Omg! Chapter done XD

I know - finally, she freaking finished!

I'm so very sorry. I started working on my HP stories again, and I was still working on my DN ones a little, just not anywhere near as much as I used to. I've hit a blank on all but A Gaunt Tale regarding my Potter stories, so I'll be working on at least The King's Note more often.

For those who don't know, yes, my penname used to be Bloodstains, but now it's obviously Comma. But, it's still me.

Anywho.

I suppose it would be nice of me to mention that all of your appreciation was and never will be forgotten? I mean, it's in a C2 community, has 242 reviews from about umpteen totally awesome people, and 89 favoriters and 84 alerters. I love all of you that have done any of those. I just hope you didn't forget me :(

This continues right off of the last chapter and basically covers chapters 38-39 of the manga. I've finally started watching the anime as well, but I still prefer the manga.

Except the part in the anime where L hands Mogi a strawberry and he puts it in his pocket. I almost died laughing. I may include it in here sometime later.


Katherine gaped at the scene as silence ensued the sudden attack that had been made. L was sitting on the floor against the wall now – or more, hand landed there and not bothered to move – looking somewhat confused by the sudden action, and Light was glaring lividly at the detective. Katherine was more or less trying to figure out where that had come from. And resisting to snap Light's arms off so he could never do that ever again.

"That hurts," L said.

It seemed more to be more of a simple observation than a pained complaint, which, Katherine thought, was odd, considering the size of the bruise developing on her poor little panda puppy's cheek. She shook a look of anger off of her face before it could develop there and kept to looking surprised. Showing signs of emotion at this might signal that they were a bit more than good friends. That couldn't happen; this was a work environment. And at the moment, it was a rather hostile work environment. Now Light was telling him off and grabbing his collar, probably to punch him again, but L took action.

By kicking him.

In the face.

Katherine wasn't sure to be surprised, amused, or annoyed by Misa's shrieking as she hurried and hid in the corner of the room. The handcuffs made the situation even more amusing, as the chain snapping was causing them both to be knocked over. The fight was basically a pattern of punch, taunt, kick, taunt, punch, and so on. Light got kicked in the face not once, but twice, which was funny as hell. Not in Misa's opinion, of course. Katherine joined Misa towards the back of the room, crouching down to watch the fighting without getting in the middle of it.

"Come on, you can't possibly not find this a little amusing," she said to the cowering model.

"Is Light okay? If Light isn't okay, then Misa-Misa is going to hurt Ryuzaki-san!"

"Light's alright. He's got a couple kicks to the nose, but no biggie. On another note, if they keep this up, someone's pants are going to end up falling down."

Misa looked from Light to L, then at Katherine, grinning. "Why did Kat-chan notice that?" she asked, her voice both amused and suspicious.

"It's kind of hard to miss, isn't it? – Oh, I think this is the big finish!" she added, turning her focus back to the fight again.

And just as they were about to punch each other in the face at the same moment, the phone rang. They both stopped and stared at the source of the noise for a moment. It looked almost like someone had hit the pause button on a remote control… before L reached over to his side to grab the phone, that is.

"Yes?" he said. "… What happened??... I see."

The annoyed look on L's face indicated one thing to everyone else in the room – Matsuda. He dropped the phone back onto the receiver, rolling his eyes. Matsuda watched from downstairs, slightly disappointed. It was important that Misa was going to be the lead in Nishinaka's next film, and it was L that had appointed him as Misa's manager! If anyone was annoying, it was L.

"What's up?" Light asked L.

"Another of Matsuda's unimportant idiocies."

"Well, Matsuda does have that natural ignorance," Light said.

Matsuda laughed slightly, still holding the phone as he listened to them. "Th… those two know that we can hear them, right?"

––

"Headquarters?"

"Yeah. We figure there must be a permanent one by now, you know?"

"Why would you think something like that?"

