It had been three days since Jubilee had written in the Death Note. Ten days before Kira would undoubtedly aim to kill her.

And it had just become clear how he planned to lure her out to do so.

She stared at the email on L's computer monitor, which he had turned for her to see.

I am Kira, it began simply. Meet me ten days from now at the Yellow Box Warehouse in the east countryside. I know that there are nine of you. You have until 2pm on that day for every member of the Task Force to be present. If even one of you fails to appear, you can be certain that many innocent people will die.

Hellenos had steadily faded from view beside her by the time she finished reading. She didn't notice.

"Nine?" she whispered, paling as she did a quick count in her head. There were only seven of them at headquarters. "He doesn't mean—"

"Not Near and Mello," said L, cutting her off. "If he knew about them then he would also know about Matt, and that would make ten." He turned the screen back around to face where he was crouched in his chair. "No, he's talking about Aiber and Wedy."

Jubilee exhaled in relief from where she stood beside him. L glanced up at her sharply.

"You really should be more worried about yourself," he told her. "This is clearly Kira's ploy to make you accessible."

"I'll be fine," she assured him, though she could feel the line over her own head quavering. She turned to look down at the detective. "We'll figure something out, right?" she added, with more bravado than she felt.

The agitated reds and blues that had hovered over L's form after she'd written in the Death Note flickered back into existence around him. He looked away from her.

"Yes," he said stiffly. "Because you are not going to be there." The line over his head wavered and then started to fade, but Jubilee barely noticed over her surprise at his words.

"What?!" she cried. "What do you mean?" She leaned over him, jabbing a finger at the computer screen. "It says right here that if I don't show up, then people will die. And that is not an option."

"Neither is delivering you right into Kira's hands."

"It's got to be one or the other," she argued.

L's hands clenched around his armrests. "I have other contacts, associates I could call on," he said, still not looking at her. "One of them could easily take your place." Again the line over his head trembled, cracking this time, before fading.

"What, so that they can potentially die in my place?" She put her hands on her hips. "And what about you? All of you? You think I'm just gonna stay locked in my room while the rest of you go and possibly get yourselves killed?"

L lowered his head, still gripping the arms of his chair. "You would still have Near and Mello," he said softly. "And Matt. If anything should go wrong, the four of you..."

Jubilee was about to yell exactly what she thought of that—You are NOT dying, AGAIN!—when she finally noticed the line over his head, cracking once more and fading a third time.

She dropped her arms. "You know that won't work," she said slowly. L didn't answer, and she went on, "I'm not arguing with you...I'm stating a fact that I can see." Considering the line over his head again, she said with realization, "Just sending in any nine people won't do. Light must have orchestrated this message, and he did it specifically so that I'd be there. Me and you. If either of us don't show up, it's not beneath him to start killing people until we do. And you wouldn't be willing to risk that."

L's fingers had released the armrests and were now drumming irritably over them. Red spiked from him more violently and still he said nothing.

She cocked her head at him. "You were speaking out of sentiment rather than logic," she concluded, a little awed. "I didn't think you did that."

"I didn't," snapped the detective, rubbing at his eyes. "But then Kira killed Watari—and me—and now he's aiming to kill you too. How many lives are you guaranteed, J? You're not a cat."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

A surprised laugh burst from her lips. "Are you making a joke? At a time like this?"

"Not on purpose," he muttered with a scowl, but the red streaks faded from around him somewhat.

She sobered. "I could say the same of you, you know," she said, before mimicking, "You really should be more worried about yourself."

He glared ahead at his computer screen. "I have successors. Multiple candidates who have trained their whole lives to do what I do, and who are readily available to replace me. But there is only one person who can do what you do."

The line over his head was steady this time. She stared at it, her heart thudding heavily in a mixture of fluttery butterflies at his last words, and dread over their underlying implication. She kneeled down to be eye level with him.

"What you're suggesting is not an option," she told him firmly. "I can't do this without you. You are not replaceable. And neither are any of those kids."

