For the first time in his life, Light Yagami was thinking of giving up the Death Note permanently.
It wasn't that he gave up his dream of a new world and becoming a God of it, nor was it that he just wanted to live a normal life now. It wasn't even what had happened to Misa to make him want to rid himself of it. No. He was thinking about it because of where it would get him in the afterlife. Purgatory. A sea of nothingness. And right now, as he was experiencing that nothingness, that infinite stasis of waiting, he thought he might be going insane. Of course, one had to wonder if it had actually been insane to try the Death Note in the first place and this was perhaps a moment of clarity, but in any event, he was seriously considering it.
The moment of clarity was short-lived. Of course he couldn't give up the Death Note now. He needed it, because when he got his hands on whoever took his fiancée, he would write the most gruesome accidental death he could think of and be assured that the lowliest piece of scum that lived on the earth had been eradicated.
Despite the revelation, he was still losing his mind. He paced the room at task force headquarters, unable to stop moving where he had once been unable to start. Until the police or the task force got any news, he wasn't able to do anything, and he didn't like that one bit. He was a man of action, a man of planning, a man of thought. He didn't like situations he couldn't plan for or do anything about. He didn't know how to handle it, and so was reduced to pacing.
After his (rather embarrassing, in his eyes) break down after the press conference, his father had begged him to try and go home, to rest, but he hadn't been able to. He knew if he went back to the apartment, all he'd see was her. He wanted to stay at headquarters, where he could do something if new developments came up, and the logic was watertight. If something came up, he would have the tools to investigate any leads right away. And so, for the past hour after the press conference, he'd paced. Every so often he'd try to sit down, but he just couldn't handle the stillness. It felt wrong. The task force members, his father included, all looked at him with pity, and if he got still he would notice it, and he didn't think he could handle it.
His mind veered from one theory to the next as smoothly as a car veering into another lane. But at this point it was all speculation. There was nothing solid that he could hold onto at this point. His mother and sister had come, both concerned for him. They'd both tried to talk with him or distract him, but his focus was laser like. He couldn't take his mind off of the problem at hand.
The sound of his cell phone ringing cut through his thoughts and he whipped it out of his pocket, answered it, and put it on speaker.
"Hello?"
"Is this Light Yagami?" A raspy tenor voice asked.
Ice went through his veins at the voice, and he swallowed. "Who is this?"
"You already know who I am."
"Are you the one who took my fiancée?"
"Yes."
The room was deathly quiet. "How do I know you have her? How do I know you didn't see me in the press conference and look up my information to toy with me? I want to talk to her." He said. His father had gone over what this call should be like if it happened. Demanding proof of life was important, as was keeping him talking.
There was a rustling on the other end of the phone. Then: "Light?"
He knew that voice as well as his own name. "Misa. Are you okay?"
"Light, I'm scared." Her voice was tremulous, choked with tears.
"It's going to be okay. I'm going to get you out of this. Do you know where you are?"
"I'm-" Her voice was cut off, and the rustling happened again.
"Time's up. There's your proof." The kidnapper said.
"What do you want with her?" Light demanded.
"It's not what I want with her. It's what I want with the task force. I want you all to stop hunting Kira."
"What?!"
"If you stop hunting Kira, your fiancée will be returned to you, unharmed. I've already sent my demands to the newscasters at Sakura TV, and the story will be breaking soon. If you do not meet my demands, I can't guarantee her safety."
Light's voice was a low growl. "You son of a bitch. If you lay one hand on her I swear I'll kill you."
"The choice is yours, Light. Either stop hunting Kira, and get your fiancée back safely and have a happy ending, or you can keep on with what you're doing and never see her again until she's in a body bag. Choose wisely."
The dial tone blared at him. The kidnapper had hung up.
He stared at his phone in shock for a minute before he whipped around to look at his father, who was manning the computer, trying to get a trace on where the call was coming from.
Chief Yagami sighed. "The signal was encrypted and he didn't stay on long enough for a trace."
It took a second for that to sink in. Then, the rage hit him, and he put his fist through a wall, breathing heavily as he tried to calm down. It didn't hurt, not now at least, with all the adrenaline pumping through his system, but he knew it would later. He put his face in one of his hands, and tried to calm himself, but deep inside, he knew the truth. He was losing his mind.