It's been a while, yes, yes, I know, and I apologize. However, just want to say thanks to The Jaide Ninja Spork, who wrote me a chapter all its own for a review. It's the single longest review I've ever gotten, for any story, and in all honesty, in made my day. Although length of reviews aren't everything, TJNS (for short because I'm not typing that again, ha ha) proved a valid point; simple reviews like "Update soon" are in its own way gratifying that they took the time to write the three seconds review opposed to those who don't review at all, it just doesn't help me, the writer, any. I like to know what I can do better therefore I can improve, and what I already do flawlessly so I can continue to do so. I can't catch everything with these eyes of mine; especially not when it comes to opinion.

Ulrich scowled in distaste, clentching his fists until his knuckles turned white, his nails biting relentlessly into his palms.

"I don't like this, not one bit," He mumbled angrily, and quite needlessly.

His eyes darted to the kitchen, where his unsuspecting wife was washing dishes. It was a chore-- no, more like a ritual for her to wash dishes twice a day.

Sochiro gazed sympathetically at his co-worker, unfortunately relating to his pain.

"L is suspicious of my child as well, Ulrich. As much as I don't want to believe that my son could be capable of ever... " The chief's voice trailed off, clearing his throat before he continued, "Well, I will do what is best for this investigation, and nothing less. You should do the same."

Ulrich's lips twitched as if he wanted to argue, but he knew he had no argument against the Yagamis. As least the Ide household wasn't bugged with wire-tap and cameras. Just the mere thought of that damned detective L watching his daughter dress every morning, eyeing his wife as she stripped down for a shower... It made his skin crawl. Well, since Kotone was all apart of this now, he reminded himself drearily, she would know about the installation of such equipment in her own home. She would have gone over to someone else's, anyone else's to bathe and clothe her body, rather than reveal herself explicitly to the man she so often swore up and down was a "closet pervert".

All in all, Sochiro had pulled the short straw of the deal. Just as he resigned himself to silence, a high pitched melody chimed from Watari's jacket pocket. He answered the phone quietly, and the pair of detectives in the room turned to their superior's aide.

"Understood."

Watari snapped the cell phone shut and cleared his throat, slipping the phone back into his pocket.

"Ryuzaki and Kotone are taking a detour," He announced softly to the two men in the room, careful not to draw the woman's attention.

"Detour?" Ulrich demanded, his temper beginning to spark again.

"Detour to where? Where in the hell that crazy bastard taking my daughter?!"

Kotone offered the detective a triumphant grin, tossing her keys into the air before catching them, twirling the key ring around her index finger.

"Finally,"She mused, allowing a satisfied smirk inch its way to her lips as she watched L shuffled down the sweet shoppe's front steps and towards her vehicle.

"Sweet, sweet karma."

The woman had, hands down, won the argument over who would drive her car to her home. That much had been decided when she asked him where his driver's license was. He had yet to reply, and tossed her the keys to her car; instead, he twisted her arm into agreeing to stop at a local sweets store and buy him treats of his choosing. She knew there was a reason he had given up so easily. Nonetheless, it was a shameless surrender if she'd ever thought him capable of one.

Inserting her keys into the ignition, she started the engine and sat back in the driver's seat, waiting on her companion to close the door behind him. Comically enough, or so Kotone thought, Ryuzaki climbed into the car practically on all fours, before curling himself into the passenger seat. He brought his knees to his chest and pulled the seat belt across his legs before jabbing his thumb between his lips. Kotone had been biting her lip to suppress the laughter that had been building up since she'd watched him "crawl" into the car, but seeing him insist on a seat belt despite his ridiculous sitting position had been the icing on the rhetorical cake. Her teeth left her bottom lip, and she threw her head back, howling with laughter. L's head almost mechanically whipped to stare at her, his eyes wide and blatantly curious.

Instead of explaining herself to the perplexed detective, she shook her head softly, carefully dabbing at her moistened eyes with the hem of her shirt.

"You know, you're a very amusing man," Was all the hint she gave the clueless detective, still chuckling to herself.

