December 6th, 2003

Today he apologized for his great failure. He begs his God to please forgive him. He promises to continue his work, despite this setback. He vows to continue his holy work, eliminate evil, and destroy all those who would oppose God's will.

I have no idea what this 'failure' of his is supposed to be, but his renewed determination for whatever it is he's been doing could be problematic. I need to stop this guy sooner rather than later...

Now if only I knew how.

December 7th, 2003

Today's letter continues in the same psychotic vein as yesterday's.

I've decided that it's far past the time to start figuring out what I can do about this. It is 5:42, and I have just broken into the NPA's databases. I will look through other stalking cases and convicted criminals or suspects from similar cases. Even if I can't find the person who's been following me... I can try.

And I can defend myself. I will defend myself.

December 8th, 2003

Today's letter is the most desperate for recognition in the whole series. He says that he will show me, his God, what he has done for me. He says that he prays to hear the voice of his God once more. It sounds like he's going to make a move, very soon. I have developed a nervous habit of touching the can of pepper spray, like a security blanket, but I'm beginning to think that the quick reflexes that I'm developing are going to be useful in the very near future.

It is a small thing, but I have begun to place pencil lead in the hinge of my door, and to position the handle of my door at a slight angle each time I leave my room. Opening the door will break the lead and return the handle to its proper position... If anyone enters while I am gone, I will know.

December 9th, 2003

9:54 pm

National Police Agency- Kira Task Force Headquarters

"Upon further investigation, we have confirmed that information of the heart attack victims was in fact publicly available in Japan immediately prior to their deaths." The officer giving the report glanced behind himself, toward Watari and the gothic L on the laptop at the back of the room. "Also, concerning L's request that we investigate the time of death for each victim, we found that all of them occurred between the hours of 4 pm and 2am on week days, local time, with 68% of them occurring between 8 pm and 12 am. Weekends and holidays appear to be the exception to this rule, as the times of death vary much more widely than during the week."

L spoke for the first time in the meeting. "That information is extremely relevant for us. It suggests that, given the times of death, our suspect could very well be a student."

Soichiro hummed questioningly, thrown by this sudden extrapolation. L promptly elaborated, mechanized voice silencing all other noises in the room.

"Based on the fact that Kira's only killing criminals, I think it's safe to assume that he's driven by a very idealistic notion of justice. It's highly possible he may even aspire to be some sort of God-like figure." Soichiro twitched briefly at his wording. He glanced around discretely, hoping that no one had noticed his slip. "We're dealing with an individual who has a very childish concept of right and wrong. Of course, this is mere speculation at this point. But still, I recommend that you re-examine any assumptions you've made as to whether or not our suspect could be a student. We must consider every possibility. I believe that is the shortest way to finding and arresting Kira. Please, continue with your report."

Soichiro quickly snapped back into focus. He couldn't slip now. "Hm? Oh, right. Does anyone else have something they'd like to add?"

"Uhhh," Matsuda stood rather timidly, raising a hand. "Yes, sir."

"What is it, Matsuda?"

"Umm... Well, I'm not saying this to support Kira, or to condone the murders, but... in the last few days, throughout the world—but especially here in Japan—we've observed a dramatic decrease in the number of violent crimes committed."

Soichiro sighed. Matsuda had a talent for pointing out the uncomfortable truth. "Well... I suppose it makes sense. We've suspected something like that would happen. Anything else?" Say no.

"No..."

Small blessings. "Well, that about sums up our report for today. L?" Let us be done for the night.

"Thank you, everyone. I feel we're one step closer to finding Kira. Before I go, I'm afraid I have one additional request to make. This is directed to the teams investigating the victims, TV news, and internet. I would like you to go back and take a closer look at the exact way in which the victims' identities were made public. Be as thorough as possible. In particular, I want to know if photos of the victims were made available to the public in Japan. I'll leave it to you."

With these orders, there was a small blip as, somewhere in the world, L disconnected his microphone. The screen went black a moment later, and Watari gathered it up, bowed shortly, and left the room. A few of the officers watched this ritual with an odd sort of fascination. The rest shuffled about, yawning and organizing work distribution for the next day. Soichiro rubbed his eyes tiredly and made his way into the hall.

