+Shinigami Realm+

A tall shinigami with straight-up hair looks down the portal to the human world and sighs loudly.

"Ryuk? Did you lose your Death Note again?" A shinigami asks.

"Yeah... I dropped it," Ryuk smirked.

"Have any idea where you dropped it, Ryuk?"

"The human world…"

"Geez, Ryuk. That's the second one you have lost! Looks like you got to go down there. Let's hope a human didn't pick it up!"

Ryuk stared at the other shinigami and thought to himself, 'Well, I have nothing better to do. It's so boring around here… No one does anything around here but play card games. Perhaps, I will find something amusing.'

He spreaded his wings and flew down into the portal.

+Human World+

"Mieko, could you please translate this statement in Japanese?" A teacher shouted to a female student with long, light brown hair in the far back corner.

"Yes, sir," she began and slowly stood up, "He who obeys instructions guards his soul, but he who is contemptuous of his ways will die."

"Very good translating like always, Mieko. You may sit down."

Mieko sat down and looked out the window. She could hear the teacher talking, but she did not fully pay attention to what he was saying.

'It's always the same thing around here. Day after day… I just wish something would happen…'

Mieko stared out the window even harder.

'This world… is rotten.'

Suddenly, something started to fall from the sky. Mieko rubbed her eyes and glared at the falling object. She noticed that it was some kind of black notebook. It fell to the ground in the grass and the people outside around that area did not even seem to notice anything. The bell rung and everyone began to leave.

"Mieko, here are your test scores. I'm proud of you," The teacher smiled brightly.

"Thank you, sir," Mieko replied softly, then dashed out to where the notebook fell.

'It must be somewhere around… here!'

Mieko picked up the notebook and inspected it a bit. She saw giant white letters on the outside of the notebook.

'Death Note? A notebook of death? Who would be keeping something like that? I wonder if it is some kind of joke… It's got to be a joke!'

Mieko placed it back on the ground again and walked off, but she turned around right when she got to the school gates.

'I can't believe I'm doing this…'

+Mieko's House+

"I'm home!" Mieko shouted and took off her shoes near the door.

"Ah… Welcome home, dear," Her mother walked up to her and held out her hand.

"Oh… Right." Mieko handed her the results from her test.

"You placed first again, Mieko! You are such a good student."

Mieko smirked and headed up the stairs until her mother stopped her.

"Where are you going?" She quickly asked.

"I'm going to go study."

"Alright then... I'll call you down when dinner is ready, okay?"

Mieko nodded and continued up the stairs and got into her room. She quickly locked the door behind her.

"Finally! Now I can look at this even more!" She sat down in her chair and turned on the television. She flipped through the pages of the Death Note and quickly returned back to the first page.

"Huh? 'How to use it'… Oh man, it's in English! What a pain. Well… Let's see if I can read it. 'The human whose name is written in this note shall die.' Hah! Talk about sick. Reminds me of those stupid chain letters I always get in my e-mails!" Mieko stopped fooling around and continued to read it.

"Let's see here… '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.' …Really. 'If the cause of death is written within forty seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.' You got to be kidding. 'If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.' …This is interesting. Oh... There's more. 'After writing the causes of death, details of the death should be written in the next six minutes and forty seconds.'"

Mieko stared at the notebook for a bit then looked at the television.

"Channel 6, huh? I wonder what they have to say…"

"A local school has been taken over by a serial killer today. He has injured five teachers and killed two. He has a classroom full of kids and one teacher as a hostage. The other classes of students have been warned to stay inside the classroom at all costs. Here is a picture of the serial killer that is doing this."

"Huh… That scarred up man is doing all of this? People like him make me sick!" Mieko stared at the screen for a little bit. 'Ryou Otomari.'

She quickly picked up the Death Note.

"I wonder what will happen if I write his name down like the notebook told me to… I won't write any cause of death, though…" She grabbed a pen out from her desk and carefully wrote down the name 'Ryou Otomari' on the first sheet of paper. She then placed the pen onto the notebook and continued to watch the television.

"This just in; the students and teachers are getting out of the school! What happened to Ryou?! The police are going in!"

Mieko leaned forward to get closer to the screen. She could not stop watching it.

"The police are coming back out! This just in; Ryou is dead! He dropped dead right on the teacher's desk! Paramedics are coming in to get his body out of there!"

Mieko's jaw dropped when she heard that.

'That was just a coincidence! It has to be! There's no way this thing is that powerful!'

She turned off the television and glared at the Death Note. She picked it up.

"I have to test it one more time… To see if it actually works… Then that's it!"

Mieko walked down the stairs, with the Death Note in her hands, grabbed a coat, and headed for the front door.

"Mom, I'll be back in a little bit. I need to go get some more batteries for my remote," Mieko called out to her mother.

"Okay, dear. Hurry back. Your father should be back home any minute. Once he arrives, we are going to be eating," Her mother shouted back.

"Okay, Mom!" She exited the house, got in her car and drove down to a local gas station.

