Caught You Now

"There are only two options here," Light said, staring at the security camera. "Either I'm Kira, and I'm just not aware of it…" He narrowed his eyes. "Or else you've been framing me, Ryuzaki."

There was a long pause.

So you're surprised, Ryuzaki, Light thought, watching the camera and wishing he could see Ryuzaki's reaction. But are you surprised because I'm correct and you're actually Kira, or because you hadn't considered the possibility that you could be Kira yourself?

Ryuzaki's voice finally emitted from the speaker, as unaffected as ever. "You think that I'm Kira and am framing you for it, Light-kun?"

"I'm just saying that it's the only other possibility," Light said, trying to shrug but just ending up wincing instead, his shoulders too sore from his arms being cuffed behind him for a week.

He leaned back against the cot, the metal pressing against his arms as he looked up at the ceiling. "You're intelligent enough to pull it off, after all. Just think about it: the best way to get away with being Kira would be to blame someone else for it. And I'm the ideal candidate, given my intelligence; you could easily be Kira and pass the actions off onto me, since I could just as easily have done them."

"You forget that the first person Kira murdered was in the Kanto region of Japan."

Light righted his head, looking back up at the security camera. "No, I don't," he said firmly. "You announced that on television, after all. That entire set-up in which Lind L. Taylor was killed could easily have been an elaborate lie. You easily could have killed him yourself to make it look like someone else did it, and you could easily have killed Raye Penber while he was investigating me.

"If you're Kira, you obviously would have planned this entire thing from the very beginning: that you would both be Kira and the detective trying to find him, and that you would use me as your scapegoat. It wouldn't have been hard for you to find out about me via government records of my test scores. There aren't many people out there on our level. If you tried to blame it on someone less intelligent than you, it wouldn't work."

He narrowed his eyes, continuing, "Also, don't you think it would make more sense if it were you killing the criminals? You have a legitimate reason to, given your occupation." His arms were starting to tingle so he shifted forward so he was no longer leaning back against the cot. He could feel the blood start to flow through his arms again, but it didn't make his shoulders any less sore. "Maybe you got tired of how slow the criminal justice system is in punishing the criminals you've worked so hard to catch. It certainly makes more sense than a high school student randomly deciding to punish criminals."

His neck was starting to ache from looking up at the camera, so he shifted his gaze down to the gray concrete wall of the corridor, past the bars of his cell. "Also," he continued, "my dad doesn't seem to think I'm capable of being Kira." He smiled slightly. "Not that that means anything—he's a bit of an idealist, and is often blinded by his emotions." The smile fell away and he sobered, glancing back up at the camera lens despite the protestations of his neck. "But I have lots of people who can vouch for my character. Family, friends, classmates. Who do you have who can vouch for you, Ryuzaki? You're much more suspicious than I am."

"Do you think I framed Misa Amane as well, then?"

You're good at keeping the emotion out of your voice, Ryuzaki, Light thought.

But what he said was, "No, I don't," and he lowered his gaze again lest the ache in his neck spread to his head and inhibit his mental ability (he'd take the pain in his arms, in his shoulders, punch him in the gut or even break his legs if you want but don't touch his head—)."It simply would not make any sense for you to do so, for many reasons." He was staring at the gray expanse of concrete floor in front of him but he wasn't really seeing it, caught up in the whirring cogs of his mind.

"If you believe I'm Kira, Light-kun, then how would you explain why you were the first person Misa Amane approached in the Kanto region?"

"Obviously Misa, as the Second Kira, was looking for the original Kira," Light answered. "However, since you're hiding, she would never have found you. I was the one that went to Aoyama on May 22nd, and she was obviously there, though she did not approach me at the time. However, she showed up at my house claiming that she'd fallen in love with me. She must have seen me when I was in Aoyama, and then somehow figured out my name and found me on the internet."

His eyes narrowed in thought. "How she found out my name, though, I don't know. She could have asked someone, I suppose; I have something of a reputation." He paused. "Or maybe she followed me home. She's proven herself to be something of a stalker."

"And you weren't suspicious of her, Light-kun? She claims that you're her boyfriend."

