Chapter Fourteen

Sirens follow closely behind Higuchi. An officer tails the car and has Higuchi pull over, most likely for speeding. Higuchi stops which complicates Wedy's pursuit, forcing her to continue while Aiber's team remains behind. The cop communicates with Higuchi, meanwhile, and asks for what I assume is his license. Higuchi takes his time, searching for it in his briefcase only to speed away. The cop pursues, sirens blazing in the background. Mr Mogi and Aiber continue to follow in the background. The chase continues.

Suddenly I get the sense of a soul screaming, which causes a nauseated sensation and I slump to the ground in pain. 'Frejda,' Light calls, 'What—are you alright?'

I don't know. The only other instance I've had this was when…

'The traffic cop rear-ended a truck,' Mr Mogi informs us from the radio, 'he's dead!'

'He's dead?' Light snaps.

It was his soul! The cop! Higuchi killed him?

But how? Higuchi has needed both a name and a face so far. How did he know the cop's named? Unless…

Oh no!

It can't be as I thought, he can't have obtained the power to kill people by just seeing their face!

'Everyone,' Ryuzaki yells, 'it's too dangerous to allow further action by Higuchi! Let's bring him in! I believe he has the same powers as the as the Second Kira! He's able to kill by seeing a face. Please keep this in mind when you move in to arrest him.'

Ryuzaki contacts the director of the NPA, filling them in on the details of Higuchi including where he's going and what kind of car he drives. The main objective is to let us handle the arrest but to be careful when they move in. Light instructs Chief Yagami to go in place at Sakura TV. The host and Mr Matsuda will be replaced by mannequins while the broadcast continues in voice-overs the remainder of the time left. Higuchi will have to walk in to that, hopefully making our job easier. Meanwhile, the studio will have been evacuated by then leaving only the Task Force to make the final move.

'So then Light,' Ryuzaki says, 'why don't we go and join the fun as well.'

'Yeah,' Light agrees.

'Alright. Frejda?'

'Yeah?'

'Get a head start to the gym and gather your knives. I may need your skills. Meet us at the helicopter in two minutes.'

Nice! Showtime.

Rushing back to the gym, I take off my shirt, leaving just my tank top and slip on my knife holster, a black thin weighted Kevlar vest with wrapped cords around my arms to hold multiple knives in sleeves. I slip in as many of my throwing knives as I can. The vest protection will not provide much so I still must be careful. Instead of slipping my shirt back on, I pull out my black jacket and slip it on, so it looks like an everyday shirt with a jacket. Slipping some extra knives into my boots, I style my hair into a simple ponytail and take the lift to the roof. Light and Ryuzaki just board the helicopter with Mr Watari accompanying as a sniper. 'Ready?' Ryuzaki asks.

I nod.

We board the helicopter. Anything can happen down there. Mr Watari lets me know that there may be a chance that I'd have to face Higuchi head on, which means jumping out of the helicopter might be necessary. Of all the people, I never thought that Ryuzaki would be the one to pilot the helicopter.

'Higuchi isn't going to Sakura TV,' Light points out, 'he's headed the wrong way!'

'Based on his route, I suspect he's going to the Yotsuba office,' Ryuzaki points out.

'Wedy,' I call into the talkie.

'Yeah?'

'Have you gotten rid of everything related to Mr Matsuda at the Yotsuba office?'

'Yeah. Why is he headed there now?'

'Yep.'

'Isn't that convenient. That gives me enough time to set up the ambush at the studio.'

'Alright. Good luck.'

'Dad!' Light says, 'Higuchi's headed to Sakura TV. He'll be there in fifteen minutes. Are you ready?'

'I don't need my son asking if I'm ready. Of course, I am.'

We pursue Highuchi from air and watch him pull in front of the studio. He rushes inside, crazed and determined. Aiber's team marches in right behind him. We wait for what feels like an hour. Over the talkies, I can hear them corner Higuchi. Whatever he says in response, I can't hear.

Silence takes hold. Then…

A loud BANG sounds. Someone's fired a gun.

'L, Higuchi has a gun. He's escaping. Chief Yagami's been injured.'

