ORIGINAL AN: FYI, I have no clue as to where any of these places below are…In the manga it say's four agents died in Tokyo, I changed that to three 'cos Death altered Penber's life expectancy. The F.B.I chief isn't aware that the Japanese only found 11 bodies and not 12 as the F.B.I couldn't contact anyone and assumed they all were killed. Also 'Ray Denber' is 'Raye Penber' (I just really wanted him to live)

The bus remained at a permanent stop Death leaned against the stilled vehicle as he watched Raye and Taro get off the bus. The conversation held between the two of them audible to him from where he stood.

"Hey," Raye said, facing Taro as he came down the stairs.

"What?" Taro asked; halting on the last step so he remained above Raye.

"To tell the truth, the reason I'm in Japan is I'm on a secret mission. So please…" He trailed off.

"Understood, I won't tell anyone I met you. Not even my father." Taro swore, Raye gave a small nod and turned to walk away.

"Things might get hairy once the police come, so I'll be leaving." Raye explained as he turned his back to Taro.

Just as he was passing Death, he went to speak but Death cut him off. "Be more careful about who you show your name to. Trust nobody." He said in a low voice to ensure no others heard. Raye hesitated for a brief moment, eyes widening and flickered towards Taro and back. "I'd advise you to grab your fiancé; Naomi Misora, and lay low for a while." He turned away from Raye and walked back towards Taro; preventing Raye from questioning him.

/:/:/

'Just as I calculated. I don't want the police to know that I had an encounter with an F.B.I agent. If dad found out, L would know too.' Taro watched as Denber ran off after a brief conversation with Light; no doubt explaining that he was to be kept out of police scrutiny 'He doesn't suspect me a bit. What happened here today will be filed away as just another incident.'

He came to a stop by Light as he turned to him. "Jeez, we were just on our way to Space Land, but we ended up getting caught in a bus jacking." Light threw him an annoyed look and stalked off without a word. 'What was that about?' Taro followed his fellow student as they made their way away from the accident scene before the cops arrived. 'I guess he doesn't want to get involved either.' To be quite honest, Taro didn't know much about Light Yagami's home life. He had assumed, when his father had mentioned a chief Yagami, that Light was related to the chief. But he didn't stick around to give a statement and Taro couldn't help but wonder if what he had assumed was wrong.

#

"Finally going to write down the name of that agent you pinpointed today?" Ryuk asked long after they had settled in Taro's room.

"Nope, I'll write in his name, yeah, next week. It would be suspicious to kill him so soon and I should let him continue his investigation for a while. And in a week when I do write his name down, it'll be after I have him show me who all the F.B.I agents in Japan are. But now it's time for another prisoner to keep L Company.

/:/:/

'L do you know?' His thoughts were cut off when the computer signalled an incoming call.

"L."

"What is it Watari?" He asked, looking over his shoulder at the computer.

"There's been another victim with a note." Watari informed him, catching L's attention and drawing him to the computer.

"Send me the image." L requested as he came to a stop in front of the webcam. The message came through and L spent no time analysing it. Finding the hidden message within seconds. "Shinigami… 'L do you know, Shinigami…' Are you trying to tell me that Shinigami exist, Kira?" L muttered to himself in a low sceptical tone. "Watari, we might get another one writing a note like this. Tell the police not to take their eyes off the prisons."

"Understood."

'Is Kira trying to give me some kind of clue? Or…' L's thought's trailed off as he contemplated his new theory.

/:/:/

#JAPANESE POLICE ONE WEEK LATER#

"What? The F.B.I?" Yagami exclaimed in shock as the man reported his findings.

"Three in Tokyo, two in Kanagawa and one in Chiba and Saitama. All died from heart attacks." The underling reported to the rooms growing shock.

"F.B.I agents having heart attacks in Japan?"

"Huh?!"

The officers were so caught up in their shock discovery that none noticed as Watari shut down his laptop; and connection to L, and walk out of the room to growing voices of shock and anger.

"And there's evidence that the agents were monitoring the Japanese police."

"What's the meaning of this?"

"Contact the F.B.I immediately!"

It wasn't until Watari left the room that his phone sounded, bringing it to his ear he was greeted by the voice of the head of the F.B.I demanding to be put into contact with L.

/:/:/

"L, I just got word of the deaths of our agents in Japan. I tried contacting all twelve of our agents in Japan, but I couldn't reach any of them. I think Kira killed the others."

"Chief calm down and listen to me carefully. Did any of the agents know the others' faces?" L asked, speaking into the provided microphone used to scramble his voice.

"Not until yesterday." The chief replied after a pause.

"Yesterday?" L questioned, checking he heard correctly.

"Yes. I received the request, 'I want to verify all the friendlies in Japan,' so I sent the file."

"That's it! Kira got in touch with that agent and somehow got the information from that file! Who did you send it to?" L questioned in excitement; thinking that he'd been given a clue.

"That was…all my agents in Japan." The chief answered.

"All of them," L muttered, visually deflating after the letdown.