Katherine turned the coffee table upright in hers and Misa's room. L and Light hadn't bothered cleaning up any of the mess they made durring the fight, and Misa was downstairs, most likely fawning over Light again. She was glad she was there alone, considering that. Misa got even more insufferably annoying around her "boyfriend." Of course, the voice at the other end of the phone was beginning to irritate her now….

"I didn't, I was only asking if there was a permanent one," Don said.

"Nah," Katherine said nonchalantly. "We've got to keep moving from room to room in the hotels. It would be easier for anyone opposing us to find us if we didn't. Even with the highest security, there's still a chance that someone could break in if we had a permanent headquarters."

"Like Pat?"

"Yes," Katherine said with a sigh. "He's the only person known to mankind who can pick a keycard lock with a damned hairpin, after all. I only recently figured out how to pick a regular lock with one."

"Pick a keycard lock with a hairpin?" Matsuda looked up at the monitors in the investigation room from his paperwork, bemused by the absurdity of that idea. "That's not possible, is it?"

"Kat-chan's friend Pat says he can, but Misa never saw him prove it," Misa said.

"I believe I've heard that it is possible," L said distantly, busy with something on his computer, "but supposedly very hard to do."

"Shouldn't we agree to work with someone on our side that can? In case we need to break in somewhere to find Kira," Matsuda said.

"You're suggesting we work with criminals, Matsuda?" Aizawa asked.

"Well… no… but…"

"They're also Kira suspects. If we have them here, we could possibly die."

"Yeah…" Matsuda said with a sigh.

That was all fine. L wasn't much paying attention to the conversation going on upstairs between her and one of her friends; he was busy waiting to see Light's final reaction to L's 'depression.' It had gone through stages; first shock, then anger, and now determination. He was determined to get L back on track with the case; that was, he had been looking for some sort of lead on Kira since he got back downstairs. Misa was still clinging to his arm, which probably made it a lot harder to work. L didn't care – he had considered that Light would lose his temper in response to the plan, but he hadn't thought that he would end up getting a black eye out of the deal. As far as he was concerned, Light deserved whatever torture the blond had to offer him.

"Oh, bloody hell, fecking mess in here…"

L looked back up at the cameras as Katherine was mumbling sardonically. She was shoving her phone in her pocket and centering the coffee table back in between the couches in the middle of the flat's main room. She looked around, shook her head, and sat down on the couch.

She wanted to knock their heads together. All three of them. L, Light, and Misa. L and Light for tearing the place apart, Misa for not even attempting to help clean anything. Of course, this could all be traced back to L. She had warned him that this would happen when he ran this idea by her. She told him he was just going to get punched in the face. Stupid stubborn insomnia-afflicted panda …. She rolled her eyes and picked up her box of Cheez-Its from next to the couch, only to realize that there were only about five of the squares left at the bottom of the box. That was terrible, nearly agonizing. All that cleaning and all she had to show for it was a box with five cheese-flavored square crackers at the very bottom.

That left things at no Cheez-Its, a severe lack of chocolate within the room, no soda, clean-up duty, and being forced into wearing a corset. Today was not a good day so far. Except for the fight – that had been the best entertainment since Misa's overreaction to the handcuffs. Of course, she would still be finding some way to get back at Light without him knowing it was her. He may have gotten a foot to the face, but he didn't have a black eye… yet.

If he kept hitting people, he was definitely going to get one.

"Kat-chan!!"

Katherine flinched at the ungodly racket as the blond came traipsing in through the door to their flat. With her lack of comfort foods, it was going to take a lot not to strangle Misa in her sleep tonight. Misa sat down next to Katherine on the couch.

"Light figured out something new in the Kira case! Isn't he soo smart??"

Katherine listened as Misa babbled on about Kira and how he was now killing for his own benefit and masking it to seem like it was still for the good of the world, indicating that Kira was probably someone different now. Katherine already knew all of this, and that L had just manipulated Light into finding this "new" information. Even if he was good at it, manipulating people definitely didn't seem very healthy for him. Any more of it and he might end up losing an eye….

Katherine sighed inwardly as she nodded, still pretending to listen to Misa. It was definitely going to be a long day.

