Chapter Seven

'Are you sure this is going to work?' Mr Aizawa asks.

'If it doesn't, then we can settle with Plan B.'

'Which is?'

'Corner her in the morning.'

I slip on the wire and make sure it's connected to track system that the precinct allowed us to use. This should go smoothly if I play my cards right. Feeling prepared, I head out of the truck and walk into the school. Finding the building of the classroom that Miko Tanaka is in doesn't take very long considering that it's not a school that admits 'students only'; no guards are posted to check for school IDs and such. I walk to the staircase of the Business Building, hoping to see her here if not meet her immediately. I don't know what I should be looking for on this girl: a blonde or brunette or even someone with white hair. I try to relax as I see groups of girls climb down the stairs or leave the classrooms on the ground floor. To ease myself, I pretend to be looking through my messages on my phone. Ironically, I do have a SMS waiting for me from Light. He's asking if I have any leads on the fake Kira yet. I try not to get too distracted by it, or by the fact that I can't answer the text with my own phone. I glance up, looking around for Miko but I don't see her. I doubt I would anyway since most of the campus is rather silent. About three minutes later the campus comes alive with students busting about either to take a break or rush to their next class. I try to blend in with the crowd, seeing how many people are coming down the stairs. Miko doesn't seem to be anywhere. Could it be that she's not here? Perhaps I read her schedule wrong. I look again. Nope, I'm right. It is here. She's here somewhere. I look through the crowd again. Where the heck is she? As the large group of students begin to disperse, I look for her all the more carefully. According to her schedule, she doesn't have class again for another hour and a half. I hope that she has not left campus. As I round the corner away from the business building, I spot a café-like place just across the road. There she is, with her brown hair. I walk towards her, trying to summon all of my confidence. She's not alone. Two other girls are talking with her. To my luck, just as I reach the café, the two girls leave and Miko's alone. She sits at one of the tables near the door of the café, lost in her phone. Though I'm not invited, I approach her table: 'Is this seat taken?'

She looks up, a little shocked. 'No. Go ahead,' she smiles.

'Thanks,' I nod and sit down. Keep it smooth. 'Really appreciate it.'

She sets her phone aside. 'Where do you come from?'

'France. Why?'

'You have the accent. Are you here for work?'

'And school. I'm an exchange student.'

'Oh. Very nice. I want to go to Paris one day.'

Doesn't everyone?

'My friend is helping me save money so we can go.'

'That so?'

'Yes. I'm a part time model. It pays a lot more than any other job but I can only save so much.'

A model who worships Kira. Should I find that interesting?

'But I can dream, as the Americans say.'

'Right,' I chuckle.

'Which school do you go to?'

'Toho.'

'Oh wow! You're very smart then.'

No comment. I need to get to the point though. 'Yeah, well, smart is Kira.'

She freezes. 'Kira?'

'Yeah. I mean, what he does and how he does it, that's smart.'

'Right.'

She's trying to hide it unsuccessfully, how nervous she is.

'Hey it's okay,' I say calmly, 'I'm a supporter.'

'Oh…okay.'

'Why do you look so nervous? Isn't it okay to support Kira?'

'Yes. It is.'

'Then what's wrong?'

'It's—I—can't say. It's private.'

'Uh—okay. Whatever it is seems to be making you nervous. Are you sure you're okay?'

'I'm fine. Really.'

'Okay.'

'But—'

'But?'

'But—I don't know. I must really have let it get to me.'

'Let what get to you?'

'The news—it spoke of a fake Kira.'

Whoa! But I have to look indifferent: 'So?'

'Whoever that was…I hope that they're sorry for what they did.'

'Why do you say that?'

'Kira responded. He seemed angry that someone impersonated him.'

'I imagine he would be. Kira is not one to senselessly kill like that.'

'Exactly,' she says, 'The person that did it—she should feel really bad right now.'

Subtle. Hiding behind communicating in third person about yourself. Sneaky, Miko, sneaky. But the nervousness, which I recognise is guilt, remains on her face. Everything she told me is practically a confession. But I'm not calling anyone out on this yet. I have a feeling there's more to this than what she's telling me. I can only afford so much more time with her at this point. 'Uh…, I'm asking as a Kira lover, do you know anything about the fake Kira?'