L's eyes flitted to the ceiling of the car, studying it as if it, too, were suspect to be Kira.

"I knew there had to be some reason as to why you enjoyed my company," He deduced, his tone solemn.

"And I have to say, your reasoning isn't at all flattering... Kotone."

He placed heavy emphasis on her name, as if he were about to further accuse her of something else, and the woman's snickering died out almost immediately. Rolling her eyes, she shifted gears into reverse to back out of the parking lot.

"He's insulted, the conniving perv."

"And who's to say I enjoy your company?" She taunted, pressing the issue despite the nagging feeling in the back of her head that if she persisted like this, she'd be doing more than just hugging him later down the road.

"You do enjoy my company. That's why you laugh at my expense... Kotone."

"There's that voice again..."

Pursing her lips, she ignored his comment, knowing full well that if she continued, she'd probably regret it later. Which was an oddity for her, keeping her mouth shut; after all, she'd never been known for her self-control.

She made a silent vow to never tease him again, because he poked back twice as hard... Although she was doubtfully that promise would last long.

Smiling to herself, her personal annoyance took the opportunity to hound her about the silent gesture.

"Laughing at me again?"

Kotone, once again, couldn't help herself. She laughed again, but this time, at nothing he'd done.

"So, he figured it out on his own, huh? Guess I shouldn't be surprised."

"I'm sorry, Ryuzaki," She apologized insincerely.

"I can't help it if you're still mad about the other day."

The detective ignored her, returning to his former pouting.

"Hideki!" Her mother chimed, a little too enthusiastic as she laid eyes on the listless detective.

Kokoro clasped her hands together, oblivious to the tensity building in the room. He glowered at Ulrich, who in turn glared back at him. Kotone cringed; knew what was going through his mind.

"Why didn't you get rid of her?"

There had been a reason that Ulrich, Watari and Chief Yagami had left an hour earlier, aside from not arousing suspicion.

No witnesses.

And now, the detective was as livid as Kotone had ever seen him. He had a way of being stoic, but either it was his time of the month or he really had been angry with Kotone, but the calm mask had been thrown out the window. Soichiro shifted uneasily, as if uncomfortable in his own skin.

"It's so good to see you again, Hideki! School is going good, I hope?"

L ignored her, which caused a spark of animosity to flicker withing Kotone's chest.

"Just because the first wave screwed up, don't blow my mom off, you ass..."

"My homework cannot begin," He spoke softly, his harsh stare shifting to Chief Yagami,

"Not until chores are done."

He was speaking in riddles now, Kotone realized dully. To avoid suspicion on her mother's part. Fortunately, her mother waved apologetically, reaching for her jacket.

"Oh, right! My husband said that he was expecting company... I just wish I would have known it was you, Hideki!"

The detective nodded blankly, and Kotone bristled.

"She sure likes him, doesn't she...?"

"...If I had, I would have let you two lovebirds alone!"

Upon hearing this, L's mood lightened considerably. Though barely noticeable, a smug look crossed his eyes. Ulrich paled in horror. And Kotone, allowing her tongue to get the better of her, ran after her fleeing mother, shouting after her,

"No! We are not together!"

Ryuzaki's pride depleted considerably, his smugness gone, and he motioned for the detictives to follow him further into the house.

"You're just not my type, Ryuzaki. Maybe if you were more of a romantic--"

"A romantic, you say?" He repeated, almost in a state of awe.

His eyes returned to the ceiling. A shiver ran down the length of Kotone's arms, and she cringed, mentally slapping herself as they drove.

"Me and my motor-mouth..."

L's eyes fluttered as if he'd just been snapped out of a daze. In the blink of an eye, he had whipped out his cell phone and pressed a button to call one of the very few numbers he had programmed into speed dial.

"Watari," He addressed slowly, fluently,

"Kotone and I are on our way back to the hotel now, so please leave now. Contact anyone else who isn't there as well, and tell them to go to the Shinobato Hotel and to go to room one-oh-five."

With a final click, he flipped his phone shut and tucked it back into his pocket.

"Don't you think it's a bit much, Ryuzaki?" Kotone found herself asking before she'd meant to.

