A/N: I know I said Sunday, but it's going to storm then. So, I about have to update today anyway. I'm kinda concerned that I'm updating too fast for you guys. XD But, hey, you all love this story, and I appreciate the love! XD So, I present chapter ten.

Disclaimer: Don't own Death Note or any of its characters. I do own V still.

Chapter 10: Intensity

L had ensured to evade telling me of his agenda for the next day, so that he surprised me, as well as everyone else on the task force. He went incognito again at To-Oh University, where he encountered Light, and, later, a certain Misa Amane. She was one of Tokyo's adored and revered pop idols that graced the cover of seemingly every teen magazine in the country. A beloved celebrity in her own right, she also modeled as well as acted. I recall glimpsing the large, rather childish blue-gray eyes and flowing blond hair from such a magazine cover at a kiosk not too long ago. I doubted her talent, but what did I know? In retrospect, I cared less about frivolous pop culture and more about the case. Unfortunately, I sensed my detachment from the latter increasingly as the days wore into one another.

Then again, I was thankful that L hadn't given me the option of returning to To-Oh, considering the last ordeal of finding myself caught up in a crowd was terrible. Besides, he needed this opportunity to blend in, so that he could pinpoint the second Kira. This he did with unprecedented success since Misa Amane was under arrest and confined that very day. Once I reflected on the time I spent at Aoyama, I realized that she resembled closely to the girl I saw at the restaurant. In fact, I concluded, they were one and the same.

Still, we couldn't help but question L's tactics when it came to confining her.

It appeared as though Amane's body had been captured within a cocoon-like arrangement of cloth, her eyes concealed by a blindfold. Immobilized, she accused L of being a pervert in the loudest, most screechy voice I had ever heard. Could her singing voice have gained her that much notoriety? For, her speaking voice sounded agonizingly obnoxious to me. Yet, I could hardly stop myself in sympathizing with her. Obviously, Light (of course, I always suspected him of acting as Kira) had toyed with her emotions, which he abused to get what he wanted. What his desire was, however, remained a mystery to me. But, I assumed that the two of them had met up, the rich and famous girl yielding to the popular college student. To me, that seemed almost unheard of unless the girl was as tragically (and I hate to put it like this) stupid as Ms. Amane. Seeing her like this on a computer screen impelled me to think of Light as repulsive as ever. He would do everything in the world to obtain what he wished, even if it meant breaking hearts.

Speaking of that wretched boy, he volunteered to send himself into confinement as well, in order to "clear his name", he said. After much debating among the task force members (me, unsurprisingly, supporting the decision), L settled matters with his reluctant consent. Mr. Yagami also mentioned that he should be confined too, since he believed himself to be biased as he was Light's father. Even more hesitant, my brother eventually agreed to that suggestion, telling us that he saw no other way around this.

"Chief, are you sure about this?" Matsuda asked, his perpetually enthusiastic eyes losing their shine.

"Mr. Yagami, we're unsure as to how you'll put up with such miserable conditions as a confinement cell. What about your family?" I inquired, concerned for the older man.

Mr. Yagami sighed as he told all of us, "I thank all of you for your concern, but I feel that it's best for the case if I take myself out of the picture for a while."

Aizawa seemed rather angered by this, retaliating with, "Think of your family, Chief! You don't have to do this!"

But, Yagami-san's mind was made up; usually, he never took his word back either. Assuring all of us he would be fine, he left us for fifty days. These days seemed like decades as we wasted each one staring at surveillance footage of the three prisoners suffering. Aizawa, especially, detested this idea of observing them in their conditions, but no other choice proved available.

I often expected him to quit the investigation, yet he remained, opposing L's decisions but not objecting too abrasively either. Meanwhile, the days of confinement that Mr. Yagami, his son, and Amane were subjected to seemed to last forever. At one point, on day thirty-nine of their isolated imprisonments, we discussed what would happen next—or what should happen.

