"Hello everyone out of the radio waves this fine evening." Chieko purred into her microphone. Back to her small desk at TO-OH University's radio station, she was glad to be back at work. "Though it seems things are heating up here in our leg of the country, what with Kira's game with justice, I can assure all of you out in your cars, that this music will keep continuing to calm you. Even though it seems a fire surrounds everything."

~*~

"Great job tonight, Chieko!" Rui slid his chair out of his desk and gave the woman a thumbs up as she left the booth. She stopped and flashed him a smile.

"And to you too. Don't short-hand yourself there, mister Manager." Chieko commented, "without you behind the scenes, this radio station would crash and burn." She watched as the man's face grew bright red before he looked back down at some papers on his wooden desk.

"Well, thanks I guess.." he mumbled his reply, but once he looked up, Chieko was already out the door and down the sidewalk to yet another new hotel. Or should she say another headquarters.
After taking in Misa Amane under suspicion of being the second Kira, Chieko barely got any sleep the past week as she worked day and night on the case.

Yet, soon enough, even Ryuzaki was beginning to notice the decrease in her health and ordered her home for rest and a few weeks of normalcy.

To her dismay, of course.

"Anything new happen?" Was the first thing that left her mouth once the door was opened. She did not need to observe to who was in the room, because both Light and his father had not addressed her once she entered.

"Both Chief Yagami and Light asked to be put under surveillance the day you took leave." Ryuzaki filled her in while popping a cherry into his mouth. "And no progress has been made by Misa Amane either."
Chieko let out a loud annoyed sigh and pulled her hands angrily through her hair. Then she sat down next to the detective with a few new manilla folders in hand.

"That noise is very unbecoming of you, Chieko." Ryuzaki commented playfully. Then he took notice of the folders and asked what they were for.

"People caught on security cameras that were on the bus that Raye Penber was on." She answered.

"And what happened to Naomi Misora, may I ask?" Ryuzaki looked head on at Chieko who was busily thumbing through the pages.

"Dead. Most likely suicide by Kira." She shrugged.

"So you're still on the idea Kira can kill in more ways than a heart attack?"

"Oh, I know he can." Chieko's anger dripped from her words as she gripped the folders harder in her hands. "That's why I am gonna contact every one of these people for their statements on who else was on the bus."

"Hey, um, mister Stalker?" Misa spoke out even though she was blind folded and strapped down better than someone at a psychiatric ward. "Look, if you want something, I'll give it to you. Pictures, a kiss on the cheek, anything!"

"What the hell is she rambling about now?" Chieko asked, setting her work off to the side. He shrugged and tugged at his bed head.

Ryuzaki asked if she knew why she was brought into custody, but she shook her head and continued her pleading.

"I have to go to the bathroom." Misa claimed after a few minutes, and at this point she was starting to annoy Chieko.

"You went to the bathroom five minutes ago." Chieko heard Ryuzaki say as she joined him at his side near the computer.

"I need to go again! It's the only time you'll let me loose. You can even watch, you pervert!" She snapped.

"I'm not....." Ryuzaki seemed confused by the comment as he placed a thumb to his lips again. ".....a pervert."

Chieko chuckled at his reaction and slung an arm around his shoulders. "You aren't a pervert. You're simply trying to catch Kira." Seeming to be filled with determination, he nodded and asked Mogi a question.

"Did you tell Misa Amane why she was being detained?"

"Of course. I told her that she is under arrest of being suspected to be the Second Kira." Mogi replied.

"Then the question is," Chieko turned away from the policemen and back towards the laptop. "What happened to Misa?"

~*~

"Light Yagami has to be Kira. Simple." Mello shrugged. Chieko had just sat down with a cup of tea in hand as she glared in annoyance at this younger detective.

"Even though the killings have stopped, it is not solid proof that Light is Kira. As much as I hate saying it, Kira may be keeping tabs on him to frame him." The words came out, but she denied them with all her might. Yet the possibility of Light Yagami being innocent felt.....

Wrong.

No one as smart as Light could simply frame him without his knowing. It's just how the world evolved. Seeming nothing was private anymore.

"But who would be able to do that?" Mello asked. Yet anyone in the room could hear the edge in his tone of voice.

"I don't know damn it!" Chieko finally snapped at the man with chocolate in his hand. "It was an idea. If I knew everything I'm pretty sure Kira would be captured at this point, so get off my back! I'm older than you and I think I understand a bit more than you on how people work!!"
Surprised by her outburst, Mello withdrew from the conversation and allowed Near to speak.

"It is possible that a close friend of Light's could be using him. I mean, he is an ideal scapegoat." Near added onto the idea handed out. "Yet even though we're entertaining this thought-"

"Light is still our only suspect in being Kira. And until we find another body or something, he's only strengthening our suspicions on him." Ryuzaki nodded. Silently praising Near who just sat and twirled his hair.

"What is your affiliation with L?" Near turned to Chieko once she closed her front door on her guests.
She turned and raised an eyebrow at the boy, but stayed silent as if contemplating.

"I don't understand your question." She finally spoke, but the sentence came out unsure.

"In regular language, do you find yourself attracted to L?" He asked once more. "As in, romantically."

Outraged at the question, she showed Near to the door as polite as she could before slamming it on the question.

Yet it still remained in the back of her mind, like a nagging tumor.

~*~

"How are you doing Light?" Ryuzaki asked through the microphone. "You look pretty tired there. This cannot be good for your health." Looking at the genius, Ryuzaki was right. Light's hair was coated with oil and tossed in every direction possible. His clothes wrinkled from tossing and turning in his sleepless nights.

Light replied with a little chuckle in his voice, "yeah, neither is it good for my pride. I guess I'll just have to get rid of it."

Then there was an eerie silence over the room, and the dark atmosphere around Light seemed to loosen every second before he looked up at the camera. Chieko was stunned at the fear in his eyes.

"Hey Ryuzaki," he calmly spoke, even though his body said otherwise, "I know I'm the one to push for this confinement, but I think I'm having second thoughts here..."

"Okay, I know I ask the same question about Misa, but what the hell?" Chieko groaned.

"What's wrong?" Matsuda asked.

"Everything!" She cried as she threw her hands into the air. "The way he holds himself, the tone of voice, the look in his eyes, it's all changed! The same way Misa did!" Hands now tangled in her own auburn hair, she tugged at it in frustration before Ryuzaki slowly took her hands in his own and got them out of her hair. "Maybe there's something we're missing, like an object or..?"

"The first step to anything is to calm yourself." Ryuzaki instructed, and she did so.

What next? She thought, pigs flying?

Eyyyy, don't be mad at me please! Take this long chapter as an apology! *throws paper into Reader-Chan's face*
Oh, and I learned how to add GIFs to story parts, so you'll see them from time to time.

Comment,

Like,

Follow.

~ Saturnthehero