Ehh.

Although my brother's musings on sheep and zombies (if ya wanna know, look at the quotes section in my profile) cheered me up after writing the last chapter, I had to start writing this chapter immediately after the last one to cheer myself up more.

But as I like writing in a somewhat twisty style – as my randomly inflicted story twists surprise me as much or more than they do my readers – I just couldn't help it once I had started writing it, even though it made me sad. It will all tie in, though. I promise.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.


It had never happened before, not in the past year they had been working on the Kira case. It had been ten days since Katherine left, and that sudden change of pace was bound to evoke some strange occurrences. But no one expected this occurrence. After L had fallen asleep for his weekly few hours of rest, Matsuda had managed to poke and prod Aizawa and Yagami awake to call a "meeting". A top secret meeting that L wasn't aloud to know about.

"A meeting?" Aizawa said, scratching his head as he sat down on the couch. "What the hell, Matsuda? You're an idiot."

"This is important," Matsuda said quietly, glancing back at the chair L was asleep in. "And keep your voice down."

"A secret meeting, no less…. This had better be good if you had to wake me up for it."

"It is," he said. "Have either of you noticed how we've been getting more work done than Ryuzaki lately?"

"Eh?" Aizawa said.

"Yes, actually," Yagami said. "He has been more inefficient than usual, it seems."

"Really?" Aizawa said. "I didn't realize that."

"Okay," Matsuda said, "and how long have you noticed it for?"

"A little over a week," Yagami said.

"Well," Aizawa said, "he has been chewing his fingernails off a lot more often. And he keeps zoning out, then claiming he was analyzing information. For a little over a week," he added in agreement.

"About ten days," Matsuda said. "Right?"

"Yes, about that," Aizawa said slowly. "Why would it matter if it's ten days or not?"

"What happened ten days ago?"

The two of them thought for a moment. It was three o' clock in the morning, so it thinking took a little more time than usual. Matsuda, however, had practically been drowning himself in caffeine all day so he would be able to stay awake. Unfortunately, he wasn't aware at the time that caffeine made him impatient, and it made ten seconds seem like ten hours. So, he was strumming his fingers impatiently on the table the three of them were seated at.

"I know what happened ten days ago," Aizawa said. "The best thing that has ever happened durring the entire course of this investigation, that's what happened."

"Apparently not so much for Ryuzaki," Yagami said. "That would make sense."

"Didn't he agree with us, though?" Aizawa said. "It seemed he at least somewhat suspected her. I think we all did."

"I didn't," Matsuda grumbled. "Anyway. If we're going to be working on this case with Ryuzaki, we need to think of something to do to fix this."

"If you're suggesting getting her back, I'm leaving," Aizawa protested.

"Yeah, yeah, we all know you hate her," Matsuda said, waving his hand dismissively. "But we definitely can't have Ryuzaki off-focus, right? He's the smartest one of us here, which means that if he keeps zoning out, we're going to have a problem solving the Kira case."

"If she is Kira, then having her on the case isn't good."

"While I don't suspect her, think about this for a second," Matsuda said. "I think this makes sense, I've been thinking about it for about six days."

Cue the smart ass comment…

"It might actually make some sense if you've been thinking that long…"

And there is was. It was probably better to ignore it, anyway, rather than shooting at him that he only hated Kat because she had better comebacks.

"If she is Kira, then it's better to have her on the case, because then she's under direct supervision at all times. She already knows all of our real names except Ryuzaki's, so she could have just gone home and killed us, but she didn't. That could be because she'd be suspected if she did, so she might still be Kira. But, if she is, then we could keep an eye on her."

"Dammit…"

"It makes sense!" Matsuda said defensively.

"I know it does," Aizawa said, "that's what's bad. It means we probably should ask her to come back. I'm going to have to buy something for headaches if she does…."

"We can't just ask her to come back," Yagami said. "If Ryuzaki doesn't agree to it, then she won't be allowed inside headquarters."

"Then that's what we have to do," Matsuda said reasonably.

"I think convincing Ryuzaki of anything is going to be impossible," Aizawa said. "He's too stubborn. Remember when we set up surveillance for a week in Yagami-san's house? There were no blind spots anywhere, and there were sixty-four cameras in Light-kun's room, but Ryuzaki still suspects him."

"If he's not happy about having kicked her out in the first place, he might be quicker to agree to that," Matsuda said.

"I doubt that," Yagami said. "He's probably trying to convince himself that he's perfectly happy about it."

"That would explain all the zoning…" Matsuda mused.

"And it could create a problem in convincing him of anything," Yagami said. "Someone like Ryuzaki will listen to himself long before he'll listen to anyone else."

"Well," Matsuda said, "we could get calling her out of the way first, and tell her we're still talking to Ryuzaki."

"Then she'd swear at you about how he's a stupid insomniac and hang up the phone," Aizawa said. "She's a little oversensitive."

"Well, wouldn't you be a little oversensitive if we were accusing you of being Kira?"

"Idiot…"

"Let's not get off topic," Yagami said, sensing an argument about to ensue. "I think that we should get her opinion first. We don't know if she would agree to come back or not yet."

