To see the shinigami in the flesh, rather than simply through a monitor, was like the difference between watching a storm on television and actually being caught in one in real life. The sound of thunder playing over a speaker was nothing in comparison to the shock of a thunderclap directly over one's head. Cold washed over Jubilee like a wave and terror gripped her heart like a vice as she gave a little shriek.

L turned to look at her with big gray eyes. "Miss Amachi?"

"It's there," she whispered, eyes wide and full of fear, but unable to look away from the scene. "It got out of the car."

"Ryuzaki?" Mogi's voice crackled from the headset again.

L faced front again to stare at what was unfolding, but said nothing for a moment.

Light spoke up for him. "Mogi," he said into his mic. "I want you to put a headset on Higuchi, as planned."

"Roger that."

Mogi stepped forward and placed a microphoned headset over Higuchi's ears. With that, L seemed to come back to life and he leaned forward.

"Higuchi," he began without any preamble. "How are you able to kill people?" There was a short pause. "Tell me!" he demanded, voice broaching no protest. Jubilee saw dark colors spike aggressively around his frame.

Before them, Higuchi's shoulders sagged in defeat but he hesitated in answering.

L reached over to grab a thermos and began pouring himself a cup of coffee. "If you're not going to talk," he said slowly, with deceptive casualness, "I will have to use whatever means necessary to get it out of you."

Beside Jubilee, Watari was reloading his rifle.

Higuchi clenched his jaw, then lowered his head. "The notebook," he said at last, his voice drifting as easily into Jubilee's mind as everyone else's had.

"...Notebook?" repeated L.

Jubilee stiffened. Notebook. The ghost of an image flitted through her brain. A black notebook. A name. A demon.

"You probably won't believe me—but I've got a special notebook. If I write someone's name in it while thinking of that person's face...that person dies."

A moment of silence followed this absurd claim. Then, "Mr. Yagami—" L began slowly.

"Yes." The former Chief had already retrieved a bag out of the passenger seat of Higuchi's car and was fishing a dark-covered book out of it. "I found it, here in his bag." He riffled through its pages. "There are a lot of names written in it, but there doesn't seem to be anything else unusual about—" At that moment, he glanced up, gave a sudden yelp, and dropped the book to the ground. His body followed shortly after as he fell down on his rump in a state of shock and horror.

"What is it, Mr. Yagami?" asked L, leaning forward.

Jubilee stared at the direction Soichiro was staring in. It was where the demon stood. Was it possible that he now could see...?

"It's—" Soichiro's voice was tight with panic. "It's...a monster!"

Jubilee sucked in a breath. "He sees it," she said, stunned.

"Please calm down," L was saying, at the same time that Mogi ran over to the fallen man. "Chief, hang in there," Mogi said, kneeling down and putting a hand on Soichiro's shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Mogi." Soichiro pointed a shaking finger at the being that only he and Jubilee could see. "Can't you see that...that thing over there?"

"Chief, I think you must be getting tired," said Mogi, picking up the notebook from the ground before he turned to look at where Soichiro pointed. "Aghh!" he let out a yell, falling to the ground beside Soichiro and cowering with undisguised terror.

"Mogi," said Light, alarmed. "What's wrong?"

Mogi didn't respond, only made shallow, gasping breaths.

"That thing..." whispered Soichiro. His voice held a mixture of fear and awe. "It seems...that only people who have touched the notebook can—can see this...this monster."

Oh, only those people? said Hellenos sardonically from beside Jubilee's shoulder, making her jump nearly a foot in the air. She had forgotten that he was there. In fact, she could hardly believe that she could still hear him, given the situation.

"Please bring the notebook over to the helicopter," ordered L.

"O-okay," said Mogi shakily, as he slowly pulled himself to his feet, his eyes never once leaving the demon, who simply stood there and stared down at the humans on the ground with an empty, unreadable expression.

As Mogi neared the helicopter with the black notebook, Jubilee felt a foreboding feeling begin to build somewhere in the pit of her stomach.

"Wait a second—" she began, just as Mogi reached them and L grasped the notebook between his thumbs and forefingers. She stopped, too late, holding her breath as she watched. No noticeable change seemed to come over L at first. He simply observed the thin book with both caution and curiosity. Then, slowly, he turned to look out the front of the helicopter again.

Something rose up and over the detective, dimming the lights around him and making his usual haze shrink back slightly. Something almost orange-ish and reddish, like a flame, but with no life or fire in it. It was fear.

"It really is...a shinigami," he said slowly. Then, even more softly, "They really do exist."

