When Jubilee first got to meet the man behind the intercom voice, her brain and her entire body felt like mush. Two police officers had led her into a large room, practically holding her up the whole way, and placed her gently in a seat. Without her contact lenses, all she could make out was the blurry outline of two figures ahead of her; one seated in a chair and another one standing beside the first. But there, in front of her on the table, was something familiar—she squinted—yes, it was her blue-rimmed eyeglasses. Someone must have picked them up from Wakahisa. This she confirmed when, putting them on, she noticed her three traveling bags that had come to Japan with her, neatly stacked in a corner.

Turning back to the people in front of her, she took in the face of the man who had had her apprehended. The man was fairly young and looked about her age, perhaps a little older; with ghostly pale skin, stark black hair, and large gray, owlish eyes, staring straight back at her. He was crouched on his feet in a swivel chair behind the other end of the table. At his side stood an elderly gentleman with white hair and spectacles. Despite the latter's age and more sophisticated manner, he had an air of subservience to the young man that made it clear who was following orders and who was dishing them out.

So. This was the guy in charge.

"Miss Amachi," spoke the man in the chair. His voice, stripped of the artificial filter, still held that smooth, detached quality from before.

She said nothing. Her facial muscles lacked the strength to make any expression of acknowledgment other than a slack, vacant gaze.

"I am L," he said. At this, her eyes widened just a fraction, which did not escape his notice. "So, you have heard of me."

With some struggle, she found her voice. "A little bit," she croaked.

"Yet you had never heard of Kira."

She bit her lip. "I heard about you once, years ago." He said nothing, just measured her silently with those big, unnerving eyes. Nervous that he would think she was lying, she searched for more to say. "The cops in my town were trying to track down a petty thief at large, and I overheard them joking that it was almost a big enough case to bring L into it. They called you the world's greatest detective."

She neglected to mention that the thief had been her.

He observed her for a moment longer with his gaze. "So I am," he said at last. With his thumb and forefinger he picking up a document lying before him and held it up before his face. "And as head of the Kira investigation, I would like to invite you to work for us." He held the document out across the table to her. "Please read and sign this."

Her mind blanked. "What?"

"This is a work agreement form, Miss Amachi. You will need to sign it."

She stared at him for a second. "So let me get this straight," she began, her voice rising in volume, "You tie me up and lock me in a room, for—for I don't know how long…and now you expect me to work for you?"

The pale man's face remained completely aloof. "Correct."

If she wasn't so weak from her ordeal, she might have leapt up and strangled him. "And what makes you think I would ever do that?"

"Because either way, you are under house arrest until this case is solved," said L, setting the document back down on the table. "You know too many details already, and now you have seen my face. So, my deduction is that you might as well take advantage of your gift, and aid in the cause that will hasten your release."

She was caught between too many emotions, outrage and utter confusion being at the forefront. "What? House arrest?! Who cares about your face? What does it matter that I've seen it?"

At this, one of the police officers in the room—there were four of them—stepped forward. He was slightly older looking than L, but still had more boyish looking features than him. "Excuse me, miss," he began timidly. "Officer Matsuda. We will bring you up to speed on everything you should know for the case…and, well you see…this is the first time ever that L has shown his face to anybody."

Jubilee stared at the police officer with incomprehension.

"That is," he continued nervously, "None of us have ever seen his face before. Until now I mean. Obviously. Er…L has always stayed anonymous, for security reasons; the name L is obviously an alias so no one knows his real name, and he's never shown his face to anyone…Well, except for his assistant Watari, I suppose, and, well, I suppose there could have been a few others who have seen him through the years that I don't know about—" At this he glanced towards L and the old man, Watari, in the vain hope for some kind of help or assurance. Receiving none, he turned back to Jubilee and babbled on, "But now he's revealed himself to us in order to work on the Kira case together, so it's actually a bit of a historical event, you see…oh, and also! We all have to call him Ryuzaki right now, to keep him undercover, so it's kind of like and alias for an alias—"

"What he's saying," interrupted an older officer irritably, "Is that nobody outside of the investigation team can find out L's identity. Officer Aizawa, by the way. Pleasure."

"Especially," added L, "Because Kira needs a name and a face to kill."

Jubilee's head was spinning. "Okay, wait a second," she began, unsure of where to start. "First of all." She cleared her throat and put a hand to her head in a vain attempt to clear it. "I did not ask to see your face. In fact, in light of all this—this—craziness, that you are dumping on me…I wish I never did. The fact that I saw your precious, top-secret face is your decision, and therefore your fault." She was dimly aware that she was reaching the point of yelling. "I do not want to be a part of your case, Mr. Detective, and I don't see why you would want me to be anyway, as I am no 'great detective' like you, and if I am not supposed to know the details of the case, then please, for the love of all that is holy, stop telling them to me. I don't want to know. I don't want to be involved."

