Chapter Twelve

'Isn't Eraldo Coil supposed to be the second-greatest detective in the world, next to L?' Chief Yagami asks.

'Does this really put us at a disadvantage?' I have to ask.

'Could be,' Light ponders.

'Who on earth would send such a request?' Chief Yagami asks.

Kira, I'll bet.

'The man who sought out Coil's services is Masahiko Kida, the head of the Rights and Planning Department of the Yotsuba Group's headquarters in Tokyo.'

'So it is Yotsuba,' Chief Yagami concludes.

I briefly came across his name when skimming through the documents earlier. The man has a lot of influence in the stock of Yotsuba. Well, that puts the list down a little. But with us being short-handed, I think that this is not a fair game to play and the fact that Coil himself might take the deal with them is a nuisance.

'It's quite alright,' Ryuzaki says, 'the detective known as Eraldo Coil is actually me.'

'What?' I snap.

'It's quite simple really. Three of the greatest detectives in the world: L, Coil and Deneuve, they're all actually me.

Deneuve—that's how he approached her. Genius!

'It's been my experience that people who try to find me usually fall for this.' He picks up a strawberry from his plate and faces us, seeming to be looking at Mr Mogi specifically: 'I'll give you this strawberry if you can keep it a secret, ok?'

Mr Mogi takes the offered strawberry and puts it in his pocket.

'So—now what?' I ask.

'Is everyone here?' Ryuzaki checks.

Everyone is here.

'Alright, listen up everyone; I'm going to need full cooperation on this.'

The plan is to use Aiber's skills as a conman to infiltrate the Yotsuba group while Wedy handles all the hacking and placing wiretaps and cameras throughout the building. This will help us determine who in Yotsuba has the most power and Kira's connection to the group. The bugs should help us determine the number of higher-ups so that we can figure out which, if any, one of them is Kira. 'We cannot let Yotsuba know that we're investigating them. If they do, it means we won't be able to catch Kira. Please be sure not to act impulsively out of panic or haste. And don't take matters into your own hands.'

Beep, beep.

'Ryuzaki,' Mr Watari calls.

'Yes, what is it?'

'I have just recived an emergency call from Matsuda's belt.'

Mr Matsuda?

'Oh, where is he?' Ryuzaki sounds annoyed.

'It seems that it's coming from within the head office of the Yotsuba Group.'

Oh great!

Ryuzaki releases an annoyed sigh and everyone else joins: 'Disregard everything I just said. We'll need to rethink our strategy.' Sigh. 'Matsuda, you idiot!'

That poor, poor man. Now what? They probably already caught him and are interrogating him. Knowing him, he'll try to stall as best as he an. But it can only last long. Light moves into action, trying to call Misa to see if she knows where Mr Matsuda can be but her cell phone is off. She's probably still shooting the movie. Hatching another plan, Ryuzaki pulls out a phone, deciding to give the man a call. He changes his voice, acting in a way that doesn't sound like him: 'Yo Matsui!' he calls into the phone: 'It's me Asahi, it's been a while buddy…it doesn't sound like you're out right now. Don't tell me you're home already…So you by yourself?' After the answer, Ryuzaki holds the pone away from his ear, covering the speaker and whispers to us: 'He's not with Misa Amane right now. Matsuda must be on his own.'

Right.

Returning to the phone, he asks: 'So, you wanna go out drinking tonight?…Ah what's the matter? Don't tell me your wallet is in trouble again…' Ryuzaki holds the phone away from his ear again: 'Matsuda's saying he's in big trouble.'

Oh boy.

Speaking into the phone, he concludes the conversation and hangs up. Meanwhile, Light tries to get a hold of Misa again but her phone remains on voice mail. She'd be happy to get one missed call from Light never mind two. Granted when she looks at the phone, she'll immediately call back.

'What are you planning to do?' I ask.

'Well, we have to consider that if Matsuda dies, our suspicions about the Yotsuba Group will be confirmed.'

He's not actually going to let Matsuda die, is he?

'Let's just watch the situation for the time being.'

'I don't like this,' I'm worried about him.'

