At eight in the morning the task force enters Light's apartment/headquarters to work on their new murder case. Light, still in his pajamas, is quietly surprised to see them. "I'll make coffee" he says.

"It can wait." his father informs, "The killer sent a new message."

Matsuda pulls up the web clip, the screen is black but the audio reads "Kira. This is Malice. I've killed once again, and once again I remain undeterred. I'm beginning to see you as a cowardly child with superhuman will, a boy who looks through a window, from afar, at all that he hates and crushes it in his mind made real. If I can kill so wontonly in your world; how am i supposed to respect you as an adversary? Another victim and I'm already bored. It has occured to me, that even if I lose our little game, it won't be because you won. The police will do all the work and you'll steal all the glory. People worship you? They fear you? 'Kira the God'? What a hopeless flock of sheep this world maintains. All that humanity inspires in me is hatred, but you most of all. I meet my victims head on, and dirty my hands. I will make that true of you as well."

Light is unaffected. "We didn't learn anything new. Other than; he likes to repeat himself."

"He has a death wish." Matsuda says.

"We learned that the first time." Light counters.

"Another victim," Ide reminds. "there's a second crime scene out there... Somewhere..."

"Right." Light says sitting at a terminal, "I'll find it. By the way, I've set your fake NPA badges on that table over there. It's been awhile since we've been active at any crime scenes. I know it seems like less of a deterrent now that we know about the Shinigami eyes. But based on Kira's obsession with building a new world, I doubt he would ever take the eye deal and split his reign in half. Since I told the police to make sure Kira knew the task force was working for him we're in a more dangerous position than ever of being exposed. - Sorry about that."

"It makes sense," Soichiro says, "not to let the NPA suffer the same risk for Kira's mistakes. Ryuzaki said KIra would hate to be proven wrong. Trying to have him believe we'd catch this killer with special consideration for his reputation is enough of a stretch. He might see through that quite easily. We should take every precaution available to shield ourselves from him without drawing suspicion."

"Done." Light says, "A woman was stabbed to death in her home less than a mile from the Akagawa house. That's the same M.O.

Soichiro grabs his coat, "Let's get down there."

At the scene they flash their NPA badges, "Kira Task Force" Soichiro declares. "This scene is a potential match for allegations Malice has been making. The crime scene is ours now."

The now former lead detective puts his hands at his waist, "So this is it, then huh? The Anti-Kira Task Force, has become the 'Kira Task Force'?"

"The police have developed a cooperative stance with Kira for years now." Soichiro says. "We're all together in this, just let us do our jobs."

"Your job... Your job..." the detective repeats, animating himself "not his job, your job. Fine, have at it. Like I care if some murderer gets wasted on live TV- even if it is at the hands of an even worse one -" he throws his arms out "just another day in Japan now." and walks away.

Soichiro lowers his head in shame, and says softly "This would be a lot easier if we could tell them our plans."

"We can't." Light says.

Soichiro barely lifts his head to utter, "I know."

A young man steps up to Soichiro, shaking his hand "I'm Takashi Nakano. I'll... learn your names as we go along. I've been informed it's a very dangerous job. But to ensure you aren't compromising the murder scene, impeding a real investigation, or otherwise abusing police resources I have volunteered myself to be your police liason. With L's money I'm sure you have most of what you need, but to the extent that it's necessary... I'm also here to help. Any questions?"

Aizawa shoots a skeptical stare "They have one of you at every crime scene?"

Nakano laughs "Stabbed woman fits the M.O. of a killer who has threatened to continue murdering. Actually I was sent here to determine whether or not we should call you guys." he scratches his waist, "...guess I got my answer. - Anything else?"

"What happened here?" Light asks.

"A bloodbath. The neighbors aren't too close, nobody reported any noise. Whether he - the killer - could've known that or not, when he had our woman in the bedroom..." he leads them all inside. On the bed, the once elegant Miyu Yueda lies in layers of dry and moist blood. "he took his time."

Light appears genuinely sick at the scene, "How can one person be so evil?"

Soichiro: "Sexual assault?"

"Not from what we can tell - We don't know yet." Takashi says, "Mrs. Akagawa didn't turn up any evidence of that either though. Doesn't mean it didn't happen."

Soichiro is the only person in the room who stares directly at the corpse, "There's definitely a sexual motive either way. Why else would he torture these women so extensively?"

"Right." says their Liason picking at his leather belt "Hopefully that helps in your investigation..."

"It definitely helps level my concerns some about letting him die." Soichiro walks into the adjacent room.

Nakano continues, "He had to have washed up in the bathroom. It would have been the only way to ensure he wouldn't be noticed leaving the scene. Nobody saw anything and he would have been drenched in blood." he wafts his hands across himself in demonstration.

Aizawa looks around, "How did the killer even get in?"

"Strange at both crime scenes," Nakano admits, "They're pretty nice homes, security systems. No cameras, typically - but protected, more or less. No sign that he really broke in to either of them."

