Light’s POV:

Light watched pitifully as Keiko weaved her way through the crowd and disappeared. Despite the fact that she was now long gone, her words were still ringing through his head, “...Light Yagami…while I don’t know whether or not you’re actually Kira, there’s one thing I do know...I can’t accept cheating. If you were being honest with me, and what you said back there is true, then time will reveal that...but for now, I can’t be your girlfriend, it would hurt too much... therefore, as I said earlier, I’m breaking up with you, Light-kun.”

He had been standing there by the outside wall of the coffee shop, deep in thought, for quite a while. It bothered Light that he hadn’t managed to fully convince his girlfriend of his innocence, especially because in this instance, he was actually innocent. Light hadn’t wanted to cheat on Keiko, far from it. Instead he had been a victim of Misa’s recklessly impulsive actions. It technically wasn’t his fault.

However, there was nothing else that Light could have said or done in that moment that would have convinced Keiko of his innocence, and he knew that. He concluded that, for the time being, he had to just let her go. Even though he didn’t want to. Even though a part of him wanted nothing more than to make up with her somehow, and once again feel the warmth of her lips against his as her hands ran seductively through his hair. That small part of him would miss her, and he knew that the two of them would never quite go back to the way things were before Misa intervened.

Misa Amane.

Dammit, this is all her fault! She really is a liability! ...if it weren’t for Rem...she’d be gone.

She was responsible for this whole mess. It was entirely her fault that Keiko no longer had trust in Light, and thought it would be best if she just broke up with him instead of giving him a second chance. It was entirely her fault that his current ex-girlfriend had gotten hurt. Light could feel his blood boiling. He knew that Keiko breaking up with him would only make himself and Misa Amane more suspicious to L and the rest of the Task Force, and there was now nothing he could do about it.

At the time, Light had only excused Misa’s actions simply because he figured that no one else had been there to witness what had happened. He figured that it was just a bump of the road that could be forgotten about, that could be ignored and never brought up or spoken about again.

Now that he knew Keiko had seen everything, Light figured that it was only a matter of time until the Task Force also had some inkling of what was going on. After all, it would be rather hard to hide the fact that Keiko had broken up with him. Once the Task Force found out about their split, it would be a field day for L, as he would definitely start to suspect Misa of being the Second Kira.

Light growled, and started to walk towards the outskirts of the city. He knew exactly where he was headed and exactly who was to blame for what had happened. There was no way he was going to let Misa off lightly again. He wouldn’t make that same mistake twice and Light was determined to make it to her apartment first, before anyone else from the Task Force could investigate.

He was interrupted from his brisk pace when he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He fished it out, his eyes narrowing as he realized who was calling him.

Dammit! It’s L...that means he must have heard what happened by now...well, no matter what he says to me, I have to remember to try and stay calm. I can’t afford to act suspicious now. It could mean a death sentence for me.

“H-hello,” Light started as he flipped open his phone and brought it up to his ear, “what is it Ryuzaki-san?”

“Yes, hello Light-kun…I have some news about the investigation that I think will be of interest to you,” L replied. Light knew that whatever L was about to say next wasn’t exactly going to be good news.

“What is it?” Light questioned, trying to ensure that his voice sounded as level as possible. He didn’t want to give L any more reasons to suspect him.

“Well, honestly, I’m not exactly sure how you’ll take this...but there’s something regarding Misa Amane that you should know…I had some forensic analysts gather physical evidence from the envelopes that were sent from the Second Kira, and in particular, they recovered hairs and fibers from the masking tape used to conceal them. They then also investigated Misa Amane’s apartment just earlier today, and they found a match to their earlier evidence. That being said, we’ve taken Misa Amane into custody...she is under suspicion of being the Second Kira,” L responded, and Light could hear the slightly smug undertone in his voice. He was clearly gloating to Light about his victory.

Damn him!

Light’s grip on his phone tightened as L continued on, “there would be a public uproar if it got out that she’s been placed under suspicion, so just to be safe, her official charge is different. Her manager has been charged with drug possession and Misa Amane is a voluntary witness. I hope you understand that because of your relationship to her, I must now ask that you come to the Task Force headquarters immediately, Light-kun.”