'He put himself in this situation, you know.'

'Oh don't worry, I plan to kill him as soon as we rescue him.'

The Task Force members snap their heads in my direction, worried looks over how serious I sound by my threat over Mr Matsuda.

'Take it easy, Frejda,' Light says patting my back.

In time, Light's phone rings. Obviously, it's Misa. Light holds the phone to his ear: 'M-Misa?...Misa, you're not with Matsuda at the moment are you…' Light turns to the rest of us after her answer: 'Misa's just received a call from Matsuda.'

'Tell her to hold her phone so that we can hear as well,' Ryuzaki asks.

Light obeys and the conversation is loud and clear.

Mr Matsuda: 'Misa-Misa! When you're finished filming come over to the Yotsuba Group head office. It's still tentative, but there's a chance you maybe able to appear in Yotsuba's commercials. We're working it out now.'

Misa: 'What for real? You're amazing Matsu! So that's what you've been up to all this time! Don't worry, we're wrapping up soon.'

'Great, it's just a short trip by taxi!'

Great stall.

'Listen to me Light,' Ryuzaki says, 'there's a chance we will be able to save Matsuda but we're going to need Misa's help. She will listen to you, won't she?'

'What do you have in mind?' I ask.

I end up not liking the answer but I don't voice my opinion; I don't have an alternative suggestion anyway. Misa will have to play her part convincingly, meanwhile, Wedy will help take care of the bugging. We are now able to watch the entire scene play out. Misa gathers her friends from her agency to help put together the party to distract the Yotsuba Group. I want to almost laugh at the confusion of the eight men who enter the room for the party. Who can blame them? When the party is deep in and the men are distracted, Mr Matsuda slips away to make the call. Meanwhile, I busy myself with finding the profiles of the eight men partying and set them aside for farther investigation. Mr Matsuda, with one call, confirms our suspicions about the Yotsuba Group. Perfect! Now all we have to do is find out which is Kira.

'Do you think there's anything I can do to save myself?' Mr Matsuda asks.

'Well, luckily you're still alive, so we maybe able to save you. But for that to happen, you'll have to die before they can kill you.'

Zut! How in the name of the Saint are they going to pull something like that off?

'I want you to listen to me, very carefully.'

I've heard of and seen a lot of ways to fake their death, but never have I heard of one that I found this risky for a person to handle, especially a person like Mr Matsuda. His face changes on the screen, the fear loud in his widened eyes. I'm not sure who I should kill when this is over, Mr Matsuda for being an idiot or Ryuzaki for putting the man's life in danger? Ryuzaki hangs up the phone, reminding each of us of our roles. He and Light will come in the ambulance the when the show is 'over', Wedy will scream bloody-murder while Aiber plays dead in Mr Matsuba's place and the Chief and I are in charge of catching Mr Matsuda when he falls off the balcony. I know that he's putting a lot of faith in us and for this to work, we all have to play our parts well. Oy! I give Ryuzaki a final death glare beofe I leave with Chief Yagami to where we're supposed to be. Finding the room, I help secure the mattress in a way that will catch Mr Matsuda when he falls while Chief Yagami sets up a large bag stuffed with sand for the impact sound. Now all that's left is for Mr Matsuda to make his move. Suddenly a scream erupts from above. He's coming down. 'There's our cue,' I sigh. Chief Yagami and I adjust the mattress quickly, allowing Mr Matsuda to land not-so-perfectly onto the mattress. Chief Yagami wastes no time throwing the bag of sand over the balcony as I quickly move the mattress out of view. Mr Matsuda sits where I've laid the mattress, trying to catch his breath. I step outside on the balcony to see Light and Ryuzaki, dressed as paramedics, carrying Aiber away. The crowd that forms slowly disappears. By the time I get back into the room, Mr Matsuda is being comforted by Chief Yagami and Wedy sits behind them smoking her cigarette. I approach the more or less calmed man. 'You okay, Mr Matsuda?' my voice is purposefully soothing.

'Yeah.'

'You didn't get hurt on the way down?'

'No, no I didn't. I'm fine.'