'No,' she answers quickly, 'aside from what we can see.'

'Which is?'

'That she's just too obsessed with Kira. She wants to be Kira.'

I think she took the bait. She would know about the Second Kira but everyone else doesn't know the mysterious identity of the Second Kira, including their gender. Right now, all I can say is that we have received a full confession or, if my instincts are correct, something else is going on here and all of this is just another clue. Making a move on Miko cannot happen without Ryuzaki's permission so I have to be careful. 'Well, so long as Kira deals with the fake, we should be fine.'

'Yeah.'

I pretend to check the time. 'Oh! I'm going to be late.'

'Oh?'

'I'm meeting a friend at the mall in a few minutes. We only have a few hours in Osaka left.'

'Oh. Well. Have fun.'

'You as well. It was nice talking to you.'

'You too.'

I get up and make it back to the truck. Mr Aizawa looks impressed. 'You must have done this a lot to get it our of her without trying.'

I shake my head. 'I get he feeling the only reason she told me all of that is because of her interest in gossip.'

'Right.'

'That aside, I still need time to check out the samples we collected from her home.'

'Alright. We can return to Tokyo tomorrow. I'll go ahead make the necessary calls to let Ryuzaki know.'

'Right.'

When we go back to the hotel, I work with one other person to bag and categorise the samples. I also work to upload the pictures to my computer. The longer of the two is the pictures and it keeps me in my room from dinner. I go through each picture, trying to gather so much detail as I can, taking all the notes on as much as I can catch to. Most of my notes are filled with trivial details, most of them repetitive. I get a little tired of it with each picture but I calm myself down with the reminder that this may come in handy later. This is probably the most agitating part of my job. I can't wait to get back to lab work.

The next day, all packed and ready, we check out of the hotel and head back to Tokyo. The hot chocolate does most of the work satisfying my hunger. I spend the entire train ride focused on school work. I find it intriguing that this is the easy distraction school has always been fun for me but this is quite the turn, in which even the activities of classes I don't like become something to look forward to if not enjoyable. But I have a feeling I'll be seeing more of school soon. Provided my lab days are still at the hotel. We get back to Tokyo around late afternoon. Mr Watari has a car waiting for us. I'm tempted to sleep the entire rid there but the ride to the hotel isn't too long. I manage to stay upright the entire ride up the lift to our floor and during the walk to the room. I don't think I got as much sleep as I wanted yesterday. When we reach the room, Ryuzaki , Chief Yagami and Mr Watari greet us. 'Welcome back,' Chief Yagami says, 'were you successful?'

'You could say that,' Mr Aizawa says. 'We managed to get into the apartment and collect a lot of samples. We can't be too sure of anything until we know the samples are tested out.'

'Right, of course,' Chief Yagami nods.

'We did get an interesting statement from the girl that lives there though.'

'Is that so?' Ryuzaki asks.

'Frejda's a natural. She practically tricked the girl into talking. What she said almost sounded like a confession. The way she talked was what threw us off though. She kept on referring to another person. Someone who played a part in sending the tapes.'

'That's what she implied anyway,' I cut in.

'Do you have a copy of the recorded conversation?' Ryuzaki asks.

'Yeah, here,' Mr Aizawa hands Ryuzaki the recorder where everything is stored into.

I can't stand it anymore. I move to the next room. Dropping my bags on the floor, I collapse on the bed and in an instant, I'm gone. I wake up about an hour and a half later in need of food and a shower. I ignore the shower part, however, afraid that I've wasted too much time, I use the mirror in the room to brush my hair into submission, tying it up in a ponytail. Gathering my toothbrush and toothpaste, I sneak into the bathroom to make myself look more presentable. I sneak back into my room. Setting my toiletries aside, I pick out some gum that I got from the train station, popping it into my mouth. I learned this trick to tame my hunger by chewing gum at the boarding house. With it, I set to work. First I finish what remains of my log book regarding the pictures we took in Miko's room. The list becomes less exhausting as I move through the pictures of the apartment. After finishing it up, I start to move on to the samples we collected. Fingerprint data runs first. Miko might get a little suspicious when she notices that some of her things are missing. Speaking of which, I wonder about the statement that Miko gave. It sounds like a confession and one can't deny the possibility that she sent the tapes. However, could it be possible that she wasn't alone?

