Light took in a deep breath to remain calm. It had been some time since Conan had finished filling him in on what he knew of this 'Black Organisation' as he had called it. He was slowly starting to realise he had no idea what he was getting himself into, as well as the full extent of the power the person going by the name Edogawa Conan truly had over him now. He'd all but told Light not to kill anyone else but that was a tall order. The world was still rotten and he still had work to do. For some reason this idealistic child thought he could change-that he needed to change.

Conan had been pulling the strings all along-manipulating everyone-he investigated thoroughly and worked out the truth without Light suspecting a thing until it was too late. Was this kid a better detective than L? What did he think he could gain from recruiting Kira to help take down this organisation? No, a little voice in his head insisted, it wasn't Kira he wanted to recruit, but Yagami Light. Whatever that meant.

He supposed that Conan figuring out the truth was better than L figuring it out. According to Ai, Conan had a hero complex a mile wide and would do everything in his power to keep anyone from dying. He had to realise that Light would be facing the death penalty if he was revealed to be Kira. What did he intend to do about that?

He stirred the coffee that Professor Agasa had handed to him and watched the small boy press his hands together as if in prayer, sitting with his knees up and his eyes closed.

"What is he doing?" He asked. Ai looked up from the magazine she was reading and glanced Conan's way before shrugging.

"Sitting like Sherlock Holmes." She offered simply. "He does that when he's facing a particularly perplexing problem."

"...Does it help?"

"More than you would think."

"I can still hear, you know." Conan peeked and annoyed eye open at Ai. She yawned and returned to her magazine. He took in a breath and resumed his thinking position. What was it that he still found perplexing? He'd worked out who Kira was and then found a way to force him into joining his cause. Who was this kid? Some kind of reincarnation of Sherlock Holmes?

"I need to know everything that L does." He finally stated, looking up from his 'Sherlock Holmes' position. "If I'm to direct his attention away from you then I need to know why he started to suspect you in the first place."

"I'm not part of the investigation team." Light pointed out. "However, I can tell you that it's already reached a point where he had my house wired with cameras." Conan made a face at the blatant disregard for privacy.

"And? I assume that you didn't start talking about being Kira in your room at that time. When did you notice the cameras?"

"On the eighth. They were removed two days ago." Light supplied.

Conan paused, thinking something over. "Was that why you killed a purse snatcher and small time thief?" He certainly worked that out fast.

"Yes. I needed to divert L's suspicions by making making him see that Kira was still active even though Yagami Light didn't watch the news all day." Conan just stared at him blankly.

"And that was the first day?" He pressed.

"Yes. I wanted to clear my name quickly." Light stated. Conan let out an exasperated sigh, hanging his head as he did. He took in a deep breath and then looked back up.

"You don't know how this works, do you?" He asked. When Light didn't respond, he continued. "The one that appears perfect is always the most suspicious." He stated. "In trying to clear your name on the first day you actually made yourself stand out more. It's no wonder if L locked onto you."

Ryuk couldn't stop himself from laughing and Light was left to think about what he'd just said.

"Considering the source-I'd say he's probably right." Ryuk chortled.

"So you think that if I had waited a couple of days before I went a full day without watching the news I would have diverted his attention?"

"Yes!" Conan responded. "You 'cleared' your name on the first day and then Kira went against his usual M.O. and killed a purse snatcher and a thief-the two criminals that made it onto a news report the first day he'd installed the cameras. To him, that was like showing off. Hell, I would have found it suspicious." Ryuk was still laughing at how badly it seemed Light had messed that up.

"He has a point." He offered, unhelpfully.

"So, you're the mastermind now, how do you intend to trick him?" Light challenged, eyes narrowing darkly. Conan just sighed, hanging his head again.

"I'll do everything I can to make it seem like you can't possibly be Kira, but you're going to have to work with me." He insisted, head still pointed downwards.

"And how do you propose I do that?" Light crossed his arms, watching the other from across the coffee table.

"By relaxing." Conan looked up again. Light was sure he'd heard wrong.

"Relaxing?" He asked. Conan just nodded his head. "That's how you intend to trick L?"