'Good,' I say before my clenched fist lands on his head.

'Ow!'

'Frejda,' Chief Yagami gasps.

'What in the name of the Saint were you thinking? You could have put all of us in jeopardy!'

'I just wanted to help. The main office in Tokyo was there so I thought I could infiltrate it and gather some information.'

'Which is exactly why you're an idiot!' I punch him on the head again.

'Ow! Ow! Ok!'

'You're lucky that they didn't kill you tonight,' I say as I kneel in front of him, 'and no matter how helpless you feel, you should not use that as an excuse to do something that impulsive. You had no back up prepared in case something went wrong and as a resigned officer, you don't even have firearms at your side to help you in the case of real danger. All these factors, basic as they are, should have crossed your head before you went and did something that stupid!'

'I know. I know. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.'

'You idiot,' my voice softens as I place my hand on his shoulder, 'you worried me sick, do you know that?'

'If she's this angry, you must have really worried her Matsuda,' Chief says, backing me up.

'Forgive me?' he asks.

'Yeah. Just don't do that again. Or else, I'm really going to kill you next time.'

'There'll be no next time.'

'Good man.'

About a week after the craziness, Wedy manages to secure wiretaps and cameras across the main building of the Yotsuba Group. We finally have cameras able to watch every single meeting that transpires between the eight men. Mr Matsuda says that they have confidential meetings every Friday, eight of them gather around to discuss who Kira will kill. I've been spending the week gathering intel on each of the members of the Yotsuba Group. Each of them are heads in a specific branch of the company and are very successful at their job. I'm not sure which one of them appears to look the most like Kira. Meanwhile, Ryuzaki has Aiber pose as Coil and has him demand an advance pay to look into the identity of L plus some more 'insurance money' just to keep him quiet about the fact that he knows that Kira is among the Yotsuba group. I bet they are feeling cornered right now. By the time Wedy is done setting up the wiretaps and cameras in the building, we finally get front seats to the show. But something seems off about the picture we're getting. There're supposed to be eight of them, but we spot only seven.

'They probably killed one of their own,' Ryuzaki points out.

From the screen, a bald man in glasses speaks: 'In order to further the growth of the Yotsuba Group and best serve its finances, who should we kill next?'

By the Saint!

'But before we get to that,' the bald man, Takeshi Ooi, continues, 'there are several topics we need to discuss. Fist there is the issue of Hatori's death.'

Hatori. So, he's the missing eighth member. Kira must have killed him off.

'That was unavoidable,' says another member. It's the young one with long dark hair. Ranji Namikawa, I believe. 'To be honest, in a certain sense, I'm relieved that Hatori is dead. Kira has demonstrated that we must remain committed to these meetings. We now know what will happen to us if we try to leave.'

'I agree. We all see what Hatori's death means for all of us. Let's not take it lightly. Now, moving on to Eraldo Coil's deal.'

Wow. So far three guys show that they don't take human life seriously. I guess there really are several heartless people in this world.

'So did we really pay five million dollars for this report?' says a middle-aged man with an oddly styled brown hair. Kyosuke Higuchi, the founder of the group. He appears to have quite the bratty face. 'I mean come on! Look at this!' he continues, 'he hasn't found out anything important about L, like his name or face.'

How very Kira-like.

'Hold on a second, it seems like Eraldo Coil has been doing his homework,' says Ooi, 'He mentions that if we continue to kill on Fridays and Saturdays, it'll most likely get noticed by L.'

They take the bait. What's more, they confess the murders like it's nothing.

'As long as we have this video as evidence we could probably arrest all seven of them,' Chief Yagami points out.

'This isn't good,' Ryuzaki says thoughtfully.

They discuss Kira's lack of flexibility and suggest a change in the trend and pace of killing before moving on to their 'main topic': who to kill. A member suggests that they should kill someone from an insurance company from ELF. After taking a vote and agreeing to kill members of ELF with accidental deaths, they move on. Just like that. More candidates from other countries and meanwhile, L is eating. I'm sure he's processing everything he hears but I can't help worrying for his teeth at this point. All we know right now is that Kira is connected to this group. My suspicions of Kira being among them is still high. But would this video be evidence enough to arrest all of seven of them?

