--endNOTE--+

Page 1-- Discovery

Kira's power was banished that sad, fateful day. The first three months where the killings stopped, it was all over the Net... TV... anywhere you could find, it was Kira's absence people were talking about. People claiming they killed him, that they saved the world from the fearsome deathwatch of Lord Kira. But had Kira truly left this world, at the peak of his domination? Light Yagami created the image of Kira-- His ideals and abilities. But when Light Yagami died that day, on his knees before the Shinigami Ryuuku, Kira was not defeated.

"Shinigami, the 13-Day rule and this second one, they are fake, correct?" Near, that is, Nate River asked calmly.

Ryuk laughed. "Hyuk hyuk. Of course. You can get rid of them if you really want.That just means the fun's over, I guess."

Near immediately had Commander Rester burn the two notebooks on the spot. Mikami's Note, and the NPA's. The Death Note's power would never fall into the hands of evil. Near believed this... but that is not the end of the story.

Unbeknownst to all, Light Yagami had considered, however unlikely, that he may lose the game against Near. Of course at the time he had absolute confidence he would win, but he knew that those who did not consider all possibilities would end up defeated. He had access to the complete vault code as L. He took a cautious measure and replaced the NPAs notebook with a replica. What to do with the true one, though? He wondered. And where to hide it. It wasn't like he needed to be Kira anymore; once Near was out of the way, Mikami could continue killing criminals under his orders. And anyways, Mikami could just give the Note to Light at some point if Light wanted. This second Note... its existence was an important insurance. Hidden away to be retrieved if anything were to happen.

But Light died that fateful day in the YB Warehouse. He was buried secretly, Mikami died from insanity in prison, and Misa commited suicide later that year. Those who had the power, and those who could truly aid Kira's will were banished to the empty nothingness of death. The location of the second Note was never mentioned or recorded... and it would stay in the shadows of society for 3 more years... until one ordinary day in the life of a 15-year-old L-student named Oka...

date, Kanto Region, Japan

Linda and Oka were best friends. They had been for many years. The two were orphans- raised in Quillsh Wammy's L School. A few years after Near was chosen as successor (unknown to the two), Linda and Oka graduated and moved out. It should be noted that "Oka" and "Linda " were actually nicknames- They'd been raised at the L School not to reveal their real names to anyone. They often referred to each other with their fake names because it was simply habit; not even Oka knew Linda's real last name.. Oka found residence with her long lost sister Ella (who has a different last name, for future reference) in Japan- and of course Linda came with her. Ella was 20, and lived alone at the time. She was glad she had remaining family, and was happy Oka had such a close and respectable friend. Because of this, Ella invited Oka's friend to live with them, though beyond this, the two never ended up connecting... and the distance between them never shortened.

"Yo, Oka-chan! Don't go spacing out on me here." Linda tapped her friend's shoulder. The brunette shook her head. "Sorry... I've just been having troubles at home lately. My sister is so mean,. y'know?" Linda smiled. "I understand that... she's not very nice to you, is she?" Oka frowned a bit. "She treats me like such a kid! I'm gonna be 16 soon, but she still acts like she's so smart just because she's a few years older!" She crossed her arms, huffing. "I don't see her certificate from L School on the wall."

The two young girls sat in an old dilapidated house. You could only enter it through a broken section of fence around it. They always came here to chat. It was like their hideout. That day Oka noticed a tile that seemed.. disturbed. It wasn't worn down the same. It looked as though at some point it had been lifted... but clearly this had been some time ago. She pointed this out to Linda. "It was probably someone hiding something there," Linda said uninterestedly, "So we shouldn't take whatever's there... probably..." But the always-inquisitive Oka was already walking over to investigate. She scraped the dirt away, gripping the tile and shifting it aside heavily. She dug through the dirt a bit, uncovering a metal tin. She opened it up, unsure what to expect. And lying there was a jet black, and otherwise average notebook. Linda crawled over next to her, curious as well. "It could be a diary... but it's in pretty rough shape."

