"Confusion now hath made his masterpiece." –William Shakespeare, Macbeth

-o-

Shika's home was a small apartment on Tōō University's campus. It was plain, because she didn't have much money. The occupant matched her home; not extravagant, with an open face that wasn't beautiful but didn't leave the territory of 'attractive'. Shika smiled easily and was once described as a "straight-edge", to her amusement. She had dimples that showed up often and bright, smart black eyes.

Her castle was still there, as well as her kitchen table, one chair, a small low-def TV that sat on the floor, and a sofa she had purchased on sale from a friend of a friend. Any extra cash she got was immediately invested in computer software and high-speed internet. Incidentally, that was the most noticeable part of her home. The desktop sat on a desk, surrounded by a nest of towers, fans, and the porcupine quills of flashdrives containing extra memory. The real secret was inside, though. Every spyware program installed on it was either hand-made or rented out from other servers. They were the best of the best, and it was all protected by purchased firewalls and other handcrafted, considerably pricklier defenses.

When Shika arrived that evening after an afternoon off from classes playing chess with herself and strangers, everything was still just as she had left it.

The first thing she did was turn on the TV; she liked the noise in the background. Flicking on the news to see if "Kira" was still allegedly killing, she went to the kitchen. Her phone rang, and when she saw the number she rolled her eyes.

"Hello, Chihiro." She greeted reluctantly.

"Heeyy, don't sound so happy to see me!" The voice on the other end pouted. "What are you doing right now?"

"Um…" Shika looked through her scarce pantries, grimacing. "What's the correct answer to that?"

"It was a trick question, silly! I don't care what you're doing because we're going out tonight, you and I."

"Please no."

"I'm gonna get you drunk for once! Maybe you'll meet some nerdy guy and hit it off." Chihiro laughed like she made a joke.

"I don't want to."

"Come onnnnn! You don't do anything but sit around on your supercomputer thing! Loosen up!"

Shika held the phone between her shoulder and ear, squinting into a cereal box for survivors. "Listen, I'll have time to relax after the semester is over. For now I want to focus on…on…."

She trailed off, staring at the TV. An emergency broadcast had interrupted her train of thought. A man was standing at a podium at what looked like the UN. A nameplate in front of him read "Lind L. Tailor".

"Helloooo?" Chihiro called. "You there? Hey!"

"Are you seeing this?"

"Seeing what?"

"Turn on the TV. Looks like someone's trying to stop Kira."

"Who?"

"Just some internet myth I guess. People think he's causing all these criminals to have heart attacks somehow. Looks like the government's taking it seriously."

There was some scuffling about on the other end. In the meantime, Shika looked down at her tiny television. "Criminals around the world are being murdered by a serial killer." Tailor was saying. "I consider this crime to be the most atrocious act in history. I will make sure that the person or persons responsible are brought to justice. Kira, I will hunt you down, I will find you."

"Wow. This guy seems pretty serious that Kira is real." Chihiro's sudden voice made Shika jump.

"Yeah. Maybe it's not much of a myth after all." Shika said, keeping her eyes on the TV as she placed the cereal box back and took out a packet of chocolate pandas.

"Jeez, that's pretty scary…"

"Kira," Tailor continued. "I can guess what your motivations are and what you hope to achieve. However, what you're doing right now is evil." Weirdly, he smiled.

"Evil, huh? That's a pretty strong word for someone from Interpol. Who is this guy, anyway?" Shika pondered, her mouth full.

"Are you eating right now? Honestly, sometimes you…"

On screen, Lind L. Tailor seized up, clutching his chest and groaning. In seconds, he dropped to the podium. He wasn't visibly breathing. Immediately, two bulky security officers rushed on-screen and carried away his body. Shika almost choked, and coughed violently as cracker crumbs went down the wrong tube. On the other end, Chihiro was hysterical about the death, wildly panicking.

"Chihiro, its okay!" Shika managed hoarsely, holding her throat. "Just calm down."