'This is bad!' Light gasps.

The car rushes out of the studio with some of our men in pursuit.

'This leaves me no choice. We have to move in and apprehend him. Watari, Frejda. Are you ready?'

'Yes,' we answer in unison.

I pull out one of my knives in case Higuchi decides to try something funny. He most likely will, considering the circumstances. From our view, I notice something strange in the distance. Lights facing the direction of Higuchi's car. Getting a little closer we see that the police force has been waiting for Higuchi. Ryuzaki told the police force not to get involved but only one person would be responsible for this. It must be him. But I don't let it distract me. my eyes remain on Higuuchi's car, the step-by-step him. But I don't let it distract me. My eyes remain on Higuchi's car; it screeches to a halt as it sees the police waiting for him. As Ryuzaki lowers the helicopter, I take the chance and jump out, landing in a crouch. I waste no time and throw the knife at the back of the turning car. My face, I realise, is in plain view unlike everyone else's. but I give Higuchi no time to process me. with speed, I run around the car and jump on its room, ready to slice another time. Ryuzaki's landed the helicopter. Higuchi has nowhere to go.

'Stay back,' he yells, 'stay back or I'll shoot! I swear!'

Mr Watari shoots at Higuchi and a gun flies out of the window.

'Frejda,' Ryuzaki calls, 'nice job on stopping the car. Stay where you are for now. Mr Yagami and Mr Mogi have decided to make the arrest.'

'Got it.'

Two helmeted men appear out of the cars. They make slow movements to us. One of them stops, taking to another person inside a car. After a few moments, three unarmed men approach, behind them five helmeted men with guns covering. 'Higuchi,' snaps the voice of Chief Yagami, 'step out of the car.'

To my surprise, he obeys and slips out with his hands up. I take this time to get off the car. The police give him no time to glance at me. they blindfold and handcuff him on the spot, placing a headset on him as planned. Ryuzaki speaks on, asking him the question we've all been waiting to hear the answer for: 'Higuchi? How are you able to kill people? Tell me!'

Higuchi grunts in response.

'If you're not going to talk, I'll use whatever means necessary to get it out of you.'

He relents with a slow sigh and utters a strange phrase: 'The notebook.'

A pause.

'You probably won't believe me, but I've got a special notebook. If I write someone's name in it while thinking of their face that person dies.'

Mr Yagami looks through the car and announces his finding. He pulls a regular looking notebook. 'It was in his briefcase,' he explains. 'He has written a lot of names in it. But there doesn't seem to be anything else unusual about it.'

Seconds later, a frightened Mr Yagami screams, falling to the ground. 'What is it?' I panic.

'It's—a—a monster!'

'Please calm down,' Ryuzaki says, 'you're not armed to defend yourself.'

'Chief, hang in there,' Mr Mogi says kneeling beside him. 'Are you alright/'

'Mogi, can't you se that?' he points to the air, 'that thing over there?'

Mr Mogi picks up the notebook while he tries to calm the chief down only to scream in terror and fall to the ground himself. Mr Mogi looks in the same direction as Chief. The same air. Both of them touched the notebook before fear took over.

'That thing—' Chief Yagami says, 'only people who've touched the notebook can see that monster!'

I go around them and touch my hand to the notebook. Slowly I look up in the same direction, denying the frightened scream building in my throat. A large, eight-feet tall demonic creature stares down at us. The face of a female with white-purple hair and a bandage around the head covering one eye; the other eye reveals to be a cat-like slit yellow eye. Two gold earrings peak beneath the hair. A purple tattoo lines up its face, specifically around the jaw bone. Two of them, meeting below the purple lipstick. Gold rings surround the neck, as if sewn to the bone rather than piercing it. It looks at me directly for a purposeful second before averting its eyes to the helicopter. The voice I heard in the car, the gods of death, the character Rem…

Unbelievable! I'm looking at a Shinigami.

A scream from my talkie snaps me out of my reverie. It sounds like Light.

'Light?' I call.

'Are you okay, Light?' Ryuzaki asks.

I tune out the conversation.

