I'm back! But only for today, probably. I'm not sure when I'll update again, but for the people who don't know how long by breaks are yet, they're never longer than three weeks, so don't worry.

Not sure how I feel about this chapter. It's not bad, but it just didn't turned out how I wanted it to turn out. This story is much harder for me than 'An Awful Lot of Problems' was and I don't know why. I'll try to make these chapters better, though.

**I don't own Death Note. Never have, probably never will. Also, I make typos. And I am often too lazy to correct them, so if you hate reading stories with typos, you've been warned.

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13. Silence & High Sound

I should've known that Ryuzaki was good at keeping a secret, but man, he was pretty good at keeping the secret from me too. I didn't want to talk about it, and after that, he didn't bring it up again. The only difference I noticed was that he kept glancing at me, and not subtle either. He looked over, stared at me for about three seconds and looked away again. I wasn't sure if I should be embarrassed or flattered by his sudden interest, but hey, at least I was allowed to work in the main room again. Ryuzaki even allowed me to watch some videos of Misa Misa, who I was watching some random shows of because she was going to work with Sanami soon. Or maybe they were already working together. I was surprised her high-pitch voice didn't annoy Ryuzaki in the slightest, but the other Task Force members did seem to mind, so I usually watched her when they left.

I was starting to get results. My voice started to sound the same again. Almost the same. It needed to be perfect in order for my tactic to work, so it was a lot of trying and deleting, trying again, and deleting the effect again.

I was almost done when Ryuzaki ordered me to pack my laptop and move to my room, but when I asked if I was allowed into the room after my equipment had been hidden away, he answered 'yes'. It was almost as if he didn't suspect me anymore. Almost. But not quite.

Watari helped me with my computer and everything I had brought to the main room. I could see by the way he looked at he wanted to say something to me, ask something, maybe, but he didn't say a word. And because I probably wasn't going to enjoy whatever he was planning on saying, I kept my mouth shut as well.

Then I had to choose. I could go back to the main room, say "hi" to Light and keep up with the investigation, so that Matsuda didn't have to tell me everything I missed. Or I could finish restoring my voice and show Ryuzaki the results the moment Light was gone.

It wasn't really a choice, though. I went back to the main room almost immediately, ready to welcome Light when he got here.

It was surprising how interested Light had become in talking to me after the Kira investigation started. Before that I had been nothing more than his father's colleague, but now, he treated me as if we were best friends. The problem now was that because of Ryuzaki's theory, I interpreted everything Light did now as something Kira was doing, so that meant that he was getting close to me because that indirectly meant getting close to L.

'How come you're always here, Olivia? Dad told me you were frequently late,' he said, which was a dangerous thing to say, but I understood that if he was Light, he wouldn't know that and if he was Kira, he knew that Ryuzaki wasn't listening because he was too far away, so I guess he was kind of safe.

I decided to play save by overacting. 'I am never late,' I said, as seriously as I could so that he wouldn't take it seriously. Then I winked. 'This is an important case and even though your dad won't fire me over something like that, Ryuzaki might.'

'On the contrary, I would let you stay here if you were frequently late,' Ryuzaki responded from quite a distance, standing up and walked towards us. 'But you already know that, don't you?' he asked me as he put his hands in his pockets.

What are you doing? I tried to ask him, but I couldn't. Not with Light here.

Hallucinations can happen frequently, but I know the signs. If I was crazy, I should've realised it already. But I felt it, someone was chuckling in my ear and then someone was speaking, softly, as if through a wall, making me unable to understand.

I tried to keep calm, I had freaked out two days before, too, and I didn't want anyone to think I was mentally unstable.

Just when Light opened his mouth to ask Ryuzaki what he'd meant, Ryuzaki's laptop made the recognisable ding-sound that let us know that Watari was contacting him. A funny thing a noticed was that Watari's 'W' on the screen was replaced with another 'L' when Light was here. I'd already figured out Ryuzaki tried to convince Light that there was more than one L.

'Ryuzaki,' Watari's distorted voice said, 'the second Kira responded.'

