L looked thoughtfully at the new information that Matsuda had brought in.
"Hmmm…" he put his thumb to his lips and stirred his tea as he thought.
He took a sip, "Zoe, could you please bring me some more sugar?"
"Of course, I'll be right back."
He turned to everyone, "it seems that Kira's killing pattern has changed slightly."
Everyone stared at him.
"This gives me reason to believe that Kira has given ownership of the Death Note to someone else. That being said, I believe it is safe to assume that if we find this other person then we will soon after find the original Kira."
Zoe walked in and set the bowl of sugar down, "thank you Zoe."
He turned back to his tea and began putting spoonfuls of sugar in it.
"Now, I suppose it would only make sense that our new task is to find this new Kira and catch them. Aizawa-san, you have been the one following Kai for the past month correct?"
"Yes, why?"
"I need you to make a list of people he's talked to recently, especially those he's talked to in private. And also, let me know if his behavior has suddenly changed at all. If you will recall, anyone who gives up ownership of the Death Note forgets anything to do with it so if he gave it up most likely his behavior will have changed—at least slightly."
"But Ryuzaki, we don't know that Kai is—or was Kira for sure so it doesn't make much sense just to look at the people he's talked to. Shouldn't we focus more on finding people whose behavior matches this new killing pattern?"
L thought for a minute, "very well Matsuda-san. You can be in charge of finding people whose behavioral and social patterns line up with Kira's killing pattern."
Matsuda nodded and everyone got to work.
Yori sighed and closed the Death Note, "that should be enough for now…hey Ryuk?"
'Hm?'
"Can I ask you something?"
'Well…you can ask but I can't guarantee I'll give you an answer.'
"I'm just a bit confused…aren't I technically only borrowing the notebook?"
'Sorta.'
"But then…you said I could make the eye-trade, and in the rules it says that if you're not the owner you can't make the trade."
'Well, Kai gave you ownership of the notebook so you are the owner. The only reason Kai still has his memory is because he has pieces of the notebook hidden with him and he makes sure that at least one piece is touching him at all times. So he won't lose his memories and he can still kill people if he needs to but you are officially the owner now.'
"Oh…ok then, thank you Ryuk."
'Hey, that bit of information is gonna cost you.'
Yori laughed, "ok, I'll go downstairs and get you an apple."
She hid the Death Note and left her room.
Kai leaned back in his chair and flipped through the newspaper.
I'm surprised; Yori's doing a much better job at this than I expected. I thought it would take her days to even get started but she started right away and it took a couple of weeks for L to even notice the change in the pattern…I wonder how this will all play out…