Jesus Christ, school wants to kill me. Anyway, I here I am, back for another chapter! I really am sorry, I did not think I would be updating as little as I have, but school is just giving me no choice. And my family situation isn't helping either, but let's not talk about that right now.

I don't know when I will be able to update after this, it's proving more difficult, so please have more patience with me. I had thought this would be a fairly short story, but if I keep updating with such gaps in between, this won't seem short at all, so that's a thing. I am talking way too much again, let's stop with the chitchat for now.

DISCLAIMER: yup, I checked. Definitely do not own Death Note or any of its original characters or plotlines. But my OC's are mine, so yay, I guess. Also, I am a typo manic, so I would not recommend my stories if you are against those.

XxX

4. Virus

'Alright, let' begin,' Mishima announced, though he wasn't the boss. He seemed to do that a lot, pretending he had more power in the unit than he actually had. I had already noticed his lack of friends in the department.

Which was hard. The Kira-department was huge now. One of the reasons Ryuzaki didn't want to be here, obviously, but I was here instead and with a lot of hidden equipment, he might as well be in the room with us for all he saw and heard.

'The suspect, Sakura Aoi, 20 years old, was of no fixed address. I speculate that she had the Shinigami eyes,' Mishima went on, before collecting his files and standing, grabbing the stage all for himself. I already knew who he was going to bring up before he did, mainly because the department head of Japan was in the meeting with us. Though Chief Yagami was technically still the boss over the Japanese Task Force, this man, Junrou Sugawara, was his boss in a way, and so he came for updates once in a while. I actually think he just came every now and then to check if we were still acting as the perfect department.

'We know from Misa Amane, who had the eyes before losing her memories, that those with Shinigami eyes can identity people by looking at them.' Mishima pressed a button and an older picture of Misa Amane appeared on the big screen in the meeting room. She looked better than when I last saw her. Mental institutions were made to heal your mind, not your skin. I knew she missed her make-up artists terribly.

'Was Sakura Aoi the new Kira?' Chief Sugawara asked, looking over at the files.

'I'm afraid not,' Mishima answered.

'Please elaborate,' Chief Sugawara asked.

Mishima glanced over to Chief Yagami, who nodded. He was allowed to explain. Mishima turned back and walked over to the laptop connected to the screen, his laptop, and started loading files on the screen. 'Neo Kira imitates Light Yagami, the original Kira.'

A picture of Light appeared on the screen, wiping Misa's face away. I found myself staring. This was another older photo, a high school photo to be exact. And his changes were both more subtle and more drastic. There was nothing in Light his eyes. No evil, no passion, nothing. As if he was soulless. I couldn't understand how he transformed in front all of us and none of us noticed. None but one.

'Are you okay?' Ryuzaki asked through an earpiece. I should've known he was watching me just as carefully as he was watching the screen. Ryuzaki found Mishima to be quite boring.

'I'm fine,' I whispered really softly as Mishima went on: 'He used the Death Note to persecute criminals all over the world. It reduced crime to a maximum of seventy percent and Kira followers still worship him as a God.'

'Some god!' Chief Sugawara snorted, throwing the file on the table angrily.

Suddenly, the door of the conference room opened and Matsuda came stumbling in. 'I am so sorry!' he stammered, quickly yet clumsily sitting down in the only empty chair next to me. 'I got stuck in traffic and then the e—'

'Matsuda, don't interrupt the meeting, please,' Chief Yagami ordered. Matsuda swallowed hard and looked down.

I saw Mishima looking at him, but not annoyed. Too much of a Kira-case fanboy to be annoyed with one of its original Task Force members. So he just sighed and continued as if nothing happened. 'Neo Kira also targets criminals, not innocent people. Sakura Aoi is pretty much the opposite of both Kira and Neo Kira and thus is not the person we are looking for.'

Just as he concluded his statement, someone at the door spoke. 'What a worn notebook.'

We all looked over. A young man with cheek length dark hair, with grey streaks and green eyes stood in front of the door. He must've slipped in right after Matsuda.

'And who are you?' Chief Yagami asked.

'Ah, do excuse me,' he said before bowing. 'Masayuki Arai is the name. I will be working with the Japanese Task Force from now on.'

