Katherine sat on a bench at college close to the end of the day. Toudai was a fairly nice place to relax, and she saw no need to go home. Out of the corner of her eye, as she read boredly through one of her textbooks, she spotted a winged figure. She glanced over and saw that Light and L were walking out towards the tennis court, the Shinigami from yesterday floating along behind them with its bat wings spread out. Of course L had the same exact idea she had: pretend to befriend the suspect to get closer to more information. It was a smart thing to do, most definitely, but Katherine was being a little slower and less suspicious about it. Her and Light had a few of the same classes, so she had just been speaking with him durring the classes. It was best to wait for the information to come to her. He was bound to ask after a while how she could see the Shinigami, after all.
It didn't take long for a fairly large crowd to form around the tennis court. She heard someone stop next to her. She didn't bother looking up, as she was looking down to the tennis court. She looked over when they spoke, however.
"What's going on down there?"
She knew the voice, but it took her a moment to comprehend who it belonged to. It hit her immediately, however.
"Pat, you fucking retard," she said. "You're not supposed to be out in public! Kira goes to this college, if he sees you and recognizes you as a criminal you're –"
"Not dead, it's Al that's accused of murder," he said, sitting down. "Seriously, what is up with that crowd?"
"Tennis?" she suggested with a shrug. "I know that Kira and L headed down that way first. I'm just silently gathering information in the shadows. That's the way I work. I've got a few classes with both of them, so I talk to them in there, but that's the only occasion so far. I don't have to worry much about L thanks to the cameras, so I talk to Light more often. I'm wondering when he's going to ask how I can see the Shinigami that follows him around. It seems like he would have asked me that before he said anything else. He's probably trying to forget it."
"You said yourself that you confused the hell out of him," he said. "I doubt he'll forget, though. You just don't forget when someone tells you they can see something following you around."
"Yeah," she said with a laugh. "Another thing," she added. "Not pertaining to the Kira case. Any ideas yet?"
"We think so," he said. "We just have to make a couple phone calls and ask, but we're pretty sure we found your parents."
"Right. They don't matter at the moment. What I really want to know… does it look like I have a name as of right now?"
"Not really," he said. "It looks like you probably weren't born in a hospital. If you don't have a name by law, then you're probably Kira proof, but I don't know, and I also don't know any reapers that I can personally ask."
"That's a pity, that means I have to ask… I'm considering doing the eye trade-up now, I need to know. It'll make it a lot easier on me in this case. I won't have to worry about dying. I know for a fact that those lazy idiots at the orphanage never filled out any papers about me now, so that's a good sign. If I wasn't born at the hospital, that means that I don't exist as far as the government is concerned. The question is, will that work as far as Kira's concerned…"
"We still don't know for a fact yet," he said. "That's why we need to find people would know."
"My so-called parents, in other words. What in hell is going on over there?" she added, hearing a sudden uproar from the crowd. "I guess the game's over. They'll probably walk past again soon."
Indeed, they did. Katherine heard their conversation, one that definitely made no sense, not for being on a college campus. Just as they were walking past, Katherine heard L tell Light that he believed Light was Kira. Katherine looked over at Pat.
"How'd you get here?"
"Cab."
"They're going to leave campus and discuss this somewhere else, I guarentee it," she said. "We're going to follow them."
"Won't that be a little suspicious?"
"L already suspects I'm Kira," she said. "What point would be served in worrying about whether he knows I'm following him or not? Either way, he's going to be suspicious."
"Yeah…" Pat said. "I guess…"
Katherine watched as they continued walking past.
"Alright," Katherine said, picking up her bag of school books. "Let's go."
They listened to Light and Ryuuga as they followed at a fairly safe distance.
"So you think I'm Kira?" Light asked Ryuuga, laughing.
"I'm only about one percent sure right now," he said. "I hope you aren't, you'd be a big help if you aided in helping to search for Kira. I said that for another reason, more to see if we're going to be followed or not."
"What?"
"I'm still suspicious that you are Kira," he said, "but I'm more suspicious that someone else here is Kira now."
Katherine and Pat listened to them talking from a distance. Katherine was already devising a plan. She knew L had already told Light that he was L after listening to the meeting in the meeting room the night before for a little longer. He had said that Light's reaction was fairly normal and made him seem a little less suspicious. If she took action at this point, she knew it would confuse the both of them even further.
"Stay back here," she said.
"Why?"
"I have an idea. Here." She reached into her pocket and got out her keys. She handed them to Pat. "You're in charge of the following now, I assume you already know where I park my car."
"Yeah, but why – hey, what're you doing??"
Katherine caught up with Light and L, just as Light was asking, "Who is it?"