He glanced back up at the camera again, a dry smile tugging at his lips. "She asked me to be her boyfriend and I told her No, but she didn't seem to get the message." The muscles in his neck ached warningly, and he looked back down again, shaking his head slightly, hair brushing over his face. "I thought that she was suspicious, especially after she threatened to harm any other girls I decided to date—"

"She threatened you, Light-kun?"

"She said she wouldn't hurt me, only whoever I dated," Light explained. "She insisted that I could only date her. I went along with it because I thought it would give me an opportunity to investigate whether or not she was the Second Kira."

"You didn't seem all very surprised when I told you that she'd been arrested."

"I wasn't," Light agreed. He sat back against the cot again so that he could look at the camera without craning his neck. "I was slightly annoyed, though, admittedly, that it meant I wasn't going to have the opportunity to find evidence against her myself."

"You're saying that you suspected her the entire time?"

"How could I not?"

"Then why didn't you say anything, Light-kun? It's because you're Kira, isn't it?"

So you're still pushing the idea that I'm Kira even after I've accused you of framing me, Light noted.

"Like I said, Ryuzaki, I have no memories of being Kira." His arms were starting to prickle from lack of circulation, but he ignored them, keeping his gaze on the camera. "And I didn't say anything because I wanted to beat you and prove that I can be a better detective." His lips quirked wryly at that point. "I'm sure you've noticed how competitive I can be. It's part of what makes me the perfect suspect, isn't it?"

"When did you start to suspect that you might unconsciously be Kira, then?"

"After you arrested Misa and confirmed my suspicions of her," Light answered. "The Second Kira sent that video saying that she found Kira, and Misa approached me after that, but I wasn't certain whether or not she was the Second Kira. I'd originally thought that, if she wasn't the Second Kira, she could have just fallen for me because of my looks—it wouldn't be the first time something like that happened, after all."

He flexed his fingers behind him just to make sure he could still feel them, and the movement sent cold tingles up and down his arms. "After you confirmed it with the evidence from the tapes, however, it made me suspect that I was the one that the Second Kira was talking about when they said that they'd found Kira, since as far as I know Misa didn't approach anyone else." He paused. "However, I have no memories of being Kira, and she never said anything to be about Kira except that she admired him for killing the criminal who murdered her parents…"

That doesn't make sense, does it? Light thought, gaze lowering slightly to stare past the bars of his cell and through the wall on the other side of the corridor. With how enamored of me she seems to be, I'd think that if she believed I were Kira then she would have told me if she were the Second Kira. And she couldn't have known that I was working on the Kira case.

She isn't very intelligent—even if she knew that I wasn't Kira, she still would probably have told me, since she seems to love and trust me completely for some unfathomable reason. Is she not the Second Kira, then? But no, she has to be—everything matches up. But if she believed I were Kira she would have told me she was the Second Kira, but she didn't. Did she just approach me because of my looks and decide that she didn't need Kira after all?

Honestly, Misa Amane' s actions make no sense—

"You said Misa threatened that she'd harm any other girls you dated," came Ryuzaki's voice, interrupting his thoughts. "Did she say that she would kill them?"

"Not explicitly," Light answered, raising his gaze back to the camera.

"But she insinuated that she would?"

"It sounded like it," Light said. "Of course, my interpretation of her intention could have been influenced by my suspicion that she was the Second Kira."

"But you knew I was suspicious that you were Kira, Light-kun. You didn't think that associating with someone who could be the Second Kira would further the evidence against you?"

"I hadn't even considered that there was a possibility that I could actually be Kira until you arrested Misa and I thought things over again," Light said, even as he distantly realized that he could no longer feel his fingers. That should probably have been somewhat concerning. "Up until that point I was focusing on finding evidence against Misa, because I thought that if I could prove that she was the Second Kira then it would make it clear that I'm not Kira."

He shifted his gaze back to the camera lens when he realized that his gaze had drifted down to the corridor wall again. "But then again, that also seems like something Kira would do, doesn't it? I could be Kira and have been trying to use Misa to improve my credibility, or you could be Kira and trying to use me to improve your credibility. It could be either."

"When did you come up with the idea that I could be Kira, Light-kun?"

"When you said that you weren't going to execute me yet."

"And why is that?"

