May 16th, 2031
Interrogation Room
Sora narrowed her eyes. "Are you? Are you the real Kira?"
Knight nodded. "Of course I am."
She tilted her head. "Take off your mask."
"Aren't you going to ask me a question only Kira would know?"
"Take off your mask," she hissed. "Or I'll have my Shinigami rip it off and kill you with his Death Note."
Knight kept a calm composure and he lifted his hand up and removed the balaclava from his face.
"You wanted to see my face?"
She has the eyes, he thought, and she can see my absent lifespan.
Sora's eyes trailed to the top of his head and saw the floating name.
KNIGHT YAGAMI
No visible lifespan.
Yagami... she thought, Knight... Yagami...
Her hair and eyes turn purple.
Light Yagami... the original Kira. Misa Amane... the second Kira.
She glared at him.
He's the real Kira.
"Knight Yagami," she shouted aloud for the people in the observation room to hear, "your real name is Knight Yagami."
Knight's eyes widened, mostly for show rather than actual shock.
In the observation room, Kudo and Soma put their hands on the glass.
"Holy shit," Soma cursed, "she knows his real name!"
"Let's get Knight out of there," Kudo ordered.
"Turn off all audio and all forms of surveillance to our conversation," Sora shouted at the one-way glass, "if you don't comply, I will murder Knight Yagami; I'll tell my Shinigami to write his name down and commit suicide. Turn off all surveillance right now! If my Shinigami is suspicious for any reason then Yagami is a goner!"
"Holy crap," Soma gasped, "what are we going to do, Chief?"
Kudo looked at the ground in shame. "We have no choice."
The officers turned off all surveillance into the interrogation room and waited patiently for Sora to start talking. Since they could no longer hear the conversation, they were going to settle with watching their lips moved but Knight moved his hand over to the lamp and turned the dim light to a dimmer light setting.
The room was pitch black from the observation room but there was enough light on the lamp to illuminate the faces of Knight and Sora.
Sora interlocked her fingers uncomfortable over the bar she was handcuffed to.
"Good, we can finally talk without any restraint."
Knight nodded. "Sora Hajima, Sora Takada, I am the real Kira." He watched her expressionless reaction after his eyes adjusted. "I'm sure you can see my name floating above my head. I'm sure you can see I have no visible lifespan." He looked over at Muter. "Nice to meet you, Shinigami reincarnation of Teru Mikami."
Muter sneered at him. "Son of scum."
"At least I didn't stab myself with a pen and kill myself."
Muter nearly lunged but remembered how he's not allowed to put his hands on a human.
Sora's glare slowly vanished from her face and was replaced with a soft smile from the two's bickering.
"I knew you were Kira the second I discovered your surname was 'Yagami'," she chuckled, "history repeats itself."
"Death Note: Next Generation. But let's not dwell on that. What do you want to talk to me, Niece of Kiyomi Takada."
"Son of Light Yagami and Misa Amane, copycat Kira..." she countered before her smile widened, "It is such a pleasure to meet you, even if you are a successor to the original. Ever since I was young, I've always looked up to you."
"I don't understand you; I killed your younger brother and you still wish to speak to me like an idol?"
"I am sad about Minato and Aunty Kiyomi but I'm not going to dwell. I just wanted to meet you, to understand you. I want to know why you are the way that you are."
She's just like Mom when she wanted to meet Dad, he thought.
"Why?"
"My brother believed that people are inherently evil while I believe that people are made evil. I just want to know you."
"And if I talk to you, what do I get out of this experience?"
"The status of a god." She let that sentence linger. "I'm aware I can't outsmart you so I came up with a plan where it's win-win."
Knight rolled his eyes.
Sure you did, but I shouldn't take any chances.
"Alright, chat away."
Sora got right into her Q while he waited for the A.
"Were you born evil or made evil?"
Knight glares at her, using all the willpower within him to not reach out and strangle her to death. "I'm not evil!"
She replayed that answer in her head. "Were you born this way?"
