Inside

"You know how crafty I am.” “I do, indeed."

- Light Yagami and Ryuk

Inside (内部, Naibu) is the fifty-fourth chapter of the Death Note manga series.

Plot
Months ago, following Misa Amane's capture and detention by L, Light Yagami and Ryuk were confronted by Rem who told Light to either free Misa or die! Light had a plan in order to achieve just that and clear both him and Misa of suspicion of being the First and Second Kira. He also had both his Death Note and Misa's in his possession.

Light first established certain points:
 * 1) If he were to give up ownership of his Death Note, then the ownership would revert to the Shinigami who was the previous owner;
 * 2) He would only lose his memories of using the Death Notes and of the Shinigami if he gave up ownership of both Death Notes;
 * 3) Holding a Death Note, even one he did not previously own, would restore his memories, but if he let go of that Death Note without reclaiming ownership then his regained memories would once again vanish.

Satisfied with these details, Light decided to wait until everyone was asleep before proceeding with the first phase of his plan.

Later that night, Light, Rem and Ryuk met in a deserted forest. Light had both Death Notes: The one he had originally received from Ryuk and the one previously owned by Misa.

Light began by proceeding with a game of musical Death Notes. Holding on to his own (thus preserving his memories), he gave Misa's to Rem and announced that he was giving up ownership. He then told Rem to give it to Ryuk. Thus ownership of that Death Note now passed on to Ryuk. Light told Ryuk to drop the Death Note. He then picked it up and thus reclaimed ownership.

Light then gave his own original Death Note to Ryuk and told him to give it to Rem, thus giving her ownership. This Death Note contained the instructions as written by Ryuk on how to use it and Light had already removed all his writings and fingerprints from it. He then instructed Rem to find a greedy and ambitious man in a leading organisation or business and give him the Death Note. The man could use it for his own purposes but a condition would be that he would also kill criminals.

After Rem had left, Light revealed to Ryuk the details of his plan: He would persuade L to imprison him and keep him under 24 hour surveillance. He would then renounce ownership of the Death Note and, like Misa, lose all memory of it, Ryuk and Rem. He would thus be convinced of his own innocence and, once the new possessor of Rem's Death Note resumed the Kira killing of criminals, so would his father and the rest of the Kira Task Force, who would pressure L into releasing Light and Misa.

However, Light was sure that even after that L would still insist on keeping him and Misa under surveillance. In any case, genuinely convinced that he was innocent of any crimes, Light himself would set about finding Kira and believed that he and L may even work together towards that aim. Once they got hold of the Death Note and its new owner, Light was sure that he himself would eventually touch the Death Note, recover his memories and kill the current owner, thus reclaiming ownership as well.

Having already given one of the Death Notes to Rem, Light then buried the other in the forest. Once he had recovered his memories he would instruct Misa on where to find it, thus enabling her to recover her own memories, which she had lost following her arrest by L.

Light then told Ryuk about his watch, which his father had given him when he started at To-Oh University. By pulling the crown of the watch four times with less than a second between pulls, Light could cause the base panel to slide open and reveal a hidden compartment. In this compartment he placed a piece of paper from the Death Note and a pin which, once he had recovered his memories, he would use to kill whoever had the Death Note.

Back to the present, Light is in the helicopter with L on the scene of the arrest of Kyosuke Higuchi, the current owner of the Death Note. With his back turned on L, Light is comparing the names in the Death Note with those on record as Kira victims. He then discreetly proceeds to twist the crown of his watch! L fails to notice anything wrong.

Light takes the pin in his watch and uses it to make a small cut in his finger. He then uses the blood to write the name "Kyosuke Higuchi" on the piece of Death Note. Higuchi, in handcuffs, is being led to a police car, when he suddenly screams and collapses to the ground!

Light discreetly grins in triumph. Higuchi is dead, and L will be next!

Conception
The chapter's title "Inside" refers to the piece of the Death Note inside of Light's watch. Tsugumi Ohba said that "Inside" also refers to the Death Note that Light has buried in the forest and the letter to Misa inside that Death Note, as well as the fake rules inside the other Death Note. Ohba explained that the reader was not meant to be aware of those aspects when they started reading the chapter.

Chapter Guide
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