Light Yagami

Night fell.

Linhai City, South District.

A police car tore down the main road.

Flashing red and blue lights sliced through the darkness.

Chen Lei sat in the passenger seat, gripping the profile report L had sent him. The edges of the paper had crumpled under his fingers.

Reports from the various units kept coming over the radio.

The police squadron, the Cybersecurity Monitoring Brigade, and the Criminal Investigation Detachment were all converging on the Red Star Abandoned Slaughterhouse.

A vast net was closing in.

"Captain Chen."

Xiao Li sounded excited as he drove.

"That L! He's incredible.

He pinpointed Kira's location using nothing but power consumption data and network nodes.

That lunatic isn't getting away."

Chen Lei said nothing.

He stared at the words on the report. Unemployed drifter. Reversed sleep schedule. Emotionally immature.

The logic was airtight.

But what Chen Lei couldn't get out of his head was Kannazuki's expressionless face.

That Delivery Worker who left and returned home at precisely the same times every day, whose walking cadence barely ever varied.

Too consistent. So consistent that he lacked even a trace of ordinary human life.

"Stop the car," Chen Lei said suddenly.

"Huh?" Xiao Li froze for a moment.

"Pull over. Stop the car." Chen Lei's voice hardened.

Xiao Li hit the brakes.

The tires screeched against the asphalt.

Chen Lei pushed the door open and stepped out.

"Go to the meat processing plant and make the arrest."

Chen Lei shut the door behind him. "I need to check something."

Ignoring Xiao Li's calls, Chen Lei flagged down a passing taxi.

"Happy Home residential complex," Chen Lei told the driver.

He had to take another look.

Even if it meant disobeying orders. He trusted only his own eyes.

7:55 p.m.

The taxi stopped outside the gates of the Happy Home residential complex.

Chen Lei strode through the gates. The night wind carried the chill of early winter.

He headed straight for Building Four.

He looked up. The seventh floor.

The windows of Kannazuki's rental apartment were pitch-black. No lights were on.

Chen Lei took out his phone, preparing to call Kannazuki.

8:00 p.m.

Chen Lei's finger had just touched the screen.

The ground beneath his feet suddenly heaved upward.

A deep, muffled roar erupted from far underground.

It was so loud that it exceeded the limits of human hearing, instantly obliterating every other sound around him.

Then a blinding crimson blaze ripped through the underground garage entrance behind Building Four.

Five hundred kilograms of high-purity ammonium nitrate detonated.

A savage shock wave blasted outward in all directions, carrying rubble, twisted remnants of security doors, and earth.

Every window from the first through the tenth floor of Building Four shattered in the same second.

Countless glass fragments rained down on him.

Chen Lei had no time to take any evasive action.

An irresistible force slammed into his chest.

His feet left the ground, and he was hurled backward five meters.

His back smashed through the trunk of a holly tree in the landscaped strip.

Chen Lei landed in the dirt. His vision went black.

He lost all hearing, leaving only a piercing, high-frequency ringing inside his head.

A metallic sweetness rose in his throat. He turned his head and spat out blood mixed with grit.

Flames shot into the sky. Thick smoke billowed.

The entire residential complex plunged into utter chaos.

Car alarms, residents' screams, and the crashing of falling debris blended into one cacophony.

Chen Lei planted both hands on the ground and forced himself upright.

His vision came into focus.

The underground garage entrance had completely collapsed. Several load-bearing columns had snapped, and the floor above had caved in, leaving an enormous pit.

Fire raged through the wreckage. The heat seared his cheeks.

Chen Lei stared fixedly at the sea of flames.

Kannazuki lived on the seventh floor.

A blast of that magnitude had a shock wave powerful enough to rupture the internal organs of anyone on the lower floors.

Ten minutes later.

Blinding red and blue lights illuminated the entire block.

Twelve fire engines and twenty police cars sealed off the scene.

High-pressure hoses sprayed white foam and jets of water.

The water struck the dark red wreckage, sending up great clouds of white steam.

The fire burned for four full hours.

The next morning.

The sky was a pale gray.

The air reeked of explosive fumes and scorched debris.

Standing water in the underground garage reached ankle-deep.

Chen Lei sat on the edge of the ambulance's open rear compartment. An emergency doctor was treating the cut on his forehead.

He pushed the doctor's hand away, stood up, and walked toward the police cordon.

Old Qin, the forensic doctor, emerged from the collapsed entrance, stepping over rubble in a white full-body protective suit and carrying a silver examination case.

Old Qin's expression was grave. Black ash covered his protective suit.

"The epicenter was in the underground parking garage." Old Qin removed his mask and drew deep breaths of cold air. "We found a body."

Chen Lei's heart stopped for an instant.

"Who?" Chen Lei forced out the word.

"Heavily carbonized.

The facial features were completely destroyed.

All the fingerprints were burned away."

Old Qin opened his case, took out a transparent evidence bag, and handed it over.

Inside the bag were several black hairs with their follicles attached.

"When the debris collapsed onto him, the deceased was curled up, and a section of broken load-bearing wall pinned his head.

His scalp was pressed against the ground."

Old Qin explained, "We recovered hair tissue that hadn't been completely destroyed by the heat from the gap between the back of his skull and the ground."

