Author's Note: Based on the manga. I do not own Death Note.

I've decided to re-imagine this story and wrote a brand new ending, and due to this, I've decided to repost it as a "new" story. I wil be deleting the old one.

ENJOY!

CHAPTER ONE

"Celebration"

Light Yagami was never one for parties. In fact, he thought they were a waste of time. And he knew there was better things to do than socialize with people that he had absolutely no interest being around. However, there was also something to be said about socialization as an obligation when it came to celebratory events, especially when he was guest of honour.

In his moderately sized apartment that his father rented for him, that also doubled as the Kira Task Force de facto headquarters, Light and the other task force members raised their glasses filled with bubbling champagne for a collective toast.

They all stood in the middle of the living room that also doubled as the task force's epicentre, where Light had his bank of computers and hard drives used for their hunt for the mastermind known as Kira, the serial killer whose supernatural abilities punished criminals. A notebook was the device with which Kira used to kill by writing names into it.

A heart attack was the most common killing method, but Kira had the ability to use it in other ways—to manipulate one's actions before death. This was proven on multiple occasions.

But for the moment, the Kira Task Force was taking a well deserved toast.

"Congratulations to my son in becoming a police officer with the NPA," said Soichiro Yagami, holding up his glass and smiled proudly.

Cheers of 'Here, Here' were heard all around.

Light had joined the National Police Agency after he graduated from university and then climbed the ranks quickly and he was appointed to the Information Bureau. He then transferred to the Kira Case, much to the regret of the NPA, who yearned for his talents in cyber warfare. But he wanted to keep the Kira Task Force members inline in the shadows. After all, he was Kira.

They all clinked their glasses and took sips, Light took a small sip. He didn't much care for alcohol as it dulled the senses. But for appearances only, he sipped the champagne for all those in attendance, so not to appear rude. One of the most important things to him on a personal level was the fact he liked to stay alert. But with L gone, he didn't have much to worry about.

"Thanks Dad," Light said. "But while mainly a member of the Kira Task Force, I may on occasion be called upon to complete tasks for the NPA as part of the Intelligence Bureau, for which I am still a part. I've been allowed the latitude for both. The director has made it a stipulation."

"We understand," Aizawa said. "We'll keep your station warm for you."

"Thanks," Light said with a smile.

"I'm so proud of you, Light," Soichiro said, adding to his sentiments. "After everything you've been through over the last couple of years, you deserve this."

Light smiled inwardly. Indeed, you're right about that, Dad.

"The road has been long, losing friends and colleagues along the way," Soichiro continued, "but we have persevered, and now—how time flies—you're a top informational officer for both the NPA and to us in the Kira Case. L may be gone, but you are his worthy successor. And we'll catch Kira!" His voice elevated so everyone could hear.

"Here, here!" the others said.

"And then justice will be served," Soichiro finished.

They all took sips from their glasses again. Not likely, Light thought, looking over his glass at the others, as he faked taking a sip. But you can try to catch me if you can. I'll foil your plans every step of the way, Dad. Kira is standing right in front of you and you don't even see it.

The Kira Task Force was a farce and they meant nothing to Light. Just a means to an end. And he was a trickster playing a role to make his dream a reality. Nothing could stop him. Light had big plans. Plans to reign over the world using the Death Note and he was well beyond his projected targets since becoming a cop. Now he had greater freedom to rule.

Is it arrogant to actually know you're a genius? And that everyone else is far beneath you? No, it's the truth! I'm only a few years into my campaign to cleanse the world and it's going so well. L fought the good fight, but in the end, I, Kira, reigned supreme!

He produced a little chuckle.

"What's so funny, Light?" his father asked.

"Oh, nothing Dad. The bubbles just tickled my nose."

But with L dead Light felt the tedium of boredom again. Still, the cat-and-mouse game he enjoyed with some of the enemies he had made over the last couple of years did provide with some good sport. One of which was his ex best friend Demetre Draycott, who had vowed to bring Kira down, knowing Light was Kira. And for whom, out of all Kira's killings had touched, was the only one he regretted—killing a member of Demetre's family. But Light refused to allow it to faze him, or Demetre's veiled threats.

Shinigami were angels of death. If they murdered a human for the benefit of another human, then that went against the grain of their purpose. Shinigami killed to add to their own life, not to extend someone else's. Rem killed L for Misa and Misa in turn asked Rem to do so by Light's directive. That opened the door to a number of other possibilities. If he could manipulate a Shinigami, what else could he do?

