Akane: Well, I'm sorry to have made you sad, but you know, it's good to feel a bit of sympathy. We'll find out how some of the girls react in this chapter, though~ Ahh...poor Misa. Here's the next chapter, dear; I hope it pleases you. Although, Light has been discouraging Misa from the eye trade more recently, ever since he lost his memories for good. So, I guess it would be Kira Light's fault, in a way? But not this Light... Ah, I'm giving myself a headache, haha~ Though you're right. If Rem were alive, they may very well have been dead. But Misa also would have died earlier if Rem hadn't given her lifespan to Misa. Hmm...

Random: Yeahh...poor Misa. BB deserves a nice scolding for not letting her die peacefully. Ahh... Well, we'll find Natalie's reaction in this chapter, then, eh? Along with the others'~

Reader: Yeah...Misa's gone. :c Poor Misa indeed.

Mysterious Guest: Aww, I'm sorry for making you sad... But at least it means I'm doing my job as a writer and evoking emotions in my readers. Poor girl...
Yeah, he did keep his legs in his freezer. xD Granted, he worked in a morgue, but...still. I have a weird family. xD No offense taken.

The Reading Kind: Yeahh, I almost forgot too, actually. xD That would have been not-good.
Mhm, you're right. Natalie does know who BB is...now it just takes some smarticles to piece together the fact it's BB committing the murders. I understand your sympathy for Misa; really, I do... It's nice of you to want her to run, dear. Though in the end she may have died anyway... Mm, she's not a complete idiot. She was suspicious of him; of course. She's a celebrity, and after all, a stalker once tried to kill her. So...there's that. But evidently she's still pretty innocent, otherwise she wouldn't have let BB lead her into that alley at all, haha.
You know, you're right. It is the perfect name.
...Pandora makes me happy now. xD That's perfect~

Guest: Oh yes~ Too bad she didn't live to tell the tale...
Oh, was it? Hmmm~

Mrs. Lawliet: My brother moved out before I was born~
Ahh, even though she was annoying, we must hold some sympathy for her in her death... Poor girl.

Wow...I got lots of reviews last chapter~ Maybe I should kill people off more often...

Ahaha, just kidding.

But we've reached 100 reviews, and we know what this means! Double update~

Not only that, but it's the thirteenth chapter, and that means BB is haunting this chapter! :D ...Oh, BB...

In any case, enjoy the chapter~

I never watched the news. Light did, so I suppose in a way I did too, but he didn't watch the news the next morning. It was a normal beginning-of-the-day routine, and nothing seemed wrong or different in any way. Anna ate her donuts, I ate my toast, and once we all ate we headed to our respective workplaces. Light checked Misa's apartment to see if she'd come home yet. She wasn't there, which worried me. She would have been back by now, wouldn't she? To try to get Light back. I assured myself that she was fine as I made my way to the police station. Light had actually made a breakthrough with the murder cases we were currently working on. The hints we were given; he could decode the past ones. It was only a matter of figuring out the current one. His theory was the blue triangle told us the next murder would be in Aoyama. Why? The Japanese word for blue was ao, and mountain was yama. Blue mountain; it was a mountain; that's what it was! Ao no yama. Aoyama. We were surprised we hadn't thought of it sooner. Now it was only a matter of figuring out the pattern of killing, for of course there had to be a pattern. This killer was setting out a puzzle to solve, here….

So, we got to HQ; he got there a few minutes before me. He was just stepping in the elevator when I came in, and I sped up my pace so I wouldn't be stuck waiting for the elevator's next ride. I made it, of course, the doors closing right behind me, and we went upwards in silence. As we walked out onto our floor and entered the main room, Ide was the one who greeted us. He looked grim. "There's a meeting in Aizawa's office," he told us, and we nodded simultaneously. The three of us began walking towards the office, then.

"Another murder?" asked Light. Ide gave a sound of confirmation as we entered the smaller room to find Mogi and Matsuda already there. Ugh, I hated being the last one here. But then… we lived farther from headquarters than the others, so….

The first thing I noticed when I entered was the fact Matsuda looked pale. What was wrong? We remembered why we were here. Another murder. Who was killed? Well, we'd find out soon enough, we decided, and looked to Aizawa. He looked at us and cleared his throat. Matsuda looked to us too. "The killer of these cases has struck again." He pulled out some files. "The next murder victim was Misa Amane." He paused. Let it sink in.

