"I think something I didn't expect to appreciate so much, with the trials being over now, is all the extra time I have." Misa said with a light laugh.

"And how have you been spending these extra hours?"

"Mmm… I guess you could call it 'me time.' It's a lot of just, like, relaxing around my apartment. My agency keeps getting me sponsored for all these skincare and beauty products… I'm using this cherry vanilla scented body wash now, and it smells sooo good!"

"Misa, that's wonderful." Ishikawa said with a warm smile. "I'm so glad you're taking the time for self-care. I'd be the first to say you deserve it."

"Yeah." Misa's smile flickered slightly. "It almost doesn't feel real, you know? It's like, too good to be true." A jolt of panic shot through her chest. "Not that I would ever wish death on someone- of course- it's just-"

"It had a positive impact on your life." Ishikawa nodded. "It's completely normal to feel that way, Misa. This man caused a lot of great pain to you and your family. You've been having to deal with that raw pain and stress consistently for the past few months. Now you don't have to worry about any of it anymore… if you didn't feel at all relieved I think I'd be more worried." She smiled. "It would have been quite another thing if you'd gone out to seek this man and end his life for your own sake, of course. But he made that decision himself. He must have truly thought, in the end, that it was the fate he deserved."

Misa stared at a speck on the carpet, trying hard not to fidget. "...Yeah. I'm… a little surprised, I guess. I never expected him to feel any sort of remorse."

"We can never truly know what others are thinking."

"I guess not." Misa murmured.

"How have you been sleeping since the trials ended? Are the nightmares any less frequent? I know you were retraumatized recently, which I'm sure put a dent in your mental recovery…"

"I actually haven't had much trouble with the… eh… stalker thing." Misa said. "The first few days I was pretty paranoid about going outside, but now… I don't know how to explain it. It almost feels like I have a guardian angel with me." Her eyes flickered briefly to the corner of the room. "When I heard there were going to be no more trials, I went down to the shopping district to celebrate. I wasn't nervous or anything. It was really fun."

"That's great to hear, Misa." Ishikawa said encouragingly. "For someone like you, who has had to experience so much suffering, it might be easy to think that the world is entirely rotten and dangerous. But I want you to remember that for every time something bad has happened to you, there are thousands of other times nothing bad has happened at all. For every cruel person out there, there are good, honest people like you and me, brightening this world up just a little bit. And doesn't that count for something?"

Misa smiled sincerely. "Yes. I think if all the good people work really hard, we can make the world a safer place for everyone."

"I think so too." Ishikawa returned the smile, before glancing at the clock on the wall. "Well, I think that concludes our time for today. Let me know how you're feeling next week, alright? Here, I'll walk you out."

The small, wall-mounted TV in the waiting room was tuned in to the local news station as Misa and Ishikawa stepped out of the office. A well-groomed man with greying hair was reporting live in the studio while smaller headlines scrolled at the bottom of the screen.

"-more and more people are beginning to suspect these unexplained deaths are the work of a mastermind vigilante serial killer. This elusive figure has been dubbed the name 'Kira' by the general public, after the English word for 'killer.'"

"Maybe it's a good thing Kuroda chose to take his fate into his own hands, eh?" Ishikawa said with a lighthearted grin. "Otherwise, this 'Kira' figure might have gotten to him instead."

Misa forced herself to grin back. "Haha… yeah."


In Lyon, France, the clock had just struck 1 pm. But in Tokyo, where L Lawliet was currently residing, the sun had set hours ago. Not that it made any difference. The base he was in had been built entirely underground. The only current source of light for the greatest detective in the world was the soft bluish glow of a dozen computer screens displayed in front of him.

The ICPO meeting was scheduled to start at 1 pm, but they would converse for an estimated 20 minutes before reaching the conclusion that they required his help in this investigation. Watari was already waiting in position outside the conference room, and would alert him approximately 5 minutes before he was expected to speak to them.

He pulled up the statistics once more on the screen directly to his left.

