Chapter 5: Kitchenware

"I don't think there's any other conclusion," Takenaga said, setting the file down, rubbing his forehead. "I'm certain that Kira was Light Yagami."

Noi shrugged. "He is the ideal, but why not his sister? She could've been smart enough to do it."

"No," Sunako muttered. "Definitely Light Yagami. His sister doesn't seem to be the kind of girl that could even handle the thought of killing someone. Nor does she seem to be smart enough to pull it off."

Sensei, if he was in the room while they discussed the best possible suspect, would have been beaming with pride.

But he wasn't—he had gone out to get some cake from the bakery a few blocks away from school.

"Two out of three, Noi, we're going to say the prime suspect is Light Yagami."

Noi shrugged. "I was trying to be objective, but I guess it was a stupid idea anyway."

"We won't hold it against you, Noi-chan," Sunako said, massaging her own head. "Ouch…"

"What is it?"

"My head hurts," She muttered. "I've never done so much math in my life."

Takenaga looked at the practice sheet that Sensei had given her to do. He scanned the page. "Sunako, make sure you get the answers in the right place this time," he said.

"That good?"

"Very good," Takenaga said.

"What's good?"

They spun around to the door.

Sensei had come back, holding a bag in his hand.

Sunako snatched her worksheet away from Takenaga and got back to work on it.

Sensei raised an eyebrow, but shrugged. He set the bag down and held his hand out for Sunako's worksheet. Grudgingly, she handed it out.

Sensei examined it, his eyes scanning the page. "This is good," he said, handing it back to her. "Finish it and do well on your next test."

Sunako nodded and went back to work.

And it's only been a week and a half, Sensei thought, staring at the dark haired girl, almost beaming. Sunako Nakahara, you certainly have a lot of potential…

"We came up with a suspect," Noi said, once they had reached the end of the lesson.

Sensei glanced at them and set the paper he was looking at down.

"And?"

"We aren't entirely sure, but our prime suspect is Light Yagami," Takenaga said.

Now, Sensei did beam, "On what grounds?"

"He's the only college student among the suspects listed," Sunako added. "We plan on doing a little more work on it…"

"No, this is good," Sensei said, pressing his thumb to his bottom lip. "You're all doing fine. I'll see you all tomorrow."

While Takenaga and Noi left, Sunako stayed behind.

"Sensei, I was wondering, I know I've been getting better at math, but is there any way I could get better without my head hurting?"

Sensei shrugged. "Possibly, but I doubt it. Why?"

Sunako showed him one problem. "I can't seem to figure it out. Each time I try, my head starts to hurt."

Sensei glanced at the problem and motioned her to sit next to him. "How are you trying to solve it?"

Sunako told him.

"You're making more work for yourself. Here, you can solve it this way…"

"Jeez! I don't know what you see in Sensei, Sunako-chan. He creeps me out," Noi said.

She waited for Sunako to answer.

"Sunako-chan?" Noi looked behind her.

Sunako was not there.

Takenaga stopped and also looked behind.

"Where's Sunako-chan?" He asked.

Noi bit her lip. "I'm going back for her."

"Noi, I'm sure Sunako-chan'll be alright," Takenaga said, steering Noi out of the school. "Sunako doesn't need to follow the buddy system constantly."

Noi pursed her lips, but allowed Takenaga to lead her away.

But…Sunako-chan has a crush on him…what if…Noi walked out of the school and her thoughts trailed into nothingness as she walked alongside Takenaga.

Sunako slung her bag over her shoulder. "Thanks for helping me, Sensei," she said, bowing.

Sensei inclined his head in a nod and Sunako walked out of the door, unaware that his eyes followed her. "Certainly have a lot of potential," he muttered. He looked at the worksheet again. "Maybe…more than even you yourself think…"

Two days later, Sunako strode into the room and slammed her latest math test down on the table, having arrived before Noi and Takenaga.

She was smirking darkly.

Sensei blinked, looking at the paper.

"I believe you said I had to get an eighty or above?"

"So I did," he said.

Sunako took her hand off the paper and Sensei glanced at it.

He blinked.

A ninety-seven in bright red ink was written boldly on the paper.

He looked at Sunako, who was still beaming. He set the paper down and pressed his thumb to his lip, smirking.

"So," he said, "what did you have in mind?"

"There's this kitchenware set that I've been eying for a while," Sunako said.

"Kitchenware?" Sensei asked, trying not to laugh. "You want kitchenware?"

"The ones I use at home are nearly all old and worn," Sunako said. "And this kitchenware set has been on the market for only six months, but I couldn't possibly afford it on my own."

Sensei shrugged.

Noi and Takenaga entered the room.

"After school, then, Nakahara-chan," Sensei said, "we'll go get it."

"Yay!" Sunako squealed.

Noi gave Takenaga a worried look, but he shrugged.

A minute later, Noi, Sunako, and Takenaga were working on the case again.

"Okay, there's some hair…fingerprints…" Noi said, laying out each of the forensic evidence.

"No, I don't think those belong to the original Kira," Sunako said.

She and Takenaga were examining the list.

"Sensei, is this a handwritten list?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Okay…Hey, wouldn't it have been easier to figure out who Kira is, just by getting a sample of the suspect's handwriting?" Takenaga said.

"Oh?" Sensei said, smiling. "That's a good observation."

"If Light Yagami's handwriting matches that of the handwriting on the list, then why couldn't it work?"

"True, but how would you be able to recognize his handwriting?" Sunako asked.

"Some of the names are written in English," Takenaga said. "For instance, 'Lind L. Taylor.' If we can get Yagami's handwriting in the English language, it would have simplified the case and instantly prove his guilt."