"See?" Matsuda said. "I'm not an idiot!"

"All idiots have smart moments."

"Well you're –"

"Matsuda," Yagami said, interrupting their argument before it could get too loud, "you will call her."

"When?"

"How much coffee did you drink today?"

"Uhh… I don't know. About… six or seven cups, I think. Why?"

"If you drank enough, use the excuse of going to the store to buy some, go tomorrow.

"Yeah, since L no longer has the option of sending Watari out to buy things, he'll probably start getting you to do it next, anyway."

"Why do you say that?"

"He probably thinks you're an idiot by now, and he's more apt to send the biggest idiot out of the three of us to the store."

"Can you go for five minutes without callong me an idiot?" Matsuda said.

"Probably."

"Bet five hundred yen you can't."

"Then I could just –"

"I'd pay you both five hundred yen to stop arguing for two minutes." They both stopped abruptly at the sudden interjection. "Don't act too suspiciously about it."

"I don't –"

"Yes you do," Aizawa said.

"I did fine in Aoyama!"

"Speaking of which," Aizawa said, "will you explain why Katherine kept constantly referring to you as her brother and not explaining?"

"Oh, right," he said. "Light-kun thought it would be a good idea to meet with a group of friends from his college so we could blend in, and our story was that we were his cousins from out of town."

"Was there a story behind why he refused to talk to her after you three got back?"

"She… umm… extended her character a little more. By the time she was done, she had decided that Light-kun was her favorite cousin to embarrass in front of friends."

"Now that that's cleared up," Yagami said impatiently, "as I was saying. Do not act to obviously."

"Do the thing where you complain really loudly about being bored," Aizawa said. "But do it while you're getting coffee or something, then ask if you can go buy some more since there's not much left."

"That's a good idea," Matsuda said. "I think I'll do that. But… I don't have a car here, so I'd have to talk about the Kira case over the phone in public transportation, which probably wouldn't be good…"

"So walk to the store."

"Can't I borrow your car?"

"No."

He sighed. "Fine…"

As there was an abundance of coffee still left, Matsuda decided it would probably be a good idea to drink some more. Otherwise, his excuse wouldn't work as well. Besides, coffee was pretty good. By a couple hours after everyone had awoken (or reawoken, for some), the two and a half containers of coffee had been reduced to one and a half. This should have been enough to go to the store. It definitely seemed like it. He definitely needed something to do now. Something to do besides strum his fingers on the table. That wasn't very entertaining.

L was attempting to talk to Misa and get information out of her that she obviously didn't know. He had glanced up a moment ago, and another glance a moment later revealed that Matsuda appeared to have somehow teleported in front of the coffee maker to look into the half-empty container.

"We need more coffee," he said.

"There's a container and a half left, I looked this morning," L said, looking back at the computer screen.

"That's not enough!"

L looked back up. As his eyes were twice their normal size, it L concluded that Matsuda had drank a container and a half of coffee by himself between the previous day and night.

"I don't think you need any more."

"Yes I do. I'm going to the store."

And a moment later, he was walking out the door. He came back in another moment later and picked up his wallet off the table, then walked back out. L looked at Aizawa and Yagami.

"Was there a reason for that?"

They shook their heads, looking as confused as L felt.

"Just another of his idiocies, then," he concluded, looking back at the computer. "Aizawa-san."

"Huh?"

"Please instruct Matsuda-san when he returns to stop drinking all my coffee. Not only is it irritating, but we will have no way of knowing if it was caffeine or Kira if he dies."

"Okay…"


Katherine sat down on her couch with a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth at about midday and turned on the television. As she had only gone to college to get close to Kira and L, there was no point in going back. If she ever wanted a job that required a degree, she could just have Pat or Don make her up an identity that had a degree. They didn't mind, as it gave them something to do. She wished she had something to do.

As the wish crossed her mind, her cell phone ring. Wondering vaguely about whether a genie was involved and then scolding herself silently for such a dim-witted thought, she pulled it out of her pocket. She flipped it open without checking the caller ID.

"Oy," she said.

A very energized voice answered her.

"We need you back on the team."

She paused for a moment, taking in this sentence.

"Have you had coffee?" she asked Matsuda slowly.

"I had to drink the rest of it so I could go out and buy more and be able to turn on my cell phone. We need you back on the team."

Katherine laughed. She had never gotten the chance to talk to anyone who was quite this hyper before. It was somewhat amusing.

"It's not funny!" he said frantically. "Ryuzaki can't focus on anything and when Ryuzaki can't focus it's impossible to do any work because he's not giving us any work to do, and he's been like this for the past ten days!"

"Were you instructed to call," she asked, "or did you come to the decision on your own?"

"Ryuzaki fell asleep last night and me and Aizawa and Yagami had a meeting."

"Well, thanks for calling," she said. "This is probably the most interesting thing that's happened since I left the team. However, I'm not going to agree to come back until Ryuzaki wants me to."

"We think he does but he's trying to convince himself he doesn't because of how he likes to always be right… or something like that."

