It's the year 2015. It has been 2 years since the original Kira, Light Yagami, was killed. Everything Light Yagami built was reversed. The world was back to normal. Since his death more and more criminals appeared on the surface, which caused for the people to become desperate. They got used to having someone protecting the honest people, and punishing the bad people. They feared the change. This leaves many with a single question; when will the next Kira rise?
It was a rainy morning in the Chūbu region of Japan. Drew Woodland, a 17 year old boy with black hair, was walking to school. He was holding a black umbrella in his left hand, and he was holding his backpack steady with his right hand. He looked at his watch, and he saw that he had to hurry, so he decided to take a shortcut through the park.
The park was empty. There was not a single person in sight. Everybody took the bus or was brought by car. But not Drew. Drew liked taking a walk, and to have some time alone. It would help him think. Drew looked at his watch, but then he heard something hitting the ground near him.
He looked away from his watch, and he saw a black notebook lying on the ground.
"Where did that notebook come from?" He said, as he walked towards it. He picked it up, and on the front cover of the notebook he read the words 'Death Note'. Drew checked if there was someone in the park who left it as a prank, but there was not a single person there. "It must've been stuck in a tree, and the wind blew it into my direction." He said, but something in him told him to take the notebook with him, so he wiped the droplets off the cover, and put it in his backpack.
During his classes he kept thinking about the notebook. "Death Note... could it be someone's school project or something?" He was trying to find out what was with this notebook. During the break, he decided to take the notebook out of his backpack, and he looked if something was written in it, but it was empty. He did, however, find some 'rules' in the notebook.
'Death note, how to use it. The human whose name is written in this note shall die.' He read on the other side of the front cover. "Yeah, right." He thought. He looked at the other rules.
'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.'
Drew was impressed. "This is quite some work for a prank. It's rules remind me of what Kira did, so this prank was obviously inspired by Kira's work." He put the notebook in his backpack again, and went back to his classes. Once he got home, he went to the living room, and turned on the tv. They were broadcasting a live news report. A serial killer called Oki Ryobe was currently in a police chase. A picture of Ryobe was shown. Drew wanted to try the notebook out for fun. His parents and his little sister weren't home, so nobody could say how weird it was for even trying it.
Drew wrote the name 'Oki Ryobe' in the notebook, and he looked at his watch. "37, 38, 39, 40" He looked at the television, and nothing had happened. "Obviously. It was silly that I even tried to.." But then the serial killer's car was seen crashing, and driving into a river. Drew was a bit suprised, but he thought it as a coincidence. "The notebook implies that if I only write the name of the person, he would die of a heart attack. Until there is evidence otherwise, this was just a car accident, not a heart attack."
When his parents had picked up Drew's 10-year old sister Jemma from school, he went to his room, and he began doing his homework. He turned on the radio, because he always worked better with the radio on. Late in the evening he heard something interesting. "After some research the police has come to the conclusion that Oki Ryobe did not die from the car accident, but that he died seconds earlier by a heart attack." Drew was shocked. "It... It must've been a coincidence. There is no way for this notebook to be real... right?" He thought. The radio broadcast continued the story. "Could this be the work of Kira? Is he back?" They said on the radio. Drew did not know what to think. "It couldn't have been me, right? I'm not capable of killing, and neither is this notebook. I am not like Kira..."
He knew it was impossible for the notebook to kill someone by just writing their name, but this was a very scary coincidence. "I should throw this notebook away..." He thought. "No... then someone else will find it in the garbage, and who knows what they'll do. But anyways, there is no evidence that this notebook can really kill. I should try it again, and I should be very specific with the cause of death, so I know it was the notebook." He hesitated, but his curiosity convinced him to try it out. They revealed another name on the radio. It was another serial killer, and his name was Ishii Kyushichi. Since Drew didn't know what he looked like, he grabbed his laptop, and he googled the man. He found a picture of the man online.
He grabbed the notebook, and he wrote the name in it. "Ishii Kyushichi, dies by setting himself on fire". If Kyushichi would die in this way, then the notebook was real. Drew wasn't expecting anything to happen, but he kept the radio on. When he hadn't heard anything after a minute, he decided that the notebook was fake, so he threw it into the trash can in his room. But after four minutes, the radio talked about Kyushichi again. "The serial killer Ishii Kyushichi presumably committed suicide by setting himself on fire with oil and a lighter." Drew was terrified. "The... the notebook... It's real..." He was scared to death. It meant he had killed two people. "I am not like Kira... I can't decide if someone lives or dies..." He didn't know if he wanted to pick up the notebook again.
He slowly stepped away from his bed, and walked to the trash can. He grabbed the notebook. 'Ishii Kyushichi, dies by setting himself on fire'. It had happened exactly as he implied. He stopped trembling, and on his face appeared a smile. "I... I am not like Kira..." He whispered. "But that doesn't mean I can't become like him..." He started laughing hysterically. Then he hears a knock on the door. His mother opens the door: "Are you okay, Drew?" She asks. "Y...Yes, mom. I just read a funny joke." He answered, and his mom walks away again. "I will rid the world of evil. I will make the world a better place. I will continue where Kira left!" He whispers. Then, suddenly, he hears a voice behind him whispering: "Good..."
Meanwhile, the Special Provision for Kira, better known as the S.P.K, is still active. Near is stacking dices up, when Anthony Rester walks to him. "Near, there is someone calling to the number of the S.P.K." He says. Near stays calm. "How did that person get the phone number of the S.P.K.?" He asks. Rester says that he has no clue. "Should we put the phone on speaker? Perhaps it's someone from the Japanese Police?" Near nods, and they answer the phone. "Hello, members of the S.P.K." Says the caller. The voice had been made unrecognizable. "How did you find our phone number?" Near asks, while Rester and Gevanni are tracing the phone call. "I have my ways, you have your ways. Anyways, I have information you'll find quite interesting." Says the caller. Suddenly, the big screen that is used to find out the exact location of the caller is turned off. "I'm sorry, I don't want to be found. Not yet, anyways." Says the caller.
Near is intrigued. "You certainly are smart. But what was the information you had to give us?" He asks. "It's not a certainty... but I believe that the death of Oki Ryobe was the work of another Kira." Says the caller. "Just because Ryobe had a heart attack doesn't mean it had to be the work of Kira." Says Rester. Near gives Rester a signal to be quiet. Near is thinking. "Ryobe was very healthy. The heart attack could've been just him stressing way too much, but considering how calm he was when they put him in prison for murder the first time, and considering it takes a lot of patience and thinking to break out of jail, I think this was Kira's work." Says the caller. Near thinks this theory could easily be correct. "Your theory will be tested, but would you mind telling us who you are?" He asks calmly. The caller is quiet for some seconds, then he answers.
"I am L."