Oka didn't hear her. She had already opened the note to the first page, where a page titled "How To Use It" had been scrawled. It seemed like somewhat crude lettering.

"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/her name, so that 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 a cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack."

Linda read it too, over her shoulder. "...What a stupid joke." Oka looked at her, serious. "Joke?" The blonde shrugged, a smile on her face. "This 'write their name and they die' thing sounds like someone playing Kira with their friends." Oka closed it, looking down at the book. "Kira..." she said softly. There was a minute or two of silence.

"Linda-san," Oka said quietly, "Sometimes I wish it was just us, you know?" The blonde tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

Oka made an unhappy face. "Some... sometimes I just wish she'd go away, you know?" Linda lowered her head slowly. "You mean like... die...? 'She'... You actually wish your sister would die?" She looked at Oka cautiously. "Isn't that... how Kira used to think?"

The brown-haired girl gasped. "No! I mean, I'm totally not like Kira. Kira was... he was an evil person, wasn't he?" Linda shrugged. "All I knew was what the police said at first. That he killed criminals and he was a murderer. It wasn't my type of interest, you know that." Her voice dropped suddenly. "But... up until three years ago, Kira was like... people thought he was God. Some still do..."

Oka was silenced again by this. She looked down at the black book in her hands. She hugged it against her chest and said nothing. Linda stood up, stretching. "Chill out, Oka-chan. I know you aren't Kira. You and I were way too young when Kira killed all those criminals." She stretched her arm out and said cheerfully, "I'm gonna head back to your place, kay? You can try and find whatever loser was messing around with spooky muder mysteries if you want. You were trained as L, after all." Oka looked up, but continued her silence. Linda headed out, and turned to wave. Oka waved back, and the blonde was lost from sight.

Oka would lay there a long time, til it was near sunset. She was tired, and uncomfortable... but... the notebook entranced her. A book like this... if it worked, it would make plenty of sense if you really believed Kira was a God. Was this like a tool of his? To punish the unjust... the sinners... Yes, that sounds like what someone would use a book with this power for. The world never truly knew if Kira was God or human, but he had killed L, so anything was possible...

She shook her head. This was just a prank, it had nothing to do with the real Kira. The real one had moved on or died, so there was nothing to worry about. She giggled. Why had she been so serious about it? She got a mischievious look on her face as she pulled a pen out of her pocket. It wasn't like her sister would really die... and she could show it to Linda as a joke later. But then she stopped. Somehow... doing it seemed wrong, even for a joke. "... Look," she said aloud, to no one but herself, "If you can't stop being paranoid about psychic killer stuff, how will you be able to know it couldn't happen?" She twirled the pen in her fingers. "Let's say Ella did die. Would I be prepared to handle it?" No, she knew it would be hard. "But hypothetically, that's what I wanted. I hate my sister but... is death the right way to deal with people who make others unhappy?" No! Her mind yelled that this was terribly wrong, but another part within her said: You've been trained. You could easily slip out of people's grasp. No one could ever imagine that Oka was Kira. And it was just her sister. Kira killed with heart attacks, right? If she wrote Ella's name down, Ella die of a heart attack then? Oka found an alarming thought cross her mind. It would be nice if I could write down how she would act to die. Then it would be less suspicious. It doesn't matter if it's suspicious or not! Linda would obviously connect me with the notebook and Ella's death. Then write her name down, and see if you can specify how she'll die. It doesn't say in the book "they'll only die of a heart attack." it just says "they'll die." That's true, Oka considered. The implications of something like this could be phenomenal! Imagine how many of the world's problems you could solve with just this. There are so many ways a person could die... as long as it kills them, it should work in theory. Hmmm. That's also probably right. So if I wrote the details and stuff after, I could probably choose when and where...

