Neon spatter caked across a glowing wall. That's what Matsuda places in front of Light. - A picture of it at least. "Blood spatter?" He asks.

Matsuda confirms, "From the killer."

Aizawa hovers over them with a stern look on his face. "We don't know that it's from the killer."

Matsuda insists, "Yes we do."

"Why?" Aizawa asks as if ad nauseam.

"No, he's right," Light says to Aizawa, he moves out of his chair still fixated on the still "The killer didn't clean up any other blood at the crime scene. Therefore it stands to reason; the blood is his. So we know he's injured... Pretty badly from the look of it." Light places the photos in their file, still staring at them.

"But how?" Aizawa wonders again, "The murdered girl had nothing when we found her, her family insists she is not the kind of person to keep weapons in the house. She was helpless" he points hard enough to jostle the file, "and this burst looks pretty violent."

Light places the tip of the folder against his own chin, "Hm. You make excellent points. But a single woman with so much money... She might have a secret, perhaps there are sides of her personality she doesn't show family and friends. If she kept a weapon for self defense, the killer would have taken it too - of course. He doesn't want us to know he's been injured, and he wouldn't want us matching any weapon to his injury. Taking it would be consistent with his behavior."

"Okay..." Aizawa says reluctantly, while pushing "He would have bled all over the victim."

Light turns back to Matsuda "Did they find two types of blood at the scene?"

Matsuda hunches awkwardly rubbing the back of his head, "Eh, we'd have to wait for the lab results."

Light begins to concentrate, 'Aizawa's right. This looks suspicious. The little we have to go on tells us the killer is methodical, or at least prepared. Also, he has a quarrel with Kira, with Kira killing 'innocent' people, he wants to test his limits. Could there have been a third party in Miyu's home? Is this the work of a killer who took a flawed step and scrambled to cover his tracks? Or is he putting up a scapegoat for the police to sacrifice as a way to test Kira's resolve? I have to assume it's the latter, for now. Unless the killer's an idiot, had he been injured it would have been less risky to flee the scene without murdering the girl. Breaking and entering carries a much lighter punishment than murder. Even I might have forgiven him for that. Had he been injured at the point of no return, the smart thing to do would be to distance himself from the murder, by altering the crime scene - no, wiping it altogether.' he grits his teeth 'A - 'single' - woman... If the results show blood from a second party, that second party is another one of Malice's victims, one he wants the police to broadcast as the suspect so Kira will kill him prematurely.' Light catches Matsuda and Aizawa staring at him, "What?"

Matsuda points haphazardly, "Isn't it creepy when he does that?"

Smiling wryly, Light says "Just thinking Matsuda. It works wonders... We should let the police handle this one."

The big "WHAT!?" is a uniform reaction from the two other men.

"Malice is an obvious narcissist, if he's half as intelligent as he thinks he is, he wouldn't have gotten himself injured at the crime scene. So I have to deduce that he's unlikely to be Miyu's killer." A possible enough scenario, but one would need trash for brains to be so careless with a crime scene in a post Kira society. "A killer who wants so badly to finish work he thinks is important would not jeopardize it by leaving obvious evidence of his presence at the crime scene. If our victim injured him he would have been aware enough to glean the futility of the situation and simply distance himself by disposing of the body and emptying the scene of visible evidence. - At least then we would have little opportunity to sort through things like separate types of blood.

Aizawa slumps onto the couch, "So wait, we did all that for nothing?"

"No we didn't." Soichiro says from across the room, "I've been listening, and Light's theory is just that - a theory. And proud though I am of his intelligence he's missing a crucial detail, the link between the victims. Two young Japanese women connected to a single company, alone, in their secure homes have been murdered by an intruder who moves undetected and unobtrusively, in and out, as if by ghostly means... Miyu's murder was not especially common knowledge as we began investigating, and we were only here because the killer told us he had committed a murder, so even if we assume the killer lied about committing one, (or committed a different one) and we have found one to attach him to, as a form of 'wishful thinking' the likelihood of that coincidence has to be called into question when compared against all other connections. It seems far more likely that the killer is stupid - or careless - than it does that they are completely separate crime scenes, with nothing to do with one another. In addition to all of that, the NPA handed us this case, they will refuse to hand it back. So even if you're right. We're stuck with it."

