(Nigel's POV)

The events of the last few days have been... stressful, to say the least. As chief of the Australian NPA I have seen many murder cases over the years, but something about this feels... different. Perhaps it's because the investiagtion is being led by someone I know nothing about, or perhaps-

At that moment my office door is slammed open by a familiar detective.

'CHEIF BLACKHEART!'

'There's no need to shout, Mungalo. Now what is it?'

'Turn on Tomorrow's Today Tonight! Quick, ya don't want to miss this!'

Before I can respond, the agent grabs the remote on my desk and turns on the wide-screen plasma TV that we installed after our budget increases last year. The screen is now showing three people I recognize as the hosts of Tomorrow's Today Tonight, and above them a stylized headline reads:

KIRA'S RESPONSE

TWO TERRIFYING VIDEOS

'In other words, we are being held hostage by Kira and have no choice but to air this video. If we do not broadcast this message, he will kill everyone here at Tomorrow's Today Tonight. At the same time, we feel that doing so is our professional duty. I would like to emphasize again that this video is not being broadcast as a hoax or for the purposes of sensationalism, at least not this time.'

Held hostage by Kira? What's going on here?

'Less than one chapter ago, an envelope containing a USB and a handwritten message arrived at this station, adressed to one of our directors. It was, without a shadow of a doubt, sent by Kira. The first tape announced the exact time of death for ten criminals convicted over the last two days. Exactly as predicted, they all died at exactly 6:00PM this evening, of heart attacks. Who besides Kira is capable of carrying out something like this? From this fact, we have concluded that the origin point of this message is none other than Kira himself! Or herself, we don't know Kira's gender.'

If this really is true, they're right. Nobody besides Kira could do that.

'The envelope contained instructions from Kira telling us the air this, the second video, within the hour. We have not viewed this video ourselves, but Kira's instructions state that it will include a message directed at the entire world.'

By now over a dozen officers are staring intently at the screen, with not a single peep coming out of one of-

'This has got to be another one of their fake stories, righ-'

'SHUT UP OKADA! Now, we need to stop this broadcast!'

'Agents Red, Marco, Maes and Clovis are speeding towards the station's headquaters as we speak!'

'Good, good.'

The screen suddenly changes to show what i can only assume is Kira, although his costume exposes not a centimeter of the man himself. The costume seems to consist of a tight dark purple suit, with golden stripes and long, warapped sleeves. Worn over it is a black and gold cloak with a crimson material lining the inside and an enourmous black cape encircling the head, the inside of which seems to be glowing bright red. His cloak seems to be covering something on his suit around wait level, but I can't see what it is. But one of the most visible parts of the entire costume is a spiky black and red helmet, completely hiding Kira's face. Aside from that, a black stylized K is imprinted on his otherwise-white collar. Behind Kira, a large flag covers the entire background, with a white stylized K on a black, featureless background.

'Attention entire world! It is I, Kira, the one who has begun to eliminate the evils of this Earth! As you are mostly aware by now, I have just been challenged by the world's supposed greatest detective, L, to see if my mission will be one of success or defeat, to see if he can bring me down without being killed himself. So to you, L, I say this: I accept your challenge! And I will not go undefeated! I will prevail, and reshape the world into a utopia free of all crime and war! And to the rest of the world, I say this: Do not fear me, as there is no reason to. I love justice and hate evil. If you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.

But there is only so much I can do, and the actions of the people of the world will play a major part in how well things change. First, I may as well start with the most popular topic regarding violent crime: Gun Control. Now, there are a lot of people, perhaps even a majority, who believe that restricting the civilian population's access to firearms will lower gun violence. But does this hold up in practice? First, let's look at two of the most extreme examples of this. Switzerland and Honduras have roughly the same population, and while Switzerland requires their citizens to own guns, Honduras has outlawed cilivian armament completely. Yet it is Switzerland who has the lowest homicide rate in the entire world, while Honduras has the highest.

And we don't even have to look at such distant countries to see similar results. In the UK, gun violence has increased 89% since enacting their gun ban, and here in Australia, Armed robberies, Armed assaults, Home invasions and Firearms homicides have all gone up by 19% or more. So why are we blaming guns for this? After all, when there is a terrorist bombing, we don't blame the bomb, we blame the bomber! And when there's a drunk-driving accident, we don't blame the car, we blame the driver! So why are so many governments, especially in the western world, so focused on disarming their populations...'

(L's POV)

This is bad. This is really bad. I've watched and read Death Note twice in the last week and I am absolutely certain "Light" didn't do anything like this at all after L's debut. Then again, this Kira is not Light Yagami, and I am not L Lawliet. And what this is showing is that Kira isn't just going to play along and try to replicate the journey of his idol (at least I assume that's how he sees Light). But then why did he seem to fall for the exact same trap as Light just a few hours earlier? I specifically designed that stunt to replicate what was shown in Death Note as closely as possible, so...

...

...

Perhaps I am just overthinking this. In any case, right now my immediate goal is to stop this broadcast as fast as possible. And it doesn't look like Kira's speech will be finished anytime soon...

