AN: I don't have a friggin' clue how the Japanese police work, just so y'all know. I wrote the police info so it made sense and suited my purposes.

February 14, 2011
8:48 PM

A beautiful corpse.

If L had felt any need to romanticize a phrase meaning "dead body," that might have been his choice of words. But as it was, it was just a body.

A body that certainly would have been beautiful, had it not been severely mangled and spattered with blood.

This seems vaguely familiar...

The body belonged to a young girl, who looked like she might have been a teenager. She was lying on the sidewalk, where she had fallen from the top of a very high building. L looked at the height of the skyscraper next to him and estimated it to be a good 15 stories tall and at least 150 feet high. Even though he couldn't be certain, he figured it was safe to assume her death was intentional. The cause of her demise seemed rather mysterious. Had it been murder? Suicide? Or--L couldn't ignore the possibility at a 0.02% chance--had she been written down to die in a Death Note?

With a small jolt of surprise, L realized that this was the first body he'd seen in years, and one of the few bodies he'd seen period. Throughout virtually all of his life, he saw the dead in photographs and video recordings.

And this was the first time that L had ever seen someone die right in front of him.

Next to him, a woman was blubbering. It had actually been her--not the dead girl--who had screamed. L paid very little attention to her: most of her rant was nonsense, as far as he could tell. Something about how tragic it was that someone had to die so young, and why did she have to be the one to find the body?! L was greatly annoyed, and he tuned her out.

He kept on getting a sense that there was something significant about this situation, but to his dismay, he just couldn't figure out what it was. Does this remind me of something that happened before...? No, I rarely solved these kinds of crimes. Is it the location...? No, that can't be it. How often have I wandered around downtown Tokyo? So then it must be... the body...?

A crowd was beginning to form, and after a short time two police cars pulled up. Quickly and efficiently the people were pushed away from the scene, and the area was roped off. Most of the crowd disaparated, but for the pesky few who stated around--L included--one officer was trying to shoo them all off.

"Go on, people, nothing to see here," he said while gesturing for them to leave.

Nobody, or at least very few, moved to go.

"Please, leave so the police can do their work!"

Still, nobody seemed to be ready to leave.

"Do I need to bring out the handcuffs?!" the officer said, exasperated.

"Yamamoto, who put you on crowd control?!"

The voice came from somewhere across the police line.

L didn't need to see the second man to realize who it was.

Matsuda-san?!

Why is he here...?!

"Ha ha, funny. But Matsuda, these people won't leave!!"

"So ignore them! They aren't doing anything to corrupt the scene. Nobody else even cares."

Since when has Matsuda-san become bossy? L wondered.

The first man--Yamamoto--sighed. "I guess..."

No less than 2.77 seconds later, L had a plan.

"Does anyone here want to volunteer as a witness?" Yamamoto said to the people still there. "I need at least three for an official record."

The blubbering woman stepped forward. Another man volunteered along with her.

And there was L.

"Would any of you mind coming into the police station for questioning?"

Nobody seemed to object.

"Good. Any questions?"

"Who was she?" L asked abruptly.

"Who was--?"

"She must have been significant in some way," L continued, "because why would there be NPA detectives here instead of regular officers?"

L was unsure if the detective was nervous about being questioned or just plain stupid, but he didn't deny anything. "She, ah," Yamamoto stuttered, "she is... was... um--"

"Good God, Yamamoto!" one of the other officers shouted. "You aren't allowed to release that kind of information!"

"Huh? Oh. OH, right!!"

But it was too late.

Had they left the scene sooner, L wouldn't have seen the body being carried away on a stretcher, and it would have taken him longer to realize who the corpse was. It had taken a rather long time as it was (for him, at least), and he felt incredibly stupid for not noticing it before.

The body was blonde, petite, and--even L had thought of the adjective--beautiful.

Beautiful like a supermodel.

How did in the world did I miss that...?!

With a small shock as he calculated the odds, he realized there was a 88.2% chance that the body was Misa Amane.

AN: Sorry guys, it wasn't Matsuda that screamed. Ha ha, though, that was a pretty good idea! It would have been really fun to write, but I don't think it would have done much for the plot in the long run...

And check out the Death Note Wiki site! Misa actually does die on February 14, 2011, fo realz!! I noticed that and I was like "Omigosh NO WAY!! I CAN TIE THAT INTO MY STORY!!" (And no offense to Misa fans, but I think she's really a really annoying H-O-R-E.)
(And yes, I know there's supposed to be a W there!!)

I would have posted this chapter sooner but I was waiting to get 70 reviews (because I'm a little OCD like that... gotta have even numbers!), but in my opinion that took WAY TOO LONG!! To put it simply, like I have stated many times before, more reviews = faster updates. Sorry, I need motivation. :-(

But enough rambling. If you want the next chapter, you know what to do...!