"Jesus," she said, beginning to loose track of the millisecond-long sentences. "You really shouldn't drink coffee. You're bordering cardiac arrest."

"So are you going to agree to come back?"

"If Ryuzaki wants me to come back. He obviously thinks I'm useless. Do me a favor. Tell him he's a stupid fuck when you get back."

"I can't."

"Why?"

"He doesn't know I'm calling."

"I didn't say you had to tell him I said it."

"I'm not going to make him think I said it!"

"Why not?"

"He scares me."

Katherine shook her head, laughing again. "That's pitiful."

"Yeah, sure. So you'll agree to come back if he says he wants you to come back?"

"Yes."

"Alright. I think we can do that. I'm not sure how, but it has to be possible. Right?"

"Mattie?"

"Eh?"

"You really shouldn't ingest caffeine any more."

There was a pause on the other line. "But I'm starting to like coffee…"

"How much of it did you drink?"

"Between yesterday and last night about a container and a half. I think. Ryuzaki had some, too. I don't know."

"You really shouldn't do that. If you have a heart attack, they won't know whether it's Kira's fault for being an ass or Ryuzaki's fault for keeping so much coffee on hand. You can have coffee, just not that much."

He sighed resignedly. "Alright…"

"Okay," she said.

"I'm at the store. Have to go. Kira case can't be talked about in public."

"You just said something about it."

This brought another pause. "Oops. I should probably go."

"Alright," she said, laughing. "Let the others know my answer whenever you can. And next time you have to leave to make a call, don't drink all the coffee and use that as an excuse."

"Okay. Bye."

The other line clicked, and she shut her phone. Katherine set her phone on the coffee table next to her and lay down on the couch, staring up at the ceiling.

"Well, that killed a good five minutes…" she thought aloud.


Matsuda set the bag of coffee next to the coffee maker on a table in the room and walked over to the couch and sat down. Aizawa looked back at him.

"Hey," he said.

Matsuda looked sharply over. It was a wonder he wasn't getting whiplash from doing that so much.

"You need to stop drinking coffee."

"Why?" His eye twitched. He obviously didn't notice. "I'm okay."

"Because we need to know whether or not it's Kira if you have a heart attack any time soon. Besides, when's the last time you blinked?"

He thought for a moment, unblinkingly. He then said, "Ten minutes ago?"

"Just… sit over there until you've calmed down."

"I'm calm!" he said energetically.

"No you're not."

"I can't help but wonder if Matsuda-san didn't leave just to get coffee," L said, not looking away from the computer. Matsuda looked over sharply at L.

"Why would you say that? I like coffee."

"You didn't start… 'liking' coffee until yesterday."

"It must be the brand. What brand is it? I didn't check, so I probably didn't even buy the right brand, so I probably won't be drinking it anymore."

"Even though I didn't understand a word of that, I still wonder if you left for some other reason," L said.

"Does everything have to be a mystery? I left to buy coffee because I was bored and you were almost out."

"I wasn't almost out."

"Yes you were."

"Saying it repeatedly doesn't make it true."

A pause, then, "Yes it does."

L decided it would be best to give up until the effects of the coffee left Matsuda. It was impossible to reason with him when he was in a normal state. Naturally, a caffeine-charged Matsuda would be even harder to reason with. In this state, he probably wouldn't get any sort of answer from Matsuda other than a contradiction, and that wasn't what he was looking for. L had slept last night. Had the other three called some secret meeting while he was asleep? No, that was ridiculous. Of course, Matsuda was ridiculous, and he was still awake when L awoke that morning at six. So there was every chance he could have awoken the other two and spoken with them. But about what? There was only one answer that could come to his mind, one that he preferred not to think about, as thinking about it tended to leave him out of focus. Had they noticed this? If Matsuda had noticed it, he would have obviously felt like a genius, and would have called a meeting about his accomplishment. That was just something that Matsuda seemed likely to do.

He didn't need to question it now. It was obvious Aizawa and Yagami knew something that L didn't, and Matsuda was extremely suspicious, especially with the amount caffeine that was in his system. He actually might have been easier to question in this state. He would definitely be more apt to slip up when asked confusing questions. L was fairly sure he knew now, however, that they had privately discussed something, or someone, and that Matsuda had left to make a phone call to that someone while he was out. They had noticed his lack of focus lately and attributed it to her. As it would have been for the past ten days he was unfocused, it was only natural that they would come to that conclusion. It was definitely still bothering him after that long, and that was definitely making him loose focus. He just hadn't expected anyone on the team, especially not Matsuda, to notice so quickly.

This could turn into a problem. Their next course of action would probably be to try to talk L into letting her back onto the team. He could only wait for that to happen, and continue trying to convince himself that he had done what he did for the sake of the investigation and for the sake of his and others' identities. No matter how much convincing he did, he never seemed to be very convinced, but maybe he would be after a while –

"Ryuzaki?"

"Yes?" he replied to Aizawa.

"You looked a little distracted. You were questioning Amane a minute ago."

"Oh."

As he continued to question Amane, he confirmed his suspicions. They knew he was having trouble focusing. They just weren't going to directly ask him about it yet.