"It's probably me," Katherine said. L looked for a moment as if he'd been shot. "Considering he's probably been suspicious since I told him something that only Kira would have been worried about yesterday. If I weren't doing my own investigation, then even I'd say there's a fifteen percent chance that I'm Kira."
"What're you doing an investigation for?" Light asked.
"Nothing better to do," she said with a shrug. "Seemed like a good idea at the time. It's mostly come to dead ends on the Kira side of the investigation so far, but I know a lot about who's searching for him right now."
L hadn't expected her to do this. It was a rather impetuous action on her part… unless she had come randomly out of the shadows in an attempt to further confuse him. Then it wouldn't have been such a rash move, it was actually well planned if she had considered that. Was it just a coincidence that she had said 'fifteen percent' exactly, just as he believed, or did she had his hotel room bugged? More importantly, she had been sitting alone on the bench when he and Light went down to the tennis court, and then there had been someone who wasn't a college student there when they came back. He also appeared European or American, like she was. Where had he gone? Was he a spy of some kind? Maybe he was following them.
"Who is?"
"I'm not giving out any names," she said with a laugh. "But you probably already know that your dad is."
"Yeah," he said. "Any ideas on who L might be?"
"Plenty," she said. "I know that Ryuuga's working for L, for instance, but there's also a chance he could be L just as much. Right?" she said, looking at Ryuuga.
Who in the world is this girl? Light thought to himself. If she's this involved in the case, she can't possibly be dumb enough to use her real name in public, so it's probably not Katherine Lynton in reality, so I can't take her out of the picture yet…. It would be a stupid mistake to admit to being this involved in the case while using a real name. There's no doubt that Ryuuga's using a fake name, whether he's L or not. This girl's either really stupid or she's smart enough to make us think she's an idiot. And most of all… how in the world can she see Ryuk? Unless she's touched my Death Note, she shouldn't be able to, but she can.
"I think she knows something, Light," Ryuk said, laughing.
"Shut up…" Light mumbled. Katherine heard, but pretended she didn't. "You realize she can hear you?"
"Yes," Ryuk said. "I already told you, I'm not on anyone's side."
That was very good to know for Katherine. The Shinigami was just following Light because he had to, not because he was helping him. So, she didn't have a Shinigami fighting against her. That was a huge relief.
"I do have a lot of theories on Kira," she said. "I'm not completely stupid. I don't know how true any of them are, I'm going to have to do a lot more research on them. Mostly, they seem fairly consistent with the main investigation team's theories."
"How do you know about them?" Light asked.
"I know people," she said with a laugh. "Luckily for me, I'm practically Kira proof. He can't kill without a name. So he can't kill someone who doesn't have a name. I probably have one, but I don't know my parents, so I don't know what the hell it is. Oh well. Makes the investigation a lot easier on me. I've got to be going now, though," she said. "And remember to talk to the team about that," she added to Ryuuga. "I have a lot of ideas on the case, and I know you're all in need of help right now."
She knows what she's doing... L thought as she turned and walked off. That's easy to see. I just wish I could figure out what she's doing.
"So?" Pat asked when Katherine got back to him. She grabbed her car keys from his hand.
"My plan's working," she said. "I should be on the investigation team very soon. Took less time than I thought, I thought you were going to have to follow me while I tagged along with them, but I don't think I need to do much more."
Upon returning from college that day, Katherine's daily routine remained basically the same. She would park her car down the street so no one could tell when she was home or away, and then she would walk to her small-but-comfortable house. She would turn her anonymous cell phone on and make sure no one had called it. She would find something to eat for dinner in the kitchen. Whether it was some sort of microwavable dish or a bag of potato chips didn't matter. There were more important things than nutrition to be worried about. She had the odd suspicion that there might be cameras set up in her house. It could have just been her paranoia giving her the suspicion that she was being watched, but she knew that L planned to have her house completely bugged and surveilled. That wasn't a comforting thought for her; she didn't enjoy the idea of being watched. To say it wasn't the right way to go, however, would be very hypocritical. This was one thing she thought about as she sat down on the couch in her surveillance room again and turned on the televisions. As yesterday, L was just sitting on the same chair he generally picked in that hotel room. The entire team was there… except Soichiro Yagami.
"Watari," he said. "Have the cameras and microphones put up in the new suspect's house tomorrow. Be sure to search for any hidden rooms that may be used for surveillance. Don't worry about disconnecting the cameras. That would seem suspicious."
"Isn't there every chance that she's watching us right now and she knows what we're planning?" Matsuda asked.
