Part 14

It was almost a week until Oki felt she should call Light. She had spent the days lying on her bed, deep in thought. She had discovered, to her shock, that she missed the darker side of Light. She had not liked the things he had done as Kira, but she had liked what he could do for her and she missed that side of him she fell in love with.

With Light as he was now, she knew that when the time came Ryuk would be the one to write her name in the Death Note. It was not an idea she had been able to come to terms with yet. Not only that but she knew that she liked this new Light, the pure and kind Light. It was that Light who answered her call.

“Oki?” he asked. There was joy and hope in his voice.

“Hello Light,” she said with a smile. “Think you could get L to send a car so I can come and visit you again?”

“I will ask.” There was the muffled sound of conversation and then Light returned to the phone.

“Same arrangement as last time,” she could sense him smiling. “I shall see you soon; we have big news for you.” Light told her.

“See you then.” Oki hung up and looked at Amaterasu. “Big news? What do you think that could be?”

“They must be getting close to tracking down the new Kira,” Amaterasu replied.

She was no longer in contact with either Rem, or Ryuk, and so could not be entirely certain.

“It would not surprise me,” Oki said, as she gathered her things, “They have two great minds on that team. This new Kira does not stand a chance.”

She was already outside when Watari pulled up in L’s car. She waited for him to open the door to the back and then climbed in. Watari smiled as he closed the door and took her to the headquarters once again. After the ride, he cleared her through security and then left her in the room with L and Light.

They were in the same room as before, and still chained together. Oki was surprised to see that L had what appeared to be a black eye. However, it was hard to tell due to the dark circles, which he also always had.

“What happened?” she asked cautiously as she crossed the room.

When she drew closer she could see that she had indeed been right in her assumption.

“Light and I had a little… disagreement,” L answered.

“About what?” Oki probed.

“The fact he was not into the case anymore,” Light said before L could speak.

“Huh?” Oki was confused. She believed that L lived for cases such as this, and would never give up on one partway through.

“Just because I am not Kira, he gave up. He decided he did not care enough to search for this new Kira. That and we kind of believe that it is possible that Kira’s powers are transferable. We think that if he is about to be caught, Kira can select a replacement and have him, or her, continue the killings in his place. When he discovered that I was thinking this too, L decided everything was pointless and that we were fighting a losing battle,” Light grinned slightly, “so I knocked some sense into him.”

“I gave as good as I got,” He was smiling at Light in a way that was almost chummy.

“Wow… that is eerie… but a good theory,” Oki managed.

She was shocked at how close they had come to the truth without actually knowing it.

“The thing is,” L said as he looked at Oki, “We do not know how the power is transferred or what has to be done. We just know what happens once it has been transferred.” He knew that he did not have to explain things to Oki. She had seen the change in Light, just as he had.

“Well, good work,” she told them before taking a seat on the couch. “Is this the good news Light mentioned to me?”

“Nope,” Light picked up a remote and the monitors flickered into life. She could see a large rounded desk with eight people seated around it.

“Meet the Yotsuba Company,” Light said.

“What?” Oki asked, looking confused.

“Kira is one of those eight, and we are going to find him,” L stated. He was smiling at her. “It is only a matter of time now.”

“But how?” said Oki.

She was watching the meeting of the Yotsuba members on the monitor. They seemed completely oblivious to the fact that they were being watched. Well all but one who was looking around the room occasionally when the other members were discussing business.

“He is the mole,” Light reached forward and pointed at the mildly nervous man. “His name is Namikawa and he is working for us at the moment.”

“He is?” Oki looked closely at the man.

He had long black hair, pale skin and a good suit. She actually believed he was kind of cute, though he certainly did not appear to be working for L.

“He has just postponed Yotsuba’s killing for a month,” L declared. He turned to look at Light boastfully.

“Really?” Oki felt a little lost by the conversation and was trying to catch up.

Light noticed Oki was not following and explained, “I had spoken with Namikawa the other day. He made a deal with us, he con the group to postpone the killings for a month. That month shall give us time to find the real Kira among them.”

“But that is not all,” L said dramatically, apparently wanting to show off a little too. “We have a man undercover. His name is Aiber and he is pretending to be a private investigator named Coil. They have hired him to find me and have been told that all he needs is a month. That was the other reason Namikawa agreed to this deal.”

“But… after the month won’t they demand to know who you really are?” asked Oki. “I mean this Coil. Will he be able to say he has come up with nothing after all that time? They won’t stand for it.”

“Especially since you have managed to find out my real name somehow, dear Oki.” L thought as he glanced at her.

“I am prepared for whatever will happen.” He said aloud. “I have even informed the investigation team that, should anything happen to me, Light will take my place as the new L.”

“And he agreed?” Oki turned to Light, a dazed expression on her face.

“I did not answer,” Light replied, “L was trying to catch me off guard. He thought that if I said yes to him, that it would mean I was Kira. So I told the rest of the team his plan instead,” Light shrugged.

“He still will not give up on that insane idea that I am Kira. And what’s more, he now believes that should we stop this new Kira, I will turn back into Kira again.”

Oki stared at Light. She did not like the idea of losing the new Light to Kira again, but knew that Light’s plan made it inevitable.

“Oh…” she understood.

“Do you want to hear the last part of the plan?” L asked, believing that she appeared to know more about the situation than she was letting on. “Misa is going to go undercover to find out who Kira actually is.”

“She is?” Oki looked at Light, “I thought you had already opposed that plan.”