'Watari, background check,' I heard Ryuzaki say through my earpiece. I frowned. This meant that he came here without Ryuzaki's knowledge. That was shady.

'I hired him,' Chief Sugawara said, standing. 'To make sure the cooperation with L and his… assistants goes smoothly without complaints from other departments, it seemed wise to hire another high profile detective.'

There was a silence. No one knew what to do with themselves. That is to say, all but one. Masayuki Arai seemed surprisingly relaxed as he let himself fall onto one of the chairs that were stood against the wall and kept his gaze on Mishima. 'But seriously, though, it really is a very worn notebook. Isn't it time to buy a new one, kiddo?'

'It's just well used,' Mishima said, clearly already annoyed. Something we shared at this moment. Even though he was silent, I could feel irritation with Ryuzaki, too.

'He's a Death Note fanboy,' Nanase said with a smile, too kind to be annoyed at anyone or anything.

'I'm not!' Mishima said, more annoyed, but already more than used to it.

The new member pulled his eyebrows up. 'Fanboy?'

'You can ask him anything you'd like to know about the Death Note,' I said, giving Mishima the task none of us wanted to fulfil. No one wanted to assist the new guy. And who knew, Mishima did enjoy talking about his favourite hobby. That being the Kira investigation.

'It's rather useful,' Matsuda said.

I gave him an odd look.

'What?' he asked me in a whispery tone.

I rolled my eyes. I wasn't going to explain that he should not need that since he was there the first time, but trying to reason with Matsuda was like trying to teach a cactus to dance. It looked quite dumb and it was a great waste of your time.

Masayuki Arai just laughed. God, I already knew I did not like him.

'Now then,' Chief Sugawara said, turning to Chief Yagami. 'I would like you to take me downstairs and show me Sakura Aoi's Death Note. Detective Arai can come along as well, of course.'

'All my Task Force members are allowed to come,' Chief Yagami said sternly, no doubt in his voice. He wasn't going to let his boss have the upper hand. Because he was still the chief of the Task Force, not him.

'And is L coming along as well?' Masayuki Arai asked.

'No, he won't be corresponding with us in person,' Chief Yagami replied. Then he looked at me and gave me a reassuring half-smile. 'But his assistant is.'

'Thank you,' I said, faking a polite smile. 'But I would like to pass. I've seen enough Death Notes for a lifetime.' I looked over at the new detective, waiting for his reaction. I got none. He just looked at me like he wasn't interested at all. And then he gave me a false smile.

He was going to cause some problems, I could already tell.

XxX

'Olivia!'

Misa ran through the canteen and flung her arms around me. She smelled like cheap soap and hospital, but her aura hadn't changed much.

'Oh my God, I haven't seen you in ages!' she squealed as she slowly let me go. 'How's it going? Found a boyfriend yet? Did you hear from my agent? I think he's been avoiding me. Which is odd, because my contract is still unbroken and my career going strong! I am even getting a reality show when I am discharged about how I will climb back up and I—'

'Misa!' I interrupted and she frowned at me. 'Calm down. I have more than enough time to hear you out. So calm down. Let's sit down first, then you can tell me everything, alright?'

'Alright!' she immediately agreed, pushing me to the nearest table and forcing me in one of the uncomfortable chairs. No one was really looking at us, but there were people in the room. Some young women were sitting in front of the television and a couple of people were playing a card came at one of the bigger tables. A man was talking in circles in front of one of the doors.

'So!' she then said, folding her hands under her chin and looking at me with one of the most innocent smiles I knew. 'Tell me everything. I feel like I have been living on Mars or something. Like, no one visits me anymore! It's so frustrating!'

I tried to think of something to say. I tried to think of a subject, something to talk about. But I got nothing. Me and Misa had never been friends, exactly. She had been in my life and that was it. I did sort of like her now, she annoyed me much less, though it did not seem like her personality had changed. And despite the fact that Light had tricked her, she never seemed to blame anyone. Which was admirable.

'Are you okay, Misa?' I asked through all of her questions I did not know how to answer.

Her word-vomit stopped and she looked at me with big eyes. Then I spotted it, behind those eyes. Grief, sadness, loneliness, fear. But she pulled up another one of her smiles and gave me a wink. 'I will be fine, Olivia. And besides, people love me here! I even get to perform in public areas every now and then. I think I am exactly where I want to be.'

