prefer the Criminal Victim Serial Murder Case?" L said nothing.

"Second, here you come and introduce yourself as someone who works with my father. With, not under. (most of the people on the Kira case work under my father) That too is a clue. Add that to the fact I know everyone, or know of everyone, that my father has worked with in the last 5 years tells me you're lying…" Another small sip. "…and if you're not? Why wouldn't my father tell me that you had joined the investigation? Only if you were L or worked with him and Dad was told not to tell anyone. Including his family." Impressive.

"Lastly, if you weren't L, why would you come to me and how would you know about the FBI incident? Unless you were Kira. Then it wouldn't matter; I know Kira can control his victims before killing them and that you once thought Kira was a student. He disproved that by making the times of death one hour apart for two days. That's when this started—the only people who knew that Kira was possibly a student were the investigators. That's why you started to investigate them and their families." L choked lightly on his own over-sugared coffee.

"And how do you know that, exactly?" He asked, trying to keep his tone light.

"I've been working on the Kira case on my own and I…well, the NPA needs to upgrade their firewall." She hacked it!? Light just gave him a mischievous grin.

"You know that's illegal." L pointed out slowly. Light nodded. The previously ignored Ryuk started to make faces at the other customers.

"Arresting me here and now would blow your cover. That and you have bigger fish to fry than a bored college freshman with too much time on her hands." True. L conceded.

"Also—"

RING RING RING

"Just a minute." Light dug through her bag in search of the annoying electronic device that made such a horrible racket. She yanked the cell phone from its large, crowded, cloth home and answered.

"Hello, this is Yagami Light speaking…"

bip bip bip

L recovered his own cell phone from his pockets with much more haste and grace than Light. He made up for it by holding his phone strangely.

"Ryuzaki, we have an emergency…" It was Watari.

"What's the matter?"

"Light, it's your father…"

"Mr. Yagami has collapsed."

"Light." L warned, already knowing it would be too late. "Your father…"

"I know." She said, her voice was a strange monotone; toneless and dead. All the color had left her already pale features and L noticed her hands were starting to shake.

"He had a heart attack."