Chapter 1 Rebirth
17 year old Ginga Hagane was what some would call too perfect. He was an honour student at his highschool, Metal High and despite getting 100 percent marks on all of his subjects, he was very popular. He was very good looking too. All the girls wanted him, all the boys wanted to be him and when he went home, he went back to a loving, normal family.
Ginga hagane WAS perfect.
But as everyone knows perfect is only a few steps away from abnormal.
One after noon after school Ginga was waling home with his nose in a book. But he was distracted because he kept thinking about recent news headlines of murders. He was a good boy, so he was pretty discusted at the state of things. Every day it was the same old thing. News of robbery, violence, murder... crime.
As he stood at a crossing waiting for the signal to arrive that he could pass the street, he couldn't help but grow even more hatred for what the world around him was becoming.
"This world is so... rotten," he thought.
...
The next day he was sitting lazily at his desk in school listening to his classmates talk. He rested his head on his hand. He was bored out of his mind so he looked out the window and could hardly believe it when he saw a black notebook fall right out of the sky.
Curious by nature, Ginga waited until his class was over and then went outside to inspect the book. It was a black notebook with the words 'Death Note' written on it. He opened it and saw that there was writing on the inside of the cover. He read it in his mind.
"How to use it:
The human whose name is written in this note shall die."
He didn't even bother to read the rest the writing because he dismissed it as some sort of sick joke. Still, he took the notebook back home with him where he read the rest of the instructions at his desk in his room the next morning before cram school.
"This notebook will have no effect unless the writer can picture their victims face in their mind when they write. Thus people who share the same name will not be affected. If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen as it is written. If the cause of death is not specified, by default the person will die of a heart attack. Should a cause of death be specifies, a further 6 minutes and 40 seconds are granted to write any further details."
Again, Ginga still thought of the notebook as a prank and he went over to his bed and laid on his back to think about it some more. His curiosity got the better of him, so he went back to his desk and took out a pen. He went to write a name just to test it but stopped.
"But wait. On the off chance that somebody does die, wouldn't that make me a murderer?"
Suddenly, a newsreaders voice filled his room from the t.v he had in there. It was a live broadcast of a murderer who was holding a kindergarten hostage with all the teachers and children inside. Then, they identified the murder on t.v and showed his picture.
Ginga shrugged and wrote down the criminal's name in the notebook. Then he sat back in his chair and looked at his watch to count for 40 seconds.
When 40 seconds was up, nothing happened on t.v so he smiled to himself and felt a little bit stupid for even testing the notebook out. That was until the newsreader started saying that the kindergarten children were coming out of the building. She stated that a witness said that the criminal simply fell down on the ground, dead.
He jumped out of his chair very startled. "Coincidence, it had to be a coincidence!"
When his father, Ryo Hagane called to him from downstairs, he almost had a heart attack himself.
"Ginga, it's 6:30. Don't you have cram school today?"
"Um yah I'm just getting ready," he called back.
As he packed his bag he muttered to himself. "I need to test it again, just to be sure."
...
Later that day Ginga was sitting in class watching two boys pick on another boy and steal his money. He was being careful to pick someone to test the death note out on, he needed to find someone who deserved to die just in case the earlier incident wan't a coincidence. He thought that those to bullies would be good test subjects, but didn't write their names down.
When he was leaving school, it was late at night. He was overhearing conversations from other students. Some girls were gossiping about another girl, and a boy was cursing his mother for being late to pick him up.
As he made his way home, he thought to himself about how many people the world would probably be better off without.
Then he came to a corner store and saw three strangers on motorcycles stop a woman on the street.
"Wow, Shikamaru Takou, you sure bagged a hottie," said one of the men to the leader.
The leader repeated him name and Ginga got a good look at his face when he lifted up his sunglasses to flash the other men a toothless smile.
They started harassing her. One man help her back against him while the leader of the gang began to prepare to assault her.
Ginga walked into the shop and watched. He went to the payphone and looked at the phone book and saw that there were a lot of people in Metal City who possessed the same name. He took out the note book and a pen and he wrote the man's name as well as writing that he should get hit by a bus while riding on his motorcycle.
Then, the leader, the man who Ginga wrote down, took off on his motorcycle and was instantly hit by a bus.
All the blood drained from Ginga's face. He couldn't believe it. "T-that settles it," he said, his face as white as a ghost.
...
Five days later, he came home and when he got inside, Ryu was waiting for him at the door.
"Ginga, congratulations on your marks in your test!" Ryo was excited but Ginga faked disinterest. He just wanted to get upstairs and get to work.
He went upstairs and Ryo called to hims again. "Ginga, is there anything you want? You can have anything you like."
"No thank you dad," he said and he closed the door and locked it. "I've already got everything i want."
Some time later, Ginga sat back in his chair and looked at the notebook. He had already filled out lots of pages filled with named. He smiled.
Suddenly, a voice interrupted him. "I see that you've already taken quite a shine to it."
Ginga spun around just as thunder crashed outside and what he saw made him scream in terror. There, standing in his bedroom was a huge, ghoulish looking creature. It looked like a human but it stood at around 8 and a half feel. It was grey and black and looked horrible with its shark teeth, thin body and hunched posture.
Ginga fell off his chair.
"Why are you so surprised?" asked the monster. "I'm Ryuk, a death god. In other words, I'm the Shinigami who dropped that notebook. And judging by your face earlier, it seems that you already realised that it is no ordinary notebook."
