Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note or Artemis Fowl or any of their associated fictional characters or locations.

The Detective and the Criminal

Chapter Five

Forks in the Road

L walked into the room. Artemis sighed.

"I apologise, Artemis, he wouldn't listen," said Butler.

"I'm sorry was I interrupting anything?" asked L as Artemis stood up.

"Yes. I happened to be meditating," said the irritated boy.

"Trying to think of a way out?"

"You have a very suspicious mind, Ryuzaki." Even though completely correct.

"I suppose it runs in the family," murmured L with his thumb in his mouth.

"I suppose it does," conceded Artemis with a faint smile. Very faint. It melted away like ice cream on a hot day before Artemis' next words were out of his mouth. "I assume that which ever matter you needed my consultation on is sufficiently urgent?"

"I wouldn't say urgent. More...Intriguing than anything else," L told the boy, the detective's thumb in his mouth.

Artemis' eyebrow rose fractionally. "Intriguing? Is that so? Well, if you find it intriguing then perhaps it will be interesting enough to capture my attention for a moment or two." For the two brothers the hidden insult was rather obvious, but as Artemis had just consented to give it his time, L said nothing in reply.

*****

Holly was, for once, fairly pleased about the shuttle she had gotten. It was true that it couldn't be said that she's been assigned a new Zeed-pod Mark Four, the newest and most expensive shuttle available with all the bells and whistles, including actual bells and whistles (though it was difficult to think of a situation which would require bells and whistles), but it flew at a fairy decent speed and had nothing obvious falling off it, so Holly was happy.

After the pixie had done her traditional set of Fly-girl manoeuvres and had succeeded in scaring the bajeebas, and possibly the what-sits, out of her two assigned companions, she set off for the surface with a jumbled mind. She was trying to think up a plan but it didn't seem to be going very well. She had to think of a way to ensure that she wouldn't come in contact with Kira, even if she didn't know who he or she was, but would still be able to give assistance to Artemis (and give him a good long talking-to for abandoning them like he had done) and try to navigate the situation so that she was able to somehow avoid choosing between him and this 'L'.

Holly was trying to do this and simultaneously block out the thought that the Seers had told her that she would need to sacrifice one of them, and they had never been known to be wrong.

Which was probably the reason why she was so jumbled up mentally.

And the two Fairies which had been assigned to her weren't exactly helping either.

"...I mean, did you have to swerve away at the last moment?" babbled the female sprite, Lilac Bloom. Bloom was as arrogant and flighty as any of the sprites, also with a god deal of ditziness but was one of the best officers around when it came to any kind of combat. The girl was a natural fighter but not, as her prosthetic lower left arm and the scar across her right cheek showed, completely invincible.

"Yes," answered Holly shortly.

"Because it kind of made me feel sick. And it crumpled my wings, which is really annoying because it takes for ever to get them straight again."

"Really," grunted Holly in an uninterested monotone L would have been proud of.

"Yeah, really." She babbled on for a bit more before seeming to notice that Holly wasn't exactly hanging onto her every word. "Hello? Hey, uh...Holly, was it? Are you listening to me?"

Holly seemed to focus on her for a moment. "Yes."

"Oh, good, I thought you'd zoned out-"

"I mean, yes, my name is Holly. Now go sit down because every word you say goes in one ear and out the other fast enough that it could be oiled."

Lilac sort of gaped at her for a moment before saying, "hmp," and huffing off back to her seat.

"Don't sulk, Lilac, you know it's true," said Holly's other assigned work make, the male pixie Captain Maize Bluebottle. He seemed to be a bit of a doormat. Maize had been assigned to Lilac several times before simply because he was just able to handle her. Other than that he seemed to be a capable Captain, appearing to be very logical and calm.

"Oh, be quiet, Maize. At least I try to make conversation."

"You always try to make conversation. Even if it was just you and a mirror you would probably still try to make conversation," Maize told her calmly.

"I...Maize, that's just mean," pouted Lilac.

"Notice she didn't try to deny it," pointed out Holly.