Both of us were shocked. When you're a cop that works cases like this, it doesn't usually occur to you that the killer might go for someone you know. (Especially not when you're acting as Kira.) And then, as humans, you typically don't worry a close friend will die all the time. So, at first, that's all we were: shocked. It didn't make sense at first. To me, anyway. As humans, we weren't able to emotionally comprehend it quite yet (no, for now we'd be numb), but logically speaking we understood. Misa had been killed by whoever was the murderer. Her lifespan had run out. She was dead.

Aizawa still hadn't spoken again. His hands were still on his desk, on the papers, and his gaze was still staring past the wood. He looked up. "Light, Natalie, I will have to let you off this case."

Matsuda was the first to respond. "What? You can't do that! Light is the one helping us most in this; this isn't any ordinary killer!"

Aizawa held up a hand to tell Matsuda to stop. "Matsuda, I know. But both of them are now personally involved with the case, and we can't have that. As chief, I must expulse them from this case because of that fact."

Light, who by then had composed himself, straightened up and said, "That is true, Chief Aizawa, but we—"

He was interrupted by a beeping sound, and Aizawa blinked before pressing a button to receive the message. The screen in the room lit up, a calligraphic L in the center. "L?" Matsuda asked blankly.

"What does he want?" Ide muttered.

"Hello," he said, his voice distorted, "I assume you have gotten the information on Misa Amane already, correct?"

"Yes," Aizawa replied promptly. "We are currently working on those murder cases."

"I know," L informed him, and Aizawa frowned. "I am contacting you to inform you that I am now working on and taking over this case."

"Along with the Kira case?" Matsuda asked bemusedly. "Isn't that a bit much?"

"I can assure you I will be fine."

"What business do you have on this case?" Aizawa questioned, a hint of irritation creeping into his tone.

"Chief Aizawa, first off, this killer is challenging me directly. You cannot see it, but I can, and thus I must act accordingly. Second, the killer has just murdered Misa Amane, originally the second Kira and a current suspect of the Kira case. He's involving the other case I am working on, at this point."

Aizawa clenched his teeth. "So are you just kicking all of us off, then?" he asked, keeping his voice level.

"Quite the contrary, Chief Aizawa. If you'll allow it, I would like the task force for this case to work under me. You may continue your work, and I will get my information from you, giving my perception of each murder in return. Would this be alright?"

Aizawa furrowed his brow and showed the beginnings of a scowl. "Of course. It's fine."

"Good."

"Wait, can Natalie and Light stay on the case, then?" Matsuda asked.

"That," said L, "would be up to Chief Aizawa. Once this is decided, please go about your day as normal. I will contact you this afternoon." He disconnected, and the screen went dark.

Aizawa sighed. "Light and Natalie, you two can have the day off today."

"There's no need," said Light. "Just because of this, it doesn't mean I can't still…."

"Just take the day. You can come back tomorrow if you're up for it."

I just nodded blankly, and Aizawa waited for us to go before he continued on with the meeting. ("Ide, you check the crime scene. Mogi, you figure out where she was staying Monday night. Matsuda… you help Mogi.")

We walked for awhile; Light was contemplating what he should do with this spare time while I thought about what had happened. As we walked, we eventually split off to go our separate ways, but of course our minds were still in sync so in a way we never parted. After the initial shock wore off and the reality sunk into mine and his mind, I began feeling guilt, creeping slowly into my conscious. I was going to change her lifespan. She would have been saved. But I let her go. And now she was dead. It made me feel kinda sick…. Not only that, but she died right after finding out about me and Light, which only made it worse.

No, no, don't think about lifespans and self-fault (even though it was only logic). I wasn't the one who killed her. I wasn't the one who took her life, and she didn't deserve to die. I lifted my arm to wipe the tears that had been unwillingly building in my eyes, taking a deep breath. (Must be old Natalie trying to resurface; huh.) That killer was the fool who murdered her. Yes, he deserved to die. Kira would take care of him for sure….

Gevanni's image appeared on the messaging screen with a beep. "Near," he said, "Misa Amane has—"

"I know," Near interrupted, his eyes dark. He was gazing at a different screen at the moment, a larger one that had the news displayed on it. There was Misa, hung on a cross with some message inscribed into her stomach. Her eyes were partially open, so the murderer had been sick enough to have his victim awake when he killed her. This, Near deciphered, was a part of the serial murder case that the task force was currently working on.

