"Alright, we'll be meeting with a group of people from the college, so we can just blend in with them. Obviously you'll be using aliases," Light told Katherine and Matsuda. They three of them had met up in Aoyama after having left Light up to planning how they would stay inconspicuous. "You're my cousins from out of town and –"

"And I'm his little sister, Amaya, who decided to tag along just because of my favorite pastime of annoying my least favorite cousin half to death," Katherine said with a careful nod – she knew that the short black wig she was wearing wouldn't fall off, but it still felt like it was going to. "You'll be using your regular alias name," she told Matsuda, "but you are not a police officer. See, Light-kun hangs out with junkies and alcoholics, and they'd just scatter if they knew that the police were –"

"What are you talking about?" Light said incredulously, shaking his head.

She laughed. "I'm just playing the 'annoying my least favorite cousin' role," she said with a shrug. "You didn't know I was going to start practicing early?"

"Can't you wait until you're supposed to do it?"

"I've got to get into character. You're not an actor, you wouldn't understand," Katherine said with a dismissive wave of her hand. She then examined her wrist. "Hmm. That looks a lot thinner without spike bracelets."

"You're already in character," Light said irritably.

"Thank you!" she said brightly. "But that's not going to stop me. Now, as for the disguise," she added a little nervously. "It looked genuine enough, right?"

"Sure," Light said. "You look even shorter than usual."

"I couldn't exactly wear my platform boots…" she said. "They're kind of the other me's trademark. Just as long as I don't look like me, no one should ever guess, so that's more what I'm asking."

"No one from the college should be able to tell," Light said. "And if they can't, the second Kira won't be able to."

"You really can't even tell you're from Europe," Matsuda said. "It should work."

"Yeah," she said. "The second Kira won't be able to tell who I am until she checks to see my name and realizes I don't have one…. Is that who we're meeting?" she added, pointing up to a small crowd in front of them.

"Yeah," Light said.

The entire time Light was introducing Matsuda and Katherine as his cousins from out of town, Katherine was keeping her eyes peeled around everywhere else. If she could spot another Shinigami besides Lights (who seemed to find the random insults she kept throwing at Light fairly amusing), she would be able to spot the second Kira. Light's plan was definitely a good one; even if the second Kira's Shinigami spotted Light's Shinigami and told her, there would be no way of telling who he was following out of the crowd. If the second Kira had some way of telling apart other Death Note owners, then she'd be confused between Light and Katherine, who both owned Death Notes. It wasn't long before Katherine came across the second Shinigami. She almost slipped up and gasped at the sight, but she managed to pass it off as a sneeze, thereafter stating that she was allergic to dorks like Light.

The Shinigami was standing behind a girl with a short, black haircut and glasses. They were inside a small diner, and the girl was facing the front window, staring outside. She was wearing what looked like a school uniform, and looking out into the crowd. Katherine saw her say something to the Shinigami, looking confused; apparently, Shinigami eyes could distinguish other Death Note owners, as she seemed to be looking between Katherine and Light when she spoke to the Shinigami. What surprised Katherine, however, wasn't the girl. It was the Shinigami that completely baffled her; it was Rem, the first of their kind that Katherine had ever spoken with directly.

Even after all those years, she had still been trying to convince herself that Shinigami weren't real and the Death Note was a load of garbage. She wasn't trying to convince herself as much as she used to, but there was an occasion when she'd just flip through the blank pages of her own Death Note, wondering if she was just insane. Now, she had confirmation that she wasn't. The girl inside the diner was talking to Rem, so that concluded that she could also see Rem. That meant Rem was real, which meant Katherine hadn't gone crazy. For Katherine, she wasn't sure if the fact that she wasn't insane was very comforting. All this did was give her reason to believe that it would be impossible to prove the true identity of Kira. She couldn't tell the team that she had seen the second Kira. How would she explain it, that she knew it was the second Kira because there was a seven foot tall spook standing behind her? That would have made her sound completely irrational. Sure, she could tell Light, but it wouldn't do much good to tell the first Kira who the second Kira was. What was really strange to Katherine was how familiar this girl looked… she supposed she should ponder over it later.


"Rem?" Misa said quietly inside the diner, so no one could hear her but Rem. "Isn't that the girl who was on television on Sakura TV?"

"I believe it is," Rem said.

"But… but I can't see her life span or her name, which means she has a Death Note, right?"

"If you could see her name but not her life span, then it would simply just mean she has a Death Note. This means she both has a Death Note and it is impossible to kill her with one."

"I don't want to kill her!" Misa said, astounded. "If she's who I think she is, I think that we were in our last year of high school together. But she's got her hair different than the other day, I think she's disguised. Everyone thinks she's L, so she's probably worried that if the second Kira saw her and couldn't kill her, then the second Kira would kill whoever she was with. If she has no real name, I can't tell whether it's her or not, but she used the name Katherine-something in school. She was really nice, I wonder why she doesn't support Kira, too… unless it was an act and she's Kira…

"Do you know which one of them is Kira, Rem?"

