Alright, I am going to be honest. I've begun to seriously lack motivation for this. You see, recently my parents have put me in a situation where I'd only have a limited amount of time to work on this story, and that combined with the fact I only have one fan is a bit demoralizing. One way or another this story will be finished one day, but if no-one even cares then I may as well just take a break for a while. Speaking of my only fan, here's what he said regarding my latest chapter:

Damn, that must have sucked, especially if that was your birthday.

Yeah, it did.

Well I guess if these nanomachines exist, the aforementioned miniaturization of hardware has been already figured out.

No, no it's still a relevant question. One is human tech, the other is (hypothetical) shinigami realm tech.

1. Let's just say that college sucks majorly.

I couldn't agree more.

Except that there's a limit on that time and it's 23 days (IIRC) or in that neighborhood according to original rules. Someone committing a crime a few days before death sounds suspicious to me, and everyone who has read/watched DN in that universe.

Except, killing people who have recently committed crimes is kind of what the Kiras are meant to do.

You're actually using a real company's name? Just add a disclaimer I guess.

To minimize the possibility of anyone getting offended, I intentionally chose a company which:

A – is pretty hated already

B – doesn't exist any more

Lastly, shoutout to Burmalis for following and favoruiting I, Kira.

(Katashi's POV, 19:00, September 7)

Exactly as planned, Chris' personal choice for the WeAreChange-Team Kira collaboration negotiator enters the warehouse, alone and unarmed. I really wish I didn't have to be the one playing "Kira", but I'm sure any mistakes I make can be cleared up later on.

'Luke Rudowski, glad to see you've shown up as promised.'

He gives a soft chuckle.

'It's not like I had a choice, right?'

'Yeah you did. You think I just kill people willy-nilly?'

'Well, you do kill people outside of any kind of legal system, and you know I'm not too keen on that, so…'

'But it's still a bit rude to think that I'd kill you.'

'Alright, alright, I'm sorry.'

'Now, since you've had some time to think about it, do you accept the deal I have suggested?'

'Only under certain conditions.'

Shit. I can't say this is unexpected though.

'…Go on.'

'First and foremost, full protection for everyone even remotely connected to any WeAreChange personnel. If the Deep State find out about this alliance they'll hunt down-'

'Done.'

I'm guessing that was the easy part of the deal.

'Second, once this battle or war or whatever you want to call it is over, full transparency. The people of the world have a right to know how your power works, and who you are.'

'…Done.'

'And third, in order to know for sure that you trust me… take off that helmet.'

'…'

'…'

'Fine, I'll show you. Behind this mask…'

I remove my helmet, so he can see the identical one underneath. Tom's idea, and I'm glad he thought of it.

'…is another mask! Oh, come on Luke, did you really think I would show you? So, any more demands or are you in?'

'…I'm in.'

'Brilliant. Now, when you're directly collaborating with my team, you'll be dealing with a highly strung and temperamental group of rank amateurs who just happen to be brilliant at what they do. Your job's to give them eyes on the ground overseas, to relay important news to them and to provide your input in important discussions... Oh, by the way, Dimina may not like you, and if so she'll go out of her way to make your job as difficult as possible. Don't take it personally.'

I flip open a laptop and prepare to introduce him to the team. A voice call, at least, since we can't trust him enough yet for him to know our names or appearances.

(Rugo's POV, 14:33, September 9)

'The suggestion of having people indicted for corruption and then punished by Kira was a great idea. Hopefully it can keep going this well without any suspicion cast on us.'

'Well, that's why we have the group of us putting our minds together to come up with the best way to increase our wealth. The fact that we've also killed people from Monsanto itself is big too. And our stock is climbing slow and steady.'

'Yeah, it's all going according to our calculations. There's just one thing that's been bothering me. These three that died from heart attacks. I thought we agreed that two would be accidents and one would be disease.'

'Yeah, I have my own theory on what went wrong. When we planned out their deaths, we were being too specific. Kira's power can do a lot of things, but it's still confined to doing things that aren't physically impossible.'

I wonder if normal business meetings are this boring.

'So basically, if the death is impossible as specified, the person dies of a heart attack. That was Hellen's theory as well.'

'That's why I said last week that we should just say "accident". It seems clear that then the person will die of an accident as soon as naturally possible. And for death by disease, we shouldn't specify a date. It's fine as long as they will die someday of that disease.'

