L stared at us owlishly. "I believe I have not properly introduced myself to you," he said, addressing Aunt Sachiko as well as me. "Yamada-san, I believe you were there when I first introduced myself to Yagami-kun, but I believe that it is apt for me to inform you that I am, in addition to being a student at To-Oh University, working with the Japanese Task Force on the Kira Case."

Aunt Sachiko raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

He's making it clear that he knows that I heard him on the day of the entrance ceremony. "That explains the alias, then," I agreed, nodding.

"I didn't go out of my way to hide it."

"Of course. For a moment, I thought I misheard you on the podium," I said blithely, but I looked him in the eye, confirming it.

"Indeed you didn't."

Light cleared his throat pointedly. "Anyway . . ." he began, steepling his fingers, "are you sure this was really caused by overwork?"

Of course, it was the question that had been hanging in the air the whole time—and it was one that only Light and I knew the answer to. And the only appropriate thing Light could have said in this situation, as strange as it was—and L picked up on it too.

"Light! What are you saying?" Aunt Sachiko scolded sharply.

"Mom, he had a heart attack. Who wouldn't make the connection? I mean, that's the way every single one of Kira's victims died," Light pointed out. Doing this takes some suspicion off him—it should be blatantly clear to L that Light wouldn't harm his own family.

"Yes . . . to be honest, that's exactly what crossed my mind as I was going down," Uncle Soichiro agreed.

L raised his head. "You do head the task force in charge of this case . . . Kira has more than enough reason to want you dead. A murder attempt by Kira, hmm . . . we can't rule it out completely."

Oh . . . another test? Light had already proven himself to L. If L did suspect me of something, this was my chance to clear my name. And, odds were, this was a test for me. "Well . . . it would make sense for Kira to want to get rid of the NPA's leader, but the timing doesn't add up," I mused. "If Kira wanted the leader of the task force dead, they would've either done it earlier, or waited until after L died. There haven't been any public instigations from L for a while now, so pulling this out of the blue is pretty random."

Light nodded. "That makes sense. Actually, yeah, you're right." Slumping his shoulders, he looked straight at Uncle Soichiro. "That's a relief, then—it means you weren't targeted by Kira, Dad. I . . . I don't want to think about what could have happened if you were. You could have been killed . . ." So Light managed to take that to his advantage.

The following silence was heavy, but Uncle Soichiro broke it by clearing his throat. "Sachiko. Light's here now, and anyway, I'm alright. You go on home—and not a word of this to Sayu. I don't want this to upset her."

Aunt Sachiko sighed. "Alright, then. I'll be back tomorrow with some of your things. Thanks for coming, Light, and you for being here, Kimiko."

"No problem," I said, while Light nodded and hummed in acknowledgement.

I pointedly looked downward. "It isn't necessary that Uncle Soichiro wasn't targeted. There's another possibility, but it kind of debunks itself."

"Oh? Do explain," L said, raising a thumb to his mouth.

I bit my lip. "Kira's deaths are caused by heart attacks, right? I was thinking that there's a chance that they decided to send out a non-lethal one to the person leading the case as a warning of sorts, since Uncle Soichiro hasn't done anything wrong to warrant Kira's punishment."

"That was a conclusion I had reached myself," L agreed. "What makes you assume that it isn't plausible?"

"Because that begs the question," Light interjected, "why hasn't Kira used this method of non-lethal heart attacks before? Why only now, and why only once?"

I nodded. Light explained it better than I could—if it was possible for Kira to use this method, why was it only applied here? "Yeah. At first, I thought that Kira just hadn't felt the need to use it yet, because they were only killing criminals—even with Lind L. Tailor. But the deaths of the FBI agents that were sent to Japan offsets that. If Kira can give non-lethal heart attacks and planned on using it on people who just interfered with his purpose, why not use it on the FBI agents?"

"You're neglecting to realise," L interrupted, "that Kira has only gained the power to kill people within these last six months. It's possible that Kira's skill set has expanded—that Kira's only just gained this power to give non-lethal heart attacks. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, it could have been a failed attempt. We don't know Kira's methods yet, so we can't know for sure." L glanced back at us—I was staring at him blankly, Uncle Soichiro looked troubled, and Light was almost glaring at L, not even bothering to hide his disdain.

