"Finished."

"Finally," Katherine said, jerking the paper from Light's hands.

"Hey!"

"You said you were finished," she said, looking back at him. "Hmm. This isn't good…."

"What?"

She laughed. "The 'It's fine with me if you kill L' part. That'll make you seem a little suspicious, don't you think?"

"He told me to think like Kira," Light said, laughing. "I figure Kira wouldn't want his reputation tarnished, but he'd still want L dead. It's just a joke, I was going to take it out."

"Well," she said, handing him back the paper, "don't change it yet. I'm not supposed to be proofreading, anyway. Not my job. My job's acting. Whoopee. I don't get to do much of anything." She sighed. "I'll go out on my own and get information without the team if I have to. I just won't be doing any good otherwise.

"By the way," she said quickly and quietly – she had just heard a door being unlocked. "You are thinking correctly, and I do know your secret."

Light refrained from looking surprised at the risk of whoever was coming through the door linking to the next room seeing his reaction to what she had said.

Everyone else had finished everything they'd been instructed to do while L was reading over the speech, so everyone had returned to the main headquarters room. When he finished reading it, L looked a little puzzled. Katherine tried hard not to laugh or smile too much – the confused look that one line had left on his face was just too cute. And as good at acting as she might have been, holding back amusement wasn't one of her strong points. However, she managed.

"Is it good enough?" Light asked L. "I wrote it as if I were Kira."

"It's alright…" he said uncertainly, not looking down from the paper. "Except if you don't remove the 'It is fine with me to kill L' part…" He looked over at Light. "… I'll die."

Light laughed. "I just thought Kira would have wanted to make sure L died." L looked at him blankly. "I was just kidding," Light said, still laughing. "You can take it off."

"Okay."


Katherine's only job was giving the speech. The speech itself seemed kind of diabolical and overly… unkind…. That was reflected especially at the 'If you do not heed my warning, I will punish you without hesitation" part. Even though it was about an hour before seven o' clock, she was reading over it again and again so she wouldn't sound like she was just reading off of paper when she gave the speech. Even if her voice was going to be electronically distorted, she wanted it to sound convincing. She still listened to the investigation team, but not as intently as she would have otherwise. Their conversation was more like faint background noise than actual talking, but she could still hear it well enough to pick up everything she needed to hear.

"If this works, then the second Kira will most likely want to meet the first Kira," Light said. "Judging by his behavior, he's not going to be too careful about it, either, which should give us a major clue as to where to find them."

"How likely is it that it'll work?" Matsuda asked.

"Ninety percent."

Katherine half glanced up, having heard L say this at the exact same time she had, but she continued reading over the paper. He seemed to be too busy stacking sugar cubes on the table in front of him to notice.

"What was up with that?" Matsuda asked Aizawa quietly.

"Ninety percent is good," Aizawa said, obviously trying to ignore Matsuda's inquiry. "One hundred would be better, but that's unlikely to happen in a case like this."

"Hey," Katherine said, looking over, "it is one hundred percent likely that Kira will be caught."

"Besides that," Aizawa said.

"Six forty-five," Light said, checking his watch. "Fifteen minutes left."

"Until my first live acting gig," Katherine said with a laugh. "I bet Kira's going to be sitting back laughing at the transaction between the fake Kira and us."

"Hey," Matsuda said slowly, "what happens if the real Kira sends in a video next?"

"Oh," Katherine said, sitting up straighter. "That wouldn't be… well, it wouldn't be bad, but it wouldn't be good, either. I don't know how. It would expose us as frauds. We're not exactly really Kira, so we can't kill anyone to prove that we are. But, since no one knows who we are anyway, it can't hurt anything. So… eh," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. She shifted sideways in the chair, crossing her legs, and continued to read over the paper. "It wouldn't be too big of a deal."

"Unless Kira decided to prove who he is by murder when he sent in a video," Yagami said.

"Well," Katherine side, biting her thumbnail, "that's already something Kira does, anyway, so it wouldn't make much of a difference, except it would be public. He'd just save a couple criminals for when he made the video that he would have killed anyway."

"And it's not a big deal that he's killing them in the first place?" Aizawa asked, incensed. "How can you –"

"Well, can you stop them from being killed?" Katherine asked him. "I know that with as little information as I have, I have no way of stopping Kira, not on my own. But if you do, then feel free to act. No ones stopping you here. In fact, if you know enough to go stop Kira without getting yourself killed, I encourage you to do so. Until then, there's no use fretting over every single life he takes, it'll just frustrate you. The more frustrated we get, the harder it will be to focus on capturing Kira. That's why I've been so relaxed this whole time."

"In a case like this, I think there's a such thing as 'too relaxed'…"

"I don't," Katherine said airily. "How do you think I came up with the second Kira theory so fast? True, I may have told Kira off on live television, but I knew it was a second Kira before that, because I manage to stay calm ninety-nine percent of the time when I'm investigating."

