Bad news seems to be a recurring theme in these updates, not just for the plot but for the process of producing this FF. In this case, what's happened is that, on the day after I'm posting this, I'm starting university. I'm not planning another massive hiatus, but things could get… complicated.

Anyway, shoutout to for favouriting and following 私は、キラ / I, Kira.

(Chris' POV, 15:13, July 25)

'Venus was once temperate. It had seas and rivers, and Venusians cultivated vast fields of beautiful flowers… until their greenhouses fled the planet due to the runaway greenhouse effect. The Venusians pursued their greenhouses to Earth, settling in the Netherlands and kick-starting the Dutch floral industry. Any questions? Yes, Connor?'

'Because you're retiring in a month, do you just not care what you say anymore?'

'What? I ride the skies atop a screaming bird of truth! Also, yes, I do not.'

If Connor is right about finding the Task Force headquarters, the next message can go directly to them, along with orders forcing them to broadcast it live. And if we do that we won't have to deliver the message to TTT, which is getting more militarized and impenetrable every day. But then what about the L case? Can Connor and Kallet be useful? The former is trustworthy and reliable, and the latter is skilled in manipulating male humans, but I'll need her to get along with Lauren somehow. And I don't even know if that's poss-

'Chris?'

'Huh?'

'You agreed that we'd go out, right?'

'No, Kallet.'

'So then why are we sitting together in class?'

'Well, the seat next to me was empty, and then you sat in it.'

'…if you want us to break up, just say it. So I can ensure we don't.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

Before she can answer, the teacher announces,

'Aaaand it's 3:15. Class dismissed.'

I hurriedly throw everything into my bag and leave the class with everyone else, and find Lauren waiting just outside the school as planned.

'Chris!'

'Hey Lauren… what's wrong?'

'I found this in my bag at the end of school.'

She passes a small folded-up piece of paper into my hand, and I unfurl it to see it's contents.

Roses are red, violets are blue

Chris is for me, he is not for you

And if you keep trying to take my place

I'll use my fist to deform your face.

'Chris… is it Kallet?'

'Yeah, Kallet. Did she take anything?'

'No, I double-checked.'

'…This is going to be an awkward meeting.'

A train-trip later and the two of us, four including Shinigami, are quietly walking toward the L case headquarters, the abandoned warehouse on the way home from the station. There's nobody around so I'll take the chance to ask…

'Dimina, you're helping Lauren, right?'

'Nope. But I need her to live so I can stay down here in this human world.'

'But you are helping Rugo. So if Rugo is happy, then you are too?'

'You could say that. I don't want him to have to suffer any more.'

'…Rugo, could you ask Dimina, to, in the event that-'

'Don't bother.'

'But you just said you want Rugo to be happy and if I'm caught by Luci, how can he be? Shinigami are forbidden to directly tell a human another person's name or lifespan, but-'

'As I just said, don't bother. I'm not heling unless it's absolutely necessary, or unless I feel like helping.'

'Well that's reassuring.' I sarcastically reply right as we reach the entrance to the warehouse.

And it looks like Connor and Kallet are already here. And sitting on a wooden crate beside them I can see Tom furiously typing away on a Mac.

'Finally, you two showed up! Kallet and I were starting to get worried… Lauren, welcome to the L case. Your brother's already been debriefed on everything we've got so far.'

'As have I, by Chris. So can we skip the formalities and jump straight to the good stuff?'

'Sure-'

'First of all, what makes you so confident that this one location is the real thing?'

'Well, for one thing it's the only place the limo has been to for more than a few minutes besides school, a couple shopping malls and a gas station. Second, I tried to research the building and it appears it was a hotel, before it was anonymously purchased ten days ago. And I can't find any information at all on who purchased it.'

'And what about before the purchase? Anything unusual in the hotel's occupants?'

'Well, a few rooms had been taken continuously since Christmas-'

'Bingo! You're the best, Connor! So, were those rooms booked anonymously too?'

'I couldn't figure that out. So, what now?'

'What do you mean?', I inquire.

'We know where the Kira Case is being run. What do we do with that information?'

'Well, we'll just have to find a way to tell the Kiras about it.'

Lauren and I will need to find a way to make these three think that they've delivered this information to Kira, without revealing that he's literally the one standing in front of them. And I can't use this information until then or else they'll realise…

'I say no.'

'What?!'

…I think everyone yelled that at the exact same time.

'Listen, we know that Luci is a horrible person but, I mean, Kira's no better. Like, what if I was accused of something and he killed me? Or, Chris, what if he killed you? I say the best option to take is to use this information to somehow lure the Kiras into a trap-'

'Kallet. I am going to say this one time… if you aren't with us, then you're our enemy. My enemy.'

'…But, but Chris-'

'No buts. Either you're in or you're out.'

…Wow, I've almost never seen her this visibly terrified before.

'Uhhh… okayyyy… okay I'm in…'

'I probably should've let her go while I had the chance. Stupid Chris.'

'So what do we do? I mean, we could try to spy on the investigation but that could be risky…'

(Tom's POV, 16:04, July 25)

Should I tell them that I've hacked into the security systems there already? No, not until I can be sure that Connor and Kallet are reliable. Kallet in particular. For now I'll just say…

'As Chris said, our main priority should be to find some way to inform the Kiras of what we know, and let them take it from there.'

'But how do we tell them? We're just a bunch of teenagers. And what if L captures the Kiras before we can give them this knowledge? We don't know how long it'll take to contact them or how long we have.'

Chris is quick to react.