Thankfully, Uncle Soichiro broke the tension in the room. "I don't think it was Kira," he said plainly. "Kimiko's right about the timing being too random. And, well, now that I think about it . . . being under all this pressure, and the fear of being killed by Kira . . . I haven't had a good night's sleep in months."

I bit back the automatic response of "big mood", but when L added, "Having your own son under suspicion must be an emotional strain as well," I flinched.

"You told my father I'm under suspicion?" Light seemed appalled. Of course he did—Uncle Soichiro was the one who formed Light's ideation of justice in the first place. He was Light's role model in every way, and was quite probably the one person who Light respected above all.

"Yes," L answered without hesitation. "I've told your father everything, including the fact that I am L."

Light turned to Uncle Soichiro in disbelief. He did mention a short while ago that he didn't think the task force trusted L too much, because of what happened with the FBI agents . . .

Uncle Soichiro just nodded slightly in agreement. "That's right. This is L." A pause, and Uncle Soichiro glanced momentarily at me before continuing, "We've been calling him 'Ryuzaki' so that nobody finds out, but this is definitely L."

I turned to L. "I'm still surprised you revealed yourself so willingly."

"I want to catch Kira as quickly as possible," L said airily. "Yagami-kun said the same thing, you know." A tilt of his head. "The two of you are quite alike."

I was about to respond with well, we did grow up together, but before I could say anything, Uncle Soichiro asked, "So, Ryuzaki . . . has talking to my son cleared away your suspicions?"

If only. "No," Light admitted.

"To be honest, all his comments regarding the Kira case were just too on-the-ball. It's made me suspect him even more."

"Hold up," I interrupted before anyone else began speaking, "Light's smart. Plus, the two of us have been trying to figure out the Kira case on our own in our spare time. If he's been on-the-ball, that just means that what we've figured out is right. Or at least, we're on the right track."

"That is an impressive argument, Yamada-san," L mused, "but that doesn't concern what we discussed. Yagami-kun's . . . skills test was taken from information that was not made publically available. Unless the two of you were aware of what the clues sent directly to me by Kira were, I'm afraid you would have been unable to acquire this information."

Light chose that moment to step in. "Hey, saying all this to me is one thing, but don't say things in front of my dad that'll upset his condition. Try to have a little consideration, Ryuga." His voice was a lot colder than it had been a few moments ago.

Another sigh from Uncle Soichiro. "It's all right, Light. An ambiguous answer wouldn't make me feel any better. I much prefer hearing the truth." He paused. "And even though you're under suspicion, I understand it's not quite enough to make you an actual suspect."

"Wait, what?" I frowned, trying to make sense of that statement. "You suspect him, but he's not a suspect?"

"That's correct," L affirmed. This is supposed to be the world's greatest detective . . . ? "The two of you seem to misunderstand me a little. As I told Yagami-kun earlier, when I say 'suspicion,' I'm only talking about a very slight possibility. Let me explain: Kira murdered the twelve FBI agents who entered Japan—as is clear from the fact that all of them died of heart attacks on December twenty-seventh, the very same day they received that file."

. . . File? "What file?"

"There was a file sent to the FBI agents that contained the identities of all the agents sent to investigate in Japan. It's likely what Kira used to kill them."

"Oh." Right . . . that's how he got Penber to write the names in . . . that file. Okay.

Unruffled, L continued, "It is also a fact that Kira had access to Task Force information. I don't know how, though it does seem tat the firewalls on the Task Force computers were not particularly secure."

Uncle Soichiro looked like he was about to say something, but he just pressed his lips together into a thin frown.

L, of course, didn't notice. "Regardless, there's a very good possibility that Kira was able to access data from a task force member's computer. However, even though Kira murdered the FBI agents, he has not killed a single Japanese investigator. This can also lead us to infer that Kira is related to someone on the Task Force." L paused, music, "Well, I suppose Kira might be capable of murdering a member of his own family . . ."

Light frowned. "I see . . ."

"Wait." I raised a hand, drawing their attention. "Couldn't it be that the FBI just posed a larger threat to Kira? For one thing, they have a lot more training than the majority of our Japanese agents, and for another, their movements were unknown, since Kira could have kept tabs on the Japanese Task Force, as you said."

