Disclaimer: Yo posseo nada, pero me gusta Nota de la Muerta.

Hoorah for remembering something I learned from le clase de Espanol Uno :D

Esto es un Poco Importante: I've skipped the interrogation and slipped in the only needed details of it into this chapter. I started working on the interrogation, but I didn't like how it was turning out. Waaaaay too much dialogue, and it really wasn't needed to continue the story. Too much useless dialogue makes things boring, and I didn't want to do that.

-On a much less important note, I like talking in Spanish at random moments.-

Anyway, here's the story.

Emi went outside to take a walk when she and her brother got home later. She was sure everyone on the team suspected her after that interrogation. That was the only reason L was insisting on her being in the team: so he could keep an eye on her actions and see if she was Kira. Even her brother had to suspect her. He was goofy, not stupid, and if he hadn't been reasonable enough to think that she was Kira, then he didn't deserve to be working in the Kira case. In truth, she hadn't left just the house just to "take a walk." She had left the house with her cell phone for a reason. She glared at it with disdain as she turned it back on, knowing the call that she was going to have to make. She wanted to throw it on the ground as she dialed the numbers, but she managed to refrain from doing so. She held the phone to her ear and listened to the most malevolent ringing she had ever heard in her life on the other line. A familiar voice answered, making her flinch a little.

"Yes?"

"It's done."

"You're on the investigation team?"

"Yes…"

"In direct contact with L."

"Yes. I said everything I was instructed to say. My brother is probably going to kick me out of the house now, as there's no doubt he thinks I'm Kira, too, I alienated him to agree with L before I even spoke with L. I know L thinks I'm Kira, or he wouldn't have insisted on my being on the team. Happy?"

"You did good, yes."

"What do I have to do now?"

She shuddered in disgust at the laugh at the other end. That laugh used to be different, and it used to belong to her friend, her friend she had lived next door to her whole life. However, because she knew too much about Kira, the only use she had anymore was to be Kira's tool. It perturbed her, but she couldn't say anything about it. She knew she would be killed it she did.

"You're just as smart as me, I was sure you would have figured that out. You mean you don't know what you're going to have to do next?"

"No, that's not what I mean. I have a feeling I know, but I'd rather not die. If I act without orders, I'll be killed. You should know that."

"Alright. Get L's real name."

"So you can kill him?"

"Right."

"I don't think so," Emi said with a laugh. She realized how bold of a statement this had been, but she couldn't stop herself once she had started. "I'm not getting anyone killed. If you want his name, you can get it yourself and –"

"Then you want to die instead?"

"If you kill me," she said slowly, "I will no longer be the primary suspect."

"Yes. But you'll be dead."

"Yeah," she said. "And L will start suspecting I was working as some kind of a double agent rather than me actually being Kira, and Kira killed me when I became an inefficient spy. So, he'd look to see what people I know that could fit Kira's description. You'd be at the top of the list, Light."

"I'm willing to make that sacrifice. L is smart, he may suspect me eventually, anyway. The earlier he does, the sooner I can get rid of his suspicion. Still want to go against me?"

Emi stood against a street lamp's pole on the sidewalk, staring at the ground. Light had changed into an entirely different person in the past months since he had picked up that notebook off the ground outside school. They both thought it was a practical joke until he tested it. She had encouraged him to, as wondering if it could be real or not was only making him paranoid. She had been so sure that it wasn't real that she had talked him into writing a name on it. If she hadn't done that, he wouldn't have tested it again and come to the insane conclusion that he had been chosen to rid the world of evil. Emi had gone along with it out of fear and agreed with everything. However, when he killed Lind L. Taylor without knowing he was a criminal, she had came out and told him how much she opposed it. That was when he threatened her and began giving her orders. At this point, he wasn't Light anymore. Kira had taken over entirely.

"No…" Emi said quietly. "I'll try to get his name."

"Good," he said. "Once you've gotten his name, tell me. I'll give you a piece of the Death Note and leave the last step in your hands, as I haven't seen his face. I know it could take a long time to gain his trust and get his name, but you're smart. You can probably do it. Thank you for all the help you've been."

Like I had any choice in the matter… Emi thought, rolling her eyes.

"To avoid suspicion, don't call again until you have found out his name. Also, just out of curiosity, what did you tell your brother to make him suspicious? I've met him, and he doesn't seem overly bright."

Emi clenched her fist and refrained from going off. "I told him that I wouldn't work for the team unless L was killed by Kira, my reasoning being that they wouldn't need me unless he was killed. I agreed to work for the team in the end, though, since they were so persistent about it."