Gevanni only nodded. "Of course," he replied. "I'll be at headquarters soon."

"Alright." Near disconnected.

Anna was still staring at the screen in utter horror. Misa, dead? That couldn't be. She'd come over for dinner just that Sunday. She'd fought with Aunt Natalie, me, only two days ago. She couldn't be dead, just like that. It didn't make sense. Yet… there she was, on the television screen, the news announcers pronouncing her to have been murdered. But… Near said she was working as Kira. She was the killer, not the killed. Things didn't just switch around like that. Killed by a criminal; talk about turning the tables. Those tables went a full one hundred eighty degrees.

Anna could feel her eyes stinging as they began to water. Her jaw began to ache when she tried to stop herself from actually crying. Whether Misa was Kira or not, Anna considered her a friend. And now, Misa was dead. She hastily wiped the tears from her eyes. She could feel Near's irritation nagging at her mind, but it didn't bother her all that much. It only made her want the killer caught even more. Besides, she was sure Near could feel her feelings of loss in return.

And, of course, he could. He sat there staring at the screen displaying the news, irritation plain in his eyes and sadness from Anna concealed within his mind. The feeling was ignored, and his thoughts were set on the killer of Misa Amane. He wasn't even really watching the news in front of him. ("We're not sure what the killer was trying to say with the symbols on Misa-Misa's stomach and back; perhaps it's some cryptic code?" said the news anchor. Yeah, Near didn't care about that.) He honestly couldn't care less about the killer, actually. He typically wasn't affected by Japan's criminals, but whoever this killer was had just killed a main suspect of the Kira case. The second Kira; an accomplice of the main killer of this small group of Kiras. Now Near was involved, and he wasn't happy with the fact this murderer had screwed up his current plan. Perhaps he'd have to do something about him, if he could…. Of course, he'd have to learn more about the case before he could do anything, and besides, right now he just needed to rework his deductions and plans to fit the fact that Misa was now dead.

Yes, for now, that was all he would do. Sorry, Anna, there would be a bit more waiting to endure.

Sam lay on her bed, her arms curled above her head as a pillow. It was already the next morning, and she was wide awake, but she wasn't getting up quite yet. She was having a nice time just staring at the ceiling and contemplating things. Her mind wandered to the current case; the one with B as the culprit, not Light or myself or Mikami. She tried to, however, not ponder too much on evidence and decoding clues. She did that all the time; she was technically doing that every day, whenever L did such a thing. She decided, instead, to think about Misa.

She supposed there was actually a part of her that didn't mind her dead. Sam had never liked her that much. I mean, she did, but…. Well, she didn't miss her, really. Misa had been rather annoying, to be honest, but she had to say it was a bit saddening to know she was dead. And there was that other half of her – L, I mean to say – that was disheartened by her death as a fellow human being. A sense of guilt, there was, for the knowledge that if they'd decoded the pattern faster she wouldn't have died. A sense of justice that made them want to catch B even more. Now that they were on the case, they felt determined to stop anyone else from dying.

Sam sighed, then sat up. She gazed out the window right above her bookshelf; outside the leaves of the maple tree rustled and swayed in the wind. Blinking, she looked to the door, then swung her legs over the side of the bed and got to her feet. Trying to make her hair more presentable as she walked, she made her way down the stairs to find no one was home. Figures. After all, Anna had the SPK to go to, and I….

She furrowed her brow when she saw me lounging on the couch, reading the newspaper. (I'd found the thing to be actually quite informative.) Right, she thought, she was probably kicked off the case she was on. It's likely she doesn't have any business at NPA headquarters.

"Good morning, Sam," I greeted without looking up, turning a page.

"Yeah, hi," she responded in turn, heading to the kitchen to grab a donut or two for breakfast. "Not going to work today?"

"There's no point." I flipped another page. Oh, hey, criminals to kill. "Aizawa is keeping us off the Sinful Murder Cases." My mouth twitched. "A silly name, isn't it?" Smile gone, I closed the newspaper with a sigh. "We guess it's for the better, anyway. Misa's death really threw us off. I don't know what to think… and it makes me feel kinda sick and guilty knowing she's dead."

"Why, 'cause she found out about you and Light right before she died?" Sam inquired, her mouth stuffed with donut.

"Something like that."

