"If I have determined the L you have given me to be a fake, I remind you that I will use a number of policemen around the world as compensation."

"Ha!"

Light had heard the broadcast from the news as he was looking through pages of criminals on his father's computer. For him, it was really amusing. He definitely hadn't sent the tapes, which could only mean that someone else had a Death Note – someone who supported him. They also had Shinigami eyes. They also seemed as though they could be easily manipulated.

"So, in four days," the fake Kira's distorted electronic voice continued from his television, "either L or the Head of the Police Department of Japan must be brought forth as a sacrifice for your lack of cooperation."

"You know, Ryuk," Light said, turning the computer chair he was sitting in around. "This looks like the work of another Shinigami."

"It would seem so," Ryuk said with a laugh.

"It seems that the Gods are on my side after all. Whoever this Shinigami is following is supportive of Kira. They're also a more powerful killer than me. It looks like they've made the eyes deal with their Shinigami.

"It's funny. We're probably the only ones that know this Kira is a fake. The question is, is this guy fully on my side? I'd have to know what his views on a reformation are to trust him. I'll still use this to my advantage. I can use him to get L's real name. I can also use him to prove that I'm not Kira. What he's doing still isn't good for my reputation, though… he's using innocent people for sacrifices to prove tha he's Kira, which could turn the public against me. After this, L will be even more obsessed with investigating."

"Hey," Ryuk said. "What are you gonna do about that girl?"

"Oh, right," Light said, sitting back. "If she really doesn't have a name, is there any way to kill her?"

"I don't know. I'm a Shinigami. If it were me, I'd just find someone else to kill."

"You're not helping at all…"

"I told you, I'm not on anyone's side," Ryuk said, laughing.

"I'll have to find something to do with her. Maybe I can manipulate someone else into killing her with the note… figure out who she knows and have someone close to her do it. It would be hard to do, but I think the Death Note can do anything if you word everything right. So even if I kill L, she's going to be a problem. I don't know anything about her. She did get perfect scores on the entrance exams…. There's no point in writing down the name she's been using, it's obviously fake."

"If you want to see if she has a name, you can still trade for Shinigami eyes."

"She obviously doesn't," Light said, shaking his head. "I can't even tell how much of a nuisance she'll be right now. I don't know if the rashness up to this point is genuine stupidity or part of a plan. She's too good at acting. If she's on L's side, that's going to be a real problem for me. Not only because I don't know anything about her, but also because she can see you. That means she knows about Shinigami, and if she knows about them, she knows about Death Notes, which means she also knows I have one. Do you have any idea who she is?"

"Nope."

"You said that in order for someone to see a Shinigami, they have to have touched that Shinigami's Death Note at one point in time, right?"

"Yeah."

"So how can she see you?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know anything?

"It looks like I'll have to find out. It could even turn out that she's the second Kira… but if that's true, then the investigation team would probably be dead, because she said she knows who everyone is. She could have been bluffing, but that seems unlikely. She acts ignorant but speaks intelligently. More importantly, if she's working with L and she knows about Death Notes… she might have one herself, which could be used to prove my methods. Even if she doesn't, then I still have to get to the second Kira. If L finds him and discovers the existence of Death Notes, then that could be a real problem. I think the best thing to do is to join the investigation team. L didn't object to it, and Dad should be out of the hospital in a few days, so I'm almost in. If I join the investigation team, I could come into contact with the fake Kira. I think the best action would be for me to contact and control the fake Kira without letting him see my face, then kill him before he can tell the team anything about me."


Two days after the police's answer to "Kira," Katherine sat in the room with the investigation team, waiting for Yagami to return with the news from the ICPD. She still hadn't presented any of her ideas, even though she was bursting to. She had already deducted at least four years from her own life for the team; she had made sure to use her Death Note to prevent Yagami, Matsuda, Aizawa, and Mogi (though she still wasn't sure why he wasn't there and the team wasn't giving her any answers) from being killed by a Death Note with her note's special rule. She wasn't sure how much time she had left in her own life now, but she knew that it made the rest of the team Kira-proof… all except L. That was a problem. She supposed she might be smart enough to trick him into giving her his real name eventually, which would make the entire team resistant to Kira.

She opened another soda can; she was on her fifth soda that morning alone. She had stockpiled them in her shoulder-strap bag, which she had gotten into a habit of carrying everywhere. Caffeine had become something she needed terribly. She believed it had to be better than cigarettes, a habit she had finally managed to kick a year ago. However, the Kira case was starting to make her want them again….