I need to think. The notebook. Such a simple object. Unsuspecting and all. But this thing, with the English words Death Note written on it, it is the true culprit. I look at Higuchi. My purpose here, he's it. It's time.

I take out my knife slowly, hiding it behind me as I approach them. A silent stab through the back to the stomach should do it. If he grunts, I can write it off as something else, but I have to be careful not to let the wound bleed too much. The knife I have is loaded with poison so while there may be blood, his reaction to the poison might help me take it easy. But they begin to move Higuchi. I cannot tail them like this. Zut! I have to behave like I'm upholding the law but it's a must I do it here. If I wait, it's a further chance of getting exposed. Then again this sounds like a terrible plan too.

An eye sticks out of the blindfold and in that moment, Higuchi looks in my direction, panicked. I see his soul leave his body in those seconds but gain no information from it. It looks at me in recognition before it's swallowed by the void known as Death. The soul doesn't want to leave, fighting against Death's gentle tug but the grip only tightens. Death permits no soul to wonder and I doubt he wants to make an exception now. The road to Death is no tunnel with a light at the end. It's a cold comfort, as a breeze would be on a hot summer day. He wishes not to differentiate between the wicked and the righteous. I have been taught of angels of Death, that they are the ones tasked with bringing forth judgement where they see fit. Higuchi's soul is just tugged into the void of Death, a home to all souls good and bad. There, Higuchi may face the angels of Death and be judged accordingly but this journey is not meant to harm or frighten the soul.

Watching this, I stay where I am. I am no angel. If I were, I would be the angel of justice.

Higuchi's death doesn't leave us in complete bewilderment. After all the chaos earlier, the Task Force regroup at base to discuss our new findings, including Mr Aizawa. I knew he was behind getting the police involved with Higuchi's death. Kira's order that blackmailed the police into cowardice is lifted and instead, Police feel free now to pursue criminals. Kira's death makes everything safe, back to normal. But tension doesn't cease in the office, as we gather to finalise evidence to build a case against Kira. Ryuzaki, still suspicious of Light, does not take the handcuffs off. The two remain attached with Misa still under surveillance. The presence of the female Shinigami strains us and what's more: the mystery of the notebook. I want to believe it's over, but I suspect that it isn't. My mind focuses on the gathered list of rules I've been listening Mr Aizawa read aloud.

Having filled out my notebook, I look at the rules again:

~Any human whose name is written in the notebook will die

~The note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's name and face in their mind, therefore people sharing the same name will not be affected

~The cause of death will not happen within forty seconds of writing the person's name

~If the cause of death isn't specified the person will die of a heart attack

More rules detailed follow from before and the more I write, the more I wonder why such a notebook was ever introduced to humanity. The corruption of people should have been enough.

'And then there are these rules in the back,' Mr Aizawa continues. 'If the notebook should be burned or destroyed, any person who has touched it will die.'

Morbid.

'Then it says, "If the person using the notebook fails to continuously write the names of people to be killed within 13 days of each other, then the user will die."'

I pause, taking time to process that last rule. It's the only one that can fee Light and Misa of any suspicion completely. Both, suspected of being Kira, were detained for over a month and are very much alive. It's almost as if that rule exists to protect them from any more suspicion. But it has me questioning. Higuchi died almost immediately after he was discovered to be Kira. Why would he die before, given the 13-day rule? Then again, could he have had a history or heart attacks in the past? I'm about to find out.

Having saved all the rules Mr Aizawa read aloud, I quickly type them up and print them. Grabbing the paper along with the notebook in a plastic bag, I make my way to the stairs to go to the lobby. As I walk, I feel the intense pair of eyes, the largest in the room, staring into me. the disturbance I feel cannot amount to the curiosity over the power of the notebook in my hand. I wave for a cab to pick me up. Once inside, I organise my printed notes and place them in the folder, meditating on them until I reach the coroner's office. The image of Higuchi sitting in the car talking with what looked like himself replays. Only he was never talking with himself. The entire time, he was talking with the Shinigami, Rem, the same Shinigami that idles around at base. The voice, her voice, the more I listen to her speak, the more I'm reminded of the time Misa was confined, the voice I heard coming from the room she was in. Neither Misa nor Higuchi seemed to hide the fact that they were communicating with someone as we watched. The difference was that Mr Watari was in the same room as Misa so it was easy to assume that's who she was talking to, not to mention when Ryuzaki started speaking to her. But most likely, when she started begging to be killed, on has to wonder if she was talking to Ryuzaki or to the Shinigami. But if the same Shinigami was with Misa prior to the sudden return of Kira, does that really mean that Misa is the Second Kira? If that's the case…

