Confrontation

Confrontation (対決, Taiketsu) is the second episode of the anime Death Note.

Synopsis
The episode starts off in school, where Light translates a sentence into Japanese. Coincidentally, the sentence is: “Having finally made his dream a reality, he was overwhelmed by the sense of his own achievement and the joy it brought him”; a sentence Light can clearly relate to.

After school, someone asks if Light wants to hang out, but Light claims he is busy. While Ryuk questions whether this is true or not, Light assures him that he will be doing more than merely heading back home.

Upon entering his room, Light begins writing down more criminals’ names into the death note as the news broadcasts the names and faces of said criminals. Ryuk, lying on Light’s bed with an apple at hand, asks why Light is working so hard, to which Light responds that his time to write in the notebook is limited, since he must keep his grades up to his high standards. And falling asleep during classes or allowing his health to fall in any way is out of the question.

Light's sister, Sayu, then enters his room, to get help with her homework. Light immediately stashes the notebook in his drawer and lets his sister in. Ryuk then warns Light that if she were to touch the death note, she would be able to see him. Light curses the fact that Ryuk waited until now to reveal such an important rule to him, but keeps a calm face as he helps his younger sister with her math homework.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Police Organization begins its meeting, addressing the 52 known cases of criminals dying of heart attack. One member questions why this is even a problem, since all the people who died were sentenced to either a life or death row sentence anyways. But another member stresses that even though such is the case, some unknown entity is killing criminals through some form of mass murder. Another member questions how murdering so many people by giving them heart attacks is even possible, to which the same member answers that the deaths are suspected of being perpetrated by a large organization. As the entire organization continues bickering as to how these deaths might have been carried out, the apparent head of the meeting silences everyone, saying that “we’ve got no choice but to bring in ‘L’ again.”

Such a statement brings the entire room to begin whispering amongst each other. One man, questions his chief about what the man means by ‘L.’ The chief tells the young man that ‘L’ is the name taken on by a mysterious person, whose real name and identity is unknown. Regardless, or perhaps because of such, L has been able to solve every case given to him by the ICPO, which views him as their trump card. The room’s silence is broken by a member who questions how they will even be able to contact L in the first place, especially since he is known to only take on cases that interest him. This question is immediately answered by a tall man in a trench coat, whose face is hidden by his hat.

The man, who the chief briefly explains is Watari, the ICPO’s only contact to L, states that L has actually been inspecting this case already and without any further ado, takes out a laptop from his briefcase. Once Watari opens the laptop, its screen is immediately connected to the ICPO room’s own big-screen monitor, which now displays an enormous letter ‘L.’ A voice-scrambled voice then begins speaking from the laptop, introducing himself as L.

Elsewhere in a secluded area, Light explains to Ryuk how he will devise a way to prevent others from touching the death note. Originally thinking that he could claim to have been taking notes as practice for becoming a detective, Ryuk’s recent revelation about the notebook has made this out of the question, especially if someone else were to touch the notebook. Light mentions that if he is not careful, he might have to kill his own family.

L continues talking to the Interpol, saying that he will need the cooperation of every organization being represented in the ICPO, especially the Japanese Task Force, since he has suspicions that this mass murderer resides there. L then states that he would also “like the investigation headquarters to be based in Japan.”

Light then shows Ryuk how he will stop anyone from ever touching the notebook. He then opens the drawer in his room to reveal an ordinary notebook, saying that anyone snooping around would most likely see that notebook and stop there. This notebook is locked up inside the drawer. However, the key to the death note is a bit more complex. Light then removes the ink cartridge from a ball point pen and puts it through a hole at the bottom of the drawer to reveal a false bottom, where the death note will be hidden.

The cartridge acts as in insulator, preventing the flow of electricity around a circuit Light made surrounding the drawer’s inside. When the false bottom is in place, a rubber stub attached to the bottom of the false bottom acts as the insulator, instead. If anyone were to forcibly remove the false bottom from the drawer, the circuit inside the drawer would be completed, thus igniting the gasoline the circuit is connected to and burning the death note. If anyone were to question Light about the burning of this notebook, Light comes to the conclusion that he would merely answer that that was his real notebook. Ryuk compliments Light about how easily he was able to come up with a solution, but notes that Light must take the risk of burning himself when handling the notebook now. To this, Light coolly says that he would much prefer risking a house fire over being given the death sentence.