She absent mindedly flicked her mp3 player on, listened to the radio. Oka heard them mention a criminal's name. She had seen the man on TV before. Northon Valla. She looked at the notebook. It would be fun to try, she supposed. He was accused of rape and muder and goodness knows what else... an unreformable predator. She wrote in his name idly. No point specifying his death, since it didn't seem important. From what it said, it would take effect right away if she didn't write a cause. She leaned against the wall, sighing. Criminals... didn't they ever learn? The song they were playing was interrupted a few moments later. "This... this just in! Northon Valla, wanted criminal accused of rape and muder on several counts, has crashed his car into a wall on the freeway while being pursued by police! The cops are closing in on him but... he appears to be dead! How di--" She pulled the earphones away, horrified. It... it couldn't be ... it was a coincidence! Could... could this simple book be the power... of Kira?!

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Ella heard the door close, and prepared to give Oka trouble. She had chores to do, why was she wasting every day with that stupid Linda- Oh, speak of the devil. Linda muttered a simple "Hi" and headed towards the stairs but-- "Where's Oka?" Linda held onto the banister, not looking up. "She's out. She's my friend, not my daughter; why would I know?" Ella said nothing. The young blonde took this chance to steal away upstairs and close her door. She knew why Oka disliked her sister but... "Sometimes I wish it was just us, you know?" That sentence was a little unnerving. And that weird notebook... Oka wouldn't do it... would she?

"I'm home, Nii-san." Ella continued reading her magazine. "I'm supposed to be glad? It's not like you do anything useful. Geez... some stupid genius you are." Oka had expected this; Ella didn't like not knowing where she was. It was harder to find her and drag her home to do more chores. "I'm sorry, Nii-san." She bowed, began walking up the stairs quietly. As she stepped into the room, Linda looked over from her bed. She was laying on her back, lost in thought. She spent a lot of time like that, because it helped to keep her mind occupied. Her intellect was matched only by her vivid imagination. Linda said some of the L classes helped give her ideas for fantasy worlds she could visit whenever she closed her eyes. "Oka, you're back..." The brunette sighed. "I... I want to write Ella's name into the book, Linda." She felt herself begin to cry, but withheld as much as she could. If she broke down about Ella, she couldn't reasonably process how to use the notebook correctly. Emotion did not enter into proper reasoning and logic. That was one of the basics of being an L student. Linda looked shocked. "You do...? I mean, it's probably not gonna kill her but..." "I tested it today! I killed a criminal from TV named Northon Valla.I ran over what would happen if it worked and I came to several conclusions."

She fell back on her bed, taking a deep breath.

"I realized that it would have to be a heart attack for something like this book. How else would you know right away if it worked? Then... then I realized that this is what Kira knew. He also used this notebook to... to help the world." Oka smiled feebly. "I don't think me and you could be like Kira, Lin, but we might as well try and help people. We're trained and really smart..."

Linda trembled. "B-but, if they catch us, we'll be killed too!"

Oka shook her head. "This is the only evidence in the whole world! Logically since Kira disappeared, this must be his notebook. And in that respect, he must have lost it or hid it or something."

Linda's face tensed, thinking. "But... who would we kill? And how? And why?"

"Well, Kira killed criminals, right?"

"Yes, but... do we do things the same way he did?"

"I'm not sure... I think first we should test the Death Note on Ella, like I said I was going to."

"I... I guess..." Linda said flatly.

Oka pulled the Death Note out from under her shirt, having brought it home that way. Linda stammered, "Y-you didn't leave it where you found it?" Oka looked confused. "Why on earth would I leave it? I feel like this is destiny at work, Lin."

The blonde grumbled. "I never thought destiny would come in such a tragic form."

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Ella Nokinawa was stretched out on the couch. She was not an optimist, nor was she an active, eager socialist. She was just a slightly unhealthy woman who had no parents. Her and Oka's mother had killed herself in prison, while serving time for a charge she had later been proven innocent of. Oka's father had gone to prison for a crime he had committed. He was later killed by Kira, though Ella and Oka never knew this. Ella's father was no one special- just some guy who got someone pregnant and got scared. He had disappeared and never indicated coming back. Not that Ella would liked to have met him if he had. She was glad not knowing the scumbag, and she didn't feel upset about it.