She was met with silence as the half dozen men gathered in the room just stared at her; some with a look of pity, some looking taken aback. Only L's face remained unchanged.

"Miss Amachi," he said at length, in a quiet tone. "It is far too late for that. You were involved from the moment you began following Light Yagami."

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They gave her three days to adjust back to life and her new circumstances, before the paperwork was thrust in front of her face once again. She suspected that the old man, Watari, and perhaps a few of the other police officers, had taken compassion on her and argued on her behalf for a bit of reprieve. They had been especially kind and polite to her since her release. Which, she reasoned grimly, must mean that they all knew her story and felt sorry for her.

During this time she was given a modest room adjacent to the suite she had met L in. It was during these three days that she got used to being on her feet again, feeding and dressing herself, and so on. It was a surreal experience, like learning how to be human again. Then again, she already had to relearn how to live once before, when she had come back to life.

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Once the three days were up, she found herself seated back at a table across from L, Watari standing by his side. Slowly he pushed a small stack of paperwork across the table to her. He looked at her quietly, expectantly. She stared down at the paperwork, then back up at him.

"So," she stated, crossing her arms. "When you said you were 'inviting' me to work for you…I didn't really have a choice in the matter, did I?"

"Not true," said L. "You had a choice between house arrest, and house arrest while getting to work on the investigation."

"Great," she deadpanned, giving him a glare. This seemed to have no effect on him, so she continued, irritably, "Then why are you making the choice for me? I haven't agreed to be a part of this yet."

"Yet," pointed out L, sticking one pale, skinny finger in the air.

Her glare deepened. "And what makes you think that I will?"

L opened his mouth to speak, when Watari gave a gentle cough beside him. The detective glanced at the older man. "Forgive me, Miss Amachi," he began again after a brief pause. "I see we may have gotten off on the wrong foot about all of this."

"Really." Jubilee's tone was sardonic.

"It was not at all my intention to make your choice for you," L went on without acknowledging her. "I was simply being efficient by calculating the highest likely outcome. My deduction was that you were 70% likely to choose to be on the case, as it would allow you some sense of freedom and purpose, as well as give you a semblance of control over your ultimate fate; and that you were 30% likely to choose house arrest simply to be stubborn and defiant, in which case you would be 95% likely to have flashbacks of your solitary confinement and go stir-crazy within weeks, before lapsing into a severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder due to your overall life experience."

She stared at him aghast. Watari looked upwards and gave a very small, very subtle sigh.

"Therefore," concluded L, "I have wasted no time in making this offer available to you readily and immediately, in the interest of your health."

"My health?" she repeated incredulously. She gestured towards him. "This from the man who locked me up in a room for over a month?"

He gave no response, simply gazed at her calmly. He didn't even look apologetic.

She huffed angrily. "Why do you even want me on the case? I have no experience. I'd just be in the way."

"That is true," replied L. "Unless the gift you claim to have is legitimate—in which case you could be an asset."

She crossed her arms again. "So you want to use me."

"Everyone uses each other, Miss Amachi. I am being used by the police force to track down Kira. Kira is being used by the public to justify their own cravings for vengeance. And perhaps we are all being used by this God of yours that you described, for his own passing entertainment."

Jubilee was about to shoot back a cutting remark when they were interrupted by the door opening. Three people entered. One of them Jubilee recognized instantly as the young man she had followed on that fateful afternoon—Light Yagami. He looked…different. For one thing the black haze was gone from him, and the dark being that had been following him was now nowhere in sight. But for another thing, he looked somehow younger than before; with more innocent vulnerability in his eyes than the quiet confidence which she remembered. Beside him walked an older man who had Light's eyes and nose, and behind him was a pretty blonde girl, petite and no older than twenty. All three of them looked shell-shocked.

"Welcome back, Chief Yagami," said L. "And hello again, Light Yagami, Misa Amane." He gave a slight dip of his head. "I am pleased to see that the two of you did not murder Chief Yagami. Congratulations, you are now cleared of suspicion for being Kira."

Jubilee looked from the newcomers to L, bewildered. What was he talking about?

Matsuda stepped up beside her, leaned over and discreetly whispered, "Those three were also in solitary confinement. They just came back from a drive, during which Chief Yagami, under orders, pulled a gun on the other two to execute them for being Kira. He shot blanks though—the whole thing was staged. Kira only needs a name and a face, so if either of them were Kira, they would have surely killed him before he pulled the trigger."

So that's why they looked so traumatized. She shot L a dark glance. "I'm guessing that was also his idea." This infamous L character was apparently as twisted as he was cunning.

