The next afternoon, Jubilee was sitting on the floor of her room, staring blankly ahead at the footage on her laptop and biting her nails.

They hadn't heard from Mello the night before.

Matt had assured both her and L that the other boy was fine, but remained tight-lipped about why he was unavailable.

"I don't have an answer to that," was all Matt provided when Jubilee demanded to know where Mello was and what he was doing. "He just said to send his regards and that he'll check in again soon."

Jubilee clenched her fists, frustrated that she couldn't glimpse a line over the head of the unseen hacking prodigy to determine whether or not he was telling the truth. She turned on L.

"Don't you have a way to contact him?" she demanded. "And make sure he's not doing something stupid that will get him killed?"

L chewed on a thumb, his worry less observable than hers but still there nonetheless. "Possibly, but that's not quite how we work," he stated slowly. "We operate under the assumption that none of us ever do anything 'stupid.' It's in the job description."

"L, he's fourteen—"

"Hey, now," protested Matt. "Don't knock the young. Not all of us have yet reached the wise old age of two decades and a smattering of years."

Near made a noncommittal sound of agreement.

"And, even then," continued L, ignoring all of them, "It is still possible for us to get killed. That, too, is in the job description."

"Don't you guys have rules or something for how you're supposed to work?" she cried. "For—I dunno—safety?!"

"Besides the ones we make up ourselves? Not really." L shrugged. "Benefits of not having parents."

Jubilee unclenched her fists and stared at him helplessly. "So what do we do about Mello?" she asked.

"We trust him," said L simply. "That is the only thing we can do."

Hours had flown by as Jubilee grappled with anxiety over the missing boy, one worst-case scenario after another playing through her head. In front of her, dual videos streamed side by side on the screen—one of Mikami from the night before, getting ready for bed, and the other one of him in real time, typing away in his cubicle at work. She vaguely registered the usual black haze that shrouded him, but her mind was too preoccupied with worry.

Where was Mello? Why hadn't he contacted her yet?

Distantly she was aware that her last thought was an unreasonable one, seeing as how Near hadn't contacted her today either, and neither of them had ever contacted her unless there was something to report or check on using her sight.

She sighed heavily and rested her forehead against the coffee table. Hellenos wasn't visible, which was no surprise, but she had no doubt what he might be thinking.

"I know, I know," she muttered, waving her hand in the direction he was probably standing in. "Gotta just trust the kid and let it go."

Trust. That had always been a difficult one for her, hadn't it? L was finally the major breakthrough for her, but even then, she still struggled to fully put her trust in others. Perhaps it was because she couldn't fully trust herself.

Now there's a thought, said Hellenos' voice faintly, but she still couldn't see him.

The headset around her ears buzzed and her head snapped back up. A new number was calling her.

She answered immediately, hoping against all hope that it was the smug older successor using another line. "Hello?"

A lower-case, scripted m popped up on her screen. "Hi, Jules," said Matt's voice.

"Matt?" she asked, confused. Then, worriedly, "Is everything okay?"

"As okay as things can possibly be while there's a mass serial killer on the loose," answered the boy cheerfully. "Anyway, I've got something for ya."

She bit her lip. "Is Mello—"

"It's about Mello," said Matt. "He wants you to check on something for him. Hold on a sec...okay, here we go. Incoming..."

On cue, her laptop screen switched over to a streaming video. It looked like the inside of a TV studio. Kiyomi Takada stood towards the back of the room, chatting with a man and woman wearing suits who looked like TV anchors. Around them, crew members were busy setting up, and a few makeup assistants and interns hovered nearby. One of them, a blonde and fair-skinned boy who looked no older than high-school age, stood attentively by Takada's side with a clipboard and pen in hand, nodding seriously as he listened in on the conversation and took notes. Further in the background, Aiber and the rest of Takada's bodyguards secured the perimeter.

Jubilee focused on Takada and squinted. Her vision was still blurry at the moment, and the usual gray and red cloud around the woman was nothing but a dark, dark smudge...but there was something about it that was—

Matt had started speaking again. "See anything diff—"

"Different," she whispered aloud. "Yes. There is something different."

Taking a deep breath, she willed every other thought and worry out of her head, and focused her attention back on Takada. Slowly, the smudge sharpened into a haze of cold gray and streaky red...interspersed with black knives.

