Scarlet-Red-Wings, Jen, mrsLlawliet162 and candy-is-epic - thank you all so much for the lovely reviews! Also, thank you and congratulations for anime0angel, who has cracked the code before it was announced!

6

Circle

The next day Inspector Ichigawa entered his office with a coffee cup in hand. He took a seat in his comfortable chair and leaned in to glance at the files that came in that morning and froze. A red envelope was sticking out from underneath one of the files. The kanji symbols of his surname were cut out from newspapers. Ichigawa. The envelope was not sealed, so, with slightly shaky fingers, the Inspector opened it and took out the photo. He looked at the back, thankful for his understanding of the English language, then flipped it to look at the image. His body went numb, but only for a short while. He dashed out of his office, the picture in his steel grip.

-

With a fruit-flavored gum in his mouth, L held the exact same photograph in his hand a couple hours later, after it was checked thoroughly for any fingerprints and such. Not surprisingly, they found nothing at all. Well, nothing at all on the photograph. The Inspector was clever enough to read and understand both messages - the one in the back and front of the picture. L flipped the photo over again.

I had a corpse under my bed

I had my fun but now he's dead

My favorite color is bloody red

You're not trying hard enough,

and it makes me really sad :(

- Hurry, Detective!

L flipped it again and looked at the image. It showed the back of the police department building, where the trash containers were. One of them, on which the camera had focused on, was red.

"I immediately went over to it and started searching," Ichigawa said over the phone; L blinked and lifted his cell phone to his ear. "The smell was horrible, but it could be easily taken for garbage. I found four plastic bags which were tied up with a red string. I opened them and…" the Inspector paused, trying to get past the horrible image still fresh in his memory before continuing, his voice indicating that the man was furious "I guess he was too big to fit in one bag, so she had to cut him into pieces."

L said nothing. 'So, this is the postcard you promised to send, Kaosu?' he mused, chewing on the gum ferociously 'Hiding a body right under the Inspector's nose…' then he realized something - Kaosu had promised him she would send the photo to the Inspector, and that was just what she did.

"Cutting him up was not all she'd done…" Ichigawa's somewhat weak voice interrupted his thoughts "If it's okay with you, L, I'll send the photos and full description right away."

"Please do." L uttered before hanging up. With the cell phone in his fist, he brought the hand to his lips, biting on his thumb. 'Hurry, Detective!', the message said. She was encouraging him to catch her. As crazy as it sounded, L was sure that was exactly what Kaosu had meant. She had said so herself, hadn't she?

"As much fun as I'm having, I get bored easily and want to end the game."

He knew that, although she kept referring to it as a 'game' and 'being bored', Kaosu had realized her mistake. First, detective Anders had found out something about her, perhaps it was regarding her past. Her parents' name, address, anything that would lead him to her. To the old her. Instead, Andes chose to contact L and join forces, which caused her to follow him and kill the detective right in front of L. She must have known it was over for her by then.

But she kept running, not because she believed she would run away. She wanted to steal away a few moments, days even, for herself. The chase was still on, and Kaosu was determined to not make it easy for anyone, especially L.

"I will not waste the remains of my time being bored."

L had considered giving Ichigawa the website address and tell him to visit it at 7 PM, but Kaosu had thought of that beforehand, earning another point from the detective. After their conversation had come to an end the day before, L tried to access the page from another computer. He had typed in the address, but the only message he'd gotten was 'Page not found'. Tilting his head to the side, he returned to the first laptop and did the same; the screen flashed black and with white and red letters appeared. 'Closed, visit at 7 pm only'. It seemed that the connection was made and the page would not show on any other computer.

The e-mail from Ichigawa came, along with the attached photos. L opened the first one and went through them all, analyzing every detail. The body of the illegal immigrant was indeed cut into pieces. Arms were in one bag; legs were in the other; the torso was sliced up three times and fit the third plastic bad; and finally, the head. All body parts held insignificant cuts and bruises, but the real clue was on the head.

There was a shallow cut in the shape of a circle on the unknown's forehead.

The first thing that came to L's mind was the image of Detective Anders, tied up and held hostage, saying, "The one who is chased runs in circles, making you follow". With one blink the image was gone as the detective's mind continued to investigate the hint. It didn't take long. L's lips curled up in a small smile. What is a distinguishing feature for a circle? The detective could only imagine how much fun Kaosu had while carving that sign on the dead man's forehead. He could imagine her wicked smile. The gleam of her intense green eyes.

He dialed Inspector Ichigawa's number and began talking as soon as the man picked up.

"When you draw a circle, you start at one point, go all the way around and return to the very same point in the end. That is what Kaosu tries to tell us. She sends us back to the beginning."

"The Mercure Hotel," Ichigawa breathed out.

"I believe so." L agreed, hanging up. Without a doubt, the Inspector would gather a team and appear at the hotel in an hour or so. He couldn't help but wonder what would they find. Will Kaosu be sitting on the bed, her legs crossed an hands folded, waiting for them with that smirk on her face? Or will she be ready, taking some of the police officers with her on her way down? Or…

Or was it just a bit too easy?

