Yotsuba Arc

Light undergoes investigation while under official custody. The Yotsuba Group becomes center of investigation when employees display suspicious death patterns, revealing other Death Note users exist. Multiple Death Note users pursuing independent agendas complicate the investigation and Light's assumed monopoly on the notebook's power.

Light and Misa surrender their Death Notes and all memories of Kira, transitioning from hunters to the hunted. Light finds himself genuinely investigating Kira while amnesiac, stripped of the god-like power that defined his personality. He discovers that his mind and investigative capability remain extraordinary even without supernatural advantage—but also that he finds the constraints crushing, the helplessness intolerable. The Yotsuba Group consists of eight corporate executives who obtained a Death Note and created a cooperative killing system with strict rules and rotating death decisions. Unlike Light's personal crusade and Misa's obsessive devotion, the Yotsuba users treat the Death Note as a tool for corporate consolidation. They're less visionary and more pragmatic—which makes them catastrophically more sloppy. A committee approach generates evidence through bureaucratic accountability that a single user's careful planning never would. L and amnesiac Light work together investigating the Yotsuba Kira, creating a bizarre inversion of the L Arc dynamic. Light, freed temporarily from the Death Note's corruption, demonstrates genuine investigative brilliance without the supernatural advantage. He deduces patterns that L missed, moving both investigators toward the truth. Light is simultaneously investigating himself while being innocent—a recursive paradox that tests his acting ability and psychological resilience. Rem's position becomes impossible. She loves Misa, but Misa is in amnesia under protective custody. The investigation closes in on the Yotsuba executives, and Rem watches her emotional attachment become increasingly irrelevant. Light, recovering memory during this arc through Rem's actions and his own psychological manipulation, understands that Rem will act when Misa faces death again—not because Rem is protecting Kira anymore, but because Rem cannot bear Misa's destruction. The Yotsuba Arc establishes that Death Note cooperation is structurally unstable. Individual use requires only internal consistency; multiple users create bureaucratic traces, inconsistent decisions, and evidential trails. Light's monopoly on the notebook was never just about power—it was about operational security. The Yotsuba executives never stood a chance against L because a committee cannot be as paranoid, careful, or ruthless as a single visionary. Light's return to the Death Note becomes not just about power recovery but about preventing the sloppier usage that exposes his existence.