Light yawned, allowing her head to hit her hand for the first time in hours.

She'd been studying non-stop for a few hours now, and having almost altogether stopped studying for a few weeks now, she was quite unused to it.

I almost forgot how boring this work is.

Deciding to head downstairs to start preparing some dinner in case her family came home late, Light stood up and pushed in her chair.

Just as she left her room, the doorbell rang from downstairs. She sighed, at least there was no need to make dinner, though it was annoying to have her family at home watching her every move.

Realizing her thought chain, Light scoffed. She thought having her family watch her every move was annoying? What about the cameras? Those were way worse.

Either way. Her family was home, and she was being watched on both fronts. It was time to put her acting skills to use. She had to make sure to seem completely normal, while at the same time keep her family from suspecting anything because they knew her well.

"Welcome home!" she called loudly, running down the stairs to go greet her family.

"Hey Light!" her sister, Sayu, said.

"Hey Sayu! Hey Mom!" Light replied, putting a cheerful edge in her voice.

"Light! Dad's gonna be home for dinner tonight!" Sayu yelled, up to where Light was still standing on the landing between the first and second floor, her face shadowed.

Damn it! And specifically on this day too! This is going to make it hard if he starts talking about the Kira case. It can't be a coincidence. Did L put cameras in our house, and then ask my father to come home so that he can watch my reactions? No. My father would never agree to put cameras in my room, which, even though Ryuk hasn't reported to me yet, I'm sure are there.

I must assume that this is unrelated for now, and that my father simply took a well needed break from work to spend some time with his family.

"That's great," she responded enthusiastically to Sayu. Turning her attention to her mother, Light asked if she needed any help with dinner.

"I'll be fine dear. You just go to your room and study for now, I know your entrance exams are coming up and I don't want you to get anything less than first place as usual" her mother said.

Light smirked, unseen by her mother and sister. That was the exact reply she had expected, and now she would have some time to get Ryuk to explain the situation to her, and hopefully -no, not hopefully, of course she would- come up with a plan.

"Light-o! You were right! There are cameras and bugs all over the room! I think I've found all of them though, so you'll find a way for me to eat apples?"

No Ryuk, your apples are the least of my worries.

Pretending to ignore the shinigami, Light walked right through him and sat down at her desk again, already picking up a ballpoint pen and a piece of paper.

"Oh right! You can't help me with the apple problem right now because someone's watching you! Oh well, it's okay I guess. You probably feel bad, but I forgive you for now. You can help me when we go outside!"

Opening a textbook and starting to copy down the questions, Light internally rolled her eyes.

Just get to it, Ryuk.

Thankfully, the Death God seemed to hear her silent plea, and switched the topic.

"Okay! So after I stuck my head through the ceiling a bunch of times, and even looked in a bunch of really dusty corners -man, my allergies started acting up- I found all of the cameras and which way they're pointing. Now, I know my memory is probably far better than that of a puny human, but I'm only going to say this once, so listen closely!"

Ryuk, why do you believe yourself so superior to us "puny humans".

No. What am I thinking? Am I really starting to crack? I'm not a "puny" mortal. I'm a god.

I need to watch myself more. I've been starting to slip up.

7 cameras on my desk.

5 next to my bed.

10 covering the ceiling.

The rest located in odd spaces around the room.

They really spared no expense.

If I wasn't sure before, I am now. This must have been L or Near.

But how to go about it? I need to still kill criminals while not acting suspicious.

The one major advantage I have over them is that they don't know how I kill.

But I can't just use the notebook in plain sight, they're not idiots either.

How am I going to do this?

"Light! Dinner's ready!"

Light stood up and pushed her chair before she walked out of her room and down the stairs, all the way, lightly biting her bottom lip, deep in thought. It was an annoying habit that she'd picked up a few weeks ago -biting her lip when she was nervous- but it had stuck, and it really wasn't a big problem at the moment. She'd deal with it once she had time. After all, Gods were never nervous.

"So how did the mock exams go?" Her mother asked, as soon as the entire family had been seated around the dining table.

Does she even care about me beyond test scores?

"I got first, as usual" Light replied

Her mother beamed.

"I'm so proud of you, Light! You'll go on to do great things!"