The cab pulls up in front of the morgue. Paying the driver, I climb out of the car and find myself staring at the building. I take a few breaths for the first time but not because of what's waiting inside. It's a thought connected to the realm of the Shinigami, a possibility that more than one has been on this earth. Kira needed a name and a face to kill whilst using the power of the notebook. If that's the case, I suspect that there is another Shinigami, a voice that I've heard on more than one occasion following me and one other person. But to be sure, I need to know of his notebook's existence. I need to be extra sure that he is in possession of one too. With that resolve, I step into the building and make it to the morgue. Showing my ID, ask to see Higuchi's body. The coroner wastes no time pulling it out and laying it on the table. Zut! I cannot believe that I forgot my personal forensics kit. I pull out my cell and dial Ryuzaki's number. He answers right away. 'Frejda?'

'Cn I ask for a favour?'

'Sure.'

'Can you send Mr Matsuda with my forensics bag? It's sitting in my room, as in the bedroom.'

'Sure. Are you looking at the body now?'

'Yeah.'

'Alright. He'll be on his way.'

'Thank you.'

Shutting the phone and slipping it back into my pocket, I move closer to the body. Higuchi's las shocked eyes are now closed, courtesy of the coroner I presume. His pale skin, close to white, sits on the near camouflage affect of the white sheet. How a body that died with terror was moved to look like any other dead person maintains its frightened state amazes me. it's as if his body is trying to retain what little humanity he had left. Would it have been different if I had done the deed? I wonder. Would the monster have seen me as the monster?

'Hey Frejda,' Mr Matsuda calls.

'Nice pacing,' I say looking away from Higuchi and onto my fellow cop.

'Yeah,' he says setting down the bag beside me. the look he gives Higuchi can only be described as disgust and anger.

Meanwhile I set to work, beginning with preparing my scalpels and some alcohol for slow incision and gloves to protect my hands. Placing the knife right beneath the collar bone, I make a slow cut of the chest so that I can carefully seep through to reach his heart. Going through the ribcage is the hardest part. The whole process of opening the studying the cadaver takes me another two hours. I explore every organ, look for every detail on Higuchi even if I know for sure that the reason for his death is within the realms of the supernatural. But growing up religious, I know where science and the supernatural meet. Something about this must be explained, specifically regarding the rules of the notebook. But I find nothing. Higuchi had no history of heart attacks, not even in his family. More so, according to his liver, his drinking and alcohol tolerance were managed well. He had to have been killed by the notebook's power. But can the notebook kill by itself? I think I'm going to have to review the rules again. After stitching up the cadaver and washing my tools, I retrieve all my notes regarding the body and head out, following Mr Matsuda to the car. He remains silent as we clamber into the car. The moment he starts the car and we leave, I finally say it: 'I don't think this is over.'

'What do you mean?'

'The search for Kira. Higuchi may have been caught but I don't think it's over.'

'You're starting to sound like Ryuzaki.'

'Meaning?'

'You missed it. He asked the Shinigami if the rules are the same if we were to find any other notebook.'

'Let me guess, the Shinigami said that they are.'

'Yep.'

'Hmm.'

'Not that I'm religious, but it's fair to take the word of a god.'