"Yes," L said. "There's almost a one hundred percent likeliness of that. Also then, there would be no point served in disconnecting the cameras. If she had them put up once, she could have it done again. It's more of a ten percent chance today that she's Kira, however. Although, with what's happened to Yagami-san… she mentioned that she knew he was on the team, and now he's had a heart attack. When he's better, Light Yagami will also join the investigation. However, she's making herself seem less suspicious by being overly suspicious."
"What exactly does that mean?" Aizawa asked.
L bit his thumbnail for a moment, staring at the blank television screens in front of him with a contemplative look etched onto his face. "I'm still trying to figure that out myself…
"She claims that she's also investigating the Kira case, but she doesn't know who Kira is yet, she just happened to stumble upon who is in this team while she was investigating. If anyone else has a heart attack, the possibility it is her will increase."
"That's not good…" Katherine said as she watched. "Yagami had a heart attack? Light wouldn't have done that just to make me seem like…? No, I don't think he'd have done that to his own father. Besides, they didn't say he's dead… maybe I should keep listening."
"Is chief still doing well?" Matsuda asked.
"Yes," L said. "That means it probably wasn't the work of Kira, unless he can manipulate circumstances. I think Yagami-san's heart attack may have been a complete coincidence."
Katherine breathed a great sigh of relief. "Good… I thought for sure they thought it was me…"
"On another note," L continued, "she wishes to join the investigation. I'm under the impression that she may have spies working for her, so she wouldn't be joining to get inside information. There is no way she could have found me without spies, and so she could just as easily use them to get inside information. She says that she has quite a few different theories on Kira, but she is still unsure of who he is."
"We'll need to check with chief on that one," Usata said. "If he doesn't trust her, then it's not any good."
"I know that," he said. "I'm not saying I don't. However, if she's working with us this close, her behavior will tell us whether or not she is a likely suspect to be Kira. She's been intelligent enough to outwit me up to this point, so she may be. It's hard to tell someone's personality when they're good at acting."
"She fits in the age range, though," Aizawa said. "That's something."
"If we're looking only at age range, then every high school and college student in Japan is a suspect," L said. "There's more to it than that. She seems less likely because she wouldn't have any connection to the FBI agents that were following the police, and they all still died. Then again, we still know nothing about her, so she may have a connection to them."
"So we'll tell the chief that we need to interrogate her, and if she has useful information, then we need her on the team?" Matsuda suggested.
"That seems like the only thing to do," L said.
Katherine picked up her cell phone from the coffee table in front of her. She also shut off the monitors. She lay back on the couch as she dialed the number, then held the phone to her ear.
"Hello?"
"Hey," Katherine said in response to Al's voice. "You guys got any news?"
"Nope," he said. "Not on the Kira case. But there's some interesting news for you."
"What?"
"You'll be happy to know you can work on this case without the fear of being killed. You don't have a legal identity, which means no name."
"You know this for a fact?"
"Yes," he said. "We're still working on getting your parents' names, but – what?"
"Huh?"
"Hold on a second, Don's yelling about something on the television – holy crap."
"What?"
"Switch on Sakura TV," he said. "You ought to find this interesting."
"Alright," she said. "Let me call you back then. You know I have a short attention span."
"Yeah," he said. "Bye."
"Bye."
She shut her cell phone and picked up the remote to another separate television set-up in the room. She turned on the middle one and changed the channel to Sakura TV, just in time to hear a sentence she wished she had never heard.
"We are certain that these tapes are truly sent from Kira."
Katherine's stomach dropped as she listened to the broadcast. The tapes were due to be aired at exactly 5:59. It was three minutes until that very time. Those three minutes dragged along, and she was sure that they would never end. She listened to the news anchor again describe the first tape they had watched. It had predicted the deaths of two criminals when they watched it, and the two criminals had died of heart attacks. If the same thing happened with these tapes, on live television… if this was Light Yagami, he was being extremely rash. There was no point in sending video tapes to television stations proving the existence of Kira when he was already known to have existed. If there was going to be more proof, it was doubtful that it was Light Yagami. That didn't seem to be his style. If it was someone else, she would be able to tell. If it was someone else, that would mean it was going to be someone else with a Death Note.
Katherine turned her surveillance back on as well. The investigation team was now also watching Sakura television. She was sure that Soichiro Yagami was watching it on his hospital television. Half of Japan was probably watching the broadcast. It was finally 5:59. The tape was put on the screen, reflecting the letters "KIRA" in a fancy, but sloppily drawn font on the television. She knew instantly that there was another Kira, if all of this was true…. This sloppy video definitely wasn't Kira's style; he would have used a much better means of broadcast if it had been him. No, there was another Kira… meaning there was another Shinigami following around another person who had picked up another Death Note in Japan. That definitely wasn't a pleasant thought to Katherine; she'd have to start from scratch now.