"That is a possibility," L said, then immediately went back to discussing Penber's suspicious actions and Naomi's alleged "strange behaviour" regarding her appointment being cancelled, and her sudden move back to the U.S., then continued to go into an in-depth explanation of how he'd come to the conclusion that Kira could have been in the Kitamura or Yagami families (though he neglected to mention anything about the cameras he'd planted in each house for a week).

The sun had already set by the time he was done. "So that's how you narrowed it down to the Kitamuras and us." Light crossed his arms, slinging one leg over the other.

"Yes."

"Well," Light said, "my view so far had been that since Kira was operating in the Kanto region, they must be Japanese, and that they couldn't bring himself to kill innocent Japanese for that reason."

Racial bias, I mused internally. That's a lie, and you can tell from Light's expression that he wouldn't do something like that; he's trying to distance his own self-image with the image of Kira he's putting up. I was right earlier about the FBI posing a larger threat to Light, but if Light had said that, L would probably have detected honesty in his tone. By making up this reason on the spot, L can tell it's just a wild guess with minimal basis, but it's not an illogical argument—I can't let myself underestimate him . . .

"But if those FBI agents were shadowing NPA personnel and their families, you're right—there's a good possibility Kira was among those they were probing. And I happened to be among those they were probing, too, so I can't fault you for placing under suspicion." 'Fault you'? That sounded so arrogant, Light. "In fact, you're absolutely right. There are no other likely suspects . . ." he trailed off, leaving the latter half of the sentence hanging in the air: But it wasn't me.

L glanced at Light from the side. "Your powers of deduction are outstanding, Yagami-kun. You're always precise, and very fast," he said.

"I'll help you with this investigation, Ryuga," Light said, intentionally using L's alias, "because my father has corroborated that you're who you said you were. And"—a shadow passed over Light's face—"I'll prove to you that I'm not Kira, because I'm going to catch Kira for you, L." He's making himself out to be an asset to L, and he's going out of his way to make it clear.

"Where do I fall in this, exactly?" I interrupted. "I've been getting a lot of information here, and I'm not sure why. Surely you wouldn't be the type to just let me know all this confidential information just like that," I said directly to L. "It's obvious that you've offered Light a position in the investigation, but you haven't even spoken to me before today, so why let me in on this? Why even let me know you're L?"

L turned to me, staring. For a moment, he didn't say anything, but then I saw a slight shift of expression in him—one of recognition. Maybe that has to do with what Kyoko mentioned about L thinking I was of interest too? Or am I overthinking it? "If my profiling of you is correct, then you would have found out on your own anyway, and would have hindered the investigation."

"Then I'm joining too." My declaration was a lot more forceful than Light's—enough to make clear in my own right that I wasn't going to stand back now. Of course, being the primary suspect, Light didn't have the privilege of being able to be pushy without being suspected even more—hence he had to try and sell himself as a valuable member to the Task Force, but I was under no such constraints.

Uncle Soichiro sighed before anyone could object. "Light, Kimiko, you both just concentrate on studying right now. You'll have plenty of time for catching criminals after you join the NPA." Funny how he assumes automatically that Light and I are both going to do the same thing. Then again—he wasn't really wrong. Since . . . well, since we were kids, I'd always been tied at the hip to Light. I'd never even considered the idea that Light and I would end up with different careers.

Didn't Light and I have a conversation about this once? He wanted to become a cop to protect people . . . and I said that I'd do the same thing because that was what Light was doing. Plus job stability. Job stability is always a plus in this economy.

Light shook his head, looking at Uncle Soichiro in surprise. "What are you talking about, Dad? That's still years and years from now."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, and Kira's already influenced society a lot. It's not picked up on in the media as much, but there are a ton of obscure websites that outright worship Kira, and there's tons of support all over social media for the mass killings of criminals."

Light took that moment to deliver his special attack: "And anyway, remember my promise? I swore that if anything happened to you, I'd make sure Kira got the death penalty. I meant that."

The only way he can say it with such conviction, I realised, is because he can separate "Light" from "Kira". Kira is an entity— No. Kira is a concept of justice, in his mind. Light is the person, Light is the hardworking college student.

