((Author's Note)) I'm back once again, my little flowers; and here with a new chapter.

((Author's Note)) Okay so last time we left off, we had the Wammy boys heading for the airport after Yugi passed out during a report. Here's the thing though; What happened to our favorite blue haired, persian wolf gir?

Well, as the author of this story, I'm here to tell you what happens next.

Chapter 23

L's Pov (3rd Person)

It had been hours since L had sent Yugi to send her report to Wammy House. He initially thought nothing of it, however, and continued to make a mountain out of his strawberry flavored marshmellows.

"Yugi's been in there a long time," Matsuda voiced out concerned. "You think she's alright?"

"Don't worry, Matsuda, she's fine," Equal stated.

"But she's usually out here by now...helping us with the case..."

"She's probably changing her clothes or something, just let her be," Aizawa rolled his eyes.

A cellphone rang and Equal picked it up. "Hello?" She gasped. "Kani?! What's wrong? Where's Shino?" She put her hand to her mouth in obvious worry.

"Isn't Kani like three or something?" Ukita whispered.

Equal tried to calm down the apparently hysterical chiled. "Okay, honey, just calm down. Just calm down and tell me what happened...Kani? Kani!"

"What happened?" L asked, taking his attention off of his Marshmellow Mountain and facing Equal.

"Who are you?" Equal demanded to the phone. "What have you done with my son?" An eerie silence fell over the room as her hand began to shake. "No. Not until you tell me where my son is!" She gritted her teeth and sighed. "Fine." She pulled the phone away from her ear and put it on speaker.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Equal," a distorted voice stated in mock kindness.

"Now where is Kani?" Equal demanded. The person on the other end chuckled.

"You don't need to worry about Kaniko...he's perefectly fine. After all, he's not the one I was after..."

"What do you mean? Did you hurt Shino?" Equal asked. "She's just the babysitter, she didn't do anything!"

"Oh, no, no, no. Shino is also fine...she just happened to be in possesion of something I needed." The person chuckled again. "That, however is out of the way and is no longer an obstacle."

"What are you planning?" Equal asked.

"Oh, nothing really," the person said nonchalantly. "Just what your husband was able to accomplish."

Equal's eyes widened.

"But just doing what I need to and waiting to be found is just no fun. So that's why I requested you put your phone on Speaker...Because I know for a fact that you, L, are in the same room listening."

The task force all silently turn their heads to look at L. He was also silent, and he chewed his thumb in thought.

"I want to see how truly powerful you can be. Sure you've done many great things, solved countless cases that others could not...but that does not convince me. Perhaps this might."

"And what makes you think I would put my current case on hold just to go after you?" L spoke to the person for the first time.

"Only one simple fact," the person replied. "The fact that I hold your mate captive."

"Mate?" Matsuda wondered.

"What is he talking about?" Yagami asked.

The voice continued. "I want to see if you're as good of a detective as Abstract had hoped you would be. Perhaps then I would be convinced."

There was silence for a moment and the voice chuckled.

"She is rather interesting. After all...It's not everyday, you see a girl with such beautiful, golden eyes." The phone line went dead and Equal dropped the phone in shock.

"Equal?" Yagami asked.

Equal looked around before running to the door. "I got to get to the apartment."

"I'll have Watari take you," L stated softly. Watari gave a small nod and followed Equal out to the limo.

"What about that girl?" Aizawa asked. "The one that person took...they said she was your mate like you were some sort of animal or something."

"They didn't say it as if I were the animal," L explained. "They said it because she is the animal."

"Ryuzaki?" Matsuda asked, thinking weird thoughts.

L looked at a jar of penut butter that was sitting nearby. "They have Yugi."

His cellphone vibrated in his pocket. He picked it up like a diseased rat and put it up to his ear. "Yes?"

"L, the boys have run away." It was Roger on the phone. "I think they're on their way to Japan."

"I understand. Thank you for letting me know. I await their arrival."

"But-"

"Their reason for leaving has already come to my attention, altough their ideas appear to be reckless, comming here will be a great benefit. Once their use here is done I will promptly send them back."

Roger was hesitant before he groaned in defeat. "Y-yes sir."

L hung up and turned to the task force. Matsuda decided to speak up.

"Ryuzaki...how are we going to find Yugi?" he asked.

L looked in Matsuda's direction. "For right now, we will continue on the Kira case. We can't afford to get sidetracked."