Of course, he must want to get a confession out of me somehow...damn! I was way too careless! I went through all of that trouble just to ensure that Misa and I wouldn’t be suspicious to Keiko or the rest of the Task Force...I wasn’t at all focused on destroying all of the leftover evidence from the videos that Misa Amane sent! He now has me cornered...no! No Light Yagami, you cannot think like that! L knew that his best defense would be to stay close to me rather than continue to hide himself, so that’s what he did. He confronted things head on...I, too, must confront things head on for the time being!

“Of course, I understand, Ryuzaki-san,” Light replied, keeping his voice cool and composed. He would face L head on.

“Great,” L said before hanging up, “I’ll see you soon then.”

Light narrowed his eyes in thought as he started to walk towards the current location of the Task Force headquarters.

You might think that this is over, but really, the real battle is just about to begin, L! Just watch me, I’ll gain Keiko’s trust again and prove to you that Misa and I are innocent!

Keiko’s POV:

As soon as Keiko arrived at the cemetery, she ran straight towards the secluded back lot, where she knew her father was buried. Once she had made it to her father’s grave, she immediately collapsed into a sad puddle onto the grass.

“I’m so sorry, father…your daughter is such a fool,” Keiko announced after a moment of sitting there quietly. Her voice broke, and her head was bowed in front of her late father’s headstone. She could feel her eyes now brimming with fresh tears, even though she swore that she had already cried her eyes out on the bus ride on the way to the graveyard, “I must be such a disappointment to you.”

Keiko stayed like that for a while, sitting in front of her father’s tombstone and crying. In between her tears, she choked out the details of everything that had happened in her life ever since her last visit to her father. The whole year, almost a year and a half, that he had missed.

“So you see, I was going to bring my boyfriend with me to meet you, but now I don’t even have a boyfriend anymore,” Keiko sadly said to her father after she had finished her long and rather depressing story.

She glanced off into the distance, the sun was nearly starting to set, leaving the sky turning deep shades of pink and purple, “I was a fool for trusting both Daicho-kun and Light-kun. There’s no denying that...and now because Light and I investigate together with L and the rest of the Task Force, I’ll have to see him almost every day and be reminded of how much he hurt me...ugh...why doesn’t someone just stamp the words ‘naive idiot’ onto my forehead, so everyone else knows? After all, those words seem to describe me rather well.”

She sighed bitterly, wiping off a tear that was rolling down her cheek.

Keiko was glad that there was no one else was around visiting their relatives, as she was vaguely aware of how much of a mess she looked. The grass had stained the knees of her pants green, and she was certain that her hair had become a rat’s nest throughout the course of the day, especially with all of that running she had done. To top that all off, she knew that her face was a puffy, red mess.

Keiko didn’t want to leave the cemetery looking so pathetic, so got out her small container of kleenex and attempted to fix herself up as best she could. She was so absorbed with trying to make herself appear more normal and less like a crazy person that she didn’t even hear the footsteps signaling that someone was approaching her.

“Uh, K-Keiko-chan?” a quiet, uncertain voice from behind her spoke up, “I’m, um, I’m really sorry to bother you like this…”

Keiko’s ears immediately perked up at the sound. She knew, without a doubt, who that voice belonged to.

It’s Matsuda…what’s he doing here? Did L tell him to stalk me again?

Seeing that she had already used up all of her kleenex, Keiko resorted to quickly wiping her face once more using the sleeve of the sweater she was wearing. Feeling as though she was as ready to face him as she would ever be at the moment, she turned around and gave a wobbly attempt at standing up.

Oh no! I’ve been sitting down for too long...I don’t have enough balance, I’m about to topple over!

Keiko closed her eyes, bracing herself for the impact of falling onto the cold, hard ground below her.

But it never came.

Instead, she soon found herself stumbling towards Matsuda, who had grabbed her hand in an effort to help stabilize her. However, his plan had backfired, and the two of them then almost toppled over together. At the very last moment, Matsuda let go of her hand and instead opted to wrap his arms around her back in a last ditch attempt to stabilize the both of them.