+Gas Station+

She went inside of the mini-mart with the Death Note in her coat. She looked out the window and saw a girl, walking to her car with a mini-skirt on.

'Why would she be wearing a mini-skirt in the middle of winter?!'

She continued to watch the girl and noticed some guys driving up to her on motorcycles. They all parked around her and got off.

"Hey, girlie. Where are you going?" A man with sunglasses began to speak, "Hey! I said… Where are YOU going?" He forced her onto his motorcycle.

"Ah! Leave me alone!" She screeched.

"What are you going to do to her, Takuo?" A friend of the guy in sunglasses asked.

"I don't know yet. But, I don't want to be rude, so… My name is Takuo Shibimaru and you look like the type of girl I would love to have in bed with me!" He smirked.

"Don't touch me!!!" She screeched again.

Takuo lowered his sunglasses and grabbed her arm, "That's not going to do, girlie…"

Mieko got a magazine and covered the Death Note with it and took out a pen. She began writing down possible spellings of Takuo's last name.

'Takuo Shibimari'

'Takuo Shibuya'

'Takuo Shibimaru'

While Mieko was messing around with the Death Note, trying to figure how to spell the guy's name, the girl bit his hand and ran away across the road, completely passing her car.

"Hey, wait! I'm not done with you!" Takuo shouted and got on his motorcycle. He started to chase her until suddenly; he fell off his motorcycle, clenching his chest in pain. The motorcycle skidded off to the middle of the road and the girl looked back, but continued to run away.

"Takuo! Takuo! What's wrong?! SOMEONE CALL AN AMBULANCE!" Both of his friends gathered around him. There were sirens coming in every direction. Mieko stood still, shocked from the sight of this scene.

'I killed… Someone… But, it works..! It actually works! This is great! The possibilities are endless with this Death Note! I can help rid of evil in this rotten world… I am the only one that is brave enough to do this! I am the only one that can change the world!'

Mieko put back the magazine and walked out of the mini-mart. She smirked when she went past the friends of Takuo. She quickly got in her car and came directly home.

+Mieko's House+

She took off her shoes and put them next to the door. She placed her coat on top of the Death note on a table near the door so she could go get it when she was done eating. She saw her father's coat and walked into the dining room.

"Sorry I'm late," Mieko started.

"It's fine, dear. Just sit down and eat your food before it gets cold," Her mother replied softly. They sat there silently until Mieko broke the silence.

"So, Dad. How's work going?"

"Pretty well, Mieko," He smiled, "Your mother said that you placed first, again. Congratulations!"

Mieko smiled softly, "Thanks, Dad…"

They all finished eating and Mieko asked to be dismissed. Her parents nodded and she walked out of the dining room. She hung up her coat in the closet, grabbed the Death Note and ran straight into her room. She locked the door and fell on the bed.

"So… I have now proven that this Death Note actually works… With this, I can change the world so that there is no evil," She softly talked out loud and got off the bed, "Hmm… How about I search the web for criminals…"

She sat on her chair, moved up closer to the desk and turned on the computer. She clicked on an icon and a screen popped up. She began looking at different criminal records from her father's work website and wrote down names of criminals. She even turned on the television, watched different shows that contained information about criminals' evil doings and wrote their names on the Death Note.

++Five Days Later++

+Downstairs+

Mieko got home, ran up to her room with the Death Note in her hands and locked the door behind her. Her parents did not even notice that she just got home from her evening College prep classes. They are sitting down in the living room watching a movie together until her father's cell phone goes off and he reads the message that was left on it.

"Sayoko, I have to leave for awhile. I don't know when I'll be back… But there is an urgent meeting right now at Interpol," He replied in a low tone.

Sayoko got up from sitting down on the couch.

"Kouji, I've had enough of this! You are always leaving me here alone with Mieko! Mieko doesn't do anything around here but study! We never talk like a mother and a daughter should! Think about your daughter's future! You are never around to spend time with her so she doesn't get to learn more about you and I'm scared that if I go up there and talk to her, we will get in a fight!"

Kouji did not know what to say. He just sat there, silent. He knew she was right.

"Sorry… But this is for the good of this family… This is what I do… And I enjoy my job. You can yell at me all you want, but I seriously need to leave now…"

He got up from the couch and kissed Sayoko, "I'm sorry."

She sat back down on the couch and yelled, "You are most definitely NOT sorry!"

With that said, he moved out of the living room, got his hat and coat and walked out the front door to his car.

+Mieko's Room+

Mieko heard all of the noise downstairs and thought to herself, 'Will they ever stop fighting and will Mom ever stop talking about me behind my back? She gets on my nerves sometimes…'

She turned off the television and the computer, put down her pen and sat there at her desk for a few moments.

"I see that you like it."

Mieko quickly turned around, looked at the person talking and screamed. She fell out of her chair and tried backing away from the strange creature.