"No, not instantly, but increase the suspicion and possibility," Sensei said. "You can only prove that, at one time, Light Yagami had had the Death Note and written in it. That would only prove that he has murderous capabilities, but not that he, in truth, is the original Kira. Nakahara-chan, what do you think?"

"Eh? Oh…erm…I guess there's some truth in that. But Kira didn't know his victims directly."

"How certain are you of that? He had to have come across one of his victims," Sensei pressed.

Sunako tapped her pencil to her cheek in thought. "What if…if he did come in contact with anyone, it would have been…say…an officer…he has killed a couple police officers…and he was being tailed by the FBI for a while…"

"Keep going, you're almost there."

"Ray Penbar was one of Kira's victims and he was the FBI agent that was trailing Light Yagami and his family," Sunako said, looking at the list of victims. "A few days after an accident on a bus, Ray died from a heart attack after getting off a subway. And at random, the other FBI agents died also around that same hour. A few days later, Naomi Misora, who was Ray's fiancée, disappeared."

"Why would she disappear?" Sensei continued.

"Well, wouldn't that mean that the Death Note would also enable the user to manipulate the person it kills?" Noi asked. "I mean, Penbar died a few days after encountering Yagami and a few days after Penbar died, his fiancée vanishes? Maybe…maybe Yagami—if Kira—encountered Misora and disposed of her…"

"She's definitely in the list of victims," Sunako said, pointing at Naomi Misora's picture in the notebook, "but her name isn't in the list of victims."

"But maybe that was one of Yagami's precautions," Takenaga added. "If his weapon really was a magical notebook that could kill people, then maybe he didn't always carry it around with him. Maybe he carried slips of it with him whenever he needed to."

"So that if he encountered a threat…" Noi began.

"He could kill them," Sunako finished.

Sensei started clapping. "Bravo," he said, beaming. "However, there were two vital pieces of information needed for this to be a success. Can any of you tell me what those two pieces of information was?"

"He needed a face and a name," Noi said without hesitation.

Takenaga, Sunako, and Sensei stared at her.

"I saw the broadcast and it was posted on youtube. It's still up too."

Sensei blinked. "It's on youtube?"

"Yep," Noi said.

"How…never mind," Sensei said. "I don't really want to know…but you're absolutely right. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Hai," Noi and Takenaga left after packing.

Sunako slung her bag over her shoulder.

"I suppose you want to get that kitchenware set now."

Sunako grinned.

Sensei finished packing his things and led her to his car.

"I thought you road a limo everywhere?"

"It's troublesome to ride in one everywhere," Sensei said.

"Wait…you have a limo and a car."

"Yeah…"

"Who are you?! Sensei, were you a rich kid?"

"No, I'm an orphan. My other job pays extremely well," he said, holding the passenger's door open.

Sunako climbed in, glancing around the car.

What kind of teacher IS HE!?

The car's exterior was white. The seats were made of leather and Sunako dared not touch the radio. Just the fear that she might break something made her shiver (and it took a lot to do that). There was even a little TV above the stereo and a car phone.

"Sensei," she said as he revved the engine to life. "Are you sure you're really a teacher?"

"I did get a license to teach, but teaching, at the moment, is more of a hobby. I've little patience for idiotic children. That first month here subbing just to find worthy students was downright torture!"

"Then why teach?"

"Like I said," he answered, leaving the school parking lot, "it's a hobby. I've more spare time on my hands than usual these days, so I figured I'd try it out."

"But why high school? Why my school of all schools?"

"No reason, I figured that I might be able to find some good students at Mori High. Especially since there was so much…supernatural activity going on last year, and having been on the team hunting Kira, you could say that I've become intrigued in the supernatural."

"Really?"

"I've yet to see anything extremely strange happen, but I'm keeping my eyes open."

Sunako shrugged. "If you want live proof, ask my housemates about all the times I was possessed last year."

"You were possessed?"

"By a ghost named Eliza, Captain Wing when we went to a deserted island…a cursed diamond had to have been the worst because I knew what was happening. Oh! Then there was the ghost cat…"

"Ghost cat?"

"Yeah…a ghost cat," Sunako admitted. "But that wasn't as bad as the diamond."

"Why? What happened?"

Sunako opened her mouth and closed it, blushing. "Uhm…"

"Was it that bad?"

"I prefer not telling you…"

"Oh, okay," Sensei said. Must have been pretty bad, he thought.

"It wasn't so much during the possession as it was what happened after."

"Really?"

"That's all I'm saying," Sunako said. She looked out the window, trying to control her blush. "Do you think I'm crazy?"

"No," Sensei said. "I've seen Shinigami. After that, I'm sure that anything exists or can happen now."

"Even bad luck?"

"That's something I have to see for myself."

"Then you don't believe that anything can happen or exist," Sunako pointed out. Sensei snickered, pulling into the kitchenware store.

Sunako quickly led him to the set she wanted. Ten minutes later, they pulled out of the lot.

Sunako didn't mean to notice, but she did notice that his leg was jittery.

"You know how I usually sit, it's takes a lot of self control for me to sit normally," Sensei said, smiling.

Sunako blushed and looked away. "Sorry," she said.

A few minutes passed in silence. Sensei pulled up at the mansion. "Wow, you live here?"

"It's my aunt's house."

"Right…I knew she was rich, but I didn't know you lived like this."

"Yeah…Thanks for the kitchenware set, Sensei," Sunako opened the door.

"Hold it," he said. Sunako looked back at him. "I'll get you another gift at the end of the school year if you keep your grades up. Sound like a plan?"

Sunako nodded. "I'll do my best."

"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow, Nakahara-chan."

"Tomorrow then," Sunako agreed, getting out of the car.

After she had entered the house, she heard the screeching of wheels.

Sunako entered her room and a grin spread to her eyes. She began to giggle.

What's wrong with me? Why can't I stop smiling?