We all looked over at the laptop. 'What?' Yagami said, more scared than happy that we got a response.

'It's here?!' Matsuda shouted, as if more reaction was needed.

Watari ignored the remarks and kept speaking: 'The envelope and the way the tapes were formed are identical to the previous package. The envelope and the tapes are on their way. I will send the video to you right now.' We heard a 'click' and then the letters KIRA appeared on the screen, in the same font Ryuzaki and Watari used. Really a childish female.

'Kira, thanks for replying!' the voice said and by just those few words I could tell that she used the exact same methods as before. 'I'll do anything Kira-san said.'

'Yes!' Yagami said, happy to hear that, while Matsuda's only reactions was: 'Ooh!'

'I want to meet Kira-san. I think Kira-san still doesn't have the eyes, but don't worry! I won't kill Kira-san no matter what!' the second Kira continued. The way this person spoke annoyed me, even when it sounded so metallic and distorted as it sounded now.

'Doesn't have the eyes? What does that mean?' Aizawa wondered, but no one knew the answer, so no one answered.

Then I made a mistake. Or maybe it was the greatest choice I'd ever made in my life. But I made the mistake to look at the person standing beside me.

But it wasn't Light.

Light Yagami was a smart, calm, perfect young man with almost no emotions or flaws. The person I saw when I looked was sweating, his eyes almost red with anger, his teeth clenched, his hands were fists. This wasn't Light. This was… a stranger.

I panicked, scared he would notice I was looking, so I looked away. My shocked expression could be because of the video, I told myself. Light wouldn't suspect me. And this stranger wouldn't either.

'Please think of a way to meet without getting caught by the police. When we meet, we can just confirm each other's identity with our Shinigami.' That was the moment I actually wanted to look at Light again, but a loud "clatter" stopped me. Ryuzaki's chair had fallen and Ryuzaki himself was sitting on the ground, his arms were shaking, which was odd.

'Are you okay, Ryuzaki?' Matsuda asked.

'Shinigami,' Ryuzaki muttered. 'Is he saying that Shinigami exists?'

Even though he seemed to be quite shocked and confused, he still managed to hide the fact that the second Kira was probably a female person from Light. Impressive.

I had to admit that I had a hard time figuring out what this was about. Shinigami? What was that? Wait… shin is death and kami is god… 'A god of death?' I whispered in English.

It was Light who spoke loud and clear, clearly regained his calm. 'Ryuzaki, you can't help that people talk about nonsense like Shinigami.'

Well, he sure recovered quickly, something in my brain told me and I knew now that a big part of me would start to see Light as Kira now, even though I tried to fight that for so long.

Ryuzaki slightly turned his head to look at Light with a look at that was dry and sarcastic that I started to wonder if I was supposed to laugh now. 'The message Kira made his victims in prison write also affirm the existence of Shinigami.'

'So, perhaps this tape is from the same Kira who killed those victims in jail?' Yagami suggested. 'Since they talk with the same…'

'That's not it, chief,' I said, and I saw that Light closed his mouth, since I'd probably just said what he'd been about to say. 'The old Kira wouldn't respond to this tape, because he knows it's fake. And he certainly wouldn't make it unnecessary for L to reveal himself on television.' I crossed my arms, missed too much of the puzzle pieces to finish this puzzle. Shinigami? What'd she say? We can just confirm each other's identity with our Shinigami.

'Then maybe the real Kira and the second Kira have contacted each other and are using things like "Shinigami" to confuse us?' Aizawa suggested, which wasn't a bad suggestion, actually.

But Ryuzaki shook his head. 'That's probably not the case. If they had contacted each other, Kira wouldn't have stopped the plan to kill me…'

I shivered when he said that.

As Ryuzaki grabbed his chair and started to lift the chair – and himself – back up, he continued speaking: 'The second Kira is not trying to do what the real Kira would do, instead it's more like he is doing whatever he thinks needs to be done to reach his goal. He is not acting in pursuit of Kira's goal, he is doing what he feels need to be done.' He sat down on the chair he'd just lifted again. 'Which is to meet the real Kira.'