"Ryuzaki, this is ridiculous!" Aizawa scoffed, concernedly drifting his gaze between the Yagamis miserably depicted on the laptop. "Shouldn't you just clear their names? Kira has started killing again, so it can't be them!"

"Even if that is the case, we can't be entirely sure of it," L replied placidly, eating a slice of cake.

Matsuda merely listened to this conversation, though I noticed his face seemed to possess all the sympathy in the world for all three prisoners. I couldn't blame him, despite my own strong beliefs that Light and Misa belonged in their cells. Mr. Yagami, for all his martyr-like behavior, certainly did not. I personally felt as though L should have released him weeks ago.

"I can understand your thinking," I then turned to L, "but remember the incident concerning Light vehemently declaring his innocence four weeks ago? He seemed to have a befuddled look to his eyes, almost as if he has forgotten killing. That is to say, if he ever was Kira."

Contemplating this briefly, he proceeded to nibble on his cake again. "Mm, that did seem suspicious..."

For once, my brother seemed to falter as he trailed off and focused his attention on the three captives again. His pensive manner of sticking the tines of his fork in his mouth unnerved me slightly. What if Light transferred his murdering ability or whatever to an outside source? That would imply that the fool had deceived and yet didn't at the same time, simply due to his abrupt amnesia.

"He can't be lying, though," Matsuda brought up. "Light really did look like he meant what he said that day. Aizawa's right—we should just clear them."

"Not yet," L muttered as though he lost himself in a far-off location. "This could be just a temporary ceasefire, if you will. They could start killing again at any time. Just give me a few more days."

Almost another two weeks passed before L ruefully submitted to the fact that he must clear the alleged two suspects' names...for the time being. With that thought in mind, he released them and Mr. Yagami from confinement. However, he told Mr. Yagami to give a dramatic performance in which he attempted to kill Light, a test that would prove whether the college student was innocent or guilty. Due to the ineptness on Light's part to murder his own father (at least the boy hardly acted as cold-blooded as that...for some reason), he remained mostly innocent. L still harbored suspicion for him, though, and went to extremes. Rather reluctantly (or was it reluctance?), my brother handcuffed Light to him in order to obtain access to improved surveillance. This was also to ensure that Light didn't do anything to place himself in the murderer category again. I despised L's decision as much as he did, for our secret conversations would take an abrupt halt.

Misa ended up staying with us task force members, sadly enough. Her childish voice that acutely reminded me of a spoiled little girl irritated me profusely. At one point, it even penetrated my sleep when she shouted one morning at 2:00 A.M, "Hey, Utako-chan! Does Light-kun have to be chained to that Ryuzaki all the time?!? I couldn't sleep when I thought of my poor Light-kun suffering like that!"

In my heart of hearts, I bitterly damned her ten times over, exasperated at this pampered celebrity's mannerisms. Misa aside, the case steadily became more complicated due to Light's forgetfulness that seemed to arrive at an impromptu moment during the confinement. Frustration built, and tensions were high among everybody. They came to a head one particular afternoon.

L acted hopelessly brooding as he moodily snacked on his strawberry shortcake, almost as though he sulked like a bratty child. I noticed this during a "date" with Light that Misa insisted that she have. Perhaps L's lack of a significant other deterred him, though that couldn't have been possible. Still, I wondered what his issues consisted that hurled him into a listless state.

"What's wrong, Ryuzaki?" Light inquired. "Are you OK?"

"Actually, I'm rather depressed," my brother promptly murmured. "I thought you were Kira for so long, and now, this case seems hopeless. Why even bother?"

He said these sentences so dully that he truly did seem out of it. However, I thought it practically dumb that he should even want to throw in the towel, now that we had come so far. Apparently, Light possessed the same sentiments.

"Ryuzaki...," he started to say haltingly, in a warning tone of voice.

"Yes?"

The contact that Light's fist made with L's face sent the unfortunate detective spiraling toward the opposite end of the room. Misa, excitable as she was, shrieked and completely freaked out as she accidentally stepped on what remained of L's cake in the process.