There was a deafening silence in Jubilee's mind for a few seconds. It was the sound of a man's shock that is so large and so profound, that it drowns out any and every other thought. In those few seconds it occurred to her that, much as L had placed considerable stock in everything she had said before, it wasn't until this very moment—when he could see cold, hard evidence with his own eyes—that he was willing to believe her one hundred percent.

And then, all of a sudden, the silence in her mind was replaced by a roar of mental sound. A loud click, as hundreds of puzzle pieces fell into place in the man's mind, preceded a surge of sudden, swift thoughts.

Light Yagami...this is how Kira killed...Notebook...second Kira...exchange notes...

Jubilee felt her head begin to pound again as she struggled not to drown under the overwhelming weight of L's rapid mental calculations. Somewhere in the background, Light was saying something, but she couldn't make it out as she leaned forward and gripped her head in her hands.

A sudden, final conclusion pierced clearly through her consciousness from L's mind: Two books. There are two notebooks! And then, This isn't over yet.

With that, the intensity in Jubilee's own mind began to lift, and she slowly raised her head. That was when she noticed Light.

He had grabbed the notebook out of L's hands and was now gripping it tightly, his features frozen in an expression of perpetual shock. Again there was a deafening, impenetrable silence, this time from Light instead of L, as if someone had hit the pause button in his brain. But now Jubilee felt something else. Something like the ground shaking, except no one else could feel it. Something like a volcano about to erupt.

Without knowing what she was doing, only thinking that something bad she didn't understand was about to happen to her friend, she reached a hand towards him. "Light—" she began worriedly.

And then something happened.

Out of nowhere, a major shock wave hit her in the spirit and sent her careening as the energy of a million thoughts and memories, a whole other life, suddenly came screaming into existence all at once. Jubilee tumbled from her seat and to her knees, grabbing her head. Dozens of different voices flooded her mind.

A shinigami?!

Write the name in the notebook.

I am L.

...Show each other our notebooks in Aoyama—

This world is rotten—

I am L.

When you die, I'll be the one writing your name in my Death Note.

I am justice!

I am L.

I am L.

I am L.

The weight of it all crashed down on her like a roaring avalanche and she felt like screaming. Distantly she was aware that someone was screaming—it was Light. But the sound was faint in comparison to the flood of sights, sounds, and sensations that were bombarding her already overwhelmed mind. Misa in a dress and sunglasses...a black notebook in the grass...hundreds of students in an assembly...a pale, black-haired man crouched in a chair...a purple-haired demon...red apples...

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She gasped as hundreds of memories that weren't her own suddenly intersected with one that was. A dark-winged demon with spiky black hair, following Light around. Talking to him. Eating red apples...

And standing at the scene of her death, with an open notebook and a look of utter hate.

Fear clamped down on her like a locked jaw. Memories of the black void from which she had escaped long ago—which she had almost forgotten about and had locked away somewhere deep, hoping never to remember again—broke loose like flood waters from a dam, drowning out all her senses. It was like she was dying all over again, as vividly and clearly as the day of the accident. She was flailing in a sea of darkness that threatened to swallow her whole...and there was no escape.

Dad! she screamed in her mind. Help me...oh God, she sobbed, Save me...

No one can save you, whispered a voice, and it was a voice she had never heard before and yet she knew well; it was both her voice and the devil's voice all wrapped up in one, in a mixture of fear and lies that all looked and sounded too real to be untrue. No one can save any of you...

Dimly she was aware of someone shaking her, calling her name. But no, that couldn't be, because there was no one, no one who could help her, no one who could save her from herself or her fears...

"Miss Amachi..."

L's voice cut through the shrouded dimness that was suffocating her and, ever so slowly, drew her out of it, like a strong arm pulling a drowning man out from beneath the waves. Gradually she became aware of the world around her once more. She felt L crouched beside her on the floor in the rear of the helicopter, his hand on her shoulder.

"Breathe, Miss Amachi," he said quietly into her ear. Then, over his shoulder, "And you, Light...are you alright?" The other man didn't respond and L continued, warily, "I suppose that anyone would be surprised to see a shinigami all of a sudden."

There was still no response, only labored breathing from both Light and Jubilee as they continued to recover. Taking a deep breath Jubilee opened her eyes, which had been squeezed shut. Wincing in discomfort, she slowly raised her head to look at Light again.

What she saw nearly made her fall over once more. L caught her by the shoulder and put his other hand to her back for support, glancing down at her but saying nothing. She was too transfixed by horror to pay any attention to the physical contact between them, and only stared at Light.