'Frejda,' Ryuzaki calls.

I turn to the door where he's waiting: 'Yeah?'

'Can you upload a copy of the pictures you took to my computer and delete them from yours?'

Delete them from mine? But who would I be able to work without them if I am not able to see them for reference of what I'm doing? That would just be inconvenient. Then again, Ryuzaki probably suspects that someone might try to hack into my computer to get access to the files. Someone like Kira. Ryuzaki highly suspects Light and cannot afford to take any chances: especially since Light and I are friends.

'Fine,' I comply.

The moment I'm done with all my note taking, I delete the uploaded copies from my computer. Walking out of my room, I follow Ryuzaki to which computer he wants me to upload them to. He pulls over a white Dell laptop and has me upload the copy of the pictures into a specific folder he created. Before Ryuzaki can ask, I delete the pictures from my phone just after I double check that they have been successfully uploaded to the computer. With that, I return to the other room. Thankfully, it's not urgent that I look at those pictures. For now, I just have to scan and test the samples I have and see just how much of this matches with Miko's fingerprints as we've collected them so far. I stay up until around eleven doing this before Ryuzaki insists that I get some sleep so that I can go to class tomorrow. That's the only aspect that convinces me. I wake up fresh and early the next day, showering before the place is packed with men and dressing then packing what I need to get to school. I eat my breakfast at the hotel restaurant: pancakes with baked beans and some apple juice. I still have an hour before my first class so I don't rush while eating. The TV in the restaurant plays BBC news. There is some mention of Kira's growing killings but they keep it brief. To not completely feel bored while eating, I review the chapters I'm meant to read for today. Today's the day that I have class with Light. At any rate, he's probably going to ignore me as usual. Ryuzaki still has not returned to school. This is so not going to look good on his attendance role. Finishing breakfast and review, I head out of the hotel. I need to get a cab to school. One pulls over for me when I wave. I let him know where to go.

During Biology, I notice how distracted Light looks, like he's not paying attention to what the professor has to say. I avoid asking him questions. When the class ends, I pack up my things to leave. Just as I get out of the door, Light's hand slips into mine briefly. Perhaps it's because I'm still a human being that the heat in my body rises to attack me. Ignoring it is impossible but is this something worth embracing? Or perhaps it's just my body telling me the obvious, an attractive man slipped his hand into mine when I least expected it. That's all. As I calm down, I feel the remnant of the impact. A place of paper crunches as I clench my fist. I open the folded note as I walk down the walkway:

I have one last class. Wait for me at the front gate before you leave. Well go to the hotel together. If you have one more class, I'll wait for you.

I actually don't have class after. There are some benches by the gate of the university that I can sit on and work until he's done. Finding an empty one, I spend time reading and taking notes for my classes tomorrow, with the exception of math in which I mainly spend time working out equations. Time flies when you're focused. Before I know it, Light's shadow is right in front of me. Looks like it's time to go.

'Your obsession with her on my account is touching, but her innocence of this really freaks me out!'

'Huh?' I snap my head up.

'What's wrong?' Light asks.

'I thought—never mind.'

'Are you alright?'

The look on Light's face is genuine concern but his tone when he asks me that question is a little too freaky. It sounded like he was trying to test me or something. But perhaps this is just a figment of my imagination. An unknown murderer named Kira is on my mind 24/7 and my stress about the case, not to mention my duty, is all over me lately. Stress hallucinations like these are to be expected. But should I find it odd that that it comes on the day on which I've rested so well?

'I'm fine Light,' I nod. Finished with packing, I sling my bag over my shoulder. 'So…'

'Right, I wanted to go to Task Force Headquarters with you, see if you found out anything while I was gone.'

'Oh. Uh…rien. Only more mysteries.'

'"Rien"?'

'That means "nothing" in French.'

'So are French and English your primary languages?'

'Yeah. But I also know how to speak Spanish, Italian and Farsi.'

'Farsi. That's the Persian tongue right?'

'Yep.'

'I see. Anyway, nothing new came up on the identity of the Second Kira from your end?'

'Whatever evidence we found has only led to more mystery. We managed to collect some new information but even that has to go through the necessary testing.'