"I wasn't born this way but I believed it was my destiny. My parents were the first and second Kira and they chose me to take over when I came of age. My ruthlessness, that is something I inherited over the years from the environment around me but I believe I would've turned out like this regardless."
She tilted her head with a smile. "Where do you get off on killing innocent people, 'Killer'?"
Knight chuckled humorlessly. "I could ask the same about you, 'Executioner'?"
"I believe in Kira's brand of justice, I wanted to be like him. I wanted to become justice. When my brother learned the truth about our aunt, he broke down, saying that people who believe in Kira are borderline evil. I was only following Minato's MO out of family loyalty. I was on the fence about it and felt uncomfortable killing innocent people."
"Then why the chaos right now?"
"I was desperate. I wanted to meet you. I wanted to meet my idol."
Knight shook his head disapprovingly. "You are messed up in the head. At least the second Kira didn't absentmindedly kill innocent people. The cops in front of Sakura TV, yeah, but only if they interfered."
She shrugged with one shoulder. "Looks like I'm no different than your mother."
"This doesn't excuse you, Sora. You killed people who believed in me. Even if you were doing so out of family loyalty, that doesn't excuse anything. I will make you face justice for this."
"I wanted to be a superhero, Kira. I wanted to be a superhero like you because I believed in your brand of justice. I told myself that if Minato killed you then I could take over as Kira, except, I would be a nice Kira."
He laughed. "Sorry, but Kira was never meant to be nice. No matter how you look at it, Kira is, and always will be, a necessary evil."
"I understand that. I also understand that becoming a superhero is no longer an option."
Knight looked at her with a confused brow. "What are you talking about?"
She sighed pensievley. "I wrote my name in the notebook. I wrote that I would die in the not-too-distant future. You can control a victim for twenty-three days but you can choose any date of death for any victim, as long as you're not controlling him or his death date is before the end of their lifespan. Because I wrote my name in the notebook, I can't be killed by other notebook."
Knight's eyes widened.
Is she really crazy enough to write her own name in the notebook and kill herself? If it's true then getting Muter to kill her is going to be increasingly difficult. My only hope is if she is lying.
"And as per our contract, I will end the killings." She suddenly stiffened, her eyes going wide and staring off into space.
That look on her face, Knight thought, holy hell, what the hell is she thinking?
Sora made a fist with both hands and her wide-eyed gaze into space slowly turned into a glare with her eyes and hair turning a purple color.
I can't believe how easy it was to figure out Kira's identity, she cheered inside her mind, all I had to do was request a meeting. Take away a child's toy and they'll do anything to get it back. Now that I've figured out Kira's identity, I can now begin step two of the plan.
"On second thought, while you are my hero, I can't forgive you for killing Minato."
Knight's stared at her.
"Does that mean-"
"You thought it was going to be this easy?" she broke down. "Where has your head been? You thought that I was just going to roll over and let you walk over me?! You're lowering my opinion on you, Kira-sama!"
"Was this all a ruse?!"
"Of fucking course!" She hit her hand against the bar twice, creating two loud thuds that echoed off the walls.
Muter nodded and sprouted his wings before disappearing into the wall behind. Knight watched him disappear.
"The whole idea was to figure out your identity!"
"How are you going to kill me if you don't have any pages of the Death Note on you?"
"I'm not going to kill you, I'm going to dismantle your reputation; that was always Minato's goal."
"But I thought you said-"
"I did want to meet you but I wanted to play one last game with you, as retribution for the suicidal killing of my obasan and younger brother. Here's the game: Right now, my Shinigami is flying off to meet with my accomplices and he will stay with them until May 26th. You have until May 26th at 11:59 PM to find my accomplices and retrieve the pages of the Death Note. Fail to find them in time, then Muter will reveal your identity to them in an indirect way and they will be instructed to make Kira's real name public. Your godlike reputation will be torn down and you'll be remembered as nothing more than a mass murderer." She laughed maniacally. "If you win and find them in time, I'll tell you the location of my Death Note for free! Here's your first hint as to who my accomplices are, Kira-sama: They are a four-man group as part of the Yakuza!"