––

"… so Kira can kill people with more than just heart attacks?"

"Right."

"See, I could've told you that ages ago."

"What?"

"Really, I could have. I wouldn't have had evidence to back it, but I could have told you and it would have been true, you just wouldn't have known it."

Light rolled his eyes. "And how would you have been able to tell me that?"

It was Katherine's turn to glare this time. "Remember Al? Who you accused me of killing to take suspicion off of my hands by gaining sympathy, like the stupid Kira-face you are? I would have believed it was suicide, just so he could avoid being killed by Kira – which was the last thing he wanted – but with the message in that letter, it's just impossible to ignore something like that. Then there's Naomi Misora, who disappeared without a trace. Granted, she could have gone off somewhere and died of a heart attack, but I suppose it's going to be impossible to figure out at this point. As far as Al goes, though, that was proof enough for me."

"Yeah," Light said, "but that's pretty circumstantial. The evidence I have is too, but it's a little more believable –"

"What, you think Al left that message because he supported Kira or something? What criminal would bloody support Kira?"

"I'm not saying that wasn't considerable," said Light, sounding irritated (though not half as irritated as Katherine was growing from his insinuations), "I'm just saying that with this – the fact that all the deaths were at the benefit of the Yotsuba corporation and at the expense of the companies standing in their way, that Kira may be there. It's most likely a different Kira at last time due to the pattern he's using to kill them."

"For personal benefit rather than what he thinks is the good of the world," L interrupted before the argument would get too loud or painful to listen to. "It all makes sense if you look at the files."

Katherine continued glaring at Light from her computer chair (which she preferred sitting in much more than sitting next to Light, god forbid), but she flipped through the papers on Yotsuba and the deaths at the companies that seemed to be holding them back.

"It definitely doesn't look like a coincidence," said Aizawa. "It seems he's still punishing criminals with heart attacks, and getting rid of people in Yotsuba's way with accidents and illnesses."

"Those big companies do those kinds of things, poisoning people and creating fake accidents to get their opponents out of the way," said Matsuda.

"In what era?" said Aizawa, giving Matsuda the usual you're-an-idiot glare. "Companies these days never do that."

"They do," said Katherine. "They're just better at covering it up now."

"And Yotsuba evidently does," said L. "The question is whether or not it really is Kira related. Three of the deaths of Yotsuba's adversaries were heart attacks. Although, my verdicts are apt to turn out wrong."

"Couldn't Kira have bribed them into working for him?" asked Aizawa.

"No, Kira would never hire anyone. That would mean some company managed to find Kira before myself, which is impossible."

"You just said something about your verdicts tending to turn out wrong and now…" Aizawa said uncertainly.

"I was playing cynical. Besides, Kira wouldn't cooperate with anyone, even if they found out his identity. It's better to assume that Kira is someone inside Yotsuba."

"Maybe Kira offered himself up to Yotsuba," said Aizawa. "He might need funding for part of his plans."

"But that would make Kira cheap and uncool," Matsuda said uncertainly. "That's not groovy at all."

Naturally, this set Aizawa off on him. "So you think Kira's cool and groovy, then?" he demanded, his voice raising. Matsuda cowered into the corner of the sofa in response.

"Umm… no?"

"Well," Aizawa continued, rolling his eyes at Matsuda, "this either has to do with Kira or it doesn't. Either way, we need to investigate Yotsuba, which could prove to be difficult since it's such a major company."

"Watari has a few good contacts in financial circles. It could be reckless letting him investigate alone if Kira is involved, but I'll work that out as we go along with the investigation. Yagami-san should return from the police headquarters soon, and we'll decide on our next move then. We do need to do all we can in the meanwhile, however."

"I can try to hack into Yotsuba's computer network, then," said Light.

"And I'll research Yotsuba's organizational background," said Aizawa.

"And I'll… umm…" Matsuda said uncertainly as everyone else began to stand up.

Katherine shrugged and rolled back over to her computer in her swivel chair. They really needed to wait until Yagami returned before any drastic measures could be taken at all, so Light and Aizawa had basically taken all of the possible assignments at hand.