"Very good job."

"Yeah."

"If I need anything else, I will call you. Again, don't call my number, as they will associate me with Kira immediately if you do."

"Right."

Emi shut her phone when the other line went dead. She started back towards her house, wondering what her brother would say to her when she returned. She had a feeling he would start questioning her. However, she hadn't considered the possibility that he would ask her the most obvious question the moment she walked through the door.

"I'm back," she said loudly as she walked into the living room.

Her brother looked back from the kitchen. She didn't bother looking up as she sat down on the chair nearest the door, nor did she bother when he sat down on the sofa. She kept her eyes to her knees, wondering when her second interrogation of the day – or first of this day, as it was after midnight – would begin. She didn't have to wait very long.

"You're not Kira, are you?" he asked after a moment.

Emi's heart stopped for a moment. She really hadn't been expecting that. That was the sort of direct question that L would ask, not her brother. Worst of all, she didn't know how to answer without incriminating herself or anyone else. It was her brother, though. It was her family. She had done enough lying, hadn't she? However, to tell the truth would be to put more than just her life in danger. She could answer indirectly…

"I might as well be," she said with a sigh. "I only said the things I said today to incriminate myself. I was fairly indiscreet about being suspicious, so L probably suspects me, right?"

"What are you…? Why would you want the team to think you're Kira??"

"I'd rather be executed by the law than be executed by Kira."

"What are you talking about? Kira doesn't know you're working for L, how could he…?"

"Don't think about it too much," she said. "Your life will be in danger if you figure it out. Just go along with the rest of the team and try to understand that I'm the main suspect. The rest of them know that L is never wrong, which means that I have to be Kira by that logic. Once the evidence presents itself, I'll be sentenced to death and Kira will continue killing. Then everyone'll know."

"D… do you know something about Kira?"

"Can't say."

She looked down next to the chair. She picked up her bag from where she had dropped it earlier and took out her sketchpad. She took her pencil from where she always kept it, tucked behind her ear, and opened to a clean page. She touched the pencil to the paper, and she glanced up at her brother.

"Kira is immature, I can gather that much," she said with a sigh, looking back at the paper. "I mean to say, he's the type of person who would use anyone he has to in order to get what he wants. If someone knows too much, they become his tool. He's probably a high school or college student, and also quite smart, possibly smart enough to outsmart L. That's a troublesome thought, but it's true. I think he used to be normal, but he changed once he got this power of his. Something like that would change anyone. The only reason L isn't dead yet is because he doesn't ever reveal his name or his face. Revealing it as he has thus far has probably been a mistake. I think Kira has connections with someone on the team. I don't mean myself," she added, seeing her brother was about to ask out of the corner of her eye. "I mean someone that was there before I was. Someone who doesn't know that they are connected to Kira."

"How?" he asked her. "If anyone has a connection with Kira, they should know it, especially someone on the police force."

"I can't say how," she said. "Kira is someone who is abnormally… normal. Perfect student, perfect son or daughter, perfect sibling, perfect family, someone who basically has it made. Kira is someone who no one would ever suspect of being Kira because he knows how to put on a good act for the people that he does know. Now, naturally, if you look at that, he's probably very popular. Popular kids are always the normal ones, if they're popular for good reasons. Everyone at my school knows who I am, but only because I'm a notorious smart ass. Kira is the type of student who would get along with all of his teachers and fellow students without a fuss. He's a murderer, definitely. I'm not praising him at all when I say this, but he probably has a strong sense of justice. He thinks what he's doing is right, which is why he's willing to kill anyone that gets in the way. To Kira, anyone who gets in the way of justice and good is evil. Kira doesn't think he's evil. Kira thinks he is perfectly righteous and that L is the bad guy in all this. To Kira, his fight against L is like a game that he's determined to win, as Kira is definitely a sore loser."

Emi tore a page out of her drawing book and examined it. She dropped the book on top of her bag on the floor and stood up. She walked over to her brother and handed him the drawing. He looked at it.

"If it weren't for the jack-o-lantern head," he said slowly, "then this makes as much sense as what you said about L."

"Don't show it to L," she said.

"But it would take suspicion off of you completely and – hey!"

She had taken the paper back from him. "I'm showing it to him. I need to talk to him about what I do know. I want the rest of the team to stay suspicious about me. Can you do that?"

"Do… what?"

"Be suspicious of whether or not I'm Kira."

"But I don't think you –"

"Then pretend you are," she said. "Just go along with the rest of the team?"

"Why?"

"I can't say."