I know that.

Her father nodded slightly, yawning as he did so. Seeing the opportunity to change the topic, Light faked a look of concern and scrunched up her eyebrows.

"Dad, you look really tired. Has everything been going alright at work?"

Soichiro Yagami bowed his head, blinking wearily.

"Actually… no. But there's something I haven't told you yet. And I think now is the time to do so."

"Told us what, Dad?"

That you're working on the Kira case? Well guess what? Surprise, surprise... I already knew!

"That I'm one of the investigators in the ongoing Kira case…"

"Wow that's great Dad!"

"...And that the reason I'm so tired is that almost everyone has left the task force, they're scared that Kira will kill them for standing against him"

Him.

Internally, Light's eyes gained a crazed gleam and her pupils shrank.

L will never catch me. I'm going to kill him! I'll write his name in my Death Note, and watch as he collapses onto the ground, writhing in agony and screaming for forgiveness.

"That's too dangerous, dear. You have to quit the task force."

Her mother was fussing over Soichiro.

No. Not "Soichiro". What's happening to me? He's my father, not a stranger. And in a twisted way, L and I are friends. Since when have I started wanting to torture him? Wanting to watch L die pathetically as he begs for my forgiveness.

I was right. I'm starting to lose my mind. Maybe I need something that will give me a sense of normalcy.

By now, her sister was also near tears, begging their father to quit the task force. Standing up with her empty plate in hand, Light looked straight at her father, no fakeness in her eyes.

"I'm proud of you Dad. To keep fighting for justice, even when your life is on the line, I want to be like that someday."

Her mother sighed, stopping her fussing over the police chief to mumble to herself for a moment. Quiet, but not quiet enough that Light couldn't hear it.

"You still want to be a detective, Light? When will you give that dream up and just move on. You have a bright future ahead of you, but becoming a detective, I'm sorry but I can't support you in that."

Light turned around so that none of them could see her face. Those three sentences had made her almost completely lose her iron control over herself. Even after all these years, it still hurt every time her family made a reference to her childhood dream.

If I was a boy, you'd support me, wouldn't you... Mother?"

She placed her dishes in the sink, and quickly left the dining room, climbing up the stairs back to her own room. She'd planned to talk longer, but her mother had brought up one of the only things that still truly affected her.

It's fine. I'll just take this time to work around the cameras in my room.

What do I have? What do I need?

Let's see…

Duct Tape. Bubble gum. Sunglasses. A lab coat. Headphones. Wires. A broken radio antenna. An amplifier. A converter. A bunch of stickers. The Death Note.

Perfect!

Getting right to work, the brown haired girl quickly wrapped a few wires around her computer. Then, setting it up so that L and Near would hopefully be able to see some parts of what she was doing but not all, she quickly stuck the broken radio antenna, the amplifier, and the converter to the wires using the bubble gum and covered everything in the duct tape followed by a bunch of stickers.

Grinning to herself, Light donned the sunglasses and lab coat. She probably look like a completely crazy high school student now, and that was exactly what she was going for. Taking out her Death Note- which she had already covered with a normal journal cover, she quickly plugged in her headphones to the modified converter.

And now, to start off my "experiment"

Opening her notebook with a flourish and connecting the last few wires, Light put on the headphones and started listening, writing in the notebook as she did.

In her first angle, she made sure that the cameras could pick up on her notebook, scribbling a few random notes in there as she went.

"7:57 PM, Static noises STOP No sign of other life forms STOP Perhaps Bob the Alien is staying hidden? STOP

8:02 PM, Different static noises STOP Bob the Alien's brother has likely joined him in singing the national anthem"

Now Light turned around, keeping the cameras behind her as she wrote down what she was actually hearing through her headphones; the news.

"A criminal named Podo Masami was recently captured while attempting to murder a family of four. The court will hold his trial next Wednesday, although he is expected to get out of the case with no severe punishments given that he did not succeed in murdering the family. His Lawyer has confirmed with us that due to some connections, Masami will likely be judged innocent"

Light scowled darkly.

I hate when criminals get off scot-free, just because of "connections" or "bribery"

She scribbled down "Podo Masami" in her Death Note.