Chen Lei stared at the strands of hair.

"Expedite it." Chen Lei's voice was hoarse, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Old Qin.

"Send it to the City Public Security Bureau's forensic evidence center immediately.

Retrieve Kannazuki's DNA sample from the household registration database and cross-check it."

Old Qin frowned.

"Captain Chen. You think this is that Delivery Worker?

He rented a place on the seventh floor. What would he have been doing in the underground air-raid shelter in the middle of the night?"

"We won't know until we check."

Chen Lei turned and walked toward the police car.

10:00 a.m.

The City Public Security Bureau.

The forensic examination center.

Chen Lei stood at the end of the corridor.

The window was wide open, and cold wind poured down his collar.

He held a cigarette between his fingers.

It was unlit. The filter had already been crushed flat.

The examination room door opened.

Old Qin hurried out with a freshly printed report.

Chen Lei tossed the cigarette into the trash and strode toward him.

Old Qin handed Chen Lei the report without a word.

Chen Lei lowered his head.

His gaze skipped over the intricate data charts and went straight to the conclusions at the bottom.

[STR locus comparison analysis confirmed that the DNA profile of the submitted hair sample was an exact match for Kannazuki (ID number: XXXX) in the database.]

[The characteristics of the pubic symphyseal surface and the height estimated from femur length were consistent with Kannazuki's physical characteristics.]

[Large quantities of carbon particles were found in the deceased's trachea, and the blood carboxyhemoglobin concentration exceeded 50%. Cause of death: loss of consciousness from inhaling highly concentrated carbon monoxide before the explosion, followed by fatal exposure to intense heat.]

Chen Lei's hands shook uncontrollably as he held the report.

The paper rustled faintly.

Dead.

Kannazuki was dead.

DNA, skeletal characteristics, cause of death.

Together, they formed an airtight chain of physical evidence.

Chen Lei felt as though his chest had been hollowed out.

He had always suspected Kannazuki was Kira. He had been certain Kannazuki was putting on an act.

But how could Kira die in an ordinary gas explosion?

Kira possessed a divine power to kill. Kira was livestreaming on the dark web.

Kannazuki, meanwhile, was nothing more than a charred corpse lying on an autopsy table.

Chen Lei closed his eyes.

The detective's instincts he had always taken pride in had become an absolute joke in the face of irrefutable physical evidence.

Hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor.

Xiao Li ran over with a tablet, his face alight with excitement.

"Captain Chen! They've wrapped up the raid at the Red Star Meat Processing Plant!" Xiao Li tapped the tablet screen.

"When the tactical team broke down the door, that lunatic was still livestreaming a murder! They seized a black diary filled with names at the scene.

L's profile was right on every count! Kira's been caught!"

Chen Lei opened his eyes. On the screen, Shrimp was pinned to the floor by tactical officers, so frightened that tears and snot streamed down his face.

The light in Chen Lei's eyes went out completely.

"Understood." Chen Lei turned and walked toward his office.

He pushed the door open.

He pulled out his chair and sat down.

Chen Lei turned on his computer.

He opened Kannazuki's investigation file.

His fingers tapped the keyboard.

[Case closure report]

[Subject: Kannazuki.]

[Status: deceased.]

[Cause of death: caught in the accidental gas explosion in the underground parking garage at the Happy Home residential complex.]

[Conclusion: ruled out any connection to the major serial sudden-death case and the Kira incidents.]

He typed the final character.

Chen Lei pressed Enter.

The file was uploaded to the joint database of the Provincial Department and ICPO.

Chen Lei leaned back in his chair, tilted his head up, and stared at the white ceiling. Every ounce of strength had drained from his body.

At the same time.

In the North District of Linhai City.

On the top floor of an unfinished Commercial Tower.

The wind howled.

Kannazuki stood at the edge, where there was no railing, looking down over the gray city.

He had changed into a well-tailored black trench coat. A pair of gold-rimmed glasses rested on the bridge of his nose.

His bearing was cold.

He was nothing like the timid Delivery Worker he had been.

He held a brand-new ID card in his hand.

Name: Light Yagami.

He had used the notebook to control Zhao Qiang and make him enter the Air-Raid Shelter, then used the blast's intense heat to destroy Zhao Qiang's face and fingerprints.

Before leaving, he had tucked a lock of his own hair deep inside Zhao Qiang's collar, shielding it with a piece of fireproof insulating material.

The physical destruction wrought by the explosion had erased every trace that did not add up.

Ryuk crouched on a concrete pillar nearby.

He bit into a ripe red apple with a crunch.

"Light." Ryuk rolled his yellow eyes and let out a dry, eerie laugh. "You didn't just fool that cop. You fooled that guy called L, too.

You gave yourself a perfect funeral with five hundred kilograms of explosives."

Kannazuki slipped the ID card into the inner pocket of his trench coat.

He took out the black Death Note and opened it.

"The stand-in has been arrested."

Kannazuki looked at the blank page, his tone flat.

"Once L gets that cobbled-together diary, he'll soon discover the loopholes in the rules."

He raised his head.

His gaze pierced the clouds.

"L will know there's more than one Kira."

Kannazuki pulled the cap off his pen.