Death leaned against one of the posts supporting a bus shelter and glanced down at his phone even as Taro and Ryuk came into sight. He wasn't quite sure what Taro was playing at, inviting him on this little trip to an amusement park of all things. 'It would make more sense if he'd asked some girl to go with him, that way he can make it appear as a date. Unless...' Death's thought's trailed off as he looked Taro up and down. 'Nope, not my type. And even if he was, I get the feeling that he's not interested in anything like that anyway. Unless he can manipulate his 'partner'.' Even from where he rested; eyes covered by his sunglasses, he could make out what was being said between the two beings.

"A guy's day out?" Ryuk had asked as he caught sight of Death.

"Yeah, going out with a friend won't rouse any suspicion from the follower." Taro had responded.

'Follower? I'm right about him knowing about Raye then.' Death thought even as the pair continued their conversation as they approached.

"You made a day plan so you could get the follower's name." Ryuk said aloud.

"Ryuk, didn't you read what I wrote in the Death Note?" Taro asked in annoyance.

"Nope. If I looked it would be boring." Ryuk responded.

"Then you'll just have to watch." Taro said before ceasing his conversation with the Shinigami; unaware that Death was well aware of what was going on. "Sorry, am I late?" Taro asked as Ryuk fell into silence.

Death straightened from his leaning position and glanced at the bus scheduled. "You and I both know that there's still five minutes until it arrives." Death pointed out as he kept a wary eye on Ryuk.

"Ah, yeah." Taro said in an unenthusiastic voice.

"But I thought you had no plans on going out until you finished with your exams." Death said, simply curious to see how Taro would respond to the indirect taunt.

"Well, I thought I should take a break since I do so well on the practice exams. And it never seems to hurt you whenever you slack off." Taro pointed out defensively.

Death couldn't help but tilt his head in slight confusion at that. He may get bored easily and thus distracted, but he never slacked off. Even at that moment he was ending lives and ferrying souls to their respective destinations. "I guess you're right about that," he said in response, eyes glued to Ryuk even as he agreed.

/:/:/

'Normally when you both go out, it's either to school, night school or the shops and his parents; in Light's case. But now you're both going to an amusement park together? They're obviously both normal, no, excellent students.' Presence known by both his targets but thoughts unknown to them, Raye Penber continued jolting down his observations. The bus pulled up and he rushed to get on behind the pair he was trailing. 'Inspector Kagami and Yagami's sons are not suspicious. There is no need to further investigate these families. I'm done with this assignment after today.' He got on and sat down behind the pair, catching the tail end of a conversation about universities.

/:/:/

Death watched Raye and Taro from the corner of his eye; well aware that Ryuk was currently in the aisle. He saw as Taro's eyes widened slightly in excitement and turned to see what the cause was. A man by the name of Kiichiro Osoreda stood alone at the bus station; his death already having been determined for minutes after he got on the bus, and as he got on, Death knew what Taro had planned.

'I can stop this. I can prevent his plan from going any further.' Even as he considered this, he was ever aware of Raye's dwindling lifespan as it fell from decades to months to weeks. What held him back was the uncertainty of his actions. He'd never stopped anyone from dying; if they lived past their time then Death ended it. He had never even considered allowing people to live longer than they were given, but as a small grin played at the corner of Taro's lips and the criminal walked down the aisle, Death had a moment of true uncertainty overcome him. 'It's not like I'd be lengthening his lifespan, Raye is supposed to live longer than this, but if I do interfere then I'll be exposed.' He bit his lip and kept quiet on the matter.

/:/:/

The man had made it to the front of the bus at that point and pulled a gun, which he clicked the safety off of, and held it to the head of the bus driver. "I'm hijacking this bus!" The man yelled, to the fear and confusion of the passengers as screams of fight escaped from those closest to the man, causing him to turn his attention briefly to them to snap out an order. "Shut up! I'll kill anyone who makes a scene!" He turned his attention back to the horrified driver. "Driver, you know the phone number to Space Land, right?"

The driver uttered a shaky, "Y-yeah." Before the hijacker demanded him to call it. He grabbed the phone one handily and called the number. "I am the driver of bus 124." The hijacker held the gun closer to the driver and ordered him to tell the person on the other end what was happening. "We…we've been hijacked by a man with a gun."

"Give me the phone." The hijacker snatched the phone roughly from the driver before speaking into it himself. "He's telling the truth. Now, listen carefully. Before the bus arrives, tell a girl to bring yesterday's financial reports to the bus stop, two stops before Space Land. If you do anything or call the police, I will kill all the passengers on this bus." He hung up with a small chuckle.