Now he was L—the great detective. Interpol had to believe that L was still alive, so the task force opted to adopt Light to succeed L—Ryuzaki, since at one weak moment L had admitted that Light would make the perfect person to succeed him of anything happened.

And since both L and Light were both incredibly brilliant and very similar in nature, according to Light's own father, Light was the perfect choice.

He put his troubles aside. This was a celebration after all. And one that Light was going to enjoy.

Once the congratulatory cheers were done and the task force members began to talk amongst themselves, this left left Light to muse to himself. Light then sat down at his work station with its bank of computers, set his glass aside, and began to type.

He had programmed his computer's network to look for any keywords on the internet about Kira. And thousands of entries came up, mostly "keywords" from the internet, and within public domains, search engines, and written articles of note. There were requests left on message boards for Kira to punish criminals for crimes: foreign and domestic, rape, robbery, attempted murder, theft, child abuse, and a variety of other things, posting the criminal's name and picture.

To use the Death Note, Light had to envision a person's face in his mind while he wrote down a name, so a person with the same name wouldn't be affected. It was a tenant rule of the notebook. And it was how Light was able to kill so many criminals when he first started.

Even without knowing this rule, L had tried use a pseudonym when he first introduced himself to Light for the first time. But Light knew it was an obviously allis.

He finally beat L, and the so-called greatest detective in the world became nothing but a memory. To the task force, L was dead. But to the rest of the world, the battle between L and Kira continued.

But to Light, the matter had been laid to rest. Kira was on top. And Light planned to stay there.

For right now, the narrow set of perimeters for what he was actually looking for produced mostly junk, so there was nothing of keen interest to him. And he would have to fabricate some leads for the task force to follow later.

No one knew who Kira was, neither the police nor any other law authorities around the world—and they all accepted Kira's judgements. They had no choice.

Kira had complete reign to kill. He knew there were a few resistance groups, but he didn't care about them; they were all talk and no action. They talked big behind their computers, but in truth they were just as impotent as the Kira Task Force.

With a small desk mirror near his keyboard, he observed the others from afar. He was careful not to raise their suspicions of his true identity, as Kira. Aizawa had been the only one that truly suspected him as Kira before L's death. Now, he seemed to fall in line with the rest with a blind enthusiasm to find the "real" Kira.

Light chuckled softly to himself. They're all fools.

Killing them would be merciful. But he chose to tolerate them for now until their uselessness came to an end. He enjoyed playing games with them. It gave him a thrill. He gave the task force members fake leads to rally them, only for Kira to slip through their fingers every time.

It reminded Light of an anime serial he used to watch when he was kid, where the heroes would come within the narrowest of margins of catching the major villain only for him to slip away at the last moment, escape, and then swear revenge on them, and to haunt them again and again with other dastardly schemes.

Light had to play the role of L for showmanship. It would be much easier to kill the whole lot of them, including his father, but leaving himself as sole survivor would be tantamount in saying, "I am Kira!"

And then, there was the other buffoon—Misa Amane, his now steady girlfriend, but in name only.

She was beyond stupid, but she did follow his orders to the letter like a loyal subordinate. She was head-over-heels in love with him. Kira murdered the man who killed her parents during a botched home robbery. He assumed it was a fan-crush to start with, but then when she found out Light was Kira she fell in love with the man behind the persona. Did she love him or his power? Regardless, he didn't much care for her either way.

He longed for the days he spent with Kiyomi Takada, his university sweetheart—the famous Ms. Todi. She was attractive, smart, and was fun to be with. If only they had met earlier, then they may have been lovers. But she had went on to bigger and better things. She had an interest in television and media, so maybe he would see her on television in the future. He hoped so.

An alert came in on his computer, a double beep. He had the volume turned up, so it echoed even over the noise of the others. It was from one of his contacts out in the field.

He mostly dealt with the Kira Case, but he still had a few friends within the Information Bureau at the NPA. The NPA denied the Kira Task Force resources, a decry from Kira, but L had left more than enough money in reserve for it to keep going for many years to come. And he helped the IB out from time-to-time. He had made some good allies within the Bureau. He was a genius, but he never acted like a snob, and he made a lot of good friends. He knew what he wanted to do and he needed influence and power to get it, and as he went along, he made good contacts that could be useful later in his career—a charismatic manipulator, per se.

Any information from contacts he had made within the IB associated with Kira was passed down to him, albeit in secret. To help the Kira Task Force was like signing your own professional death warrant, as Kira had ordered the NPA to stop hunting for him or he would kill their officers like he did those twelve FBI agents, interposed in Japan.

