Kyosuke Higuchi

Kyosuke Higuchi (火口 卿介 Higuchi Kyōsuke) is the third "Kira," receiving the Death Note from Rem, who was instructed to give it to a "greedy," "forceful," and "selfish" individual who would use the Death Note to attain a higher status that was out of his reach. He was the head of Technology Development at the Yotsuba Corporation, and is part of the Yotsuba Group, eight members of the Yotsuba Corporation that use the Death Note to kill individuals from competing companies in order to dominate the business industry.

Higuchi was a graduate of Wasegi University Political Science department, the son of Jiro Higuchi, president of Yotsuba Heavy Industrial, and was ranked Five-Dan in kendo.

When he receives the Death Note, he is instructed by Rem to carry out routine killings of criminals, then do whatever he pleases with the Note outside of the killings. He then meets weekly with the rest of the Yotsuba Group to discuss the killing of key individuals from competing companies to maintain dominance in the business industry. While they realize that one of them is Kira, they do not know it is Higuchi. During L's probe on the group, Higuchi kills Hatori after Hatori produced a "careless outburst." Rem aids the capture of Higuchi by revealing his identity to Misa. Misa reveals her admiration of Kira and uses her status as the second Kira to get him to propose to her and admit to being Kira on tape.

He is then betrayed by his fellow Yotsuba Group members, which involves Matsuda appearing on Sakura TV to reveal that Higuchi is Kira. This leads to him acquiring the Shinigami Eyes, and he uses them to evade the police for a short time on his way to Sakura TV. However, he is eventually thwarted by a masked police blockade set up by Aizawa, an ex-member of the task force, much to the surprise of L who had asked the police not to get involved in the arrest. He attempts to commit suicide so he won't get caught, but Watari uses his expert marksmanship to shoot the gun out of his hand. He then reveals to everyone the existence of Death Notes. Light touches the Death Note while inspecting it, thereby regaining his memories of being the real Kira. Light then uses a Death Note scrap hidden in his watch to kill Higuchi. He is voiced by Issei Futamata in the Japanese version, and Andrew Kavadas in the English version.

Higuchi does not appear in Death Note: The Last Name, with Kiyomi Takada performing the role of the third Kira almost identically to Higuchi's portrayal, down to the character's being disposed of by Light.