Prologue.
(For those who haven't heard of Death Note.)
Assuming you haven't heard of Death Note, here is a little intro for you. If you have, then what are you doing still reading this?! Skip to the first chapter already!
First thing you should know, Ryuk, the being forced to tell this intro, is a Shinigami, or a God of Death, so his humor is a little dry... Anyway take it away, Ryuk!
Hyuk hyuk... So you wanna know what a Death Note is? To put it simply, it's a Shinigami's tool for life. We write humans' names in the notebook well before what would be their date of death and the left over time extends our lives by that amount converted to Shinigami Realm years. From the Realm, we can watch over the Human World, or Earth as you know it, and even enter your world. You may notice, you may not, who knows with you humans, but Shinigami can only be seen by people if they touch the Shinigami's Death Note. When a human picks up a Death Note dropped into their world they are the owner of it and will be always accompanied by the note's original owner of it, a Shinigami, like myself, until the human dies or relinquishes ownership of it.
Anyway, with a Death Note comes many annoying rules. The main ones being these:
1.) The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
2.) This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in 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.) This note shall become the property of the human world, once it touches the ground of (arrives in) the human world.
With that said, here's my story. I was bored with the wasteland called The Shinigami Realm, so I dropped my Death Note into the human world. Landing in Japan, an 18 year old high school student Light Yagami, picked it up. He was a perfect student who was also bored, not to mention fed up, with the world: criminals left and right, a world of imperfections as he saw it. So the killings began. No, not killing innocent people, but criminals; they started dying of heart attacks which the police of course noticed. They called the murderer "Kira" from the english word "Killer" and the National Police Agency (NPA) decided to call in the World's Greatest Detective, L, to crack the case. He not only deducted that the killer needed a name and face to kill, but also the region of Japan he was in. And that was with just one television broadcast. Light knew L had to die to create his new world and for some time he evaded suspicion by hacking his father's computer and giving off a different persona of who Kira may be than his own. His father Soichiro is the Chief of Police and was part of the Task Force to catch Kira and worked with L.
L took notice of the changes in Kira's killings and how they contradicted the profile they had developed. He called in the FBI to investigate the NPA and family members of the NPA investigators on the Kira case. L was, for some time, in the beginning just a scrambled voice and a letter on a computer, he never showed his face until after he had weeded out the untrustworthy and those not brave enough to hunt down Kira. When he came to Japan and worked with the Task Force he would stay in very high end hotels and changed hotels almost every meeting so he couldn't be traced with an IP address. He also brought with him Watari, the man who raised him in an orphanage called Whammy's House for Gifted Children. Anyway, an FBI agent, Raye Penber, was tailing the Yagami's and Deputy Chief Kitamura's family when Light killed him and all the other FBI agents in Japan.
I won't bother with the details on how Light did it but because of the circumstances of Raye's death, L made the connection and placed cameras and bugs in both families' houses. Light had noticed though, that someone had entered his room, because of a smart placement of pencil lead on the door hinge that would break upon entry. He had me, of course, being able to pass through walls and such, find all the cameras, (sixty-four in all) and he managed to slip by still killing criminals while maintaing his perfect image. It was too perfect though and L, figuring something was up, personally investigated Light. They first met at Light's college entrance ceremony where L flat out told him he was L. Light knew the ball was in L's court at that point because Light could only play along like L was his classmate. He had never expected L to straight up say "I am L."
This is about where this stupid intro ends, lucky for me, because they didn't talk or meet again until they started college April 10th and played tennis as a "friendly way to get to know each other better" or in other words an excuse to talk and say they are friends.
There you have it ladies and gentlemen, a lovely introduction from Ryuk!
Chapter 1.
L walked onto the tennis court bouncing the tennis ball repeatedly on his racket with extreme dexterity.
"So just one set. Whoever wins six games first is the winner. Alright with you?" asked L.
"Fine," replied Light, counting how many times till he missed. It was 66 times.
They took their positions on the court and took on a serious stance.
He couldn't possibly be planning to do some psychological profile of me as Kira, just from the way-
THUNK!
L had served the ball only to watch a zoned-out Light take it to the head, collapse, and jar his head on the court. L dashed to Light awkwardly, vaulting over the net.
No one was home to get in L's way, which L was thankful for, as he had laid Light in his bed, bandaged his head, and went to get ice. While L was in the kitchen retrieving ice Light had slipped back into consciousness enough to focus on the numbers on the clock and sit up grumbling profanities.
"Light-kun, are you okay?" inquired L upon return.
Light recoiled, falling out of bed, and landing on the floor at the sound of L's monotonous voice then quickly stood up, a bit to fast though because he got dizzy and had to cling to his night stand.
