Death Note allowed the user to specify a cause of death within forty seconds of writing a name. Light Yagami exploited this rule to have one criminal die of a heart attack every hour on the hour.
The clue the police had just managed to grasp, that Kira was a student, suddenly became unreliable.
"What's the point of doing this?" the thin student asked, confused. "He can't just be messing with the police for fun, right?"
"Don't rush it." The stocky one made a shushing gesture. He was completely locked in, his brain running at full speed, desperate to see what came next.
Light Yagami's goal was absolutely not to toy with the police. It was to drive a wedge between L and the Japanese police force.
Just as the police had identified Kira's killing pattern, Kira suddenly changed the timing of the deaths. That proved Kira had access to their information. Which meant the Japanese police couldn't be trusted.
L would grow suspicious of the police and start investigating them internally. The police, in turn, would break with L over the distrust.
Indirectly helping Kira flush out L, the man who had never once shown his face.
"Oh! So that's what he's doing!" Both of them got it at the same time.
L was mysterious and had never worked directly with the Japanese police before.
The trust between the two sides was already paper-thin. After Light Yagami's provocation, a total collapse was inevitable.
"What an incredible strategy. Besides the Death Note itself and his position as the police chief's son, Light Yagami has nothing. And using just those two cards, he's pointing a blade straight at L, the one person making him sweat."
"These two are absolute masters. Watching them go at it is so satisfying."
They were debating excitedly until the shop owner tapped the table, at which point they lowered their voices and muttered.
"That article about Jump's downfall is complete nonsense. I've never read a manga this addictive in my life."
...
Plenty of people shared that opinion.
After chapter two of Death Note dropped, the buzz only grew louder.
The manga had become the biggest topic in the manga world from the moment serialization began.
Good takes, bad takes, in newspapers, on the internet, on school campuses. Everyone was talking about it.
Some people thought Light Yagami was a hero. They'd been fed up with the state of the world for a long time and genuinely wished someone like Light would come along and fix the rotting status quo. At the very least, wipe out all those useless politicians who talked big and delivered nothing.
Others felt Light Yagami was a devil. A hypocrite who hijacked the concept of justice for his own selfish ends.
Both sides went back and forth, arguing with everything they had.
That level of attention brought former readers of Weekly Shonen Jump back to the magazine.
"The Editor-in-Chief has decided to increase the print run for the next issue by 50,000 copies. If they all sell out, we'll keep increasing from there until we start building inventory."
Heishi came to the Studio and relayed Torishima's decision to Kai.
"It's been two and a half years since Slam Dunk ended, and this is the first time Jump's circulation has actually gone up. That hasn't happened once."
The editors could finally breathe.
There was one more small item. Death Note had taken first place in the reader rankings again.
"Oh." Kai nodded, keeping himself in a state of neither joy nor sorrow.
He was deep in the storyboard for chapter five, where Light Yagami kills the FBI agent Raye.
That section needed to leave the readers with a heavy, gloomy feeling. Kai couldn't afford to be too upbeat right now.
"Sensei is incredible!"
"As expected of Kanzaki-sensei!"
The assistants whispered to each other after hearing the news, buzzing with excitement.
An achievement like this would justify jumping for joy.
After all, Kai had accomplished something that even Yoshihiro Togashi hadn't managed.
The sense of scale was enormous.
But Kai remained completely still.
That kind of composure left a deep impression on the assistants.
"Now it's just about maintaining this level, Fujin."
Heishi's gaze was intense, like he was trying to burn right through Kai.
"Got it."
...
After Heishi left, Kai, who had been sorting through the later plot of Death Note, suddenly set down his pencil. He glanced at the sky outside and turned to Majima, the steadiest of his assistants.
"Majima, there's more and more debate about Light Yagami. What do you think? Is he a good person or a bad person?"
Majima thought about it for a while, then shook his head.
"That's hard to say. Light Yagami is too complex. His dream was to become a police officer and fight crime. If the Death Note had never appeared, he might have been the next L. At home, he's a sensible, well-behaved son that any parent would be proud of."
"But at the same time, he's become a mass murderer. Hundreds, thousands of people have died because of him, and that..."
Majima fell silent.
This was also how countless readers felt.
The complexity of the character gave people more angles to interpret him from.
It made the manga endlessly discussable.
"What does Sensei think?" Majima couldn't help asking.
"I think," Kai said, "Light Yagami is a heinous villain."
"Eh?!" Majima was stunned. Talking about your own protagonist like that. Only Kanzaki would do something like that.
Kai ignored his reaction.
Tsugumi Ohba had deliberately made Light Yagami more and more detestable over the course of the story, specifically to avoid misleading readers into genuinely idolizing him.
Kai felt he understood Ohba's intent perfectly.
...
In chapter three of Death Note, Light Yagami, tipped off by Ryuk, discovered that someone was tailing him.
It had to be someone L had sent to investigate the families of police officers.
He began working out how to learn the person's name.
Ryuk revealed a hidden rule: the owner of a Death Note could trade half their remaining lifespan for the Shinigami Eyes, which allowed the user to see any person's real name just by looking at them.
Light Yagami flatly refused the deal.
He stated bluntly that he had become Kira to rule the world and become a god. If he burned through his lifespan, how would he live long enough to enjoy the throne?
Light Yagami was selfish. That was what Kai was telling the readers.
Fujima's manager, however, zeroed in on a different detail.
"Shinigami sustain their lifespans by killing humans. But apart from not wanting to die, they don't actively seek out victims."
"The Shinigami realm is decaying."
The manager studied Death Note, piecing together Ryuk's dialogue, and his brain sparked with a connection.
"Isn't this commentary on the state of capital punishment in Japan? It's practically asking why you haven't been executed yet, Fujima."
Although Japan hadn't abolished the death penalty, it was rarely enforced in practice.
Even for the most horrific criminals, the process dragged on for ten or twenty years until the death row inmate simply died of old age in prison.
The mastermind behind the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack, which killed twelve people and injured over five thousand, wasn't executed until 2018.
"Huh? Is it?" Fujima was lying on the floor playing games, scratching himself. "Manager, you're reading way too much into it."
The manager sighed. "Sales of I Am a Murderer are dropping fast. I need to set up some promotional events for you."
"No!" Fujima refused without a second thought. "I haven't beaten this game yet. Besides, everyone will always love me. Taking it easy is fine."
The manager shook his head. He'd made his decision. From now on, he was just going through the motions with Fujima.
This person was a lost cause.
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