/:/:/

The bus travelled in silence and Death watched on dispassionately until he felt Taro tapping him on his side. Turning to look he saw a written note; angled so that Raye could see it too, and saw that Taro 'planned' on attacking the hijacker in order to get the gun from him. Letting out an annoyed huff; and cutting Raye off before he could speak, Death turned to Taro.

"I know you're not this stupid." He snapped in irritation; unwilling to play the part of a terrified passenger. "It'd make more sense if two people made a move so that one can distract whilst the other attacks."

"That's dangerous! Don't do that, let me handle this." Raye cut in before Taro could respond. Taro continued to write on the paper, Raye again trying to explain that he could be trusted. "You don't have to write on the paper. The hijacker can't hear us over the sound of the bus." The note in Taro's hand was transferred to his pocket as he shifted his full attention to Raye, finally acknowledging the man he planned on killing.

"Excuse me, but I can tell you're not Japanese from your accent." Taro pointed out.

"Yeah, I'm Japanese American." Raye responded in a low tone, his eyes locked upon the hijacker.

"Can you prove to me that you're not the criminal's partner?" Taro asked in a falsely distrustful voice.

"Don't be ridiculous Taro," Death cut in. "Why would the partner go out of his way to prove he's in no way involved when the bus is currently under their control? Nobody here is willing to fight back; aside from one so called 'genius', and even if the hijacker is caught, he can easily rat out his partner."

Taro didn't miss a beat. "So are you?" He asked of Penber.

Death could see the thought's racing through the man's mind. That they couldn't possibly be Kira otherwise they would have killed the criminal via heart attack by now, but Raye didn't even consider this part of a trap, most likely, he wasn't even aware of the experiments that had been carried out. But Death had already decided to sabotage Taro's plan. He wasn't even sure at what point he'd made the decision, quite possibly when he saw the smug grin on Taro's face, or even when he saw just how attractive the man was up close; Death wasn't one to deny that he was quite shallow at times. 'This man will not die by your hand.' He vowed silently, even as Raye hesitantly handed over his F.B.I badge, his thumb covering the gap between his first name and last; and therefore hiding the 'e' at the end of 'Raye' and enough of the 'p' to make it look like a 'd'. Before Taro could position the I.D better to see the name fully, Death let out a violent sneeze that caused the I.D to fall back onto Raye, as he covered his mouth and nose. Irritation flashed across Taro's face, even as Raye pocketed his I.D again, but Taro covered it quickly before the man could see it.

"Sorry about that," Death muttered, sniffling a bit. "I think I may be coming down with something." He lied, in a thick voice.

"You should take some medicine and rest up before it gets worse." Taro suggested before turning back to Raye. "I believe you. But I don't know why the F.B.I is here. Do you have a gun?" He asked, to which Raye answered with a positive. "Then we'll leave this to you."

/:/:/

'I can't use the gun until the last second. I wonder why the police think the killer is in Japan. More American criminals have died, actually. Even if we used the F.B.I to find the killer, it wouldn't be someone in the Japanese police. I shouldn't think too much right now, saving lives is much more important. That man was on the news a few days ago. He robbed a bank and fled after killing three people. He's a very dangerous man.' Movement caught Raye's attention and he watched in shock as the paper Taro had been writing on, fell from his pocket to the floor, catching the attention of the hijacker.

"Hey! You! Don't move! What's on that little scrap?" The hijacker asked, causing Taro to freeze and Light to send the other teen a look of disbelief Raye could see even through the sunglasses. "Passing notes to each other, what are you guys doing?" The man trailed off as he read the paper.

'Crap that scrap is. If he finds out that we'll attack him when his guard is down…' Raye's thought's trailed off as he watched on, hand clasped around his gun hidden in his jacket.

"Tsk, a reminder for today's plans. How boring! Listen up. Don't make any sudden movements or else." The man's eyes widened in fear even as he paled. "What the hell is that?! That thing at the far back!" He yelled in a loud panic. Raye went to bring out his gun when the man pointed his gun at the back of the bus. "Don't move! I'm going to shoot you monster!" He yelled in a panic.

"Crap, he's hallucinating…" Raye muttered to himself. "Everybody get down!" He yelled, making a lunging movement towards the crazed man. The gun clicked, signalling that it was out of bullets, getting to his feet Raye went after them man who had fled to the front of the bus to wrap his arms around the driver.

"Stop the bus! Open the doors!" The man yelled in a panic. The bus screeched to a halt and the door opened. Within seconds the man threw himself from the bus onto the main road in a blind panic; not seeing the oncoming car until too late, and by then he was already dead.

/:/:/

Passengers screamed and cried all save for three. Raye stood looking upon the scene in silent shock. Taro mused darkly to himself about the almost successful plan to gain Raye's name. And Death watched on indifferently as he ferried the man's soul off to its destination.

…