'Now, unfortunately we can only be completely sure after those people they've killed are dead,' Ryuzaki.

'What?' I gasp.

Playing with his food, he continues, 'We will continue to monitor these meetings and take note of what they say, how they act, and most importantly whether the people they choose actually die.'

He raises his spoon to the level of his face, eyeing the balanced seven marshmallows, six of which are white and one being pink, 'If we can confirm the connection between their plans and their deaths, then we'll definitely be able to catch Kira.'

I think I see what he's saying. There must be solid proof and statistics we can present before we can move in on suspicions. Otherwise, this will be a false arrest which would lead to a mess we can't afford to be in. I don't like the idea that people have to get sacrificed for this but so long as these connections can be laid flat on the surface for when we move to arrest them, we'll be fine. I'm not the only one who doesn't like this plan but I'm the only one who sees reason in it:

Objecting in unison, Light and Chief Yagami disallow Ryuzaki from eating; he drops the marshmallows, managing to only eat a white one.

'What is it?' he asks looking between the two. 'There's no need to yell in unison!'

'I can't carry on knowing these people will die!' Light scolds, 'that's just immoral.'

'Here it comes,' Ryuzaki murmurs.

'I know you're planning to catch Kira by letting these guys carry out these murders, but we can't let that happen!'

'That's right,' Chief Yagami says, 'it's obvious these seven men are responsible for the killings. With Matsuda's testimony and this footage we've recorded, we have all the evidence.'

'Do we really?' I have to ask.

Everyone, except Ryuzaki, gives me a surprised look.

'We move in on them with this, I feel like any police director would find it weak. And what if Kira manages to slip right out of our hands in the process? We've potentially lost everything. Plus, people can creatively lie or hide the evidence we are missing to arrest these men. I'm not a big fan of the plan but still.'

'She's right,' Ryuzaki says, 'If we were to take action now, everything we've done will go to waste.'

As if to put a timer on this, the Yotsuba Group decides to murder ELF individuals in three weeks while the other target is murdered on the weekend. The pressure focuses on Ryuzaki's plan as a bad idea. Chief Yagami moves to call one of the men and have them stop the murders. Unfortunately, this kind of impulsive thinking may get us into trouble, perhaps even blow our cover. We're already short-staffed as it is and if anyone else dies because of recklessness, it's our loss and Kira's win.

'Please, hold on,' Ryuzaki says, 'that would cause suspicion. It would mean the investigation caught up with them three days after they were contacted by Aiber. Also, it would seem to make it far more unlikely that we would be able to discover who the real Kira might be.'

Exactly.

Hopefully that'll give us something to think about.

'Ryuzaki,' Light says, 'If one of these men is in fact Kira, would it be safe to say that if I try calling one of them, the odds of that person actually being Kira is one in seven?'

'I'm thinking there could be more than one among them, a probability of two in seven at most.'

'Why do you ask?' I chip in.

'If we're prepared to let them know that the investigation is catching up to them, let's place our bets on these odds. I'm going to pose as L. Judging from their conversation so far, the one least likely to be Kira but with the most influence is—'

'Namikawa,' I point out with the boys.

I hear Mr Matsuda say Ooi. Good try but he looks dangerous, a possibility of him being Kira is high. Ryuzaki hands Light the telephone at base set up to be untraceable. Light's call to Namikawa picks quickly. Posing as L, Light begins his work.

'Listen carefully but don't draw attention to yourself. I am L.'

Classic gasp.

'I've placed wiretaps and cameras throughout that meeting room. Even as I speak, I'm recording footage of your entire meeting.'

Light proves it by listing all the points discussed in their meeting so far, allowing him to gain Namikawa's belief if not trust. 'If you are not Kira, or if you don't have direct contact with Kira, let's make a deal. I need you to delay the deaths of ELF's president and Mr Zenai by one month. I doubt it would be too difficult for someone of your standing.'

'Yes, yes I see. Right.'