As more criminals begin dying of heart attacks, the public begins to dub the entity behind it all as “Kira.” Light demonstrates just how many people are aware of his acts by showing Ryuk a fan-made website devoted to him. Although the name derives from the term “killer,” Light does not seem to mind, realizing that the term has already stuck when he sees just how many search results come up when looking up the term alone. While the public news reports continue to ignore the fact that “Kira” has emerged from all these killings, Light realizes that the appearance of these fan websites is enough proof to know how humans are really reacting to these killing-- with open arms.

Then, a special broadcast, claiming to be airing worldwide from the ICPO Interpol, interrupts the program scheduled to play on television. The airing opens with a man in a suit, named Lind L. Tailor, claiming to be the mastermind known as “L.” The Japanese Task Force looks on at the live broadcast, knowing that this particular case must be serious if L is willing to finally expose his face to the public. Tailor continues to berate Kira, saying how the “successive murdering of criminals is unforgivable and must not go unpunished.” The man continues, saying how he guarantees that he will find and punish Kira. But to this, Light says that nobody will have any proof of what he is doing as long as the Death Note remains in his possession.

It is only when Tailor states that what Kira is doing is evil that Light gets flustered at the man on television, saying that “Those who try and cross God are the true evil ones!” In a fit of rage, Light grabs a pen and writes down Tailor’s name as it is shown on his name plate. Light then mocks Tailor, saying how “This could have been fun, if you’d been a little smarter.” With victory clearly at hand, Light counts down the forty seconds, the amount of time before a heart attack from the notebook takes place. After Tailor collapses in his chair and is dragged off camera, the screen suddenly changes to the one the Interpol witnessed during their previous meeting-- L’s insignia.

Like in the Interpol meeting, a scrambled voice begins talking, sounding awestruck by the death he, and everyone else, had just witnessed, proving that Kira has the ability to “kill people without having to be there in person.” The voice continues, saying that Tailor was actually a convict scheduled to die today and that any information kept on him was kept from the public. Light curses L for being one step ahead of him, and L begins to taunt Kira, challenging him to kill him if he can, while the public stares at their monitors in fear, and perhaps interest.

Finally done with his taunting, L comes to the conclusion that Kira is limited to the people he can kill. In turn for providing such useful information, L reveals to Kira that contrary to what was said at the beginning of the airing, this footage was actually only being aired to the Kanto region of Japan and that if Kira was not found there, then he would have continued making live airings in other regions until Kira appeared. But that is no longer necessary, since it is clear that Kira is currently in the Kanto region. L goes on, saying how Kira’s first killing was overlooked by the police, the death of “the phantom killer in Shinjuku.” Furthermore, this killer’s death was only aired in Japan, which led L to first air his broadcast in Kanto, the most populated region in the country. The Japanese Chief Director commends L for being “able to prove Kira’s existence, the nature of his crime, and that he’s somewhere in Japan.” L finishes his response to Kira, saying how he is curious as to what his true motives behind these killings are, but that he can wait until his capture to find that out. Wishing to meet Kira again soon, L’s broadcast finally ends and is replaced with static on the television monitor.

After a moment of silence, Light collects himself and accepts L’s challenge. Unbeknownst to them, both L and Light say how they will hunt the other down and kill them, as they are justice.

Meanwhile, Ryuk stands behind Light, amused at how these current events have unraveled, especially since both L and Kira “are trying to find someone whose name you don’t know and whose face you won’t recognize…”

Trivia

 * This episode marks the debut of L, Watari, Touta Matsuda and Soichiro Yagami
 * In this episode, Light Yagami gets the name Kira.
 * This episode also marks the first and last appearance of Lind L. Tailor, who died as a result of an on screen heart attack.