Shock hit her like an ice cold wave. "What," she exclaimed under her breath.

"What is it?" questioned Matt.

"It's—she's got—" she stuttered.

"Killer smog?" guessed the boy.

She nodded helplessly, before realizing that he couldn't see her. "Yes."

"Hm." Matt didn't sound surprised. "Welp, Mello was right as usual."

Her eyebrows shot up. "He knew about this?"

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"It was just a conjecture. He suspected it more after Aiber told him about the phone call last night. But I mean, I think all of us had an idea that this could happen."

I didn't, she thought, dumbfounded.

"And we couldn't have been sure without those eyes of yours," he went on jovially. "So, really, you're the one who knew first."

"Right," she said moodily, unconvinced. Then she remembered. "Matt," she asked seriously, "Where is Mello?"

"Eh..." The boy hesitated. "Well, if you don't know, then that's probably because he doesn't want you to."

For the first time, she caught a glimpse in her mind of the line hovering over Matt's head, his hair smooth and dark brown. The line wavered nervously—truthful, but hiding something.

"Matt," she said again, gritting her teeth, "You tell me what he's up to, or so help me—"

Something on the laptop screen caught her eye, and she stopped. The young intern standing next to Takada was speaking to her, and the line over his head had suddenly snapped violently. Takada gave an unassuming nod and said something back to him, gesturing with one hand. The boy's sharp eyes followed her movements, and he scribbled a few notes onto his clipboard, before making another comment to her. Again, the line over his head snapped with great force, showering his strawberry blonde locks with black dust.

Jubilee went cold as a sense of deja vu hit her. She leaned forward and stared at the screen. The air around the intern was a rich, chocolatey brown, almost reddish, and it gave off an occasional golden glimmer. As she squinted, she could make out small cogs and wheels of light hidden behind the dark hue, rapidly turning and spinning above the boy's head. They looked like smaller versions of what spun over L's head when he was thinking.

"Is that—" She stared in amazement. "Is that Mello?"

Matt was silent for a second too long, giving her her answer.

"It is!" she gasped. Then, with fury, "What on earth is he thinking!"

"Uh..." began Matt uncertainly. "How did you kno—" He stopped and sighed. "Never mind. Man, I'm sure glad that you're not Kira. We'd all be screwed."

"How can he just go in there and completely expose himself like that to Kira?" she continued to rage, ignoring Matt. "Does he have no sense of self-preservation?"

You're one to talk, she thought she heard Hellenos say.

She ignored him also, turning her attention back on Matt. "You knew about this!" she accused. "And you didn't think to tell an adult?! What do you think this is, the Harry Potter books?"

"The who?"

She wanted to throw something. "Are you serious!"

"What?" asked Matt, sounding even more confused.

"You live in England and you've never heard of the Harry Potter books?"

I have, offered Hellenos cheerfully from where he stood. She wasn't sure why he was suddenly more audible despite her tidal wave of emotions, but at the moment she didn't care.

She continued, angry mostly because the situation with Mello was making her feel angry about everything else—including the collective ignorance of L and his successors when it came to pop culture references. "What are they doing with you kids in that place?"

"Training us to be geniuses, I suppose," quipped Matt.

This only served to make her angrier. "If you guys are such geniuses, why didn't you think to tell someone before one of you threw himself headfirst into danger?"

She could almost see the brunette boy raising his hands in defense. "Listen, Jules, I only just found out about it myself, right before I called you. Honest."

She paused at that. "Really?"

"Yeah." Matt sighed. "Look, the thing is, Mello doesn't like sharing his plans unless he absolutely has to. He's always been that way...even with me. And I'm his best friend."

"But—but why?" asked Jubilee.

"Guess 'cause I was the only cool kid here to be friends with," joked Matt.

"Matt," she groaned. "I meant why doesn't he communicate?"

Matt sobered. "So that, in case he makes a mistake, no one has to know."

"But if he dies, we'll all know."

"True, but at that point it won't matter what other people think."

She felt her heart ache. "You can't possibly think that that's healthy."

"I didn't say anything about what I think about it. I'm just saying it like it is."