Light took a deep breath. "Kira is responsible for what happened to you. If there's any chance that my input can help move the investigation forward, then I'll help out."

Uncle Soichiro seemed to relax a little more in his bed, but L's expression didn't change until he interrupted the silence in the room. "Yagami-kun."

"Hmm?" Light turned to face him.

"What kind of person do you think Kira is? What's your image of him?" L asked, angling his head to look at Light.

"My image of Kira . . ." The look in Light's eyes was distant, as though he wasn't there. "I think Kira is . . . an affluent child."

L finally appeared to be interested. "An affluent child . . . ?" he repeated, speculating. "I like it. Go on."

Light went on to explain that if a human had a power that could kill people "just by willing it", an adult would only use it for personal gain, while a child would be too freaked out by the power to use it, placing the most likely profile for Kira as a junior high or high school student, and that there was still some purity about Kira. "Kira's an affluent child, who already has everything they need. I'd say that Kira's probably a junior high student who has their own cell phone, computer, and TV." And he has thus tried to make it look like it isn't him—like he wasn't even a possibility in the first place.

L seemed to think about it for a moment. "So, according to your profile, Yagami-kun . . . the most suspicious of our present targets would be your sister, Sayu."

The chair Light was in clattered to the ground. "What is the matter with you? Did you come here to wish my father well, or to finish him off?" Light was practically shouting, and a single look at his face showed that he was beyond pissed.

"I was only drawing the obvious conclusion from your own speculation, Yagami-kun," L said innocently, staring wide-eyed at Light, who looked about ready to throw hands.

"Stop it, both of you," Uncle Soichiro admonished. "Nothing you say is going to faze me at this stage in the game. But if you're fighting, take it outside."

"Don't encourage them," I muttered under my breath.

Uncle Soichiro continued, "This might just sound like a fond father talking, but I'm absolutely certain that Sayu is not Kira." But not Light? "If anything, she's they type who'd kill someone she didn't like, and then cry her head off about it."

I recalled Sayu's uncertainty about her own opinion on Kira. I wouldn't be too sure, Uncle Soichiro . . . perhaps she wouldn't kill, but I don't think she really opposes Kira, either . . .

"You're right," L acknowledged, ignoring Light's glare as he leaned even further forward. It was a miracle he hadn't fallen off yet.

"Notice he doesn't say 'I'm certain that Light isn't Kira,' hyuk hyuk," Ryuk snickered. Not helping, I thought, noting that the tension radiating off of Light seemed to increase.

"Kira is evil," Uncle Soichiro declared, "there's no denying that. But lately I've been starting to think of it more like this . . ." A pause, then his voice became more firm, more resolute. "The real evil is the power to kill people. Someone who finds himself with that power is cursed. No matter how you use it, anything obtained by killing people can never bring true happiness."

"You're absolutely right, Yagami-san," L said immediately—just too quickly to be genuine. "If Kira is an ordinary human being who somehow gained this power, he is a very unfortunate person."

Light didn't say anything.

"But what if . . . Kira isn't trying to obtain something?" I said quietly. "Kira's motives seem to be nothing other than killing criminals. Where does that leave any room for personal benefit?"

"World domination," L said blithely. "Perhaps Kira thinks of himself as a kind of god, punishing sinners? Nonetheless, catching Kira is the only thing that's right. He's killing people regardless, and that must be punished."

I balked. "L," I said, using his name and looking him in the eye, "do you really want to catch Kira because it's the right thing to do?" Or do you want to catch him so your pride as a detective doesn't take a hit? Are you going to tell the truth?

L didn't answer for at least a minute. "Kira needs to be caught," he said finally, flatly, leaving the room in an uncomfortable silence.

"Ryuzaki," Uncle Soichiro said finally, "I'm sorry about collapsing like this, but I'll be back at work as soon as I can."

I resisted the urge to facepalm.

"What are you talking about, Dad? You need to rest until you're fully recovered," Light insisted, finally having stopped glaring at L, in favour of looking at his father worriedly.

"He's right, Yagami-san," L agreed, shock—or perhaps worry?—clear on even L's face. L isn't emotionless, I reminded myself.

