CASE FILE #3,172:

Chapter one. Wednesday November 3 2003

In the past five days, over a hundred deaths have been confirmed as connected to this case.

The earliest occurred on November 28th, in Shinjuku, Japan. The victim was 42-year old Kurou Otaharada, who had taken eight people in a daycare hostage. His crime was being broadcast on the news, inside of Japan; in fact, all of his crimes were only ever reported inside that country. He died suddenly of a heart attack; according to eyewitnesses, the death came from nowhere. He did not appear particularly distressed; his autopsy and medical histories reported no history of heart problems. His heart simply stopped beating.

This was the first victim. A man who had committed two crimes, over the course of several days. A dangerous being, to be certain, but hardly one of the world's worst criminals.

The next five days saw all of the world's most dangerous convicts die abruptly of heart attacks.

These criminals were well-known and dangerous people. Mass-murderers, serial rapists, terrorists, crime lords, child molesters; many of the world's top most wanted, abruptly wiped out in only five days.

Such a mass killing couldn't help but draw the attention of the police and the public. The international nature of the crime has called for Interpol, the FBI, the CIA, to take some form of action.

I official began work on the case on November 30th, 2003.

As a rule, I never touch a case unless either more than ten deaths or one million dollars are concerned. The second day, Saturday November 29th, at least thirty deaths occurred. Prior to this, I had been searching, as usual, for the next case; the next mystery to occupy my time. Two weeks had passed since the previous case, one of the longest times I've gone without a case to solve, and I was growing restless, on the hunt for something new.

No, not restless. Bored, I believe, would be more accurate.

Of course I noticed the deaths that occurred on November the 29th. When I have no case to work on, in order to search for the next one, I utilize every resource available to me (And I have quite a few) to find suspicious deaths or unsolved cases. On the second day, Sunday November the 30th, I decided that these criminal heart attack deaths were definitively connected. There was no doubt in my mind, by the end of the day. This was my next case.

I quickly searched my records to find any similar cases occurring prior to November the 29th. I instantly found Kanagawa's death, on the 28th. After extensive research, I determined that this was the first murder. The same method of murder (an instant heart attack), the same general type of victim (a criminal whose identity was reported in the media). The difference between this murder, and all the subsequent deaths, was the seriousness of the man's crime. The others have all been some of the world's most wanted and dangerous criminals; this man had only taken hostages or stolen. A minor criminal, at most.

Over the next few days, I followed all subsequent heart attack death reports. None of them struck me as natural deaths. While some of the victims had a history of heart trouble, for all of them to die in this manner was simply too coincidental for me. On Monday, December the 1st, the pacing of the killings changed from the two previous days. Fewer criminals died, and only in the afternoon, while on the first two days, the killings had occurred at different times, and far more frequently. My first thought was that perhaps the killer was slackening off, coming close to being finished. I quickly corrected this assumption. The changing time of the deaths corresponded nicely with the change from the weekend to the weekday. Most people work or attend school at that time. Our killer had free reign the first two days, but now he has to wait until the afternoon. Interesting.

The crimes have continued at this pace. I have thought of nothing but this case since the 30th. Unlike the killer, my time is not restricted by an office job or school. I am free, at all hours. The date is now December 3. Interpol has finally been called in to deal with the case. Tomorrow, I will send Watari to them. I have a plan for how to prove my theories correct.

My theories on the case:

These deaths are murders. There is no accident here. It is not coincidence that the world's top criminals (and one innocuous one) should die in five days from sudden heart attacks. There is no disease that could spread and cause this; autopsies would have revealed it. Therefore, these deaths are the result of deliberate human action.

The deaths are the work of an individual. The obvious implication when many people die in disparate locations is a mass movement - some kind of grand conspiracy. Many have accused the police, the FBI, the illuminati. To start with, I have investigated many conspiracy theories in the past. Most have been easily proven to be utter nonsense. This also lays the grounds for my claim that these deaths are the act of one person. When a mass organization agrees to kill using a number of different members, no matter how well-organized that organization or clear their instructions, the individual members will each go about committing the crimes in their own unique ways. These crimes are all identical. There is no difference, aside from the first.