She didn't speak for a long moment, and Matt continued, "It's like this—if he doesn't tell anyone—at least not until the last minute when he's as sure as he can possibly be of a certain theory panning out—then there's less time for anyone to shoot him down, you know?"

"Shoot him down," she repeated, her heart sinking. "You mean like what I would have done."

"I'm just saying," said the boy. "Most of the kids here reeeeally don't like being told they're wrong. It's probably because it's been drilled into us that if we make a mistake, someone could die. Including ourselves."

"That's a horrible way to have to think," said Jubilee softly.

Again, Hellenos' voice drifted over to her, You're one to talk.

"We've all got our own style when it comes to working cases," Matt went on. "Mello's might seem haphazard, but that's because he's going all in. He knows that other people might disagree with his way, so he carries out his plan before anyone can stop him, just to prove that he's right. And if it turns out that he was wrong...well, then at least he got to test out his plan without anyone knowing. But, most of the time, he's right."

So that was how Mello aimed to win the position of succeeding L, Jubilee thought to herself. He surely knew that he didn't have the calm and cool-headed nature both Near and L seemed to share...but he was determined to prove that he could still be the better detective, using sheer stubbornness and ingenuity.

"So, basically," she said slowly, "If he comes out of this alive, and his way helped solve the case, then he wins."

"Exactly," said Matt.

She chewed on that for a minute. "What about you?" she finally asked. "Why no ambitions to succeed L?"

"Like I said, I'm more cut out for just assisting on the side," he replied. "Sometimes you just know, y'know? Plus, I'm lazy. That whole saving the world thing? Takes a lot of work. I'll help, but not full-time."

She laughed at that, some of the tension leaving her at last. Mello caught her eye again from where he stood onscreen next to Takada.

"Is this real time?" she asked.

"Yep," answered Matt.

"Sakura TV station?" she guessed, noting the familiar walls.

"Right again."

"Someone had to install these cams," she realized, remembering her conversation with Mello regarding the cameras he had put in Misa's apartment. "So that's what Mello was busy doing last night. And why he got a position as an intern...to get access to the building."

"Look at you," said Matt. "You're getting pretty good at this detective stuff."

She bit back a smile. "Oh, stop."

Matt chuckled. "Only correction I have to make is that his main reason was to get close to Takada."

Jubilee looked at the strawberry blonde boy onscreen again. He was watching Takada as she spoke to the two TV anchors, a shrewdness in his eyes that only Jubilee could see, hidden beneath an expression of polite attentiveness. Above his head, lights continued to turn and spin, shining through the chocolate brown around him and enhancing its bits of subtle gold. Now that Jubilee's anger had mostly dissipated, she could see it all more clearly. The effect was oddly inspiring.

"He really is going all in, isn't he," she observed quietly.

"He always does," said Matt.

She watched the boy for a moment longer, awed by the dynamic mural of lights and colors all around him. I didn't give him enough credit, she thought. This kid's not afraid of taking initiative...and that's a good thing, not a bad thing.

She thought of how quick she had been to reproach him for recklessly coming to Japan, and how she had automatically wanted to condemn him for getting close to Takada and Kira, too. Now she could see that it was all because she had been projecting her own fears of being wrong onto him. Her distrust over her own choices had masqueraded itself as worry over another person's choices. Sighing to herself, she rubbed at her eyes. What had happened to the girl who fearlessly wrote about love into a Death Note? What happened to having faith that all would turn out well?

Beside her, Hellenos shimmered back into existence. That girl's still here, he said, tapping her gently on the head. She just forgets who she is sometimes.

"I'll say," she muttered.

"What?" said Matt.

"Nothing," she said. "Tell Mello...when you get a chance, tell Mello that I was wrong—and that I'm sorry. For...judging how he works cases."

"Tell him yourself if you want to," replied Matt, with what sounded like a grin. "He'll be back on the call tonight. We'll get this killer smog over Takada thing hashed out."

She nodded to herself. "Alright."

"Oh, and Jules? I caught the tail end of your call with Mello while I was monitoring lines, and I can say that you've already told him what he needs to hear. So I wouldn't beat yourself up too much. From what I can tell, it sounds like you probably do that a lot. Anyone ever tell you that you don't give yourself enough credit?"

She blinked and exchanged a glance with Hellenos. Then she started laughing.

"Maybe once or twice," she said with a grin.