It turned out that Mello had been gathering intel of his own during the course of the day. Or rather, he had assigned Matt to. Under Mello's instruction, the hacking prodigy had somehow tapped into Light's personal phone line.

"Isn't that illegal?" Jubilee had wondered aloud.

"Yeah, so is killing thousands of people with some devil book," Mello had snorted in response.

"I guess we crossed that line too back when Wedy and Aiber were first employed," she mused thoughtfully.

"I'm just following orders here," said Matt in way of explanation. "And I don't get out much, so the whole legal, illegal thing...never really thought about it."

"It's definitely illegal," pointed out Near matter-of-factly, though not necessarily in a condemning tone, until he added, "And someone in the running for Ryuzaki's position should be aware of those lines, regardless of whether or not he chooses to cross them."

"That's what you're for, short stack," returned Matt amicably.

"Yeah, to know it all," muttered Mello.

The impending argument had been quickly shut down by L, who—whilst stress-eating his seventh slice of cake—instructed his successors that what was done was done, and that what should be done now was to focus on the evidence at hand. Which led to the interesting bit of information that Mello and Matt had discovered earlier, which was that Kiyomi Takada was Light's ex-girlfriend...and that he had called her up over the weekend to ask her out on a date this week.

"What!" Jubilee had exclaimed. "Oh boy, Misa won't like that..." She turned to L. "What is he thinking? This definitely looks suspicious for both him AND Kiyomi."

"Well—" began L slowly.

"Misa," repeated Matt to himself. "Ohhh yeah! She's that dumb blonde chick."

Jubilee involuntarily bristled at the insult to her former friend. "Hey, listen here, kid, you don't even know her—"

"We know that she's the second Kira," Mello cut her off. "So we've tapped her lines too. And yeah, judging from hours of listening to her talk...she IS dumb."

"Kind of cute, though," offered Matt thoughtfully. "Have you guys seen her in the August issue of Eighteen?"

"Yes," answered both L and Mello, at the same time that Near said, "The what?"

Jubilee was getting increasingly annoyed. The memory of what L had thought of Misa in the August issue of Eighteen was one that she remembered perfectly well. She grabbed at the new slice of cake that L was currently cutting for himself. "Give me some of that," she snapped, taking the piece for herself. Gulping down a huge bite, she swallowed and grit out, "Can we get back on topic, please?"

L—looking vaguely chagrined at the loss of his dessert—opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted again, this time by Mello. "Oh, right," said the boy, ignorant of Jubilee's mounting impatience. "I was saying that I can hardly believe someone that stupid was the second Kira."

Jubilee fought between feeling defensive on the other girl's behalf and relieved that they were no longer discussing her physical appeal. L, noticing her ire, cut in smoothly, "Which, I was trying to say earlier, is possibly why Light is wanting to replace her with Kiyomi Takada."

This caught Jubilee completely off guard. She whirled to the detective. "What?!"

Apparently, Light had already anticipated looking suspicious. Earlier that day, Light himself had declared to the Task Force that he suspected a certain Kiyomi Takada of being the new hand of Kira, or at least connected to the new hand of Kira in some way, based on what he'd seen from researching outspoken Kira supporters—and from the little he knew of her back when they happened to go out briefly. This last bit of information had shocked the other Task Force members at first, before they readily accepted Light's explanation that he planned on taking advantage of this coincidence by asking her out again, in order to investigate her while undercover. L played a short clip of this entire conversation to Jubilee and the three boys, having discreetly recorded it earlier using the many surveillance and monitor cams throughout the room.

"You're sneaky," Jubilee muttered under her breath, watching the recording of Light. The line over his head was straight the entire time that he spoke, although it wavered.

L shrugged. "That is part of my profession. Besides, they know this entire building is under heavy surveillance. I never said I wouldn't record our sessions." He made some rapid clicks on his keyboard. "I'm forwarding this to you now, to survey more thoroughly on your own time. Anything of note that you can see at present?"