"Five more minutes," Matsuda said, now checking his watch.

"Alright," Katherine said, sitting back regularly and leaning forward to where the microphone was. "Flip on a news channel someone. We've got to be prepared when they connect to us."


"I am Kira. The person who sent in tapes a few days ago was only an imposter."

"­Yaaay!"

Misa Amane sat on the floor in front of the television set in her flat and watched the broadcast. After having had sent in the first Kira tapes, she had been waiting for the real Kira to reply. He was like God to her, and she wanted more than anything just to meet him. After killing the horrible man that had torn her family apart, she had become completely devoted to Kira. When she picked up a Death Note after she had watched a stalked that was about to kill her die of heart failure before her eyes, and when she learned that the Death Note was the same means Kira used to kill, what else would she do with it but use it for his gain? Rem, however, disapproved. That wasn't a problem for Misa, as she was happy with all she was doing.

"First, I have some words for the impersonator. I will forgive your imitation if you're on my side and wish to become my spokesperson."

"Kira answered!" Misa said happily, looking back at Rem. "I told you!"

"However, killing innocent policemen to cover your tracks isn't acceptable at all. Such actions will only destroy my reputation and create panic amongst the public. If you're truly on my side and wish to help me, please don't act so brazenly, it's a foolish thing to do. If you do not heed my warning, you will be punished without hesitation."

"Video!" Misa said suddenly. "I need video!"

She jumped on her bed and leaned over the side to check under it.

"I know I had some left…" she said.

"What are you planning to do?" Rem asked her.

"Reply," Misa said happily, sitting back up with a video in her hand. She pursed her lips. "But what should I say?"


"Ryuzaki, the second Kira responded!"

The investigation team all looked over at the computer that had just issued an electronic voice. It was sitting on an end table. Katherine looked to see Light's reaction – the computer had an "L" in the background of the screen, the same that L used for his broadcast. Light definitely looked a bit perplexed.

"The envelope and the way the tapes were formed are identical to the last package sent in. The envelope and the tapes are on there way, I'll stream you the video right now."

The background of the computer switched to the sloppily drawn 'Kira' that the impersonator used.

"Kira-san! Thanks for replying! I'll do everything Kira-san said."

Hmmm, Katherine thought, looking over at Light, that must piss him off, he was probably hoping this Kira would insist on L's appearing on TV. He definitely looks at least a little peeved.

"I want to meet Kira-san. I think Kira-san still doesn't have the eyes, but don't worry! I won't kill Kira-san no matter what!"

Wow… Katherine thought, almost tempted to laugh. Either this is one queer son of a bitch or Kira has a fan girl that picked up a Death Note. It's funny either way you look at it… and she's not very smart, obviously, talking about Shinigami eyes on the video? Wow. I'd like to meet this Kira just for a laugh.

"He said 'doesn't have the eyes…'" L said with a contemplative look on his face. "What does that mean?"

"Please think of a way to meet without getting caught by the police. When we meet, we can confirm each other's identity by our Reapers."

Oh my God, whoever this is, is definitely mentally challenged… Katherine thought to herself, biting her thumbnail. She looked over nonchalantly when she heard a clatter, between a chair falling over and someone falling out of a chair. She refrained from laughing. Well, looks like it surprised L. Of course, it'd surprise me, too, if I didn't know what the hell was going on.

"Reapers?" L said. "Does something like that actually exist…?"

"Probably not," Katherine said. "This girl is obviously psycho-crazy over Kira, and people like that are bound to talk about things like reapers."

"'She?'" Yagami said. "Explain."

Katherine laughed. "Listen to the tone of voice of it all. Even though it's distorted, what would fit in? The voice of a Kira fan-girl definitely would, one of those ones that goes on blogging websites just to praise Kira as a God of Justice or some garbage like that. Problem is, this fan-girl now has the same ability as Kira and can kill people who oppose him. Hopefully, she won't now, because that's too many innocent lives."

"The messages Kira made his victims in prison write also affirm the existence of reapers," L said.

"Ah," Katherine said with a laugh. "The 'Reapers only eat apples' ones. Those were great."

"So maybe this was from the same Kira as who killed those criminals?" Yagami suggested.

"That's not it, Dad," Light said. "The old Kira probably wouldn't respond to our fake tape. Also, if it had been him, he would have been intelligent enough to insist for L to appear on TV. He wouldn't have been so obedient."

"What if the second Kira and the first Kira have already contacted each other, and they're using things like 'reapers' to confuse us?"

"Probably not," L said, getting up. "As Raito-kun said, the original Kira wouldn't have allowed the chance for me to be killed to slip." He stood the chair back up. "This Kira isn't trying to do whatever the original Kira would to, but rather whatever needs to be done to reach a certain goal, and not acting in pursuit of Kira's goal. This Kira is doing whatever needs to be done to meet the real Kira."

"So then," Katherine said, "obviously this Kira doesn't care about reforming the world. Only about meeting her idol."