Light laughs slightly, hiding behind awkwardness "You're right dad. Your wealth of experience trumps my deductive skills any day."

"Nonsense." Soichiro says "you're an excellent detective, you just hadn't given yourself the time to address all of the pieces. It makes sense actually, you're still young. It's probably the same zeal that led 'L' to you and Misa so assuredly."

"Yeah, but he was right about that," the room turns on Light for his statement, but he keeps his cool, as it was no accident, "Misa and I were excellent suspects - on the surface that is. I had the intellectual fortitude and sense of justice, proper justice, but nonetheless, the mentality, and Misa had an obsession with both Kira and me. But he really was grasping at straws, the Kira case is unconventional and we were all he had to go on at the time. This case is very conventional, I wish Ryuzaki were here. We could use the simplicity of his expertise."

Light's father is all business. "I conducted interviews with employees at Lightheart Mines. Two strange rumblings around the office since this murder. One, that an employee by the name of... Yoji Amago did not arrive for work, his wife hasn't heard from him, she says this is unusual behavior. Co-workers say he was distracted, frigidity and sweating. And that he left early that day. There's also a bit of anecdotal evidence that he was 'infatuated' with our recent victim. The other lead, coincidentally; the CEO of Lightheart Mines, Hiroshi Moto, is also missing. However he's a lot more prone to this type of behavior."

"Sooooo..." Matsuda asks, "What should we do?"

Light is a bit intrigued that he's at a loss - at least for something to do at this moment, "I guess... we have to wait for the blood results. Whoever the killer is, Aizawa's assertion that his blood should be on the victim is foolproof. Whether he is Malice or not there definitely was a killer careless enough to be injured at the crime scene - it appears. We have two plausible suspects, we just have to find out who's blood it is. - Hiroshi Moto has children?"

Soichiro nods, "Two of them, so does Yoji, actually."

"We'll have to take our samples from them." Light says, Soichiro is ready to move when Light stops him "But father. We are - in part - trying to lull Kira into a false sense of security by pretending to work on his behalf..."

Soichiro nods in understanding "...Yes?"

"That means putting up the right sacrifice, if our suspect in this case can be cleared of the Michi Akagawa murder, I don't think we should risk the public spectacle of a live execution. Instead. We allow him to be processed like any other killer. Of course Kira will kill him. But we shouldn't waste our time."

Soichiro looks vaguely-suspiciously at his son, perhaps one of the few times he's ever really considered his guilt, but it doesn't stay with him. Light's tactics are no more severe than Ryuzaki's. 'He's just trying to come up with a plan.' He reasons. Chief nods, "I need no excuse to spare any man the humiliation of being slaughtered in front of a cheering audience."

A stack, piles and piles really, of money sits mountainess atop Akira's desk covering it, shielding it, concealing it. It cannot bee seen. All that is, is a pyramid of money. Akira fiddles with a stack. Just off to his right; Yoji, tied, and even further, toward the door of his apartment, Mace. Akira waves to him, "Come mace, have a seat."

"I don't sit much." he answers, "Everything is too soft here." he clarifies.

"Well I agree." Akira says without much thought. He tosses his money at Yoji's dust encrusted face. "There's a lot I might do with this."

"Did you do as you said you would... with your Note?" Mace asks.

"Yes."

"It must have worked."

Akira looks over himself, "Must have."

"And so you'll be returning it now..."

"Well. Not quite." he grinds his fingers in the air toward himself, kneading it, working something out "See, I'm beginning to formulate a theory. It's kinda nuts but... lets face it, this is all kinda nuts and - Hold up." On the television Yoji Amago's face. "THIS!" he points excitedly "THIS is what I've been WAITING FOR!" he puts his hand on Yoji's shoulder, this is why I brought you here from the beginning. You are about to serve a noble purpose - okay it's a selfish purpose, but it'll prove a point nonetheless."

"...the key suspect in the stabbing death of renowned businesswoman Miyu Yueda. Investigators found Amago's blood on the victim's sheets, clothing, and face."

Akira shuts the news off watching Yoji intently. But nothing changes. And all through the night... nothing changes. "Well shit." Akira takes a knife and repeatedly stabs Yoji in the chest and stomach. "That's a waste. He must have figured out what i was doing."

"You wanted Kira to kill him." Mace states rhetorically.

