The apartment building looked as if it had been long in need of some maintenance, but Hitomi hadn't expected much different. This neighborhood, she knew, had a long history of being for those of less 'dignified' professions, going back to the burakumin of the Edo period.. Now it was common for day laborers to stay in the cheaper housing. She followed Watari up to the apartment, speaking with the police officer stationed outside the door. From the look on his face when they crossed inside, the man knew they were connected with something big. Leaving their shoes on, they stepped past the crime scene tape and up the step into the cramped apartment.

"I'd forgotten how much smaller places are here," Hitomi mumbled as she looked around. The entire apartment consisted of one room, sectioned off into different spaces. The walls were a dingy yellowed color, not having been cleaned in far too long. In the kitchen, a small corner in front of the pair, the walls and ceiling were stained black, the smoke alarm dangling open in a mess of wires. Someone had indeed set a fire, disconnecting the alarm and letting it get a little out of hand before extinguishing it. She turned to the left where a rumpled futon lay on the floor by a radio and stacks of books on criminology and the like. But what stopped her from moving forward was the empty noose still hanging from the ceiling fan, a reminder of why they were there.

"Ooka-san, Ryuzaki would like to speak with you," Watari's voice broke in. He handed her a cell phone and she put it to her ear, trying not to look at the rope, her eyes inexorably drawn back to it.

"He- hello?"

"Hitomi-chan. You're going to be my eyes for this. I need you to pay close attention to everything you see. Okay?" His voice sounded strained, tired more than his usual tone.

"I don't know about this Ryuzaki-san. Don't you think you should have Yagami-san here instead, or Matsuda even? They're police, and I've never been in a place like this before... I mean a-"

"A place where someone has died by their own hand. I know. But this is your job. This is so I can defeat Kira. I'm counting on you to show me how good you really are. That you're as smart as Raito. Maybe even smarter. Unless you aren't..."

"Don't-" she spoke loudly, gaining a glance from Watari as he looked carefully through the remains of the burnt kitchen. Clearing her throat, she lowered her voice. "Don't try to goad me into this, I can do it on my own. It's enough knowing you trusted me to come here instead of him to know that you think I'm better than he is. Or you're testing me. Either way, I don't intend to panic. I just need to distract myself from the fact that someone died here, okay?"

"Tell me what you see." He didn't seem to register her implied request, so she moved closer to the window, looking out into the street.

"We're on the third floor. It's an older building, kind of dirty. I guess that's why it was cheap enough for her to rent it for months at a time even after paying for her fiancee's funeral. The neighborhood is known for places that require little or no identification or anything to get a place."

"Yes, I've familiarized myself with the area. What do you see in the apartment, Hitomi-chan?" She turned her back to the window, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

"She... Disconnected the fire alarm. She didn't want anyone to call rescue, and either she put the fire out herself of someone was here with her who did. If it was her, I don't know why she let it get so out of control, it ruined the kitchen... I don't know..."

"Hitomi." His lack of suffix caught her off guard, drawing all her attention to the small sounding voice in her ear. He didn't say anything at first, and for a second she thought she'd lost the call. "Tell me... about your family."

"My family? I don't know what that has to do with the case."

"You wanted a distraction. Tell me about your family, and keep studying the room. When you see something, tell me. But for now, start with your mother." She paused, trying to think of something about the scene in front of her, but as her eyes flicked to the noose again and she felt a momentary tightening in her chest, she spoke lowly.

"My mother's name is Toshiko. Her family... Ando, goes back at least as far as the Tokugawa era. Judges and administrators. One of them created the first fire department in Tokyo, or something."

"I see."

"They owned a lot of land in Yamagata, and kept living there after the land was re-appropriated. My mom, she moved to Tokyo for college on a kendo scholarship. That's how she met my dad, at school."

"Tell me about him."

"Ryuzaki-san..." A sigh barely registered over the phone. He was getting annoyed.

"Just tell me."

"Well, it's just that I've noticed something. She let the fire get pretty big before she put it out. I think Kira tried to have her die in the fire, but it was-"

"Against her nature."

"Yes. She put out the fire, and since she still had to die, she had to come up with something else. Maybe Kira even had to try all over again, use whatever power he has a second time. But that means maybe someone saw her, she had to get rope somewhere." Watari's voice intruded on the call, scaring her. She hadn't noticed his earpiece when he'd handed the phone to her.