Within the hour, Yagami had returned to the investigation headquarters not alone, but with Mogi. Light, of course, wasn't to know that Mogi had been working under cover to follow him around and gather evidence against him, only that he had been out doing something for the Kira case. Matsuda was the first to turn around when the door opened.

"Chief Yagami – oh, and Mogi – I have great news," he said. "The research we did turned out good – we think there's a possibility that Yotsuba and Kira are somehow related."

"Yotsuba?" said Yagami, surprised.

"Y… yeah…"

He nodded. "I think that's it. You did a good job."

"H– huh?" Matsuda wasn't particularly used to being congratulated, particularly not for anything to do with the Kira case lately.

"Vice commander has told me that Kira has been bribing politicians."

"Kira… bribe?" said Aizawa. "By using Yotsuba as his financial front?"

"That's a big lead," Matsuda said, "it ties everything together."

"What about our proposal to recruit members of the police across Japan willing to fight Kira? Did he agree?"

"No," said Yagami, his high spirits from the new lead fading slightly. "Quite the opposite. The Japanese police has yielded to Kira; there's no one to recruit."

A surprised silence ensued from this statement, in which Light, Katherine, and L all also stopped what they were doing and turned from the computers to listen. What could have caused the police to back out of a case as significant as Kira's? It was dangerous, sure, but there were still lives at stake, and innocent ones now (of course, corporate nut jobs were generally never entirely innocent, but they didn't deserve death). Katherine couldn't figure it out; even if Kira had threatened the police or something, they shouldn't have backed down so easily.

"I've already had this conversation with Mogi," Yagami continued. "We will both be staying here to investigate." Aizawa and Matsuda looked at each other, both of them confused at the same moment for once. "Aizawa, Matsuda, if you are both still up for the Kira investigation, then come along with Mogi and I and we will hand in our resignation to the police." The confusion was followed by yet another bout of surprise, but Yagami continued. "We will no longer have the option to investigate Kira if we stay with the police. The only way to continue with this is to quit."

"Wh… what do you mean?"

"Yeah," Matsuda agreed with Aizawa, "aren't we in this investigation because we are with the police?"

"I was basically informed that we'll be fired if we continue to work here," said Yagami. "Kira might be behind it, but regardless, it's still an order from above. Our only choices are to obey or walk out on the police force."

Matsuda looked from Mogi to Yagami. "So you really plan on resigning from the police?"

"Yes," said Yagami. "A couple hours from now, I will no longer be a chief. I want you both to decide carefully. Remember that it's not only your life that you're risking from here on out."

"Yeah," said Matsuda thoughtfully, "especially for those with a family and kids to support…"

There was another, more apprehensive silence through the room. Would it really be the best idea for them to stay? Katherine couldn't help but wonder… Yagami and Aizawa both had families. She could see Yagami's justification for wanting to stay – his son would remain on the investigation team regardless, as Light was still a suspect, and Yagami stubbornly refused to leave until Light was proven to be innocent. She didn't know much about Mogi, but he had helped the investigation enough that he definitely would want to see it through to the end. Matsuda didn't have a family to worry about and, though he generally didn't have much to help with, was quite enthusiastic about the job (and about being Misa's manager, no less). Then, there was Aizawa. If anyone would be inclined to leave, it would be him. He had a wife and two young children that were both at risk as long as he continued investigating. He already had to commute back and forth to headquarters because of that, whereas everyone else was just staying on separate floors for the time (except Light and L, as they were sort of chained together, and Misa and Katherine, who were forced to stay together).

"I think everyone ought to return to the police." The statement directed all attentions in the room over to L, who hadn't even looked up from his computer upon saying it. "I was on my own in the beginning, anyway. The police turned away from the investigation out of fear of Kira, but you said you would stay on the investigation rather than with the police. That already means a lot to me. But… I can take it from here on my own. And…" L said, "I promise… I will visit you at the police headquarters one day and hand over the head of Kira."