If you ever asked Ella how she felt about her little sister, it wouldn't have been a loving conversation. But you could sense that most of what Ella said came from hurt. She was hurting and it certainly wasn't her genius sister's fault. Actually, the fact that Ella took Oka in after she had left Wammy's House was an early indication that she wanted some family in the house. But Ella's anger and resentment towards the difficulty of her life was expressed clearly, and usually in Oka's direction. Oka, on the other hand, loved her sister; she and Ella had arguments, sure, but they had enjoyed rare moments where they really appreciated being family. But in recent months, the arguments had gotten darker... the gap between them widened, and Oka began spending more time with Linda. Linda and Ella had little or no relationship- despite living in the same house, the two of them barely spoke unless it was relevant or necessary. Ella bugged Linda about how lazy her and Oka were, because she didn't understand who 'L' was or what a school for him was like. Oka had attempted many times to explain that 'L' was an anonymous detective who solved crimes all over the world, and that Wammy's House was an orphanage that raised children to be potential heirs to the L name. But Ella shrugged much of this off, saying, "You want to be an international police detective? Do you know how unlikely and difficult that is? They don't just raise an orphan into being a famous supersleuth."

Ella would not understand. And so Oka was determined. If Ella would not appreciate her discipline as an L-student, or try to help her, then what good was she doing? Oka, she's your only family! Her mind pleaded. That fact only disappoints me, Oka responded. Linda is more family than Ella. And wouldn't Ella be happier with her parents... with mom? Oka realized that she wasn't doing this out of hate... she just knew that deep down, Ella was unhappy. That she was angry at the world for leaving her with so little. So Oka made a decision. She took the Note out and beckoned Linda over. They discussed whether the Note would allow you to control someone. If it controlled someone to kill them, then what if you could dictate the actions leading up to their eventual death? It was a simple deduction that if writing their name killed them, it was likely by simply knowing their name and face. This was how Kira had killed, so that made sense. But the Internet had swarmed with theories, including some who believed Kira could simply make someone die by will, and that heart attacks were simply a calling card to show he had judged them. No one had ever given specifics, but this was an easy deduction. Kira killed by writing into a notebook like this one- perhaps the one Oka and Linda held at that moment. "Linda... is it strange that my heart is racing? I feel almost... excited by the magnitude of this single book..." Oka's mind raced with possibilities. Linda was the voice of reason; "Before we get too excited, we have to test it first, dummy!" "Y-yeah..." Oka wrote "Ell" in but stopped, nervous. "We should write the cause of death and details first to see if it works. Otherwise she might die before I finish writing how she has to act." Linda gulped. "Th-that's true..." So in the end, Oka wrote:

Drug overdose

Writes her PIN number down and leaves it on her sister's bedside table along with her last words to her sister. Writes a suicide note speaking of her deepest unhappiness, then overdoses on perscription medication in her bedroom, and dies peacefully in her sleep that night.

Oka shivered, feeling the tears well up as she wrote "Ell-a... No...ki..nawa" next to this. Part of her suddenly wanted to erase it, make it not come true. What hold did this incredible power have over her? But she felt certain Ella was prepared to kill herself sooner rather than later, and she had to test the notebook's power. She felt this wasn't a sacrifice, but actually a type of euthanasia. Her sister should't have to suffer the sadness anymore. Oka couldn't fix her life... so this was all she could give. Linda said nothing as Oka wrote it all. It wouldn't have helped to try and change her mind. So when Oka was finished, she tapped her shoulder and hugged her as tight as she could. She was scared; scared of the Death Note, of Kira, of everything. If this worked, would that mean that her and Oka were now Kira? She didn't like the idea. Even years after Lord Kira was long gone, people prayed. Just as the Christians prayed for the second coming, the Followers of Kira's Faith awaited Kira's return to judgement. But her and Oka didn't want to be gods... Oka just thought since they were smart, and had this power, they should use it to help people.

This single act of ending her sister's sad and unhappy life would begin a long and complex journey for Linda and Oka.

Thus another story of the Death Note begins here...