My name is Hikari Yagami. I am seventeen, almost eighteen, and in my last year of high school at Daikoku Academy. My grandmother told me that my grandfather went to this academy when he was my age. I was told that he was a great man, but Grandma never goes into detail about what he did when he was alive. I don't really think about it much right now though because I'm just working on living up to Grandma's expectations of me. I've lived with her ever since my parents died when I was six. Well, to put it more accurately, they were killed. I'm studying to become a cop once I graduate from college. Grandma says that I'll be just like my grandfather one day.
I just sat, bored out of my mind, in my World Affairs class. As usual, I was just writing the same things I wrote every day: Song lyrics, song lyrics, and more lyrics. After finishing his speech about the Opium War, wound up interrupting my peace by mentioning something that actually did catch my interest.
"Alright, class, now that we're finished with our studies on the Opium War, let's look at something significantly more recent; Kira." I jolted up in my seat when I heard the familiar name. Grandma used to tell me about the Kira Case from thirty years ago, but I eventually stopped having time to eat breakfast at home. "Does anyone know about the Kira Case?" As usual, I was one of the few students with my hand up. "Yes, Miss Yagami?"
"The Kira Case started around thirty-eight years ago here in Japan when criminals started dying at an abnormal rate from mysterious heart attacks. The case lasted for around eight years, and nobody except the team of officers on the case ever found out if 'Kira', the person behind the deaths, was ever caught." A few kids grumbled about how I had an answer for nearly everything.
"Very good, Miss Yagami." The teacher praised me, "It sounds like you have some background knowledge on this topic, am I right?"
I nodded, "Yes, sir. Both my grandfather and great-grandfather were part of the Kira Task Force, and my Grandma used to tell me about it quite a bit." In the end, I wound up having to write a paper about the Kira Case, due in two weeks. More homework is the last thing I needed.
The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. I dragged through calculus, breezed through my foreign language class, scribbled through writing, and swept through art. Fortunately, at the end of the day, I didn't have too much of a workload to deal with.
"Grandma! I'm home!" I called as I entered the house I shared with my grandmother. She scuttled out of the kitchen in a simple red dress, a warm smile plastered on her face.
"Welcome home, Hikari. How was school?"
"Oh, the usual. We started talking about the Kira Case today, though." I told her. I opened the closet and hung up my bland tan jacket. "I'm the only one who has to write a report on the Case." When I looked back to my grandmother, her brown eyes were wide in surprise.
"The Kira Case? Why would you study that?"
I shrugged, "It's a World Affairs class, and the Case was a big deal around the world, wasn't it?"
"Yes, I suppose it was." Grandma held her hands out expectantly. I gave her a look saying, 'And you want… What?' "You got the results for the nationwide exams today, didn't you?"
"Oh, right! Yeah, I've got them right here." I dug through my book bag until I found the scoresheet. "Here you go, Grandma." She scanned for my name and quickly found it at the spot marked '1'.
Grandma smiled sadly. "Your grandfather would be so proud of you, Hikari. He got the same placement you did when he was in your year. You're so much like him. I just wish he could have met you and your father."
"Grandma, how did Grandpa die?" That was one of the questions about my grandfather I had never asked. The way I heard it, my grandfather had died when he was twenty-three, towards the end of the Kira Case. The only other question about him I hadn't asked was what his name was.
Grandma hesitated. "Your grandfather was… Killed… I suppose you could say he was killed by Kira."
I raised one of my dark brown eyebrows. "You suppose Kira killed him? Shouldn't you know for sure?" I got no response from the sixty-three-year-old woman. "Who was my grandfather? I don't even know what he was like!"
"He was just like you, Hikari. Your grandfather was always at the top of his class and had a very strong sense of justice, like you do. He even looked like you." She stroked my dark brown hair. "However, his hair was quite a bit lighter… Would you like to see a photo of him?" I nodded, and she scuttled off the find a picture of my grandfather.
When Grandma returned, there was a photo of a young man in her hands. She handed it to me, and when I looked at it, I realized that this man really did look like me. As Grandma said, his hair was a lighter brown than mine, but we shared the same reddish-brown eyes, the same jawline, the same bone structure and body type, and the same school uniform. Or course, he had the boys' uniform and I had the girls', but we were clearly from the same school. I flipped the picture over, and in the corner it read, 'Light Yagami – Age 18'. So, this was my grandfather.