'Well, it's only three people. And we won't have to worry about it happening any more now. The police have their hands full just following the criminal deaths. If a person zeroed in on us from those three deaths I'd be rather surprised.'

Unimpressed by the discussion, I jump up through the ceiling to the roof of the building, where Alice is in a video call with Tom on her laptop.

'And then he was like, "wait, who are you exactly?" and I was like "Who, me? I'm just a Kira's little brother… but I'm one hell of a brother."'

'He could've interpreted that rudely.'

'Eh, I'm sure it's fine. And then after that we talked more about Team Kira's objectives for the rest of the year and the start of 2018. It feels like it's forever away.'

'The new year?'

'Yeah.'

'Well, you know something I like to do? I always start the year with an empty jar, and fill it with notes of all the good things that happen. On New Year's Eve, I empty it and see what awesome stuff happened that year.'

'So, what, seeing all the notes pile up in the jar makes you motivated or something?'

'In theory, yes. But last year all I saw was the receipt for the jar. Actually it's probably been a bad choice, since all it does is remind me how fast my life is burning away toward it's inevitable end.'

'Sounds like that sucks. Well, you know what they say. Life may be short… but Dimina is definitely shorter-'

*THWACK*

'Huh, rather than throw a punch she hit him with a pillow.'

'Ah? Does that mean something, Rugo? Also, don't creep up on me like that, you nearly gave me a heart attack.'

'Sorry. I meant, they must be getting along better than expected.'

(Luci's POV, 14:39, September 9)

One of my favourite things about being back in America is that it's easier to communicate with my friends here, or at least my last two surviving ones, M and Neon. In addition to those the group call has a couple more of M's subordinates who I don't recognize.

'Okay, just to make sure we're all on the same page here, let's be honest with ourselves for a moment. If either of the Kiras gained their power by chance, 999 times out of a thousand at least one of them would've been caught or killed long ago. Like it or not, the fact remains that there has to be someone behind the scenes who orchestrated this so that they'd be successful. In other words, someone intentionally set it up so that the wormhole would open up and release the power of Kira when and where it did. In other words, our chances of catching and killing the Kiras are less hopeful until we can address the elephant in the room, what y'all call the Shinigami realm. Thankfully, the next time the wormhole opens up… will be the last.'

The woman steps back from the screen at to the side, revealing a darkened map of the Asia-Pacific region with a large number of bright yellow dots clustered in the middle of the ocean.

'This operation will use the entirety of the Anglo-American ballistic missile submarine fleet. Twenty-two submarines carrying a total of 496 Trident II missiles, each of which is fitted with eight W88 thermonuclear warheads. In total that's 3968 warheads, or a bit under one point nine gigatons, of nuclear firepower. Since we don't know if the wormhole will open next over Sydney or Tokyo, the fleet is moving into position at nearly the exact halfway point between the two, minimizing the strike time to 18 minutes from launch.'

What the fuck?

'Any questions before I continue?'

'Yes. First of all, have you gone insane?!'

'I'm just doing what anyone in my position would do, or at least should do. Trust your gut before your head gets in the way, as they say. In any case, I don't see how that's important.'

'M, I don't think you understand. We don't know what the Shinigami realm's opinion of humanity is. If they lump us all into one category, and if they retaliate… this could kill everyone.'

'I don't care about the lives of a few thousand submarine sailors.'

'I'm not just talking about the military. I literally mean, they could kill everyone. On. Earth.'

'A negligible risk next to the reward. Luci, this is happening whether or not you agree with it.'

'…You're going to kill Light Yagami.'

'Yes, and no-one can stop me.'

'And the cheeto agreed to this?'

'Yeah, I promised him I'd stop spreading embarrassing rumors about him in the White House if he went along with the plan. Also I told him I'd leak his twitter password if he refused.'

'Are you going to keep either of those promises after the attack?'

'I haven't decided yet.'

*KNOCK KNOCK*

'Oh, sorry, I gotta go.'

(Twelve seconds later)

Our new St Louis headquarters are very similar to what we have back in Sydney, only far smaller and less luxurious. It's a little disappointing, but at least it makes it easier to bring the whole team together for discussions like these.

'Perhaps Monsanto has hired the Kiras to help them?'

'So, Pearl, I think it's safe to say that Kira being hired is unthinkable.' I reply.

'Why?'