"All of a sudden they asked, 'I want to know who the friendlies are in Japan'. I believe it was me who decided that they'd all have the file. I sent file to the first four myself, and told them to 'pass it along to the others.'"

"All of them had the file. If Kira can manipulate their actions before death, it's possible that he saw one of their copies, made that one send it to the others, and killed them." L's musings were cut off when the chief continued.

"L, I'm sorry, but, I'm calling off our Japanese investigation." This decision caught L unawares, even as the chief ploughed on with his explanation. "Those being killed in Japan were criminals, but we've lost innocent agents. This is a big loss. It was my decision to put them in Japan. Now my country will ask me to take responsibility for it. My face is publicly known, and I hold my life dear. The F.B.I is washing its hands of the matter." The chief broke off as a seconded murmured voice could be faintly heard. "Hmm, their headquarters are already calling. I'm going to tell them we acted on your behalf, L. Goodbye." The chief hung up, ending the call, leaving L in a state of growing anger.

/:/:/

"The F.B.I surveyed those related to this investigation at L's direction?! Is that true?!" Yagami demanded of the voice on the other end of the phone in growing anger and disbelief as the rest of his agents listened in on the call and others fell into conversations of dissent.

"L, I knew we couldn't trust him."

"Kira's killed F.B.I along with criminals? Meaning he'll kill anyone trying to find him."

"Anyone pursuing him will be killed, even if they're not a criminal. He really is a homicidal maniac, that Kira."

"Right! That's not something a human being would do!"

"Those guys who quit before were right!"

"I can't take this anymore!"

/:/:/

'I guess I should have been watching the F.B.I as well as the criminals…' L thought ruefully to himself.

# NEXT DAY#

"We've got another victim who's left a message. I'm sending you the photo." Watari's voice sounded.

''L do you know, Shinigami…' The next part?' The message appeared on screen and L's jaw snapped down in fury, as the last of the taunting message could be seen. ''L do you know, Shinigami only eat apples?' Kira!' He brought his clenched fist to his chest. "Kira, your actions are big this time. Chances are you met one of those twelve agents. And you've surely left clue!"

/:/:/

"With this, the F.B.I won't increase the amount of agents in Japan. At least not until after they've come up with a well-polished plan, and that won't be for some time. L should have almost no pawns left to move. Alright, now it's time to make a move on your own." Taro chuckled as he looked at the files from his father's hacked computer.

/:/:/

"So you're saying that I need to act as though Raye has died?" Naomi looked across to where her fiancé sat before looking back to the hooded, winged, figure in the shadows. "Any reason why? If you know who Kira is, why don't you tell someone? Why should I act as though such a tragedy has occurred, surely the police would have found only eleven bodies and not the twelve that should have been found. And the F.B.I chief would have assumed that Raye was dead when he couldn't get in contact with him, but eventually that'll be proven incorrect when he notices the wrong number."

"Honey, I don't remember who Kira is. The whole incident is a complete blur, all I know is, is that I'm alive because of him." Raye gestured to the silent figure before continuing. "And I'll bet Kira knows about you, it'll be safer if you act as though you've experienced a loss until you manage to get in contact with L." Raye looked to the silent figure. "I'd like to thank you, you saved my life."

Death simply shook his hooded head in denial. "I simply ensured that you're going to die when you're supposed to, as opposed to a forced death." He looked to Naomi. "Chances are that you'll run into Kira at some point during your attempt to contact L, don't give out your true name, no matter how much he persists." Death didn't wait for a response to his order, vanishing from the hotel room without a trace or sound. Luckily human's minds were easily influenced and Raye had only a fuzzy memory of the incident on the bus involving Taro and himself, Death didn't spare him just to have him get killed revealing Kira's identity. And on a more selfish level, Death wanted to meet L, and wanted L to bring down Kira. They were the only interesting things in Death's life, and he would be damned to allow other's to interfere.

'I wonder what L's move is. Taro gained a major hit against him, the police won't be too happy with the discovery of F.B.I agents in their country. Hopefully Naomi uses what I told her to get in contact with L.' He didn't doubt it, he also knew that she would encounter Taro at some point. 'And I've got to pull off another faked death without Ryuk catching on. Unless she never gives out her real name like I told her to.'

He spiralled lazily through cloud cover, moisture weighing down his clothes, before he allowed himself to plummet in a free-fall towards the rapidly approaching cityscape. Angling at just the right moment, he landed upon a building to check his phone which had begun to vibrate. Scanning the message; received from Sayu, he gave a sigh, typed out a reply and tucked his phone away. Taking to the sky again, he flew towards the Yagami household. "L do you know, Shinigami only eat apples? I hope Ryuk is eating him out of house and home." He muttered spitefully, for a message one could feel the smugness radiating from the taunting words. Frankly though, he was perplexed, he wasn't aware that Shinigami were even able to eat food, much less taste them enough to enjoy them. "It's probably got something to do with the fact that they were, in essence, once part of me." It wasn't something worth evaluating.

…