"She couldn't lie well enough to," replied Maize without shifting his gaze from where he stared out of the front window.

At Lilac's new wave of outrage Holly smirked before getting her mind back on track and trying to come up with some sort of plan.

*****

"...Get rid of it," said the recording of Light's voice which Artemis listened to courtesy of L. L pressed a button on the console which stopped the recording.

"That is it?" inquired Artemis.

"Not exactly. But I wanted to ask you if you have any thoughts on what you have just heard."

Artemis appraised his brother before saying, "I did notice that the wording was a little odd. And the meaning, too. How many teenage boys would acknowledge that they're pride is what is bringing them down?"

"But he could simply be exceptionally modest," pointed out L.

"Modesty and pride are on two different sides of the spectrum. But, besides from that, it wouldn't make sense if he was. After all, someone exceptionally modest wouldn't feel they were able to 'just get rid' of an excess of pride. So I would presume that this is a code."

"For who?"

"Someone who has access to Yagami's room or his cameras."

"No-one," replied L instantly.

"That is my only explanation," Artemis confessed dryly. "If you do not agree with it then you shouldn't have asked my opinion. If that's all..."

"It is," L said, looking at the screen. Artemis went back to his room, Butler trailing behind him, just as Watari entered the room.

"Ryuzaki?"

L stared at the screen, thinking. "It isn't possible..."

"Ryuzaki?"

But if it were...

"Watari, I have a request to make," L murmured, the gears of his mind clinking together.

*****

Of course, Watari accepted the job L wanted him to do. Figuring out the code for the ring and picking it apart to see how it would work would take time and effort that L could not spare. He could not afford to be distracted by some invention of his brother's when all his mental abilities had to be like a single bright searchlight trained on finding Kira instead of many smaller torch lights, seeing more but illuminating less.

Watari's trip would only take a little while. All he had to do was drop off the ring at the place L had wanted him too and head back to the head quarters.

When Watari arrived at Wammy's house he gave orders for Near and Matt to be told what L wished them to do immediately before departing. L had requested that Matt be the one who take apart the ring to see how it worked, as he was known to be a technological whiz, and Near be the one who figured out what the code was, since he was good at figuring out puzzles.

Watari regretted not being able to stop and see how some of his charges were going along. Lately he never seemed to be able to. He was always too busy.

Watari made a mental note that, once all of this was over, he would spend a few weeks in the company of his charges to catch up with them. He felt his heart warm as he made the decision.

*****

"So, Holly, have you crashed the new shuttle yet?" asked Foaly cheerfully over intercom.

"Very funny, Foaly. No, I have not."

Foaly sighed. "At least tell me you've terrified your new work mates."

"Oh, yeah. That I've done."

Foaly grinned. "Good. It would be a pity if you lost your touch."

"No chance of that, not while I have sprites to terrify."

Foaly heard a protest squeal in the background and laughed. "At least there's that. You're almost at the surface now."

"I realised."

"Have you thought of any kind of plan?"

"Um...I've tried. But actually coming up with anything is proving kind of hard." Holly tried to laugh it off but Foaly heard the anxiety in her voice.

"I know. But you'll be fine. You always are," he reassured. A bleeping noise interrupted any response Holly could have made. "Hold on, I've got an incoming message. I'll contact you some time in the near future."

"Okay."

Foaly cut off the transmission and opened the new line. "This is Foaly."

"This is the Warlocks' report you requested," said a gruff voice.

"Good," Foaly said approvingly. "You've been looking for the energy transmitted from a Shinigami?"

"Yes,ir, but there is another matter. We weren't sure if you'd noticed but...killings have begun again."

"By Kira?" asked Foaly, instantly typing on his console to verify the information. There were a small group of Warlocks who Foaly had allowed to learn of the Kira killings and to be his eyes and ears in terms of tracking the energy resulting from a Shinigami crossing over into the human world.

"Apparently. But, sir, we have also found traces of energy from a Shinigami entering the human world?"

Foaly sat up, instantly alert. "Where?"

"Ireland."