Well, he's doing a good job staying calm.

'If you complete your end of the deal and cooperate with our requests from now on, then your crimes—no, not just yours, but everyone's crimes, with the exception of Kira's will be pardoned, based on the premise that Kira blackmailed you into participating.'

'I see, okay.'

'If you tell the others about this call, they will panic. It would be of no advantage to you. Everyone will be arrested immediately. But that's not my intention. I'm planning to go one on one against Kira. If I win, you'll be quitted of all the charges. If Kira wins, you'll be comfortable to carry on. Just play along with both parties.'

The blackmail works. I can see the pressure building in in Namikawa's face already. When Light's done with the call, Namikawa smoothly manages to do as he's asked. With the change set, Ryuzaki remarks Light on his quick and clever thinking of stopping the murders while ascertaining that Kira and Yotsuba are connected.

'At this rate,' Ryuzaki says, 'if I end up dying somehow it's quite possible that you would be capable of succeeding me.'

Say what?

'There isn't time for that!' Light fights back, 'we only have a month to figure out Kira's identity and gather evidence to prove it!'

'Yes, but you were the one who first noticed the connection between Yotsuba and Kira. You actually might be more capable than I am. Tell me, if I should die, would you take over for me as L?'

Okay. Weird. This picture looks and sounds sentimental, but the reality is that this is a test. Ryuzaki still suspects Light is Kira so he's expecting an answer that'll confirm or disprove it. Light, caught off guard at first, catches up to this.

'Ryuzaki, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to tell everyone what you're really thinking right now. He thinks that if I am Kira, then there are two possibilities: either I'm just pretending I'm not him and putting on an act, or Kira's power has passed from me to someone else, and I have no memory of being Kira in the first place. He's trying to determine which is the truth.'

Well, well. According to Light's deductions, if he's putting on an act, Ryuzaki will never remove the handcuffs. Even if he wasn't pretending to be innocent, chances are that the handcuffs aren't going anywhere. If the power was passed to someone else, Light would have planned for that to happen. It would render Light genuinely innocent of Kira's crimes, or at least, genuinely unaware. This would go on until Light is cleared of suspicion completely, in which case, the power somehow comes back to Light when he knows he's safe. A clever plan. On top of that, if Light is Kira, and he stole L's title, he'd have all the resources to continue being Kira. Very laid out and carefully plotted. All exposed in one go. Whether or not Light is Kira, I have to take all of this into account.

'Correct,' Ryuzaki notes.

'Taking the identity of L,' Light continues, 'having the power to control the police in every country while being Kira in secret, it's ideal. And you're thinking I could—no, that I would do it. That's what you're saying right?'

'Yes.'

'But how about now?' Light's voice rises with anger, 'I told you, I don't want your title. That should prove even to you that I'm not putting on an act!'

'If this is an act, and you are trying to steal my identity, there's no chance you'd be foolish enough to reveal your plan in front of everyone.'

I wonder. But I can hear the taunt in Ryuzaki's tone. And it works. Light, challengingly, turns Ryuzaki around to face him. 'Ryuzaki, do you think that I'm actually capable of becoming a murderer? Kira? Do I seem like that kind of person to you?'

Tense silence.

'Yes.'

Oh boy.

To no one's surprise, but everyone's annoyance, Light punches Ryuzaki as the latter kicks the former in the face.

'Not again!' Chief Yagami groans.

'Okay break it up!' Mr Matsuda stands in between the boys. 'Once is enough. It was a draw last time.'

'Enough you two,' I growl. 'Whether or not Light is Kira, we've found the one we're looking for right now. Let's focus on that!'

'Yeah, you're right,' Light says tersely, 'let's just focus on that.'

Oy!

'I suppose so, we only have a month, so there's no point in getting distracted. Plus, I'm not sure I want to incur Frejda's wrath like she did Matsuda,' Ryuzaki comments.

I crack my knuckles for emphasis.

'Ryuzaki,' Chief Yagami says, 'we have enough footage from this video. Can't we arrest these men with this video as evidence?'