'Are you suggesting we slow down the investigation? I mean, the only way to do that would be to somehow take L himself out of the picture, and since Luci has shown that he's L… while it would be naïve to think he doesn't have successors, it's clear that the person leading the operation there is him. It would still be simplistic to think that without him things will get easier, though. Now, if Luci goes back into hiding to protect himself, then we could be in trouble…'

'But if we were to remove Luci, how could we? We don't have the power of the Kiras, so we'd need to use more traditional methods. But I don't have the slightest clue how we'd pull that off. Any ideas?'

'Well, if you kill him, or anyone else who we need to get rid of, try burying the body 2-3 meters under a dead dog. Body-sniffing hounds will find it and the police will think it's a false positive. And if you're burying a full body, be sure to do so vertically so Satellites won't find the size of the hole suspicious. Ideally, though, it's better to drain the victim's bodily fluids into a tub and then cut it to bits. It's easier to bury that way, and takes less time. Another method is to put the body in a septic tank. They're full of disgusting bacteria, and the smell of waste covers the smell of decomposition rather well. You should also destroy all the teeth, massacre the face, burn all the fingerprints and remove the fingertips to prevent identification from anything other than DNA.'

…What the hell? What's up with Kallet all of a sudden?

'How the hell to you know all that?!'

'That's none of your damn business! Anyway, Chris, what do you think of… Chris? …Chriiiisssss-'

'Oh, sorry, my train of thought derailed. There were no survivors.'

(Chris' POV, 16:30, July 25)

'Are you sure your brother will be able to make it back home on his own? He's only 14.'

'I don't doubt it for a moment. Now, let's focus on Luci.'

'So, ideally we want to capture Luci alive.'

'And when do you want us to do that?'

'I have a way, I'll need it done sooner rather than lat-'

'How about tomorrow?'

'...Look, Dimina, there's something you have to understand. You see, we need to make sure that de facto apprehending him in the near future wouldn't lead to any negative repercussions such as strengthening the Task Force's suspicions that I'm a Kira. You understand now?'

'Uuuuh…'

She slows down her flight, backing away into the air.

'I still can't be 100% sure that Luci is L. Even if he is, since he's not publicly known to be L, I'd become an even greater suspect if he were to disappear. I can only imagine what would happen then.'

'So what can we do?'

'…We can leak Luci's identity online, that way if he dies or disappears or whatever, the Task Force won't be able to pin it on any suspects since anyone in the world with internet access could've seen it.'

'Sounds right. There's something else that's been on my mind too, though. Did you notice anything unusual about the way that Kallet gave her… murder advice?'

'Not really, no. I mean, she seemed a little enthusiastic about sharing her knowledge, and I know you're nervous after the note she left in your schoolbag, but it's probably nothing that you can't just find out on the internet.'

And we're finally home. A quick greeting from mum and we're up in my headquarters.

'So, no more places to launch drones from, and the TTT station is too heavily defended by now to send anything there by hand. Looks like we're screwed, Chris.'

'Not necessarily. We can just deliver it to another station.'

'And where's that?'

'Let me see…'

I slide my laptop out of my bag and flip it open.

'By the way, let me ask, do you sometimes think I'm a little boring in some way?'

'What makes you say that? I like talking to you and I always look forward to it. You aren't a bad friend to have.'

Did she say friend? Dammit, she said friend.

'Really? I'm glad. That makes me feel a little better, after this morning's disaster I was feeling like no one liked me for a minute, thank you.'

'What? Of course people like you.'

'Haha, thanks. And I know people like you too. And I'm pretty sure people have crushes on you too.'

'I doubt. I was always one of the most unpopular girls in my grade at my old school. And I'm very unattractive.'

'First of all, don't even think that. You're beautiful. Second, are you sure about someone not having a crush on you? Are you sure?'

'Well, certainly no one at school, so...'

'Oh, well, I'm pretty sure someone has a crush on you… anyway, here's our answer. The nearest hopefully un-militarized TTT station is about… a hundred kilometers away.'

'We'll need to take Indy's motorcycle again-'

'-Which is now welded to the rest of the makeshift Pod-racer. We'll need to use our Shinigami to fly there. But first we'll need to film it. Your suit's under the bed.'

You know, in my internal monologue I never went into detail on what Lauren's Kira suit looks like. It's design is pretty much the same as mine, except the redness of both the visor and the inside of the black cape surrounding the helmet replaced with a shade of green to dark too be called "light" and too light to be called "dark". I also added a handgun attachment point to the belt, and resized the suit's proportions to fit the shape of Lauren's body. So, a bit thinner at the waist and a bit wider at the chest. I also reinforced the outfit's material with-

'Wait, you haven't repaired your own suit yet. There's still cracks in the visor and the cape is still torn.'

'I'll repair it after this message.'

'Shouldn't it be a priority?'

'Of course it is, but this is more important. What, you think I like the fact I had to ruin my own suit just to give the illusion that I was at the attack four days ago?'

'…Sorry.'

'No need to apologize, Lauren.'

With our suits on, I stand up on the bed to reach a little lock, give it a twist, and step out of the way as a wooden ladder unfolds downwards. I allow Lauren to ascend up first.

I've never described our new "recording studio" either, have I? Well, it's a pretty simple setup. The entry to the attic is just above my bed, so it's easy to access, and the attic itself is sound-proofed well enough that neither mum nor Indy would be able to hear anything that's going on up here. The room itself is in the shape of a triangular prism, about three meters tall at it's peak and ten meters long, with walls slanted at a 45-degree angle. There's a single dusty window, but my setup is out of it's field of view so we don't have to worry about that. Personally I'm surprised I only thought to use this place a couple days ago. So far there isn't much besides the large black flag with the stylized "K" and the camera we're using, but I have plans to improve it soon.