“I did. L went behind my back and asked her himself,” Light told her.

“Huh?” Oki looked down at the handcuffs binding the two of them together. “I didn’t think he could do that. Aren’t you meant to be chained together 24/7?”

“Oh I was there,” said Light, “I just didn’t get the chance to say anything at the time. It was out of the blue.”

“But it will work,” L said. “They have arranged an interview with Misa. She is heading over there now.” He looked up at the monitor and saw that the meeting room had been emptied. L switched the cameras to their new location.

The monitor now showed a room where four members of Yotsuba, and a blonde haired man that Oki had not seen before, were seated behind a long desk. In front of the desk and sitting directly in front of the blonde haired man was Misa.

L pointed to the blonde man, “that is Coil,” he explained, “He will be leading the questioning.”

Oki moved from the couch retrieving a chair so she would be close to the monitors. She then joined L and Light in watching as Misa faced her interview with the team.

Through Coil’s questions Oki learned a lot more about the woman she considers her love rival. She found out that Misa Amane had lost her parents to a burglar. And that this burglar was one that had been killed by Kira. These events had led Misa to become a devoted supporter of Kira and she would do anything for him.

The part of the interview that most interested Yotsuba though was what had happened when L had found out about her involvement with Kira and imprisoned her. Questions relating to this topic formed the main bulk of the investigation and un-nerved Oki who was shocked at L’s brutality while he detained Misa.

“Amazing,” Oki thought, after watching for several minutes. “If this was under different circumstances, I could actually have grown to like this woman!”

She was brought out of her thoughts when one of the men left the room. He was the roughest looking one and had put Oki on edge, even though she knew he had no idea he was being observed by her.

Shortly after he left, Misa did too, under the pretence of going to the bathroom. Oki took the time to observe the expressions of the four men left at the table and nodded. They appeared to be impressed by the answers Misa had given and seemed to believe that they would bring them closer to L‘s true identity.

When Misa returned a few minutes later, Oki noticed a slight change in her. She watched Misa until she saw something else move on the monitor, she slowly averted her eyes. Oki gasped as she saw Rem standing behind the guy that had her on edge. L and Light looked toward Oki.

“Are you alright Oki?!” Light questioned in a worried tone.

“Is everything ok?” L asked.

Oki smiled at Light and L, “Yes, everything is fine. I just remembered something I forgot to do.”

Light and L looked at one another confused as L shrugged his shoulders. They soon went back to watching the monitors. The three of them watched as the men finished questioning Misa and exchanged numbers.

“That went well,” L said as he turned back to Oki and Light.

“Very well,” Light agreed. He appeared to be very relieved that Misa had made it out of the meeting safely.

“Are you sure that’s really ok?” Oki asked, “They know who she is now. They have seen her face. They have her number. What is she going to do if they request another meeting?”

“I guess she will go and speak to them of course. It is only through actions such as this that we are going to discover who Kira really is,” L explained before taking his phone from his pocket. He held it to his right ear between his thumb and forefinger.

“Yes, Watari, Oki is ready to leave now,” he closed the phone and put it on the space in front of the monitors.

“It is time you returned to your apartment, Oki. Misa would not be happy to learn that you were also going out with Light, and such realizations might just hamper our plans.”

Stunned, Oki stared at L; it seemed as if he intended his words to wound her. However, she did not get the chance to reply to his comment, because Watari appeared in the doorway.

“The car is waiting, Miss Saito,” he said.

Oki stood up and quickly hugged Light before leaving. She did not particularly want to meet Misa now either, but with the change she had seen in the Misa’s behaviour after she returned from the bathroom and seeing Rem in the room as well, Oki was now very curious. Amaterasu had also seen it and seemed particularly eager to speak with Oki. She waited until Watari had dropped Oki safely at her apartment and then dropped her bombshell.

“Misa must have come back into contact with one of the Death Notes,” she stated. “I believe that when she returned from the bathroom, she was able to see Rem once again.”

“Rem was behind the man who came back from the bathroom right after Misa did. That man must be the other Kira.” Oki told Amaterasu.

“If Light’s plan goes smoothly, it will not be too long until he gets his Death Note back,” Amaterasu said watching Oki prepare herself for bed.

“Good thing too,” Oki thought, “Because I do not have much longer.”

Weakened by the events of the day, and by her vastly spreading illness, Oki fell into a shallow and haunted dream.

---

It was four in the morning as Oki shot up in her bed. She was panting and a cold sweat ran from her body. Amaterasu quickly went to her side.

“Oki! Oki are you all right?!”

Oki with fear in her eyes looked at Amaterasu. “L…” was all Oki could manage to say.

The fear in Oki’s eyes worried Amaterasu. She had never seen Oki so frightened in the four years they had been together. Pulling Oki close and holding her securely was all Amaterasu could think to do for her. Amaterasu looked down at Oki. She was shocked by what she saw. Oki’s life span had shortened by two days from the date Amaterasu has always seen.

“My beloved Oki, was this a vision of your inevitable end?” Amaterasu whispered into the silence of the room.

Early morning drifted to late afternoon. As Amaterasu noticed that the day was far from a normal day for Oki. She wandered around the house in her own little world. Amaterasu was worried--Oki had never acted like this before. As Amaterasu watched Oki, she wished that Light could still see her.

“I know Light could pull her from this state.” Amaterasu said to herself.

She then watched as Oki lay down on the floor and wrapped herself in a blanket.

“Hurry Light. Oki’s time is drawing near, she needs you to be with her.”