Charming Criminal | Light Yagami ✓

Charming Criminal [16]

"It's a message from Kira."

Light spluttered, looking at you with incredulity. "What?!"

"Not to me directly," you hurriedly corrected, flashing him the news app you were on. "To the news. Kira sent a message to the news."

Ryuk made a strangled noise that sounded half-way between a laugh and a cry as Light demanded he saw the phone.

"Okay, calm down," you said, passing it over to him.

He studied the screen with dilating pupils. "This is live right now! Do you have a television?"

"Uh, yeah, it's downstairs in the-"

"Come on," he urged, already half-way across the room. You jogged after him, confused by his sudden frenzy.

"Just so you know, I don't think you're Kira," you muttered, mostly to (convince) yourself, as the two of you crashed into the living room. You quickly switched on the TV and flicked it over to the news channel.

"I would like to emphasise once again that these tapes are not being broadcast as a coax or for purposes of sensationalism," the Sakura TV news presenter was saying, his voice oddly calm. "Four days ago, an envelope containing four videotapes arrived at this station. It was, without a shadow of a doubt, sent by Kira. The first tape announced the time and date of death for Seiichi and Seyi Machiba, who were arrested the other day. Exactly as predicted, these two men died yesterday of heart attacks..."

The voice became a static murmur in your ear as you glanced over at Light, who was equally as riveted by the news. Something in your chest twigged as you saw the worry lines on his face. There was no way this boy could be a killer. Maybe he did have his secrets, his strange moments, but it was impossible to call him a murderer. He was much too human to drive a knife into someone, to take away their life. That whole thing about killing you was a joke.

You didn't know why Ryuga suspected Light of being Kira, but you didn't trust him, not for a second.

You trusted Light. A little less than yesterday, perhaps, but you still trusted him.

He was not Kira. Of that, you were (mostly) certain.

The TV screen changed and it became white, so sudden and bright you had to look away for the first few seconds. Then something else appeared; in the middle of the screen was slightly fuzzy letting that read KIRA. A robotic voice started speaking. "I am Kira. In order for me to prove this. please switch channels to Taiyo TV. The news anchor will die of a heart attack in precisely two minutes..." You watched with a growing sense of dread as the balding man sat between two guests gave a sudden lurch, his hands clawing at his chest as chaos erupted around him.

It was happening again. It was just like what happened to that man who'd been following you, his eyes rolling back, his tongue sticking out like a bloated frog...

"Mr. Hibima has consistently referred to Kira as 'evil'. This is his punishment," the voice asserted, and you saw Light go rigid.

"That bastard," he muttered darkly under his breath.

You shook your head, as if trying to shake away that grotesque image. "Kira's supposed to be killing criminals, bad guys, not news anchors. What's going on? I thought..." You trailed off, tensing a fist. Maybe you'd gotten Kira wrong from the start. You'd thought he was righteous, that he wanted to create a world of justice.

But this was wrong. This was evil.

"I hate evil and love justice," the voice continued, and you scoffed.