So, based on the crimes, I have already begun a profile of the criminal. The media are calling him "Kira". I will refer to him as such. I also make the assumption that Kira is a man, mostly due to the higher ratio of male serial killers over female. I will not discount the possibility of Kira being a woman, but in my notes, for the sake of convenience, I will refer to Kira as he.

Kira is fairly young. He is probably no older than I am (I am, at the time of this writing, twenty-four years old.) Most likely, he is much younger. My guess would be no younger than twelve and no older than twenty-five. This is based on what I believe to be his motivation. Kira has only targeted criminals. He believes he is doing the right thing, that by committing these murders he is somehow benefitting society. This is a very childish mindset, the mind of a young and rather naive person who sees the world in black and white. Criminals are evil and must be killed.

Kira attained his ability, or his knowledge of how to kill from a distance with just a heart attack, on the 28th, sometime in the afternoon. His first victim was just an experiment to test this ability. That is why the first victim, Otaharada, was different from the others. His crime was being broadcast in Japan around 6:30 pm, the time when Kira has been committing his weekday murders. I theorize that Kira was watching the broadcast, not only based on the timing of the crime and death, but on the utter impossibility of his being physically present at all of the other murders, and the method of all the other crimes. No witnesses at the scene fit the description. The police conducted thorough interrogations; I have viewed what footage I could find, and no one at that scene is Kira. Seven children and one teacher; a teacher who was bound and gagged at the scene and unable to take any action against Otoharada. Approximately one minute after Otoharada's name, photograph and crimes were broadcast on Japanese news, he dies of a sudden heart attack.

Having successfully tested his power, Kira then begins killing the world's most notorious criminals. Not just a few of them, not just the criminals inside of the Japan. Kira thinks that he will eliminate all the criminals in the world (a highly unrealistic goal, but his goal nonetheless). He sees himself as justice.

He has already inspired many foolish people, who are talking about him, on the internet, in groups. They think he's some kind of God. That he's here to pass judgment and rid the world of sin. Kira probably enjoys this. He is not a man who wants to keep his crimes secret. If he were, even a very foolish criminal would have at least taken some precautions; would have staggered the killings over a period of time, to prevent the world from catching on. This notion fits my idea of Kira quite well, of course. He is childish and sees himself as all-powerful. He wants the world to worship him, to remember him. To notice him.

I know all this about Kira, because his line of thinking is not far from my own.

I am also childish; I have a great deal of power, and that allows me to be, in a way, all-powerful. I am Justice. I too enact my ideas of righteous judgment upon the world, but always from a distance, through a screen, through hearing information and deciding right from wrong. Unlike Kira, of course, I know that the evil of the world can never be permanently eliminated. Criminals will always return. I know that there is good and evil in everyone, even in myself. The only way for Kira to really purge all evil from the world would be to kill everyone in it, including himself. I know this, so I would never act as he has done. But I can understand him. And I will catch him.

I am L. I am the world's greatest detective. And I have never lost a case.

Chapter two. Friday, December 5. 2003.

Morning.

My trap is in place. This afternoon, at 6:30, I will know.

The agents from Japan at interpol are named Soichiro Yagami and Touta Matsuda. Yagami is chief of police and lives in the Kanto region. Matsuda is in his position due to his connections. Yagami is 48 years old, married with two children. Matsuda is 24 years old, single, with relatives in high places. I have seen Yagami at Interpol meetings before; a consistent Japanese representative. I did a little research on them, because I believe Kira is in Japan. This means I will have to work with these men at some point.

No, there is no 'at some point' about it. I had to convince them to enact my trap for Kira. Yagami is sharp and honorable; Matsuda is foolish but compliant. After I explained my reasoning to Yagami, as to why Japan was the likely location, he was willing to agree to my suggestions.

I have decided to start in the Kanto region. Hm. I wondered if Yagami would object to targeting his home county. He wasn't pleased at the idea of Kira being in his country. He didn't like it, but I believe he assumes this test will rid Kanto of suspicion. He doesn't expect anything to actually happen. In truth, I am not certain anything will happen either. I may have completely miscalculated; Kira might be in a different region of the country, and even if he is, he may not respond.