"Possibly someone the victims knew?" Soichiro suggests - and questions, and he is skeptical, "Serial killers don't make a habit of killing people they know."

"We know." Nakano says.

Ide: "This is a really nice place, what did her husband do? Can we talk to him?"

"Maybe if he existed." Nakano says, then mumbles "Not sure yet if she even had a boyfriend. But..." he says "She works for an advertising firm."

"Lightheart Mines?" Mogi asks.

Nakano has to think, but not very hard "Yeah, how did you know that?"

Soichiro answers, "It's the company Minoru Akagawa worked for. This is an unusual series, suggestions that the victims knew the killer. Connections to each other... and then Kira."

"Yeah..." says Nakano, "He is an odd one."

Matsuda recolors the conversation "I feel like a real detective again!"

Aizawa swats him on the back of the head, "Grow up, this is serious!"

Soichiro is dumbfounded, "Just as strange, if these connections line up, this killer shows little to no regard for his own safety."

"He's in a fight with Kira." Light says, "He's obviously not afraid to die."

"Maybe he's trying to manufacture the perfect way to do it." Soichiro thinks aloud "Die." he points at the ground "He said it on the tape, 'even if I lose'. To him this is a game. Win or lose, he wants to be remembered as the man who stood up to Kira."

Light can't hide his contempt "Those are quite grandiose delusions for a man who butchers defenseless women."

Matsuda raises his hand meekly "Eh... Psychopaths don't usually have a very good sense of self. His hypocrisy might be elusive, or justified to him."

'I'll show him.' Light thinks.

Akira drives around town turning out into a patch of grass, continuing off until he's isolated. Parking in the grass. Mace follows him to the tail end of the car. Akira resumes conversating , "...Say I was to write that a super rich person leaves me all of their money before they die?"

"How well does this person know you?" Mace asks.

"Well, you see, I don't even want them to know it's me they're leaving the money to. Right? Because I don't want anyone to know I have it."

"They would die of a heart attack."

Akira pulls a shovel out of the back of the car. "Why?" He asks.

"Because they wouldn't have any reason to send money to a person they don't know anonymously. Even if you have them stash it, you can't be sure they'll know the hiding spot you're thinking of, that no one else will mess with it, or that you can definitely get to it. So a heart attack is the most likely result."

"Thank you!" Akira says walking to the trunk rattling his keys.

"Akira. Why do you have a human stashed in this car?"

Akira smiles, "He's an educational tool." the trunk opens, and inside is Yoji, his gunshot victim, a bandage wrapped around his head, his jaw and cheekbone, more specifically, where the bullet had struck him. "See last night when I killed his girlfriend - and tried to kill him - he passed out. When he woke up, he just wandered around disoriented and that gave me a really great idea!" he prods Yoji with the handle of the shovel, "HEY! GET OUT!" He pulls him out by his shirt, tossing him into the muddy grass. Getting his bearings Yoji rests on his knees. Akira extends the shovel, "Here, take this."

"Making him dig his own grave?" Mace shakes his head, "What are you going to learn from that?"

Akira stretches his neck back, stiffening up, a stern look on his face, "I'm not making him dig his own grave! Holy hell, man, how evil do you think I am? Although that is pretty funny... I might have to think about that for next time."

See I called our rich friend. Not the hypothetical one, a real one. Hiroshi Moto.

"Hello." Hiroshi answered his phone. Hiroshi is the President of a big advertising firm.

"Mr. Moto. Do not hang up the phone. Your family's life is in danger. Do not speak unless spoken to."

He sounded very rattled (Akira makes a phone with his fingers as he tells Mace the story.) "Who is this!? What do you want from me?" he asked.

"I want every cent of money you can materialize in ten days, or your entire family will be killed. I know you won't go to the police... I will text you the coordinates at which to bury the money. You will do so carefully and discreetly. You will delete the text, and quietly commit suicide at the end of the next ten days, far from the country, and in a way that will no doubt leave confirmation of your death in question." Now, I wrote these instructions into the Note that you gave me. And before he could even open his mouth in responses, I added the last piece of the text... his name.

Akira strikes the back of Yoji's neck. "OVER THERE! Dig in the odd patch! Do it, hurry!" Akira stands beside Mace, watching Yoji closely. See I gave his actions context, and I gave him reason to give me his money. Reason to familiarize himself with this location. So he should have followed my instructions to the letter. - See that Mace? When you want to manipulate somebody, you never really have to worry about them lacking knowledge of important details - because you can always just... - tell it to them!" He laughs.

Mace nods. "Interesting... You did use it."

Akira folds his arms over, "I did, I did. At least this once. It's all to a purpose." he informs.

"You are teaching me many new things." Mace says.

"Glad to here it Mace... " Akira walks toward Yoji, screaming "HEY! You better not get blood on my money!"