"I'm not going to unless –"

"You'll probably get killed if you don't. I don't want you to get killed. Just let me handle everything else. I'll find some way to meet with L without the investigation team knowing and I'll tell him what I know. He'll either believe I'm telling the truth or he'll think I'm only telling him 'what I know' to take suspicion away from me."

"You… but…" he sighed. "I'm confused."

She laughed. "Now you sound more like yourself. Just please trust me on this, alright? I want Kira to be caught."

With a sigh, he nodded. "Alright. I'll try, but I still don't think you're Kira. I didn't think L would think you were."

"I think it's more likely he thinks I'm working for Kira," Emi said. "After all, most of what I based this on –" She held up her Kira drawing. "– was just a repetition of his criteria for Kira, which I agree with."

Emi walked back over to her bag. She put her sketchbook and the stray page in it before standing back up. She looked at her brother.

"I'm going to bed. I'm probably also going to need some time to figure out what to do about speaking with L."

She said goodnight and went to her room. Matsuda lay down on the couch with his arms crossed, thinking. She had to know who Kira was. She seemed to know more than anyone who wouldn't have known. Maybe that was what she was going to tell L. But would he believe her if he thought she was Kira? If she had evidence of who Kira was, he didn't see why she just couldn't show the team. Kira wouldn't find out. Then, what she had said about someone on the team knowing Kira personally without knowing that it was Kira that they knew… what was that about? If she didn't mean that she knew Kira personally, then what did she mean? That didn't make any sense at all, unless she was hinting that she was Kira, but she couldn't be Kira. Even if she had the power to kill, she wasn't the type of person who would use it. Maybe she knew someone who was the type of person who would use it to kill criminals, or she knew Kira. That was the only logical explanation… wasn't it? It was quite a headache to think about it. If she knew who Kira was, that put her in extreme danger. There was also something else that was very strange.

On top of everything she seemed to know, her sketched out perception of Kira had looked strangely familiar… all except for the jack-o-lantern head.

"Hey, Light."

"Yeah?"

"Aren't you and that girl friends?"

"Basically, yes."

"Do all humans use their friends like that?"

"No." Light wrote down a couple names on the black notebook sitting in front of him on his desk. He then used the remote to shut off his television, and he closed the notebook. "She knows I'm Kira and she doesn't agree with it. If I don't threaten her, she'll turn me in. If she knows who Kira is and doesn't support him, she is a major threat to Kira. She doesn't understand that Kira is justice. Whether she's my friend or not, I have to do something, right?"

"I don't know," Ryuk said, biting the core of the apple he'd been eating in half. "I'm not a human."

"Then I guess you wouldn't understand," Light said. "Shinigami kill people to live, right?"

"Yeah."

"I'm doing this to keep others alive. If she turns me in, I'd be executed myself, and crime rates would go back up, leaving her at fault. So, by using her, I'm doing a good thing. If she brings crime rates back up, she may as well be a criminal, and I wouldn't want one of my friends to be a criminal."

"So if she doesn't do what you say, you'll kill her, right?"

"Yes, but she seems too afraid to go against my orders."

"Even though she's your friend? I didn't think humans killed their friends."

"That's normally true." Light lifted the false bottom in the top drawer of his computer desk. He slid the notebook under it and let the bottom go back down. "But sometimes, it can't be helped. Anyone who tries to stop Kira will die. Anyway, why are you so full of questions, Ryuk? I normally ask you questions."

"I don't know. What will happen if she tricks you?"

"What do you mean?"

"She's on the team investigating you, right?"

"Yes, because I told her to get into contact with L."

"But what if she tells someone on the team that you're Kira?"

"They wouldn't believe her. Light stood up and walked over to his bed. He lay back on the bed with his hands behind his head. "She's the main suspect now. That means that they won't listen to her if she tries to point someone else out as Kira. They'll think it's just an attempt to divert attention from her onto someone else. Besides, Emi is the type of person who's loyal to her friends. There's not much of a chance of her going against me. From what I can see of her family, she probably doesn't even hold them any higher up than friends. Her father's an unemployed alcoholic and her brother's a complete idiot. So if you think about it, all she has are her friends, and she doesn't have very many of them. That means she's going to try to keep them at all costs."

"And you'd still kill her?"

"Only if she proves to be an inefficient spy or a threat to Kira."

Hmm, Ryuk thought, looking at Light. From what he's saying, this 'Emi' person will do anything for a friend, and he'll kill a friend if he doesn't think they're helpful enough. I wonder what will happen if she does go against him. I didn't think most humans could kill a "friend." It would probably be entertaining.

"Ryuk, do you have to stare at me when I'm trying to sleep?"