Lyon, France. The conference room at ICPO headquarters.
L's synthesized voice echoed through the speakers.
"I need China's Ministry of Public Security to issue an immediate order.
All files on unresolved unnatural deaths in Linhai City over the last ten years, along with all traffic and Skynet surveillance data across Linhai City from the past forty-eight hours, are to be linked to my server."
The United States representative slammed the table and stood. "You're overstepping your authority!"
"If you can find Kira within an hour, you're welcome to refuse." L's voice remained flat.
The conference room fell silent.
Linhai City Public Security Bureau. The director's office.
Zhao Jianguo held the Red Confidential Phone, his face ashen.
"Yes. Understood. We'll cooperate fully."
He hung up and looked at Chen Lei, who stood in front of his desk.
"Strict orders from the Provincial Department."
Zhao Jianguo pushed an encrypted fax toward Chen Lei. "Hand everything over.
Send all the surveillance data on Kannazuki, along with the case files on these twelve people, to INTERPOL.
Someone code-named L has taken over."
Chen Lei stared at the signature on the fax.
Happy Home residential complex. The seventh-floor Rental Apartment.
Green audio waveforms pulsed on the miniature terminal's screen.
Kannazuki wore headphones.
Every word of Chen Lei and Zhao Jianguo's conversation reached his ears.
He took off the headphones.
"L." Kannazuki spoke the letter aloud.
He opened the dark web database and searched for the code name.
Nothing.
No photographs. No real name. Only a string of records of solving world-class cold cases.
This was a ghost with the highest level of access to records worldwide.
Kannazuki leaned back in his chair. His mind raced.
Chen Lei relied on a policeman's instincts and clumsy physical surveillance.
L relied on sheer computing power and massive data models.
Chen Lei was a hunting dog.
L was radar.
Once Chen Lei uploaded his earlier surveillance data to L, that superbrain would undoubtedly sniff out something unusual in the name "Kannazuki."
He was running out of time.
Kannazuki set both hands on the keyboard.
He had to give L something else to do, something to divert his attention.
Code scrolled. Kannazuki infiltrated the network node at the Red Star Meat Processing Plant where Shrimp was staying.
He wrapped Shrimp's IP address in twelve layers of dynamic proxy disguises using compromised machines. These decoy nodes were scattered across the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
He didn't need Shrimp to be completely safe. He only needed L to spend an extra twenty-four hours cracking those disguises.
Twenty-four hours would be enough for him to make his physical escape.
Eleven that night.
An unmarked box truck with no license plates drove in.
The truck headed straight for the underground garage entrance behind Building Four.
Liu Jianguo jumped down from the cab. He wore work clothes, his face expressionless and his eyes empty.
The notebook's control had completely stripped him of his free will.
He opened the truck's cargo compartment. Yellow woven sacks were piled inside.
Ammonium nitrate.
The first shipment: one hundred kilograms.
Liu Jianguo hoisted two sacks onto his shoulders and walked toward the iron air-raid shelter door deep inside the garage, marked "Abandoned."
The lock on the iron door had already been broken.
Ten minutes later.
Wearing a black hoodie, Kannazuki avoided the complex's only three cameras and entered the underground garage.
A musty smell filled the air-raid shelter.
The flashlight beam swept across a corner.
Five yellow woven sacks were neatly stacked beneath a load-bearing pillar.
Kannazuki stepped forward, drew the dagger he carried, and slit open one of the sacks.
White crystals spilled out.
Extremely pure.
Kannazuki put away the dagger, turned, and left.
The next day. Noon.
The Red Star Abandoned Slaughterhouse. The basement.
Shrimp sat shirtless, holding a bottle of cheap liquor.
He watched the ever-growing number of followers on the dark web forum and burst into wild laughter.
"God. I'm God!"
He took a swig, and liquor ran down his chin onto the rusty iron table.
Suddenly.
The screen of the battered television in the corner, which had been playing dull variety shows, flickered.
The picture changed.
A blue backdrop bore the English words "INTERPOL Joint Press Conference."
Three white men in senior police uniforms sat at the speakers' table.
The officer in the middle had a prominent hooked nose and a name badge on his chest: Lindsey.
"Citizens."
Lindsey faced the camera, his tone grave. "We have made a major breakthrough in the series of sudden deaths that have occurred worldwide recently."
Shrimp stopped drinking. He stared at the screen.
"The killer who calls himself Kira." A mocking sneer curled Lindsey's lips. "You possess no divine power. You're merely a rat hiding in a sewer. A coward who kills through some despicable trick."
Shrimp's expression changed.
The fat on his face twitched.
"We have identified your pattern of behavior."
Lindsey stared directly into the camera, as though looking Shrimp in the eyes.
"You don't dare show yourself because you're afraid. You crave attention because in real life, you're a complete and utter failure."
"Shut up!" Shrimp smashed the bottle in his hand. Glass shards flew everywhere.
"Kira." Lindsey raised his voice. "If you really have the guts,
come kill me.
My name is Lindsey, a special investigator with INTERPOL. I'm sitting right here, waiting for you."