'Because that would mean that a company was able to find the Kiras before we or any of the groups I'm in touch with could. That's not possible. Even if it's a big business, I can't imagine the Kiras helping them after being found out. It completely goes against their ideology. I'd expect Kira to immediately kill the person who uncovered him. A better theory is that someone in Monsanto has the same power as the Kiras, either gaining it independently or being given the power as Kira's puppet.'

'But what if the Kiras went to them? Maybe they figured they'd need money for something in the future…?'

'Kira can't be that cheap, that'd be immoral not to mention uncool.'

'Shut up Okada! If the Kiras needed money, there are far more efficient ways they could do so. Well, either way we better look into this.'

'But infiltrating a big business like Monsanto could be tough.'

'Not necessarily. First, Pearl and I should see if we can hack into Monsanto's main computer databases for anything useful. In the meantime…'

(Chris' POV, 08:17, September 11)

I think this'll be one of the things I'll miss most when I can't hide my secret identity any more. Walking out in the open, hand-in-hand with Lauren, like two ordinary teenagers heading to school.

'Well, it's that time of year again.'

'I know, I fuckin' hate Mondays.'

'Not what I meant. Sixteen years ago today, millions of Americans learned the geographic location of Afghanistan for the first time.'

'Oh… Oh! That's, kinda depressing.'

'I know. Just goes to show how much the elitists can get away with. Can't wait to see Kira's broadcast today, assuming he does one.'

Of course, both of us already know that "Kira" will, but we can't let Luci's thugs know we know.

'Do you think it could happen again?'

'To antagonize the Kiras, sure. Or just to instill a new wave of fear in the population. Or both.'

'I hope it doesn't happen here, though.'

'Are you afraid?'

'A little.' She leans in closer and wraps her arm around mine.

'Well don't be. Chances are the Kiras will foil any such plan before it happens. Hopefully. Maybe. Possibly.'

'How long do you think it'll be until the elitists are gone for good?'

'Well, ideally I'd want the Kiras to get rid of the remaining ones following a fair trial, like what happened at Nuremberg at the end of World War II.'

'With or without the "after a world war" part?' *giggle*

'Hehe, well if what happened with North Korea and Eastern Europe didn't start a global conflict, I'm doubtful anything will.'

She seems to trust my answer, but I don't. I can't see the elitists simply surrendering without a fight, using everything at their disposal. But Lauren doesn't need to be filled with anxiety over a war that may or may not happen. Not now, at least, when we're being watched and can't do a damn thing about whatever happens.

'Ne-'

-Beep-

'Hello?'

'Chris, where are you, class is starting in like ten minutes! You gotta come quick, Kira's broadcast has started. It's on the TV here in the hallway.'

'Oh, shit, we're on our way.'

While we're sprinting to class, I can hear brief bits of Kira's speech through Connor's end of the call.

'Even specifically designed… Boeing 707… even more destructive… one week prior… Zim Shipping Company… 30 years… half owned by…'

(A few hundred meters later)

'Oh, finally, you two are here!'

I turn off my phone and slide it back into my bag, and the three of us try to shuffle our way into the loud crowd surrounding the screen.

'And while so many people remind us that nearly 3000 people died on 9/11, almost no-one mentions the two and a half million lives lost in wars justified by 9/11. And nearly all of them were people who did nothing wrong, unless you count being born in the wrong place at the wrong time… Also, did you know that only 5% of Americans know about the third tower? According to the official story, WTC7 was the only building to self-implode at freefall speed from an office fire… ever. Ah, yes, that reminds me. Here's a challenge, see how many of these questions you can answer: What happened to the black boxes? Why did the Bush administration fight the idea of an investigation? Where is the wreckage from Flight 93? Like seriously, where was the fucking plane? And why didn't the NTSB do a proper investigation? Where is the video of a plane hitting the pentagon? What made WTC7 collapse? How did firemen report molten steel at ground zero, despite the fact the melting point of steel is several hundred degrees higher than the burning temperature of the aircrafts' fuel? Why were military and political people warned not to fly? Who scheduled the hijacking war games that very day? How did so many firemen report secondary explosions? Where was NORAD? A lot of these questions may indeed have reasonable answers, however to think that-'

'Oh, shit, class has started, we gotta go guys.'

'Dammit. Well, the speech will probably be uploaded online by lunchtime, we can watch it then.'