"I don't know that there are haunted houses. I know that there are dark staircases and haunted people." -Robert Brault

-o-

"Hello?"

"Hiya, Set. How are you?"

"Fine."

"I haven't heard from you in a few days…is everything okay?"

"Yes. I've been working. Sorry. It's been a busy week."

"I really don't like that you're working with this L guy…what are you doing for him, anyway?"

"Just technology-related things. I shouldn't say much. It's a police investigation."

"Well, okay…this gives me a bad feeling, is all."

"It's okay. He's not dangerous. L is harmless. Eccentric, but nice enough. It's hard to describe him. Overall, I think I like him. At the very least I don't not like him. We don't know him very well yet. I want to say he's a good man."

"If you're sure, then okay. Where are you? I hear cars."

"On my way to the police station. I work there now, in a way. Hold on, I'm getting another call. Hello?"

"It's Ryuzaki. Where are you?"

"On…my way to the police station…"

"Oh, good. I'll just tell you when you get here, then."

"Huh? Hey, what? Argh…hi, Chihiro, I'm back."

"Who was that?"

"Telemarketer. Hey, I'm right here at the station. I'll talk to you later."

"Oh….okay. Bye."

"Bye."

-o-

"Yeah. These should work great." Shika peered at the tiny camera she held between two fingers, a purplish sheen coming off the polished lens. "But I gotta ask. Why do we need so many?"

"There can't be any blind spots." Ryuzaki said. "Aizawa and Ukita will be in charge of the placement of the cameras in the Yagami household, and Mogi and Matsuda in the Kitmura household."

"You can count on us." Ukita said, chin high.

"We'll get started as soon as we know when both houses will be empty tomorrow." Aizawa added.

"Shika, I want you to set up the feed for all the cameras so Mr. Yagami and I can watch all screens at once."

"That shouldn't be that bad. How many screens will you need set up?" Shika asked.

"Hm…I would say about two hundred and fifty, counting both houses."

"Two hundred!"

"I have confidence you can do that, right?"

The hacker took a deep breath. "Yeah, it might take me a while, but I can do that. I'll be here overnight, then, if you want it all done within the next couple days."

"Thank you, that will work just fine. Watari, you can start bringing in the televisions. Actually, please start immediately."

"Of course." The old man said, and left the hotel room to presumably some kind of television warehouse.

"I'll help; it'll get my job done a little faster, at least. Wait, wait, I'm coming to help!" Shika ran after Watari, tugging on her shoes.

They took the elevator back down to the ground floor in silence. In the parking garage, Watari led her to a van. Inside the sliding door was a large stack of fairly new TV's. Not two hundred, but enough to contain about two hundred and fifty divided screens if she fed the camera feeds in right.

"Did Ryuzaki buy these all today?" She asked, hefting the first one out.

"We keep them on hand in case a situation such as this comes about. However, we did purchase a few extra for this particular scenario." Watari said.

"I see." Shika wondered just how much money they had. Ryuzaki didn't look rich, but if he was able to throw that kind of cash around and rent hotel suites by the week, who knew?

It took many trips to carry the TV's, large and small, back up to the suite. The screens buzzed with static on top of one another, huge bricks of wires and dark plastic that lit the room a bluish-white. The task force members left for home about midnight. After the last TV was brought up into the room, Watari took his leave as well to get some rest; he was staying in another room at the same hotel. This left Shika alone in the dark, fiddling around with wires and inputs and power strips and all the tiny cameras behind the giant misshapen wall of televisions.

Or, nearly alone. At about one in the morning, she jumped when Ryuzaki spoke over her head. "How is it going?"

Shika put a hand over her chest. "Jesus…it's going fine. I already told you it would take a while. Two hundred cameras is no joke."

"I'm aware of that. I did pick you because you said you were the best." He left to a dessert tray Watari had left him, and picked over the dissected corpse of a strawberry Danish. "However, if you feel like you aren't up to the job…"

"I can do it." She snapped over, and sighed. "Why are you awake, anyway? It's…" She checked her watch. "One-thirty."

"I'm not tired." He nibbled on a remaining bit of pastry. "Sleep is time subtracted from time I could be investigating a case. When I can I do it as little as possible."

Shika pressed the heel of her hand into her eye. "I understand. I don't sleep as much as I should, either. Though I guess for different reasons." She went back to organizing the wires from the TV's. "Here, look."

