“She’s the best, but she still makes mistakes. Why? Because she’s human, and not a god.”

A bloodcurdling scream was let out, as I checked my watch. 40 seconds, on the dot.

The man -L’s puppet-  laid limply on the floor, his eyes glassy as medics rushed in, carrying a stretcher which they rolled him into.

258

I’ve ridded the world of 258 undeserving people in the past week- no wait, it’s 259 now. The world is slowly becoming a better place.

Light smiled and crossed her arms under her head, as she leaned dangerously far back on the hind legs of her chair. L was sure interesting.

What are you trying to do, L? What are you trying to show the world? Because all you’re doing now, is giving me a chance to demonstrate what will happen to traitors of justice.

Show yourself, L

***

“Kira is located in the Kanto region.”

Light’s eyes widened slightly, anyone who didn’t know her well probably wouldn’t have noticed. L was better than she had previously thought. She had to give him some credit, as far as she had deduced, L was only trying to figure out if she really could kill without any contact. But, who would’ve thought he was also trying to figure out her location, at the same time? She hadn’t calculated that possibility, or ever wanted him to narrow down the search that much. It made her slightly uncomfortable that she hadn’t planned, hadn’t expected this to happen.

An unknown variable, huh. This just made it more thrilling. A smile tugged on Light’s lips.

Fun.

But she had to act fast now, it wouldn’t be in her interest if the general public received so much information.

Casting a quick glance at her TV screen to confirm the station name, Light opened a new program on her computer and started typing furiously, she had disable all the firewalls. Now.

Sayu was shopping for the Hideki Ryuga posters at the mall, her mother had gone with her, and her father was at work and wasn’t due to arrive until about 9 PM. Plus, she had locked her door, in case any of them were to come back early. Perfect.

Untangling an old microphone from the basket of electronics under her desk, Light quickly set it up so that it could receive her voice. She made sure to connect it with a voice scrambling program she created a few years ago. Smirking, the brown haired girl decided to mock L by writing the words ‘Kira’ in the exact same font that he had used. She was ready.

Hacking through the last few walls, Light paused for a few seconds. There were already other foreign lines of code that didn’t seem to belong. Was someone else trying to hack into the  program too? Whatever, it didn’t hinder her. Light connected her computer to the TV channel’s mainframe, right on time. L was just wrapping up his speech and probably preparing to log off the TV channel.

Not so fast. I’m not going down without a challenge.

She would soon be allowed to start live streaming around the Kanto region. Light grinned, as she pressed the command button. She leaned in closer to the microphone on her desk, making sure that it would pick up every word she spoke.

“I am Kira.”

Glancing back at the TV, she saw her title flickering on the screen. K-I-R-A.

Success.

“Good afternoon, Japan. L has no idea who I am, and what I truly stand for. Please do not misunderstand me, I do not need to, nor do I wish to, kill innocent civilians. The only ones I will rid the world of, are criminals, and those who try and fight against justice. I will this world a better place. I am not a murderer. I am god of the new world.  I am justice. And I-”

“Lies.” A static buzz interrupted Light. She scowled, was it L again? Damn it, hadn’t she already blocked him out of the system?

“You are nothing but an insecure mental murderer. And you’re committing an atrocious act, disguised as justice, but in the end, only plain evil .” The voice calmly said. Light gritted her teeth in annoyance.

Light glanced in annoyance back at the TV, prepared to hack into the mainframe again. But instead of the ‘L’ she had expected to see, a glaring ‘N’ was covering the screen.

Was this some kind of sick joke? She growled. Dammit. Another unknown variable.

She started to type furiously again, clicking away at her keyboard. And soon enough, recovered control of the live broadcast. Light flickered away the ‘N’ logo, and replaced the screen her own ‘Kira’ one again.

“Hey there, Newcomer,” she hissed into her microphone, failing to attain the level of calmness the interrupter possessed.

“Hello,” the voice returned, still in the same monotonous style.

Damn, his voice gives no hints at all.

“What are your intentions, hmm? And what incentives do you have?” she questioned.

“I intend to find, and destroy you. As for incentives, it’s as clear as day. You’re killing people, and in no way is that ever justice,”  he said.

“Justice says that they deserve to die,” she hissed.

“But you’re killing people too, you deserve to die," the voice challenged

“Woah there, friend, I’m killing with the right incentive. I want to rid the world of evil.” Light took a deep breath. She mustn’t get too fired up.