After a couple hours of waiting, the lock on the door finally clicked. They all turned their heads to look as Yagami was walking through the door. No matter what the decision was, it had been expected that there would be a grim feeling of hopelessness in the room upon his return. He sighed.

"It is as you predicted, Ryuzaki," he said to L, nodding his head. "The ICPD all agreed that they want you to appear on TV, in person. No tricks. They aren't even trying to bring up any good counter strategies. They're being pulled around by Kira."

L took a sip of coffee. "They made a logical choice. The police won't ever cooperate with Kira, and it's plausible that they'd choose me over the chief of police, as I was the one who taunted Kira in the first place. They made the correct decision."

"But then L – Ryuzaki, I mean," Matsuda said. "You might…"

"No, even if I show myself on TV, Kira still knows nothing about me, so he might not even believe I'm L."

"Hey, that's right!" Aizawa said.

"That wouldn't be good, though…" Katherine said.

"No, because then a large number of police officers in the world would be killed for compensation," L agreed. "So I'll try to convince him. It would be hard to prove that I'm L in a way that Kira would believe me, though. We still have two days left to come up with a counter measure. Don't get me wrong, I definitely don't have a death wish. Besides, I'd rather die by Kira's hand than by that of an impersonator. The chance that it's an impersonator is a little higher. One of the criminals killed from the first tape that only the news team watched was a small criminal, only convicted for drug use. Not one of Kira's regular victims. Besides which, this one's name was only released in a women's magazine.

"So conclusively, unless Kira is going a little queer on us, that's really not his style," Katherine said, crushing an empty soda can in her hand and setting it on the table. "And the other one was only shown on a talk show. Kira seems to get most of his victims from the news. Then you take into consideration that Kira wouldn't kill newscasters just for criticizing him, not even to prove who he is. When I saw him with Raye Penber, he did use a method of proof."

"Why did you fail to mention that earlier?" Aizawa asked suspiciously.

"No one asked," she said with a shrug. "As I was saying: he killed a man just coming out of a coffee shop. However, this man had been a suspect in a string of rapes the year earlier, but was never convicted."

"Did you see how he did he killed –?" Matsuda started.

"Odds are, he had already planned the killing for that time," Katherine said. "So no. As we all know by now, he can set the times of his killings, so that's probably what he did there. I doubt he would risk actually killing in public."

"Yeah…"

"It'd be kind of a pity if he really only kills with psychic powers," she said. "If that's so, we'll never be able to catch him, as it wouldn't leave behind any physical evidence.

"Now, as I was saying. Kira has proved he's Kira before in front of a person, but he didn't go about it like the person who sent in the tapes. The person who sent in the tapes is so devoted to Kira that he would kill anyone who opposes his idol. I imagine Kira might be a little peeved at him for it, as a lot people will believe it to be Kira and that does tarnish his reputation with all the others that idolize him, but he probably will see this person as a useful ally. Now, the quality of the videos is a big thing, too."

"How is that?" Yagami asked.

"It's very poor," L said. "The words were badly drawn. The sound wasn't blurred well; it sounded like it was recorded with a microphone on a small camera. The real Kira would have gone for better quality. Also, killing innocent policemen in front of the public eye – he would know that this would cause people to dislike him even more. This Kira didn't care. The real Kira wouldn't use scare tactics that may as well be labeled as terrorism."

"It's also unlikely Kira would ever leave fingerprints behind," Aizawa said.

"Fingerprints?" Yagami said.

"We found a set of fingerprints on the envelope that the tapes were sent in that don't belong to anyone who work in the TV station." Aizawa picked up a small envelope from the coffee table with a small piece of the envelope, showing a fingerprint on it.

"I don't think the real Kira would ever leave behind fingerprints," Matsuda said.

"Maybe he was trying to frame someone else?" Aizawa suggested.

"It's more likely they belong to a second Kira," L said. "The real Kira would have no reason to frame anyone right now, and probably wouldn't want to. If this second Kira exists, his intellectual level is probably far lower than the real Kira's. He may not have even considered that the tapes might be confiscated by the police. By the way…" L said, picking up the small envelope with the envelope paper. He held it up and examined it. "This fingerprint is small. It could be from a child or a woman."

Katherine froze as everyone but L immediately looked at her. She looked at the other three. Now they really suspected her. She unfroze and shook her head.

"Alright, alright," she said impatiently. "Do you seriously think I'd be dumb enough to leave fingerprints behind if it were me? You can search my house; you'll find a box of latex gloves in one of my kitchen drawers. If I'm ever doing undercover work or if I have to examine evidence of anything –"

"Evidence of what?" Yagami asked.

