When at last she stepped out of the shower, Shingo rapped on the door.

"Hello?" he called, his usually soft, soothing voice gone worried. "Kyaroru?"

"Mhm," she answered. Peeling off her soaked clothes and wringing out her hair, Kiya tried to expel the day's events from her mind. "It's m-m-me."
Outside, she heard Shingo breathe a sigh of relief. "Oh. Okay. Well... do you need anything? I didn't hear you come in."

"A change of c-clothes, please," Kiya requested. "Do you... have t-time for t-t-tea?"

"Uhm... I can take a break from drawing now, yeah. What kind?"

She smiled to herself. "P-Pomegranate, please."

"Sure."

Kiya stared at herself in the mirror while Shingo walked away towards the kitchen. She was tired, and sullen, and thoroughly shaken, but she knew she wanted to research things. For one, how did L know anything about her? How did he find her? Why did he select her to contact? And what exactly was he trying to get out during the interrogation?

She sighed and rubbed her face with her hands. She wasn't planning to tell Shingo anything about what happened, but not because she felt threatened by L and his associates. There was a pull to explain everything and get it off her chest and know she was safe, but she didn't want him or Taisei to get caught up in... whatever this was. At least, that was assuming there was anything to get caught up in in the first place.

According to L, she wouldn't be contacted further by him or his assistant for any reason, but... if that wasn't true and she leaked anything to her brothers, who's to say they wouldn't be involved?

The sound of the gas stove in the kitchen jerked her from her thoughts. Kiya heard another knock at the door soon enough and took her clothes from Shingo's outstretched hand.

Even after her father had passed, Kiya still felt like something in this house was wrong.

Watari tapped L's shoulder.

L gestured for him to bend closer to whisper into his ear.

"She hasn't spilled anything. There's no need to worry." Watari murmured, and L nodded with satisfaction.

"I don't mean to brag, but I did tell you she wouldn't. Though..." the detective trailed off, looking thoughtful.

Watari cocked his head. "Though?"

"I think I may have lied when saying I wouldn't be concerning myself with her again," L replied. "From what she's revealed to us I think there's significant reason to believe the death of her father is suspicious."
Even his assistant seemed surprised. "You think so? In what way?"

L took his sweet time to pop a candy in his mouth and chew it up. "She knowth thoo much about the Kira cathe," he said.

Watari inhaled and exhaled heavily. "Wait till you've finished chewing, please."

The detective rolled his eyes. "What I mean is, she has far too much of a grip on why she couldn't have killed her father while posing as Kira. She knows too much about the Kira case for it to be an innocuous understanding of her own innocence," he explained after swallowing. "There's a good chance she has something to hide that relates to the case, even if it isn't the murder of her father. She's very sharp and perceptive, and according to her school records she wanted to become a detective; given her background and her personality there has to be something that she's keeping a secret, and I happen to think it's some direct or indirect knowledge of Kira or Kira's power."

"Hmm." Watari hesitated. "I suppose that would also explain why she was so resistant to questioning."

"Precisely."

Sitting down at the kitchen table, Kiya rested her chin on her arms. Shingo set down a mug in front of her before sitting in the seat opposite.

"It's hot. Be careful," he said, giving her a smile.

She returned the expression, albeit weakly. Stirring around the tea with the spoon, Kiya sighed.

Shingo tilted his head. "Anything you want to say?"

Kiya shook her head.

"Okay then. But make sure to tell me if there's anything at all."

"Mhm."

"...How about I make dinner tonight?"

"I g-guess."

"Any specific requests?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

She hesitated. "Maybe... s-s-somen. It's been a while."

"Sure thing." Shingo reached over the table to pat her hand. "I'll get started in an hour or two, then. In the meantime, is there anything you want to do?"

She shook her head.

"Anything you think you should do?"

She paused, and then shook her head again. Abruptly, she changed her answer and nodded.

Shingo looked surprised. "Okay, great. Tell me if you need any help with that."

"Okay." Kiya seemed to be dazed, lost in her own thoughts, but more than usual today.

"Is it something you want to tell me about?"

"Mm... I don't know. Do you w-want me t-t-to?"

"Not if you don't want to."

"Then... n-n-not really. I'm sorry."

"You're fine." Shingo stood up and stretched his arms up. "I'm glad to know you have something you're going to do."

She nodded. "Mhm."

During the following spell of silence, Kiya stared into her mug. She took a cautious sip and set it back down again, thinking.

"Actually, can I t-tell you something?" she asked.

Shingo put a hand on the back of his chair. "Of course. I'm listening."

"I don't..." she paused. "I don't l-like— I d-don't want to go out at all."

He cocked his head. "Was it the number for today?"

"N-no. It was normal."

"But normal still isn't good, right? Maybe it's a good idea to stay inside for a while, then."

Kiya looked up at him, and then just slightly past him. "Yeah... I guess s-s-so."