November 21rst. A young man later identified to be Shinji Minato collapses suddenly on the street from an apparent heart attack. He is dead by the time paramedics arrive. It is not until two days later that Hiroshi Miyano, Jo Ogura, and Yasushi Watanabe are all confirmed to have been found dead from sudden heart attacks as well. Four victims, all involved in the same infamous crime. All killed in the same way.

Coincidence?

November 22nd. Four more reports of deaths by sudden heart attack. All of them were notorious criminal names in Japan at the time. Issei Sagawa. Yukio Yamaji. Iwao Hakamada. Futoshi Matsunaga. Two of them released despite their crimes. Two of them still on trial.

November 25th. Seven more incidents reported. Four of them are Japanese. Three of them are from other countries. Robert Durst. Pedro Lopez. OJ Simpson. The pattern continues.

By the time he had received the last report, at 8:00 a.m. GMT that day, the 4th of December, the official death count was at 52. All the victims were either currently wanted, on trial, or walking free after having committed a serious crime. 67% of them were Japanese. 100% of them were male.

This was no coincidence. L was sure of it. There was a clear motive, a clear pattern, little hints of this elusive killer's personality that he was starting to pick up on. Young. Japanese. Naive. Started killing recently. There was, of course, one gaping hole that threw everything else into question.

How the hell is he doing it?

All of the screens in front of him blinked suddenly with a new message from Watari.

5 minutes, L.

L took a long, deep breath to ground himself. On the screen to his right, he pulled up the outline for his plan. In order to convince the police that he was worth their time, he needed a big win right off the bat. Answer several questions at once that he and everyone else in the world wanted to know.

1. Prove that Kira is, in fact, real: i.e., that there is a consciousness behind these killings, and it isn't just a coincidental twist of fate.

2. Determine how he kills. Is Kira one person? Is he an organization? A global, all-powerful group capable of killing people in different countries at the same time, capable of killing those locked securely behind bars, capable of killing criminals in hiding that somehow no one else has been able to catch? Does he shoot them with some serum-filled arrow? Does he frighten his victims to death with apparitions of hunting dogs? Does he bribe the autopsy reporters into giving false statements?

3. Determine his limits. If he is not a god, not some omniscient supernatural force- if he is just another deluded killer, like any of the others L has dealt with, he must have weaknesses. He cannot just decide who lives and who dies with the snap of a finger.

4. Narrow down his location. Where are you hiding, you monster?

On a screen slightly above this one was a map of Japan, divided into its major regions.

The largest screen, the one directly in front of him, pinged suddenly. A three second countdown timer, and then he was faced with a conference room of 200 or so participants silently staring at him. Well- of course, he knew they couldn't actually see him. But that was certainly what it felt like.

L took another deep breath and pressed the intercom button.

"Greetings to all of you at the ICPO." He began. "I am L."

The script he had written was displayed on the screen above him, but he didn't even spare it a glance. He'd memorized what he planned to say word for word already.

"This case is unlike any I have dealt with before. The difficulty of it lies in its unprecedented scope. And make no mistake- what we're witnessing an atrocious act of murder. One that is unforgivable." His eyes scanned the audience briefly. He knew that some of them would disagree. There were bound to be those who were quietly rooting for Kira, hoping he could make their jobs easier. Perhaps help them sleep a little better at night.

"This case cannot be solved without the full cooperation of the ICPO." He continued. "That is, all of the police organizations you represent throughout the world. You need to make the decision to fully support the investigation at this meeting.

"Also: I require additional cooperation from Japan's national police agency."

He paused here to take in the reactions to this statement. A few faces appeared shocked- one of Japan's own representatives, a young, bright-eyed man, turned confusedly to the elder on his right- but for the most part, he was met with grim nods of affirmation.

"I see that this statement comes as little surprise to most of you. Good. Yes- I believe that whether the guilty party is an individual or a group, there's a strong possibility that they are Japanese. Whether they are currently hiding in Japan is information that I plan to uncover when I directly confront the culprit."