'So that means the second Kira is only interested in knowing who Kira is.' He crossed his arms, seemed to be thinking. The problem was that with Light, you could never really tell. The only moment I could see clearly, had been just now, but that moment was gone and would never come back. 'Then maybe "Shinigami" is the code word for their common ability to kill? We can just confirm each other's identities with our Shinigami would mean that they prove their identities by killing someone on the spot.'

Ryuzaki stared at him for a short while, and no one said anything. Then he said: '…I agree.' As if he was ashamed to admit it. 'At the very least we know now that "Shinigami" is something the two have in common.'

I wanted to say something then, but I wasn't sure how I would bring it up, so I brought my hand up. 'Excuse me, Ryuzaki? May I add something?'

Everyone looked at me, slightly confused. I usually never politely asked to speak.

'You may,' Ryuzaki said with a small nod.

I took a deep breath and said: 'I don't think it has directly something to do with the killing method. I know that the second Kira seems less intelligent than the real Kira, but no one would be as dumb as to just kill two people on the spot, that would attract way to much attention. Wherever they want to meet, there's a big chance they would get caught, especially at a more public place, which if you leave the security camera's out of the story, would be the most save for them. Also, if it was just the method to kill, the name "Shinigami" seems very specific. It sounds more like something Kira would call himself than something that you could show to prove your identity.' Then, suddenly, I got it. 'Couldn't "Shinigami" be referring to the person they got the power from?'

I wasn't sure if the members of the Task Force were looking at me in amazement or in confusion, but I could tell that my theory wasn't much appreciated.

Ryuzaki sighed. 'Those are all likely theories, in my opinion, but for now, we'll leave it to two Kiras to make the next move.'

When I glanced over at Light, he looked only slightly surprised, because that calm mask was still there, not allowing more of a reaction.

'Leave it to them?' Ukita asked, confused.

Ryuzaki stared up at him, his chin lifted only a bit, as if lifting his head a bit more would be too much effort. 'For the second Kira to make a reply now, assuming he hasn't figured out that the response is a fake, he must be fairly content with the situation. His goal to catch attention of Kira has been achieved. Using words that only they would understand, the imposter plans to give Kira the message today on Sakura TV's 6 o'clock news. On the other hand, the real Kira must be paying close attention to the exchange between us and the second Kira. Kira must want to minimize contact between the second Kira and the police. If this keeps up, I don't know what will happen.'

This was the first time Ryuzaki admitted something like that. I mean, sure, he was uncertain before, but he always had percentages and all the scenarios thought out. This almost sounded unsure.

Lucky enough, he wasn't done talking, though. 'Maybe Kira will end up sending him his own videotape message. Right now, the only medium we can use is Sakura TV. There are way too many unreliable sources about Kira on the internet, thousands of them. Thus, it is difficult for the two Kiras to contact each other online. Nothing is dependable as predicted murder on television. Also, I think it's fairly obvious that the second Kira is not good with technology nor is he smart or disciplined.' Ryuzaki gave me a quick glance when he said that, clearly referring to what I'd said about the voice distortion. 'So, if he doesn't get any reply from Kira about his message, what will he do?' Then, slowly, a smile started to appear on Ryuzaki's face as he started to enjoy himself more and more. 'If the foolish second Kira starts to leak out Kira's secrets, then Kira will want to meet the second one as well. That will be interesting. If Kira sends a taped message to prevent that from happening, it will be even better. The chances of acquiring physical evidence against Kira will greatly increase.'

Then his smile faded again and he returned to being the boss and the detective. 'Please warn each TV station about this and set up surveillance. If there is another Kira message, I will decide whether or not it will be aired.' Was I the only one who noticed that Ryuzaki was staring at Light, as if he was the only one he was talking to?

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When I walked back into the main room, while hugging my laptop, all the other members of the Task Force were gone, leaving only me and Ryuzaki, which made me wonder where Watari was. Sure, he hid when Light came, but now, no one was here. 'Where's Watari?' I asked, not asking where everybody'd gone, because the answer would most likely be irritating or way too long.