Knight rose to his feet and slammed his fists on the table. "You fucking bitch; there are at least two dozen Yakuza in the Kanto region!"
"And I made a few tweaks: I wrote the names of every known Yakuza in the Kanto region in my Death Note and designated their time of death for May 28th. This means that you won't be able to kill any Yakuza with the Death Note until then." She laughed again. "You have ten days, Kira-sama; don't waste any time!"
May 20th, 2031
After that chitchat with Sora in the interrogation room, she had been taken back to jail and has been kept there since. Muter was spotted anywhere near her by Murasaki or Minori and the conversation evaded surveillance as planned and Knight told the police everything with the exception of stuff that might reveal that he is Kira.
Instead of telling them what will actually happen unless he meets the ten-day deadline, he told his police companions that the killings will start at one hundred people every day from May 26th.
Knight worked at home and shifted all focus on figuring out who the four-man group of Yakuza were in possession of the Death Note. Since the conversation Masi recorded confirmed that Keiri was in possession of one notebook instead of two and given that Sora was still the owner of the Death Note as confirmed by Iris, he knew that this four-man group was nothing more than borrowers and thus, their lifespan wouldn't be absent.
So he had to put his thinking cap on.
When Iris arrived, that was when he got to detective-ing.
Gilth and Masi silently watched.
He searched up all twelve active Yakuza groups in the Kanto region and wrote their titles down on a piece of paper. He pulled up all known members of the Yakuza and he had Iris write down the names of one of them. After forty seconds, his name and lifespan remained, confirming Sora's statement that the Yakuza members were immune to the Death Note and already designated to die later in the future.
"So," Iris began, "how are we going to find this four-man group of borrowers?"
"I'm thinking," he nearly snapped. "There are twelve Yakuza groups in the Kanto region and they all have at least fifty members each. The biggest Yakuza group, the Samurai, has one hundred members, and the smallest, Sama, has fifty members exactly."
"You'll figure something out."
He glared at her as if she offended him. "What makes you think I'm going to do all the work? While I do have a specialty in detective work, you have a better specialty in profiling people and narrowing the group of suspects."
Iris nodded hesitantly. "True. If you want-"
"It's not about what I want, it's about what you're going to do." His tone gave off a sinister vibe that sent chills down her spine.
She nodded silently and got to work.
Hours passed, the sun went down, and the moon came up by the time Knight had stacked the coffee table with documents of his investigation.
"Okay," he said as he straightened his back and looked over the material. "I think I've figured it out."
Iris kicked her shoes off and put her feet up to her chest.
"I'm sure you're aware of this by now but Shinigami can't go any farther than fourteen kilometers from their owner. Sora knew that she would be incarcerated in the Japanese Police Station and knew that Muter would have to maintain constant contact with the borrowers so I believe she chose a group that is headquartered within fourteen kilometers of the police station."
He pulled out a map of the Kanto region. The police station was highlighted in yellow and he drew a small circle with a red marker around the police station.
"Fourteen kilometers roughly translates as eight or nine miles and everything within this red circle are within eight or nine miles away from the police station." He paused. "There are only four Yakuza groups headquartered within nine miles from the police station. The Sama, the Disciples, the Seppuku, and the Imperial."
He searched the coffee table for the manilla folders he gathered and opened them, four papers piled on top of each other with photos of the Yakuza insignia printed at the top.
"How do we know those four crime syndicates aren't in cahoots and the borrowers are an individual from each Yakuza?" Iris asked.
"That's what I thought until I did some digging." He dropped the manilla folder and held up a photo of a Yakuza member dead from a car accident. "While everybody was focusing on the worshippers dying, I noticed a small and thin thread of Yakuza members dropping like flies." He showed Iris the picture of the dead Yakuza. "This man, a recent rookie in the Disciples Yakuza, died in a car accident, an accidental death, on May 7th."