Matsuda nodded in affirmation, but before he could speak again he was addressed by L.

"Matsuda, would you and the other officers please escort these three to the other room that we booked, where they can get some rest and recover from their ordeal? See to it that they get some food as well."

Matsuda snapped to attention. "Yes, Ryuzaki, sir!" He hurried out of the room, barking orders to the other officers and shooing his three charges along like a mother hen, Aizawa rolling his eyes behind him the whole way.

"Huh." Jubilee turned back to L. "So you do care about the wellbeing of some people."

"Actually," corrected L, "I wanted to ask you while we were out of earshot of Light and Misa Amane whether or not you saw anything following him just now."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "I thought you said they were cleared from suspicion?"

"They are, officially. I have no other choice in the matter. But the fact remains that Misa Amane's DNA was found on the tapes carrying the second Kira's messages to the first Kira."

"Second Kira, first Kira…" Jubilee shook her head in bewilderment and raised her hands, palms up, in a gesture of incomprehension. "What's all that about? And how does this still make Light a suspect?"

L pressed a finger, once again, on the paperwork in front of her. "These are all questions that are answered concisely in the file that is included with your work agreement. You will be thoroughly briefed on all details of the case once you sign this." At Jubilee's look of annoyance, he added, "As you requested, Miss Amachi…no more flippantly shared details." This only deepened her glare.

With a heavy sigh, she picked up the first piece of paper and began scanning it.

"As I was asking," continued L as she read, "Did you see the being from before following Light just now?"

Her shoulders slumped a bit and she shook her head. "No. But that's not saying much…I haven't been seeing or hearing much of anything in the spirit lately." Her heart felt heavy at this admission. She missed Hellenos. "So, until that improves, I'm not sure how much of a help I'll—hey. Wait a minute." She pointed a finger at a spot on the contract. "What is this?! I am not a 'psychic specialist.' I'm not a psychic, or a specialist."

L gave her a blank look. "It's simply a standard title for the sort of position you are going to fill. They sometimes hire on these sorts of specialists for American police investigations too, I have seen."

"Yes, but I'm not psychic," stated Jubilee flatly.

"It is a much more standard name than 'specialist-who-can-see-angels-and-demons.' Or even 'supernatural specialist.' That sounds a bit tacky."

"Tacky?" repeated Jubilee. "And 'psychic' doesn't sound tacky?"

"At least it has precedence."

"That still doesn't make it accurate!"

"We don't want to draw undue attention."

"Well, this drew my undue attention."

"That's because it was about you, Miss Amachi, and frankly, not everything is about you."

"What!" she exploded. "Why, you arrogant, puffed up—I could say the same of—"

Watari gracefully stepped between the two with a tray of sweets. "Tiramisu?"

Jubilee stared at the dessert in bewilderment. Where had he even been hiding that?

"Don't mind if I do," said L without hesitation, scooping up two plates and holding one out towards Jubilee as he hopped out of his chair and straightened up. "Some for you, Miss Amachi? I highly recommend it; Watari's homemade desserts are excellent."

"Thank you, sir." Watari bowed.

Jubilee, baffled, accepted the plate without thinking.

L turned to go. "I will leave you to the rest of your reading. I trust you will find the remainder of the contract agreeable, and then there is plenty in the case file for you to catch up on. If you have any questions, Watari will assist you." He walked out of the room, shutting the door to what looked like a separate, dark bedroom behind him.

Jubilee stared after him, then turned to Watari in disbelief. "He just did that thing again, where he just assumed I would sign it."

The old man turned compassionate eyes on her. "Are you not going to?"

She fumbled at that. "Well, yeah, I probably will, but I mean—still—"

He gave her an understanding smile. "He's usually right, my dear," he said, sounding apologetic. "But that doesn't mean he has to act like it," he continued, eyes crinkling. "He's an incredibly smart man, but when it comes to interacting with others, he's still learning—and he has quite a lot to learn. But he means well."

Jubilee considered him for a moment. "Are you his father?" she asked.

Watari's smile softened at that. "No. But I have known him since he was a little boy."

"Well, then, tell me," said Jubilee. "Will L—I mean, Ryuzaki—" She sighed internally—was she really starting to pick up on case lingo now? "Will he really let me go, after all of this is over?"

"Yes," stated Watari with confidence. "Ryuzaki may use unconventional means at times, but at the end of the day, what's most important to him is justice. His only interest is bringing perpetuators of crime like Kira to justice. Once that is done, he will, with all due respect my dear, have little remaining interest in you."

Jubilee was silent at this revelation. If this L character truly was as good of a detective as everyone said he was—and if he truly was that obsessed about bringing all criminals to justice—then she may not be all that safe around him, even after this case was solved.