'Unfortunately, no. At the moment we're not certain if Kira is among those seven men. If all they have is a tenuous connection with him, then Kira will kill them as soon as they're arrested.'

'Even if Kira is among these men, what's to stop him from killing the others just to remain silent before we have the chance to investigate them?' I add.

'Exactly. First, we have to be absolutely sure that Kira is among them, so there's no point in detaining them now. And even if it does turn out to be one of them, it will be difficult to determine who the culprit is. I believe it's still far too early to make our move.'

'We can't still say that he's definitely not among the seven!' Chief Yagami retaliates, 'that means there's a chance the killing if criminals will continue.'

'I think Dad's right,' Light backs him up, 'there is a chance. We have to act on it.'

'Excuse me, but I think from now on, I think that Frejda and I should go after Kira by ourselves.'

'Wait, what?' I jump.

'You can use these headquarters as you wish. But we'll essentially pursue Kira individually.'

In a few words, Ryuzaki separates me and himself from everyone else. We'll all remain in the same building despite working separately. He even gives the others permission to arrest the seven men if they'd like. From Ryuzaki's standpoint, Kira must be stopped by any means necessary. The deaths of criminals will continue in the month that we've been given which doesn't give us enough time to fool around. I don't like the idea of having more criminals die anymore than these men. But right now, even I am desperate to catch the culprit who dares play G-d. I've been here much longer than originally planned and my department in France is getting nervous with my stay extending to this point. Though my reports seem to be calming everyone down, I get questions about the progress of the investigation that I cannot answer, not without Ryuzaki's permission at least and there's no way I can get it with this crowd. If the focus is on catching Kira once and for all, then unfortunately, this is the only way to do it. Having said this, I wonder how we can trick these seven men into revealing who Kira is. We only have one month. With the way Ryuzaki words it, it hs become a race.

Ryuzaki stands up and grabs me by the wrist while Light, who was for arresting the seven men immediately, is forced to follow us by chain.

'Where're you going?' Light asks.

'To Amane's room.'

What? Why? No wonder he's dragging me, he knew I'd resist.

'Sorry, I know you're on your father's side in all this, but I can't remove these handcuffs.'

'Please, let go of my arm,' I beg.

'No. I know you won't want to be around Amane, but I need you to be there to take care of her if she refuses to cooperate.'

Now that, I look forward to.

When we get to her room, of course the first thing that she assumes is that this is a date, until she sees Ryuzaki and myself and catches on. Wasting no time (and letting go of my wrist) Ryuzaki speaks: 'Misa Amane,' getting incredibly close to her face, much to her discomfort, he asks: 'do you love Light from the bottom of your heart?'

'Uh, yeah, of course I do.'

'But you also worship Kira, don't you?'

'Well, yeah.'

Getting impossibly closer, to the point that she must move her head back, he continues, 'So then, if you had to choose between Light and Kira, who would you pick?'

I'm surprise that I caught the conversation while trying to hold back my laughter at Light's attempts to pull Ryuzaki back by the chain linking them.

'That's obvious, of course it's gonna be Light,' she says as she runs behind Light and clings to him supportively, I'm grateful to Kira and want to meet him someday in person, but that's not true love.'

'But your precious Light is planning to catch Kira. Isn't that right?'

'Yes, of course I am,' Light affirms.

'He says he wants to catch Kira,' Ryuzaki says, moving close to Misa again, 'now what will you do?'

'Well, if that's what Light says, then I'm going to support him no matter what.'

'So, if you were given the opportunity to work with Light, would you take the offer?'

'Whoa! Ryuzaki—' I begin but I'm cut off.

'Yeah, of course I would,' Misa says. 'I'd do anything to help Light.'

'Hold on a second, what are you planning?' Light asks.

'I'm planning to have Aiber pose as Coil again. He'll tell the Yotsuba Group that while he was investigating L, he discovered that Misa Amane might know who he is. He'll also tell them that L brought her in for questioning on suspicion that she was the Second Kira.'

'That part is true,' Misa says.

