Target (chapter 7)

"Sorry, dude. I'm a Shinigami, so that isn't going to kill me."

- Ryuk

Target (標的, Hyōteki) is the seventh chapter of the Death Note manga series.

Plot
Light is joined at a local bus stop by a girl named Yuri whom he has invited to spend the day at a local amusement park. Ryuk, who can only be seen by Light, is with him. Ryuk wonders what a date with a girl has to do with finding out the name of the man who has recently been following Light. Light tells him that he wrote the details of his plan in the Death Note, but Ryuk admits to not reading them, stating that it is more fun to watch events unfold than know what is going to happen in advance.

The man who has been following Light for the last several days is still shadowing him. As far as he can make out, the son of Soichiro Yagami, the head of the Kira Task Force, is just a normal, albeit academically serious, teenager attending school on weekdays and going on dates with girls on the weekends. There is nothing suspicious about him. The man decides to follow him for the rest of the day and then move on to another family suspected of obtaining leaked information from the Task Force.

Light and Yuri get on the bus and take two seats toward the back. The man takes a seat behind them. The two teenagers chat about school and their plans for university. The bus, which has seven passengers and the driver, proceeds on its route. At another stop, a man boards whom Light recognizes as Kiichiro Osoreda, a violent drug addict whose name Light had written in the Death Note that morning.

Osoreda suddenly takes out a gun and announces that the bus is being hijacked. He orders the driver to use his onboard phone in order to contact the amusement park for which the bus is headed. Taking the phone, Osoreda demands that all the profits from the previous day be delivered to him in cash at a designated bus stop or the passengers on board the bus will be killed.

The passengers are trembling, including Yuri. Light passes her a handwritten note which can also be seen by the man behind them. In the note, Light tells Yuri that his father has taught him how to handle armed men, and he is going to try and disarm the hijacker. The man behind them is alarmed, believing Light to be thinking rashly.

The bus is still in motion, so it is possible for the passengers to talk in low voices that are covered by the noise of the engine. The man leans forward and whispers to Light to let him handle the hijacker. Noting that the man has an accent, Light asks if he is foreign, and the man confirms that he is American of Japanese descent.

Light expresses suspicion of the man, suggesting that he may be an accomplice of the hijacker who is looking out for any attempts by the passengers to interfere. He asks the man for proof of his sincerity.

The man has been warned about giving away his identity but decides that Light cannot be Kira or else the hijacker would already have died of a heart attack. He therefore discreetly hands to Light a badge identifying him as Special Agent Raye Penber of the American FBI.

Light agrees to let him handle the hijacker. Penber recognizes the hijacker from the news a few days previously and knows that the man is extremely dangerous, having already shot several people during a bank robbery. Penber has a gun of his own and knows that he has to rescue the passengers. However, this could lead to an embarrassing situation with the local police, as he would have to explain the presence of an unreported FBI agent in Japanese territory. He decides to claim that he is part of the FBI's own investigation into Kira since most of Kira's victims have been American criminals.

At that moment, Light drops a piece of paper from his pocket onto the floor. Osoreda sees this and, suspecting treachery, picks it up. Penber, believing it to be Light's note about disarming the hijacker, readies himself to engage Osoreda. However, it is just a note of the time and place to take the bus to the amusement park. Osoreda tosses it away, giving Light a warning not to move. As he looks over his shoulder at Light in the back of the bus, he begins screaming.

Osoreda is screaming about a monster in the back of the bus. The monster is Ryuk, who is standing near Light and who is surprised that Osoreda can see him, but when he realizes that the piece of paper of Light's that Osoreda picked up was actually a piece of the Death Note, he begins laughing, congratulating Light on his wit. Osoreda is panicking and aiming his gun at the monster, but Penber tells everyone to get down, as he believes Osoreda is on drugs and is hallucinating, making him likely to begin shooting.

Osoreda fires his gun until it is empty, but the bullets simply go through Ryuk. Ryuk is amused: he had told Light much earlier that he would always be with him while he owned the Death Note, that he could be seen by anyone who touched the Death Note, and that guns and other weapons have no effect on Shinigami. He is impressed by the way Light used all these elements in order to get the name of the man following him.

Having fired all his bullets at Ryuk with no effect, Osoreda dashes to the driver and orders him to stop the bus and open the doors. He leaps out and begins running and is struck by a car at full speed.

Light checks his watch. It is 11:45. Earlier, before leaving home, he had written in the Death Note that Osoreda was to hijack the bus from a certain stop at 11:31, demand a ransom from the amusement park, see a monster and fire all his bullets at it before leaving the bus, and be killed by a car at 11:45. Everything has gone according to plan, and Light has the name of the man who has been tailing him.

Conception
Tsugumi Ohba chose the name "Target" in reference to Kiichiro Osoreda's attempts to shoot Ryuk and Light's aim of uncovering his follower's real name.

Chapter Guide
Objetivo Cible (chapitre 7) Kohde (luku 7)