"W-who the hell are you!?" A panicked look took over his face and he glanced to his desk. "What do you think you-how do you know my name!?"
"Please, Light-kun, do try to calm yourself. I am Ryuzaki. Would you please tell me the date today?"
Light, getting up and turning to face L replied, "The date? March 4th. The entrance exams are today and I'm wasting time telling you this when I should have been there at 8:00AM- Which was four hours ago!"
L, only needing a moment to process this and devise a plan, motioned for Light to sit on the bed who, after slight hesitation, complied, still keeping a defensive posture. L then joined him, sitting normally because he didn't want to freak him out more than his next words would.
"Light-kun, the date is April 10th. You passed the entrance exams with a perfect score along with me and we were the freshman representatives. We decided to play tennis today but for reasons unknown to me, you were distracted when I served the ball and you took a rather hard hit to the head. You then collapsed, hit your head again on the court, and I now know from my analysis there is a 87% chance you have amnesia at the least going back a month and six days as well as concussion."
Light stared L down the whole time he spoke, subconsciously noting his athletic attire, bandaged head, and the ice in L's hand. After taking a quick moment to process it all he said, "Ryuzaki, surely you have a convoluted mind to think up such an elaborate prank to pull on a stranger. To knock out someone, dress them to fit the tale, and bandage their head. You sicken me."
L could understand why Light would refuse to accept such the truth so harshly.
"Pranks are immature and cruel and I am not one to commit any such crimes. It disgusts me to see the world filled with so many immature fools."
L looked Light in his golden-brown eyes to assure him that it wasn't a cruel prank and it pained him to see the look of suspicion slowly slide of his face replaced with solemn understanding. Light gave a slow nod after a few minutes of going over what L had just said.
"If you don't mind my asking, could you stay for dinner to explain to my parents the situation? I think they would react rather harshly if you didn't stick around to make sure I'm okay...if you consider forgetting a month of your life okay."
"Of course Light-kun. After all, it would be irresponsible and inconsiderate to cause such a ruckus and not stick around to endure it."
"True..."
They sat there awkwardly for a bit before Light, having been watching Ryuzaki fidget the whole time, broke the silence.
"Uh, Ryuzaki, if you are uncomfortable about being home alone with me you can return at 8:00 when my mother and father should both be home."
"No Light-kun it's not that it's just that...well...do you have any cake?"
"Uh, I'd have to check. After all, last time I recall we didn't."
"Oh, right."
They descended the stairs to the kitchen, Light, feeling Ryuzaki's eyes staring holes into his head, opened the fridge to find no cake and told his companion the news. Ryuzaki looked crushed and Light, taking in his expression of a kicked puppy, couldn't help but offer to bake one. Ryuzaki's eagerly began dragging out the basic ingredients before Light could change his mind.
"Is devil's food cake okay? I know that recipe best."
"Absolutely, any cake is better than none." Stated L like a true wise man.
Ryuzaki watched, perched in a crouch on a chair, as Light skillfully prepared the ironic choice of cake for a Kira suspect, but one of L's favorites. He considered the possibility of if Light was still a feasible candidate for being Kira, considering his amnesia. Light immediately noticed L's "strange ways". Even so he just asked if he could do anything to make him more at home.
An hour later Light watched as Ryuzaki ate half the cake then suddenly remembering his manners offered Light some.
"No thanks, I'm not too fond of sweets."
"Okay," said L happily shoving another forkful into his mouth.
Light almost laughed at Ryuzaki's relief as he declined and thought
"Hmm...he's pretty adorable...Wait, what?"
Light reasoned that thought off as adorable like a baby koala and not adorable as in attractive.
"So how exactly did we meet, Ryuzaki?" questioned Light, intrigued by this mysterious "friend".
"We met at the entrance ceremony when we both gave our speeches as the two top ranking freshman on the entrance exams. Because of our superior intellect we had some common ground and started talking. Then to get to know each other we decided to play tennis together and the rest you are caught up on, correct?"
"Ah...I see then so we both got perfect scores and figured since we would be having classes together and are similar in our intellect we'd get along well. We went to play tennis today," confirmed Light, "but for whatever reason, I suffered a concussion from your serve and it is really April 10th."
"Correct," mumbled L through a mouthful of cake.
"Well my parents should understand it was just an accident."
"Seeing how well raised and rational you are, there is precisely a 92% chance that is true," replied L.
After finishing his cake, L stood up, chewing on his thumb as he did so, returned to Light's room, owner of said room trailing directly behind watching his every move with thoughtful eyes. L settled onto the bed, turned to Light and requested he turn on the news which he politely did before sitting beside L.