After a moment, Keiko realized that the two of them hadn’t landed on the ground. The two of them were still both standing upright but she was now face to face with Matsuda’s chest. Even though he was entirely covered, wearing a finely tailored police suit, she could feel her face flaming.

Matsuda, you idiot, she thought, you probably should have just let me fall. That would have been much less awkward than our current situation.

Keiko awkwardly gave a cough and gently pushed on Matsuda’s chest so that he would know to let go of her.

“I-I’m okay now, really,” she stuttered out, “you can let go, I’m no longer in any danger of falling down...”

“O-oh, okay,” she heard Matsuda reply, and she felt his arms suddenly drop to his sides. She took a couple steps backward and properly faced him, her face still slightly tinged pink. Matsuda seemed to feel just as awkward as she did, as his face was also a little flushed.

“W-what are you doing here anyway? I didn’t think anyone would have been able to find me,” Keiko quitely murmured.

Matsuda gave a soft sigh, and ran a hand through his hair. “Er, you see, Ryuzaki-san was the one who figured that you would be here...I got a call from Mogi-san earlier today telling me that Ryuzaki-san instructed him to have me come and pick you up from the cemetery. So Watari-san’s waiting with the car just outside of the entrance…” he gave her a sympathetic look, “I really am sorry...I didn’t mean to interrupt you, but Ryuzaki-san has some important news regarding the investigation. It’s...pretty urgent.”

Really? Ryuzaki couldn’t have waited a day or two? Why does it have to be now of all times?

“I see...did he tell you what it was?” Keiko questioned. When she glanced up at Matsuda, and saw his guilty face, she immediately knew the answer to her question, “w-what is it, Matsuda-san? Why does he want me to report to headquarters all of the sudden?”

He gave her a nervous look, his face turning white, “I-I wasn’t supposed to mention anything to you until we arrived at the hotel, just in case-”

“What is it, Matsuda-san?” Keiko repeated, her voice much more firm this time, “whatever it is, please, just spit it out already.”

“W-well...M-Misa Amane was arrested under suspicion of being the Second Kira,” Matsuda choked out, “I wasn’t supposed to mention anything right away so you wouldn’t be worrying the whole way there, seeing as she’s your friend, but…”

Keiko’s blood ran ice cold at Matsuda’s words, and she could feel her heart dropping into her stomach.

W-what? She’s been arrested because L thinks she could be the Second Kira…? That means...no...that can’t be! I have to get to headquarters right away! ...also wait second, Matsuda still thinks Misa and I are friends? That must mean that he has no idea what happened between Misa, Light and I...L must want me at headquarters so that everything can be explained all at once. That would make sense...

She grimly looked at Matsuda, mentally preparing herself for the mess that was about to unfold when they arrived at headquarters, “I-I understand...let’s go…”

/timeskip/

The three of them were the last to arrive at the Task Force headquarters. Everyone else was already there, sitting on the couches, waiting to begin the meeting. When Keiko saw Light sitting on the couch next to his father, her heart gave a little lurch that she fought hard to ignore. There was a spot available right next to him, as if Light had been saving her a seat, but she pointedly sat as far away from him as was possible. She could feel the questioning looks from the other members of the Task Force, but she said nothing. It wasn’t like she owed them an explanation anyway.

Instead, she focused her attention on L, who had been watching the little show from his chair in front of the t.v. monitors. When L noticed that he now had Keiko’s attention, his eyes met hers and he gave a slight smirk, almost as if he were mocking her. Keiko shifted a little, feeling rather uncomfortable under his watchful gaze.

“Ryuzaki-san,” Mr. Yagami started, interrupting the silence in the room, “now that we’re all here...we should begin, shouldn’t we?”

L glanced around the room, meeting everyone’s gazes before opening his mouth to speak.

