"Taro Kagami."
The distorted voice rang loudly in the quiet space. Taro hugged his knees closer to his chest, head bowed to hide his face from the camera overhead.
"How are you doing?"
Cold, Taro wanted to say. He was dressed only in thin cotton, and the provided bed did not come with blankets. The room was all concrete and metal, without windows. One side of it was composed of floor-to-ceiling iron bars: beyond those, a blank white wall and the ever-present camera.
The police had told his parents that they were merely taking him into 'protective custody', but Taro could recognise a jail cell when he saw one.
"Ever since you arrived, you haven't spoken a word."
Taro couldn't guess how long it had been. There was no daylight in here: the room was constantly lit by fluorescent tubes overhead. Whenever Taro managed to fall asleep, the bright lights and the chilly temperature would soon wake him up.
"I don't want you to be uncomfortable, but I can't help you if you won't talk to me."
Taro stayed silent. He wanted to ask for hot food, fresh air and a good night's sleep, but if he got into a conversation with his captor, he might accidentally say something that could get him killed.
"You know, the fact that you're so determined to hide whatever you know makes me more and more certain that you really are a killer."
A pause followed, so long and silent that Taro wondered if the owner of the voice had left him. He hoped not.
"Well, whatever the truth, I'll be sure to find it out sooner or later. Think about that."
"Come on Ryuzaki, this is just cruel."
"Hm, no. This is actually very mild, as far as interrogations go."
Light watched as L studied the camera feed over a delicate, china cup of Earl Grey. So this was what the world's greatest detective did all day? He was probably only the best because nobody else was willing to use such underhanded methods, Light thought. Not to mention that this whole thing was very obviously a trap.
If Taro Kagami suddenly died while in L's custody, there would no doubt that Kira was to blame. On the other hand, if Taro started spilling everything about notebooks and shinigami, then L would be that much closer to catching Kira anyway. It seemed odd that Taro wasn't talking, but every moment spent stalling was more time for Light to come up with a plan.
"Heh, heh, heh. He probably thinks you'll kill him if he says anything to L about his death note," said Ryuk, snickering from somewhere over Light's left shoulder.
Ryuk?
Light steeled himself, but not before he realised that L was now staring at him. Damn! Light wasn't sure if he had twitched, or if Ryuzaki had seen it and was now chalking it up to Light being Kira, but he couldn't take the chance. He had to say something.
"You still think I'm Kira, don't you?"
"Yes, I think that is a distinct possibility." As if this were nothing more than a pleasant discussion between friends, L took a sip of his tea.
Light narrowed his eyes. "I can't believe you would put a kid behind bars just to set me up."
"I'm not doing this purely for your benefit, Light. Whoever Kira really is, I'm positive that Taro is a threat to him… meaning that sooner or later, he will have to take some action."
Oh, so that was why Ryuzaki wasn't trying very hard to make Taro talk. He was waiting for Kira to make a move. Light should have known it wasn't that simple; just how many layers did this trap have?
"You're just going to keep him there until Kira does something? Are you trying to get this kid killed? What about the second Kira?"
"Kira obviously doesn't know who Taro is, or he would already be dead. And as long as he is in custody, he should also be safe from the second Kira. If he dies now that I've erased all traces of his identity from the outside world, it will be very easy to figure out who Kira is." Making sure that the implication wasn't lost on Light, L shot him a sidelong glance. "Taro is in the safest place he can possibly be."
"Because you think that if I were Kira, I'd be smart enough to sidestep your little trap."
"Correct."
"What's the point of all this, then? Tell me, Ryuzaki. What do I need to do to prove to you that I'm not Kira?"
L's teacup clacked against the saucer as he carefully balanced them on the arm of his chair. "The only way to prove that you are not Kira is by catching the real Kira and learning how he kills. Until that happens, I'm afraid you'll remain under my suspicion."
Light sighed in defeat, but his mind was working furiously inside. He needed to question Ryuk in private: would it look odd if he suddenly tried to leave now? No, he could make it seem natural.
"I'm sorry, but you'll have to excuse me for now," said Light, his face a perfect mask of imperfectly masked hurt, anger and betrayal. "I have to keep up with my studies."
"I've offended you," L observed.