"There are remnants of paper, metal and plastic in the pots on the stove. She looks to have burnt file folders and notebooks."

"That means she burnt whatever evidence she had on the case. We're back at square one." The pair in the apartment stood for a few moments in silence, waiting for the word from the detective. "Finish a search of the place, then come back to headquarters. We'll have to think on this for a while. And Hitomi-chan, I hear you have an important dinner tonight." He hung up without warning, something she'd come to expect him by now, and she handed the phone back to Watari.

"Ooka-san, I'll finish up here in the kitchen, why don't you take a look at those books and newspapers by the futon. Then we can go back." She nodded, kneeling next to the stacks and taking a pad of paper out of her bag, writing down the names of the books and the dates of the papers. In a few minutes, Watari had finished, and went to retrieve the car, leaving the girl alone as she finished her list. But when she pushed up to stand, a floorboard creaked, popping just a little out of place. She pulled it up and found a hollow underneath, clearly having held Misora's notes before the fire. It was clearly emptied before the woman's death, but Hitomi still knelt back to the floor and reached her hand into the darkness just in case.

"Can't have Ryuzaki calling me incompetent later on for assuming," she said to herself as her hand searched blindly. Just as the dust and possibility of bugs had her pulling her hand back, it brushed upon something. In the light, she saw it was a small folded bundle of papers, a cramped writing filling every inch of the space, front and back. A quick skim revealed nothing new on the case, but she put it in her pocket anyways, pushing the board back just as Watari returned.

"Are you ready?" he asked her. Feeling unsure about the hidden bundle in her pocket, she smiled anyways, following him out of the dank apartment with a nod. It took a conscious effort not to look at the papers the whole ride back, and it was even harder when they returned to headquarters and everyone began asking her questions about the crime scene. She excused herself quickly, saying she felt sick to her stomach from it, heading up to her suite alone. Of course, finding L sitting in her kitchen when she arrived didn't help her nerves any.

"Ryuzaki-san, what are you doing up here? Shouldn't you be downstairs with everyone else, working on the case?" He didn't look up form the surface of the counter.

"Sit down." Hesitantly, she took a seat next to him, careful to make sure her secret bundle was on the far side from him. "I heard Raito say some things to you about... Misora. I want you to know..."

"Ryuzaki-san, if you're going to tell me she was your friend, like Raito implied, I don't see how that's important enough for sneaking up here and scaring me like this. And if you're going to tell me you slept with her, then that means even less to me, outside of the investigation. In either case, I'm very sorry for your loss but-"

"Misora told me she was investigating the people her fiancee did before his death. He was following one of those people when he died."

"Raito." He glanced up at her briefly. "I reviewed all the files on the case, Ryuzaki. But I don't get why you're telling me this now, you proved that Raito wasn't Kira, didn't you? Before the two of you came to New York... And he can hear you, you know. We're in my apartment, it has cameras."

"I turned them off before I came here. Besides, I am the only one with full access to everyone's videos. Even when the tapes are up on the monitors downstairs, no one can hear anything or enhance the footage without my password. But that's not the point."

"The point is what, then? Your suspicions are renewed? Don't think for a second that I don't know that you never fully let him go, just like Amane-san and myself. We're all still on your list, but the only way to catch anyone is proof. Misora burned everything she had, even Watari confirmed that. We haven't got a thing, and after locking Raito up like you did, he'd be dead if he was responsible."

"The point is that you don't know as much as you think you do. I came here... Because I needed to be away from everyone else. You may know the case, but you don't know..." She studied his face as he stared at his hands, gasping audibly when realization hit her, the picture of the woman on Matsuda's computer screen that morning popping up in her mind.

"L... Misora was- you loved her..." His head snapped up, anger flashing though his eyes like lightning, but nothing else betraying his emotions as he spoke.

"Don't you talk about her. Don't you say that to me. I was unexperienced. She was engaged. She loved that man, not me. Her and I, we were nothing. Nothing." His voice failed on the last word, becoming a half choked whisper, and he looked back down. "And I don't need your comforting, it's not what I came here for. I want to be left alone to think." She hesitated for a moment, but finally put a hand on his arm.

"L-san, I'm sorry. You weren't nothing, you know. If she... if she was anything like me, like you said, she cared about you, at least as a friend. It was a bad situation, there was no way to get out of it without everyone getting hurt, especially if she was truthful with her fiance." He pulled away from her, her words obviously not helping. He stood and moved away from her, into the living room, looking out the pane glass that made up one wall onto the city.