A chuckle came from the other side. “Is that so? Then I’m entitled to find and kill you too. In fact, it’s kind of funny how we have the exact same incentive.”

Light bit her lips to keep herself from shouting death threats to the other side.

“Have fun failing, then. Justice will always prevail,” She said after a deep breath.

“I don’t intend to. And yes, agreed. Justice will prevail, as it’s on my side.” The voice took a pause. “And L, if you’re watching this, you know who I am. I intend to beat you to the case.”

Only a week, and already 2 detectives on her trail?

“Who are you, newbie?” Light asked, while keeping pleasant tone in her voice.

Damn this annoyingly calm Newcomer.

She didn’t care if she was was admitting a weakness by asking him.

“My…”

The voice started to respond.

“Name… “

Light leaned in closer to the TV.

“Is… “

She listened anticipatively.

“Ne-

Suddenly, an all too familiar voice, interrupted. Her plan was ruined for the second time of the day. Dammit.

“No. A better question is; who are you, Kira?” It was L again. Shoot.

Light wanted to slap herself. How could she have forgotten about him? After all, she had only written a short code, to try and block him out. No way would it have ever had a chance to keep someone of his intellect out for more than a minute.

So he was listening the entire time, waiting for the perfect moment to cut in.

Mr. Great Detective was back. How amusing was the situation? She was chatting in an almost - dare she say- friendly manner. And with the two people who probably have the highest chance of catching her.

This time, Light actually did let out chuckle.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, L? I’m afraid I’d rather not disclose that information. It’s rather… personal” she leaned closer to the mic and whispered.

But there was a deeper meaning, something only the two of them would be able to find; You want to find out, huh? Well, the challenge is on.

“Oh, that’s a shame I suppose. But I’ll be the first to know if you ever decide to tell anyone?” L answered. I will discover who you are, Kira. And I will be the first to find you.

L was playing her game now. Light smirked.

But this time, ‘N’ chose to speak up. He finally discarded his calm monotonous voice, and replaced it with a childish -almost whiny- one.

“But Kira, I thought that we were friends, not L. Shouldn’t I be the first to receive this information?” Make no mistake Kira, I, not L, will find you first.

“Ah, a nice competition of uncovering each other’s identities? Fun. Well, good luck! Justice will win.” Light signed off the TV with a click.

She instantly turned to her keyboard, to start working on anti-track codes in order to prevent unwanted tracings.

“Invitation accepted. But just so you know, I’m not mature enough to play nice. I must admit, I really hate losing, I’m only human,” L said, and signed off the TV as well, leaving only ‘N’ on.

“Well, I wouldn’t want to be left out. Count me in. Oh, and one last thing if you’re still here, Kira; I am Near,” The voice announced before taking his logo off the screen as well.

This left the TV screen pitch black, with the faint confused voices of producers scrambling around in the background.

***

Light sighed happily in her bed. In the end the TV had broadcast had gone well. Her life would, for sure, be funner now.

Ping.

A phone notification rang on Light’s desk. Her blood ran cold. Had she already been found out? She flipped out of bed and grabbed her smartphone, fingers fumbling to type in her passcode and open up the message.

From Mello: Hey, u saw the broadcast right?

Light sighed in relief, it was just Mello. Well, there wouldn’t be any point in denying it.

From Light: Yeah

After a few seconds, another text popped out.

From Mello: Aren’t u curious who the Kira person is? I can’t believe Near is actually trying to find him. Near. Lol

From Light: Ofc I’m curious! But wait what about Near?

From Mello: Pfft strange weird antisocial dude I knew back when I was still in America. That was like a decade ago tho

From Light: What?

From Mello: Not the point. So aren’t u gonna try and find who the Kira person is? Ur dad’s leading the police force right? And u said u

From Light: Idk probs. But I might not have that much time cuz college exams

From Mello: Ha! U study for those? Lame! I’m gonna spend all my free time trying to catch Kira. It’s fun and plus, Near is on his trails. Why shouldn’t I be?

No. This was bad. Very bad.

From Light: …. Have fun?

From Mello: I will :)

Light turned off the phone, and despite all the odds against her, she smiled. 

It was a dangerous game consisting of her, L, Near, and Mello. It was a game of death.

“And let that game begin!" She could almost imagine the rest of them shouting invitations of challenges.

She smiled--

Challenge accepted.