"I guess I can take over grocery stuff for a few days, then." Shingo followed her gaze questioningly. "Are you looking at something?"

"Just... Mom's picture," she replied absently, gesturing to the framed photograph of Carol Labelle.

Shingo nodded, understanding. "Oh. I see."

There was a tense quiet.

"Do you need a hug?" Shingo asked.

Kiya nodded.

During the embrace, her eyes were unmoving from the spot in the corner of the ceiling.

L chewed his thumbnail anxiously. "This is... definitely a problem," he murmured.

Watari gave a grunt of agreement. "I don't know how she found the cameras so quickly... this could cause some trouble."

"Well, obviously it could cause some trouble." L rolled his eyes. "Depending on what she does, we could get in hot water with the law and considering this project hasn't been made known to the police force so we could justify it, things could go downhill."

His assistant looked pensive. "Yes. What do you suggest we do?"

L rubbed his face. "I'm not sure. I need to know what she's going to do now that she knows about the cameras. She's not confident enough that her brothers will be safe if she tells them about anything that happened, but knowing that she's being watched could make her feel cornered and she might take extreme actions."

Watching Kiya pull away from Shingo's hug with a resolute expression, the detective felt a knot of anxiety slowly build in his stomach.

I don't have the freedom to keep a close eye on her as well as the proceedings with the main Kira Task Force, he reasoned. This is too inconvenient. Was I too hasty? No... but I didn't prepare as well as I should have. She somehow found the cameras that easily, is it possible to have them removed in a day or so? I don't think it is, now that she's decided to stay inside for an indeterminable amount of time.

Should I bring her in for a full interrogation? No, she hasn't exhibited enough suspicious behavior for me to think of her as hostile. I have a gut feeling she's connected to Kira, but I can't prove it and it's likely that she won't let me even if it's necessary to torture her.

L clutched his head in his hands. What do I do?

By this time, Kiya had taken leave to her bedroom, which was shown on a few separate cameras. Now that she found one of them, she would know there were more, but she didn't make any moves to scour for them. She sat down on her bed, pulling her knees to her chest and closing her eyes.

The important question is how. No one just looks up and notices a camouflaged camera hidden in their apartment, even if they're perceptive. She has to have laid some kind of trap. Is she that devious? L aggressively fished his pocket for a candy to pop into his mouth. She can't be, I don't believe she is. I didn't notice any traps set, so there couldn't have been any set down before we placed the bugs and cameras. Did she come up with tests afterwards? If she did, we would've known, and she would've known about our surveillance before we met with her. There's something odd about this.

Watari eyed him. "You're thinking very hard at the moment, I can tell. I'll leave you be for now, come find me if you need someone to bounce ideas off of."

L grunted his agreement.

She wasn't even looking around for anything until she just looked up and found the camera. Was she being guided? Did something tell her where to look? Only Shingo was in the room along with her, and he was fooled into thinking she was looking at her mother's photo. Did a bug land on it? Did the light hit it in a way that exposed it? Did she find it beforehand, maybe at a point when Watari and I weren't looking?

That's the only way this could make sense, and yet it can't be right, because we would know that she knew. What the hell happened?

Something wasn't right and he was determined to figure out what it was. At the moment there was no way to intervene and remove the cameras, and nor did he particularly want to involve himself any further. Now all he could do was wait and see.

Kyaroru, close to falling asleep, peeked out from under her arms to watch the walls. There were no little red flashes of light as far as she could see, but she knew that something was watching her. Someone was watching her. The detective she met earlier that day.

It was just past noon. Outside, the sun's rays had replaced the freezing rain and wove their way through her almost-closed blinds. Kiya sat far away from it, keeping the lights off and the room as dark as possible.

"You're w-w-watching me, a-aren't y-y-y-you?" she said aloud, lifting her head slightly.

There was no answer. She expected that; there were bugs and cameras, but no microphones, because that would be silly.

Kiya snorted. "Well, I kn-kn-know you are. You s-said you w-would leave me al-l-l-lone, but I guess y-you were l-l-lying. Do detectives d-do that often?"

Only the droplets of leftover rain from the roof outside replied to her with slow plock, plock, plocks.

"You sh-sh-should be ashamed of y-yourself. I have n–n-nothing to do with you, a-and here you are d-d-disregarding m-my privac— my p-privacy." Her tone was just emotional enough to be counted as angry, but only barely. "I n-no longer h-h-have any respect f-f-f-for you."

With that, she rolled onto her side and closed her eyes with the intent of sleeping.

L, watching the computer screen with an intimidating intensity, couldn't help but grunt in frustration. She didn't mean it, but he felt like he was being taunted, like she was pretending to be the higher person. He hated that, he hated it so much.

She was a threat now, and she had to be eliminated.

But was she connected to Kira? Was she a suspect? How the hell did she find the cameras?

What was there to be done about this?