"I'm fine, Ryuzaki," Light not-lied. "It's just… it's just the constant suspicion. I guess it's getting to me."
L turned back to the surveillance, one finger shoved against his mouth. "I understand…"
…but if you really were Kira, wouldn't you say the same?
By the time they reached home, Light was in a curiously good mood.
"Ryuk, what did you mean when you said that Taro was afraid I'd kill him if he told L about his death note?"
"Uh… what was that?"
"Come on, Ryuk, don't play dumb with me now. You saw another shinigami, didn't you?"
"No," said Ryuk, glad to hear a less complicated question.
"But you said that Taro had a death note."
"Huh. Yeah, I did say that."
Light's grin turned into a slight frown. "If you didn't see a shinigami, then how did you know? Is there some way you can tell just by looking?"
Ryuk's eyes bulged in anticipation. Light was going to be furious. "Heh, heh. I knew he had a death note because I'm the one that gave it to him!"
The reaction wasn't as good as hoped for. Instead of yelling and maybe chucking something at Ryuk, Light simply grew a steely glint in his eyes. More of that thinking he enjoyed so much, probably.
"Don't give me that. If he had your death note, you wouldn't be following me, would you?"
"And I am," said Ryuk.
"So if you're telling the truth, he must have given it back to you and lost all memory of it. Or is there another way to stop a shinigami from following you?"
"Nope, there's no other way." Not now, at least.
"Then that's obviously not the reason he won't talk."
"Huh. You're right, Light. Whoever heard of a human who knows more about the death note than a shinigami?"
Light lowered his chin and stared at Ryuk from beneath his neatly combed, yet artfully ruffled fringe. It was a cold, calculating look.
"There's something you're not telling me. What are you hiding, Ryuk?"
"I'm not hiding anything. I already told you that Taro has a death note."
"Then why aren't you following him?"
"He gave me the eraser."
"But you just said that the only way for a shinigami to stop following a human is if they give up the death note."
"Yeah, well, I thought you might be more interested in what's true now than in what was true then."
Suppressing a scream of frustration, Light gritted his teeth and continued. "What was this eraser?"
"I dunno. Some weird thing that could undo the death note."
Light thought back to the tale he'd come across in the police files, all those months ago. "So Taro really could bring people back to life? Do you still have it?"
"I swapped it for two more death notes," Ryuk replied, sounding rather pleased with himself.
"Can you get it back?"
"The shinigami king has it, so I wouldn't wanna try."
"Is there some way I can get another one?"
"I dunno, what is this, twenty questions? What would you want it for, anyway? Wait, don't tell me: you want to chicken out and bring everyone you've killed back to life."
"I was actually thinking that being killed by Kira myself would be the perfect way to throw off suspicion," said Light, annoyed. "Don't you know anything useful about the eraser? Like where it came from?"
"Nope. Sorry."
Light's face formed a scowl. How was he supposed to think of a way to throw L off track if he didn't know all the facts?
"Are all of you shinigami this incompetent?"
Ryuk shrugged. "Nobody cares about all these complicated rules. We just write names when we need to."
"Right. Well, I suppose I shouldn't expect anything more from you," Light replied, his tone cutting. "For now, I'll have to work with the assumption that Taro knows everything about the death note, and he's only holding out on L because he doesn't want me to kill him. That's the worst case scenario, so if I can figure out a way to deal with that, I should be able to handle anything."
"Wouldn't the worst case scenario be if he told L everything?"
"You're really not helping, Ryuk. I need to think of a way to shut him up for good." Light slumped into his desk chair and released a long, slow breath, trying to clear his head. "Ideally, I'd just kill him and take his death note, but that's not an option unless I can lay the blame on someone else… like the second Kira. No, that's too obvious. I bet it's exactly what L thinks I'll do. Damn! There's got to be a way."
"He doesn't need to be dead if you wanna take his death note," Ryuk commented, now lounging on Light's bed.
"What are you getting at?"
"I know where he used to hide it. I can go and get it for you if it's still there."
The shinigami watched as Light's eyes narrowed. Something fun must be cooking in that head of his.
"If you're willing to steal it, does that mean you'd be willing to put it back once I'm finished with it?"
Ryuk grinned. "Heh, heh, heh. You never let me down, Light."
"Good to hear. I think I've got a plan."