“Of course...by now I assume you’ve all heard the news; I’ve had a girl named Misa Amane arrested under suspicion that she’s the Second Kira. Some of you are probably clueless, wondering why...well,” Keiko watched as L’s eyes locked onto her ex-boyfriend’s, “I’m sure Light-kun would be more than happy to shed some light on the subject, seeing as the two of them were quite personally involved with each other.”

“Ryuzaki-san, what is that supposed to mean?!” Chief Yagami demanded, his dark eyebrows furrowing together.

Keiko took a deep breath and interrupted the conversation before anyone else had the chance to comment.

“That means, Yagami-san...that your son and Misa Amane were romantically involved with each other behind my back…that I was cheated on by Light-kun,” she said bitterly.

She could hear the collective gasps of everyone else on the Task Force, Mogi aside.

Both Ide and Aizawa gave a disappointed look in Light’s direction, and Matsuda soon followed suit.

“Light-kun…” the dark haired man mumbled, “please tell me that she’s only joking around…”

“WHAT?!” Mr. Yagami bellowed out, he looked rather aghast at Keiko’s accusation. The chief then turned over to his son, “Light...please, tell me this isn’t true. Tell me that I raised you right, that you would never do something like this…”

Light sighed, “look, dad. I didn’t do anything wrong...it honestly wasn’t what it looked like-”

“Bullshit!” Keiko snapped, her hands were balled into fists at her sides. She had cried out most of her sadness earlier, and at the moment all she felt was anger, “I saw you two the other day! Your lips were practically glued together!”

“I tried to tell you earlier, Keiko-chan! She’s the one who kissed me! Whether you believe me or not, I swear that’s the truth! I would never intentionally hurt you like that. Please!” Light insisted, staring at Keiko intently. Even though he seemed genuine, Keiko couldn’t allow herself to give in.

Instead, Keiko’s eyes glazed over, “as much as I want to believe that, Light-kun, I just can’t...I can’t allow myself to get hurt again...”

“At this point, the truth doesn’t quite matter. No matter what had happened, the result would have been the same,” L said, casting a look in Light’s direction, “you see, Light-kun, I suspected from the very beginning that you were only dating Kagami-san in order to make yourself look like a normal teenager to me, to hide the fact that you’re Kira...and when Misa, the Second Kira, first came into the picture, she had to have made things rather...messy for you…”

“Ryuzaki-san,” Light interrupted, “you do realize that I first met Amane-san on accident, right? You can’t draw any conclusions from that alone-”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Light-kun,” L responded before Light could finish up his sentence, “if you are in fact Kira, then you had to have met up with Misa Amane before the two of you ran into each other on the street...meaning that the two of you probably planned that out beforehand. After all, who could suspect that Misa Amane could be the Second Kira if the two of you just happened to meet by chance?”

The wheels in Keiko’s head were turning, and she cast a glance in Light’s direction, but his expression remained unreadable.

“Now, while it’s obviously just speculation that the two of you planned things out like that, what isn’t speculation is the fact that the two of you kissed...soon after we received videos from the Second Kira, I secretly instructed Mogi-san to start tailing you...while you might have suspected that someone was following you, there was no proof, seeing as Mogi-san didn’t leave a single trace. Mogi-san informed me that Misa Amane had been spending a lot of time with both you and Kagami-san...now if you were Kira, it would only make sense that you would want Misa-chan and Keiko-chan to become friends with each other, that way Keiko wouldn't be suspicious with a new girl suddenly hanging around you…”

Great, what L’s saying actually makes sense...but it sounds like there’s no actual way to prove that Misa Amane is the Second Kira at this point...it’s all just wild speculation...and honestly, I want it to stay that way. After all, it does sound pretty far fetched...and I don’t want Light Yagami to be Kira, and Misa Amane to be the Second Kira..that would mean I had been fooled by the both of them...

“I’m not finished,” L’s voice interrupted Keiko’s thoughts. “I haven’t even gotten to the good part yet…”

Damn! It’s like he can read my mind, Keiko thought, shifting her attention back to the detective.

