Chapter I Found

My age is 10. Although, I am told I act older. I tend to think I'm just more mature and less stupid than those other 5th graders. Like, I dont refer to my parents as "mommy" and "daddy". I never have, actually. Never have I felt such an endearing connection with them. Dont get me wrong, they have affection for me and I dont mind them, but they're not my real parents. And they claim they know nothing of my real parents. Back to the subject of maturity, I pretty much do everything by myself. If I were to be thrown into an apartment by myself, I would be fine.

Now, back to bio. My name is Tsuya (Nathaniel and Nicole wanted to keep my japanese heritage,even though we reside in the United States) and I'm in 5th grade and top of my class. My life was normal.Boring. But one day, it changed. I knew it was going to change. Because although Nathaniel and Nicole claim they dont know, Its not hard to find my true parents. If you have the smarts anyway.

"Please,Tsuya, just give me a chance," Kyle begged me. He was about...the third guy this month? Ugh, when will they ever learn...

"No," I said plainly. I began to grow wreary at this point, I last track of how many times he had begged and quivelled so far. Fortunantly, he was quick to give up, smart. "My parents would detest if I went out with anyone while I was in 5th grade," I explained, sure I was mature, but I still had feelings...and could tell his. "We could still be friends...or something," I muttered, fiddling with my finger nails. My nervous habit. Doing this, I didnt notice him walk off. "They want to be with me, nothing more," I quoted to myself. A bell rang. The school warning bell. Telling all kids that if they're not in class by now, they might as well be late cause they're screwed. I started dashing, but something caught my attention.

Have you ever noticed, when you're striving for something and then something else my catch your eye, it's like the whole world stops. Well...not stop, more like, goes in slow motion. This was one of these moments. The sounds were plenty of children's feet striking pavement, trying to squeeze past eachother into the building. But my ears picked up something else. Something falling into the grass. I slided on the pavement, nearly falling over from all the people running past me. I looked to where the noise came from and it was...a notebook? Instead of doing the logical thing and ignoring the object, I went the opposite way to that notebook.

I flipped up my skirt a tad (so it would lay on the grass instead of being crushed under my knees) as I bent down to the object. "It's just...a normal notebook," I half-heartedly said to myself. Goosebumps were emerging from my arms when I flipped over the notebook. Such a strange pulse pumped itself through me. I got even more scared when I looked at the cover. "Desu Noto" was written on it. Before reading it it scared me though, the handwriting was so dreadful it seemed as if it were written by a beast. And it looked like neither pen nor marker. "Noto sounds similar to note..." I said to myself. "Thats the only logical meaning for that, since it's a note book. But what's desu..." I repeated the word over to myself over and over until I finaly got it. "Death! That's Death in japanese!!" I exclaimed. Noticing the field was empty, I scurried to my classroom. But not without shoving that "death note" into my back pack.

Now, you dont want me to narrate my school day, would you? It's so boring I almost wanted to kill myself. And the imbuciles in our classroom made me want to kill them. So, I'll skip to the moment when I got home. Just so you know, on the walk home, my mind was clouded with thoughts of this "death note". Would I see everyone who has ever died in there? Will I see the names of people who will soon die? Is it like a grim reapers book? Am I the new grim reaper...?

"Welcome home Tsuya," Nicole called when she heard the front door creak open. Only meaning it was me, since Nathaniel never returned home until exactly 7:00 pm.

"Hey Nicole," I slightly waved to her since I saw her at the kitchen counter at the opposite end of the living room.

"School's nearly over," she rang, smirking at me.
"Yeah,yeah," I replied slightly emberassed. At the end of each year she expected perfect scores on my tests. I wasn't one to worry about that, but it just got me pressured. I twirled a lock of my hair, just looking at her sly face. Then remembered the death note. "I'm going up to my room," I interrupted the silence. Remembering my back pack I dashed up the stairs while shouting down to her that I had tons of homework, which was why I was bringing that heavy sack of books.

The speed of which I brought out that notebook whipped the air and then slammed against my desk. Then the cover was abruptly forced open and onto the wood surface. Although there was no mirror in the room, I knew what my grin looked like. Knowing that someone had to do this before. I figured it out. The mass murdering of criminals that happened 9 years ago, caused by Kira, was done with some kind of weapon. And it had to be an ordinary object, one that wouldn't attract attention from bystanders. Something like a notebook.

Instead of lined paper, which was what I was expecting, the paged I flipped to were black with writing already on it.
Again, I knew my look. Confused. I flipped back to the very first page, my fingers still shaking and the pencil in my other hand tapped nervously against the desk. "How to use it," I read aloud. Instructions, good. "The human whose name is written in this note shall die. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his or her name. Therefore, people sharing 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. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack." I stopped reading there. I wasn't even aware of the reason. I thought I was scared. But I was not. What broke the silence was laughter. My laughter. Not a giggle like what is expected from a 10 year old girl. But a full,harsh, laugh. It creeped me out as much as the handwriting inside that book but I enjoyed it anyway.

Now, I have the power to kill anyone. As long as I have their name and a good impression of their face in my mind as I write down their fate. A heart attack, or my own choice. Anyone...anyone. Now, who would be that anyone? Will I be like my father and go after criminals? Or mark a new path? Not just criminals, but people who would need to die? For hours on end I struggled over these questions.

"Tsuya, are you done with homework yet? It never takes you this long!" Nicole called out to me.
Probably the first time I ever loved her. She yanked me out of my endless thoughts and I ran down the stairs. "Yeah, I'm done," I said as sweetly as possible. Even putting my hands behind my back and twirling my skirt a little.
While putting up my sweet-little-girl-who-could-never-possibly-kill-anyone act, I looked at the clock pinned to the wall at the corner of my eye. It's 6:55 pm. I spent 4 hours up in my room with that notebook, and not a single person had been killed with it. Disgraceful.

"Take a seat dear," I did as I was told. And also rested my chin within my palms. Pondering.
"Criminals." I decided after 5 minutes, too worked up to greet Nathaniel as he came through the door and greeted Nicole with a hug and kiss. "I will kill criminals all over the world."