Chapter 16- "A New Possibility"

Story by houndlover56 on SoFurry

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#16 of Furry Death Note


Natalie pulled up outside of the house soon after Light sent Nadine home with the Note. For this plan to work, she needed to have it for a couple of days. Which should work considering her part of the deal was that she could use the Death Note to kill if she wanted if she was going to help Light find L's real name.

When Natalie headed inside, Light pretended to call Nadine again. In actuality, he looked over at Ryuk, who was standing at the end of the driveway. "I need you to do something for me," Light said.

"I'm not your little lapdog, you know. When you tell me to jump, I'm not asking to ask how high," the Shinigami replied.

"I'm not asking you to. Right now, Nadine has the Death Note. I need you to relay a message to her with specific instructions on what to write tonight when she finds the agent's names." Ryuk rolled his eyes and groaned. "Hey, it's not against the rules. And besides, now that Nadine has touched the Note for herself, she can recognize you and talk to you, am I correct?"

The leopard shook his head. "Damn it, cheetah, you're becoming too smart for me."

"Just give her the goddamn message!" Light growled, trying to keep his voice low so Natalie and Jessie-Belle didn't overhear him.

"Okay! Sheesh, you don't need to be so harsh." Ryuk walked away, vanishing into the air. Light rolled his eyes. He better make this work...

Across town, Nadine sets her bike down outside of the school, the weight of the Death Note in her bag heavier than it should be. Now that she possessed the book, she could kill whomever she wanted. However, she knew that Light wanted her to do something specifically with the Note. She just wasn't sure what is what yet. She knew it involved killing off the FBI agents, but she couldn't achieve that yet.

Nevertheless, she snuck through the back entrance of the school and headed downstairs through the basement hallways back into the Underground HQ. She ignored greetings from Craig and the others as she went into her office and locked the door.

Nadine pulled out her laptop and fired it up. Now that she knew the first agent's real name, Jay Rennie. She could find the others since they were all registered in that motel. All she needed to do was get into their systems and scour the list of names. That part only took ten minutes. But looking up the names through the deep dark Web and trying to find connections to the FBI took over two hours.

By the time school let out, she missed over six classes and only managed to find three more names. At this rate, it would take forever to find the others.

"I've been waiting to meet you."

Nadine yelped when she saw a leopard standing in front of her. He wore all black and had cliche spikes protruding from his back and shoulders. He quickly put his finger to his lips. "Nadine, are you alright in there?" Craig asked on the other side of the door.

"I'm fine!" she shouted back. "Just get back to work, nub." She disliked Craig the most, but he was the most useful of the kids. The vixen turned her attention back to the leopard in black.

"Don't be afraid," he said. "I'm the Shinigami, Ryuk. Light sent me over here to give you a message about the Note."

Light? He knew this freak?

"You see, Nadine, that notebook you have used to belong to me. It belongs to Light now, but since you touched it, you can now see and talk to me. Pretty cool, isn't it?" Nadine was still speechless. Plus this guy -- Ryuk -- looked and sounded suspicious. And that word. Shinigami. Obviously he was of Japanese origin. So was Watari. It became clear that finding some answers may require her to travel across the ocean.

"Anyways," Ryuk continued. He propped himself up on one of the old chairs in the room. "I'm here to give you a message from Light." Nadine rolled her eyes. What more does he want from me? "He needs you to write the agents' names in the Death Note in a way so a public service announcement can be given on live TV at exactly eight o'clock."

Nadine looked at the clock on the wall. 3:20. She had less than five hours to find twelve names and faces. She only had three.

She let out a long breath. Light, this better be worth my time...

***

"Light, why don't you and Nadine head outside for a minute, I need to talk to L alone." The teenagers went outside without questioning Natalie. When the door closed behind them, she turned to the fox on the couch, who was still in shock. "Well... I... don't know what to say."

L scratched under his chin. "Light McAlister cannot be Kira."

"I'm sorry... we just witnessed twelve people die on national television and that's the first thing you say?"

L had no idea why she sounded mad. Except for the fact that she hoped nobody would die today. Perhaps she wasn't ready for this case as L hoped. "Light McAlister cannot be Kira. My theory started out correct: the criminal didn't die which would suggest to me that Kira knew about the trap and thus avoided it. And to do that, Kira would have to be one of the people who knew about tonight's proceedings.

"But... with the agents being controlled by Kira instead... that changes things." L wipes some sweat off his forehead. "It's obvious that Kira needs a name and a face in order to kill. That much we could gather from the previous killings. However, none of the agents registered at that motel ever used their real name. Even their badges were false identification. Plus, there was no way that Light could see their faces. The agents were only here for a few days. And since Light has been under constant surveillance, whether it be from the cameras, yourself, or school, we never witnessed a time in which Light could see those twelve faces. From this, we can gather that Light isn't Kira."

"I'm relieved that you think that, L," Natalie said, a little more calm. "But where do we start looking now?"