'I see.'

'Crime analysis does take time, Light. Not everything can be solved in a day.'

'Of course not.'

Light waves his hand and a cab pulls over. He gives the name of the hotel and we leave.

'Were you successful?' I ask.

'Nope.'

'Sorry about that.'

'It's alright.'

Moment's silence.

'Frejda, is it alright if I work with you?'

'Uh…'

'We are lab partners after all. It makes sense that I help speed things up.'

'I wouldn't mind. However, we'll have to run it by Ryuzaki first. But I guess that wouldn't be a bad idea to have some help. Only the Saint knows how much I can handle on my own.'

Light chuckles. 'Huh.'

'What?'

'It's just interesting. You claim to be religious and I have no doubt about it but I've never once seen you go to a church.'

'Do I look like I have the time?'

'Fair point.'

I nod sufficiently. 'What about you?'

'What about—'

'Do you believe in anything?'

'As of late, I'm beginning to wonder about it.'

'Right.' I could have sword I heard him declare 'gods of death don't exist'. But a man's entitled to change his mind. I guess there's only so many questions we can take at a time.

'I'm not quick to jump into belief but I'm open-minded to it.'

I ignore the hoarse laugh that responds to the statement. My mind. But…I wonder…is there a pattern here that I'm missing?

'Well…' I sigh setting my earlier thought aside, 'I'll make sure to pray the prayers on everyone's behalf then.'

Light gives me a long thoughtful look before he says: 'Thank you. It's considerate.'

'And when we get there, I'll ask Ryuzaki on your behalf.'

'Of course you can help Frejda Light,' Ryuzaki surprises me by saying, 'In fact, that's an excellent idea. However we still have a larger matter to discuss. Why don't you both join us?'

Right. Our findings.

I join the circle of men to discuss.

'we were there on both days,' Mr Aizawa begins, 'in Aoyama on the 22nd and in Shibuya on the 24th, and we observed nothing of significance. Meanwhile, I also travelled to Osaka to conduct investigations with Frejda. Most anything we found as only lead us to further questions if not a complete dead end.'

'Any analysis we got has yet to be updated or matched with what new stuff we got,' I add in.

'That leaves us with only the Dome on the 30th,' Mr Aizawa concludes.

After a moment's silence, Ryuzaki's computer beeps with a new message. It's Mr Watari: 'Ryuzaki, apparently Sakura TV received another message from the Second Kira.'

Whoa, wait—what?

'It was postmarked on the 23rd,' Mr Watari continues.

The video plays:

'I'm happy to say that I've found Kira. To all the people at the television station, and to the police department, I'd like to thank you very much.

How?

'This is a disaster if he found him,' Mr Aizawa says.

'It most likely means that the two Kiras are now cooperating with each other,' Chief Yagami suggests.

'At this point, I don't think we should jump to any conclusions. The Second Kira is only saying that he found him, nothing more. He may not have made contact yet.'

Trust Ryuzaki to calm everyone with a statement like that.

'Now that it's come to this,' he sips on his coffee, 'we have no choice but to communicate as the police directly with the Second Kira.'

'You want to send a message?' I ask.

'Yes. The police need to reach out to the copycat and offer him a deal. We need to negotiate with him to see if we can get Kira's real name.'

A hoarse laugh accompanied by a suspicious comment grabs my attention: 'That's what you las wanted to hear, right?' then as if catching itself, it adds, 'what a perfect mess up on the tapes.'

What the—

Ryuzaki lays out the plan to record and send the message with one of the national news channels. Meanwhile, he also pulls me aside and tells me he needs me to move back home as soon as I've done my work for tonight. It's best if I leave my lab equipment here anyway. I invite Light into the room. Presenting him with gloves, I show him the basics of data analysis gathering and running the tests to match DNA with what we have. I'm careful not to let too much information slip about Miko Tanaka. 'Waiting for this amount of information to come in and match might take some time,' I explain, 'It's alright if we don't' get everything done tonight.'

'Okay.'