But no one knew Light was the man everyone was hunting, so why would they think that the very information they gave to him about Kira could very much get them killed one day? It was unthinkable. And even quite amusing.

He put in an earpiece, the music in the room was a little too loud to converse openly. "L here…" he said, using his synthesized voice box to disguise his real voice. He told his contact who announced himself as KF4—Kira Fielder #4—to state the agreed daily code-phrase before relaying any information. It was for security purposes. Light had such a sophisticated surveillance system, so it was next to redundant.

Despite not officially a police officer, Light was a member of the Kira Task Force—posing as L—and with agreement of everyone, established a network of informants that reported directly to L any information about Kira they found in the field. Light filtered it and then relayed any prudent information to the task force. Currently, Light had four field agents.

KF4 spoke: "The sheep in the meadow has burs, but I like to pet him anyway."

Light withheld a smirk. It was a silly code-phrase and he had to think a different one up every day. It gave him a certain perverse humour for his Fielders to say it. But no one could recite it by accident, or guess it, unless his Fielders were either compromised or tortured. In that case, he would disavow them.

"Correct," Light said. At this time, the music had been shut down and rest of the task force had gathered. He removed the earbud and put KF4 on loud speaker. "Please relay your information KF4."

KF4 relayed his information and it related to the Yukaza. They were a collective, one of Japan's foremost crime syndicates. They had gone underground when Kira came onto the scene after a lot of their members spontaneously began dying of unexplained heart attacks. They had gotten smart, and those who were left, and there was still a lot, used aliases instead of their real names. This made it ever more difficult to hunt them down. This particular bit of information related to Kira specifically. It claimed someone within the Yukaza knew who Kira was and he would sell the information for a price.

Light's mind worked. Was this legitimate? Did someone actually know the real identity of Kira? He ran through the small list of those he knew his true identity, but he knew none of them would be this stupid to sell them information on the blackmarket. So, he dismissed each one.

But he had to pretend there was a possibility for the sake of the task force. "Valuable info, KF4," he replied, when all the information was relayed. "Thank you, and keep in touch." He ended the call. He swivelled his chair and faced the others. "Thoughts, gentlemen? You all heard KF4."

"I'm not sure," Matsuda, the youngest task force member, said. "It sounds like a trap."

"My sentiments exactly," Aizawa agreed. "On the other hand, our information on Kira has been scarce lately. Any information no matter how small could be important. It could lead to something else."

"Unfortunately, we don't have an inside man within the Yukaza to verify it," Light added. "KF4 is reliable, but with information this sensitive, we should gather more intelligence before acting."

"What about you?" Matsuda said, his words were a little slurred. He had had too much to drink.

"You want me?" Light was dumbfounded by the suggestion. "Why do you want me?"

His father started to retort, when Matsuda continued, "Because you're young and an idealistic. The Yukaza crime syndicate recruits people like you and you've got major skills with computers. Think of what they could do with that, if you offer your services?"

Matsuda was obviously not thinking with a clear head. Aizawa took the glass of champaign from the young task force member and put it aside. "I think you've had enough," he said.

"Absolutely not!" Soichiro Yagami chimed it strongly. "I will not have my son anywhere near them. They would eat him alive. They're vicious and vile. And Light is not trained to be an undercover agent."

Knowing what information he had on the Yukaza, KF4's intel had a pretty good chance of being reliable and accurate. There was no telling what the Yukaza was capable of in this new high tech world. The Dark Web had a lot of information most people were not privy to.

But Light had made no careless mistakes. L first learned about him because Kira's killings coincided with a high school student's schedule. But with L's death, all his past mistakes had been erased. However, was there a possibility something had slipped through? L was sneaky. Did he have contacts in the underworld that Light was not able to restore with other information from L's computers after L tried to erase everything? He was, after all, the best "three" known detectives in the world, and perhaps one of them didn't play so nice.

He had to take the chance.

"With a few alterations to my appearance, I could look the part to enter the lion's den," Light mused with a hand to his chin. "Right now, I look like a young, idealistic police officer, proper shaven and clean cut." He put a hand through his hair. "All red flags to their organization. If I go through with this, I would need to get a major makeover. I've been thinking of a new look anyway. So, let's do it."

He knew his father would protest, but he had to give the impression he was willing to do what it took to take down Kira. And yet, even going through with this, he knew he would still need the NPA's approval since he was still one of their officers.

His father protested, of course, but Light insisted if only for appearances, and said it was a necessary step to learn this new information regarding Kira, or at the very least, the person who claimed to know Kira's real name—and then eliminate him.

To be continued…