"There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me." ― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

-o-

Chihiro walke dup the clanking metal steps of the apartment building, and stopped at a door several down the row. She knocked on the door and waited. A few minutes passed. "Essy!" She knocked again. "Essy, I know you're in there!" On the street below, a guy on a motorcycle revved his engine before obnoxiously zooming away. "I'm coming in, okay?"

Of course, she had her own key. Chihiro stepped inside and cringed. As usual, the place was littered with plastic take-out noodle cups, candy wrappers, discarded socks, crumpled blankets, empty glasses, dirty plates, and of course, all manner of gutted computer parts. Amongst the ripped cushions of her couch, Chihiro could see two bare feet sticking up out of the pillows and blankets, and a tangled mop of dark hair at the other end.

"Jeez, Shika, don't you ever clean this place?" Chihiro pushed aside a couple empty soda cans to set her shopping bag on a table. "Honestly, it's disgusting!"

"Mmrf…" Came the muffled groan from the couch.

"Oh, get up already." She put her hands on her hips and stood over the couch. "Don't you have work?"

"Mm-mmf." The tangled hair moved back and forth to indicate the negative.

"Did you get fired?"

"Mm-mmf."

"Well, what happened?"

"Chihiro." Shika groaned, turning her head aside so she could speak. "I can never show my face at work again."

"What?" Chihiro sat down, after making sure there was no rotten food lying around. "Is it Kira? Are you in danger? I knew it!" She smacked a fist into her open palm. "You never should have gone there! It was only a matter of time before…"

"That's not it." Shika sat up, in the pose of one with a headache, her hair a mess over her face. "I…hugged my boss."

"Huh? That's it? You hugged your boss?"

"Yes!" She turned on Chihiro with sudden vehemence, eyes shining in fear. She held out her hands. "How could I do that? It's so unprofessional! Even if I do go back, I'm fired for sure!" She flopped back and sighed hopelessly. "Can't I just die already…?"

"Hmph." Chihiro crossed her arms. "That sounds just like something you would do, Essy, go and fall for your boss of all people."

"Wh—n-no, you have it all wrong!" Shika flushed. "I was just trying to…it isn't…"

"Calm down, calm down!" Chihiro patted her friend's shoulder, grinning. "I bought some food for you. Go eat, we'll talk about it."

Grumbling unhappily, she crawled over the low back of the couch and unceremoniously rifled through the shopping bag. She grabbed a box of cookies and a can of tea, and sat down in the chair by her computer. Cracking open the tab on the can, she said, "All right. I'll tell you what happened."

"Don't spare any juicy details." Chihiro giggled, taking out a box of store-bought sushi, before stopping with a sudden gasp. "Wait! Your boss…he was that guy, right?"

Crumbs flying when she spoke, Shika said, "Er, which guy?"

"That 'friend from work' that I met a few weeks ago at Tōō. That's him, right?"

Shika swallowed and sighed, almost dejectedly. "Yeah. That's him."

"Oh my gosh, Essy! That guy? Really? He looks like a creepy pervert or something…"

The hacker threw a cookie at her. "Knock it off. He's not a bad guy. There's more to him than meets the eye." Her tone of voice became increasingly distant until she trailed off into a mumble. "Sometimes I think he's really sad, but I don't know why. He's so young, but he's so distant. I guess I really don't know much about him at all." She perked up somewhat. "But it's not like we're dating, so don't get the wrong idea!"

"I'll get whatever ideas I want!" Chihiro waved her chopsticks teasingly. "It's so cute when you get crushes, Essy, I could just eat you up!"

Shika sent a deadpan look to the side, exasperated. "Any time you want to grow up, Chihiro, that would be really nice…"

A cell phone rang, muffled by something. Shika got up and tossed the blankets on the couch around until the phone hit the floor with a low thump. She picked it up and checked the caller ID. "Hello?...No, I…just don't feel very well today. Sorry. 'Wait here,'" The last phrase was mouthed to Chihiro.

Shika went into the next room to talk. Curious, the Loli followed her and stood just around the corner from the door to listen to what she was saying. "…hasn't been any activity recently. It's totally clean. If anyone had looked at those files without authorization, I would know. …No. No. There's no way…What? Ryuuzaki, you can't possibly be considering this! …I see. All right. Okay. I will. I'll call later if I find anything. Of course. You're welcome." She hung up, and Chihiro scampered back to her spot in the living room.

"What was that all about?" She asked casually, pretending like she had been checking her own phone.

"Just work."

"Work, huh?"

"Yeah." Shika said sternly, casting a lingering sideways glance at Chihiro. Despite the casualness with which she turned, her eyes were quite serious. Shika's eyes had never changed in all the years they had been friends. They were dark and bright, but sleep shadows hung under them like purple moons. "Just work."

Slightly nervous by the change in her friend's demeanor, Chihiro flashed a quick smile. "Eh, Essy, what…"

She was interrupted by Shika's cell phone ringing yet again. The tech expert checked the caller ID, made a scornful noise under her breath, and hung it up without answering.

"Who was that?" Chihiro inquired.

"My dad." Shika answered just as shortly.

"Him again? Why don't you just block his number?"

"He would just use Mom's phone. Anyway, I would never hear the end of it if I did. I'll just wait until he gets fed up and comes out here himself."

"What does he want this time?"

"Oh, money, I'm sure. As always." She continued digging around in the shopping bag until she produced the other box of store-bought sushi. "Thanks for the food, by the way."

"Well, seeing as you never feed yourself…" Chihiro sang, annoyed. "That job better be paying you, at least."

"Oh, yeah." Shika said, through a mouthful of rice. "My account balance just jumped like two figures last week."

