A/N: Hello there readers! Here it is, my first real fanfic on this site in… well, a while. I've been plotting this bad boy for months now, and all I can say is that I hope all of you enjoy reading this thing as much as I enjoyed writing it! Hopefully, updates will be semi-regular, though IDK how regular due to my somewhat… hectic schedule. Anyways, without further ado, here we go!

(P.S: If anyone would be interested in beta-ing this story PLEASE let me know. I would kill for a beta reader for this story.)

The tension in the hotel room was thick enough to cut with a knife. "Is it really a good idea to have our prime suspect join this investigation?" The room was silent after the sole female among the group, Sybella Shimizu spoke. "If Light Yagami is Kira, it wouldn't exactly be hard for him to discover our real identities," She crossed her arms as she spoke, intense green eyes digging holes into the pale skinned man sitting strangely across from her.

"As I've said, the chance that Mr. Yagami's son is Kira is well below 5%. Besides, with the emergence of this "second Kira", I've been given a unique opportunity to test the validity of my suspicions." The man leaned back slightly, bare toes curling slightly. "We'll show Light the tapes that the TV station was sent, but we will not tell him about the possibility of a second Kira. Knowing his detective skills, it would come as no surprise if he came to the same conclusion. If he suggests that there may be a second Kira, he's almost completely cleared."

Mr. Yagami, the oldest of the group, spoke up.

"How so Ryuzaki?" The squatting man did not hesitate with his response.

"If he is Kira, he'll want to kill me, the one in charge of the investigation. If I go along with the second Kira's demands, I will die. Kira wouldn't miss an easy chance to kill me."

"So if my son doesn't think there's a second Kira, you'll continue to suspect him?"

"No. In that case, it still remains below a 5% chance. We'll tell him we are investigating the possibility of a second Kira, and have him assist us." An agitated sigh escaped the woman's lips as Ryuzaki finished his last sentence. There was very little the other detective could have said to alleviate her worries, as evidenced by her stiff posture and uneasy gaze. She wasn't so much scared of dying as she was of this case going unresolved, of never knowing the face behind Kira. If she had to sacrifice her life alone to see the success of this case, so be it, but she didn't want all of their progress so far to be thrown away in one fell swoop.

"Do you see an issue with that plan, Ms. Shimizu?"

"No, it's… nothing. Forgive me." Although she denied it, the tension in Sybella's body clearly betrayed her unease. She understood Ryuzaki's line of reasoning, but she still could not place her faith in it. It was too risky, in her opinion, bringing in a suspect like this, even if the chance of him actually being the perpetrator was low. Thankfully, the other detective decided not to pursue her lack of faith any further, instead turning his attention back to the rest of the Japanese Task Force.

"What's wrong? I thought you wanted to meet Kira. He's your hero, after all. Isn't that the whole reason you stayed on this case? Or maybe it's because you're just looking for some noble way to die." The quiet, rasping voice of the creature Sybella had come to know as Nyaru spoke from behind her. Her jaw tightened subtly, gaze becoming steely. 'I thought it knew, after all these years, to not talk to me in public.' A raspy laugh echoed in her ears, as the shifted behind her and rustled its wings.

"Aw, what's wrong? Did I hit a nerve there?" It leaned into her field of vision, impossible to ignore, golden eyes glinting unpleasantly. It bore its fangs at her in a sharp grin, more feral looking than sentient in that moment. Sybella looked away in disgust.

Although she would not admit it, the death god had, in fact, touched a nerve. A particularly large, inflamed one. It wasn't exactly wrong in its deductions, as much as she hated to admit it. She had clearly remembered sitting at the meeting where it had been outlined, in no uncertain terms, that any member of the N.P.A that wanted to abandon the Kira case was free to do so without consequence. It was highly dangerous, they had said, to go against someone who could kill with just a name and a face. Most likely, any officers that decided to stay on would be killed.

Sybella had been ambient on the case until that moment. As the vast majority of the officers attending the meeting had filtered out, she had sat there, gaze unusually focused and determined. She would see this through to the end, and if she happened to die while doing so…?

Good.

Sybella was, at best, a cynic when it came to this world. She found it hard to view things in a positive light, not since The Incident, as she had come to call it. As far as she was concerned, her life was easily split into two time periods. Pre-Incident Sybella, and Post-Incident Sybella.

The former was a child, naïve and carefree with her simple, idealistic view of the world and a complete, loving family. She was blind to what lurked in the shadows, to the reality of things like gods of death and the corrupt justice system. Post-Incident Sybella was a different beast entirely.

A shell, is what she was best described as. Hollowed out, innocence laid bare in front of the starving hound that was reality. A vengeful, hate-filled poltergeist driven on by some sort of desire for vengeance, grounded only barely by it. What was she without her hate, at this point? Forgive and forget, that was what she had always been told after The Incident. Sometimes, people make mistakes that they can never rectify, and no matter how much it might hurt all you can do is forgive them for it.

Forgiving was the first step in the healing process.

Unfortunately, there were some things that Sybella just couldn't make herself forgive, and killing her parents and nearly crippling her, only to get off scot-free was certainly up there.

"Is something wrong, Sybella?" She hadn't realized she had zoned out, much less that everyone else had noticed and were casting concerned glances her way. An embarrassed flush covered her cheeks, which in turn made the Shinigami hovering next to her break into a round of cackling.

"I'm fine, Matsuda." Sybella said, with a smile that didn't quite meet her eyes. She just wanted everyone to stop staring.

"…Anyways, I believe this meeting is over. You are all free to leave now." Ryuzaki finally dismissed the ragtag team with a wave of his hand. Sybella was the first to stand and make her leave, saying a few rushed goodbyes before promptly exiting. The Shinigami had really gotten to her today, as much as she hated to admit it. She needed to go home, relax a bit. Maybe take a nice long bath with a few glasses of wine.

But even as she tried to focus her mind on more relaxing topics, she still found her thoughts wandering back to the case. The face of the Yagami boy came to mind, his bold dark eyes digging into her even in her imagination. 'Could he really be Kira?'

He was certainly intelligent enough for the role. A perfect score on his entrance exam to To-Oh, consistently in the top of all his classes, popular with the ladies… There was no denying it, Light was truly an extraordinary young man. And yet, despite his charming persona and lack of real evidence against him, Sybella couldn't bring herself to trust him. There was something about him that uneased her, a voice in her head that told her not to trust him.

Call it intuition.

Maybe it was because of the way Nyaru looked at the boy in the surveillance tapes, almost as if it could see something Sybella couldn't. A humored glinting in the creature's eye, golden-fanged grin even larger than usual.

'What secrets are you hiding, Light Yagami?'