"Hmm?"

L's wayward stare zeroed in on her. He had removed his thumb from his mouth, and was currently munching away on yet another cookie.

"Switching hotels every single time we have a meeting there? What's the harm in using the same room twice? Or even at the very least, the same hotel, but another room?"

"You can never be too careful."

She sighed and didn't bother to argue with him any longer. After all, he was the world class detective-- she trusted he knew what he was doing; otherwise, he wouldn't have gotten this far.

"In the past few days, I've listen to all of our audio recordings, and reviewed the video footage we captured. I've gone over them many times..."

L reached forward on top the table before him, pulling a circular-shaped treat from it wrapper, holding it between his thumb and index fingers as he spoke.

"...and I've come to a conclusion. Our surveillance of the Kitamura and Yagami households have revealed... Nothing."

He popped the chocolate candy into his mouth, and Soichiro Yagami sighed aloud, his glasses sliding to the tip of his nose.

"We will remove the cameras and wire taps."

"All that, and we still don't have any suspects," Matsuda droned in exasperation.

"It's okay, Matsuda," The Chief intervened.

"We'll have to pursue other leads, but we'll get him."

At this, Ryuzaki made a curt humming noise between bites in his treat.

"Mmuhmm, please don't get the wrong idea."

Soichiro turned to the detective, his mouth slightly ajar as if he was already fearing the words that might come next from his mouth.

"I only said that we were unable to reveal anything suspicious, based on our surveillance."

"What?" the Chief murmured in mock horror.

L rubbed his toes together before continuing,

"Even if Kira was among them, I'm sure he wouldn't make it obvious. No, it means he was able to continue killing without doing anything outwardly suspicious."

"Well, then you do believe that Kira is among one of those families," Soichiro surmised dejectedly.

"As I've said... There's a five percent chance."

He reached for his coffee, stirring sugar into it as everyone around him went eerily quiet. Kotone bit her lip, her eyes going from face to face as she observed the facial expressions of each detective individually as she sorted out her own thoughts.

"So... L must think that he's reached a dead end with the hidden cameras. That means he must have given up that he's depending on whoever this murderer is, to make mistakes on his own... I wonder, then, what will be his next move against the residents of the Kitamura and Yagami households...?"

"I still can't believe I let him talk me into this..."

Kotone sat down, three seats across from L.

"We can't sit together, as to not draw suspicion to ourselves."

"What should make the difference? As far as anyone else is concerned, we're just two high schoolers taking the To-Oh enttrance exam."

"I might be tempted to talk to you if you sat near me," L had explained childishly, unabashed.

"And if we start speaking to one another, we will draw attention."

She took a casual glance around the room, offering the detective a curt glare as she did so.

"It isn't my fault he can't concentrate around me, even while on a case..."

"And, begin!" The proctor announced, glancing at his watch.

Kotone snatched up her pencil, and begin the test.

Acing the exam wasn't her job. She simply had to pass it with about average scores, so as not to draw attention to herself. That was L's job.

She had passed a similar test before from her old high school; obviously, it wasn't the same exact questions, but she had been her class representative. Now, she just had to blend in with the other students. In all honestly, she couldn't see why L had pushed her into this, if she wasn't adopting any vital role of any kind. He could have done this test himself. His goal had been to obtain the status of class representative, all the while scouting the room for Chief Yagami's son, Light. He was the first suspect on L's list that he would pick apart personally.

"You there! Student number one-six-two!"

Kotone flinched at the numerical combination. That was Ryuzaki's number. Her head shot up, glaring at the back of the detective's head.

"Sit properly in your chair!"

"Of course..."

L had resumed his standard seating position; his knees up against his chest, one hand on his knees while his free hand took care of the writing.

Upon scanning the room carefully, she noticed that Light Yagami had tilted his head to gaze back at L, and that the detective had held his stare equally.

"He was the one so concerned about not drawing any attention," She mused bitterly.

Kotone sighed and dropped her eyes back down to her task of "supportively blending in", ignoring the staring contest that had commenced between detective and prospective murderer.