Ginga used his chair to help himself to stand up. "A Shinigami huh? I'm not surprised Ryuk. In fact I've been waiting for you to show up. I already realized that this death note is the real deal. having already witnessed so many things has allowed me to act with conviction."
"I see. You surprise me, said Ryuk. I've heard of incidences where a death note has dropped into the human world before, but you're the first person to have written so many names in just 5 days. Normally people are too frightened to write this much."
Ginga sat on his bed, totally unafraid of Ryuk. "I've already prepared myself Ryuk. I knowingly used a Shinigami's notebook and now that a death god had come, what'll happen to me? Are you going to take my soul?"
"Huh? What are you talking about? Is this some sort of fantasy created by humans? I'm not going to do anything to you. The moment a death note fell into this world, it became the property of the human world. In other words, that death note belongs to you." Ryuk pointed a long nailed finger at Ginga.
"M-mine?"
"If you don't want it, you can pass it to someone who does. But I reserve the right to erase your memory of the death not if you do."
"So you're telling me that there's really no trade off for using the death note?" Ginga yelled.
"Since you're so interested in knowing, there is a fear and suffering that is faced only by those humans who use death notes. And finally, when you die it falls on me to write your name in my death note." Ginga noticed that Ryuk had a death note strapped to a belt made of bones. "Don't assume that a human who has used the death note can go to heaven or hell. That's all."
They stared at each other until Ryuk started talking again. "When you die, you'll have something to look forward to."
Suddenly, Ryo knocked on the door. "Ginga!"
Ryuk seemed bored. "It's okay, answer it."
Ginga put the note under his bed and got the door. Ryo was standing there with a basket of apples. "The neighbour gave us these. Would you like them?" Then Ryo looked straight into the room where Ryuk was standing. "Why is it so dark in there, you'll ruin your eyesight you know?"
Ginga closed the door after accepting the apples. "What's going on, can't Dad see him?" Ginga thought.
Ryuk started talking again. "That used to be my notebook, so as the current user, you're the only one who can see or hear me. That death note is the bond that ties you, the human, and me the, Shinigami." he picked up an apple and bit it. "Mmm nice."
"Can I ask you one more thing? Why me?"
Ryuk was busy swallowing all the apples whole.
"Are you listening to me?" Ginga demanded.
"Wow, apples in the human world are good. They're... how do you say?... Juicy?"
"Answer the question."
"I didn't pick you. I just happened to drop that notebook and you just happened to pick it up. What, you think I picked you because you're smart or something? Don't be so vain. "
"So why did you drop it? You went through all the trouble of writing the rules down so don't tell me it was an accident."
"Why you say? Because I was bored."
"Bored?"
"The truth is that most Shinigami don't have much to do. They mainly sleep of gamble. Try writing too many names in your note and they'll laugh at you for working so hard. Even if you write the names of someone living, a death god won't die. Killing people is just no fun in the Shinigami realm. So I figured it'd be more fun in this realm. Anyway, you seem to have written quite a few names down. But why did you only write the cause of death for the guy who was run over by a truck?"
Ginga smiled. "If you don't write the cause, the victim does of a heart attack. That's the best thing about the death note Ryuk. I've already written the names of high profile criminals. And I'm gradually starting to add the people who have committed less serious crimes."
"And what does that achieve?" Ryuk asked looking the death note over.
Ginga stood looking out his window into the dark street. "No matter how stupid people are they'll eventually realize that someone out there is wiping out criminals. I'm going to let the world know of my existence. That there's someone out there who can and will pass righteous judgement."
"But what does that actieve? Why bother?" he asked again.
"Because I'm also bored. Of course at first I didn't believe it. That book has a kind of magic that compels humans to try it at least once."
Ginga remembered walking home on the night he killed the guy on the motorcycle. He was walking home very shocked.
"I killed them," he said to himself as he stopped to lean on a wall. "Two of them. It's a life the consequences can't be light. Do I rally have right to pass judgement on others? But wait, it's not like that. This is what I've always thought. This world is rotting. Those who are rotting deserve to die. Someone... Someone has to do it. Sacrificing their own life and soul because the world can't go on like this. If someone else had picked up this notebook, someone else could erase all the unnecessary people in this world. But is there someone who could do that? No, there isn't! But I can. In fact, I am the only one who can do it.I'll do it. I'll use the death note... to change the world!"
All over Metal City, criminals were dropping dead instantly from heart attacks 40 seconds after Ginga wrote their names that he had found on the internet. Ginga was slowly murdering criminals ruthlessly and the power was going to his head.
"Eventually," he told Ryuk. "No one will commit a crime. I refer to it as 'cleaning up the world' Then, after I've killed all the criminals, I'll begin killing people who do wrong to those who are innocent through sickness or accidental death. This way, it's certain that the world will become a better place. Then, I'll have created a world filled with those I've judged to be kind and hardworking.
Ryuk scoffed. "If you do that, you'' be the only screwed up person left."
"What do you mean, Ryuk? I'm probably the best student in the country."
Ryuk started at him like he was an idiot.
Ginga continued. "And then... I will become the God of the new world!"
Ryuk smiled. "Humans are so interesting."
Just so you know other characters will be in this. This is going to follow the Death Note story but it will use the Beyblade characters. I picked Ginga to be Light because Light is a perfect student who gets power crazy. Ginga has always seemed too perfect for me so I think he fits. If you don't like to see Ginga as a homicidal maniac I suggest you don't read any further. But do go watch Death Note if you haven't. It has changed my life.