Kiyomi Takada

"All the messages from Kira I have conveyed to you in the past as well as everything I will tell you in the future will become the law of this world."

- Kiyomi Takada

Kiyomi Takada (高田 清美, Takada Kiyomi) is the former college classmate and girlfriend of Light Yagami who later becomes Kira's spokeswoman on the NHN television station.

Appearance
Kiyomi is considered to be a very attractive woman with short black hair that is swept to the right and dark-gray eyes. She normally dresses in formal clothing and usually wears bare-shouldered blouses with skirts or long pants. She is sometimes seen wearing a jacket and red lipstick.

Character
Kiyomi is an intelligent and graceful young woman. As a student at To-Oh University, she gains a reputation as "Miss To-Oh" ("Miss Todai" in the Japanese version), and "Refined Takada" ("Seiso Takada" in the Japanese version, which means something similar to "plays hard to get"). She is also seen as a very prideful person who loves to be the center of most or all attention.

Believing in Kira's ideals, Kiyomi becomes Kira's spokeswoman for News 6 on the station NHN. Her beauty and poise make her very popular with viewers, who treat her as if she were a goddess. Kiyomi, rather proud of herself, believes that Misa Amane is undeserving of Light, which leads to a sort of rivalry between the two women.

Plot
Kiyomi had once dated Light Yagami in college and Light decides to use this fact to his advantage after Teru Mikami (unaware of this connection) chooses her as Kira's spokeswoman and Hitoshi Demegawa's replacement. Mikami makes this choice as he believes her to be intellectual and civilized and able to send out Kira's words accurately in a calm and straightforward manner.

As a result, the Japanese Task Force decides to use her old connection to Light to get close to her in order to gather information about Kira. In truth, however, Light is actually planning on using this to make Kiyomi the middle-woman between himself and Mikami. Shuichi Aizawa is in charge of checking in and out of the various hotels they use for their meetings, and the rooms are bugged prior to Kiyomi's arrival. During their first meeting, Light, as part of his plan to convince the Task Force that he is investigating Kira, tells Kiyomi to share her personal opinions despite needing to objectively convey Kira's messages.

This attracts the attention of Mikami, who, during Light and Takada's second meeting, calls Kiyomi; Light is given the phone per his request and subtly confirms to Mikami that he is the real Kira. Light uses this opportunity to remove all the bugs and cameras that were in the room during the meeting under the pretext that Kira demanded that he does so, allowing Light to reveal himself as Kira to the shocked and confused Kiyomi. He reveals that the one she thought was Kira was merely a pawn he granted the power to kill like him. He offers to one day rule together in a perfect world, with her as his queen. Kiyomi tells Light that he is the only man she has ever respected, and the fact that he is Kira further enthralls her.

Following this incident, the Task Force places a wire on Light's body during Light and Takada's future meetings. Because they cannot talk freely, Light and Kiyomi pass notes on hotel notepads during their meetings. The SPK has Halle Lidner become Kiyomi's closest bodyguard, and, since the SPK had Light make Kiyomi publicly reveal the fact that the remaining SPK members have come to Japan, Light tells Kiyomi to be careful of those around her, as there may be an agent working under Near near her.

Light informs Takada of a plan involving Mikami making a duplicate of his Death Note, and sending Takada pages from the real one so that she could execute the real killings. While receiving this news, she is very shocked at the idea of her having to kill people.

Knowing that Light is in a long-term relationship with Misa Amane, Kiyomi feels jealousy. Because of this, Kiyomi invites Misa over to a dinner, during which they subtly argue over who is best for Light. During one of her meetings with Light, Kiyomi confronts Light about the matter, to which Light responds by saying that Misa was merely Kira in the past and is irrelevant to Light, which relieves Takada.

Mikami eventually confirms the execution of Light's plan, which Takada informs Light of. Shortly afterwards, Light sends Takada the location of the final meeting between Near and Light to send to Mikami.

The following day, when Matt creates a diversion with a smoke bomb outside of NHN offices, Halle entrusts Kiyomi to Mello. Her bodyguards chase Matt and publicly shoot him to death, while Mello slips away from the bodyguards following them and puts Kiyomi in the back of a truck. He forces her to remove her clothes to get rid of any tracking device, but he allows her to cover herself with a blanket. She manages to keep the scrap of the Death Note in her bra hidden from him, and she writes his name. Light receives a call from Kiyomi using Mello's phone and reminds her of what he had previously instructed her to do. Kiyomi calls Mikami to tell him to give her as many names to write into the Death Note as he can.

Mikami, realizing she is in a threatening situation, goes to the bank where he has hidden the Death Note and writes her name down. Unknown to him, Takada's name is written into a piece of Death Note by Light only a minute before. Kiyomi is forced to commit suicide by lighting a fire (presumably using the fuel in Mello's motorcycle and equipment), burning herself and everything around her. When Halle Lidner, Shuichi Aizawa, Hideki Ide and Light Yagami arrive at the church where she was being held, Takada has already burnt to death and the church is up in flames.

In other media
In Death Note Relight 2: L's Successors, Takada emails the names and photos of SPK agents to Teru Mikami, eliminating the Mafia from the plot.

Film series
Takada appears only in the second film Death Note: The Last Name. While she works as a newscaster and becomes the voice of Kira on TV as she does in canon, she does not know Light or work with Mikami, and her role is combined with Kyosuke Higuchi as the third Kira.

When Light sends Rem to find someone new to use the Death Note, she gives it to Takada after seeing her ambition at her news station. Takada uses the Death Note selfishly to advance her career, eventually killing her rival Saeko Nishiyama to gain a promotion.

The Task Force corners her in a similar manner to how they cornered Higuchi, with Matsuda threatening to expose her. When Light picks up the Death Note and regains his memories, he kills Takada to regain ownership. Like Higuchi, Takada dies of a heart attack while blindfolded and bound in the custody of the team.

Quotes

 * "You're the only man I've ever actually admired… and now to find out that you're Kira… it's too amazing for words…" (Conversation)

Trivia

 * The name Kiyomi means "holy, sacred" (聖) or "pure, clean" (清) (kiyo) and "beautiful" (美) (mi).
 * Kiyomi's surname Takada means "expensive, high, tall" (高), "esteem, honor, precious, prize, value" (貴), "hawk" (鷹) or "fly, scatter" (飛) (taka) and "rice field/paddy" (田) and "frequent, many, much" (多) (da).

Othellonia
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