'But let's move off that topic for now and talk about a type of crime which, despite being documented for centuries, has only been considered a real issue in that last two decades: Terrorism. Now, you may think that this'll be easy to sort out, after all I am perfectly capable of wiping out pretty much all the world's terrorists as well as the ones commanding them. But, while I have already begun that and will continue to do so, my efforts to end terrorism in the western world will be much harder than you'd all expect since a majority of terrorist attacks these days are orchestrated to some extent by western intelligence agencies in order to gain support for illegal wars, and I can't exactly kill the people in charge of those agencies, since, well, they aren't considered criminals.

Now that may sound like an extreme statement, so while I won't go over every single bit of my proof of that, I will quickly go over some of the points that stand out the most with a few quick questions. First, why is it that, with minimal exceptions, there is no pro-western Middle Eastern country with any major Islamic State or Al-Qaeda activity? And how come we have France coincidentally voting to accept Palestinian statehood right before they get attacked by ISIL. Sure, perhaps a single event can be considered a coincidence, but then we have Japan who gives $100 million to Palestine to reconstruct Gaza and suddenly, ISIL takes two Japanese hostages! And why has president Obama retitled Green-flag Syrian Jihadists to "Freedom Fighters"? And why is it that, when asked five times at point-blank range about her support of Al-Qaeda in Syria and Libya, Hillary Clinton completely ignored the journalist questioning her?

Now here's the real way that nations such as the United States could've stopped these terrorists without me getting involved: Step one, stop arming them. Step two, stop funding them. Step three, stop training them. Step four, admit that you're doing all of the above and accept whatever punishment the international community gives you. But no, instead I had to step in and get rid of them myself!

Similarly, how is it that, while attacks performed by these terrorists are so heavily sensationalized in the western media, no-one ever looks at the atrocities being commited by the western nations themselves? Wether it's Saudi Arabia beheading more than twice as many people as ISIL in the year 2015 alone, or the United States dropping tens of thousands of bombs and missiles onto foreign soil every year, or countless children being murdered by Israel in Gaza and Palestine, the mainstream media just loves to cover up nearly everything that's inconvenient to the powers that be. Instead, they scapegoat other nations, most notably the Russian Federation and Iran.

Focusing on the latter, there seems to be an almost viral notion of Iran being a big scary empire that wants to destroy Israel, so let's compare the two. Iran does not have and is not building an atomic bomb, has signed and ratified the NPT, allows IAEA inspections, and has not offensively invaded another country in over two centuries. Israel, on the other hand, has hundreds of thermonuclear weapons with dozens of megatons of explosive energy, refuses to sign the NPT, refuses IAEA inspections, has repetitively attacked its neighbors and is wiping two of them off the map as we speak, and is strongly displaying their control over western media by making Iran look like the bad guy! And then we have the United States, which not only has the world's second-largest nuclear arsenal and an annual military budget nearly exceeding every other nation on the planet combined, but is the only nation who has actually used nuclear weapons on civilian targets in warfare, and has gone nearly a century without so much as an apology!

Of course, this iron fist of destruction doesn't just devastate distant lands, it also shows its might in our very backyards. For example, did you know that the average American is eight times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist? Or that there are already cures for cancer, but they are all suppressed because cancer is worth $160 Billion a year? Or that In 2005 a Supreme Court decision declared that it is not the duty of any police force in the US to protect citizens, just enforce laws? Or, in a more extreme example, that Martin Luther King's family won a civil lawsuit in 1999 proving that the US government was responsible for his assassination? And how is it that a nation with the world's largest prison population can call itself the "land of the free"...'

This is bad. This is really bad. Sure, he isn't saying anything that hasn't already been said via alternative media outlets (which I assume are one of his primary outlets of information), but even if we stop the broadcast, I have no doubt thousands of people are recording this entire broadcast, and the video will likely go viral all over the world. This isn't some shitty Youtube channel with less than a million subs, this is... going to be impossible to contain. Still, we can limit the amount of damage by stopping the broadcast ASAP.

I look down at my laptop to see that I have an incoming call from cheif Blackheart.

'L, have-'

'I'm watching it right now. I've already ordered-'

'Yes I know. They should be arriving at TTT's headquaters any second now.'

A second call is incoming from the agents I sent over.

'L, we've gotten into the building, but the elevators don't work!'

'Then take the fucking stairs! Seriously, can't you figure out anything for yourselves?'

'It's seven floors up to the studio.'

'THEN RUN FASTER!'

Angrily shutting off both calls, I turn my attention back to Kira.

'But this madness will soon be history! From Washington to Pyongyang, from Havana to Jakarta, to all those in power who have committed evil, fear me! After all, I am Kira! The one who will destroy a world, the one who will recreate the world anew! And while those in power who kill the innocent for greed and try to take away your most basic freedoms grow to fear me, I encourage the innocent majority to cheer me on, to support me in my endeavor, for you will be the ones who will benefit the most from the creation of my, no, of our new world.