Iris nearly vomited at the sight of the corpse.
He drops the photo to pick up another one. This Yakuza member was clutching his chest.
"This Seppuku Yakuza member died on May 8th of ARCV-5, also known as 'Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy type 5'. It's a heart disease he was diagnosed with."
He picked a photo of a Yakuza member lying dead in a chair with a bottle of pills in his hand, foam at the mouth.
"This depressed Sama Yakuza member overdosed on pain medication on May 9th."
He dropped the photo and showed her another and then another and one final photo.
"Do you know what the connection is?"
Iris looked over the photos hesitantly before coming up with an answer after careful consideration. "They were small-time?"
"And how would you know that?"
"There's no name for any of them."
Knight clicks his tongue and smiles. "Exactly. These guys are nobodies; they don't have a name or face in the criminal database because they haven't made a name for themselves. All the Yakuza members that can't be killed or people who are so notorious that they have their own Wikipedia page."
"So," she began, "you're saying that there is no way Sora could've known about these Yakuza members because their names and faces aren't public but the borrowers do?"
"Right again." He picked up the manilla folder with the four Yakuza members within the area and reached for the bottom page and showed it to her. "Do you know what Yakuza this is, based on the photograph of the symbol?"
The insignia was a bloody handprint.
"The Imperial; they're the only one without a confirmed dead member from the borrowers."
"Someone give this girl a cookie, that's three for three."
Iris blushed at Knight's confidence but didn't avert her eyes. "You believe that the borrowers are someone within the Imperial Yakuza?"
He nodded. "They are the only syndicate to not suffer deaths from disease, accidental death, or suicide."
He turned back to his computer and searched up the Imperial Yakuza. Having access to the entire Japanese police database, information about criminals who aren't publically known about being part of the Imperial Yakuza became presented to them.
"You have access to all this information?" Iris asked.
"I do." He pulled a list of all Imperial Yakuza members. He sighed and rubbed his chin. "Although, there is something I do wonder: How did Sora find this four-man group to borrow pages of the Death Note?"
"She used to be an investigative journalist so it's possible she found a lead or she broke into a Yakuza-owned building. Either way, the borrowers aren't leaders."
He looked at her. "How do you know?"
"If they were bosses or higher-ups, they would've used the pages of the notebook on their completion, regardless of their rivals' ranks but these victims you showed me, so far, they are complete nobodies. Why would a leader focus on foot soldiers when he can take out the higher-ups?"
"So the borrowers are also a couple of nobodies who are trying to play it safe."
He narrowed down the list to people who had been recruited into the Yakuza within the last month. There were only eight suspects and all of them were teenagers.
"Who are these people?" he asked. "Use your eyes."
She grabbed the computer and pulled up the pictures of the eight teenagers, focusing on the group on the left.
Her eyes glowed red.
A seventeen-year-old boy with short brown hair with bangs over his left eye and stubby facial hair growing.
DAICHI NAGASAWA, 6 7 39 12 5 6
A sixteen-year-old girl with short black hair that came down to her chin with parted bangs.
LEIKO HANADA, 6 3 62 89 6 6
A sixteen-year-old boy with long brown hair with bangs dyed blonde.
KAEMON KATAGIRI, 4 3 25 13 2 8
Last but not least, a sixteen-year-old boy with bushy curly hair that resembled a messy bedhead.
SOSUKE CHIBA, 3 8 88 95 4 9
May 26th, 2031
11:10 PM
On the eve of the night, where nobody was up, Daichi, Leiko, Kaemon, and Sosuke marched aimlessly down the street back to the loft. They looked uneasily at the Shinigami floating behind them, stalking them like a ghost. Ever since May 16th, this Shinigami has been following them relentlessly for the past ten days, Daichi mostly because he was the leader. Even though they were aware that nobody but them could see this skeletal beast, they felt exposed, almost like they were naked in the snow and that wasn't something they wanted which is why they didn't draw attention to themselves, even if they were the only ones out this time of night.