A wave of hushed murmurs ran through the crowd. As expected. A direct confrontation with a faceless figure from another faceless figure was certainly a questionable move to consider.

"A direct confrontation?" Asked the older Japanese representative.

The corners of L's lips twitched upwards.

"I can lay out the details of my plan right now. Assuming the ICPO cooperates with my requests, I am confident my confrontation will be successful."


The TV was blaring a rerun of Misa's favorite J-drama into the otherwise empty room. Misa paid it little attention as she wrote neatly in a fresh page of her notebook, glancing up at her computer screen to make sure she wasn't misspelling anything.

"Misa, you know that you can use the power of the Death Note to kill in any way you want." Said the Shinigami as she watched Misa work, speaking for the first time that day. "You did this when you killed Kenshin Kuroda. If you keep allowing heart attacks to be the cause of death for every person you murder, people are bound to start suspecting someone is behind these deaths. Surely it is worth it to spend a bit more time covering your tracks, and avoid suspicion?"

Misa giggled. "Rem, you're so silly. I want people to know about me. You think I haven't been keeping up with this 'Kira' stuff ever since it first started cropping up?" Her freshly painted nails clacked against her computer keyboard as she pulled up a new window. "When you search "Kira", there are already websites dedicated to my cause. Apparently they took the name from the English word for 'killer'. It's a little harsh, but I must admit it does have a cute sort of ring to it." She clicked on the first link. "Look! This one has such a cool design. I have supporters, Rem. Good people like me, who can see that I'm helping them so that they can live happily and without worry. Meanwhile, the bad guys are starting to get afraid. They're afraid to do something bad now, because they know I'll be watching. They can't get away with it anymore." A hungry gleam shone in her eyes as she spoke, and she clicked on another link.

"Oh, look at this! There's even people trying to help me, so I don't have to spend time finding all these names myself." She scrolled down the page of what appeared to be an open forum, where people had submitted names and profiles of criminals for Kira to bring to justice. "Well, some of these don't have faces, so I guess I'd still have to look that up." She opened a new tab and began typing into the search bar.

"We interrupt this broadcast now to bring you a live, worldwide broadcast from the International Criminal Police Organization."

"Huh?" Misa whirled around in her spinny chair, to face her TV, which now showed a young, handsome white man with sleek black hair and piercing blue eyes sitting in front of a background with the ICPO logo on it. As the man began to speak in English, open captions at the bottom of the screen translated what he was saying into Japanese.

I am the one person who controls the entire planet's police force: Lind L. Tailor, alias L.

Misa frowned. L? She'd vaguely heard his name before… some elusive private investigator who was supposedly able to solve any crime imaginable. But wasn't his whole deal that he had never revealed his identity until now? What the hell was he up to?

To the murderer who's targeting criminal after criminal: this is unforgivable, the worst crime in history.

"What?" Misa scoffed. "I thought you were a detective! You're supposed to be on my side! You want to catch these monsters too, don't you?"

Consequently, I will catch the ringleader of these crimes, referred to vulgarly as 'Kira.'

"I warned you, Misa." Said Rem gravely. "I warned you that this would happen. For every supporter you gain, there will be someone else who sees you simply as a mass murderer."

Misa puffed her bottom lip out. "Whatever. That's stupid. You think you can catch me, oh-so-great detective? You'll have to talk to a Shinigami first." She waved the Death Note in front of the TV screen with a smirk. "You have no proof unless you've got this, so there! Try as hard as you want, but you'll have to give up on me sooner or later."

Kira. I can imagine what you must be thinking, to do something like this. The man continued, staring directly into the camera with his piercing eyes. But what you are doing... is evil.

Misa snapped to her feet instantly.

"Evil?" She spat. "Evil? If you can't see what I'm doing… if you can't see that this is exactly what the world needs… you must be the evil one! You must be afraid! You're afraid, because you see yourself in these bad people, and you think you're gonna be next! You're the evil one!"