My trap is simple.

Today is Thursday. We have a narrow window of time: Between 6 pm and 7. This is when Kira conducts his 'judgments' on the weekdays. He watches the news for his inspiration. This way, we can be certain he's watching. We will announce a worldwide broadcast. That ought to feed Kira's ego nicely, and he won't guess that I've narrowed down his location. If he is in Kanto. I have searched and selected a prison inmate, due to be executed today, whose arrest has not been publicized, and who shares my initial: Lind L. Tailor. As soon as I came up with this trap, I started searching records for a suitable person. He has agreed, with the understanding that if he does this, his execution will be indefinitely postponed.

Lind L. Tailor. Age 35. Given a life sentence for the murder of a world leader. If his crime and identity were known to the public, his home nation (which I will not name here, in case these notes fall into the wrong hands) would be the target of war from the world leader's home nation. I speak vaguely here, for the reasons I have outlined above. Suffice to say, only I and a handful of police know anything of his arrest and sentencing. A resourceful man, highly cooperative. To some degree, he resembles me physically. The surface descriptions match; I hope that if, by some miracle, Kira has heard of me, the only descriptions he might be familiar with will cover Lind L Tailor just as well.

Tailor will pose as me. I have written him a script. Here it is:

"I head up an international police task force which includes all member nations. I am Lind L. Tailor, otherwise known as L. Criminals around the world are being murdered by a serial killer. I consider this crime to me the most atrocious act of murder in history. I will not rest until the person or persons responsible are brought to justice. Kira, I will hunt you down, I will find you. Kira, I've got a pretty good idea what your motivation might be and I can guess what you hope to achieve. However, what you are doing right now is evil!"

Yes, that will do very nicely. The first, of course, all bland facts, a false reveal. "Most atrocious act of murder in history", that should appeal to Kira's vanity. In fact, all of the first part is for that purpose. The first part, the threats, the declaration…I doubt this will frighten Kira. He must know that the police will be looking for him. Childish, maybe, but not stupid. This part should flatter him. Telling him what he does is evil, perhaps, may provoke him. I intend to provoke him. The script goes on to insult him, decry his beliefs. Lind will challenge him to kill "Me". We will continue the broadcast until we find the region where Kira is hiding.

If Kira can kill from a distance, if somehow he has the ability to kill me, then this might be my last day alive. Provoking him is risky, but worth the risk. I always knew I would go down fighting a criminal. Even if I lived to an advanced age, I would not stop investigating until my faculties failed, and perhaps not even then. Of course, I am not going to risk my life, if I don't have to. The possibility that Kira will be able to kill me is very low. Perhaps he will not even try. After all, he's never killed anyone who wasn't a criminal before this. Still.

6:45 PM.

We meet at last.

"I had to test this just in case but I, I've never thought it would actually happen. Kira, it seems you can kill people without having to be there in person. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't just witnessed it. Listen to me, Kira. If you did indeed kill Lind L. Tailor, the man 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. The police arrested him in absolute secrecy, so you wouldn't have heard about him on TV or through the internet. It appears not even you have access to information about these types of criminals. But I assure you L is real. I do exist. Now try to kill me. What's wrong? Hurry up! C'mon. Right now. What are you waiting for? You've got to do it. Come on! Try to kill me! What's the matter? Can't you do it? Well, Kira, it seems that you can't kill me after all. 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. 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. The police treated your first killing as an unrelated incident, but, in actuality, the first of your victims was a suspect in Shinjuku. Of all the criminals that have recently died of heart attacks, this one's crime was by far the least serious. Furthermore his crime was only ever reported inside Japan. I used that information to deduce this much. You are in Japan. And your first victim was little more than an experiment, which means that you haven't been killing for very long. 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'm able to sentence you to death. Naturally I'm very interested to know how you are able to commit these murders without being present, but I don't mind waiting a little bit longer. You can answer all of my questions when I catch you. Let's meet again soon, Kira."