"But did you—he died! R-right there, on screen, he's dead!" She cried.

The screen went gray. The empty podium was replaced by an ornate letter 'L', and nothing else. "I had to test this just in case, but…I never thought it would actually happen!" The voice coming out of the TV was warped by a voice modulator. A shiver of fear went up Shika's spine, and she quickly shushed Chihiro.

"Kira," L went on. "It seems you can kill without having to be at the scene of the crime. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't just seen it. Listen to me, Kira. If you did indeed kill Lind L. Tailor, the man who you just saw die on television, I should tell you that he was an inmate whose execution was scheduled for today. That was not me.

"The police arrested him in absolute secrecy so you wouldn't have heard about him from TV or through the internet. It appears that not even you have access to information about these types of criminals. But I can assure you: L is real, I do exist. Now, try to kill me! Right now! Come on, do it!"

"Is this guy crazy?" Chihiro simpered. "Kira's gonna kill him, too!"

Shika stared at the screen, her brow furrowed and mouth open slightly. "I don't know about that…"

"What?! Of course he will!"

"Why would this guy purposely commit suicide? I don't know, it's like he's just trying to get Kira angry or something, like he knows he can't die from this."

After a few seconds of taunting, L paused. "Well, Kira, it seems you can't kill me after all. So there are some people you can't kill. You've given me a useful hint. I'll tell you something I think you'll find interesting: although this was announced as a worldwide broadcast, the truth is, we are only broadcasting in the Kanto region of Japan. I was planning on broadcasting this around the world until we found you, but it looks like that won't be necessary. I now know where you are."

"Are you kidding me!" Chihiro screeched, once again making Shika jump.

L's modulated voice continued, chipper. "The police treated your first killing as an unrelated incident, but in actuality the first of your victims was a subject in Shinjuku. Of all the criminals that had recently died of heart attacks, this one's crime was by far the least serious. Furthermore, his crime was only ever reported inside Japan. I used that information to deduce this much: you are in Japan, and your first victim was little more than an experiment, which means that you haven't been killing for very long.

"We decided to broadcast in Kanto first because of its large population, and luckily we found you. To be completely honest with you, I never expected that things would go this well. But it won't be long now before I'm able to sentence you to death. Naturally, I'm very interested to know how you commit these murders without being present, but I don't mind waiting a little bit longer. You can answer all of my questions when I catch you. Let's meet again soon, Kira."

The screen flicked to static. There was silence on Chihiro's end now; Shika, also, could think of nothing to say. She sat down heavily, stunned. What had just happened? Was that real?

"Hey, Chihiro, you saw that too, right?" Shika asked. "That wasn't some hallucination?"

"N-no, I saw that too…" She replied, voice shaking. "Hey, I'll, um…I'll call you back, 'kay, Essy?" The pet name was a reference to the first letter of Shika's first name.

"All right. I'll talk to you later. Bye."

Shika watched the TV switch back to the regular news. Taking her pandas, she hopped up to the chair at her desktop and typed in her very long password. A background image of a ballerina frozen mid-jump, head thrown back in serene focus and limbs out as though in flight, popped up as she logged in.

"Now, let's see if you're in Kanto, too, L." Shika muttered to herself, and got down to business. It was unlikely that L was even in Japan, but she was curious enough—and eager enough for an excuse for Chihiro—that she wanted to give it a shot anyway.

After scanning the city's wifi networks that had been established within the last week, it seemed at first like her assumption had been correct. However, one of them stood out to her. The name was a typical internet provider's name with a string of numbers, which was strange since the source was inside a fancy hotel, and hotels usually had their name on the wifi networks.

"Well…it could just be a hotspot…" She mumbled, chewing her lip. "I guess it could be worth looking into." At the least, she would give some rich tourist a trojan and be done with it. Shika found the computers in the area that were connected to it. As she suspected, it was only a couple, not the whole hotel.