Gone was the yellow hue she had grown so accustomed to and fond of over the past half year. In its place was a dark haze, its shade as black as the void from her memories. It was the shadow she had seen over him when she first laid eyes on him in the streets of Tokyo, long ago. As she watched, the shadow shifted and slithered, forming into hundreds of knives, then settling back into an indiscernible haze again.

Fear hit Jubilee as she remembered what had accompanied that haze when she first saw it. She looked wildly around the helicopter. The demon that had followed Light from before was nowhere to be seen.

L took in the panicked movements of her eyes with a steady, observant gaze.

"Ryuzaki," said Light all of a sudden. His voice was perfectly calm, as though nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.

"...Yes?" replied L, eyes lingering on Jubilee for a moment before he tore his gaze away to look at Light.

Light was flipping open the black notebook with one hand and pulling out his laptop with the other. "I'm going to try and match the names written in here with the names of the victims."

L's eyebrows shot up, but his voice remained level. "Of course. Good thinking. I will tend to Miss Amachi in the meanwhile. She still seems to be recovering from the shock of this...turn of events." He turned back to Jubilee and said, more quietly, "Some fresh air?"

"Yes," gasped Jubilee. She let him help her up, then stumbled out of the helicopter and onto the ground. Taking a few steps forward, she saw the purple-haired demon ahead, blanched and turned back—only to see Light through the helicopter window, the black haze engulfing him even as the faint light from his laptop lit up his eyes while he worked. The haze over him was too dark for her to make out any other colors or hints of thoughts from him, and the sight of it made her heart feel sick with grief and dread. She leaned over and put her hands on her knees, gulping down air.

L had followed her as far as the handcuffs would allow him to, and now stood before her while still keeping both Light and the shinigami in his peripheral vision.

"Well," he said quietly. He left it at that for the moment. There were times when words simply did not do a situation justice.

"Two," rasped Jubilee under her breath, keeping her voice low.

"Pardon?"

"I heard you," she clarified in a whisper. "What you thought...that there are two."

L didn't say anything for a long moment. Then he asked, quietly, "And did you hear...what anyone else thought?"

Jubilee winced at the memory of sounds from Light's mind that she had nearly succumbed to. "Yes, but...but it didn't make sense." She gave a meaningful glance at Light. It was unlikely that he could hear her over all the hubbub, even at this short of a distance. Still, it was wise to take precautions and avoid speaking about him directly. Both her and L would know who and what she was talking about. "It was like...like dozens of different voices...hundreds of different thoughts, from different—from different times, or places, or...or a different lifetime, I don't know—"

L's eyes had narrowed. "What do you mean, a different lifetime?"

"It was like—like—" There was only one event Jubilee had ever experienced that was remotely comparable to this one. "Like a dead person coming back to life."

L said nothing for a long moment. Slowly, he shifted to glance towards Light. The other man's back was still to them, typing away at his computer, the air around him shrouded in blackness.

"What you first saw, from before..." L began. The image of what he was thinking about floated into Jubilee's mind, but she didn't need to see it to know what he meant. The haze. "Is it...?" he continued, before trailing off.

"Yes," she answered lowly. "It's back." She cast a wary glance around them. "But that's the only thing that's back, for now."

Before them, Soichiro and Mogi were getting to their feet, and officers on either side of Higuchi raised him up from the ground. The purple-haired demon still stood where she was, watching all of them in eerie silence.

L turned towards the others. "Mr. Yagami, please take Higuchi to the car now," he ordered.

"Right. Of course," affirmed Soichiro, still sounding shaky. Squaring his shoulders, he grabbed Higuchi by the arm and started to lead him back to Mogi's car.

"You know, about this notebook," called Light from the front of the helicopter, making Jubilee flinch. She and L both turned to him. Light tapped at the black notebook, while still scrolling through names on his computer. "I wonder what we would find if we put it through forensic analysis."

L narrowed his eyes again, though Light couldn't see. "That doesn't sound like you, Light. We both know that this thing is beyond science."

Light gave a little laugh. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Jubilee stared. Why was he acting so casual? She tried to look for the line over his head, but the dark haze veiled it from her sight. At the same time her vision began to lose its clarity and blur in and out. Frustrated, she turned back to look at Higuchi and the others while she thought.

She had to pull herself together and utilize her vision as much as possible. L had been right, this moment was critical. And she had to take note of everything that was happening which only she could see. But with her churning emotions and the sensory overload she was experiencing, how was she to focus during this pivotal yet tumultuous moment?