It was almost 7. L crumpled the empty wrapper and gulped down the chocolate. With the webpage opened, he waited. If Kaosu wouldn't appear this time, he will know the rest. If she would, however…

Things might get even more interesting.

-

7:13 and the page remained blank. L decided to leave the page open for a while longer, just in case. Although he mostly relayed on cold, calculating logic, he had never ignored his instincts. It was the combination of the two that made him who he was.

However, time was running out. Maybe Kaosu would never… When L reached for another lollipop, the screen flashed.

"Hiii!" her sing-song voice rang through the speakers. "Missed me?"

L could not hold the dry smile back, thinking of the irony of that statement. He was almost 67 percent sure she would never show up again. And yet, he did not feel the least bit sorry she appeared. Their last encounter had provided a decent amount of entertainment, despite the fact that she was a serial killer and he was the detective pursuing her.

"I'll take that silence as yes, then," she chuckled. This time she was fully dressed in a close-fitting black tank top and, from what L could see, navy jeans. Her hair was not the dark reddish color it had been the night before; it was chocolate brown.

"You're late." L said simply.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that," she shrugged "I had people to see, things to do… with them,"

"There is another victim," the detective stated, forefinger between his teeth.

"Of course there is. In case you haven't heard, I'm a serial killer," she entwined her fingers and rested her chin on them. "Besides, I told you it won't be easy."

"The Inspector and his team are on their way and I already have your current address." He had noted that it wasn't the Mercure Hotel; then again, he wasn't expecting her to be there.

Kaosu pouted playfully. "I thought you liked me."

L did not bother to reply. He chose to focus on the task at hand, which was to hold her attention for as long as possible. He flipped the cell open and typed her address in a text message, but didn't push the 'send' button, not yet.

He hesitated only for a second before asking the most basic question in the world. "Why are you killing people?" he had to admit that interested him, but he wanted to hear the answer and do a bit of reading between the lines.

She blinked, taken aback, then smiled in a pleasantly surprised way. "Why?" she looked like she waited a long time for someone to ask her that question. "Well, it's a classic case. Really. You ask me 'why?' and I ask you 'why not?'. Then, you state 'it's wrong', and I say… 'I'm not exactly a right person, Detective'." She paused, frowning thoughtfully, before the smile returned. "There's this saying that there's a little bit in of evil everyone - even you, I'm sure. But I…" she leaned in with a bloodthirsty glint in her eyes. "I'm all evil, Detective"

She shifted away, once again regaining her playful, impish façade. "I could go on like this, but I won't. I kind of… I enjoy the sound of your voice, even if it's all modified and stuff." She turned serious all of a sudden. "You know… I haven't talked to anyone beside myself in a long time now… I guess that's why I decided to guide you to this page. I wanna talk because I do, you wanna talk because it can help you catch me, it's win-win." Her green eyes settled right on his. "So, if you don't mind, I'd like to talk and maybe that'll turn out to be an answer to your question."

L waited. He could send the address over to the Inspector and the police and have her arrested in practically no time. She would have no idea about them being on their way. He looked down on his cell phone. Not yet.

"I had a friend, whom I hated. Her name was Stacy, and she was my first victim." Kaosu spoke up, no trace of her usual happiness on her face. "I remember it quite clearly, even after all these years. We used to fight over everything. She was what you'd call a 'girly-girl', and used to annoy the living hell out of me. She liked to pick on me, because she had friends, many friends, and I didn't. So, one day, I was walking in the park, and she was sitting there, crying. Later I've learnt that her boyfriend had dumped her, but I didn't know that then. She let her anger out on me and I… cracked. And I killed her."

L made a mental note to check the missing person database for anyone named 'Stacy', just in case Kaosu had given him the real name. He also noted that the woman had had a normal past, compared to other serial killers. She had regular problems, with the exception of an unstable character and major mood swings. She had been bullied and eventually decided to solve her problem by killing one of her peers. How old could she be then? 16? 17?

"I was fourteen." She answered his unspoken question. "And pretty damn terrified after. I don't know which was scarier, poor Stacy laying in the bushes strangled and beaten to death, or the feeling it gave me. Thrill. Like jumping off a plane with a parachute, or bungee. It might sound cliché, but it's true - it was a 'you know you're alive' feeling."

Another note - Stacy had to be fourteen or over when she was murdered. L mentally scribbled the piece of information down and decided to wait with checking it after she was finished.

"I was so horrified that I decided to never do that again, ever. The pleasant feeling lasted too short for my liking and then I had to take care of Stacy's body. I wasn't stupid enough to just leave her there, with my fingerprints all over. So I dug a hole under the bushes and buried her there, trying to keep myself from throwing up. And I was a good girl ever since." Her face darkened and a small smirk stretched her red lips. "Until about a year later, when I killed a mini-team of soccer players."