She turned to him. "Looks like he's purposely revealing his hand, or at least some of it. He's technically not lying."

Near spoke up. "It must be to divert attention from Mikami."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," snapped Mello. "But that can't be the only reason."

"Possibly," corrected L. "We need to be clear on what is definite and what is just a possibility, even if the odds are high."

"They are high," insisted Mello, his tone surly.

"That still doesn't make it definite," Near pointed out.

Jubilee jumped in before Mello could jump down Near's throat. "So you think it's possible that Light will reveal his identity as Kira to Kiyomi, and team up with her somehow?" she asked L.

"Anything is possible," answered the detective with a shrug. "That scenario certainly is, although the details of how it could unfold would be complex. For one thing, Light cannot easily reveal himself to her, because he himself has suggested bugging the room whenever they meet. It is just as possible that he is getting close to someone like Takada in order to increase our suspicions of her and thus distract us from Mikami."

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"You mean because Takada seems like the logical choice for Kira to replace the former second Kira, Misa Amane, with," said Near. "Or so he may want us to think, in order to divert our focus onto her."

L nodded. "Correct."

So the question now was whether or not it was worth taking the time and manpower to monitor Kiyomi Takada as well. Jubilee was of the opinion that it was needless. After all, they knew Mikami was the new hand of Kira and that Takada was likely meant to be a distraction from him, so what was the point? She figured Near agreed with her, seeing as how he had given her the go ahead earlier to assign both Aiber and Wedy to monitoring Mikami only. Mello, however, was another story.

"Look, J," he'd told her bluntly. "I know you see some stuff that the rest of us don't see, but that doesn't mean that you see everything."

Jubilee was too taken aback by his forwardness to respond at first. It was L who asked, in a neutral tone, "Are you implying that you believe Kiyomi Takada is the new hand of Kira instead of Teru Mikami?"

"Hey, I know what I saw," Jubilee cut in, irritated. "At the time that the killings started again, Teru Mikami was the one who had been killing people, and Kiyomi Takada wasn't. You can either believe me or not, but that's what I know."

"I'm not saying that that's not the case, I'm just saying that I think there's more to Takada than just being a diversion," argued Mello. "There's got to be a reason why Kira is involving her so heavily."

"You just agreed earlier that it was to divert attention from Mikami," Near pointed out.

Mello's temper escalated exponentially at the younger boy entering the conversation. "Okay, twerp," he began with grit teeth. "As much as I loathe you, I know you're not a complete idiot. You know as well as I do that the connection between those two can't be pure coincidence."

Near's voice remained level. "Again you make sweeping statements that aren't entirely accurate. It can be a coincidence, the chances are just exceedingly low. Perhaps one to five percent."

Mello exploded. "Then why—!"

L interrupted quickly. "Matt, your opinion please."

"Uhh..." the third boy hedged, clearly not wanting to be roped into the conflict. "I don't have an opinion, I'm just doing the hacking."

In the end it was decided that Takada would be monitored after all, but not by way of unanimous agreement. It was entirely possible that Matt and even L may have been willing to, but Mello reached the end of his patience before giving any of them the chance to agree with him.

"Look, I don't care what the rest of you do," the teen spat, mostly addressing Near. "I'll keep investigating who and what I think needs investigating, the way it needs to be investigated, and I'll report what I find in the interest of solidarity," he enunciated the last word slowly and mockingly, repeating Near's usage of it earlier. "Ryuzaki," he continued in a slightly more reserved tone, "I trust you'll find the dots to connect between all the respective intel we gather."

"Thank you, Mello," said L, rather diplomatically.

Jubilee sensed that the teen, not one to give proper farewells, was about to abruptly take his leave of the conversation. "Mello, wait a second," she heard herself say.

There was a pause. "Yeah?" he asked brusquely.