"Yeah, he's trying to prove some divine knowledge of guilt. Maybe he even wants me to believe he's getting around to me, like perhaps Minoru Akagawa did something else wrong - or he just saw his wife's death on the news and succumbed to heart failure... Seeds of doubt you see. But there's no way to divine guilt from a Death Note, is there?"

"We went over every known rule." Mace says plainly.

Akira holds up the knife, blood dripping from it, pattering onto some of his denominations. "So how could he have known? You saw the same broadcast I did. Kira finds these things out at the same time as everyone else. He killed that Akagawa guy like it was nothing! And that's why there are still so many people in jail for violent offenses - whose crimes were not recent. He saw it, but knew already about Yoji's innocence. You have no idea how strongly this fits my theory."

Mace drifts over to Yoji's chair, hovering behind his body "You realize that if Kira were just getting around to writing this man's name down before you stabbed him that would be the exact reason he hadn't died."

Akira waves him away "Yeah, yeah, I know. What are the chances? They almost never die this long after a broadcast." Akira kicks his money, sending heavy stacks across the room. "You know what I heard? L has convinced the police to let him capture the killer who threatened Kira. Why? So they can publicly execute him FOR Kira on live TV!" Akira paces back and forth weaving between the corpse and his stacks of money. "Now, why, would he do that?" he asks clasping his hands together "He is supposed to be capturing Kira and I - well - I am challenging Kira. I am but a lesser mortal, as it were. A smaller fish to fry and SO... L abandons his investigation to find Kira in order to hunt... me. Just me!" he laughs "A world renowned detective with a success rate of one hundred percent - one who spends more time winning than he does even investigating only does a handful of years tracking the most elusive most powerful prey he's ever encountered and he just... gives up? In less than - ten - years... But let's back up." he points to the sky "What did L do for years before that? Find criminals, determine their guilt and bring them to justice. What does Kira do? Find criminals, determine their guilt and bring them to justice. And once Kira comes along what is the only worthy challenge for a determined ego driven investigator? Only Kira. Kira kills people with magic" he says mockingly, pulling the Death Note from the ruins of his money "so 'who is the ONLY person we must get to find him?' L... That's who. Of course. The master! Maybe these men sound so alike because they're the same person. Maybe L got his hands on one of these" he holds up his Note, "maybe he knew that they would all turn to him, and that as the fox investigating the chicken coup he wouldn't even need to pretend anymore. They'd all be putty in his hands. I mean he's going to kill me on LIVE TV for god's sake! Who does that? Kira does that. There's no 'Kira investigation' there's just... Kira." Akira plops down into his couch. "That's the world we live in..."

Mace is strangely silent before saying "If you're right, you're hopeless. You realize? If his success rate is really one hundred percent you don't have a chance."

"I do have my ace in the hole. I might need your help with that. But I want to talk to you about something different. I'm not afraid to die Mace, you know that. I just want to look Kira in the eye and have him know he hasn't won - not against me. I'd like to test the theory I've shared with you here, but there's only one way to do it. I want to talk to you about the Shinigami eyes. They'll show me names?"

"True names. And lifespans." Mace nods.

"...but not... of Death Note owners, correct?"

"Correct."

"And we both know Kira owns one - and I'm sure Kira is L, and L is a member of the Kira investigating squad, he just has to be, there's no other way. There's not even any other way that Kira could have known so quickly that Yoji was innocent. It all adds up. I'm going to take a gamble, give me the eyes, I have to meet the squad."

"How?" Mace wonders.

"They're investigating Lightheart Mines, right? They have to find our friend Yoji's whereabouts and probably the location of our generous CEO. Follow up on leads" he deepens his voice for effect "'How the victims are all connected!' All I have to do is spend enough time there. No one knows who L is, so reasonably he might be out in the field as well. Or covert, nearby. - At least I might be able to catch a glimpse of him." he snaps his fingers, "At that moment. I'll know."

And so Akira camps the next day, parking his car outside Lightheart Mines, waiting for the team of investigators to arrive. And to his surprise they did, a group of men exit a dark sedan. 'They look like cops' he thinks, watching anxiously, it is with even greater surprise, an abstract firecracker of thrills and glee that he sees only one of them is missing his lifespan. Akira is practically drooling "Yagami." He says through a smile "I've found you. Soichiro Yagami."