Picking up…

L had discovered a strange occurrence in his newest apprentice's parental records. After he assigns Near a few tests to run on her, Kairi reveals her suspicions and a small bit of her past with the younger detective.

(Kairi's POV)

I told him all I knew from the public information and what I found on pro-Kira websites about the killing side of my cousin. I then told him what I knew about the person my cousin was; Raito was kind, respectful, smart, handsome, and caring. It was the power of the notebook that changed him. When I had talked to him last, he had still acted the same, though I could see the hatred of man in his eyes. Still, beneath all of that horrible personality, he still cared about Sayu, about his parents, even about me.

"And you haven't spoken to him in how long?"

"Ten years." It may be a lie, but lying was my specialty. I could lie so well that I could make the people who were telling the truth believe the lie. "I spoke to him two months before my parents were killed."

Near nodded, turning his attention to the news as a man appeared in front of the camera. "Turn it up."

I complied, turning the volume up for us to hear what the man was saying. "New update on the Kira case; Kira has yet to be stopped," he began. "Two more people died of a heart attack. Their families request that their names be kept from the public in hopes to protect themselves from Kira."

The screen suddenly went black, then a Gothic-style "K" appeared on the screen, Kira apparently having hacked into the news feed. I immediately moved to the other room, turning the feed on Near's computer screen while working on my laptop. I began hacking the system as well in hopes to trace the feed to wherever this murderer was broadcasting from.

"N, my dear enemy. I know you are trying to find me." I broke past two walls and began tracing the feed while opening a system to unscramble his voice. "I want you to answer me within two minutes of the end of my broadcast. I will be waiting.

"I am not like the last Kira; I think everything through. I have eyes and ears everywhere, and you will never be able to get ahold of my forces. They are, after all, supernatural and impossible to stop. I am killing off every threat to a perfect world: my perfect world. I will not fail in this plan. If you fail to answer me, I will dispose of your assistant, Tagoku Kairi."

I fought the urge to freeze as my name was spoken. I knew what this Kira was attempting. With a grin, I managed to find the place he was broadcasting from just before he ended the broadcast. I also found out the broadcast was only to Kanto.

"Near, come here," I called. He slowly walked into the room, a look of unsureness on his pale features. "Don't worry; he is trying to locate where you are. The broadcast was only to the Kanto region. If we do not answer, he will test another region. I can hack into all the regions' feeds and watch for him, and we can trick him into believing you are somewhere else.

"I have also located where he had been broadcasting from…" I stopped, realizing he wasn't listening anymore. "Near! Snap out of it! We have a huge lead here."

"I am listening."

"Tell me what I said." He paused, looking directly at me.

"Very well, tell me again."

"Tell me why you were distracted."

"I heard the man say your name. Your full name. Whether or not he knows your face, I am unsure, but you are in danger."

"Not yet," I said, following up by repeating what I had said before.

"He is located in Kanto. I am almost done undoing his voice scrambler, then we can compare and find all the possible suspects." With that explained, I turned back to my computer and began hacking into the other regions' news stations. Ten minutes passed as I watched the feeds closely. When nothing came up in the following two minutes, I began to worry. Was my hypothesis wrong?

Then came the confirmation. The feed for Kanto came up again, the same image as before shown on the screen. "I find it sad that you failed to answer me. Now, because of you, Tagoku Kairi has died. Such a shame that the close cousin of the last Kira was killed." I looked at Near, who seemed deep in thought, then back at the screen. Something was wrong here. "I suppose you are not as amazing a detective as everyone believes. Once again, fail to contact me within ten minutes of the end of this message, and I will kill another that is close to you. Hatachi Nemura."

Near sat down next me, taking the desktop microphone. I understood, turning on a voice scrambler that was stacked three times. I then used the address I found to start a video call, picking out an image of the Gothic-style "N" to use so that Near's identity was kept a secret. Within a minute of the call being sent, he answered, the same image coming up. "N, my enemy. I see that you decided to spare a life. It is people like you that I plan to remove from my perfect world."

"Do you realize how incorrect your idea is?" Near replied. "Removing imperfect people will ultimately kill off the entire human race. No one person is perfect."

Quite evenly stated. I smirked, turning to look at him for a moment. He nodded, and I began to hack the man's camera feed, taping a piece of black paper over our camera in case he tried the same. I managed to break through, but the man's face was hidden from my view by a mask.

"So that is what you believe? Too bad, my friend, because you are not an influence on my tactics. I will not listen, no matter what points you throw at me." This man was acting foolish and childish. I would bring him down quickly.

"Then let the chase begin, my friend, for I will not let you get away with this," Near said in return. He then placed his hand over the microphone, turning to me. "Do you have enough to unscramble his voice?" I nodded. "I will see you at a later time, Kira," he told the man before ending the call.

"Let the chase begin?" I mimicked with a small laugh. "That was a little cliché, to say the least." I pulled up the unscrambled voice sample and played it for us to hear.

"N, my enemy. I see that you decided to spare a life. It is people like you that I plan to remove from my perfect world."

We both froze; it was a female. Kira was a female! No wonder she was acting childish!

"Near, I know this voice."

"You do?"

"I went to school with her ten years ago."

(Near's POV)

After having heard the young female's voice and having Kairi hack into the student files of her old school, we found the name of the current Kira. Gyumi Naomi.

"Something is off about this," I said, absentmindedly (if that would be possible) twirling a lock of my pearl-white hair. "Gyumi Naomi is a retired actress."

"Retired? At my age?" Kairi replied, looking at me with a strange expression. The hate in her eyes was momentarily masked by that of envy. "How could she have earned so much money that she would already retire?!"

"Perhaps she still works, just not as an actress."

"…there is that," she sighed, looking at her computer again. "She was always a lazy one," she added under her breath.

"Let's go talk to her and see what's going on."

Kairi stood up, writing down the address she found before closing her laptop. "Send the cops there before he moves."

"You mean she?"

"I have a feeling she is just the voice."

So with a call to Manhou, I had the place surrounded. When they sent in a search team and found no one aside from those who were working there, I told Kairi the news.

"He must have removed the mask and erased the evidence. I will keep tracking him. I will find him," she stated determinedly.

"Very well. Do you want to accompany me on the interrogation, or do you want to keep working here?" I asked.

"I want to keep working. Wear this," she said, handing me a simple necklace with a shark's tooth in the center. "It has a camera in it that I can access from here."

I nodded, placing it around my neck. I also put in an earpiece and gave her a corresponding one. "Let me know if you notice anything suspicious in her body language."

"Understood. Be careful, Near."

"I will be."

I gave her a small wave before leaving the room and heading down to my van. I then put on a breathing mask to keep Kira from being able to kill me; Kairi had showed me the entire list of rules for killing with the death note, and I took a few minutes to memorize them for safety. I often wore it anyway, given the fact that my immune system wasn't very strong. It covered most of my face, canceling out the ability for Kira to see my name with Shinigami Eyes, as the rules state.

I took a seat next to Nemura, my temporary butler while my original was away. I silently gave him the address and watched as he simply took it and read it, starting up the engine soon after.