Prologue

Ryuko stared hard at the fork in front of her, spinning it, then licking the prongs thoughtfully. Her shadowed eyes moved slowly across the paper in front of her. Scratching her leg with a free foot, she shifted and looked up at the two figures before her. "Kira.... I haven't heard that name in a while..."

Cross nodded, kicking his feet up onto the coffee table. "Right about that." He grumbled.

Near looked at Cross and pushed down the man's feet. "Have some respect, this is a home after all."

Cross shrugged and kicked up his feet again with a disgruntled mumble. "Says you, Nate."

Near glared. "You are so irritating… Why does Ryuko insist on working with you?"

Ryuko rose one hand. "Down boys.. we are a team, or did I miss the meeting where we broke up?"

Cross grunted something of an agreement. "Well, then tell Near to mind his own business, it's not his house."

Near glared. "It's common courtesy, you untrained buffoon!"

Cross rolled his eyes, "Ooooo nice one, Momma teach you that one?"

Ryuko shifted her eyes between the boys and let out a sigh. "That's quite enough you two. You're both supposed to be well trained detectives, so act like it!"

Near bowed his head in embarrassment and Cross simply rolled his eyes and unchained the doll from his side.

"If my memory serves, Kira was quite a threat ten years ago, and therefore was annihilated. Any threats from Kira, joke or not, should be treated as such." Ryuko sipped her tea. "Although it pains me to say though… I doubt this is a joke."

"Why the hell would someone want to be God?" Cross grumbled unhappily. "It would be too much work and it's practically screaming out that something bad would happen to you."

Ryuko stirred the tea again as she sat it down. "People simply do not thing of those kinds of consequences."

Cross blinked and arched his brow questioningly at Ryuko, but was surprised when Near was the one to speak.

"When it comes to your death as a consequence.. the human brain naturally blocks it out. It refuses to believe you'll die until a near death experience happens. As a result, people don't believe it can happen to them. I'm surprised you didn't know, it's quite a common ailment." Near began stacking die on the table.

"Hm? What was that? I didn't hear the last part monkey." Cross sneered sarcastically as Near smirked and laughed lightly.

Ryuko shook her head. "You two really need to get along. What if something happens and you two need to go on a mission together?"

Near dipped his head, "I suppose I can try to get along with the brute, but no promises."

Cross sighed and leaned back. "Ok, ok whatever! Right now the only thing that matters is figuring out what we're gonna do."

Ryuko nodded and thought for a moment. "Near, I want you to take two members and head to Kyoto. See if there're any similar deaths there." She turned her gaze to Cross. "You can head to the center of Kantou and choose a couple SPK members to watch the Yagami family. I'm pretty sure they're clean.. it's simply a precaution." She paused, then continued. "Meanwhile, I'm going to pull up all the information from the Kira case from the back up files on the old computer. Perhaps there may be some kind of lead."

Near frowned. "Ryuko.. all the files on Kira were destroyed as to not let it out to public."

Ryuko nodded her head. "I know.. this is why I'm taking this particular task. It's going to require a whole lot of hacking and I'm going to need the key to the old SPK center."

Near nodded and pulled a small, slightly rusted key out of his pocket. "Here."

Ryuko nodded and looked at them. She quickly took the key and pocketed it. "Keep in contact and make sure to call if anything is wrong. This means anything at all."

Cross sighed and sat up. "Alright, I get it." He popped the joints in his neck, re-chaining the doll to his side. "I'll report as soon as I can."

Near nodded as he stood, and replied quickly, "The same goes for me."

Ryuko nodded then eyed the door. "We need to hurry and catch it before it spreads into a noticeable disease."

Both boys nodded before heading out the door, leaving Ryuko to herself. She chewed on the prongs of her fork thoughtfully. "Something tells me that this isn't a false alarm."