In World Affairs the next day, we were talking about the Kira Case as we did the previous day. It was mostly information and no questions, so I was writing as I usually was. While I wrote out the song, 'Kagayaka Sora No Shijima Ni Wa' on a spare piece of paper, I thought I saw something black flicker out of the corner of my eye. When I looked, at first, I saw nothing, but then I noticed a black book out in the grass. Someone must have dropped it from a window, I thought. I decided to fetch it later.
"Miss Yagami?" The teacher called.
"Yes?"
"Could you tell us about how Kira killed his victims, please?"
A trick question! "Nobody really knows for sure. The majority of the criminals he killed died from heart attacks, but it is known that Kira didn't even need to have contact with the person before they died. The way I heard it was that he just needed to know someone's name and face, and then he could kill them." The teacher looked impressed.
After class ended, my teacher called me to his desk. "Miss Yagami, how did you know that about Kira?"
"It's simple. I'm Hikari Yagami, relative of two of the major members of the Kira Task Force, Light Yagami and Police Chief Soichiro Yagami." Those names were well-known, since they were two of the most prominent deaths of the Kira Case and famous police officers. "One day, I'm going to be just like them."
I hustled to my next class, trying to avoid being tardy. I cut across the grass, remembering to pick up the notebook I saw. Along the top read 'DEATH NOTE' in large white letters. A 'Death Note'? What does that mean? I flipped it open and read the first page, which was filled with rules and instructions. 'The human whose name is written in this note shall die'? That's weird. It sounds like a chain letter. I read more of the page. 'This note 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. If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.' This is really weird. Whose is this? I looked for a name, but was unsuccessful, or rather, too successful. As I flipped through the book, there were names: Hundreds upon hundreds of names. Deciding to look at it more later, I shoved the Death Note into my book bag and ran to class.
I sat quietly at my desk in my room, researching Kira. There were lots of old websites dedicated to him with requests to kill certain criminals and such. Most of them hadn't been visited in years. "How did you do it, Kira? How did you kill all those criminals without even touching them?" My radio played the day's broadcast of depressing news; three fatal stabbings, five shootings, eight robberies, eighteen arrests, and twenty assaults, all in the past week. I snarled and flicked the radio off. Instead I turned the TV on. The channel was already on the news which was broadcasting a live report on a hostage situation on the other side of Tokyo. The criminal's name was emblazoned in red under his photograph: Ichirou Katashi. Apparently, he was holding thirteen people hostage, including five children. "What's wrong with people these days?" I pulled the Death Note I found out onto my desk. My pen was already in my hand, and I didn't hesitate to write the criminal's name down in the first blank spot I found. "Forty seconds, and he should die." I watched the hand on my wristwatch tick until it reached forty. Nothing was happening on the screen. "Damn. I guess it was a hoax after all." As soon as the words left my mouth, people started pouring from the building.
"Police confirm that the suspect is dead!" The announcer said. "Witnesses say that Ichirou Katashi collapsed suddenly and stopped breathing. The exact cause of death still has to be confirmed, but it sounds like a possible heart attack!" A grin spread across my face as I looked back at the Death Note.
"So it does work, after all." I laughed gleefully. "I suppose with this I can pursue justice like my grandfather and great-grandfather before me. I can-"
"Get rid of all the evil people in this rotten world?" A strange voice croaked behind me. I turned around and screamed. There was some huge skeletal thing decorated with feathers and bones standing by my window. "I've heard that line before. Quite frankly, I didn't expect to hear it again, not this soon."
"Who are you? Why are you in my room?"
The skeletal thing laughed, "My name is Ryuk. I'm a Shinigami, a God of Death. But I'll bet you already knew that, didn't you?"
A Shinigami? Why would a Death God be here? I glanced at the Death Note. "Are you here for the Death Note, Ryuk? Or are you here for my soul?"
"Don't be ridiculous. Seriously, you sound just like the last kid to find that Death Note. I'm not gonna do anything to you. I just get to stick around until it's your time to die. As for the Death Note, it became part of this world again as soon as it hit the ground, and since you picked it up, it's yours."
I picked up the black book. "It's mine? You aren't going to take it back?"
"Nah. If you don't want it, just give it to me or someone else, but then I'll have to erase your memories." Ryuk explained all the rules and conditions of the Death Note, and I listened attentively.
"Sounds fine to me. I'm keeping this Death Note so that I can make this world better. I aim to be like my grandfather, the face of justice!"
"What are you talking about?"
"My grandfather was a police officer, and a pretty well-known one. Sadly, he died during the Kira Case, but that shows just how dedicated he was to justice! I'll make him proud, Ryuk! I'll bring justice to the world and become Hikari, the Goddess of that new world!"
"Oh boy. Here we go again…"