Just a few more blocks until they were at the loft where they would get in their daily kill of Kira Worshippers before they would make the identity of Kira public. The Shinigami said that he will reveal the identity of Kira but only when Kira misses the deadline to find them. Knowing that the world's most dangerous mass murderer was hunting them put a lump in their throats that was so big they could practically choke.
Leiko joggged to catch up to Daichi. "Nervous?" She patted him on the shoulder.
"Hell yes I'm nervous," he nearly snapped, "who wouldn't be?"
"I'm more curious as to how you can stay calm in a fucking situation like this, bee-otch," Sosuke whisper-shouted.
"When you live with a Dad who has a vicious hair-trigger temper, you learn to stay calm in situations like this," she answered.
Daichi looked at his watch.
"In less than an hour, our task will be done. We'll finally be free to go home."
"Yeah," Leiko agreed. "How interesting is it to actually work with Keiri to bring down the world's deadliest serial killer?"
"I didn't sign up for this," Daichi said, "the only reason I became part of the Yakuza was so I could stand out. I was an outsider growing up and the Imperial Yakuza was the first and only group to ever accept me and give me a chance."
Leiko shrugged. "We all got issues. I joined the Yakuza because they pay enough money for me to help my family's financial situation. Sosuke and Kaemon both went to the same school and they got kicked out for violence."
"Misunderstanding," Sosuke clarified, "I was kicked out for fighting in self-defense. It was bound to happen because I've been holding back my rage for so many years and they deserved it for insulting my six-month-old son."
Kaemon shrugged absentmindedly. "My girlfriend is part of the Yakuza and I joined to support her."
"And have you guys considered that if we're not careful then Kira will kill us?" Daichi exclaimed. "As soon as our mission is done, we're burning everything that links us to Kira and Keiri and that'll be the end of this chapter."
The apartment loft was within sight, only a block away. They stayed silent the rest of the way and started jogging and slowed their pace as they were coming up to the door. They stopped dead in their tracks when a heavy flashlight beam shined on them and nearly blinded them.
"IT'S THEM!" a woman shouted at the top of her lungs behind a police cruiser. "I CAN SEE THE SHINIGAMI FOLLOWING THEM, THEY ARE KEIRI'S ACCOMPLICES!"
The four teens gasp and widened their eyes, even with the light shining on them.
"FREEZE!" an officer shouted, cocking his gun loudly to show he meant business. "GET DOWN ON THE GODDAMN GROUND YOU FUCKERS!"
Kaemon reached for his gun.
Leiko grabbed his hand. "No, if we shoot then it's just going to be much worse!"
Muter was slightly blinded by the light and held a hand up. He looked through the crowd of police cruisers. All of them were wearing tinted helmets with the exception of one.
And he recognized her.
Murasaki Kagami, she's the one who could see me.
He glares.
Choosing her to pass on Keiri's message to Kira was a big mistake.
Daichi does a one-eighty and dashes off into the alleyway between the loft and another building. The others follow.
The police officers give chase.
"BE CAREFUL OF THEM!" another officer shouted. "THEY HAVE KIRA AND KEIRI'S POWER AND SHOULD BE CONSIDERED DANGEROUS! NON-LETHAL SHOTS ONLY!"
The four teenagers reach a fence at the end of the alleyway that towered up to ten feet and there was a lock holding the gate's door in place. They weren't going to go through it, so they did wall runs up and vaulted over.
The police chasing after them froze in their steps, flabbergasted at the teens' parkour moves. They snapped back to their senses and climbed up and over the gate and continued the chase.
This is OUR territory, Daichi thought as he leaped over a brick wall and lands onto the top of another, and frontflips off it. We practice parkour on a regular and we know this environment well.
They used parkour to get up and over, to move around and down under this urban environment. The territory which they were in was rich with brick walls and fences and closed-off gates and areas that would make it difficult for a car to navigate.
