Taro stood still in the middle of his bedroom, deep in shock. Something very disturbing was going on around him.

He had searched everywhere. The room looked like it had been ransacked. Books had been swept from the bookshelf, boxes pulled from beneath the bed and desk drawers emptied upside down onto the carpet, their contents mingling with a tangle of old toys which had spilled out of his open closet. And yet, Taro's library card was nowhere to be found.

Nor, for that matter, was his school student ID, his Lucky Arcade Club card, or even his passport. All of it was mysteriously gone.

There was a gentle tap, and Taro's mother appeared at the door. She stared at the mess in surprise: this wasn't like her son.

"I'll clean it up," Taro said automatically. "I was just looking for my library card, that's all."

"Well, okay then, but… are you all right? You've been acting a little bit strange lately."

"Have I?" Taro was surprised: he'd been deliberately trying to act normal. "I guess it's because of the new school year." It was a lame excuse, but he was pretty sure he could get her to buy it.

"Are you getting a hard time from the kids at school again?"

"No… I meant with all the extra homework and stuff."

"Are you sure?"

Taro shot her his best smile. "Honestly, I'm fine. You worry too much!"

"Well, all right then."

She closed the door, still wearing a vague frown. Taro stared after her: he supposed if anyone were to notice a change in his behaviour it would naturally be his mother, but he was sorry to worry her.

Of course, she would have every reason to worry if she knew the truth: that he was guarding the secret of a serial killer, and there was nobody in the world who could help him even if he could persuade someone to believe him, and if he went to the police he was as good as dead anyway because if L didn't see him executed, Kira would. Not to mention that his friend was dead, his death note didn't work, he could be supernaturally compelled to step out in front of a bus at any moment, and his library card had mysteriously gone missing along with all other evidence of his identity.

"Looks like I won't be getting a new library membership," he whispered dully. "I wish I knew what was going on…"

He couldn't imagine how they'd done it, but someone had managed to enter his house and take away everything that had both his name and face on it. Hopefully his mother wouldn't ask about it, it wasn't going to be easy to come up with a valid excuse for that one. But that wasn't the point.

Names and faces were Kira's killing tools, just as much as the death note itself. They were all equally necessary. Which meant that…

Shit!

Taro bolted from his bedroom and practically flew down the stairs, cursing himself for his stupidity. Luckily, there was nobody in the living room to see him lift the top of the piano and nearly drop it on himself as, with a sigh of relief, his hand reached the death note. Maybe the piano wasn't such a bad hiding place after all: if it had been anywhere else in the house, then whoever had stolen his identity would probably have found it. Not that they would have been looking for weird black notebooks… or would they?

No. Nobody knew that he had a death note in the first place, so the intruder couldn't have searched for it. But the questions of who and why still remained.

It had to be Kira. Who else would want Taro's name and face? And in turn, it must mean that Takagi was not Kira, because Takagi already knew Taro's identity, meaning he wouldn't need to steal the information.

But no, it couldn't be Kira. Taro knew that Kira was smart and cautious. He had managed to evade capture for four months so far, even with L and his 1,500 investigators on the case. It wasn't like Kira to invade someone's house; even if he had, he wouldn't have removed any items from it. Kira wouldn't have trouble remembering a name and face long enough to write it down in a death note.

So who else could it be? Taro knew he had to be overlooking something. Running his mind back over the information, he abruptly remembered that the weird librarian hadn't been able to find any record of Taro in the library computer. Like he'd never had a membership at all… but he had, which meant that somebody must have deleted all traces of it.

Kira wouldn't care about that. Who on earth would? What was the point in preventing Taro from getting books out of the library? And how the heck did they manage to do it anyway? It didn't seem like one person could pull all of this stuff off by themselves.

The idea that an entire group of people might be involved was a frightening one. Taro felt helpless; going to the police was out of the question. He had no way of figuring out who these people might be, if they were employed by Kira or what they were doing with his identity.

Perhaps it was all just a sadistic trick designed to freak him out. A message from Kira: I know exactly who you are and I can kill you whenever I want.