"Just think about it," Light said, shifting slightly. "All the evidence right now points to me, right?" He could no longer feel the edge of the cot digging into his arms, and he was pretty sure that if someone chopped off his hands right then he wouldn't feel a thing. But he wasn't about to give up his ability to look into the camera at the person who was watching him and hoping he'd turn out to be a mass murderer. "When I was detained, the murders stopped. I think anyone would consider that enough proof of my guilt to execute me at this point. But you said it wasn't, and couldn't tell me how long would be enough to tell."

He tossed his bangs out of his face, narrowing his eyes. "Why is that? What motivation would you have not to kill me, when I'm the only person who could be Kira? If you were truly a detective you cared about justice, you would execute me.

"But maybe you don't want to me to be executed, because you're actually Kira and using me as a scapegoat. Because if that's the case, then it would be disadvantageous for you to execute me, since you would no longer have me to blame it on.

"As long as I'm alive—even if I'm detained—if any killings happen, there's still a possibility that I'm somehow behind them. But if you kill me and the killing start up again, you lose your credibility as a detective and also become suspicious yourself. If you're Kira, it would make sense for you to keep me detained for an indefinite period of time under the ruse of trying to get a confession out of me, knowing that I am too proud to ever admit to something that I didn't do."

"That's an interesting theory, Light-kun."

Light's neck was growing weary from holding up his head, and his arms had lost all feeling, and something in the back of his mind was telling him that that wasn't a good thing. He sighed, shifting forward so he was no longer leaning against the cot, chest pressed to legs as he stared down at the metal cuffs around his ankles.

"And a theory is all it is, after all," Light acknowledged, ribs expanding against his thighs with each inhale, pulling away with each exhale. "There's no proof that you're Kira, just like there's no proof that I'm Kira.

"However, it's possible that, by suggesting this theory, it's made me even more suspicious as a Kira suspect. After all, your ability to operate as a detective depends on your subordinates trusting you. By suggesting this theory, I've probably managed to somewhat damage their trust in you. Planted a seed of doubt, so to speak. Which would be exactly what I would want to do if I were Kira, would it not?"

His arms were stinging as the blood in them began to flow again, and he hissed out a breath at the sensation before continuing, "But it's unlikely that, if I were Kira, I would have just acknowledged that, isn't it?" He managed to twitch his fingers, but it just sharpened the tingles traveling up and down his arms (rolling around in a thicket of roses, and the petals are falling to the ground but the thorns—), "But then again, maybe that's why, as Kira, I would do it. I further condemn myself no matter what I do."

He lifted his head to look up at the security camera for a moment, staring into the single black eye of the lens. "However, I truly do want to catch Kira," he said (cervical vertebrae are rusted, caught on something, twinging—). He looked down again, hair falling into his face. "Since I am, at this point, the one most likely to be Kira, I do not believe that you should let me out. Detain me a while longer and see whether or not the killings start up again; wait however long you feel you need to." (wait until I forget that I can't remember killing anybody, nails scratching tally marks into the blackboard, why don't you—) "If you decide that I truly am guilty of being Kira, I will accept that verdict." (kill me and prove I'm right—)

His could move his fingers again without his arms prickling, and he straightened his back, lifting his head, gaze slipping past the bars of his cell. "I truly do not have any memories of killing people, but that is not a solid defense against the evidence that I am indeed Kira. So I think, Ryuzaki, that even if you don't have any memories of being Kira either, you cannot deny that, at this point, you're just as likely to be Kira as I am."

He exhaled, closing his eyes. "But either way, we have no idea how Kira kills people." It shouldn't be possible to kill people from a distance with just a face and name. It shouldn't be possible to make people have heart attacks. It shouldn't be possible to control their actions. What is the 'Shinigami' power? Gods of Death… could they really be…? "I'd ask if you've made any progress getting information out of Misa, but I doubt you'd tell me either way."

His shoulders were tense and he tried to relax them, but that just made them hurt more. "If you're not Kira, Ryuzaki, then I truly apologize for any trouble I've caused you in regards to any doubts I've instilled in the other members of the Task Force." He opened his eyes, gaze raising once more to the security camera, wondering if he was just imagining that he could see it zoom in on his face. "I just want to find out the truth."

There was silence, then, and he lowered his gaze back to the ground, shoulders aching and neck stiff.

"…So do I, Light-kun."

One of us is Kira, Ryuzaki, Light thought, eyes tracing over the three chain-links connecting the cuffs around his ankles. But which of us is it?