"I don't think she is," Rem said. "If I'm not mistaken, she's been a Death Note owner for longer than Kira has been around. I can see the other Shinigami, but I can't tell who he's following."

"There's a boy there that doesn't have a life span, either," Misa said. "Is he Kira?" She giggled. "He's cute. He's so serious-looking, though… and his name… Tsuki Yagami? He has such a strange name." Misa stood up. "Let's go home. I don't have to risk going to Note Blue now."

Once at home, Misa immediately fished her laptop out from under her bed. She did a web search on that Tsuki Yagami guy to find out more about him. Once she found out where he lived, she could meet him and tell him she was the second Kira. He didn't look like a bad person, so she was sure he'd be happy to have her help him. She found more about him on the Touou College website. As it turned out, his name was actually Light Yagami.

"Hey, that's cool!" she said. "The Kanji for his name is 'Tsuki,' but it's read as 'Light.' It also says he got first place in the national tennis tournament for second and third year students durring middle school, and he's the student commencement speaker this year for Touou University. There isn't a picture of him, but it has to be him, I don't think anyone else has a name like his. I never thought Kira would turn out to be so handsome…. I'll be able to find out where he lives soon, then I can go see him."


After how badly Katherine had ended up embarrassing him at both Aoyama and Shibuya, Light had decided to disregard her existence outside of meetings, which she found highly amusing. She had, after all, only been playing the role she had assigned to herself to avoid suspicion on the part of the second Kira. She knew she hadn't avoided suspicion, but she couldn't tell anyone about a Shinigami she had seen floating behind someone. The only person it would make sense to would be Light, and he'd want to know who it was. On the twenty-fifth of May, the Kira investigation team was in a meeting at the hotel room headquarters to discuss the surveillance of Aoyama and Shibuya on the two dates.

"There wasn't anyone suspicious found durring the trips to Aoyama and Shibuya," Aizawa said. "That just leaves the Tokyo Dome on the thirtieth."

I didn't see anyone holding a Death Note in either place… Light thought. Is the meeting place really supposed to be the dome? I should probably ask Katherine…. If she can see Ryuk, she might have been able to see the imposter's Shinigami. But then, that would practically be admitting that I'm Kira, which is probably exactly what she's been waiting for. She might even have a bug on her so she can record it when I do say it. There's no doubt that she's smart enough to consider that…

"Ryuzaki," a voice said suddenly from the laptop sitting on the end table next to L, "there is another package to Sakura TV. According to the stamp, it was sent on the twenty-third. I'm sending the video now."

The badly drawn letters that they had grown to recognize all too well appeared on the computer screen. They were accompanied by the equally amateur voice distortion.

"I have found Kira. Thank you everyone at the TV station and the police station."

Katherine glanced over at Light. He appeared to be trying to remain calm, but he had a faint air of nervousness about him. He was probably wondering how the second Kira had figured out who he was. Katherine somehow doubted that Light's Shinigami had ever mentioned anything about Shinigami eyes to Light, except the cost of the trade. Indeed, that was all Katherine knew. Since she had seen Rem, though, and how the girl Rem was following seemed to be confused between Katherine and Light, she knew there had to be some way to tell. Katherine halfway wondered if Rem had told the girl about whom Katherine was, what Death Note she had picked up. More than anything, Katherine couldn't get over how familiar the girl had looked. That was strange, considering she barely knew anyone in Japan.

"He's found Kira already?" Matsuda said. "That's bad…"

"Yes…" Yagami agreed. "So they've already joined forces…"

"Unlikely," Katherine said airily. "'Found' doesn't mean the same thing as 'met.' This means she knows who Kira is, but probably hasn't met with him yet."

"At least, they hadn't 'met' before this package was sent," L said.

"Right," Katherine said. "Or they wouldn't have used the word 'found.'"

"Since we've gotten this far," L said, "we need to use our policing influence to bait the second Kira."

"'Bait?'" Matsuda said.

"Use some incentive to lure her into telling us who Kira really is," Katherine explained. "You're with the police, you should know that."

"If the real Kira still doesn't know who the second Kira is, the second Kira may respond to the trap," L said.

"It'd be impossible to bribe her with no sentencing at this point…" Katherine said, scratching the back of her head. "But, I think we could say 'if you tell us who the real Kira is, then we'll be more lenient on you, and you will be a hero to the world.' Something like that."

"And quickly," L said. "It's 7:25. Asahi-san, could you try to get it on the news at 8:55?"

"I'll handle it."

Katherine looked over at Light. It was getting hard for him to hide his frustration, and his Shinigami couldn't have been much of a help with his laughing.

