A Shinigami can see another one of its kind while a notebook user

cannot do the same before touching the respective Shinigamis

notebook, Ophian had explained before; following Ls lead Stan had
been taking a late evening stroll in the Kanto residential region. He
had been following this pattern for quite some time now, mapping out
every block that he could cover. The trouble was that, Kanto region in
itself was huge to cover just on foot and he had to take precautions to
hide Ophian from the other Shinigami. Today, he was traversing the
east side block near a park, a place he was familiar with having been
there right on the first day of his arrival in Tokyo.
Surprise
A feminine voice shouted from behind him closing his eyes from
behind.
Sora, he said turning around looking at his first friend in Japan.
Sora had been the first person that he befriended here with the intent
to familiarise himself more with the Japanese customs. She was a
fashion designing, third year student in a local university familiar with
both the western as well as her local customs very well. Since their
first meeting, he had been meeting her a lot more each week in the
evening every time.
You look good, Stan said smiling, giving her his full attention. She
was a petite deep brown haired girl with an amazingly good sense of
clothing.
You were right about Yuuko; he turned out to be a two-timing
bastard, she said her voice full of gratitude. Since the time he let slip
that he was a hacker, she had been continuously bugging him to find
out more about her boyfriend. He had obliged and had told her all
about his true self bared quite well in his company email. Really, that
privately hosted email server had turned out to be a joke for a person
of his calibre.

You know I am a man of my words, he said proudly putting his

thumb at his chin to emphasize his point.
Yeah, yeah, you know with an ego that big I am surprised that you
dont make a lot of enemies, she commented.
Oh you see, my charm makes up for it, he replied airily.
Ooh, I dont feel like falling in it.
See, thats the power of it, it works deep into the heart so quietly.
With that they got into their usual conversations, Stan as usual
working hard to keep up with her unbelievable chatting speed. It was
almost like keeping up with a train that never stops while you keep
encountering traffic running parallel to it.
One conversation led to another and soon, she was speaking about the
topic for which he had endured such a long hour of hearing her
blabber about pointless stuff.
The common mans reaction to the latest Kira related news. She was
really good at picking up gossip from around her and Kira seemed to
be an almost everyday topic of endless gossip and speculation.
I feel that Kira really cant be a god, can he?
She asked looking at him with a look that dared him to challenge her
assumption. He really was not going to anyway, but usually her
thoughts reflected the publics opinion as well.
Nope, I agree with you. I am just surprised that the news channels
analysed the latest incident so well and that too in so much detail
given Kiras obvious threat.
His method of attack had worked even better than he had expected.
Like famous people, even Kira was susceptible to the general publics
fickle-mindedness. When he killed the doctor he did not realize that

he had been setup by him. By doing this, he had also confirmed an

ever growing suspicion of Stans. Clearly, Kira was someone in the
police department or he was related to the police agencies in some
way. Kira was now being viewed with suspicion since the news
agencies had clearly showed that the doctor was never accused of
anything remotely close to the reason put up on the website. The
police was under tremendous public pressure since they were now
being questioned on their progress with the Kira case and Ls
involvement being shrouded in the secrecy that it was, garnered quite
a lot of media attention. The police would have to come clean now,
given the state of the media glare they were in.
Stan smiled inwardly; the product of a good plan bearing fruits filled
him with immense satisfaction. Ophian smirked on seeing the slight
hints on satisfaction on Stans face imagining the reaction that the
other Shinigami would have right now.
_____________________________

Ryuk descended slowly to hover besides Light whispering into his

ear, You-were-framed.
He even enunciated every word carefully placing emphasis on the
framed part.
The public opinion is a regular pendulum, he said softly his hands
curled in a loose fist. He had not faced any sort of challenge by
anyone after the death of L and that had caused him to loosen his
paranoia regarding different situations but with this, he would have to
be on alert again. Someone was out there hell bent on getting to him
using a masked form of media to reach to him, one he was
particularly good at, the internet. At least Misa had been right about
one thing, not that he would ever admit it. Now the police would be
called to action and Ls involvement would be questioned. He had to

find a way to silence the people who were beginning to spread the
rumours of Ls death at the hands of Kira. The question was simply
how.
_________________________

The next morning found a sleepy Stan sitting on his couch watching
the daily news sifting for anything Kira related. Slowly he brought up
the milk cartel he had been delivered to his mouth sipping a little until
he jerked it away spraying his mouthful on the untarnished floor.
Up on the news was an emergency newsfeed in the form of a video,
the types of which had not been seen for the last four years leading to
the questions.
My interim investigation in these four years has given me much food
for thought, Kira.
An electronically modulated voice spoke with a stylish L on the
background.