((Author's Note)) Hello once again fellow fanfiction writers, readers, and reviewers alike. I welcome you back for the next chapter. I don't plan on keeping any of you waiting, so here you go.

Edit: Minor grammatical, narration and Dialogue edits.

Chapter 8

I entered the hotel room after speaking with Tailor. As soon as I closed the door, L spoke.

"How'd it go?" he asked. I collapsed onto the couch next to him.

"Lind L. Tailor has agreed to be your proxy," I said. "Watari has everything set up for the confrontation."

L nodded in understanding. "What about your own personal research? Did you find anything?"

I sighed. "Nothing of great significance."

"You seem depressed."

"Do I? I hadn't noticed," I spoke with sarcasm, tearing off my beanie and shaking my head to cool off my ears. When I relaxed, L put a slice of chocolate cake in front of me.

"Have some cake...It might calm you down," L stated emotionlessly. I pushed it away.

"Can't have chocolate," I said. "Highly alergic."

"That's unfortunate." L took the cake back and ate it himself.

I swiped the remote to the TV and turned it on. "The announcement will be coming on soon." Just as I said that, it did.

"We'd like to apologize for the interruption," the announcer stated. "As of now we're bringing you a live world wide broadcast from interpol, ICPO."

"And so it begins," I mutter, sitting back into the couch. "Let's hope I made a good choice in script as well as actor."

"You doubt yourself," L stated.

"We all do at some point in our lives."

"I never did."

The announcer then spoke once more. "We now take you live to the ICPO."

The screen showed Lind L. Tailor dressed in a suit with his name on a plate in front of him. At least he cleans up nice.

Tailor began to speak with confidence. "I head up an international police task force which includes all member nations. I am Lind L. Tailor, otherwise known as L."

"He certainly plays the part well," L commented. I snorted, once again shuffling my cards, waiting for some sort of slip-up.

"Criminals around the world are being murdered by a serial killer. I consider this crime to be the most atrocious act of murder in history," Tailor continued. "I will not rest until the person or persons responsible are brought to justice. Kira, I will hunt you down, I will find you."

"Wow," I said, "didn't expect that much confidence."

"Kira, I've got a pretty good idea what your motivation might be and I can guess what you hope to achieve. However, what you are doing right now..." Aaaaand, cue the nerve-wracker. "...is evil." Tailor then gave a smile, as if he already won.

"And Bingo was his name-o," I said. "If anything that would be what sends Kira off to Crazy Town."

"I must admit," L stated, "that smile would drive anyone off edge."

"Why thank you, Ryuzaki." As soon as the words left my mouth, Tailor groaned, clutching his chest before collapsing on the desk.

My breath caught in my throat as I looked over at L, who had a shocked look on his face. He wasn't expecting that...neither of us were. "L?"

He signaled me to be quiet before turning on his mic. I watched as the familiar gothic styled L appeared on the TV screen.

"I...I had to test this just in case but I...I never thought it would actually happen." L's voice easily showed the unexpected shock. He took a quick breath to calm down before continuing.

"Kira, it seems you can kill people without having to be there in person. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't just witnessed it."

I rolled my eyes. L the realist, everybody.

"Listen to me, Kira. If you did indeed kill Lind L. Tailor, the man you just saw die on television, I should tell you that he was an inmate, whose execution was scheduled for today. That was not me," L said. I could easily see Kira have one of those looks that screamed 'dafuq?!'.

"The police arrested him in absolute secrecy, so you wouldn't have heard about him on TV or through the internet. It appears not even you have access to information about these types of criminals," L continued smugly. "But I assure you L is real. I do exist."

L: one, Kira: zero, I thought. Then L did what I thought was one of the stupidest things on the planet.

"Now try to kill me!" I looked at L. What the hell is he doing? "What's wrong? Can't you do it? Come on!"

I sat there speechless as L continued to taunt Kira. All I could think was, This is going to become a full-out war.

I sighed in relief when he finally stopped. With the look on his face, however, I knew he had one thing left to say.

"So there are some people you can't kill. You've given me a useful hint. Let me return the favor." Make that a few things.

I began tuning him out as he explained how he pinpointed where to begin when first planing the confrontation that is currently taking place.

"To be completely honest with you, I never expected that things would go this well, but it won't be too long now before I'm able to sentence you to death." Well, things just took a darker turn.

"Naturally I'm very interested to know how you are able to commit these murders without being present, but I don't mind waiting a little bit longer. You can answer all of my questions when I catch you."

I couldn't help but smile when L said the last few words, "Let's meet again soon, Kira." He then disconnected his mic and the TV went static.

L looked at me with an un L-ish smile on his face. "How'd I do?"

I gave him a look that I believe his mother would have given if she could. "Other that the fact you tried to get yourself killed, I don't see the point in you asking, do you?" He shook his head and I stretched. "So, what's phase two?"

"Phase two won't be explained until morning, so you should go to bed and rest."

I yawned and stood up, heading toward the one bedroom to go to sleep. "I think I've said this before, but you really know how to plan ahead. Do you ever have a plan B if this one fails?"

L didn't answer as he also stood up from the couch and made his way to the wall-sized window overlooking the city below.

"Kira...I will hunt you down wherever you're hiding and I will eliminate you. I am...Justice."

I poked my head out of the bedroom door. "Hey 'Justice' would you mind keeping it down? Unlike you, there are people in this country that want to sleep."

((Author's Note)) Thank God for Transcripts! I don't know what I'd do without them.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. And please, I beg you, please, please please, review.

Until next time...

-Garden