At the end of the day, at around nine thirty pm I'm ready to go home. Already yawning and the weird sleep pattern I've developed have begun to take a toll on me. To make matters worse, I have a lot of homework to do. After packing up and setting everything as it's supposed to be, I leave the room. Light and I leave the hotel together. The cab drops me off at my place first. I try to pay my share but Light insists on covering the whole thing. I have an idea of how much I will owe him the next time I see him. Things are set up quietly. Though I don't expect it too, the announcement that the police have for the Second Kira is aimed that even on the English local news. Somewhere, in Japan, Second Kira is listening to the message, taking in the plea of the police to give them the information about Kira. I doubt they would. Granted, if they are as much of an extremist as I suspect, they most likely would meet up with Kira but I have to wait and see.

After taking a shower and eating a light meal, I proceed to do homework. For a really long time, I'm undisturbed. It almost looks, even feels, like I'm a real student. I take advantage of this and spend my time efficiently on homework and studying alone. It may sound exhausting but compared to the dealings of the Kira case, this is relaxation. About two hours into studying I get a text from Chief Yagami. Apparently, Ryuzaki wants me to keep tabs on Light starting tonight. Oy! As if I don't have my own classes to deal with. It's a good thing I know where all his classes are, as well as what time. The problem is, Light already knows that I'm incredibly obsessive with my school days, even before he joined the investigation and discovered who I am. This will be a bit too challenging. Ryuzaki, you jerk! Despite my objections, I follow through on Ryuzaki's orders to the best of my doing. When I walk in to a class that he and I don't share, I make sure to take the seat closest to the door in order to exit out as quickly as possible. Light mostly hangs out with his girlfriend Kiyomi. When he sees me, he gives me a polite nod and walks away. Well this is certainly going a lot easier than I thought. If Light, given his perception, has noticed that I'm keeping a closer eye on him, he doesn't show it. Later that day, as soon as I'm done with class, I proceed to the gates to call a cab to take me to the hotel. As one rounds up, I pull my phone to see if there are any messages: none. The cab stops in front of me. Just as I reach for the door, another hand opens the door for me: Light.

'Hey,' I smile.

'Hi.'

'Wanna hop in?'

'Sure.'

Obviously!

On the way there he seems really distracted. Part of me is interested in asking him what's going on in his mind but I don't. There is no need to be cuddy.

'Any luck with the findings?'

'Haven't been there since yesterday, Light.'

'Right.'

'But just so you know, all the fingerprints is the envelopes and tapes are definitely the same.'

'Huh. Okay.'

They really are. But why do I have the succinct feeling that there could be more than one person involved?

I manage to pay for the ride this time and the two of us walk into the hotel. I notice a small store in the back. The snacks on display remind me that I've been so busy that I forgot to eat. 'Light, you go on ahead, I need to make a stop.'

'Where? Why?'

'I'm hungry.'

He chuckles. 'I can wait for you.'

'You don't' have to.'

'No, I want to. I'll go with you in fact.'

'If you insist,' I sigh.

I buy a bag of chocolate chip cookies along with a bottle of water and then follow Light up to the hotel. Everyone seems to be there already.

���You two are just in time,' Ryuzaki says. He eyes my cookies hungrily for a brief second before continuing: 'we just received another video from Second Kira.'

'Already?' Light sounds surprised.

I open the bottle of water and take a sip. And I'm less dehydrated. Good.

'I believe it's the last one,' Ryuzaki says, 'well, take a look at this.'

The video plays.

'I've decided to stop searching for Kira and I'd like to thank the police department for their advice. However, I still plan to help Kira in his mission. And I hope that in time…'

The video goes on about how Second Kira will go on to judge the world as Kira and plans to share their power, all to make the world a better place.

'After watching this,' Ryuzaki says after pausing the video, 'I can only assume that Kira and the Second Kira have made contact.'

'What makes you say that?' Light asks.

'Oh come on, didn't you sense it? I was sure you'd come to the same conclusion I did after watching this once through. First, consider how determined he was to meet Kira,' he pauses mid-sentence to bite a piece of bread, and while munching on it he continues, 'so why the sudden change of heart? Now he wants to punish criminals that Kira hasn't? all he wants is for Kira to see him as an ally? It begs the question, why didn't he do this to begin with? I'm guessing its because he never thought that far ahead. He probably met Kira and was told which criminals he's allowed to judge. I suspect the purpose of this message is to hide the fact that they met.'

