Imprisonment

Imprisonment (懲役, Chōeki) is the ninth chapter of volume four and thirty-fourth chapter of the Death Note manga series.

Plot
Late at night, in a deserted forest, Light Yagami hands Rem a Death Note and announces that he is giving up its ownership. However, he still has ownership of the other Death Note and thus still remembers Rem and the events surrounding the Death Note he has given her. Rem leaves.

The other Death Note is buried in the forest and Light tells Ryuk that when he says "Get rid of it", no matter what the context, that would be the signal that he is giving up ownership of that Death Note as well.

(At this point, Misa Amane has given up her ownership of the Death Note and thus has no memories of it, Rem, Ryuk, of being the Second Kira or even of Light Yagami being Kira.)

Still held in a cell, strapped to a metal board, blindfolded and wearing a straitjacket, Misa has awoken after being unconscious for a while. She now believes that she has been kidnapped by a crazed fan, a stalker, and begs him to let her go.

Watching her through the streaming video on the laptop in their hotel room, the police officers in the Kira Task Force assume that she is bluffing. L calls Mogi at the NPA HQ and he confirms that when he arrested Misa he told her that it was on the charge of being the Second Kira and that she seemed to understand the charge and surrendered without resistance.

Before falling unconscious, Misa was being questioned about being the Second Kira, which she denied, so L wonders why she suddenly believes that she is being held by a stalker. Matsuda angrily tells her to stop playing games, which just causes her to panic.

L then questions Misa about her relationship with Light Yagami. She had previously denied knowing him, now she acknowledges him as her boyfriend. The detectives are even more puzzled.

L then receives a call from Light who says that he wants to meet them. Light arrives and announces that he believes that he is Kira!

Soichiro Yagami is shocked by his son's statement and begs him to explain himself. L, for his part, is quite convinced that Light is Kira but is wondering what he is hoping to gain from making such a statement.

(When he first met Misa at the To-Oh University campus, L already had evidence that she was the Second Kira and that she had the ability to know his real name just by seeing him. Light then tried to contact her on her cell phone (in order to get the name). Although this action is not real evidence in itself, it has still established in L's mind that Light is definitely Kira!)

Light explains that L, being the world's greatest detective, would not suspect him of being Kira without good reason. L confirms this to be the case and that he intends to interrogate Light soon.

Light himself outlines the facts against him: He was being investigated by FBI agent Raye Penber just before he died; he was in Aoyama on May 22 after which the Second Kira claims to have seen Kira; and he has since been meeting Misa Amane, now assumed to be the Second Kira. Even Light thinks that this is enough to make him a suspect and believes that he may subconsciously be Kira!

Light claims that he may be going mad and has developed a Jekyll-and-Hyde-like personality. It could be that he commits murder while asleep: That might explain the term "Shinigami" or "death gods" as used by Kira in coded messages or the Second Kira in a video tape.

L then tells him that he was under surveillance for a while and that cameras were placed in his room. Nothing happened to indicate that Light was killing people, though L believes that he simply took precautions.

Light then admits that there are many people that he wishes were dead and that they have been killed by Kira. Matsuda points out that such feelings are natural: Everyone knows someone that they would like dead but that does not mean that the person in question will actually die. Kira has often killed criminals who recently featured in the news and the surveillance shows that Light did not access news reports at the time, while criminals were still being killed by Kira.

However, Aizawa points out that Light was not always under surveillance: Because the Task Force lacked resources at the time, Light was still able to leave the house unobserved and thus could have plenty of opportunity to kill as Kira.

(In fact, Light used a miniature TV which he had cunningly hidden and could thus see the names and faces of the reported criminals.)

L suspects that Light is seeking to be confined. If criminals continue to die while Light has no access to the media then that should be enough to clear him—but L wonders if this is really what Light is trying to achieve.

Nevertheless, L decides to have Light imprisoned just in order to see what happens but the confinement will be indefinite with no guarantees as to when Light will be released. Soichiro vehemently objects, but Light insists that they do it if only in order to put his own mind at ease. He evens insists that he not be released until L himself is satisfied that he is not Kira.

Light is a brilliant student so he can afford to stay away from university for a while. In order to explain his absence from home he suggests telling his mother that he is moving into a flat with Misa but that his father disapproves so he will not be in touch. To add credence, his father will also tell her that he has disowned his son. Soichiro does not look happy about this, in fact he is not happy about his son—whom he believes to be innocent—being imprisoned at all.

Light is blindfolded, handcuffed and his ears covered with headphones. He is then led away to an unknown location and locked in a cell!

Trivia

 * The events in the forest at the beginning of this chapter are further elaborated upon in flashback scenes in chapter 54 "Inside".

Conception
When choosing the title "Imprisonment", Ohba said that he at first thought that it did not fit that well and even consulted the editor over it. In the end, he decided that it was the only option since it is about Light being imprisoned.