With the computers now on her radar, she picked one and found that it was guarded with layers and layers of encryption and top of the line firewall protection. It was some of the best security she'd ever seen. She set up a spyware program she had designed to infiltrate security remotely; as long as she activated it once, it would break through security and install a Trojan without her having to meddle with it directly anymore.

Shika typed the initiation coding and sat back. The spyware pecked its way through the security, decrypting passwords and breaking through the firewalls. There wasn't a notification when she was in, but her desktop changed to one that was not hers when it was done. A rich guy's hotspot after all.

None of the folders on the desktop had names, or even any sort of identification. Shika clicked on one, but before she could read the contents, she was booted out to her own desktop. "Oh, well." She sighed.

Shika got up and threw the empty chocolate panda box in the trash. By the time she got back to her seat, her screen was black.

"Uh oh." She hit Escape a few times, yielding nothing. "Oh, boy…" Other typical methods of leaving programs were equally unsuccessful. Exhaling, she sat back and waited. "Great."

A line of text appeared on her screen. Shika's eyebrows rose, and she leaned forward. It was in classic, now retro, 8-bit neon green. [Hello, Kira.]

A tiny bit of adrenaline, just enough to get her blood flowing, hit Shika's system. Somehow, immediately, instinctively, she knew she had made a mistake. Hacking this person was not something she should have done. Whatever spyware they used was far better than what she used. The chat system was under their control, which was why she couldn't exit; her computer, for the moment, was not hers—the exact opposite situation she was usually in. Curiosity did, historically, kill the cat, after all. Combing her hair with her hands for a few seconds, she eventually scooted forward to type a response.

[I am not Kira.]

[I'm afraid I simply can't believe that. I knew that broadcast would infuriate you, but I expected much better self-control from you, Kira.]

[Are you L?]

[Yes.]

Shika frowned. [How can I trust that you aren't Kira, either? You could just be lying about being L so I'll trust you.] For a while, there wasn't a reply, so she typed again. [Assuming you are L, how much do you really believe I'm Kira?]

The response was quickly delivered. [I can tell you it is low. If you were Kira, I don't believe you would make such a bold move so quickly. Honestly, Kira is smarter than that. In the interest of my own safety, however, I would like your name.]

[Kawaguchi Shika.] She had no problem with this; it was fake.

[Thank you.]

[What is your proof that you are L? I think my name is enough to prove I'm not Kira.]

No response came. The chat window exited, and she was left on her desktop, blinking at the sudden end to the conversation. As soon as she had enough time to become confused, her screen changed again, now blinding her with a white background and the same ornate L from the television, just fifteen minutes earlier.

"Hello, Kawaguchi Shika." The voice was modulated, of course. "I am L."

Shika snatched up her mic. "Hello, L. I think I'm convinced that you're not Kira."

"That's good. I'm impressed by your ability to get into my network; not even some experts I've seen could do that much."

"Thank you. I like to believe I'm a self-taught master."

"I have a proposition for you. I have recently encountered a problem of which you will be informed should you accept, and I think we could use your skills."

Shika paused. "Are you asking me to come work for you?"

"Yes."

In a moment of contemplation, she thought about refusing. It was clearly the most rational reply; she would have to be insane to take up some shady offer like that. When she responded, however, it wasn't the potential for high pay or recognition that fueled her bold answer. Shika lived almost exclusively by one phrase that governed every moment of doubt or distrust in herself: I refuse to be intimidated.

"Fine."

"I'm glad to hear that. I will inform you of your duties at a later date but for now, I am going to forward you the address and room number where we can meet. The time and date will be sent to you at a later date. Oh, and, do not attempt to contact me after this. I will get in contact with you. Until next time."

The ornate L vanished, and the leaping ballerina returned. Her nose was turned up as if to say, "Don't ask me. This is your problem." Shika sat back, digesting the information. Her email notified her of a message, sent from a mobile with a blocked number, with an address and room number, as promised. She leaned back and rubbed her temples, staring at her ceiling. "What am I getting into?"

-o-

-Thanks for reading! This was a wordy chapter, sorry.