AN: This chapter is dedicated to Nikki, the support behind the scenes. Best friend, L fangirl, and beta reader all rolled up in one. Plus without her, it's possible that I never would have discovered fanfiction or even manga/anime in the first place, to which she deserves a ginormous THANK YOU!!

...Why am I mentioning her now? Because 13 is her favorite number. (*wink*wink*)
(And BTW, her nickname is B. And yes, she has earned that title, thank ya very much!! Moral of the story: do NOT piss her off.)

February 14, 2011
10:34 AM

"You're kidding!! What the hell kind of prank is this?!"

The Kira investigation team (plus Yamamoto) was gathered together in Aizawa's office trying to make sense of what they had just been told.

Yamamoto was sweating profusely because of Aizawa's accusation.

Matsuda was freaking out because nobody seemed to believe them.

Ide couldn't believe what Matsuda was saying.

Mogi was silent and showed no emotion on his face, like he always did.

And Aizawa...

None of them had ever seen him so pissed off.

"Matsuda is making you do this, isn't he?!" he said, not believing for an instant anything about this was true.

"N-n-no!!" Yamamoto stammered. "I swear, I haven't lied about anything here!! And Matsuda hasn't done anything either!!"

"But that isn't possible!!" Aizawa shouted. "The man you described is dead!! All of us here saw him die right before our eyes!!"

"C-chief," Matsuda began, "we aren't making this up!! Yamamoto claims to have seen him and I believe him!!"

"Nobody else does!!" Aizawa said angrily.

Yamamoto turned even more pale than already was.

"WHY WON'T ANYONE BELIEVE US??" Matsuda shouted. "I haven't had Yamamoto do anything, and he knows exactly what Ryuzaki looks like and acts like!!"

"But it IS. NOT. POSSIBLE." Aizawa rubbed his forehead and sighed. "How did I end up being the boss of such an idiot?" he muttered to himself.

Ide had been quiet up until then, but he wanted to help his friend. "Matsuda," he interrupted, "Would you swear this isn't a prank?!"

Matsuda turned to him. "Huh?"

"Would you place your life on the bet that this isn't a joke??"

"Absolutely!!" he answered without hesitation. "I'd never try and pull something like this on any of you guys!! Besides, I fainted when he told me about Ryuzaki!! How the heck do you fake passing out?!"

"Drugs," Mogi offered.

Matsuda rolled his eyes. "Ha ha, funny. I'm not on drugs, and neither is Yamamoto! Test us!! We're not making this up!!"

Matsuda might have been stupid, but to say he was willing to risk his life on it...? Even Aizawa saw that much was genuine.

"Well then, if you didn't make this up, then who the hell was that guy?!" Aizawa stood up and began pacing around the room. "It can't be
the real Ryuzaki: that much is impossible."

"Maybe it's one of his successors," suggested Ide. "Someone from that orphanage who admires him so much to have dressed like him and picked
up his habits."

"Isn't that going a bit far? Really, how would dressing up like Ryuzaki make any difference?"

"Okay, wait a minute!" Yamamoto interjected. "Are we still talking about Ryuzaki, or are we talking about some kind of monarchy here??"

Ide frowned. "...Monarchy?? What the hell do you mean by monarchy?!"

"Because, um, you said 'successor'. The first thing I think of when anybody mentions a successor is a crown or something."

It was then that they realized that Yamamoto didn't know Ryuzaki had been L.

"Erm," Matsuda said, "let's say that he holds an important job title."

"Did, you mean," corrected Aizawa.

"So... Is Ryuzaki really his name?"

"Well, no."

"But, then, what is?!"

Everyone else looked around uncomfortably. None of them--not even Matsuda--was stupid enough to tell him that Ryuzaki had been the greatest detective in the world. Luckily, Aizawa answered quickly, "Well, none if us ever knew his real name: he always insisted on using the name Ryuzaki around us to protect himself."

"Oh." Yamamoto considered this. "So... who was he?"

"An investigator who came in to assist us on the Kira case," Mogi said gruffly. Well, it was close enough to the truth.

"But back to the subject," Ide said. "What if he isn't a successor, but is really... I don't know, an impostor of some sort?"

"An impostor?" Aizawa thought it over. "Well, it's possible, I suppose. But how many people have information on Ryuzaki?"

He had a point. "Dammit, this might be kinda tricky," mumbled Yamamoto.

Aizawa stopped pacing. "I don't know what the rest of you think, but the only person I can think of who could help us figure this out is L."

For a split-second, nobody moved. They had just been through a giant argument over L being dead, and now Aizawa suggested talking to him??

But they all remembered quickly that by "L", he didn't mean Ryuzaki.

He was referring to Near.

"That's the best idea I've heard all morning!" said Matsuda.

Aizawa dialed a phone number. The room was silent as he stood there waiting for Watari (Rodger) to pick up. After a minute, he spoke. "I'd like to speak to L... My access code? I don't have one... Huh? Dammit, just tell him it's Aizawa from the Japanese NPA!.... Thank you..."

Everyone looked around at each other anxiously.

After all, if "L" couldn't help them, who could?

AN: Guess who appears in the next chappie!!... As if it isn't extremely obvious. ;-P

(I bet Nikki is super-special-awesomely happy I pushed that little event out of this update. She, um, doesn't like Near much.)

I thought at first that maybe I would have them all figure out where L was and go to see him, then majorly freak out when they realize it really is him while he just stands there looking indifferent. :D But then I realized that just plain old wasn't very realistic. After all, no one would believe that somebody who is DEAD is walking around Tokyo! (Okay, so he's not dead anymore... but they aren't exactly aware of that, now are they?)