She slammed the Death Note open on her desk, hands shaking with anger.

"If you're going to talk so much shit," She hissed under her breath, scratching so deeply onto the paper that it left an imprint on the next page, "At least don't be an idiot about it. Goodbye, Lind L. Tailor." She finished inking his name and tossed her pen forcefully onto the floor.

The man was continuing to blabber on, but she wasn't bothering to read the captions anymore. Her eyes were focused intently on the clock mounted on her wall, ticking down the seconds until he'd finally collapse.

Four… three… two… one… zero.

The man stopped speaking, mid sentence, and his eyes bulged wildly. He gasped, clawing at his chest, and attempted to leap out of his seat before his system shut down and he slumped over onto the table, unmoving.

A sadistic laugh bubbled up in Misa's throat, and she threw her head back in joyful hysterics.

"Is that really all you've got?" She cackled. "Jeez, I'm surprised no one was able to take you down sooner, oh-so-great detective."

The screen cut away suddenly to a blank image of the English letter L. At the same time, a garbled voice rang out in distinct Japanese:

"Incredible…"

Misa froze.

"I… I had to test this just in case… but I… I never thought it would actually happen. Kira... it seems you can kill people without having to be there in person. ...I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't just witnessed it."

"Wh- what?" A gnawing pit began to form at the bottom of Misa's stomach. "What is this?"

"Listen to me, Kira. If you did indeed kill Lind L. Tailor, the man who you just saw die on television, I should tell you that he was an inmate whose execution was scheduled for today. That was not me."

Misa's heart beat rapidly with growing panic. Shit. Shit. What's going on?

"The police arrested him in absolute secrecy, so you wouldn't have heard about him on TV or through the internet. It appears that not even you have access to information about these types of criminals. But I assure you, L is real. I do exist."

"Ugh!" She threw her notebook at the TV screen in anger. "No, no... god dammit! Who are you?"

"Now... try to kill me."

Misa's eyes widened, and she gaped at the screen, unable to move or react, like a deer caught in the headlights. Shit. Shitshitshit.

"What's wrong, hurry up!" There was a mocking lilt to his voice as he continued speaking. "Come on, right now, kill me!"

"I'd love to!" She snapped. "But- ugh- ughhh!"

"What are you waiting for? Are you gonna do it?"

"Shut up! SHUT UP!"

"Misa…" Rem said warningly. "There are others in this building-"

But Misa paid the Shinigami's words no mind. Tuning out L's persistent taunts, she whipped around to look at Rem with crazed desperation in her eyes. "Rem, you're- you're a Shinigami, right? You can kill him! You can find out who he is, and you can kill him right now. You'd do that for me, right? Just like you watched over me when I was shopping, just like you gave me this book-"

"Even if I were inclined to interfere in this way, I do not know this man's identity any more than you do." Said Rem. "There are limits even to a Shinigami's omnipotence. I would have to at least know what he looked like before I could track him down in such a way."

"Come on!" L said fiercely. "Can't you do it?"

"Screw you, you stupid freakish detective!" Misa cried.

The TV was silent for several seconds, almost as if L had heard her and was considering his response.

"Well, Kira, it seems that you can't kill me after all." He said finally. "So there are some people you can't kill… you've given me a useful hint. Let me return the favor. I'll tell you something that I think you'll find interesting. Although this was announced as a worldwide broadcast, the truth is… we are only broadcasting in the Kanto region of Japan."

Misa's heart dropped. "No way…"

"I had planned to broadcast this message around the world until we found you, but it looks like that won't be necessary. I now know where you are. We decided to broadcast in Kanto first because of its large population, and luckily we found you. To be completely honest with you, I never expected that things would go this well, but… it won't be too long now before I am able to sentence you to death."

Misa spluttered incoherently with every new sentence that L spoke. She backed away from the TV screen in horror, feeling like a cornered animal.