"This is turning into the worst possible situation, isn't it, Light?" he said, still laughing. "Just remember. We can trade eyes at any time."

Light half-glared at the Shinigami for a moment, but not long enough for anyone but Katherine to notice. He was close to being cornered into admitting his identity as Kira. If the imposter turned herself in, then she would be able to tell them who he was. He didn't know who she was yet, so he couldn't stop her. It seemed like it would be an impossible escape. However, Katherine had an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach that this battle was far from being over. Since this new Kira had Shinigami eyes, she could get L's name. If Katherine didn't get it first, that meant that he would be killed, which wouldn't be good at all for the Kira investigation.

For the first time in days, Katherine's cell phone buzzed in her pocket. She took it out and checked it, still listening to the meeting. There was a text message from Pat's cell phone number. Her heart pounded as she opened her phone and found her inbox. She opened the text message and read: "It's happened. Call soon."

Katherine looked up at Light from over the edge of her phone for a moment, and then shut her phone. She stood up.

"Spy bussiness," she said, holding up her phone as she walked towards the door. "Be back shortly."

She walked out the door, trying to keep calm as she called Pat's phone. He answered after a few rings, sounding more shaken than anything.

"H-hello?" he said

"It's me," Katherine said. "I got your message."

"It wasn't a heart attack," he said quietly. "It was suicide."

Katherine's heart jumped. "Wh… what?"

"He had talked us into going down to the store to pick up a six pack, we'd just run out of beer. We came back and he had shot himself, and there was a note lying on the table."

"Note?"

"Yeah…" he said. "It was really weird, there was a sentence per line of the paper –"

"Scan it," she said quickly. "Send it to me. I'm in a meeting right now."

"So you'll get back to us on it later –?"

"No, immediately," she said. "This… I'm not happy about it, I'm not happy at all, but this is a breakthrough. Al wouldn't have…" She swallowed, trailing her sentence off. "At least, not without being controlled, he wouldn't…. I need to see the note. It could be important. If it leaves a clue that Kira did it, we have proof he can kill with methods other than heart failure."

"You think Kira would have left a clue in it…?"

"He left three notes that spelled out the message 'L, do you know reapers only eat apples?' It's not a vital clue that would make any sense, but there's a chance. So send it, please. I need to see it."

"A… all right, I'll do it now. Do you have any way of receiving it?"

"Laptop," she said. "Just send it via email. I know how to erase all evidence when I'm done, so there's no risk."

"You're… alright, then?"

She sighed. "No…" she said quietly. "As long as I'm working, though, I can ignore that I'm not. This case… it's personal now. I won't let Kira get away with this. I'll be lucky if I can restrain from strangling Light Yagami when I go back into headquarters."


"So it looks like I turned out to be a murderer after all, but…
I'd rather take my own life than give Kira the pleasure of doing it.
Hell awaits me for suicide, but I'll be waiting there for Kira to give him what he deserves.
That gives me reason to die happy.
Now is the best time to get this over with.
It's certain I'll die, anyway, and I'd rather it be less painful than a heart attack.
Will you keep going after Kira?
Let me say just that I believe we can handle this.
L is the greatest detective in the world, and Katherine knows enough about Kira to win hands down.
It's enough to give me hope, at least, that Kira will be killed.
When, I don't know.
And I don't know how he'll be caught, either.
Right now, I only know that it
will happen.
I do know, though that Kira will be killed, and it will be them to take him down.
Kira is a force of evil that must be stopped.
"

The team was gathered around the laptop that Katherine had checked her email with. She had opened the letter and quickly read over it before working on finding any sort of secret message. She rotated the scan to the right and drew her finger across the first letter of each line, left to right.

"'Kira Will Win This,'" she read. She scoffed. "Kira's an idiot. Using the same method of coding as on the last letters. He probably knew we'd figure it out, but this is a pitiful attempt at a scare to us. If he thinks this could unnerve anyone, he's probably the daftest serial killer I've ever heard of."

However," L said, "this proves that Kira can not only control the circumstances of death, but he can also control the cause. It was already proven that he could control the circumstances to a fine point with the nonsense letters that he made the prisoners leave with an empty clue about 'reapers', but this seems a little more serious. It is doubtful that the second Kira would have left this note, because no details about those letters were ever released to the public."

"This means that Kira knew that this criminal was connected to me, as my name – or my most used alias, at the least – was mentioned directly in the suicide note. This means that Kira knows who I am." Katherine said. "That leaves a fifty percent chance that I know the person whose alias is Kira, which means there's about a thirty-five percent chance that everyone in this room might as well. And if that's so," she continued on slowly, "then there's a fifteen percent chance that someone in this room is Kira."

This brought a deathly silence amongst the investigation team, leaving almost everyone in the room silently wondering who it could possibly be.