That last sentence made me frown. I analysed her face, but could not spot it. I knew that the last sentence meant something, something important. But I did not grasp it. 'And why do you think that?'

'Well, I am easy to find, of course,' Misa said simply, the dark dangerous secret now much closer to the surface. 'So if anyway wants to find me, it's not that hard and yet I will always be save. Did you see the security guards here?'

Yeah, I did. Scary dudes in white robes. The best bodyguards in the world, probably.

'Aren't they amazing? Quite sexy, too,' Misa then said, changing the topic ever so subtly.

The frown stayed on my face. 'Is there anything else you would like to tell me, Misa? Anything related to… the latest events?'

'Nope,' Misa said, too quickly. She caught on, looked at me with her eyebrows raised. Got you.

I had to talk to Ryuzaki about this.

I sighed, decided that I shouldn't stay here until I had talked to Ryuzaki about this. 'I have to get going,' I said as I stood from my chair.

Misa did not seem to mind much. Eagerly, she stood as well. 'Okay! Will you come visit me next time?'

I narrowed my eyes. There, that was it. That was odd. Not necessarily that she would ask me to come back, but the fact that she phrased it so awfully. 'I will be back. But I don't know when, I'm quite busy.'

'Oh. Okay,' she said with a big smile. 'That's alright. Don't feel the need to hurry, okay?'

Definitely suspicious. 'Alright,' I said slowly, unsure what anything she said really meant.

'Oh, and do give Ryuzaki my greetings,' she added as I was leaving.

I was too much in a hurry to realise she had no way of knowing I was still by his side until I was already back in the car.

XxX

I found Ryuzaki in his usual place in the old headquarters' main room when I got back. Eating snacks, staring at his screen. I was used to seeing Ryuzaki sit alone in a dark room and yet… seeing this place so empty again made my heart break a little.

'You can just ask Matsuda to come here after work hours, too, you know he'll love to,' I said as I slowly approached him.

Ryuzaki turned his chair to me. 'Why would I want that?' he asked, clearly confused, not getting the hidden meaning.

I rolled my eyes and walked towards the kitchen area of the room. 'No reason.'

'I did a background check on Masayuki Arai,' Ryuzaki told me.

I opened the fridge with a frown. Only cake and other stuff that wouldn't suffice as dinner. Great. 'And?' I asked, not sure if I was interested in that man or not. Everyone in the Task Force sort of blended together after a while. Except for Mishima. But that was because I found him exceptionally annoying sometimes.

'Nothing yet,' Ryuzaki replied. Which did spark my attention.

'What?' I said, grabbing a banana from the fruit bowl before walking over to him. 'You did not find anything about a certain someone? I thought it would take you – like – six minutes.'

'My thought exactly,' Ryuzaki replied honestly. 'But I don't know anything about him. I don't know his detective name, it's not the name he has given you, I am certain. The FBI don't know the name, so it's quite possible just one he made up for this case. I set Watari permanently on it, so you will be on your own during the Japanese Task Force meetings for now.'

'Oh, great,' I said sarcastically. 'Because I was so thoroughly enjoying myself before. Is it really necessary to work with these people? Can't you just put a correspondent on it or something, I mean, we don't even know if the new Kira is in Japan or not.'

'Oh, he is in Japan,' Ryuzaki said casually, as if this was information I already knew.

I halted peeling the banana. 'What? Since when do you know that?'

'Since this little thing happened,' Ryuzaki said, pointing at one of the screens.

Frowning, I walked the last bit towards the screen and saw what he meant. 'What… what is this?' I asked, taking a step back as soon as I saw what it was.

A picture of Light Yagami was on the screen, his eyes masked off with a red line and the familiar font saying "KIRA" above it. Even with the eyes like that, it was clearly Light Yagami. It was clearly Kira.

Ryuzaki didn't noticed the impact it had on me and went on casually explaining. 'This is a virus. It hijacked computers and smartphones. The hackers method is called the Pacifist Hacker, it cyberattacks states who are not taking the right precautions regarding terrorism.'

'Is… Is there anything else?' I asked.

Ryuzaki frowned, finally noticing how much this effected me. 'Well, there's a message that comes with it, but the audio is completely distorted.' He pressed play and indeed, a distorted piece of audio started playing.