'I see,' Light nods. 'What I find really strange is it's unlike Kira to be so careless.'

That's true.

'But are we to believe that Kira made the mistake this time? Or is this his way of letting us know that they made contact? It would be an effective means of provoking us. The idea of their union is very threatening. However this is also one less reason to suspect that Light is Kira.'

It is?

Excitedly, Chief Yagami asks: 'What do you mean by that?'

'If Light is Kira, I don't think this is the message he would have had the Second Kira send us. It doesn't fit. He would have made the Second Kira go through with his plan to have me appear on TV, then deny that they ever made contact, letting the Second Kira shoulder the blame for my death. He'd make him say something like, hm, "Although I agreed not to go through with this, I have come to realise that it was not Kira's true intention that I stop. I'm positive that the real Kira would want L to die. There's no way he'd make me stop."' He slurps on the chocolate frosting of his donut thoughtfully.

Okay. Now I've lost it. I quietly open my bag of cookies and take a bite of one.

'Ryuzaki.'

'Yes, Light?'

'I think you're mistaken. I would never do that if I am Kira.'

'Why not?'

'If you're L and I'm Kira then I'd know your personality pretty well. L would never agree to appear on TV, no matter what threat he was facing. And he wouldn't allow someone else to die in his place.'

Lind L Tailor, anyone?

'The L I know would find some way to escape the situation.'

'So you figured it out,' Ryuzaki turns to face Light.

'Look Light, you've got to stop that,' Chief Yagami says, 'I don't like hearing you say "If I were Kira," even hypothetically.'

'Oh. I'm sorry Dad,' Light says. 'I just wanted to let Ryuzaki know exactly what I thought of his plan. I posed that scenario because I wanna help solve this case. It's the only chance I have to clear my name. besides, the only reason I feel comfortable saying things like that is because I'm not really Kira.'

While he's speaking, I move to sit on the couch, next to Ryuzaki. I doubt I've ever met anyone as eccentric as him. The way he adds all those sugar cubes into his coffee like he can't get enough. Saints. I place the opened bag of cookies on the table in front of us.

'That's good point,' Ryuzaki says. 'You're not Kira. That is, it would be a problem if you were Kira, because I feel you're the first friend I have ever had.'

Oy! Talk about a bomb drop! I can't tell if he genuinely means that or if he's just trying to get a reaction out of Light. Of course when I look at Light, he's stunned. Heck, I would be too.

'Uh,' Light stammers, 'yeah. I know what you mean. The two of us have a lot in common.'

Ryuzaki sips his coffee. 'Thank you.'

'And, well, Frejda and I have missed having you around at school. You and I should play tennis again soon.'

I would tell Light to speak for himself but I actually do miss having Ryuzaki around too. The tennis part is their bromance though.

'Yes, we should,' Ryuzaki agrees.

I end up going home a little earlier than everyone else that night, not before Ryuzaki asks me to spend the night at the hotel again. I knew that schoolwork time was just a luxury. I spend time doing some homework at first before I set aside time to write a private email to the headmistress. She'd understand why I have not updated her in a while but she doesn't totally expect to be cut off. I take my time on the email, explaining everything but careful to honour the details I cannot share. Ryuzaki has promised that the headmistress would be informed from his end as well on occasion. Feeling satisfied, I pack up what I must and open the door to go home. Just as I do, I spot Light coming over. He seems deep in thought. Suddenly his name is called by a girl. Behind him! She jumps on him and he lands on his back with rough thud. The girl, a blonde dressed in black, appears to have quite the perky personality. She shows no remorse about the embarrassing situation she has deliberately placed Light in. That being said…do they know each other?

'I'm sorry, but I couldn't wait for two weeks like you said,' she says. 'Actually I was just on my way to your house when I spotted you!'

What the heck?

Her voice is high-pitched and the way she talks is so fast it's a miracle that I'm even hearing anything that they're saying. She's really into Light by the looks of it, like a fangirl or something.

She gets off him finally. 'I—I just wanted to see you so badly.'

Light grunts as he gets up. Poor boy. 'Well, you might as well come over.'

'Yay!'

What a weird girl. Insensitive and not shy to say the least. Wait—could it be—

Is Light seeing her too?