a, b, c, d, e, f, and g ; h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, and p. q, r, s, t, u, and v ; w, x, y, and z.
He knew they would die.
If you knew someone was going to die – if you knew their house would burn down or that they would get into a car wreck on the way home from work – would you try to make it less painful? Would you try to make their last moments less painful? I'm not being rhetorical. Tell me the truth. Would you kill them yourself, if you knew someone else would do it later without you? Would it change if you knew them, or if they were a stranger? Would you slip a drug into your best friend's wine to kill them, or beat a stranger with a bat?
What if you knew they were all going to die? I mean, every person you knew?
What if you could spare them the fire you knew that Ellen Crawley was going to set by accident at 3:14 p.m. on April 15th of that year? Would you do it now? Would you do it the day before? What if you knew that if you stopped Ellen from starting the fire, someone else would?
What if you knew that, inevitably, everyone you knew would die?
B knew they would die.
So B made a plan – a glorious, splendid plan – and he saved each and every child's life. He saved each life from the pain of the fire or the collapse of the orphanage or the sudden outbreak of diphtheria. B saved twenty-three children that day; B killed twenty-three children that day.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.
All of them were going to die. So B killed twenty-three of them. B did not kill himself. B did not kill A. B did not kill L.
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A killed himself. B knew he would, but it didn't make him feel any better about not killing A himself.
B took down A's body, and wrote what he wanted A to know across the corpse. B let A know he was sorry, and even wrote him an equation.
if x2 = a + b, and you are a and i am b, what is our solution?
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L would never die. It was one of those understood concepts that never really could be derived from any one, logical point.
They used to sit together, quiet, peeking over their books at each other. To be more precise, they would look at each other's numbers. They would watch as the timers expired again and again – approximately every human minute or so.
Birthday knew where his name came from; he never understood why L's was so morbid considering he would never die.
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a.n.: oh wow it's been a long time since death note popped into my head. this isn't even logical. never mind this. i'll reread everything and write better death note stuff later.
Reviews and criticism always appreciated.