From that standpoint I wouldn't argue with him. And it would be wrong to question a god like that. But then again, would it be fair to ask if that god is working to protect someone? Or maybe, is that god really the one who started all this? I wonder. Gods are complicated beings. Any religion, any god is portrayed as either mighty or like that of a wish granter. Of course, there are trickster gods and the gods of evil. The more I think about these Shinigami, the more I find them interested in people's death for their own gain. Even as I look at this notebook and all the rules, I wonder that there is some agenda behind this other than allowing pleasure in someone pleasure in someone else's death. These gods of death may be closer to what people perceive to be evil gods. However, can I really say that from just this notebook? I haven't had the chance to carefully observe the Shinigami standing by idly in our base. This is something I must investigate carefully. Walking back into base, I set the notebook in front of Ryuzaki, taking a vacant seat. It's as I'm logging into my computer that I notice something different about the office presence. Light no longer sits next to Ryuzaki. In fact, according to the cameras showing the footage of the lobby, he's freely walking Misa out of the building. How I missed him on the way in, I owe to my deep thoughts. 'What did I miss?'

'Light and Misa are now free,' Ryuzaki says absent-mindedly. 'There's no reason to keep them locked up.'

I narrow my eyes in thought. 'You don't buy it, do you?'

'What?' he turns to face me.

'The rules in the back.'

He remains silent for a bit, contemplating. I can't tell if he's thinking about his answer or telling me what it is. Finally, he sighs and stands. 'Let's go get some ice cream.'

'Uh…okay?'

I pick myself up and follow him out of the basement. The only other being in the room is the Shinigami who looks in our direction curiously just as the lift doors swing open, admitting the others. Ryuzaki leads me past the lift doors onto the stairs. He stops midway and I with him. 'I don't know what to think,' he admits.

'Oh.'

'I know Light is Kira but those two rules, I have to know that they're fake.'

'How is that going to prove Light's guilt?'

'If the rules are fake, the possibility of him and Misa being Kira is plausible. You'd have to relook the whole case in a go. Light is that perfect match.'

'I really am not sure that he's guilty, but he does look suspicious.'

'Which begs the question: how do you know that those two rules are fake?'

This may not make sense, but Higuchi's death is what had me suspecting that something's off.'

'Go on,' he prompts, interested.

I tell him everything. I start with the evidence I found that wouldn't have Higuchi dying of a heart attack out of nowhere, particularly when he was arrested. I match I with my thoughts of how that doesn't seem to line up with the rules of the notebook. Then I mention how out of place and threatening the last two rules look, as opposed to warnings, such as the rule about misspelling a person's name (apparently if someone deliberately misspells a name four times, the writer will die). Lastly, I give my thoughts on gods, how in every religion, gods are perceived as either 'good' or 'bad' or in polytheistic cases, could be both. I take care to mention that I've yet to understand the Shinigami as gods of death, so it's still unclear. 'That being said, I've come up with two conclusions. One, the rule is a complete fake and two, the one that makes more sense, is that Higuchi was a decoy and that he was killed by the real Kira, regardless of that validity of the rules.'

Ryuzaki's mouth forms the smallest smile I've ever seen. 'Thank you, Frejda.'

'Sure.'

Ryuzaki follows up on his offer of ice cream but I decline. There's no way I can eat anything after just seeing a cadaver. Taking my place at my computer, I open up Word and type up my report for the headmistress. There's a lot to relay to home and the pull of writing up everything will take a while. I begin with the arrival of the FBI agents and the time of their deaths along with the rising number of criminals killed almost as test subjects then slowly move into how each process seems to lead to the identity of Kira. Because this is classified information, I take care to code the names of every person suspected, but I don't mention the notebook or its rules. Working hard, I hardly take notice of anything around me. My focus becomes all about the report being clear until it becomes a little too noisy to focus. Assuming there are no rules against it, I pull up my iTunes account on the computer. Plugging in my headphones, I play an album by Within Temptation and listen through my headphones. It always makes people wonder how I work, read or concentrate with worded music on. Back at home, I get asked why there's music like metal playing as opposed to something softer. But this is my best company and it knows how to tune out the noise in the outside world. So much so that Mr Matsuda has to tap me on the shoulder to capture my attention. I lower my headphones to look at him: 'Yes?'

'Uh…don't freak out but,' he pauses, 'that uh, Shinigami—it—keeps staring at you.'