***Author's Note***

So there I was right? On facebook when apparently I learned that most people that know
me don't know that I write. They all know I draw mind you… My Composition 1010
professor in college told the class the other day that people don't think about writing
every day. Apparently, it's just not something humans do. And if you do, that you are
typically so wrapped up in it that you estrange yourself from others… I think about
Kira Again and all my other works almost constantly. I'll be driving down the road and
see a motorcycle, first though is: Nina's bike could beat that. Every time I… Exploit a
computer system, every time I look at a piece of paper… I want to write! I got to thinking
about it… I am introverted, but I don't think I'm as bad as F. Scott Fitzgerald or anything
like that… But still… I'm here in the library at the college really bored so I'm rambling…

ANYWAY~! Thank you to:
livelaughloveanddance, Mangafreak666, and epsilon762!
Especially the first two who left reviews~! I love you guys~!

Bah… I'm done rambling now. Enjoy.

***End Note***

Chapter 21

"Sit down." Scott sighed, leaning against the wall in the small grey room. It only had a table and a couple of chairs and Nina was pretty sure it was typically used for interrogations and she didn't really like being trapped in there with her two mortal enemies that still had no clue…

"We're only going to brief you once so pay attention," Scott leveled his light blue eyes at her and she wanted to squirm as she sat, Near sitting in the floor beside where Scott stood, making himself look rather small in his white clothes and Nina wondered for a moment how he kept his clothes clean if he sat on the floor so often.

"I've watched the news…"

"Then you know nothing." Scott snapped and Nina's eyes narrowed, she'd like to write his real name on a page of the little notebook she kept in her bag…

"Fine. We'll say I know nothing. Brief me." She was resisting the urge to roll her eyes when she felt the air stir behind her. Light was back. Great, now she'd have to watch her mouth.

Scott shrugged but began, "As you know, Kira is back, and like the original Kira, this one kills people all hours of the day." Nina knew that. She was the one that killed them after all, prewriting names in the DeathNote so that the killings continued every hour, on the hour, even as she sat there with them, giving an entirely new feeling when her watched beeped the passing of an hour.
"We've also determined that this Kira is female." Nina raised an eyebrow at this piece of information. She wasn't sure how they decided that but she was surprised none the less. "And like you pointed out earlier, the killer is defiantly in the Eastern Time zone. We've censored as much media content as possible to help bock some of Kira's abilities to find victims." Nina nodded as she listened, knowing this part.

"Yesterday, this would have been all we told you…" Near spoke softly and Scott looked down at him, nudging him with his foot.

"If you wanted to do the briefing then you should have started speaking from the beginning," Sometimes Scott was rude to Near and she wondered what that was about since they were supposed to be working together…

Near met Scott's gaze and he set down the miniature Transformer figure he had been playing with, "I was the one who originally noticed the shift in the pattern, aren't I the one with the rights to speak of it?"

Scott rolled his eyes, "You know what? Fine. Talk away."

Nina watched the exchange curiously, noticing that Near didn't seem to care much for Scott but it seemed Scott really disliked Near.

Dark eyes met hers for a long moment before he finally spoke again as if picking his words, "We want you to look at some information with us and tell us what you think."

She nodded and put her hand on the stack of papers on the desk, "These?"

They both nodded and she opened the first file, flipping through them for information she didn't know, taking in a lot of things. They had the names of most of her victims but not all of them, they also had a few that they weren't sure if she had killed, some were her doing, others were just common heart attacks. She began noticing though that the later killings seemed… wrong…

"Why does Kira start out killing people on the hour and then move to killing on the hour and randomly?" This was either fake information or the second DeathNote Light had spoken of… Most likely the latter…

Near nodded and looked back to Scott as Nina flipped through the other papers, noting just what was censored and how, doing her best not to smirk as she saw a blaringly obvious hole in their set up. She would jump all over that when she got back to the house… "You're right. She is smart. It took me a few days of looking over the list to notice the pattern shift." Of course she had noticed it, she knew who and when she killed after all…

She shrugged, setting the file down. "So is she trying to throw you off, or is there the chance of a second killer?" She needed to know how much they knew but she didn't want them to catch the second Kira before she could find them.

"There's something else that wasn't in the papers there… All of the people murdered off the hour were related to children. Child molesters, child pornography manufacturers, child murderers…"

"Trash like that…"

Near had trailed off and Scott had decided to finish the thought with his own.

"The killer of these has an obviously different… taste… than the first one who mostly kills murderers."