"The Kira case!" she said. "I already said I'm doing an investigation! If you'd listen, I have a couple ideas of how we might be able to thwart this Kira's attempts."

"That fast?" Matsuda said. "Really? How?"

"Well, first off. We're in a war right now. We're not in an investigation, this is war. And this here is a battle between us and Kira to find the second Kira before the other. In the process, we may catch the real Kira. Now obviously, the second Kira has got to be completely confused…"

Katherine picked up her bag and opened it. She fumbled though the bags of assorted junk foods, bottles of water, and soda cans, looking intently for something. I really need to clean this thing out… she thought to herself as she pulled a few newspapers out from underneath everything else in the bag. It's so hard to find anything in there… hope I can find my car keys when I go to leave… oooh, how did that get in there…? That's supposed to be under that floorboard under my bed…. She didn't remember doing it, but she had apparently shoved her Death Note in the bag. Her heart pounded for a moment as she pushed it further down inside the bag. She remembered now; she had decided to start carrying it with her in case the team was down to no further options for catching Kira. She could show them all the Death Note, and if they touched it, they'd be able to see the Shinigami flying around behind Light all the time. It was only a last resort, though; she was only planning on using it if she had to.

She laid the newspapers down on the table, spreading them out, all revealing basically the same headline; there were things like "L Makes a Public Stand," and "L Unmasked?" They all had her picture from the other night in front of the Sakura TV station. She picked up one and held it up.

"Kira may even be under the same impression as the media right now, for all we know. Or at least the new Kira might," she said, indicating the headline on that paper. She set it back down on the table and continued. "So, it's possible that the second Kira believes that I'm L. If we consider how stupid he is up to this point, he might believe it. My best quality as an investigator is my knack for good acting. The people in this team are the only people who know the true identity of L, so no one would know if we set it up for me to appear on television as L at the specified date. However, that idea wouldn't be so good. As Kira can't kill me, so it seems, it'd fall through and he'd just go off and kill loads of police officers. That was my first idea. It's not great.

"Now, my second idea is that we send in our own fake Kira tape, but as the real Kira, telling the fake Kira to cut the crap."

"If we word it differently, that's definitely a good counter," L said, biting his thumbnail. "Yagami-san. Is it possible to ask your son to help us whenever he can?"

"Does that mean he is free of suspicion?"

"No, not yet. But his profiling ability could serve to be very helpful. He could be a great help in capturing the second Kira."

There was silence in the room for a moment. Yagami then nodded.

"If you want my son to 'help,' then I won't object."

"Good. Please keep our suspicions of a second Kira from him. Act like we think there is still only one."

"Wouldn't that make it hard for him to work with us?" Matsuda said.

"We'll have him watch the tapes," L said, "and then ask for his opinion. Light's investigative skills are top-notch. He will probably suspect there is a second Kira after seeing them all. I want to hear what he thinks about them."

"And," Katherine said slowly, "if he says that there may be a second Kira, he should be cleared of all suspicion."

"Right," L said.

"What?" Yagami said, surprised. "How so?"

"Think about it for a minute," Katherine said. "What does Kira want more than anything right now? Besides a crime-free world, of course." They were all silent. Katherine rolled her eyes. "What in the world are you people required to even do for the police? He wants L dead. So, if he were Kira, then he wouldn't want to do anything to stop L from being put on TV, would he? So, he wouldn't suggest the possibility of a second Kira when he could simply sit back and watch his pursuer die without having to lift a finger. So, if we ask him to help us make the fake video and he agrees, then he's either not Kira or he's giving up this chance so he won't be suspected of being Kira. However, if he refuses, then he will be further suspected as Kira."

The room was silent for a moment again. Katherine wondered if they didn't comprehend the plan, or if they were seeing if there were any holes in the idea. She herself hadn't found any when she'd been coming up with the idea, but she supposed there was a possibility that they might be able to.

"Th… that sounds complicated…" Matsuda said uncertainly after a few minutes scratching the back of his head in confusion.

"So basically, if my son doesn't come to the same conclusion as you, he's further suspected as being Kira?" Yagami said.

"Isn't that a little biased?" Aizawa said.

"The chance he won't agree is smaller than five percent," L said. "However, even if he doesn't suspect it, we'll still ask him to help. He'll be a bigger suspect if he refuses.

"On another subject. When in public, be sure to use the names on your fake badges to address each other by. Also, Watari," he said, looking at the computer set up next to him with a microphone by it, "stay outside and speak with me using only the comm link."

"Understood, Ryuzaki," the computer said back.

"If Light agrees," L said to Yagami, "then tell him to come here right away to help us."

"Understood," Yagami said, taking out his cell phone.