Creation

"No matter what world, the god of that world creates the rules."

- Light Yagami

Creation (創造, Sõzõ) is the fifty-fifth chapter of the Death Note manga series.

Plot
Following the death of Kyosuke Higuchi, the Kira Task Force returns to its HQ. They are joined by Shuichi Aizawa, a former member of the Task Force, who is now coordinating with his own unit within the NPA. There is also Rem the Shinigami who can be seen by everyone present.

Soichiro and Matsuda are puzzled over why Higuchi suddenly died in front of them and speculate if it was suicide or another Kira. They question Rem, but she is intentionally ambiguous, simply answering "I don't know" to most of their questions.

L himself is lost in his own thoughts. He recalls how the Second Kira's diary mentioned exchanging notes with a friend in Aoyama and is certain that Misa Amane wrote that diary. Misa has confirmed that she fell in love with Light Yagami when she happened to see him in Aoyama and FBI agent Raye Penber was investigating Light at the time of his death. These elements were enough to convince L that Light was Kira. He wonders if Misa was being manipulated in some way or if it is all simply a coincidence.

Although the Death Note is currently at the Kira Task Force HQ, it has been subjected to analysis at the police forensics labs and they report that the material used to write the rules in the book are unknown on Earth, which confirms that they were written by a Shinigami.

These rules include:
 * 1) The human whose name is written in the Death Note shall die.
 * 2) This will not take effect unless the writer has the person’s face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
 * 3) If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person’s name, it will happen.
 * 4) If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
 * 5) After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.
 * 6) If the user of the Death Note fails to consecutively write names of people to be killed within 13 days of each other than the user will die.
 * 7) If the Death Note is made unusable by tearing it up or burning it, all the humans who have touched the Death Note till then will die.

Since Light and Misa were held in captivity for over 50 days without any possible access to the Death Note, most of the detectives are convinced that this clears them of any possibility of being Kira. The last rule means that the Death Note cannot be destroyed since most of those present have handled it. They therefore resolve to keep it under lock and key.

For her part, Rem knows that the last two rules are fake: Light got Ryuk to write them into the Death Note during their meeting in the forest, telling Ryuk that it would provide him with more amusement.

Although he stays quiet, internally Light feels jubilant. The 13-day rule has not only cleared his name but also caused L to lose a lot of credit in the eyes of their colleagues. Light relishes in his plan, again thinking that he is truly God.

L asks Rem if there are other Death Notes in the human world. Rem claims not to know of any other, though there are plenty in the Shinigami Realm. L then asks if the same rules apply to all the Death Notes and Rem confirms that they do. It's obvious to everyone, not only Light, that he is trying to cast doubt on the rules they found in the Death Note but Aizawa and Matsuda insist that Light and Misa can no longer be considered suspects. L concedes that this must be the case and Soichiro is relieved at the fact that his son has finally been cleared of suspicion.

However, Light expresses the view that from the start of the Kira affair someone was killing criminals using the Death Note and that someone could not have been Higuchi who only obtained the Death Note some time during Light's imprisonment. Also, the fact that a Second Kira operated along with the original means that there is another Death Note somewhere in the human world. He therefore insists on remaining part of the inquiry.

Ever since the beginning of the Yotsuba investigation, L and Light have been handcuffed to one another and Misa has been confined to rooms with surveillance cameras and only been allowed out of the Task Force HQ while escorted. L now agrees to remove the handcuffs and allow Misa to leave the building and resume a normal life without being under constant surveillance.

Light now announces that he intends to keep seeing Misa. L is surprised since Light expressed so little interest in her in the past. Light explains that he has come to know her over the past few months and also appreciates the way she risked her life to help the investigation.

L now recalls the Second Kira mentioning something about "eyes" in one of the Kira Tapes. Based on the way Higuchi killed police officer Yukito Shiraba after making a "deal" with Rem, he concludes that this is some kind of ability to see a person's name. He asks Rem if she can confirm this. Light, who was expecting L to figure this out, expresses the same conclusion, based on the same premise as L.

Rem claims that she should only explain things in detail to the actual owner of the Death Note (who is Light, who was handling it when he killed Higuchi), but, since Light and L have already figured it out, she confirms that such an ability can be made available to humans. However, she will not give details of the "deal" itself (which involves the human giving up half of his or her lifespan).

L first met Misa at the To-Oh University campus. He realizes that if she was the Second Kira then she also had the ability to see his real name. On the other hand, she does not have a Death Note and he believes that she has genuinely lost all memory of being the Second Kira. What he cannot explain is why she is still alive after failing to use a Death Note after several months and did not die after 13 days.

L asks Rem if a former Death Note user will lose his or her memories of ever using it. Rem simply claims that such a thing has never happened to Shinigami and does not know if it can happen to humans either. Light wishes that Rem was more vague in her answers, such as stating ignorance or outright denial. The less L knows the better. But no matter how much L tries to get information out of Rem, Light is confident that his end is near.

The next day, Misa is allowed to leave the Kira Task Force HQ. Light and the other detectives are in the lobby seeing her off, though L is not present. Light and Misa hug and the others leave. They return to the main room where L is observing the couple through the computer monitors. Aizawa reprimands him and switches the monitors off.

Outside, Light is at an angle where the cameras cannot see his mouth, thus denying L the opportunity to lip-read him—even if the monitors were still switched on. In a low voice, Light whispers to Misa that he wants her to go to a specific location and recover an item. Misa knew from Rem that Light had lost his memories of being Kira and is delighted to realize that he has recovered them.

Conception
Tsugumi Ohba said the chapter's title "Creation" simply refers to a part of Light's thoughts when he determines for himself that the god of the world creates that world's rules.

Chapter Guide
Luominen