'If the Yotsuba Group believe that Misa could be their lead to finding L, then they'll want to meet her to discuss their advertising campaign. They'll use that opportunity to question her. Thanks to Matsuda's screwup, they may already be considering Misa as their new spokesperson, so this could work.'

'We can't do that,' Light objects.

'Why not?' I ask.

'This plan is too risky. Who knows what could happen to Misa?'

'Oh wow,' she breathes excitedly, 'does that mean you're worried about me? Yay!' jumping on him and smothering him with hugs, she continues, 'But don't worry. I won't mind doing something like this if it's for you, Light?'

I really don't know what to do with this anymore. Is she obsessed with him or just plain devoted to him? If Light is Kira, I can understand the explanation but since he isn't then, what the heck!

'Listen Misa,' Light places his hands on her shoulders, 'if they suspect that you might know who L really is, we don't know how far they'll be willing to go to get that information.'

'No problemo! I won't say anything even if they torture me!'

'I can attest to that,' Ryuzaki comments.

'Mm-hmm,' I agree.

'But Kira can control his victims' actions before their deaths,' Light objects, 'there's a good chance he might try to manipulate her into revealing what she knows and then kill her. And if he does manage to kill L, he won't have any use for Misa. He'd kill her to keep her silent.'

'I don't like that,' Misa says fearfully.

'Light,' Ryuzaki holds up a finger, 'you forget that if we win against Kira, Misa won't die. Besides, as long as we're handcuffed together, you and I will share the same fate. If I die, so will you. If that happens, Misa is the one who will grieve most of all.'

'We can't have that,' I comment.

'Either we lose and both die or we successfully catch Kira. Which is it?'

'We catch Kira!' Misa declares, 'I would never dream of living in a world without Light.'

'Yes, that will be dark.'

'Cut it out!' Light yells as I release a chuckle, 'that's just crazy!'

'We're running out of time and I'm starting to get desperate. As for Misa Amane, I've turned to her because I know her bravery and love for you is boundless.'

Misa widens her eyes: 'Do you really mean that? Oh! I think I've totally misunderstood you this entire time, I've even called you a pervert! But you actually do understand how I feel, don't you?'

Yes, and he's manipulating those feelings. Not that she'd see it, of course.

'Yes,' he says, almost sarcastically, 'Misa is indisputably the most perfect and worthy woman for Light.'

'Yay!' to my surprise, as well as Ryuzaki's, she kisses him on the cheek declaring: 'You're such a sweetie! Thank you, Ryuzaki!'

'I could actually fall for you,' he says, dazed.

'Let's not go that far.' Misa turns to face me, as if noticing me for the first time. 'I know you like Frejda, anyway. And you two could maybe be friends of mine. Would that be okay?'

'Yes,' he says.

No. Of course I can't say that out loud.

'So now I've gained yet another friend,' Ryuzaki notes.

'How overwhelming,' I mutter sarcastically whilst crossing my arms.

'Any friend of Light's is a friend of mine.' Grabbing his hand and mine, she has us form a circle as she yells, 'Let's all be friends forever!'

'Y-yay,' Light says.

'Yay, fun,' Ryuzaki sighs.

I don't even bother; there's no way she and I would get along.

'And of course, I would never think of betraying any of my friends. With our powers combined, we'll arrest Kira!'

'Unfortunately, Light's taking a different investigative approach from us and will be working with his father and the others. I'm afraid it's just you, me and Frejda.'

'Huh, what's up with that?' Misa directs the question at Light.

'Come on L, now you're just playing dirty. You're leaving me no choice but to join your—'

'No, that's quite alright,' Ryuzaki interrupts.

'What are you talking about?' Misa asks.

I walk to Misa and wrap an arm around her, 'These two jerks are manipulating you the way they are each other.'

'Huh?'

'That's not it either,' Light interjects, 'I've been opposed to his investigation from the beginning! It's too dangerous for her!'

'Oh Light, you're so sweet,' Misa says. 'Thank you for worrying about me. But please, let me do this. I wanna be useful to you somehow. If I can be useful, then maybe you'll love me even more. I would gladly die for you Light!'

Oy! We're going down.