"Listen, um..." She considered a few different peacemaking words she could say, before dismissing them all as too patronizing—in a teenager's mind, anyway. She sighed. "I know you're probably way more experienced in...detective stuff—uh, case work—than I am...so..." 'If it makes you feel better' was the wrong thing to say to a teenage boy. So was 'I'm sure you're on to something.' She ran a hand through her hair. Why were there so many social landmines to navigate? "I'll assign Aiber to monitor Takada with you," she said at last, simply.

She felt more than heard the boy hesitate awkwardly for a moment.

"Cool," was all he finally said. Jubilee just barely caught a glimpse of a steady line over a head of straight golden hair, in her mind's eye, before Mello signed off.

Matt's lower-case m remained on the screen.

"Er..." said the other teen. "I guess I'll be going too, then. Catch you guys later."

"Matt," Near's robotic voice stopped him before he signed off. "You're just two doors down from me. We could conduct these calls together next time, you know."

There was a pause, and then Matt said, not unkindly, "Nah. My setup's all here. Plus my video games. Later, short stack, catch you at breakfast." He signed off.

"Mello didn't take Matt with him?" L questioned Near after the other two had left the line.

"No, Matt rarely leaves his room except for meals," revealed Near. "I doubt he'd be willing to leave the entire establishment and abandon his gaming system, at this age at least. Besides, Mello wouldn't need Matt's assistance except remotely anyway. And—" There was only a slight hesitation before he added, with deliberate indifference, "He probably wanted to keep him safe."

"So he left...wherever it is you are? England?" asked Jubilee. "Where is he now, anyway?"

There was a long, somewhat bewildered pause, before L muttered, "I forgot to ask about that."

She eyed him, then covered her mic with one hand. "Not used to kids, are you?"

He glowered at her and muted the call. "I have no experience in that arena whatsoever, actually. This entire conversation has been slightly overwhelming." The colors churning weakly around him seemed to echo his statement.

She gave him a sympathetic smile. "You did pretty well, all things considered. I was pretty rusty myself." She glanced Hellenos' way and added, "From experience though, I can say that it definitely takes a special touch."

L gave her a measured look before turning away, back to the screen. "Well, that's why I have you," he answered casually, then added before she could respond, "Pass the cake please," and unmuted the call to dismiss Near.

She grinned and slid the last slice over to him.

----------------------------------------

It was close to 3 AM when Jubilee finally collapsed into bed that evening, exhausted. Hellenos hovered over her like a mother hen, tutting as he held a hand over her head, which was throbbing from a sugar crash.

Get some rest, he ordered, as the tension in her skull eased.

"Hey, Hellenos," she slurred into her pillow, sounding almost drunken from fatigue and way too much sugar. "D'you think those kids...will be okay?"

Hellenos' tone was neutral. What do you mean?

"Y'know what I mean," she admonished tiredly, her eyes closed. "This is the Kira case. Light already tried to kill L. Won't he try to kill his successors, too, if he finds out about them?"

You're worried.

"'Course I'm worried. They're just kids. Genius kids, but still. Even if that one is kind of a brat. What's-his-face. Mello," she mumbled incoherently. Hellenos didn't respond, and she went on, still barely awake, "And he's God knows where. Hellenos. Hey. Tell me he'll be okay."

The angel sighed. I can't predict the future. But you said it yourself. God knows where he is.

"Tha's what I said," she slurred, annoyed.

Hellenos smiled. Get some rest, he repeated. And maybe don't go overboard on dessert before bed, next time.

She huffed sleepily. "Tell that to L. He had four times as much as I did."

He has his own guardian angel to tell him that.

"He can't hear his angel." Jubilee cracked an eye open and pointed an accusatory finger at Hellenos. "You know that already."

And in my experience, it makes little difference whether the human hears me or not, said Hellenos dryly. I said to get some rest. Three times now.

Jubilee closed her eyes and flopped onto her other side. "Point taken," she yawned, then added wearily, "Kids are exhausting," before promptly passing out.

The angel by her bedside shook his head and looked heavenwards. Tell me about it, he said with a smirk.

Whatever it was that he heard in response made him chuckle softly to himself.