"Maybe Reaper is a code word for their ability to kill…" Light said.

"And 'the eyes,' refer to the fact that this Kira can kill just by a glance. 'Confirming identities with our reapers' would mean to kill someone on the spot."

"I agree," L said. "At the least, it's certain that 'Reaper' is something the two Kiras have in common. It'll help us a lot if we can find out more."

"So what now?" Light asked. "Do we reply again? If we do it wrong, the impersonator find out we're not really Kira."

"Nah," Katherine said. "I think we should wait for the two Kiras to act now."

Of course… Light thought, trying to act as surprised by her answer as the rest of the team. She's just trying to trick me again.

"Wait for them?" Aizawa said.

"Considering the reply we've gotten," L said, "the second Kira must be fairly content with the situation. The real Kira is probably paying close attention to the exchange between us and the second Kira. The imposter plans to give Kira a message only the two of them would understand, using Sakura TV's six o' clock news. Kira probably wants to minimize contact between the second Kira and the police, which will mean he'll try to meet this Kira as soon as possible to stop us from confiscating more tapes from the second. If the second Kira starts to leak out their secrets, it would be bad news. If the real Kira sends a reply, however, it would be great; we'd be even closer to having physical evidence of Kira.

"Please warn each TV station about this and set up surveillance," L told the team. "If another message is sent, then I will decide whether it will be aired or not. We will soon be able to start tracking where the second Kira is."

Katherine's cell phone buzzed in her pocket. As L was giving orders, she took it out and checked it. She had a new text message. She had told Don never to text her unless it was an emergency, which had to mean it was an emergency… she decided it would be best to check it. Three words that she had never wanted to see were the first words she saw on the little screen: "police spotted Al." She scrolled the message down, afraid of what else it might say. "Call back NOW."

"Umm…" Katherine said slowly, standing, "I've got to go make a call… something's come up, this is important, I'll be back shortly…"

Katherine walked to the door and out into the hallway. She quickly dialed Don's number and held the phone to her ear. She bit her bottom lip, waiting for him to pick up. Now she needed a cigarette. No amount of caffeine in the world could calm her nerves.

"Kat?" Don said. "Did you get –"

"No shit, I got it!" she hissed at him. "Now give me his name or I'll –"

"He's told us not to," Don said. "He's right here, I can't right now. The police recognized him."

"Then give me his name and I'll –"

There was the sound of static, and then Al's voice came on the phone instead.

"You're not getting my real name," he said. "If I die, it's me own fault for going out without any hat or sunglasses to cover my face, that's not your problem."

"Yes it is and –"

"Right. Let's suppose you have one year left to live and you save me. That would give up your year, kill you, and leave us completely dumbstruck about what to do next."

"If I die, then you don't have to work on the Kira case!"

"If any one of us for dies, then face it, the other three will become even more involved in the case. My name should be up on the next news show. Don't try to save me. If one of us three over here dies, then the other two still have the mastermind."

"You listen here," Katherine said, squeezing her phone so hard that she could hear the plastic creaking slightly. "I have three friends. If one of them dies, I'm going to snap and kill Light Yagami, and then Kira will never be caught. This isn't going to work, I will find your name before the next news show."

"Best be quick," he said. "Four o' clock news comes on in thirty seconds. I don't want you to save me, it could kill you and then we'd be running around in circles. At least if I die, you can continue the Kira investigation. You know who Kira is, all you have to do is find a way to prove it. Us three aren't smart enough to do that, we're only acting by your order. How are we supposed to act by your order if you're dead? Just leave it be, it was my mistake."

"Damn it, Al…" she said, feeling tears in her eyes. She blinked them away as best as she could – the investigation team couldn't know what was going on, they had to stay focused on the Kira case, which meant she couldn't start crying by any means. That would be a distraction. "Why'd you have to go and do something stupid like go outdoors? Fresh air is completely overrated, you should know that! What were you thinking? Damn it… fine. If you want to die… I won't try to save you. I can't now, anyway. I know it's already too late. There'll be a special news bulletin on the news about Ireland's most wanted serial killer in Japan, and either Kira or the second Kira won't pass up that opportunity. Kira is here – Light Yagami is, I mean, he's on the investigation team, but the second Kira… I just don't know. Let me go. I'm just going to end up crushing my phone if I don't. Goodbye…"

"Bye…"

She shut her phone, her hands shaking. She walked back into the hotel room quietly, so not to disrupt the investigation team. She sat back in the chair she'd been seated in, knowing that she couldn't do a thing about what was about to happen. If he wasn't murdered durring the four o' clock news, it would just happen at another time. It didn't matter. There was no use trying to put a stop to it, as Al had said. As unfortunate as it was, they indeed weren't very intelligent alone and did need her. She wished she had a way of telling how many years she had left in her life. That would have made it a lot easier to act. She kept her cell phone clenched in her hand, waiting for another message to respond to, but not at all looking forward to it.