"Naturally I'm very interested to know how you're able to commit these murders without being present, but I don't mind waiting a little bit longer. L hummed, a definite note of arrogance still in his voice. You can answer all of my questions when I catch you. Let's meet again soon, Kira."

And with that, the TV screen abruptly cut to static.

Misa stood in front of it, heaving, red-faced, and at a complete loss for words.


"Light! Sayu! Dinnertime!"

Light Yagami blinked and turned away from the small TV screen on his desk at the sound of his mother's voice.

"Coming!" He called, reaching for the remote to switch off the TV. As he stood up to make his way downstairs, he heard the unmistakable pitter-patter of his sister running down the hall excitedly.

"OMG, were you watching the broadcast just now?" She exclaimed the moment he stepped out into his doorframe. "Wasn't that just totally crazy?"

Light brushed past her and continued to make his way down the stairs. "Yeah, I was watching it right until the moment it ended… it's a lot to take in."

"Is this why dad isn't home yet, mom?" Sayu asked as she followed Light into the dining room.

Sachiko's brows knit together briefly in concern. "It must be… he hasn't told me yet how involved he is in this 'Kira' thing, but he must have some idea of what's going on considering his position. I'm a bit concerned… this is getting pretty dangerous. Did you see that man who died onscreen at the beginning of the broadcast?"

"Lind L. Tailor." Light nodded. "I wondered how the supposed greatest detective in the world could be stupid enough to reveal his name and face on television for Kira to see. I should have realized it was just another part of L's plan."

"Wait a minute!" Sayu shrieked suddenly. "We're in the Kanto region of Japan! That means Kira could be anywhere near us, and we wouldn't have a clue!"

"Uh-oh, you've caught me!" Light said with feigned shame, holding his hands in front of him as if he were about to be cuffed. "That's right, I am Kira. You'll find my magic mujrder gun upstairs in my desk drawer, along with a list of criminals I plan on killing tomorrow."

Sayu laughed, but Sachiko's lips pursed with disapproval. "Light, don't even joke." She said sharply. "This is serious… now that we know he's real, he really could be anywhere. I don't want to have to think about things like whether my son is a mass murderer."

"Sorry, mom." Said Light, lowering his hands. "I can only say that stuff because I know it's ridiculous to even consider the idea that I might be Kira. I mean, when on earth would I have time to kill dozens of criminals between my CRAM sessions?"

Sachiko still didn't look amused, but Sayu only giggled as she brought a piece of egg to her mouth. "You're so right. Honestly, I don't know how you can study for that long without going brain-dead. If you don't get perfect scores on your entrance exam, I'll die of shock."

"Of course he'll get a perfect score. Can we expect anything else from our Light?" Sachiko smiled warmly at her son.

Light returned the smile lightly, before looking down to start on his dinner. His mind was still racing from the broadcast he had just witnessed. So Kira was real, in fact he was even hiding somewhere in the same region of the country Light lived in. Was he eating dinner right now as well? Did he have a family? A younger sister? Had he taken his college entrance exams once, too? He was clearly powerful, but he didn't always seem very careful about covering his tracks. The fact that he was Japanese was no surprise at all to Light- a quick look at the death statistics made that much fairly obvious. And he had jumped at the opportunity to murder the man on TV without considering that he might not be the real L- granted, this had been an oversight on Light's part as well, but he was sure that if he'd had as much at stake as Kira he would have thought things through more carefully.

Either way though, it was impressive what L had been able to do from just one broadcast. Light had researched criminology, and he'd certainly heard of L before, but this was the first time he'd actually seen the elusive detective in action, and it had certainly made an unforgettable first impression. Light would love to meet a brilliant mind like that… to learn how the gears turned in his brain, to model himself in the same likeness, perhaps even to surpass him one day in intellect and capability…

Well, he was getting ahead of himself. He was only 17, after all. He'd at least have to get into university before he started dreaming about working with the greatest detective in the world.

Still, perhaps when his father came home, Light could ask him some questions about the investigation. It was certainly starting to pique his interest.