"Ew!" She wrinkled her nose, for she had stated early on in the "date" that she detested cake, which she saw as fattening.

In the meant time, L took on a dizzy appearance as he told Light, "Ouch, that really hurt, you know."

The fight, in my opinion, proved ridiculous on both sides; L due to his childish pout and Light simply due to his Light...ness. Surely, the disagreement could have been resolved better than punches thrown and hateful words exchanged. But, that just sums up the male species.

"I don't think Ryuzaki will last with Light-kun beating him up," Misa said in a semi-concerned tone. But, since she was who she was, she didn't emit excess worry.

"Don't worry, Misa. I know my colleague well. He will defend himself, for he has the capability. Else, he wouldn't have been able to teach me his techniques."

"What do you mean by that?"

Misa understood my explanation as soon as L retaliated with an extremely high kick to Light's abdomen and with the darkly uttered words, "An eye for an eye, my friend."

Out of the corner of my ever observant eye, I noticed the celebrity's mouth drop open in astonishment. Of course she would judge on appearances when it came to my brother; then again, he was filled with surprises that always shocked the task force, sometimes even me. What surprised me at the current moment, though, was that L and Light were this willing to fight, despite the hindrance of the chain that connected them. During the apex of the fight, they held a brief conversation that just seemed almost pointless. L should have known his response would fuel Light's anger even more.

"Maybe...," he said slowly, assessing the furiously distraught boy perching across from him on the couch, "I wanted you to be Kira."

Impacting L's face again with his fist, Light aggressively pushed him around to the point that the entire couch toppled over. Really, the damage was devastating enough as it was.

A shattered potted plant dirtied up the carpet, framed pictures had fallen, and the whole living area looked as though an earthquake had sent intense waves. Though the combat between the two of them had admittedly intrigued me, I found that my patience gradually ebbed.

"Misa," I told her with a forced cheerfulness that resonated with sarcasm, "this fight is getting perfectly ridiculous. I'm about to call Yagami-san or Aizawa on them."

Luckily, the telephone ringing dashed any schemes of tattling on L and Light. The former wearily answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Ryuzaki, I got some good news!" Matsuda's voice could be heard from my vantage point. "Misa-Misa is number one in the polls in Eighteen this month!"

Rolling his dark, emotionless eyes slightly, my brother promptly hung up without a response to dignify the eager cop's excitement.

"What was that?" Light asked, rubbing his arm, presumably due to muscle tension.

"Nothing, just Matsuda being stupid again."

"When isn't he?"

I sighed as I slapped my forehead; these two would never learn unless I taught them myself. Vouching for Matsuda was the least I could do, after all.

"For your information, what Matsuda did was rather smart," I said in a cool, even tone. "I'm sure he was attempting to distract you two from your little skirmish. Well, here's my unbiased, totally neutral take on this. Ryuzaki-kun, I would suggest you stop talking about giving up—that's the last thing we want to do. Light...just stop being annoying for once please."

"That didn't sound very unbiased to me," Light snorted, but otherwise seemed to agree. I decided to then seize the opportunity to reveal my true opinion.

"I know, but that's the beauty of it," I beamed.

In a whiny, imploring tone, Misa insisted that we avert our attention to the "date", so that anger wouldn't rend us apart.

Too late.

To provide an implied cynicism to the remainder of this pointless ordeal, I made an entreaty.

"Are there any light topics any of you wish to contribute?"

"Utako, this is supposed to be a date between Light and Misa that we both attended for obvious reasons. It's not a diplomatic mission for the United Nations," L said dully.

"Yeah, Utako, this...date is rendered beyond repair, believe me," Light added.

I merely shook my head, though I provided no objections. "All right. We're too unenthused now. That makes three of us. Sorry, Misa."

"That's OK. At least I spent time with Light-kun," Misa purred demurely like a satisfied cat.