He finally turned to her. For a long moment he simply stared at her, his eyes large and unblinking. Something flickered within them briefly, but he looked away again before she could discern what it was.

"This is all beside the point," he declared, straightening in his chair. "If I have anything to say about it, neither of us are going to die. Not in ten days, at least. So." He swiveled his chair to face her fully. "We need to come up with a plan."

Her lips quirked. "That's more like it," she commented, standing back up.

"What have you discovered thus far in your investigation?" he questioned, his tone formal and business-like once more.

She lowered herself into the chair next to him, making herself comfortable. "Wedy's been tailing Mikami everywhere he goes," she began, pulling a leg up to rest her chin on her knee. "She says that he's followed the exact same schedule everyday for the past three days. She wiretapped both his apartment and work cubicle too, so I've also been observing him. And she's right, he's like a robot...Coffee and breakfast at seven, work at eight-thirty, gym at six and then dinner. I think he even uses the bathroom at the same times." She twirled a piece of her hair around a finger as she thought. "The haze around him gets darker each day, and the amount of knives grows. There's too many for me to count a distinct number, but it definitely seems to match the daily kill stats. Oh, speaking of which...I've watched some of the new interviews of Takada—couldn't get through all of them, since her face is practically all over the news now—and I still don't see anything new in her. So maybe she really is just nothing but a spokesperson with a pretty face for Kira."

"Maybe," said L. "But we know that she's also the key communicator between Light and Mikami at the moment. Since Light himself has proposed that he be bugged during his interactions with her, we won't be hearing him reveal his plans to her outright during their meetings. Matt has now tapped both of their cell phones, however, and Mello is monitoring those lines to listen in on their private communication."

"Wait, so..." Jubilee's brow wrinkled in thought. "All we have to do is catch Light talking to Takada over the phone as Kira, and then we have sufficient evidence to apprehend him—right? That seems...too easy."

"Agreed." L leaned back to stare up at the ceiling. "I certainly won't complain if things work out that way...but I would be surprised if they did."

"So do you think Light suspects us of tapping their lines?" she asked. "Even though Mikami and Takada had already been in contact? I mean, he had her number and called her during her meeting with Light...so they must have been talking already. For all Light knew, we could've tapped Takada's line beforehand, and then we would've caught her conversing with Mikami about Kira's plans."

"Light had the element of surprise on his side in that situation," explained L. "We had no way of knowing or even suspecting, at the time, that Mikami and Takada were collaborating. But now that we do..." He steepled his fingers over his knees. "We will soon find out whether Light anticipated our move or not."

"I suppose," she murmured. "So..." She gestured at the email that was still on L's screen. "What do we do about that?"

L reached over to retrieve their headsets from a drawer. "I thought we'd discuss it with the others and come up with a plan together."

"Oh right." She had forgotten about the boys. "Why haven't they called yet?"

"I told them to wait for me call," he replied, swiveling to her to hold out a headset. "Anyway, they've all read the email already; I forwarded it to the three of them this afternoon when I first received it."

She had reached out to take the headset, but stopped short. "This afternoon?" she repeated. "But...why didn't you forward it to me then?"

"Because it would have served no other purpose than to distress you before we were able to meet," he answered, pushing the headset into her hand. "And," he continued, turning back to his monitor and putting on his own headset, "I wanted to speak with you face to face."

His tone was impassive, but the air around him suddenly blushed with a shimmery lilac glow.

"About the matter," he added after an almost imperceptible pause, his face blank. He hit the call button.

Jubilee slowly put on the headset, unable to tear her gaze from the detective and the swirl of warm, golden color that was surrounding him. As she regarded the unexpected cloud of hues, a surprising thought occurred to her.

Did he tell Near and the others to wait so that he could have time with me first?

Hellenos instantly shimmered back into view at her side. Having some alone time without the kids, eh? he quipped, with the closest thing to an eyebrow waggle she had ever seen from him.

She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing out loud, right into the mic, just as the call connected and an N, an M, and an m appeared on the screen.

"Hello boys," she said cheerily, her mood suddenly bright. "Have a good day?"

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