Author's Notes:

There are a lot of references in this chapter, so buckle in. Warning for discussion of some pretty disturbing true crime events.

-Misa's first victims were the four main perpetrators of the Junko Furuta case. If you don't know this one, it's probably the most disturbing kidnap/torture/murder case I've ever read, and I'm sure it would be one of the first things on Misa's mind when she started to really consider the injustices of Japan's legal system. In real life, all four men were released after serving just a few years of jail time. None of them seem to show remorse for their actions to this day. Ogura, who is known to boast about what he did to Furuta, was re-arrested for assault in 2004. Minato was re-arressted in 2018 for attempted murder.

-Issei Sagawa killed a woman and then raped and cannibalised her corpse in 1981. He avoided any jail time essentially because he had a wealthy family and found some ridiculous legal loopholes. He's written books and done interviews about his crime, and remains a free man to this day.

-Yukio Yamaji killed his own mother at age 16 in 2000, and was paroled in 2003. In real life, he raped and murdered two women after his release in 2005, and was executed for this in 2009. By killing him in this timeline, Misa prevented the deaths of these two women.

-Iwao Hakamada was arrested in 1966 for the murder of his boss and the boss's family. He was in the 2011 World Records as the longest held death-row inmate, with his conviction being constantly postponed due to suspected corruption of evidence and malpractice regarding his interrogation. He was eventually released in 2014 after the court found him innocent with reason to believe the original evidence against him had been fabricated. Misa never gave him that chance.

-Futoshi Matsunaga was a serial killer charged with a string of murders between 2002 and 2003. Similar to Misa's own case, the trial was largely based on witness testimony from the daughter of one of the victims. In real life he was found guilty in 2005 and executed in 2007, but Misa wasn't that patient.

-You've probably already heard of OJ Simpson. "Should Misa Amane kill OJ Simpson" is not a question I ever thought I'd have to ask myself, but here we are. I'm not sure how famous the case is in Japan, but I'm sure she would have been able to find it either way with some research. Ultimately, I decided the questionable circumstances of the trial/evidence and the similarities to her own experience with Kenshin Kuroda would have caused her to consider him guilty and want him to be punished.

-Robert Durst is an American who was suspected of murdering two people at the time this story takes place. He admitted to killing and dismembering one of them but he was acquitted of charges by claiming self-defense, which was unable to be disproven due to lack of forensic evidence since the entire body was never recovered. Misa decided she didn't trust his version of the story and took matters into her own hands. In real life, he was arrested in 2015 for a third suspected murder. His trial has been postponed due to the pandemic.

-Pedro Lopez is a Colombian serial killer who, according to his own confession, raped and murdered over 300 young girls across several South American countries. He was arrested in 1980 and released in 1998 for 'good behaviour'. In real life he is currently wanted by police for another murder that occured in 2002, and his whereabouts are unknown.

-I used the names of real-life criminals not as fun little easter eggs, but in the hopes of humanizing Misa at this point in the narrative. She truly believes in her heart that she is making the world a better place by getting rid of these people who might otherwise be able to roam free and keep hurting others. She truly believes that anyone who would be willing to defend the lives of such criminals is a heartless monster as well.

Warning over

-Misa refers to L as 'oh-so-great detective' a few times in this chapter. This is a reference to a line from the show where she calls him 'oh-so-great director' during the Yotsuba arc.

-there are also a couple of references in Light's dialogue to things he actually said in the show; the statement about being able to joke about being Kira because he knows he isn't, and the faux-confession "that's right, I am Kira."

-L's lines in the ICPO meeting and the TV confrontation, as well as Lind L. Tailor's lines, are all taken from the show with some minor tweaking. I used the dub translation for L's lines and the sub translation for Lind L. Tailor's lines because…. It made sense to me? Idk

-I'm already working on the next few chapters, which I'm very excited about, and I hope to be able to publish them soon, so, look forward to that I guess?

-Also, happy holidays!