"What about this new threat?" Yagami asked. "For all we know, this person could be linked to Kira."

"That is obviously not the case," L replied. "What could Kira gain from kidnapping an innocent person? Let alone the daughter of a genetic scientist?" He shook his head. "If anyone, this person is someone who knew Yugi's father; possibly worked for or with him in his lab before it burned down."

Yugi's Pov (1st Person)

My head was in pain from whatever it was that knocked me out. "Ngh..." I tried to open my eyes, but I was blindfolded. I tried to move, but I was tied to a chair. "Where am I?" I muttered.

"I see that you are awake." I turned my head toward the voice of a woman. "I hope your not hurting too much from the gas. The after effects can be a little jarring."

"Who are you?" I asked, still a bit light headed.

"just an old friend of your father's, that's all."

My ears perked up slightly. "You know my dad?"

"Mm-hm," the woman replied. "Unfortunately, I lost contact with him after a certain little accident you caused about five years ago."

She was clearly talking about Akiteru's lab burning down.

"Because of that, your father lost everything. All of his research was destroyed, reduced to nothing but ash." She put a hand on my shoulder. "That was all but one little bit; and he gave it to a friend to keep safe until he could get his lab up and running again."

"Who are you, really?" I asked again. "What do you want with me?"

The woman sighed. "I guess I have no other alternative." She pulled on the blindfold, allowing it to drop away from my eyes and out of my face. she then moved in front of me.

I blinked. when I saw her face, a memory flashed into my mind. The woman was Japanese, with black hair tied in a ponytail and calm brown eyes. She was one of the interns I saw when I broke out of the lab. I then glanced above her head and read her name with my shinigami eyes and gasped.

"You're Nishiko Kuroka. You were an intern at Akiteru Labs."

Nishiko gave me a dark smirk. "Yes. And I was greatly inspired by Akiteru's work...more specifically, you." I rolled my eyes as she walked over to a table with various medical equipment. "So much in fact, that I wanted to replicate his work." She produced a syringe with a blue liquid from the various tools and made her way toward me.

She grabbed my arm and injected the stuff into my veins. "Ouch!"

She pulled the syringe away and carelessly tossed it on the table before writing something down on a clipboard.

"What was that stuff?" I asked, feeling a bit dizzy.

"A serum to clear out any drugs in your system," Nishiko replied bluntly.

My vision grew foggy and I began to sweat from heat. A loud ringing began to make its way to my ears.

"Now, let's begin the first test," Nishiko said calmly.

I couldn't help but let out a chilling scream.

Mello's Pov (3rd Person)

When the plane landed in Kyoto's airport, Near, Mello and Matt made their way quickly to the exit. "Okay," Mello stated, "Where do we go now?"

Near curled his hair around his index finger in thought as Matt looked around.

Suddenly, a hand grasped Mello's shoulder and he turned around to see-

"Watari?" Near and Matt turned around as well to see the kind, old man.

"Hello, boys," Watari greeted.

"You're not sending us back, are you?" Matt asked.

"No," Watari replied. "I'm taking you to the current Kira headquarters. L is already expecting you." He led the three boys to the waiting limo, where another woman sat in the passenger seat and another boy about the age of three sat in the back.

Matt climbed in next to the boy while Mello and Near sat in the rear facing seats across from them. The boy looked at them with big, cobalt eyes.

"Hoo Yoo?" he asked. Mello rolled his eyes at the child's lack of grammar skills and just looked out the window as Watari began to drive out of the airport. The boy saw this and whispered to Matt, "Dat goorl wooks meen."

Matt surpressed a laugh as Mello shot glare at the boy. Near just stared blankly at him and curled his hair around his fingers.

"Are you, by any chance, related to Yugi?" Near asked the boy. He seemed to understand and nodded.

"Das ma sistah. She hawf woof!" he replied. "Ma nam Kaneeko. I hawf kitty."

The woman glanced back toward the boy. "Kani, that's enough of that for today." She sounded tired and slightly annoyed, although she tried to hide it.

"But Mommy-"

"Please, just..." the woman sighed. "Just stop, okay?"

Kani looked away from his mother. "Okay."

"Thank you." The woman turned back in her seat properly and the vehicle was quiet the rest of the way there.

"Mommy is sad becaws she misses ma sissy," Kani whispered. "Dis weewee meen goorl took hew away and poked me wif somting. See?" He held out his arm to show a bandaid in the crook of his elbow. "She sed dat it wood make me wike her when I get biggew."