She swallowed, then shrugged. "Light never liked her anyway."

"But it still makes me feel bad." I looked at her. "Do you want to go to her funeral?"

Sam only blinked, slightly taken aback by the question.

"Well," I mumbled, my gaze wandering back to the newspaper, then to the window, "you weren't that close to her. I guess it wouldn't really be right."

"Are you planning the funeral?" she asked me blankly.

I shook my head. "No, Light's doing that. He needs to do something with all of the spare time Aizawa's giving him, right? Besides, someone needed to do it…. Light already went to NPA headquarters this morning to confirm with Aizawa that her body would be ready by Saturday morning…. You can come to the wake, if you want…."

"Well… thanks. Sorry about you being kicked off the case, by the way."

"Oh, that's fine; it has nothing to do with you. So, L is taking over the case?"

"Yeah…."

I tilted my head. "Why? Just because the murderer challenged him?"

Sam waved off my questions. "Reasons; there are reasons."

I frowned, thinking about it a moment. "Is it… is it the same guy as last time? Those murder cases that jumped around the world. Is this him? It's just a guess…."

She looked at me. "It is," she told me, and got to her feet. "I'm going to where L is now; we have things to work on. Sorry for leaving you here alone."

"It's fine," I smiled, and she made her way out the door.

She breathed in the warm, late spring air. It wouldn't be long before it became summer. Ah, summer. How she loved summer so…. Even though it didn't necessarily affect her daily life anymore, she still enjoyed the warm days, the summer sun, daydreams of going to the beach…. When was the last time she'd been on a beach, she wondered? Back in February, it was, and it was only to try to make our way back home…. And before that… she wasn't so sure she remembered. Way back in 2004, when she'd ran off to America after my plan to stop Light from regaining his memories didn't work. And that hadn't been a very relaxing time, either.

She sighed. She'd have to go to the beach sometime this summer. It was, after all, her favorite place in the world.

While Sam daydreamed, Beyond spotted her from the shadows as she came off the driveway and into the street. Casually, he walked a safe distance behind her. It was time to find out where L was staying, currently. Yes, his next act would be a bit interesting. Although, all he wanted was a nice chat with Samantha. He wasn't going to try to kill her, he wasn't going to fight her or L, and he wasn't even going to go armed. He wanted only to appear to her, and her alone, thus frightening her and giving the possibility of a reduction in the percentage of hers and L's deductive abilities. Not only that, but he wanted to know L's Bond a little better. Who was the great L Bonded to? He simply had to test her. To do all of this, of course, he had to convince her he was L again… which would be painfully difficult with the Bond in place.

…Which was exactly why he wanted to try it. Beyond, after all, always loved a challenge.

So, upon discovering the hotel they roomed in for the moment, he had Sophia hack into the system of the hotel. While he waited, he went to a café nearby to have some breakfast. It was a westernized place, so he asked for pancakes with a side of strawberry jam. And of course he was specific with that. Jelly, he said, he would not accept. And with a nervous laugh, the waitress complied to his wishes.

Just as the food came, Sophia hacked into the hotel's system, and so he smiled sincerely when he got his food. Well, it was more of a smirk that seemed to creep the waitress out a little, but that was fine. Close enough. Now he could have his sugary pancakes and strawberry jam. He ate the pancakes first, happy to find it was topped with an exceptional amount of whipped cream, plus a few strawberries as an added touch. Then, of course, he ate the strawberry jam by itself. At least he was courteous enough to eat it with a spoon rather than his hands. Although, he did earn a few odd looks, one of which was from his poor waitress.

He then left a check, and was off. Samantha and L were in room 20-03, on the top floor. It only figured, knowing it was L. Only a few of the people working for room service were allowed up into the room, and even then they couldn't enter on request of L himself. Or rather, Ryuu Shion, the name L was currently using for this hotel. It was the name that he was most likely to choose, and so B knew that must be him. Now, he only had to go in at the right time, and act as one of the people who worked for room service. He'd pretend to be a new recruit. And then… all he had to do was add some sedatives to his drink. Watari would probably intercept him and take the drink to L himself. L would suspect nothing, and he would fall asleep.

Then he could make his move.

Well then, it was time to make his preparations.

Fun Fact: Newspapers have always confused me, actually. They fall apart whenever I even attempt to read them.

Review? For BB's stalker-ish-ness? .-.