Of course, a lot of people are going to hate me for this. Off the top of my head I can name three kinds of people that are going to oppose me: Those who think any killing is wrong under any circumstances, those who think the law – which, to simplify, says any killing is wrong under any circumstances – must always be followed and is never wrong, and those who don't want power to lie in the hands of an uncorruptable force they can't negotiate with, or even identify. That last group will probably include all the world's richest and most powerful people, and I'm very glad this power wasn't given to one of them.

Oh, and one more thing. The US presidential election is coming up, so it'll be fun to see who wins. Will it be the fascist psychopath leading the warmongering capitalist party, or will it be the other fascist psychopath leading the other warmongering capitalist party? Will it be the racist Oompa-Loompa or the corrupt murderer? In the end, it won't make any real difference. Both political parties work for the same corporations, and even if they didn't the elections are rigged anyway and its groups like Builderberg who really choose the-'

...

...

It's stopped. The screen has switched to the "we are now experiencing technical difficulties" thing. Does that mean the four agents I assigned managed to end the broadcast, or... I immediately reestablish my call with both them and the task force back at the Australian NPA HQ.

'Did you do it?'

'Yes, L, we have stopped the rest of the video from being aired.'

From the ANPA HQ I can hear many sighs of relief, and some celebratory cheers.

'Good, now collect all the physical evidence you can and-'

'There is none.'

'... What?'

'I'll let the director explain.'

I can hear the shuffling of hands for a moment, then-

'Is this L?'

'Yes, I am L.'

'Cool! I never thought i'd get to hear from Kira and L on the same day!'

'What did you do with the envelope and it's contents?'

'Well, Kira ordered us to completely destroy it all once we had transferred the contents of the USB to another computer.'

Shit. Even Death Note's Misa didn't think that far ahead.

'And what was in the USB?'

'It was just... two video files and a word document with a copy of Kira's instructions.'

'Well... at least we have something.'

(Chris' POV)

'WOHOO! DID YOU SEE THAT!?' I enthusiastically shout as I put my winter jacket away (you'd be surprised how cold the air is up there) and taking my plain blue pajamas out of the drawer.

'Ja, I'm rather impressed.'

'I mean, it's a bit unfortunate that they didn't get to broadcast the whole video, but I'd say this is already well beyond my expectations. Again, thanks for flying me to the station and back... also, can you please, umm, hide in the closet or something while I'm getting changed?'

'Sure, sure... Although I think your method of preventing the video's containment is... unrealistic, at least.'

'Yeah, if they somehow manage to hide the broadcast from the rest of the world, that would be a shame. But I don't see any harm in uploading the video anonymously to the Dark Web if all else fails.'

'Still, you're going to get a lot of haters. You kill people, and people die when they are killed. No matter what you say, a lot of people will think you're an evil serial killer with a god complex.'

'God complex, huh? Light Yagami wanted to be seen as a god. I personally do not desire such a reputation. I want history to remember me as more of a guardian, a savior, a hero… I want the world to know that I'm one of them. You can come out of the cloest now, by the way.'

'Alright... In any case, they'll still see that you're killing people.'

'... Rugo, let me show you something.' I pull up my right sleeve to show two rows of marks burned into my arm.

'Umm...'

'Back in the mafia's vigilante corps, everyone was required to add one dash on the right for every life they took, and one dash on the left for every life they saved. The total number of lives saved minus the number of lives taken was considered your "score", and the higher your score, the better respected you would be. In my time in the mafia I had saved a total of 7 lives, with a kill count of 5, so my score was 2. While I'm no longer in that faction, I still believe in the basic concept.'

'So what do you think your "score" will look like?'

'Well, every year more than four hundred thousand people are killed in homicides, nearly two hundred thousand in armed conflicts and over fourty million in abortions. In theory all I'd need to do is drop those numbers by a tiny bit for my score to stay above zero, but I don't want to settle for that. If I want to be a true hero, my score will need to be... far beyond my former self's wildest expectations.'

I'm suddenly interrupted by a loud kocking at the door.

'... Who is it?'

'CHRISTIAN ATARASHIMONO, HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WHAT DAY IT IS?!'

Opening the door, I reply.

'Yeah, mum, I put something on the stove...'

For those who don't know, Tuesday is our kids-make-dinner-day. And the number of times I've cooked something which anybody (including myself) considered edible is directly proportional to the number of penguins who have walked on the sun.

'You put it on three hours ago! Now the damn thing's sending out so much smoke, the red indians might mistake it for a peace signal! Now go down and help me make something for us! If I can do it six days a week, so can you!'

'What about Indy?'

'She's at a party and she won't be home until around midnight.'

As I enter the kitchen, mum speaks up again.

'... So, did you watch the broadcasts today?'

'Uh, yeah. You?'

'Yup! I think it's all rather exciting.'

'... So, whose side are you on?'

'The same i've always been on, of course! Ever since I started reading the manga all those years ago!'

Yeah, my mum's an otaku. And she knows Death Note just as well as I do.

'Heh, I don't know why I even had to ask.'

'Yes, I do have high hopes for Kira. I just... I hope Kira stays safe, and doesn't let his guard down.'

For a moment I'm almost considering telling her that Kira is the one she's talking to. No, I'll keep it to myself.