Watari stopped at a hotel and the group exited the limo. He then led the group into the room currently occupied by the world's greatest detective and the NPA task force.

"Pardon the intrusion, gentlemen," Watari apologized as he entered the room, "But our new recruits are here to assist in our search for Yugi."

Mello followed Matt and Near into the room and looked at the task force in a bored manner. The one guy with an afro sighed. "Really, More kids?"

"While all three of them are physically young, each of them have a mental capacity that has grown far beyond their years," L excplained. Mello couldn't help but swell a little with pride at the statement.

"So how are they going to help find Yugi?" Matsuda asked.

"Matt is good with technology. He can hack into hundreds of computers at once as well as track any radio signals that come his way," L stated as Matt nodded.

"I'll be able to find her location if a signal ever comes up," he comfirmed.

"Near and Mello are able to assess a situation and take the steps necessary to reach their goal each in an individual way," L continued. Mello nodded like Matt while Near just blinked. "While one prefers to make an immediate and direct approach to the situation, the other will search for a more indirect method."

"Although an indirect approach may take more time, it allows a more thorough search on the situation as well as a lower death count," Near stated.

Mello huffed. "but it also gives the target a chance to gain the upper hand and turn the tables on us. If a situation is dealt with more directly, it would be more time efficient and we wouldn't be constantly running around in circles."

"I would give multiple reasons on how reckless that can be, but due to the fact that there is no time for debate, I will elect to ignore it."

With that, the trio began to get to work. Matt started by reviewing the footage from the video chat program they used to discuss the case with Yugi. Mello was with him, helping him review the footage.

Meanwhile, Near was talking to Kani about what had happened when he called his mother, whom the three had learned was known as Equal.

"Da meen goorl was tall wif bwack haiw, and bwown eyes. Dere was someting on her skin that wooked wike a heawt on hew neck wight heaw." Kani pionted to his own neck, just below his right ear to show where the heart shape was on the woman who broke in.

Near nodded in understanding as he drew on a piece of paper. Mello glanced at Kani as he described the woman to Near, and noticed that he had a habit of moving his fingers nonstop unless he was holding a large object or pointing at something, be it a small twitch or repeatedly tapping it on the floor or table.

"Is this right?" Near asked, showing Kani the finished drawing. Of course it wasn't as good as Linda, who could draw a portait and make it look like a photograph, but it still served a purpose.

"Hew eyes wew nawowah and hew smiw was widah."

Watari then spoke up from his cellphone. "Ryuzaki, something seems to be happening on Sakura TV."

Ryuzaki nodded and turned on the TV.

"In other words, all of our reporters and staff here are Kira's hostages. Aside from that, we have a professional obligation to share this message with you. I assure you that this is not a hoax, and that Sakura TV is not airing this tape for the purposes of sensationalism."

"Kira's hostages?"

"What is this?!"

Mello just rolled his eyes. "I've heard of Sakura TV...There is nothing on that channel that isn't aired for sensationalism."

"Four days ago, our program director here at Sakura TV received four tapes. After a thorough examination, there could be no doubt that they were from Kira himself."

"That statement alone doesn't make sense," Matt noted, taking his eyes off of Yugi's computer. "Kira has never done something like this before, it's not like him."

"But if what they're saying is true, it's clearly something that only Kira could do," L stated.

"Weeoosaki made a wyme!" Kani exclaimed.

"Kira has instructed us to air this second tape today at exactly 5:59 p.m., and we do intend to comply with his demands. This tape should offer proof of his powers by predicting yet another death. Beyond that, we understand that it contains a message to all the people of the world from Kira."

"This has to be another fake, don't you think?" Aizawa asked.

"I doubt it. I'm pretty sure even Sakura TV wouldn't stoop that low," Matsuda replied.

"You'd be surprised," Equal stated.

"And now, the video."

((Author's Note)) I think I'll stop the chapter here. Sorry if the chapter seems a bit dull. I've hit several rocks throughout writing this, and it's a bit hard to type with a broken finger (harder than I thought it would be, anyway).

Also thank you guys so much for the encouragement when I asked if Yugi seemed like a mary-sue. I'm so glad that readers actually love her to pieces. If I knew you in person I'd give you all a big hug.

As a final note: I have finally put up the Top 20 facts that I had promised a while back. You can find them on my profile along with more facts to make up for the delay as well as more to expect for the future.

Until next time, my flowers,

-Garden