"It probably doesn't make sense to you, but you're going to drive yourself insane if you keep thinking in terms of 'will L be more suspicious if I do this.' Try to forget about that because you need to do things Kira would do as well as things Kira wouldn't do." Conan went on to explain. "And spend more time around people."

"I'm not a recluse." Light raised an eyebrow.

"You spend too much time studying-it just seems like you're bored all the time." Conan told him. "You're seventeen-about to be eighteen. Act like a teenager."

"Says the child that act like an adult." Ai offered.

"Oi oi."

"Bored." Light thought about it. "I suppose that's not far from the truth."

"If you need to keep from feeling bored Yagami-kun, just hang around Edogawa-kun, there's always something going on around him." Ai looked up from her magazine to tease him. Conan shot her a glare.

"It's not that bad."

Light thought back to the first time he'd met Conan-in that time there had been a murder, the next time he saw Conan was at the Kid heist, the bus jacking incident was after that, shortly after he'd gotten himself kidnapped and locked in a burning building, and there was a murder at the cafe they ate breakfast at the next day. He supposed Inspector Isobe's death counted too.

He could see her point.

As though to prove Conan wrong there was a sudden loud crash just outside the house and Conan lept over the couch to go to the window to see what had happened. A car had crashed directly into a light post.

"Be quiet." Conan hissed at the look Haibara gave him. And Light watched as Conan dashed outside and over to the smashed car. Windshield busted-air bag deployed. It didn't look good for the driver. Still though, Conan moved to the driver's side door and pulled it open to check the man's pulse.

"Haibara." He said gravely. "Please call the police." He watched as Haibara pulled out her phone and moved over to as he'd told her. "Kastu Juri aged twenty-seven." Conan had taken the ID out of the victim's wallet. He glanced down at something and then went to the other side to climb into the passenger's seat.

"It's just a traffic accident." Light stated, moving a little closer to watch what Conan was doing. "There's no need to-"

"No." Conan cut him off. "This was murder." Light sighed. All that had happened was that a car drove into a light post. How could he say it was a murder with such certainty.

"How can you be so sure? Murder's have become fairly rare thanks to Kira." He pointed out. The crime rate had dropped significantly after all-especially the murder rate.

"Three things." Conan responded, holding three fingers up. "One, this car was put in neutral before it rolled down the hill. Second, we didn't hear the sound of the brakes being applied before the crash. Third, the victim's foot is on the accelerator, not the brake pedal. If it were an accident, then he would have tried to apply the brakes but he didn't. Which means that he was either unconscious or, more likely, he was already dead when he was put the car."

Okay, so it was murder. That established, Conan pulled the the glove compartment open.

"Besides, the murder rate didn't actually go down that much." Wait. What? He'd seen the ratings himself-how could Conan say it wasn't down?

"The murder rate has significantly decreased-the news has even shown the graphs." He countered.

"Sure." Conan agreed. "The official rating would have you believe that the murder rate has gone down by nearly half-but that's an inflated number." What was he talking about?

"How is that an inflated number?"

"Those are just the ratings for crimes recorded as murders. But-" Conan was climbing into the back seat for some reason. "-if you look at the accident and suicide ratings-they've gone up by about forty percent-maybe a little less." What did that have to do with-"It isn't that murders aren't being committed-people are just getting better at disguising them."

That. That couldn't have been true. Conan had to be lying-trying to convince him that what he was doing was pointless. Just senseless murder.

"It could just be the people committing suicide are guilty of some crime." Light pointed out. Conan resurfaced from the back seat of the car to fix him with a look.

"Really Yagami? People are killing themselves because they're afraid of getting killed?" Ryuk needed to shut up. This was not amusing. This was-He tried to think of something to say in response.

"Maybe they just wanted to get it over with."

"For some of them-that might be true, but not all. Besides, the accidental deaths have gone up too-that has nothing to do with Kira. You've seen three murder cases since I've known you-Not counting Isobe. I solved seven cases in December and so far two this month. You want to say the rating has gone down?"

Light felt his mouth going dry. What Conan was saying-it-No. He was cleaning up the world. The crime rate had gone down.

It had to have gone down.