She glanced around herself again. As expected, Hellenos was nowhere to be seen, his presence forgotten at some point between when she had felt L's fear and then fallen, both literally and figuratively, into the sea of her own fear. It only made sense that her emotions would drown out her perception of the angel, but even so, she wondered why he hadn't shown up just now when she had needed him most. There had been exceptions before, so why not this time? In the past three years since coming back to life, never had she experienced anything as overwhelming, crushing and suffocating to her spirit as this had been. She might not have been able to pull herself out of it if L hadn't been there.

A memory suddenly came to her—herself wobbling off balance, and L straightening her with a hand. Hellenos had been there, and she, embarrassed, had reprimanded him for not catching her instead. What was it he had said in response? But why, when there's another capable human to do it?

Revelation flooded her then. Hellenos did sometimes appear to her when she was afraid or doubtful, yes...but during those times, she had been completely and utterly alone. She had had no one else—no one human, at least. But for the past three years, he—and, she realized, Dad—had been trying to remedy that. They had been leading her to people who could be there for her—who she could lean on when she needed to. All this time she had constantly thought that Dad and all his angels were being distant whenever she didn't have her act together...whenever she wasn't thinking or doing or saying the right things. But all along, He had been trying to show her that He was always there with her, even—or maybe especially—through other people. Other humans, who were like her. Who were like Him.

In the wake of sudden understanding, she was struck by an idea. "Give me your hand," she said to L, sticking out her own.

He gave her a look bordering between bewilderment and concern for her sanity. "What?"

"I think it helps me to see," she explained impatiently, suddenly unembarrassed about social decorum in the face of a situation that was much, much bigger than herself. "Give it to me," she repeated, unnecessarily, for she went ahead and grabbed his hand anyway before he could protest.

Once more her senses stabilized, like they had when L had put his hand over her head, and when he had helped her into the helicopter. She turned back to take in the scene once more, just as Higuchi unexpectedly lurched forward with a gasp.

"Higuchi," said Soichiro in alarm, grabbing the man by the arm and trying to pull him back to standing. "Ryuzaki," he called towards the helicopter. "Higuchi is...Hey!" The man had arched backwards, a gurgle escaping his throat.

"What the hell?" Light yelled from the front of the helicopter. "What's happening?"

Jubilee stood paralyzed, her mind unable to catch up to what she was seeing. The dark haze around Higuchi faded and started to lift as he lurched forward again, his breath rattling. Her fingers tightened around L's as she watched in helpless horror.

"Dad, what are you doing?" Light was shouting. "We can't lose him! If Higuchi dies on us now—"

"This is impossible!" cried Soichiro, catching the suddenly limp Higuchi and lowering him to the ground. Desperately he checked his vitals. "What...but..." The former chief sat back on his haunches. Jubilee felt shock and confusion emanate from him, though she couldn't see his face behind the tinted helmet. His next words were soft, only physically audible through the headsets, but Jubilee heard them clearly in her mind. "There's nothing I can do. He's already..." He trailed off.

Dead, thought Jubilee, a thought that was echoed by dozens of other minds all around her. She continued to stare at Higuchi's corpse, now with no haze or hint of any light or color hovering over it. Her mind still couldn't register what had just happened.

Beside her L was as still as a stone.

"I can't believe it," exclaimed Light. He sounded genuinely stunned, and repeated, dumbly, "I can't believe he's dead!"

Jubilee felt the detective's grip unconsciously tense around her hand at the sound of the other man's voice. With that, she regained her wits. She turned to look at Light, who was staring at Higuchi's dead body, looking angry and confused.

Except that he wasn't angry, or confused. Jubilee could tell, because she could clearly see a line over his head, now distinct and visible beyond the dark haze—and it was breaking in two. At the same time, a sharp, black dagger had formed in the air over him. With sudden, swift precision, it plunged itself into his body. He didn't even flinch.

Jubilee felt nauseous. He was the one who had killed Higuchi.

Even as she thought it, even as the weight of that terrible realization bore down on her, Jubilee tried to deny it. She tried to reason against it. This was Light. Sweet, innocent, and friendly Light. Her friend. Their friend. He would never hurt anyone. Seeing the earnest distress on his face, she could almost bring herself to believe it.

But then, dimly, a voice drifted into her head. The voice came from Light's own mind, and it didn't at all match the boy she thought she knew, or the look of distress that he currently wore. This voice held a tone of malevolent glee which she had never before perceived in him—but that was undeniably his voice. And it said only three words.

You're next, Ryuzaki.

Jubilee let go of L's fingers, leaned over, and let herself be sick.