That night, I lied to the task force, who prepared to pull an all-nighter by informing them I was tired at 9:00. Of course, I never fell asleep at that time, but I had planned to write a letter addressed to both Matt and Mello. To humor the former, I extracted a postcard I had bought prior to the case. It depicted a beautiful cherry blossom tree swaying carelessly in the breeze with the light pink petals swirling like waltzing ballroom dancers. I hoped that they would appreciate the thought behind my selection. Another item I removed from my suitcase was a simple number two pencil; thing of it was, the words didn't come to me this time. Back at Wammy's, the scenery constantly inspired me to pen concealed song lyrics. Here, away from home, I could barely write "Dear Mello and Matt" without feeling utterly stupid.

For, beyond the introduction, how was I supposed to directly lie to them concerning my "vacation"? Evading to reveal the secret lineage I handled well over the years, but lying was a completely different story. Deviating from the truth would appease L (that is, if he allowed me to send the postcard anyway, which I highly doubted), though I would feel as though fate dealt me a moral blow. Thus, words could not come out onto the sleek paper of the postcard due to my devout belief that lying to friends served as sinful. Still, I had to tell Matt and Mello something, or else they could end their friendship with me at any time.

And I certainly couldn't afford that.

I groaned as I erased yet another introductory sentence I had attempted to come across as a decent greeting. Writers struggled with block every once in a while; compared to their almost common ailments, my writer's block infuriated me, more so than average. Creating songs had never served as a difficult obstacle—save one or two of them—but trying not to write, "I'm currently working on a case with my brother" was definitely difficult. If I wrote that, Mello would never speak to me again and Matt...I shuddered to even imagine his reaction. My fingers tapped nervously against the writing desk, anxious to take up the now abandoned pencil once more. To tell or not to tell? To even bother or not to bother at all? So many questions threatened to torture me that I swore my block grew worse.

An abrupt knock on the door alleviated my agony for the moment.

"May Light and I come in, Utako?" L inquired in his customary monotone, which he seemed to make even more emotionless. Perhaps the reason pointed to a potential murderer attached to him who had renounced his evil ways...for now.

"Yes, that will be fine by me," I replied, unconsciously crumpling up the postcard coated with eraser bits.

The two young men entered, L gazing suspiciously at me and Light just looking rather bored. Assuming that they had discovered no new leads on the case, I wondered what they (more specifically, my brother) came here for.

L managed to put my inward questions to rest by telling me, "I just thought it strange that you would go to bed this early"—he then espied the crumpled card—"but, by chance, were you writing a letter?"

"To my childhood friends...but I was going to throw it away. It's nothing serious or useful or anything."

"That would be a good idea. We don't want them to know what we're up to. In that case, we'll leave—sorry to disturb you," L stated rather guardedly.

I practically told him that it was no trouble, but Light decided to interrupt.

"I noticed something about you two for quite some time," he began, "and it's kind of bugging me. You two look strangely alike for some reason, and you act like you've known each other since birth."

"We were just next door neighbors," I assured him. "I also idolized my future colleague, and we were friends since childhood. The funniest thing is that my hair used to be blond."

"O...K," Light submitted, though still looked like he smelled something rotten in Denmark.

Thankfully, he hardly pursued the subject any further and turned to leave. Before they totally abandoned my room, though, my brother mouthed, "Nice lying."

I smiled contently, but, deep down within me, I was scared of what Light had nearly discovered.

A/N: I actually seem to give L some of the best lines, especially the UN comment. And, what's this? Light has practically discovered V's secret connection to L. Uh-oh with a capital U-O! Luckily, he's forgotten using the Death Note for now, so Misa technically doesn't have the eyes. But, I'm telling you, that was a close shave.

So, yes, the epic L vs Light was featured--hoped you enjoyed that. And, it's kind of ironic how V doesn't really like lying, but she does it anyway! XD It's a Wammy's kid thing. And she almost sounded like she was obsessed with L in her lie. 0_0 Aw, well, she really isn't, so yeah!

Don't know when this will be updated--it insists on storming in the stupid Midwest so freaking much this summer. :( But, hey, I have almost 600 hits to this story, so I'm not complaining. Still, I'll be sure to update. Promise!