He watched the city move beneath him from the high window of the NPA. Standing up here made him feel small, and overwhelmed. How could he, a lone person, do anything to stop crime and corruption in this huge world? It was surely futile, like trying to paddle upstream with a paddle full of holes... After all, he couldn't even help his own son.

No. He would not fall into that rut. Dwelling too long on thoughts like these led to disillusioned cops, and disillusioned cops went crooked. And there was nothing Soichiro hated more than crooked cops.

Except maybe Kira. Or the bastard who was following his son. He sighed, and stretched.

"Chief!" Soichiro made a noise of surprise, and turned to see Matsuda holding out a steaming cup of coffee. I need sleep if Matsuda can sneak up on me. "You look like you could use one of these," Matsuda smiled, and Soichiro accepted the cup. "Sleeping much?"

"Ah. Thank you, that'll do the trick." Soichiro avoided the topic of sleep, and said instead, "I feel all these late nights are starting to take their toll." Sufficiently vague, he thought with approval.

"...About what I said earlier, at our meeting..." Matsuda looked away, abashed, and Soichiro waited for him to continue with patience bred from parenting. It proved fruitful a moment later when he blurted, "Well, now that I think about it, um- I'm sure everybody already knew that. I wanted to apologize."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Soichiro dismissed. "Nobody said it would be easy to speak the truth, but it has to be done. Especially when it's something that isn't easy to say." ... "Having said that, if you had gone on to say that we should commend Kira for doing such a great job in reducing violent crime... then yes, I might have had a little problem with that."

"Oh, no, I wouldn't! That would never happen!"

"Just kidding..." Soichiro laughed, a little superficially. The laughter died away quickly, and Soichiro was back to gazing out the dark windows at the city outside. Matsuda shifted uneasily from foot to foot behind him, and Soichiro shifted his gaze to his reflection, waiting for him to speak.

"You're not going home tonight, are you, Chief?"

Soichiro sighed again. "No."

Matsuda's reflection frowned openly. The younger officer probably didn't realize that Soichiro was watching him. "You should get some sleep, sir... spend some time with your family. This investigation can only get harder, and there's not much you can do now..."

"I'm not working on the Kira investigation."

"Not—what are you working on, then?" Matsuda hastily added, "Sir."

Soichiro cradled his coffee cup to his lips and inhaled, taking his time in answering. He sipped it, and hid his grimace. Bitter. "What do you think, Matsuda?"

Matsuda was quiet for a minute, then cautious recognition slipped onto his face. "Your son's stalker, sir?" Soichiro sipped his coffee in response. "Is that allowed, sir? Shouldn't you have created a case report and given it to someone else?-I mean..." Soichiro turned around and gave Matsuda a hard stare. His voice faltered a little. "Aren't you a little too close to this?" He looked like he regretted his words immediately, but he did not retract them.

And there's that little talent for pointing out the uncomfortable truth, Soichiro thought. "You have a point," Soichiro conceded. The tension in Matsuda's shoulders eased a little. "But I can't give this up to someone else. Cases like this are almost never acted upon until it's too late, and the punishments rarely keep the culprits away... I can't risk that. My job takes me away from my family all too often, because I try so hard to make this world a better, safer place for them to live in. If, after all of that, I can't even keep my family safe..." Soichiro trailed off. "I have to catch this man, and make sure he is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Matsuda nodded into his own coffee. "Yes, sir."

Somewhere in Tokyo, in a darkened room, L brought his thumb to his mouth. He hated explaining his thought processes to other people. It was always so frustrating that people didn't simply understand his reasoning automatically, and having to 'dumb it down' for them was degrading. But it was necessary.

L had learned two things in tonight's meeting. First, Kira was probably a student. A little disappointing—as much as he wanted to stop Kira, L had wanted a challenge. If Kira was going to be this obvious, then the case would be over all too soon.

The second piece of information was more intriguing, but likely to be unrelated to the Kira case. The chief of police, Soichiro Yagami... he had twitched during the meeting, visibly. It was unlikely that any of the officers had noticed, so focused were they on L's little speech, but Chief Yagami had had a rather violent reaction to the words "God-like figure".

That was interesting. But what could it mean? It was a very vague reaction. Yagami could have issues with religion. He could very well have a nervous tic. L didn't think the man's reaction could be explained by either of those things, however.

Next to the stacks of files on the Kira case, L placed the file on Soichiro Yagami. He would keep an eye on the chief, for now.