She was bipolar, there was no doubt about it. She was overly confident in her abilities, had extreme mood swings with no provocation and was easily angered. L deduced she needed very little sleep as well. Although she was speaking quite fast and made it hard for him to interrupt - if he was planning on that, that is - there were no signs of a thought disorder, as her speech was clear and perfectly understandable. She also did not seem to have depression. Whatever Kaosu had been suffering from, she was not a sane person, of that there was no doubt. Even if she could act like a normal human being. 'There is no cure for the so-called Evil Gene,' L mused.

Kaosu stretched her hands above her head and feigned a yawn. "Wow, I never would've guessed talking could make me so tired," she said in an exhausted voice. "So? Where are the guys now?"

"Probably at the point where all had begun."

"Oh, good! I wonder how long will it take from then… But," she grinned the foxy grin again "Knowing what you're capable of, I'll bet it won't be long."

His cell phone rang. L glanced at the caller ID - it was Inspector Ichigawa - and frowned. "Excuse me for a moment," he said to Kaosu, who smiled almost giddily in response. He turned the microphone off and flipped the phone open, holding it in his usual manner. "Hello?"

"L! We are at the Mercure Hotel, at the same room Anders was murdered and it's… It's empty!"

L's eyes narrowed. "Empty?"

"Yes! The receptionist said the room was occupied by a married pair on their honeymoon, and that they left this afternoon! Kaosu is not here!"

L said nothing.

"My team is searching the room and the whole hotel thoroughly, but there is no sign of her! She tricked us!"

"I'll call you back, Inspector," L shut the phone closed and turned to the screen, where Kaosu was sitting on her chair grinning like an innocent and excited young girl. "You lied."

"What?" she frowned at him. "I didn't! I told you to go back to the beginning!"

"The police had gone to the Mercure Hotel and it's-"

"WHERE?" her demeanor changed once more; she slammed her hands down on the desk and shook her head exasperatedly. "What fucking hotel?!"

"The one where Detective Anders was found." L said simply, only slightly surprised by her outburst.

"No, no, no!" she shook her head again, chocolate brown hair whipping her face gently. "That didn't start there! God, they fucked up. You fucked up."

He did not let her bait him.

"C'mon, great Detective, think! What was the first thing I'd done after arriving in Japan?"

The pause lasted only a nanosecond. "You killed-"

"No!" she interrupted exasperatedly. "Before that! Like, a few hours before!"

"You…" L's eyes widened as realization hit, almost knocking him off the couch. "You got off the plane."

Kaosu's face brightened and she clapped "Splendid! I got off the plane." Her fingers ran through her brown hair pointedly, raising her eyebrow. "You get it now?"

L was speechless, probably for the very first time in his life. How could he missed something so basic was beyond him. 'She has got a nasty tendency to do things right under one's nose… and get away with it.' At that moment, L was thankful more than ever she could not see his expression.

"Well, get to work, Detective!" with one last wink, she turned the camera off, leaving L alone with his injured pride.

He shook himself out of the stupor and dashed towards the set of screens where he had watched the camera recordings from the Narita Airport a few days before. He found the recordings and turned them on to watch them again.

Detective Anders appeared on screen 2, sitting on the chair and talking through his cell phone. The woman L was suspicious of when he first saw the video was on screen 3, looking around. Soon, she reached out and stopped the two young girls to ask for the hour. One of them had brown pigtails and a cheery personality. The other had almost waist long black hair and was not facing the camera as of yet. As the two turned to leave, they passed Anders, who was still on the phone, asking for his room at the Mercure Hotel.

The other girl was Kaosu.

'How could I not see her?' L could not help but think. Her hair was a bit longer and dyed black, but her face was strikingly familiar. Maybe it was because L had seen Kaosu twice. But how could he not notice a young Japanese girl walking with and talking to a young-looking American woman? How could he have overlooked her?

He picked the Inspector's number and waited impatiently for him to pick up.

"Inspector," he began quickly. "The point of the beginning is not at the Mercure Hotel."

"But whe-"

"It's at the Narita International Airport."

L hung up.

In the back of his head, deep down, he could almost hear Kaosu's laughter.

-

Ichigawa's men entered the airport a little before 8 PM and, perfectly on cue, a woman's shrill scream sounded from the direction of the bathrooms. The men ignored the sign indicating that the bathroom - ladies only - was out of service and bargained in with their weapons ready. The woman who screamed tumbled into the arms of one of the police officers, crying and pointing at one of the closed cabins. Someone's sneakers-clad feet were visible from the thin space between the door and the floor. A steadily growing pool of blood was right next to the left foot.

Ichigawa entered the bathroom and pushed his way through. He saw the blood and squeezed his fists before unclenching them and pushing the door. They opened easily.

The girl's empty dark brown eyes stared right into Ichigawas' as blood flown from the thick cut on her throat, soaked her white shirt and dripped from her fingertips on the floor. She had no other wounds except for that one. Her dark brown pigtails were tinted red.