She pinched one of the cameras and pointed it at Ryuzaki. His double appeared on-screen, which was divided into twelve smaller, as-of-yet blank displays for different cameras. He looked back and forth between the screen and her. "Good work."

"It's just the start, but it should start getting easier from here on out." Shika set the camera up on top of the TV. She glanced at him. "Do you sit like that on the underground too?"

"I don't take the train," He replied. "But if I didn't sit like this, my deductive skills would go down about 40%. Soo…I would."

"That's nonsense. It doesn't matter how you sit."

"Well, can you prove that I'm wrong?"

"If you sat with your legs down, you would just pretend to be less clever. Anyway, what would I test you with? Sudoku? No, I can't really prove you wrong if you decide to lie. And I'm sure you would."

"Hmm?"

"You said yourself that you're childish and you hate to lose. I'm sure you'd lie to me just so you'd be right, even if you weren't." Shika looked up at him.

Ryuzaki pondered it, looking up at the ceiling. "Yes, you're probably right." He mumbled. "I have to say I think I underestimated you."

The hacker exhaled a little breath out her nose, a half-laugh. "Good to know."

Several hours passed without much else being said. The curtains of the room were drawn, but it was clear dawn was breaking. Watari came back a few hours after dawn to brew tea and hand out fresh pastries to the two. Shika had almost a hundred cameras done so far, leaving a little under fifty to complete for just the first house.

Matsuda arrived first the next day, followed by Mogi. They were the first to have an empty house, and therefore were in a hurry. "Shika-san, I don't want to rush you, but…" The rookie shifted from foot to foot. "The house is only empty for the next three hours, and we need to get down there right away!"

"Here, just take these for now." She pushed a box of tiny cameras into his hands. "If you need more, let me know."

"A-All right, thank you." He bowed and hurried out, Mogi's huge profile following close behind.

When they were gone, Shika sat back, took a sip of tea, and got back to work.

-o-

"Essy!" Chihiro flounced up to Shika, pink-ribboned shoes clopping like little hooves. "I got you coffee!" She held out the cup, but Shika made no move to grab it. "Essy? Eeessy…" She leaned forward, observing her own reflection in her friend's shades, and gave her a small kick to her shin. "Essy, wake up!"

The hacker jumped and sat up. "What? What?"

Chihiro sighed. "Take off those silly sunglasses."

"I don't have to."

After some grappling around, Chihiro managed to wrestle the shades off Shika's face. Chihiro knew that Shika had problems getting to sleep, and so seeing her with dark shadows under her eyes was nothing new. Now, the purplish circles were pronounced enough to look like bruises. Spider-web veins made her eyes bloodshot red and made her look hungover.

"Oh, Set…when was the last time you slept?"

Shika grabbed back her shades. "Recently."

"Don't lie!"

"It's not a lie."

"Did you sleep last night?" Chihiro pointed self-righteously at Shika's hesitation. "I knew it! Ugh, it's that job, isn't it? They're working you to death!"

"I volunteered! It's no one's fault but my own." She put her shades back on. "I don't want your pity."

"I'm just worried about you!" Her wispy eyebrows pulled together in concern.

"Don't worry. I'm fine." Shika smiled reassuringly. "Now, let's go get lunch. I'll buy."

Chihiro beamed. "Yeah! I want tamagoyaki!"

"Sure."

As they walked along campus, the Lolita watched her friend, worry not forgotten. Shika liked to pretend everything was cool and peachy, but Chihiro knew better. They'd been friends since junior high, and it was child's play at this point to pick out when her friend was trying to make her feel better. She didn't know what they were making her computer-savvy friend do, but whatever it was, it was sucking the energy out of her.

She hadn't had it easy as a kid, or as an adult for that matter. Chihiro remembered many a late night at sleepovers, waking up to sudden screams and thrashing, only to spend the next early morning hour calming a panicking, weeping Shika. Despite those hardships, she never stopped being friends with Shika, who became more and more introverted and isolated due to overwhelming stress and sleep deprivation. To her knowledge, she didn't spend time socially with other people except Chihiro herself.

"Hey," Shika said. "Thanks."

"For what? I didn't do anything, silly!"

The hacker shrugged. "Just thanks."

Chihiro grinned and nudged her friend's shoulder. "Tell you what, I'll play a match of chess with you later if you want."

Shika pulled her sweatshirt in tighter. "Thanks."

-o-

-BFF's 5ever! Hah, for real though, this chapter gave me so much trouble I'm just glad its done, ugh.

-Drop a review! Thank you for the support so far, it really helps!