"You can't risk your health now. It's far too dangerous," I put in.

"No. I'm not sitting here twiddling my thumbs with Kira on the loose. I'm going to get him if it's the last thing I do."

I winced, just as a nurse knocked on the door. "Visiting hours are over. You'll have to go now."

We thanked her, wished Uncle Soichiro goodnight, and left the hospital, after which Light immediately headed over to confront L.

I would have followed, but my phone began to ring. "Hello?"

"Um, may I know who's speaking?"

"Oh, yes! It's me, Kyoko!"

I tried to fight off a groan. Did she know what time I'd step out of the hospital? Furthermore . . . "How did you even get my number?"

"It's in the school records," she said casually, as if finding my phone number in the school logs wasn't totally creepy or anything.

"I . . . see . . ." I said.

"So, you met L-chan today, right? Right? Did you tell him about me?"

. . . L-chan . . . ? I had half a mind to just end the call there, but for the sake of politeness, I refrained. "If he is who you say he is," I began, purely for the sake of enforcing the act that I didn't know about Death Note, "then yeah. But today's been a pretty hectic day, so I couldn't really talk to him privately about it."

"Ohhh," Kyoko said, drawing it out. "That makes sense, since Yagami's dad collapsed today."

I didn't like how blasé her tone was. "I'm not going to ask why you can say that with such conviction, but you could do to sound a little more concerned, you know," I muttered.

"Oops, sorry . . . that was selfish of me!" Now she seemed genuinely apologetic. "I have a bit of a one-track mind . . ."

Yeah, I can tell. "I don't know how soon I'll be able to talk to him about it, Kyoko," I said, trying to sound a little patronising. "But I don't go back on my word."

"Okay, thank you! Bye!" And with that, she ended the call, just as I felt Light's hand fall onto my shoulder.

I sighed. "People are annoying."

Light gave me a halfhearted smile. "Something happen?"

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that? I'm gone for a few hours and you've suddenly befriended L, you're officially recognised as a Kira suspect, and your temper has the fuse of a bomb."

"I'm surprised too, but . . . that L guy . . ."

"You don't like him."

"I don't like him." Light ran a hand through his hair. "It's obvious he planned on getting you involved from the start, but . . . what's the point of that? What's he trying to get at? Does he think that I'll tell him what he wants to hear if he holds you against me?"

I paused. "Wait, what? Why is this about me now? Aren't you a little more pissed about the fact that, I dunno, he suspects you of being Kira?"

Light looked mildly offended. "Obviously, but I'm a little more concerned about you here."

"Why?"

Light sighed, seeming to steel himself, then said, "I don't know how you don't seem to get this by now, but it's because I'm in—"

Light's phone started ringing, interrupting whatever he was about to say. After a few minutes of rushed assurances to Aunt Sachiko that yes, we'd be home within half an hour, yes, Uncle Soichiro was okay, and no, I was not trying to devise a way to get him out of hospital, Light snapped his phone shut.

"Mom's worried," he said, "so you can stay over at our place tonight."

"Okay," I agreed, not really about to argue when I could get Aunt Sachiko's amazing cooking. "What were you saying earlier, by the way?"

Light looked like a deer in headlights for a moment, then quickly schooled his expression into something calm. "It's . . . not that important. But I think I might know why L wants you around me during the investigation."

"Why?"

Light pressed his lips together. "He's noticed that my guard's way lower when I'm around you, and he wants to take advantage of that. He asked me to invite you onto the investigation team as well."

I exhaled, breath hissing through my teeth. "Well," I said slowly, "why not, then?" I half-smiled. "Someone has to keep you in check," I teased, lightly booping his nose.

"Says you," Light retorted mildly, but colour was finally creeping back into his face as he caught my hand and held it in his. He'd been pale since he showed up at the hospital, so it was good to see him finally loosening up.

"Gross," Ryuk punctuated, making a face at us before flying ahead.

I could see Light biting back an amused smile as he laced his fingers between mine.

[A/N]: Aw, Light, you'll get to confess next time . . . maybe. XD And now we have our first full interaction between Kimiko and L "I suspect him but he's not a suspect" Lawliet!

On a side note, the next few updates may come a little late since I have term exams coming up soon!