She nodded, taking it in. The second Kira couldn't be so bad if he protected children so fiercely…

"The second Kira sees themselves as the child's protector, but because of that it would be hard to lure him or her out. It is past inhumane to use a child as any kind of bait, therefore we are hoping they will pick another group of criminals to be interested in as well… It is probable that the second Kira is a female as well considering a mother's naturally protective instincts over children…"

This was annoying. She would have hoped that the second Kira possessed half a brain. If she had been the second Kira, she would have timed her killings along with the first's so that she could use the other as camouflage. She wasn't expecting the other killer's actions to be so blatantly different from hers. It made no sense unless they did it on purpose… or just didn't care… hell, maybe they were just that dumb…

Light was grumbling about Ryuke and how stupid he was and it was making it hard to think especially when he deviated to the subject of potato chips occasionally.

"Anything else I should know?" she sighed, rubbing her forehead, trying to push back the headache that was starting there again.

"I can't think of anything… You Near?" Near was sitting on the floor playing with his hair again, seeming lost in thought until Scott spoke his name.

"No… not really… Do you have anything to add, Nina?"

Nina shook her head, "Only that I noticed the death rate dropped per hour after you did the mass censorship… If I were Kira, I would be frustrated…" And she was too…

"That's why we did it. If she gets desperate enough she'll make a misstep in her attempt to find names and faces of her victims." Names? Who needed those if she had faces? At least that was one good thing; they didn't know she had the eyes…

"Well, look guys, I'll give it some thought and you keep me updated, but I have to go home. Dad was expecting me to come straight home after my volunteer work, not get briefed on the Kira case. So I've got to go…" She didn't have a curfew but she didn't want to just awkwardly sit in the interrogation room while everyone brainstormed about her next movements…

"That's fine then. We'll see you at school tomorrow."

She grabbed her bag and left, wasting no time, throwing her things into the bags on her bike, and kicking up the kickstand as she pulled on her helmet, taking off in the direction of home. She wasn't really paying attention as she drove, the information on the case about the second Kira swimming through her head. Perhaps that's why, when she checked her mirrors, she was surprised to see that she was surrounded by other cyclists, the bikes around her ranging from large Harleys to laid back Choppers to thin Hondas. They were all around her, and she found herself too intrigued to not just go with the flow of where they were headed so when they all pulled off at a red light into an empty parking lot she went too. Everyone pulled in at an angle she recognized. It was to make it so that if cops showed up, the group could easily pull out in almost a spiral design, keeping most from being blocked in. She ended up with a decent parking spot and looked around, most got off their bikes but some stayed seated with their engine running so she stayed on hers. Again, most took off their helmets but many kept theirs on. The ones that took theirs off were wearing lower face masks that she had seen a few times during races; they kept your lower face from getting chapped by the wind or getting bugs in your teeth. In this case though it hid people's identities from one another. Everyone but her. She could still see their names with only the bottom half of their faces covered.

She repositioned restlessly as they divided themselves into groups, finding friends when she was still alone. While moving though, she bumped her throttle, revving her engine accidently and causing the whole place to follow suit, many cheering and making a ruckus while others cussed, some liking the power show while others took it as a challenge. She had her bike toned down between races and her muffler kept the bike from really even getting loud. It took her a moment to figure out what was going on but any of her questions were soon answered as a tall man circled his Vulcan into the center of the crowd, cutting his engine so the others could hear him speak even though he didn't remove his helmet.

"Friday, the day after tomorrow, we are holding the preliminaries for the Annual race this November. We will be glad to welcome back last year's winner, Gilded wings, and the runner up on her Ducati…" He nodded to her and she lightly revved her engine, accepting his acknowledgement. So that's what this was. She was lucky to have accidently joined them. "Honestly, I wasn't expecting her to show up since no one could find a way to get a hold of her… She doesn't typically race outside the main one in November…" Everyone mumbled about that, and she grimaced, not liking that he was already causing drama; he was just bitter that she had beaten his son, pushing him down into third place. Honestly that's why he probably hadn't expected her. No one had made an effort to find her. Her Ducati was hard to miss after all…

"We'll meet on warehouse row and seven is when names will be taken and numbers distributed, those that raced last year will be allowed to use their number from the previous year unless they opt to change it. There will then be a random drawing and bikes will be chosen to race that night. Those who do not show up by seven will not be allowed to race. That is the rules. I'll see you all then."

Nina made a mental note; she was defiantly going to show up on warehouse row early, there was too high of a chance that the ring leader there was going to cause her trouble.

Everyone's bikes were revved to life and they pulled out in the spiral, flocking together until they got to the red light where everyone went their own separate ways.

She headed for home though she took every back road she knew there, sometimes doubling back, shaking the two that she knew would be tailing her.

Finally, she made it home, feeling accomplished knowing that she had lost two rather competent trackers in the back alleys of the city.