'I am Kira. I control the lives and deaths of all humans. I have the power. And to bring peace to this world I will eliminate all fools. Kira is needed to create a new world. I am Kira. And I will be the God of the New World.'

'Okay, out, out. Stop.' I backed away from the screen, frustrated, scared. I knew the Death Notes were back, I did. When we arrived back in Japan, when I heard a new Kira, Neo Kira, had arisen, I had known. But I hadn't realised that we were back in the Kira-game until now. We were once again back, as if we never left. But now it was worse. Because now, we had all the context. And we could do nothing to stop it.

'I thought you knew,' Ryuzaki said and I heard a hint of sadness in his voice. 'I thought at the Task Force, you heard everything.'

'I left early,' I explained, putting a hand against my forehead, 'I went to visit Misa.'

'Oh,' Ryuzaki replied, uninterested. 'Good. We need to keep an eye on her. If the current Kira knew Light was involved, he must know about Misa, too.'

'But you don't think Neo Kira is Misa?' I asked, reminded of her strange behaviour earlier.

Ryuzaki slowly shook his head. 'No. I have asked the nurses to check all her belongings and I have let Watari keep an eye on her for a week or so. She is in the clear, for now. But you never know what might happen in the future.'

'Okay,' I said after a short thinking period. I was considering telling him about my visit, but then again, he didn't ask and it didn't seem that relevant. 'So. How does Neo Kira know that Light Yagami was the original Kira?'

'Well, there has to be a leak, somehwere. The small group of the FBI that know about it can have slipped up, or a member of the Task Force.'

'Or Misa,' I reminded Ryuzaki.

He turned around in his chair to study my expression. 'For someone who seemed to be bound on vouching for Amane Misa before, you sure are not helping her case today. Did something happen? Did she perhaps say something to you or…?'

'Nothing happened,' I lied, to which Ryuzaki narrowed his eyes. He spotted my lies way too easily.

'Do you—' Ryuzaki begun, but he was interrupted when the door opened and Watari walked in, not a friendly smile on his face for once, but a worried look that I couldn't quite place. That and he was carrying his laptop, which made it very easy to spot that his hands were shaking.

'Ryuzaki,' Watari said, his voice steady.

'Yes, what is it, Watari?' Ryuzaki said, his focus still entirely on me. As if he would forget I was there if he broke eye contact.

'I have found something important regarding the detective you wanted me to research, Masayuki Arai,' he said, putting his laptop down on the table. 'And I have also found a lead in the ongoing Near-investigation.'

'Excellent work, Watari,' Ryuzaki said before breaking eye contact with me. I let out a relieved breath as Ryuzaki walked over to the table to talk to Watari in a more natural way than staring at me while doing so. 'What is it?' he asked.

'Well, I have scanned his profile and looked through several addresses, locations, identities and I found out who he is working for, in fact,' Watari explained, pointing at things on his screen. Things I couldn't identify because I was standing too far away.

'Well, this sure is surprising,' Ryuzaki suddenly said, sounding not that surprised at all.

Curious, I walked over to the table. 'What is it?'

'The connection…' Ryuzaki mumbled.

Frowning, I looked over at Watari. He was always more than willing to clarify, something I couldn't always say about Ryuzaki. 'What is it?' I repeated.

'The thing is,' Watari begun, clearing his throat before continuing, 'that those two assignments seemed to be connected.'

'Are you saying that…'

'Yes,' Ryuzaki interrupted me, stealing the explaining job from Watari. 'Masayuki Arai has a connection with the detective N. It's very likely Near is behind this.'

XxX

I actually planned on leaving Arai – or "Ryuzaki" as he is mainly referred to in the movie – out of the story. But I realised he says a lot of things that neither Allison nor Ryuzaki would ever say, so I thought it would be interesting to keep him in for contrast. That and I also wanted to add someone who was a tad more normal, so this guy probably won't be accurate to the movie. I just felt like Ryuzaki becomes sort of normal if his only team players are Olivia and Watari, who have already accepted the weirdness of him.

XxX

hpfan59: oooh, I get it! Yeah, I could do something like that, as an extra. Not sure when or how I will, though, so I won't make any promises, since I am so busy and I don't want to give anyone false hope. But that definitely goes on the list of things I might like to do.

XxX