Officer Soma has never been in a chase like this, or any chase in general. The only chase he saw were ones on TV and they had a production crew to make it look cool. If these thieves got away, he was going to call the nearest movie studios and teach them how a chase scene works in real life.
The teens leaped over another brick wall and made a right down an alleyway. This time, there was no sense for them to climb so they had the luxury of running straight through-
BANG!
Kaemon clutched his shoulder and fell face-first into the ground, screaming and flopping like a fish.
Daichi looked over his shoulder to see a single officer with his revolver raised.
They turned the corner before Officer Soma could get another shot.
"They're shooting at us!" Leiko shouted.
"Fuck!" Sosuke exclaimed.
They jumped up a brick wall and leaped down.
BANG!
Blood spewed out of Sosuke's forearm and he fell to the ground on the side of the wall that was opposite of Daichi and Leiko.
Oh my god, Daichi cried, I can't believe they're shooting at us.
"We have to go back for Sosuke and Kaemon," Daichi told Leiko, "we can't leave them!"
"We have to worry about ourselves," Leiko said, her voice full of regret.
They checked over their shoulder to see the officer was nowhere in sight. Perfect. Instead of repeating the mistake of leaping over a fence or going through an alleyway, they ran up to the building in front of them and headed for the fire escape.
Daichi wall runs up the fire escape and grips the ladder with one hand before yanking himself up and over the rails and started climbing the stairs to the third story.
Lieko repeats the action except when she grabs the ladder with one hand, a bullet punches through the back of her palm and makes her fall into a pile of trash bags.
Daichi heard that last gunshot and saw Officer Soma standing at the far end of the street, aiming for him. He dives into the closest window head-first, shattering the glass and landing shoulder-first into a baby's room, evident by the crib and crying baby.
He runs through the living and to the front door, quickly unlocking it and running down the hallway.
I never should've joined the Yakuza, he thought as he imagined the life he had before he became one with the crime syndicate. I'm going to be sentenced to death as Keiri's accomplice. I'll never see Leiko, Sosuke, or Kaemon again. Leiko won't see her siblings, Sosuke won't see his half-a-year-old son, and Kaemon won't see his girlfriend, whom he loves so much to join a crime syndicate for.
Once he reaches the end of the hallway, he dives through another window leading to another fire escape, getting a few cuts around his forehead and shoulder. He leaps over the rails carefully and slides down the ladder.
He turns and runs off into the street.
If I'm not sentenced to death by the police, Kira will-
Daichi is suddenly launched into the air and lands flat on his side after rolling a few times down the street and stopping in the middle of a streetlight beam.
Kudo's hands clutch the driver's wheel like he's choking it and gasped.
I didn't see him, he panicked, I didn't mean to run him over.
He grabs his tinted helmet from his passenger seat and puts it on before exiting the car. He draws his gun and aims it at the downed Daichi. The boy sustained a minor concussion but a few bruises on his left shoulder and perhaps a fractured rib along with some cuts from the glass when he dived out the window.
When he decided the gun was no longer necessary, he put it away before taking out his cuffs.
"Chief," Soma shouted coming from around the building. "You caught him, Chief?"
"Not the way I wanted but yeah, I caught him." He lifts the injured boy into a sitting position. "Help me get a blindfold on him."
Soma double-checked to make sure that his helmet was secured before jogging over and wrapping a blindfold he brought with him around Daichi's eyes.
"The others are securing the other three right now," Soma said. "Can you believe it's finally over, Chief?" he asked cheerfully.
Kudo nodded with a sigh. "Yeah, it's finally over."
"Yeah, maybe we can have a party when we get back!"
"Soma!"
There are laws in the world of gods of death. If a god of death should break the law, there are 9 levels of severity starting at Level 8 and going up to Level 1 plus the Extreme Level. For severity levels above 3 the god of death will be killed after being punished.
For example, killing a human without using the Death Note is considered as the Extreme Level.