“While I cannot be sure whether you meant what you said earlier, about Misa-chan kissing you without your consent, one thing I can be sure of, whether you wanted the kiss or not, is that the kiss sealed your fate. I, of course, knew that Misa Amane held strong feelings for you, and because of her feelings for you, you could probably easily control her actions as the Second Kira. So the moment that she kissed you, or you kissed her, I knew that I could no longer ignore my suspicions about the two of you…”

“If that’s true…” Light started, “why did you wait until today to place Misa Amane under suspicion? If you really had Mogi-san tailing me, then why didn’t you give orders to arrest her then and there, after it happened?”

L shifted in his chair, “hmm...do you really want to know?”

“Yes,” Light replied, “after all, it seems that you had every reason to suspect Misa Amane.”

“Well, the truth is…” L glanced over in Keiko’s direction, “...I only waited to act simply because I was curious to see how Kagami-san would react to the situation, after all, she was another witness to what happened…”

Once again, Keiko’s fists balled up at her side. Her blood was now boiling as her eyes narrowed at the detective. Her nostrils flared, she was beyond upset.

“Oh wonderful!” Keiko spit out, “so you mean to tell me that I had an audience to all of my pain?! Well, in that case, Ryuzaki-san, I hope my suffering was sufficiently entertaining for you! After all...I wouldn’t want you to become bored with my performance!”

“Kagami-san, please calm down…trust me, I wanted to tell you as soon as I saw what was going on. In fact I told L that we should act right away, he just didn’t listen to me...” Mogi softly spoke in an effort to ease some of her anger, but she wasn’t having it.

“Whatever,” Keiko huffed, shaking her head in Mogi’s direction.

She stood up, and was about to leave the hotel room when she heard the detective suddenly speak, “...I understand that you must be feeling rather angry right now, Kagami-san, but please, at least wait to hear the rest of what I have to say before leaving…I think it’ll be worth your while...”

It would be easier to just give up and leave right now...however, a part of me is really curious to hear what else he has to say...do I really want to leave now and let everything that I’ve done so far, everything I’ve investigated to go to waste?

She gave another huff, but sat back down on the couch once more, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Her pride had lost the battle. The investigation would have to come first.

When L saw that she had settled in once more, he continued on, “now...it’s actually a good thing that I waited for Kagami-san to act before giving the order to apprehend Misa Amane...because instead of arresting her in front of Light’s house, she was arrested inside of her apartment. A few days ago, after the final video was sent to us from the Second Kira, I had forensic analysts look over the the evidence left, and they managed to recover hairs and fibers from the masking tape used to conceal the envelope...I had the same analysts investigate Misa Amane’s apartment earlier today when she was arrested, and...they found a match to the earlier evidence they found. That means it’s pretty much a guarantee that Misa Amane is the Second Kira, now all we need is a confession from her.”

Keiko’s eyes widened, and for the second time that day, her blood ran ice cold. She couldn’t believe her ears. When Keiko first heard that Misa had been apprehended, she knew that L must have had good reason to suspect her of being the Second Kira, but it had just been wild speculation...up until now.

L chuckled a little, looking smug. He knew that he had captured her attention once more, “now...this also means that Light Yagami has become the prime Kira suspect.”

“Ryuzaki-san…” Mr. Yagami cast a tired glance over at the detective.

“Dad, it’s alright. I understand where he’s coming,” Light calmly interjected. Keiko watched as he looked over at L, “does that mean you want to arrest me now as well?”

L looked Light over, “at the moment, I don’t think that’s necessary. After all, if you two are guilty, it shouldn’t take too long to get a confession out of Amane-san…”

Keiko watched as Light sighed, “I know the evidence is stacked against me right now, but I swear, I’m not Kira…and that I didn’t cheat on Kagami-san.”

“If you’re innocent,” L started, “then that will become clear as time goes on…”

Keiko brushed a stray strand of hair away from her face. She knew that L was right, if Light was innocent, then he would eventually be cleared of suspicion.

But if he’s guilty, then I can’t allow myself to fooled once more…

She sighed. Her heart was hurting, for more than one reason. It seemed that life never gave her a break.

Keiko had no choice but to keep on moving forward.