Disclaimer : I do not own Death note or Another note franchise and neither the characters. The entire credit goes to the brilliant creators of the manga and anime.
I only own this plot which I have written below.
Hope you all enjoy reading this, feel free to leave your comments :)
Chapter 1 - ''Classic Criminal No. 404''
A rat, squeaking gently behind the wall of a toilet made his way through the dark floor of a prison cell. Making his way through the darkness he ran into an obstacle in his way. He went back and forth striking the barrier every time. He sniffed, squeaked and started to nibble it as his natural behavior was. He had just started to nibble it slowly.
''No'', came a slow growl in a bit cracked voice.
The rat continued to nibble and the guy in black top and blue jeans, who was sitting curled up on the floor hugging his legs tightly with his head resting on his knees facing downwards with his eyes closed growled again, this time a bit louder, ''NOOO !''
The rat paused for a moment and looked sideways for that sound. It was much dark in the prison for the rat to see or sense anything and he continued to nibble on the prisoner's sneaker which was torn at random places.
The man shook his head in the same position as he went into a flashback where he could see himself with a few other boys and one Elderly person who was lecturing all of them. He saw himself wearing the same black top and blue jeans, pale white skin and long black straight hair covering his forehead, standing near a window with his hands in his pockets and squinting at that elderly person in a rather unusual manner.
Another guy lean and fair, standing beside him roughly around his same age gave him a frustrated look and whispered, ''If we don't stand up on his expectations, we all are going to be NIBBLED and TORTURED slowly to death''. That guy said emphasizing on the word 'nibble' and continued, ''I don't know...how much I can take this. It's going beyond my limits now'', he sounded completely frustrated.
''We don't get equal opportunities, then how can we prove ourselves better than HIM?
How?'', he sighed and stared at the elder person.
This man took his hands out of his pockets and folded them on his chest chewing on his thumbnail gently and stared at the elder person.
'' If you say Beyond the Limit, then you are probably underestimating yourself, After''. He turned his neck towards After,'' And as for opportunities...If we don't get them, we have to create them...ourselves!''
He winked and smirked looking at After's face.
''What do you mean by create?'', After asked him slightly confused with his words and stared at him with a raised eyebrow.
He put his arm around After's shoulder and pointed towards the other kids in the room who were busy doing their stuff.
''If we don't create our own identity then these kids will do it...someday, surpassing us and leaving us just as a past of this house...which never gained any importance''.
He squinted at every child in that room.
''They are not just eating chocolates or building stacks of cards and sugar cubes or playing video games, but they are innovating themselves, trying to create their own unique way of tackling things and preparing themselves to surpass HIM'', he glanced at After.
''Keep this in mind After...that we...all...are...gifted in our own unique ways and so we are...here to take his place and surpass HIM''.
Then they both stared at all the boys in that room as the vision of the complete scenario started to fade away slowly into darkness.
Those images of flashback soon disappeared from his mind and the man felt the rat licking his feet's flesh.
''Still getting nibbled I guess'', the man whispered to himself sitting in the same position with his eyes shut tightly. Those words which he spoke to his friend After in the flashback hit his mind.
''No...I can't be nibbled to death, after all I am not some filthy quitter to be nibbled upon'', he smirked.
Just as the rat was about to bite his flesh, he raised his head up from his knees and faced towards his feet. He opened his eyes which glowed blood red and stared at the rat. The rat saw those glowing pair of big red eyes squinting at him and he backed off quickly running away in a random direction.
He sat there smirking wide with his red eyes as he heard footsteps approaching his cell. A police officer turned on the light bulb inside the cell and opened the small window on the door of the cell, ''Criminal No. 404, Rue Ryuzaki here is your daily newspaper''.
The policeman threw the paper in, closed the window and walked away.
Rue Ryuzaki aka Beyond Birthday, the world's greatest criminal was behind the bars for his Murders in LA. He was shifted to the prison a few weeks after he got discharged from the hospital where he was treated for his serious burns in an attempt to kill himself so as to present L with such a difficult case that he wouldn't be able to crack it and thus B The copy would surpass L the original, L - The world's greatest detective.
But unfortunately, he had failed because he judged Naomi Misora wrong and under-estimated her detective skills thus losing to the man behind her, L!
He was locked up in an old section of the prison in an old cell which needed renovation badly as sunlight could hardly enter it neither were the flooring and other things good as compared to the normal concrete cells.
He stood up slowly as the bangs covered his forehead hiding the burn marks over his face, with his stance still as before, back bent a little due to the pain in his back with hands in his pockets and walked towards the door to pick up the newspaper.
December 12, 2003
Headlines: Massacre Continues!
23 more criminals were killed in the prison due to mysterious heart attacks yesterday. Before dying one of the criminal drew a pentagram with his own blood on the prison's wall. The police are suspecting all this murders to be a game of some immature killer who is on a killing spree trying to be a hero. As for now the investigation team has decided not to disclose much more matter to the media except the government officials. More killings like this are expected in the coming days. The crime rate of our city is decreasing at an alarming rate.