Chihiro coughed on her food, and quickly pressed a hand to her lips to prevent an unladylike coughing fit. "What kind of work are you doing for these people?"

She shrugged, balancing the plastic lid of the sushi box on her knee to make it a boat for soy sauce. "Just computer security, stuff like that. I'm not really allowed to talk about it. I was surprised, too."

"Ohh, Essy!" Chihiro huffed. "You're gonna get in real trouble some day!"

"Yeah, yeah."

-o-

Light observed his new colleagues. Officially, he was on the Kira case. Light couldn't believe that they had actually invited him on to the case. It was just too easy. Ryuuga—or, Ryuuzaki, as he requested to be called off-campus—was the only real obstacle.

The task force officers were scattered around the hotel room, doing this or that. Being on the Kira case, as it turned out, involved less actual investigation and more coffee, take-out, and incredibly late nights. Aizawa was going over the case file, editing and adding pieces. Light knew Aizawa through his father already; they were old friends. The younger officer, Matsuda, he wasn't as familiar with. He, and a couple others, had gone out to get food for those who ate something other than sugary snacks.

Speaking of whom, Ryuuga and that girl, Shizuka, were the only two whom Light had seen outside of the hotel room in the past couple weeks. They were playing a game of chess together. It was a game that Ryuuga was winning, clearly. Shizuka struggled against a futile end. In total, the task force was doing…nothing.

"So, Ryuuga—I mean, Ryuuzaki." Light corrected himself. "What do we do now?"

"Now," Ryuuzaki moved his bishop three spaces by pushing it with a single finger. "We will await a response from the second Kira."

Aizawa looked up from his paperwork. "Just wait?"

"Unless you want me to acquiesce to the second Kira's demand to appear on live television and in all likelihood die, we should let the second Kira respond to our fake video." Ryuuzaki put one bare foot on the coffee table, and leaned across to take a handful of hard candies from a glass bowl that Shizuka was hogging.

The technician, as Light could presume that was all she chalked up to, slapped an indignant hand on her knee. "This is ridiculous."

Light couldn't agree more, though said nothing. Waiting was half the game, after all. As if by permanent reminder that he was walking the razor's edge, Ryuk silently lifted off the ground and hovered over his head, bored, most likely. No noise was made: the god could never be heard breathing of making other ambient noises involved with movement, as humans did. It had been eerie at first, especially considered the sheer size of the god at something like eight feet, but Light had since adjusted.

Of course, Light made no indication by features or behavior that the shinigami was within arm's reach. Eyes were on him; he could sense it. He concentrated pointedly on the chess game, and dared not check to see who it was watching him. The atmosphere indicated that there was something the others knew which he did not, and Light was willing to bet that it was a setup to see if he'd slip up and reveal by some mannerism that he was Kira.

As checkmate approached, Shizuka excused herself to take a phone call, putting the game on pause. Light observed her, but not too closely. She could be useful as an in to the task force's trust. She was not likely to be as guarded as the police officers. Perhaps he could charm her into revealing something, or doing him favors. If she were really in charge of the tech in the task force, it would do well for him if she were distracted. It was true, he had recently stopped downloading police files due to tightened security, but had thought nothing of it other than yet another irritating obstacle. It seemed, however, that it was by design.

The subject of his musing marched back into the room, clearly agitated, and tossed herself down across from Ryuuzaki. "Did you move?" She asked with a little too much force.

"Yes," He said. "Rook to C5."

Shizuka sagged in defeat. "That's mate."

"Don't feel bad," Ryuuzaki picked through a box of chocolates, the wrappers whispering. "You're getting quite hard to beat. I suspect I'll soon be unable to."

The young woman nodded as she put the pieces away. "Maybe."

Conversation slowed to a stop for a while. Light could relate to Ryuk's boredom. "By the way, I already talked to the Chief about opening an investigation in Naomi Misora's disappearance." Aizawa looked up from his filing work to remind them. "Is that all right?"

"That's fine." Ryuuzaki said. "Please be sure it is conducted separately from the Kira case."

"Right."

"In that case, I'll cast a net around the web to see if anyone searches for her name." Shizuka added. "Along with similar things like, 'Japanese woman gone missing'. I can only keep up with a net like that for about the size of a few districts, though."

"That is also fine. If you can alternate which districts you monitor, please do so."

"I will."

"Your skill must be very useful, Shizuka." Light complimented. "It's pretty impressive."

She chuckled and put a hand on her cheek. "Oh, thank you." It was a nice enough response, but her eyes smoldered with suspicion, and her grin didn't reach her eyes.

Getting her to do his bidding was a must if he wanted any kind of freedom on the Internet, or even on computers in general. There was no doubt in his mind that all of his activity must be monitored closely. Until she was on his side, he could forget about safely using computers. But Light stared back at her, trying not to glare, and decided it was going to take a bit more effort than he thought.

The first day of their wait for a response from the second Kira came to an end at about ten in the evening. The officers filtered out, with the married Aizawa first. Shizuka wrapped up her activities on the laptop she owned and packed it away, but lingered, clearly waiting to be the last one in the room.

"Let's go, Light," Soichiro Yagami put a hand on his son's shoulder. "Sayu and your mother are waiting for us. It's best they don't worry."

"Right. Of course, father." As Light left with his dad, he looked over his shoulder to watch the exchange behind him, although he couldn't hear anything being spoken.

Shizuka approached Ryuuzaki, who was standing to watch them go. She said something to him and bowed deeply a couple times. An apology? Ryuuzaki waved a hand lightly, probably dismissing the apology as unnecessary. Both of them were blushing.

But then Light was ushered out into the hallway, and the door closed behind him. Was she the key? Light tried not to scoff at the idea. Ryuuzaki's weakness could never be something as cliché as a woman…could it?