"She shouldn't have been involved. He couldn't stop her, and I didn't try. I didn't think she'd be so careless. I tried to use her, let her do the work for me again, and all I got was another victim of this." Hitomi turned and stood as well, staying a few feet away from him, the couch and coffee table between them. It was awful seeing him like this, and it could even get in the way of the investigation. Since kindness wasn't working, and soon Raito would be phoning her about their dinner date, she decided to try the tough love approach.

"Ryuzaki, don't let yourself get too emotional over this. Focus on the case. So another investigator died, so she was your girlfriend and she betrayed you. Maybe the two of them deserved what they got for their stupidity, ne?" He flinched, and she winced at how harsh she sounded, but continued. "But you're right. Justice is what's important, and you're L. The entire world is counting on you to put an end to this. There's no time for moping over this, if you really cared about her, get your revenge. Make sure he pays for what he did to you." Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket, and she looked at the screen long enough to see Raito's name.

"I don't know what else to say, but think about this. Tomorrow, or even today, Kira could find all of us. Names, faces, everything. And then I'll be another victim. And Raito. And Amane. Soichiro ojisan, Matsuda, Mogi, even Watari. All of us. And you'll be the only one left. Or maybe he'll get you too, who knows? Your only choice, any of our choice, is to do our best before that time comes. There's no time now for sitting around regretting the past." She sighed and turned toward the bedroom. "Look, I have to go, Raito and Yagami-san are almost ready to go, and they'll be waiting for me. I have to change."

"Hitomi..." She turned back, almost shouting in surprise at how quickly and quietly he'd moved across the room. He stared into her eyes, not speaking, as he climbed awkwardly up onto the couch, coming face to face with her. One hand reached out and feebly grasped her sleeve. Not much, but she knew that even just his usual way of touching things meant he wanted something else from her. She leaned closer, the back of the couch pressing against her legs. This close she could feel his breath, and nothing but a whisper would come from her. As if her body was acting on its own, not wanting to betray the moment.

"Hai?" His lips barely brushed her cheek as he leaned to her ear. She wasn't even sure if he'd done it accidentally or not.

"Don't go back to him."

"L-san, Raito has a girlfriend. And I don't intend to-"

"I've seen how he looks at you. Don't let him fool you." Before she could respond, he released her, climbed back down from the couch, and left without a word, leaving her alone. She stood for a moment, dumbfounded, then moved quickly into her room, putting her jacket in the closet, but taking the wad of paper and putting it in a small box on the top shelf.

"What makes you think he won't look there? Or that he really turned the cameras off?" A voice called behind her. She flinched, not having heard the voice in a while, and almost forgetting the presence of her own personal demon.

"Because. You wouldn't bother talking to me if I was being watched. And because this box is full of souvenirs. He's already looked in it and knows that. So this is just a ticket stub Matsuda gave me from the concert. Not suspicious at all." The shinigami giggled, coming into sight above the bed as Hitomi pulled a dress from the closet and turned back toward the rest of the room. Hovering for a few more moments as the girl walked into the bathroom to change clothes, she spoke again.

"They're suspicious of you, you know. Ryuk says they're almost positive you'll betray them both. Rat them out to your detective friend."

"Let them think what they want," Hitomi muttered.

"You know he'll kill you. It won't make a bit of difference to him. But he wants you to join him, he wants you by his side, nee-chan. And he wants the detective dead. It's the only way you'll get out of this alive..."

"It doesn't matter what he wants, I'm not his property. I told you my reasons for taking the note in the first place, and L's my best chance."

"Revenge isn't exactly the nicest of reasons, nee-chan."

"Well, I'm not the nicest of people, then." She sighed, zipping the dress up in the back and facing the mirror, checking the rest of her appearance. "Besides, I took the eyes, and you told me how it shortened my life. So if I'm going to die young, why not get my revenge and stop this Kira business by taking him down with me?" There were a few seconds of silence, then the spirit spoke again, voice deadly serious.

"That's very interesting, self sacrifice. It'll be over too soon, though." As quickly as it had changed, it became cheerful again. "Don't bother saying anything, the cameras are back on. By the way, I'm looking forward to the family dinner tonight. You and the Yagamis, me and Ryuk. It's going to be so fun."

When Hitomi came back into the open space of the apartment, she was alone, her small follower having disappeared once again.