The three officers' real names and high-resolution headshots appeared at the bottom of the television screen.
Shrimp's breathing quickened. His eyes were bloodshot.
His vanity had been brutally trampled.
He snatched up the brown diary on the table and uncapped his marker.
"You're asking to die," Shrimp said through clenched teeth.
The tip swept across the paper.
[Lindsey]
[John]
[David]
After writing the three names, Shrimp stared fixedly at the television screen.
"Forty seconds." Shrimp grinned viciously. "Let's see who's the rat."
The seconds ticked by.
On the television, Lindsey continued his taunting speech.
"Thirty-eight."
"Thirty-nine."
"Forty."
On the screen.
Lindsey's voice cut off abruptly.
His eyes bulged, and both hands clutched the left side of his chest.
But John and David beside him were unharmed.
Lindsey toppled out of his chair and collapsed onto the speakers' platform.
The scene descended into chaos. Screams erupted.
The vicious grin on Shrimp's face froze instantly. He lunged toward the television, staring at John and David, who were perfectly unharmed and shouting in terror for an ambulance. His eyes filled with disbelief.
"Impossible..." he muttered, snatching up the brown diary and repeatedly checking the three names he had written. The handwriting was clear, with no spelling mistakes.
"Lindsey died, so why are John and David completely fine?
Has this notebook malfunctioned? Or did I get the timing wrong?"
"Hee hee hee hee..."
A hoarse, eerie laugh drifted from a dark corner of the room.
A tall, twisted black silhouette slowly emerged. Ryuk, the Shinigami, tossed a deep-red apple in his hand as he watched Shrimp with open amusement.
"What's wrong? Run into a problem?" Ryuk crunched off a large bite of the apple and laughed through his mouthful.
Shrimp spun around and raised the diary, demanding, "Ryuk! What's going on? Forty seconds passed ages ago! Why did only one person die?!"
"Can't you tell?" Ryuk stretched his terrifying mouth into a grin, his shoulders shaking with laughter. His yellow eyes gleamed with delight in the darkness. "This is one of the Death Note's basic rules.
To kill someone, you have to know both their real name and their actual face.
Those two fellows on television who survived
either used fake names or fake faces. Maybe both were fake."
Ryuk casually tossed away the remaining apple core and leaned closer with a chuckle. "Only that unlucky Lindsey was stupid enough to show his real face and use his real name.
He took the bullet for those two 'rats.'"
Shrimp stood rooted to the spot, his face turning livid. He clenched the marker so tightly that his knuckles whitened.
"So that's it..." Shrimp gritted his teeth, his chest heaving as he looked back at the chaotic studio on the television screen. "Testing me with stand-ins and fake identities... How dare they trick me!"
Floating in midair, Ryuk's spectral form rolled his eyes and let out an inscrutable, eerie laugh...
At the same time.
London, United Kingdom. Inside a windowless underground building.
The screen cast a ghostly blue glow.
A young man in an oversized white T-shirt, with dark circles under his eyes, crouched on a chair with both feet on the seat.
He bit the thumbnail of his left hand.
In his right hand, he held a microphone.
"Death confirmed."
L's voice echoed through the empty room. "Cause of death: cardiac paralysis."
He watched the stream of data flickering across the screen.
"Cut the television signal," L ordered.
The press conference vanished from the screen.
L picked up a sugar cube from the table, put it in his mouth, and chewed hard.
"Experiment complete."
He swiveled his chair around to face a suited agent standing behind him.
"Notify the Chinese police." L spoke rapidly. "First, to kill, Kira must know both the target's real name and their face."
"Second, Kira is an extremely immature criminal, highly arrogant and easily provoked."
L paused. A sharp glint flashed through his dark eyes.
"Third." L pointed to a map on the screen. "This so-called press conference wasn't broadcast worldwide. It wasn't even broadcast across all of China."
"I contacted the Chinese authorities. Only televisions in Linhai City's South District and West District could receive this live broadcast."
L crunched the sugar cube in his mouth.
"Kira is in one of those two districts in Linhai City."
Linhai City. The seventh-floor Rental Apartment.
Kannazuki sat in front of his computer.
On the screen, the newly intercepted CCTV feed from Linhai City had already been cut off.
He stared at the black screen, his gaze ice-cold.
"Stupid pig."
Kannazuki spat out the words.
He had not seen through L's entire plan, but he had seen the press conference broadcast only in a limited area.
L had not tried to crack the twelve layers of network camouflage he had set up.
L had used the most primitive method-a physical broadcast-to lure Shrimp out.
The moment Shrimp put pen to paper, he narrowed the net from eight billion people worldwide to the few million residents of Linhai City's South District and West District.
With L's ability to mobilize resources, his next move would definitely be an exhaustive sweep.
The basement of the Red Star Meat Processing Plant would not stay hidden for more than a few days.
Once Shrimp was caught, once that pieced-together notebook fell into L's hands...
L would learn the notebook's rules. He would learn that its pages could be torn out and used.
From there, L would deduce that a "true Kira" was pulling the strings behind the scenes.
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