A hunched detective stood alone in a hotel room in Japan, staring out of the window.

This time he wasn't looking for Kira. He was looking past the buildings and surroundings of the city, imagining the sea. Imagining a tall lighthouse standing alone where no one would ever find it. Below the surface of that lighthouse, thousands of metres deep, was a city as bright and beautiful as the one he was staring at through the pane of glass. Looks could be so deceiving… There lived Andrew Ryan, Frank Fontaine, Bridgette Tenenbaum and so many other geniuses that had disappeared from the world in the mystery known as 'The Vanishing' – a case that had always failed to be solved.

L rubbed his neck as he thought of Rapture. The brightest, ugliest and most dangerous case he had ever worked on. The Kira case just couldn't compare.

A face. A name. Two things Kira needed to kill. Somehow… it just didn't seem as important as before.

"Ryuzaki, the task force have asked to meet you face-to-face."

A face.

"That's fine." The detective answered into the microphone, not tearing his gaze away from the view. After seeing mutilated children, insane people willing to kill their own loved ones for power and naïve people fooled into being forever encased in a metal suit, a man murdering criminals was nothing. L thought nothing could disgust and perplex him more than Kira. He had been so wrong.

*

"Okay, what's wrong?" Mello demanded of his best friend. Mello was lying on his stomach, surrounded by books and homework. Matt was sat on the bed next to him, doodling around the edges of his notebook and generally looking miserable. He glanced towards the door and back at his book, ignoring Mello's question.

Mello sighed in irritation, locking the door to the room they shared and turning back to Matt, sitting next to him on the bed. "Do I have to beat it out of you?"

Matt deliberated the question before putting his pen down and propping himself up against his headboard, absentmindedly tracing the veins on his arm. "This place is so dull."

Mello caught Matt's subconscious movement and rubbed his own hand in response. "You miss Rapture?"

"Yes." Matt answered, his left hand curling into a ball. "But I don't want to go back. Does that make sense?"

"No." Mello answered, shaking his head. "But I feel the same way."

Matt looked towards their small window, staring into the distance. "It's a shame that place got so screwed up."

"You were a complete jerk at one point though." Mello said, moving back over to his own bed.

"Yeah and you almost hit a little girl." Matt reminded him, smiling slightly. Mello smirked to himself.

"Maybe we should've just kept the Plasmids."

Matt laughed, remembering the lightening that had once come from his hand. "Can you imagine explaining it to Roger?"

There was a weary knock on their door and the handle twisted, unable to open the door due to the lock. Matt and Mello caught each other's eye and tried not to laugh as Mello moved to unlock the door. "What is it Roger?"

Near was stood behind the old man with a blank expression as Roger twisted his head around the door frame to make sure Matt was in the room too. "I need you two to come to my office. You each have a package."

The three boys followed Roger into his office and he closed the door behind them, sitting at his desk and gesturing to the three boxes in front of him. Mello grabbed his parcel first and opened it, snorting at the contents inside.

A bottle of Arcadia Merlot and… a card that enabled him to receive an unlimited supply of Cadbury's chocolate for free.

Near opened his next, finding a pink fluffy teddy bear that he had seen in Tenenbaum's safe house and a loyalty card for Hamleys – the biggest toy shop in the UK – allowing him to buy whatever he pleased.

Matt grinned as he opened his present, finding a pack of Nico Time cigarettes and a similar loyalty card to Near's and Mello's that he could use in any video game store. His smile faded slightly when he found the lighter in the bottom of the parcel and he met Mello's eye, thinking it had been a lot more fun when Mello lit his cigarettes for him.

"May I ask why L has given you alcohol and cigarettes?" Roger asked, frowning unhappily.

"No." Mello answered, receiving a disapproving look from Roger and ignoring it.

"Very well. He also left a note addressed to the three of you." Roger replied, pushing a piece of paper forward.

Dear Mello, Matt and Near,

Hopefully you will read this note before you open the gifts. If you do, then make sure you don't open the packages in front of Roger – he won't be very happy.

I hope you like the gifts. They are to thank you for working with me on the case and mostly doing as I asked you. I enjoyed working with the three of you. If you were wondering what my souvenir of the case is: I have kept the radio, although I haven't modified it to make it work from up here.

Also Matt, I will need Rapture's anthem from you at some point… purely for forensic purposes of course.

Give Linda my regards.

L.

P.S. You have 24 hours to destroy this note.