It was probably cowardly, but Taro didn't want to die again. There would be no Miura standing by with magic eraser this time.

If Kira was telling him to shut up and stay put, then that was exactly what he'd do.

It was good to feel useful, Matsuda thought. Tailing a school kid wasn't anything to shout about, but it was still a big step up from fetching Ryuzaki's coffee. Unfortunately, the school kid in question was doing absolutely nothing that a school kid shouldn't do, which made following him seem kind of pointless.

"Anything to report, Matsuda?"

"Sorry, Ryuzaki. He's acting like nothing's happened."

Hunched in his seat as usual, Ryuzaki glanced at Matsuda from the corner of one eye. "There's no need to apologise. It's actually quite an interesting reaction."

"Really? It seems to me like he hasn't even noticed."

"He didn't, at first."

"Oh. Did you see Chief Yagami today?"

"I spoke to him over the phone. He's determined not to fall behind on the case: quite a remarkable man."

"Yeah… pretty amazing, after his heart attack and all."

L eyed Matsuda warily. He had chosen Matsuda to follow Taro Kagami after school because of all the task force members, he was the least likely to question L's authority. He hadn't even thought to ask how L had gone about erasing Taro's identity, despite the fact that it was generally illegal to steal people's belongings. Not that Matsuda was incompetent, but perhaps it would be a good idea if L checked things out for himself…

"Tell you what, Matsuda. You will take the day off to go and visit Yagami tomorrow, and keep him up to date with the investigation. I will keep track of Taro myself."

"You, you will?"

"Yes. The chief could do with some company."

Matsuda shook his head. "But… you'll really follow Taro?" It was hard to imagine Ryuzaki slouching around after a schoolboy, trying to look inconspicuous.

"I didn't get where I am without being able to – oh. Excuse me." Ryuzaki stopped mid-sentence to hook his cell phone out of his pocket with two fingers. "Yes? …Oh, you have? …hmm. I see… Yes, that would be best. Thank you. Matsuda?"

"Huh?"

"Please take a seat. I think you might find this interesting."

Matsuda obeyed and sat down, watching as Ryuzaki fiddled about with his computer. It displayed a series of interconnected lines and symbols, flickering in various colours on a black background. Was it some kind of game?

"What are you doing?" he asked, trying to figure out the weird layout of information.

"I'm receiving some photos from a contact of mine."

Matsuda kept peering at the screen. "Is it a puzzle? I don't get it."

"You're not supposed to. It is… an abstract operating system. Should the computer be lost or stolen, this will stop just anyone from being able to use it."

"Oh, so they won't be able to figure out - Whoa! Ugh!"

They had just been presented with the image of a disfigured human corpse. Ryuzaki wasted no time flicking through the series of photos, which included a number of stomach-turning close-ups.

"Takagi," Ryuzaki said simply, eyes intent on the pictures with no trace of discomfort.

Well, it made sense: as L, he probably had to look at pictures like this all the time. Matsuda had seen his share of grotesque things too, but this was something new. "What happened to him?"

"Insects. These pictures were taken in the Amazon rainforest."

"So he's been… eaten."

The corpse lay in a tangle of dirt and branches, partially grown over with grass and foreign plants. Insects had stripped away the flesh only, leaving the skeletal remains largely intact and still wrapped in scraps of half-rotted clothing.

"If his body was eaten like that, could it mean that someone killed him and left him there on purpose to try and cover up evidence?"

"No… it's not that…" Ryuzaki mumbled, thumb at his lips. The strange computer puzzle-system reappeared, but was quickly replaced by something more familiar: a document. "These are the notes that go with the pictures… so it's just as I thought… an accident, but… that means it's no accident…"

"What do you mean? Ryuzaki? …Ryuzaki?"

Eyes wide and staring, L had frozen in his seat as thoughts raced in his head, far too quick and numerous to be expressed outwardly.

"Ryuzaki?"