Rue walked back and sat down at his usual place curled up with his thighs near his chest, chucking his thumb on his lip, eyes squinting at the headline and thinking.
''Strange...''.
''Yesterday, on 11th Dec 23 killings and on 10th too the same number of killings?''
''What is this person doing, he is just acting stupid and misusing his strength...What an absolutely dumb criminal!''
Rue kept the paper on his side and spread his legs straight as he leaned back on the prison wall and stared at the door's window. He kept on staring at the window without blinking his eyes.
''How can that killer get all the victims' identities and kill them without even being physically present there?''
He turned his neck to the paper and kept squinting at the pentagram printed which was drawn by one of the criminals before his death.
''Why would someone draw a pentagram before their Death?
Or was he unaware that he is going to die before or while he was drawing it?'', he tilted his neck a bit and knocked his knuckles on the ground gently, thinking over the possibilities of such weird patterns of death.
''Can the killer actually control the victim's mind before his death and manipulate him accordingly? And where does he get their identities from?'', he scoffed and picked up the paper once again running his eyes through the news article when a line caught his eye' 'immature killer who is on a killing spree trying to be a hero''.
''Hmm...immature killer...if he can control and manipulate the minds of his victims before their death then how is he doing that, also where does he get their identities from ?'',he continued running his eyes on the article carefully but didn't find any clues further within that limited piece of article.
He tore the last page of the newspaper into four equal parts and placed them in four directions around himself.
''Alright so, let's assume I am a killer'', he placed his finger on the piece of paper in front of him.
''Wait...why assume? I am already a killer...and definitely better than this dumb piece of jerk head'', he smirked wide.
''Let's assume...I am that...dumb killer''.
1) Now how would I kill a criminal who is trapped in some random prison?
2) Why would I make him draw a pentagram before his death?
3) How would I get to know about the criminal's exact identity?
He removed his finger from that paper and placed the index finger of both his hands on two pieces which were to his left and right and tapped the papers once as he answered them with 2 options.
A1) I have or know something with which I can kill criminals...but again why am I killing only criminals? Why not my opponents and other anti-social elements?
A2) I would do that because I want to misguide the legal authorities OR I am just experimenting.
If I am misguiding the authorities then why only one figure for one criminal, why not different figures or codes for each and every criminal that I have killed?
If I am just experimenting then I would do that only to check up to what extent I can control their minds.
A3) Either I have hacked the authorities database OR I am an insider...but again, I am a dumb and immature criminal so...hacking the entire database of the police can't be done by me, maybe...I am an insider...umm...65%.
He turned back and placed his index finger on the final piece of paper.
A11) I am killing only criminals because I want to be a hero, a messiah, a savior or a god who does justice by killing the criminals and not my opponents coz they haven't committed any crime yet or they are not interfering in my work and the day they do so I will harm them too.
''This seems 70% correct'', he made a single fold on that piece of paper so as to mark it as a speculation.
A12) Well, I am doing this as an experiment for I am not sure of how much I can control someone's actions and up to what extent and in what possible ways. And this was just a trial before my next big move.
''65%...'', he made a second fold on the paper.
A13) Insider... How can I get so much of information about those criminals' identities directly even if I am an insider? It's not like the entire police force would have the access to the criminals' files database.
''25 % possibilities here...hmmm, this is tricky he is not as dumb as I think he is!'', he made a third and final fold on the paper thus completing his speculations about those murders.
Rue stood up holding that final piece of folded paper in his hand and held it lightly in his pinch right in front of his face staring at those folds.
'' So...what I have now is that This killer who has or knows something with which he wants to kill all the criminals as he thinks of himself being a hero or supreme justice and is under some strong disguise hiding himself from the police force even when he has close contacts with the police force directly or indirectly in that case the police is under threat too...hmmm, this sounds interesting'', a wide smirk appeared over his face as he stared at those folds.
He gave out an evil laugh,'' L, I wonder if you are watching this new 'childish' killer in town''.
He further walked to the bulb hanging in that prison and kept on staring at it with the folded piece of paper still in his hand.
''This...is...going to be...fun!''
A wide smirk appeared over his face with his sharp squint at the bulb; he raised his hand up and watched the paper from corner of his eye that was unfolding slowly.
''I will be waiting for a few days...as the mystery of this killings and their investigations unfolds, I will make my next move complementary + parallel, but this time...with Endless Judgments, Endless Backup, Endless Fun and Endless Rivalry !''
The bulb in the room started to fade away slowly as darkness started gathering in the cell and Rue's smirk grew wider and wider, his shinigami eyes glowing blood red with a narrow, sharp and evil squint overcoming the darkness around him and dominating the night with his dark evil presence.