Title: Angel of Death I: In The Cards
Subject: Death Note
Genres: Drama/Romance
Sub-genres: Humor/Friendship/Hurt/Comfort

Front Summary: ‹AU; Pairing Spoilers Inside› L invites someone he knows to work on the Kira investigation. Her name is Nyoko Kurogawa and she may have ulterior motives for working on the Kira case.

Summary: ‹AU; Pairings In Separate Section› Nyoko Kurogawa knew L once, a long time ago. They separated for a few years until he saw her on television and decided to contact her. Whenever he needs her, she's there to assist in whatever way she can. But now that he requires her assistance on the Kira investigation, she may have a different motive for lending a hand. When caught between two forces claiming to be on the side of justice -- Kira and L -- which path will she choose?

Pairings: Okay, this is the hard part because there's so many things going on that you might miss a hint of a pairing if you blink. I'll try to explain this as best as I can, but before you read it, know that I do consider these spoilers because you get told who ends up with who.

As a note, I changed a couple of characters' ages, so if any of it looks like the couple has too many years between them for a conservative such as myself to write about, other than Shinigami stuff, then I probably changed the age of at least one of them. You'll be informed about who is changed later, I assure you.

By the way, I absolutely loathe yaoi and yuri/shounen ai and shoujo ai, so there'll be none of that goin' on 'round here. Sorry, yaoi and yuri enthusiasts. (For those innocent folks, yaoi is "relations" between males, yuri is "relations" between females, shounen ai is love between males and shoujo ai is love between females. Now that I've made you less innocent to the world of fanfiction, you may continue reading.)

Ready? Remember: Nyoko and Kuro are OCs. In case you can't remember, I'll put OC by their names in parentheses. (I'm not being condescending, I promise. Seriously, though, I have a short term memory, so I would probably forget, too. ...What were we talking about?)

SPOILERS BELOW:

LxNyoko(OC)
Faux (fake) LightxNyoko(OC)
One-sided NearxNyoko(OC); NearxNyoko(OC) later
One-sided LightxMisa
Mentions of one-sided MisaxJealous
One-sided Kuro(OC)xNyoko(OC)

(Note: Poor Shinigami falling for humans. Kinda creepy, too. I didn't want to do it with my OCs, but it made the story flow better and gave her a reason for having a Death Note. And maybe I should have put the romance genre before the drama genre... Oh, what a tangled web of love I weave.)

Notes: I call this AU since basically every fanfic is AU if it changes something. For me, the AU tag is just a given for this. I don't always put it when I write fics, but I felt the compulsion to use it this time around. Can't say as I know why, but there's my reason.

Also, this fic starts when L enters the anime via voice. (That would be episode two, for those who don't know.)

SPOILERS BELOW:

About the genres and sub-genres, drama is a given and based on the pairings list you may or may not have seen, romance is a given as well. The humor mostly comes from Nyoko(OC) since she turned out to be the only way I could really add much needed comic relief. Friendship is like a given, but I put it to assure you that some characters end up as friends and some end up together in the end of the end. Hurt/comfort comes from Nyoko(OC) and Near's relationship, both as friends and more.

SPOILER END; GO BOOM

And then there's the whole OC being a Mary-Sue thing. I'll be honest in that I don't really care if she is or not. If you want to look at it as a self-insert via alter ego, go ahead. My therapist thinks it is and I would say I trust her opinion. So, it might be that, even though some of the pairings with the female OC I don't even like and only wrote because I'm the kind of writer who gets told what to do by their characters. (Stfu, I know other writers who do that and can name famous ones, too. So nyaaa!) I'm one of those odd writers who doesn't see the problem with writing a Sue, I guess. If you don't like it, you certainly don't have to read it. My excuse is that fanfiction dot net told me to unleash my imagination; it didn't tell me that you had to like it.

Anyway, telling me she's a Sue is kind of pointless because I already think she probably is, until maybe the third installation of my series. On the third, there's one big, huge imperfection with her she hid during the other two. I actually have a list of good traits and bad that I chose for her, but I don't think I show all of them. I tried to make her not perfect, but you may think she is.

In closing about the Sue-ness, I guess this is for all the females who wish they could interact with or get together with some of the characters. We can all dream, right? May the Sue likers unite, or something like that.

Also, the first two in this series of mine follow really close to the canon, but differ by adding the OC and her "world" (as in job, thoughts, relationships, etc.). There are also flashbacks, so if you hate those, don't attempt getting into this fic. This fic has more flashbacks than Willy Wonka.

Oh, and for the first few chapters, it's really boring because it just follows along with L and the beginning of his involvement with the Kira case. I felt I had to at least show some of what goes on to make the story understandable even if you haven't watched the anime. If you want to skip the boring stuff, start at the part where L reveals himself to Chief Soichiro Yagami and the others because that's where the OC truly comes in. It's a bit boring after that, too, but it gradually picks up and has new stuff around the time when the OC and L meet Light, I think it was.

Lastly, there will obviously be spoilers in this fic. You were warned.

PS: If I have more notes about the fic later, they'll be added as Author's Notes. (Yes, I know what you're thinking: "Oh, God! MORE Author's Notes!" :runs in circles, pulling out hair; screams and runs, leaping out a window: Me: Stop being melodramatic.)

Info.: Right here, I'm going to give a bio of my main OC in the way they do on that Absolute Anime site, since that's where I get all my bio information from. Here goes:

Name: Nyoko Kurogawa
Aliases: NK; Musiko Hanabi; Nemo Nada
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Age: 23 years old ((at debut) born February 29, 1983)
Hair: Black
Eyes: Midnight blue
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Weight: 108.2 lbs (49 kg)
Status: Negotiator (at debut); Singer
Quotes: "Like Kira cares what the legal system thinks."; "Told you so."