"The only other people in town who knew that the FBI was here are the police department," L said. "That means that Kira could very well be within the police, as Light suggested in the past. But either way, it seems that Light no longer needs to be under surveillance. It also means we need to start looking into the police records. Find their technology usage, patterns, anything we can find to capture Kira."

Outside, Nadine had her ear flicked up towards the house and she heard the whole conversation. "Well? What are the saying?" Light asked.

"Seems that you're cleared of being a suspect," Nadine said.

Light grinned. This was a victory for him. He knew that if the agents died instead of the criminal, L could suspect Light of being Kira; but since there was no possible way for Light to get ahold of the information needed to kill them, L would have no choice but to start looking elsewhere. One step ahead of L. And now that he was no longer a suspect, he could continue the search for L's true name. And eliminate him once and for all.

"Yes," Light spoke aloud. "My plan worked perfectly. And props to you, Nadine. Without your help, none of this would be possible."

"Slow down there, buster," she said. The look on her face didn't show excitement. "There's something that I have to tell you." Light's smile disappeared. What on earth could she possibly say now? Light was in the clear, who cared what happened next?

But her next words changed it all. "I didn't kill those agents."

Light did a double take. "What are you talking about?"

"I got Ryuk's message -- freaky dude, by the way -- and I tried to find the names and faces in time, but I couldn't. There were too many firewalls around the government files. They must have found my IP address or something and put up extra security. Either way, what you say tonight, I didn't do it."

Light thought this through. Would she lie to him? The answer was no; she wouldn't be foolish enough to lie to him outright because then he would be able to write her name down in the Note. Then again, she wouldn't have much to gain from lying so she had to have been telling the truth. But if she didn't kill those agents, who did?

And if those agents were all being controlled by that, then that means...

"There are two Kiras."

"What?" Nadine looked at him as if he sounded crazy. In a way, Light supposed he was. His head had been through whirlpools since his dad died.

"It's the only explanation. Only someone with Kira's powers could be able to make those events happen. And if it wasn't you, that means there is another Kira out there; someone with similar powers."

Nadine huffed and groaned. "Great. Because one of you was bad enough."

"Hey. Shut up, would you? We need to find that second Kira before L does. If he finds him first, we could easily be next."

"Woah, what do you mean 'we'? You already had be find twelve agents names and faces and track down L's real name. If anything, this is a you problem. Not a me problem."

Light balled up his fists. It was the first time in his life that he thought about smacking a woman. "May I remind you what happens when we get caught?"

"If you get caught, I can easily erase any evidence of my involvement. I've already torn out the pages I've used in the Death Note and hid them away. If anyone goes down in this, it's you, Light. Not me."

Damn her. She was smarter than him and he hated that. But he knew that without her, there would be no possible way to find L's name on his own. He took a few deep breaths. Okay. Finding the second Kira shouldn't be too hard. Right?

***

The next day was the best day of his life. Light's 18th birthday. Now that he was an official adult, it felt like everything in his world changed. He knew from the way he no longer felt watched that something was changing. There was no longer a red light in the air duct.

And there wasn't any tension when he went downstairs for breakfast. Natalie and Jessie-Belle wished him a happy birthday and told him that he could stay home from school again. But Light insisted that he went to school. He needed to get the Note back from Nadine to make sure she didn't make any other unnecessary movements.

Light was surprised to hear some of the headlines on the radio on the way over to school. "United States and Canada Surrender to Kira After Death of Twelve FBI Agents." "World Crime Significantly Decreases After FBI Massacre." "Kira Gives First Real Warning to World Police." Light smiled, making sure Jessie couldn't see. Kira was becoming more powerful by the minute. But Light still needed to find the second Kira who was responsible for the deaths of those agents. A search like that could take ages, though, especially in a small town like this.

After visiting the Underground to get his Note back, and getting an absent pass from the office, Light went about his normal routine. In English class, the bell was about to ring when Mikayla came sauntering through the door. Immediately, Light patted down his head fur and smelled his breath. Smelled like Jessie's scrambled eggs, but other than that, it was passable.

Mikayla sat down next to Light, her fluffy red tail brushing past his thin ropey one and his heart fluttered. "Hey, Light. How are you feeling? I heard about what happened at the library."

"Yeah, I'm fine. My aunts were being overprotective."

"Aww. That's sweet of them."

Light tried not to react when he saw her eyes. Instead of their usual lustful green, they were a bright red, almost to match her fur. He must have accidentally made some sort of move because Mikayla blushed and lowered her eyes. "Yeah, I know. My contact lenses have been getting the same reaction all day. Sorry if they scare you."

"Not at all." Light did his best to slow his heartbeat. That certainly was not what he was expecting to see. But who cared if her eyes changed? The rest of her was still beautiful, right down to her personality.

While Mr. Borris started class for the day, going on about the culture project, Light saw Ryuk from the corner of his eye and he was sitting on the teacher's desk. Snickering. Light raised an eyebrow at him.What could possibly be so funny right now?

Ryuk caught his stare and laughed outright. It was getting on Light's nerves. He wanted to ask what the hell was so funny when the Shinigami spoke anyway.

"Those aren't contact lenses, those are Shinigami Eyes."