"Huh? Why are you so surprised to see me? Well, I'm Ryuk the shinigami that dropped that notebook. Hyuk, hyuk! From the way you have been acting, it seems that you understand that it's no ordinary notebook, yes?"

"A s-shinigami..?" Mieko shuddered and stood up.

"Yes…" Ryuk replied.

Mieko calmed down a bit and silently spoke, "Hmm… A "Death God"... Well, Ryuk. I have been waiting for you. It's nice to know that my guess actually was right. I thought there was probably some kind of "Death God" possessing this… And there's something I want to ask you, too…"

"What would that be? Hyuk, hyuk."

Mieko smirked, grabbed the Death Note and quickly opened the first page where she has been writing on. Both front and back of the two pieces of paper have names written down on it.

"Wow, I'm impressed! Hyuk, hyuk. I never thought that a human would actually take the time to write all of these names down! I thought that if a human were to test out the notebook and killed someone, they would try to get rid of it!" Ryuk looked up and down the pages in awe.

"Now for my question, Ryuk; since I have written down all of these names, are you going to take my soul or something?" Mieko smirked.

Ryuk stared at her for a minute, then began to talk, "You humans and your crazy ideals. I'm not going to do anything with you. Once the Death Note lands in the Human World, it stays there. So, it's yours now. If you don't want it, just give it to another human. If you do that, then I will just have to erase all of your memories of the Death Note. Oh, and by the way… Hyuk, hyuk. Since you used what used to be my notebook, you are the only one that can see me. No one else can hear me, either. The Death Note is the bond between Mieko the human and Ryuk the shinigami!"

Mieko stood there with her mouth half way opened, "The bond… Hey, wait! How did you know my name?"

Ryuk chuckled, "Hyuk, hyuk. I have been watching you for awhile now, Mieko."

"Oh… Anyway, back on the Death Note subject… There isn't any price to pay for using the Death Note, right?"

"Not exactly. But there is only terror and torment that the human will actually experience. Hyuk, hyuk. And when you die, I'll be writing your name down in the Death Note. Also, don't think that any human that has used the Death Note can either go to Heaven or Hell… You'll find that out after you die."

Mieko stood there and started to sweat, "Ryuk… I have one more question. Why did you choose me?"

"Don't flatter yourself, Mieko. Hyuk, hyuk. All I did was drop the notebook into the Human realm and you happened to picked it up! That's why I wrote the instructions in English. You thought I picked you 'cause you are a special little girl?"

"So you did this on purpose?! Why the hell did you drop it?!" Mieko got up into Ryuk's face.

"Why did I drop it? I dropped it because I was bored. Hyuk, hyuk. Shinigami hardly do anything these days. All they normally do is just play games or nap. And if you are caught scribbling a human's name into your Death Note, they call you out and say, "Hey! What are you working so hard for? Then everyone begins to laugh at you. I can't write down the names of shinigami because they won't die. Plus, I thought it would be more fun to be down here. But, anyway… You really wrote down a lot of names in here! Hyuk, hyuk."

Mieko sat on the edge of her bed, "I guess I was… kind of bored, too.

I didn't believe this thing at first, but that notebook has a power that would make anyone want to try it once! I occasionally get bad dreams because of this, but I can't stop now. I'm on a mission to kill the world's most evil criminals. I got everything I need here. I found this really good television station that gives world news reports every day and every hour. Also, I have internet access to my dad's work website."

"Why haven't you put the cause of death for any of the victims?"

"Well, Ryuk. I thought about doing that, but I didn't want to test that right now. I'll save it for another time. Now that I fully understand the notebook, I can use it to rid the world of criminals with them dying from a heart attack! It's a natural death, Ryuk. Lots of people die from them. And since I have been doing this, the level of violence is coming down. Even an idiot would notice that someone is killing off the bad people. I want to make the world know I am here and make them know that someone is making righteous decisions on them. Once that happens, no one will commit crimes! This world will become a way better place for everyone! While people who deserve to die are dying from heart attacks, I can kill of the ones that are harassing others by illnesses and accidents. Eventually, that will be noticed soon enough by everyone. They'll find out that if you commit crimes, you will die. I will make this world full of people that I think is good! And with this notebook, I will reign over a new world full of good people!"

Ryuk stood there and thought to himself, 'Hyuk, hyuk. I was right. Humans are actually… kind of fun!'

+International Criminal Police Organization Interpol+

"Fifty-two criminals have died in this past week and those are just the ones that we know about!"

"This is insane! All of those criminals have died from cardiac arrest!"

"Also, all of them that died have been behind bars or were being pursued by the police!"

"We believe that the unknown criminals have probably have had a heart attack as well!"

"That means that the number of the death toll here is nearly one hundred!"

"Everyone quiet down! Quiet, I say!" The main speaker of the house yelled.

There was a laptop in the front of the room. There was nothing on the screen, but it was turned on.

+Somewhere away from Interpol+

"I see that Interpol is actually moving on this one… Perhaps this is one case that I will need some help from the police…" A mysterious guy says in the shadows of his hotel suite, smiling.