'Out,' was the only answer I got. Clearly, I was still a suspect. 'Did you finish your assignment?'

'I have restored my voice to its original state, that's why I'm here,' I told him. I sat down on de ground between the screen he was looking at and his chair and put my laptop on the ground. 'I wanted us to listen to the second Kira's voice together, since you probably can do more with it than I can.'

When I looked up I saw that he didn't understand a word I was saying. Not because I was speaking English, because hell, that was easy for him, but because he didn't understand why I would want to listen to the result together with him.

I gave him a small smile before clicking on play.

I think I'm quite right when I say that neither of us had expected this. At first I was certain that I recognized this high – frankly irritating – voice, but then I remembered. 'Misa-Misa!' I shouted at the laptop screen.

Ryuzaki looked at me, only slightly confused. 'Who?'

I closed the audio file, not completely, but only so that I could start of internet and show him a clip from the show. 'She's an artist of some sort. Mad as a box of kittens, but she's quite famous!' I shut up so that he could hear her voice.

'Hmm,' was the only thing he said when the clip was over.

'What hmm?' I asked, not understanding what that reaction was about.

'I didn't know you liked this sort of stuff,' he mused, a hint of a smile on his face.

I almost closed my laptop out of surprise and anger, but I kept myself under control. 'I don't, she works with my aunt. But it's her! The voice! She's the second Kira!'

Now he looked at me quite bored and cynical. 'Are you sure?'

'Yes!'

'How sure? Voices can sound alike and we aren't sure that your tactic made for a perfectly accurate outcome. So, how sure?'

Well, since I wasn't an expert in thinking in percentages, I went: 'Like… eight out of ten?' Maybe I shouldn't have made it sound like a question.

'Hmm.'

Argh! There he goes again with the 'hmm'. What's that supposed to mean? Hmm as in, brilliant, I believe you? Hmm, as in, you're in idiot, get the hell out? When he didn't say anything besides that and was just staring off into the distance, I put my hand over his hand, which was laying over his knee. 'Ryuzaki?' I asked.

He immediately moved, surprised by my sudden touch and looked at me, suddenly very serious. 'Let's keep this information between us,' he then told me.

'What?' I said, because never, in a million years, that was something I wouldn't have guessed.

Ryuzaki was staring again, but now he was staring at me. 'We pretend like we don't know about this Misa-Misa person, we pretend your software didn't work.'

'Why?' I asked, confused.

'Because you will visit your aunt as often as you can on set. You will get close to the suspect and whenever she leaves the set, you'll follow her. And you'll tell me everything. If anyone asks why you're absent, I'll tell them that you collapsed and that I gave you some days off.'

I didn't follow this at all. 'You would let a Kira suspect trail a possible second Kira?' I asked, slowly, picking every word with care.

'Yes,' he simply answered. Then he jumped off of his chair. 'I'll hire someone who'll work together with you, he shall follow her from her home to set in the mornings and keep taps on her phone and her credit card, maybe she'll buy some suspicious things.' He'd been looking at the closed window until then, when he turned around to look at me. 'Make no mistake, I wouldn't let you go if I didn't think this would be beneficial to our case. I believe you are very capable of just believing in me and my tactics and not ask too many questions. I'll give you your phone back, even though he will be monitored. You can contact your aunt tonight, or tomorrow morning and as soon as you have an answer,' his eyes started to glow with joy and that same, amused smile appeared on his face, 'the game will begin.'

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"Hey Sanami, I have a few days off now, because of my hard work and I have to admit that I would love to see your work place. Can I visit the set sometime?"

"Yes, of course! I already called my agent, if you wish to come over, just tell them your name by the entrance, they'll let you in anytime. Be sure to bring a passport!"

I smiled as I put my phone on the nightstand. The game has begun.

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Bye bye! Hope to see you soon. If it's not soon, then it's probably around January 15th.

Hope you all liked this chapter! I know there's not much progress in their relationship yet, but that will come, just you wait. Bye for now!

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