Disclaimer: Death Note is owned by Tsugumi Ooba, Takeshi Obata and whoever else owns it. I in no way claim it as my own; I just like to abuse the characters more than Michael Jackson likes little kids. Any new characters are mine and any other new stuff is mine. I make no profit off of this silly fanfic and I don't intend any harm from it. No sue me, plz?

A/N: This is where I'll be giving Author's Notes from now on. I like the "page" of the story to be clean from the title and downward. I will not insert Author's Notes into the story itself.

You can choose to ignore these Author's Notes, but you never know if one of them might say something important, so I'd read them just to be sure. I know it's a real drag, but fanfiction is serious business and you can't just go reading the story all willy-nilly. :shakes cane: Why, in my day, we didn't even have these confounded Author's Notes. If we wanted to understand a story, we had to read and re-read it until we understood it!

You also never know when I might feel like saying something you might find a little humorous. :wink:

Now, on with the story.

Note: ...HAHAHA! GOTCHA'! If you've read everything down to this point, I have to congratulate you on your studiousness regarding the details of the story. Really, congratulations. :shakes your hand: Now, on with the story... for reals this time.

Angel of Death I: In The Cards

by KuroShinigami13

Prologue - Six of Diamonds (Anxiety)

Death Note

How to Use It

- The human whose name is written in this note shall die.

At a meeting of the ICPO concerning recent suspicious deaths of criminals, Matsuda Tota sat amongst the delegates in a large room, an empty seat next to him where Chief Soichiro Yagami should be seated.

"There have been fifty-two deaths we're aware of," began one of the men, "and that's just in the past week."

Another man added, "Every single one of them involved a heart attack."

"They were all criminals who were being held in prison or who were wanted by police for outstanding crimes," said the first man. "And I think it's safe to say there are other criminals whose deaths are unaccounted for."

"In which case," another man began, "the death toll could be well over one hundred."

Hearing this, men in the room began to talk amongst themselves in hushed tones as Chief Yagami moved to his seat, catching the attention of Matsuda.

"Morning, Chief," Matsuda said, looking to the older man. "They started the meeting without you."

"That's fine; I had to take an urgent call from headquarters," replied the Chief, looking over to Matsuda as he sat down.

Another man in the group began, "At any rate, these were criminals who were probably facing execution sooner or later. Perhaps we shouldn't--"

"Why should it matter whether it's a criminal or someone innocent?" asked the first man, pounding his fist to the desk before him. "Last time I checked, murder was still murder."

"It's still too early to consider these a homicide," said another of the delegates.

"Then how did all these people have heart attacks at the exact same time?" the first man questioned, rising from his seat. "That's not coincidence, it's murder!"

The other man replied in question, "You think it's possible to simultaneously kill all these people in different locations?"

"We're treating this as an elaborate murder plot that's been carried out by a large organization," the first man informed him.

Another man put in his thoughts on the matter, saying, "If it is a large organization, I'm sure I'm not alone in suspecting the FBI or CIA."

"I dare you to say that again!" someone shouted, clearly outraged by the accusation.

Another man stood up, waving his arms about to calm the others, "Now, now! This is not the time to be joking around! We need to confirm that these are indeed homicides and not coincidences!"

"How?" asked one of the men who had spoken earlier. "Autopsy reports show that in all of these cases, the victims died of a sudden heart attack."

"Investigating a series of heart attacks is pointless," said someone else. "I don't see what else we can learn."

"Absolutely," another man among the delegates agreed. "If these people had been shot or stabbed, at least we'd have something to go on."

"If that's the case," began the first man, expression turning almost grave, "it looks as if we have no choice but to bring in L."

The chatter that had been filling the vast room slowly died down upon this conclusion, Matsuda looking over to the Chief and asking, "Uh, Chief, what's this L they're talking about?"

Chief Yagami looked over to the younger man, "Right. I forgot that it's your first time at this conference."

He looked forward once again, deciding to explain to Matsuda about the mysterious detective, L.

"We don't know L's real name or whereabouts. In fact, we still don't even know what he looks like," he began to explain. "However, he's managed to solve every case he's ever taken on and he's tackled some of the greatest mysteries this world has ever known. He hides in the shadows, but he's the best of the best - a last resort - our trump card."

One of the men in the meeting finally spoke up, "But I've heard this L is extremely arrogant. I understand he'll only take on cases that he's personally interested in."

"That's exactly right," said another man. "Besides, we don't even know how to contact him."

Another voice - one not of those who were supposed to be in the meeting - informed them, "L is already on the move."

The man walked forward, dressed in a brown trench coat with the collar up and helping to conceal his face along with a brown hat. It seemed something was also masking his face from view as he stood before the group.

"Gentlemen," he addressed the men, "L has already begun his investigation into these incidents."

"W-Watari?" one of the men asked, clearly surprised by the cloaked man's appearance.

"Huh? Who's that?" Matsuda asked the Chief.

Chief Yagami replied, "That man's the only known person who can contact L. Nobody knows his true identity either."

"Please be silent," Watari requested. "L would now like to address the delegates."

After opening a laptop set upon a desk, the letter "L" appeared on the presentation screen behind Watari in Old London font, a masked voice speaking to the delegates.

"Greetings to all of you at the ICPO," the male voice began. "I am L."