He saw it fall from the sky and hit the floor while he was in his classroom. A moderately thick book about the size of a general reading book. It was turning over and while it was turned to the front he read the words: Death Note. So Light Yagami made a mental note to see what had fallen. He turned his attention back to the class, where the teacher was doing a lecture on the history of the Samurai. It was quite interesting. At the moment he was talking about "harakiri", the art of killing oneself. The Samurai would slice their stomach open, using a small knife called a "tantou", moving it from right to left. Just as he had said this, the bell went and Light went straight downstairs and outside.
It was black, the book, but completely empty. Just lines. Actually, there was writing on inside of the covers. The first line caught his attention straight away.
1. The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
He was astounded.
Shall die.
No. It couldn't be real. Someone just through it off of the top of the building to prank someone. That was it. I'm the victim of a clever prank that used a human's natural curiosity to achieve their goal. He put it into his bag anyway. It would be good having a notebook for revision purposes.
He left Hyogo-Ken High school. His grades were high enough to get him straight into college but he needed to pass a test first. He knew when it would be. He didn't have to worry about it at the moment. He stopped at the railway and waited for the train to as, as every school day. He carried on going until he reached a store. He decided to get something to eat. He hadn't eaten that day because he'd woken up late. As he was picking out a small snack, there was a scream from outside the window he was in front of. Looking up, he was a woman being attacked by three men and her handbag being ripped off. She was screaming for them to let go. Light thought this was the time to see if the note was real. He had seen his name on the news a couple of days ago, on Sunday, and knew his name. He opened the book. I guess that's how it works, Light thought, so I'll write his name down and see what happens. As a man ran up to stop them, one of the men shot him square in the head. He fell and didn't move.
This was the chance she needed. He ripped herself and her bag away from the men and ran across the road. The main guy ran to his motorcycle, jumped on and revved the engine up. The rules on the inside of the note read:
3. If the cause of death is written within the next 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.
He decided to write:
Harami Saragumi: Hit by a delivery truck. Dies on impact.
40 seconds. That was all. He waited, staring at the man, who speeding towards the road. He was almost across when there was a blaring horn and the driver turned around. The truck was going so fast that what happened next was a blur. There was a crash of metal on human and metal of metal. There a short-lived scream and a lot of blood flying in the direction of the truck. Then there was screaming, but more drawn out and belonging to one of the men. It was blood-curdling, and was followed by loud, pronounced sobs.
Meanwhile, Light was staring. What the hell, he thought. It had happened exactly as I wrote it. But it's impossible. It must just be an amazing coincidence. But the chances of that happening exactly as I wrote it are huge. Huge.