Blinking at last, L dropped his thumb from his mouth and looked around the room.

"Mogi! Aizawa! It's Taro Kagami. We need to bring him in."

"Not this again," Aizawa muttered. "Ryuzaki, with all due respect, this has nothing to do with why we're here. We're supposed to be catching Kira!"

"Then I won't ask you to go. Mogi, please go to the station and take Ukita with you. Watari, can you make the arrangements?"

"Certainly."

Aizawa gritted his teeth as Mogi swiftly exited without him. Matsuda stood by, half wishing he could have gone with Mogi and half glad that he didn't have to arrest a child. They looked at each other as L simply sat in his seat, offering no explanation.

"Ryuzaki! Aren't you going to say something? You've just ordered the arrest of a child! How can you be so calm?"

L shifted ever so slightly, shoulders hunching just a fraction further. Matsuda interpreted this as an emotional sign – so Ryuzaki did feel bad. However, Aizawa saw only a gesture of stubborn determination.

When L finally spoke, it was in a flat, even tone. "I was prepared for this eventuality."

"You were planning this all along?" Matsuda shook his head in disbelief. "How? Why? He's just a kid!"

"Think about it, Matsuda. Three out of four people have died in a relatively short period of time. If he's not responsible, then he's next."

Matsuda shook his head again. It didn't make sense: it was too big a leap of logic. "The only death that even looks like murder happened overseas, Ryuzaki. There's no connection to him. I don't see how you can arrest a kid based on that!"

"There is a connection: the notebook."

Aizawa could hardly believe his ears. "The magic notebook? Are you serious?"

"Yes, quite, although I wouldn't go so far as to say that the notebook is an actual notebook… I still suspect that it is a codeword for something more sinister. Not only that, but I think the deaths themselves are connected, too. A man loses his sanity and shoots himself, a schoolboy steps in front of a bus, and another man walks into the jungle alone: there's something almost cliché about them. In all three cases, the blame can be laid squarely on the victim. It's as if they've been set up specifically not to look like murders."

"That's because they aren't! You've jumped to a conclusion and now you're just trying to make everything fit. It's the same as what you're doing to Chief Yagami's son!"

L could have almost smirked; it was funny Aizawa should mention the prime Kira suspect now. "L, do you know gods of death love apples?"

"What?"

"The message left for me by Kira proves that he can, to some extent, control his victim's actions before they die. What if that extent included, say, shooting oneself?"

Matsuda gasped; Aizawa's eyes widened. Ryuzaki was finally starting to make sense.

"Yamanaka and Miura both reported a notebook," L continued. "And of course, it follows that if Yamanaka knew something, his partner Takagi might also know. It would make sense to kill all three of them. But if you remember, Taro Kagami's name never entered police records: I was only able to track him down through the staff at the police station closest to Miura's house."

"So you think that whoever killed these people was relying on police information to find them? That does sound like Kira."

"Yes, Matsuda. Apart from Taro being the killer himself, it's the only way to account for the fact that he is still alive."

"But how can you prove that he knows anything?" Aizawa asked, frowning. "Just because he went to the police station doesn't mean he knows something. His friend could have just taken him along for support."

"I was getting to that. I arranged for some items to be removed from Taro's house recently. Now, any normal person would have reported it to the police immediately, but Taro hasn't done anything about it at all."

It sounded to Aizawa like a nice way to say that the items were stolen, and at this point he wouldn't put anything past Ryuzaki. "What were the items? Did he even notice that they went missing?"

"They were ID cards, school yearbooks, certain photographs: items that could be used to identify him. I'm one hundred percent certain that he knows they are missing; I made sure of it myself. My guess is that he's afraid to go to the police because he doesn't want to die like the other three."

Matsuda's eyes grew round. "But Ryuzaki, what if you bring him in and he's killed?"

"It would be interesting, but if the murderer is Kira as I suspect, then I doubt he will do something that stupid… unless…"

"Unless what?"

"Never mind. As you both have pointed out, none of this stands up on its own. We need to find out what Taro knows."