I broadcast this message this afternoon. I am quite pleased with the result of my little experiment. Interpol was quite cooperative. Yagami and Matsuda have agreed to cooperate with me, along with the Japanese police force. Yagami did not seem pleased to know that Kira was in Kanto. Matsuda, on the other hand, seemed excited. He has the chance to chase down a high-profile criminal. I'd imagine he sees this as the opportunity he's wanted, to prove his worth as an officer. To show that he's not here just because of his connections. As for Yagami, his fear may not be as much for himself but for his family. If Kira will target anyone going after him (as tonight's experiment proved), then would he target their loved ones as well? No, I don't think so. If Yagami brings up this objection, I have a rebuttal. Kira only targets criminals and the people who oppose him. If Yagami's family (or any single officer's loved ones, for that matter) are not targeting Kira, there's no reason why he would target them. Kira needs to maintain his image (his self-image) as a righteous force.

Based on today's experiment, I'm continuing my profile of Kira. He did not attempt to kill Lind L. Tailor until my statement that his deeds were "evil". After that, a minute passed before the fatal heart attack. Whatever it is that Kira does, he seems to need at least a minute (though possibly less) to do it. I gave him the same amount of time it had taken Tailor to die when I provoked him to kill me. When it did not happen after that amount of time, I concluded he was unable to. What does Kira need in order to kill? To see his target? He has never killed any suspect whose image wasn't broadcast. His target does not have to be filmed live; an image seems to be…but then, suspects whose names were never released or spelled incorrectly have not been targeted, and their images were shown. The two consistent factors across every broadcast death. Across every Kira murder. A name and a face. And why he cannot kill me just yet. He has neither. Precious few have ever seen my face. Only Watari has seen me and known who I was. No one at Wammy's ever saw my face directly. Naomi Misora saw me but did not know who I was. My real name…I'm not entirely certain that I have a 'real name'. But whatever it is, Kira doesn't know it. And without that, there is nothing he can do.

There is nothing you can do to me. Yet.

I feel as if Kira is beginning to take shape before me. He responds to the slightest insult with murder. I call his actions "evil". He kills "me". Of course. This fits in with my idea of you quite well, Kira. You wish to be seen as righteous. As God, perhaps. So you're a perfectionist. You can't handle the slightest bit of criticism. You probably refuse to consider yourself evil. Anyone who opposes you, they must be evil. Because if that isn't the case, then you aren't perfect. And you can't handle not being perfect.

Someone this obsessively perfectionistic is probably like that in all areas of life. He is probably highly successful at his profession, whatever it may be…given his obsession with criminal justice, odds are good that he's either a highly ranked justice administrator (police officer? Judge? Lawyer?) or a student of law. Or, if he is a teenager, at least one with an interest in law. Hm. If Kira is a teenager, he's likely at the top of his class. Let's see. If he's a student…high schools in Kanto let out around 5 pm. Kira probably needs time to return to his home. Does he have an obligation at nights, or does he simply go to sleep? Schools here open quite early, and if he's a top student, he must need some time for studying. That explains the narrow window for the weekday killings. It seems unlikely that Kira is a police officer, the more I think about it. I suspect that you're quite young; too young to hold any high judicial position, no matter how skilled and perfectionistic you may be.

If you were a police officer already, Kira, you would have another outlet for your brand of 'justice'. You might become a trigger-happy cop. And your schedule wouldn't be so regular. Officers are on call too much; your timing wouldn't always be so consistent. No, the student explanation makes perfect sense. A perfectionistic top student like Kira would probably have already mastered his classes. A high school or early college student would be left with no outlet for his personal interests, especially if they tended towards criminal justice. A high schooler with an urge to compete would take up sports. One who wishes to be an author could write poetry after school. But what outlet would there be for an aspiring criminal justice student? I know if I had been sent to a regular school, I would find the experience stifling. There would be no time to solve cases. So Kira, you have chosen murdering criminals for your hobby. Your outlet. Students have more time to pursue a hobby, at least if they don't have to work in addition to their studies.

A perfectionist. Am I assuming too much to guess that you might be a student? You could be working a job with consistent weekday hours. I will keep my mind open.

"Kira...I will hunt you down wherever you're hiding and I will eliminate you. I am.. justice."