"Aw, come on, Light! Tell me what's bothering you!" Kay begs.
Light Yagami closed his eyes in thought for a moment before standing up and closing their bedroom door. He then opens his backpack and pulls out a black notebook.
"I found this on the ground today at school. It's a notebook of death," he says quietly, handing it to his best friend since forever.
Kay sits up and skims over the Death Note, her expression unreadable as usual.
"This kinda feels like those chain-mail letters saying that you'll get cancer if you don't send it to someone else," she says, handing it back.
"That's what I thought too."
"So whoever's name you write in the notebook will die of a heart attack," she echoes as she climbs out of the hammock that has been her bed since she came to live with the Yagami family.
"Yeah. Stupid, right?" Light says as he chuckles.
"Depends on how you look at it. If this is just a prank, the person who made the notebook put a lot of thought and detail into it."
"True," he replies, sitting down at his desk.
"But what if it's not a prank?" Kay asks after a moment of thought.
"Hm?"
"Hypothetical here...say you or I were to turn on News 6 right now and they were live-broadcasting, say...a crime in progress, and they showed the criminal's name and face. It would be the perfect opportunity to see if this notebook of death is legit."
"In your hypothetical: if the notebook turns out to not just be a prank or something, and that criminal dies...wouldn't that make you or I a murderer?" Light asks.
"...I guess it would have to be a really bad criminal. Like a killer or something!"
"Geez, we're getting too serious about this."
"Only one way to find out!" Kay says, picking up the tv remote and turning it on.
She turns to News 6 and walks around to lean on the other side of the desk. She picks up the Death Note and a pen, ready to write down a name if it's worth it. As it so happens, the news channel was live-broadcasting to the scene of a hostage situation. A man who had killed and injured 6 people the previous day was holding 8 people, including small children, hostage in a nursery school.
"...He is Kurou Otoharada…" the news anchor reports as a picture of the guy appears on the screen.
"Here goes nothing," Kay breathes as she writes Kurou's name down.
"So we'll find out if this notebook of death really works in 40 seconds?" Light asks as Kay puts the pen and notebook back down on the desk.
"Guess so…"
The two best friends sit and watch the tv in apprehension while also glancing at the clock to see how many seconds have past.
'I really hope that this is a prank!' Kay thinks to herself, a bead of sweat forming on her forehead.
When 40 seconds come and go, she sighs in relief as Light picks up the tv remote.
"Nothing. I knew it," Light says.
He's about to turn the tv off when the scene displayed on the screen suddenly shifts.
"The hostages are coming out! The police are going in!" the news anchor practically screams into the microphone.
"What the…?"
"It appears Otoharada is dead!"
"Dead?!" Light asks in disbelief.
"The police say that they did not shoot him. The hostages are saying that he suddenly collapsed!" the news anchor continues before kay abruptly turned the tv off.
"A heart attack?!" Kay asks, covering her mouth.
"It...it could just be a coincidence," Light stutters, not willing to accept the powers of the Death Note.
"Light! Kay! It's 6:25! Don't you two have your prep course today?" Mrs. Yagami calls from the bottom of the stairs.
The two glance at each other for a moment before Light leaves the room to answer his mother.
"Uh, yeah. We were just getting ready to go," he says, forcing on a calm facade.
Kay stuffs the notebook into her book-bag as she grabs Light's and closes. She closes the bedroom door and the two head off.
"There's only one way to find out," Kay says, picking back up their conversation once she was sure that no one would hear them.
"Somebody...it would be okay to kill...no, who ought to die," Light continues.
"So I guess it as to be a criminal after all."
"But not anyone too major, or the cops might keep it a secret for a while."
"We need a result right away," Kay finishes their shared thought.
After the prep course was finished for the day, Kay and Light were walking home in silence, both lost in thought. As they were nearing a bookstore, a group of motorcyclists zoomed past them and circled around a young woman. A man who appeared to be the leader of the bike gang began talking to her in a sleazy manner. Kay taps Light's arm to get his attention and points to the biker before she cocks her head in the direction of the store.
Light opens a random magazine and Kay slides the Death Note over it discreetly along with a pen. Light writes down the biker's name followed by "traffic accident".
"Now…" he whispers.
"Let's see what happens!" Kay replies, also keeping her voice down.
The two watch as the woman runs into the road to get away and the biker chases after her on his motorcycle.
"Taku! Watch out!" one of his goonies yell.
But his fate was already sealed. A large truck comes crashing through the road, colliding with Taku, killing him instantly. Kay and Light stare from the store window in shock and horror.
"This...proves it.
"The Death Note...really works!"
The two hurry out of the store, getting away from the scene as quick as possible. They turn into an abandoned alleyway and they both cover their mouths, feeling nauseous.
"We...we've killed two people."
"What do we do?" Kay asks.
"Get rid of this evil thing," Light says, looking at the notebook in his unzipped bag.
"...No...I was actually doing a service killing the hostage man."
"But what about the second guy? That wasn't worth the death penalty…"
Light stops for a moment as his breathing evens and he is able to compose himself.
"No, wait...this is what you and I have been thinking all along. This world is a rotten mess and it really needs to be cleaned up. With this notebook...we could do it! The question is-"
"Do we have the guts?" Kay finishes.
The two finishes the walk home and go up to their room without a word or even something to eat. They don't turn on the light and Kay climbs back into her hammock as Light closes the door.
"It's not going to be easy," he says as he lies down on his own bed.
"They are human lives," Kay reasons.
"Can we do it?"
"Who else will? Nobody would have the guts."
"So let's do it! We're using the Death Note to change the world!" Light says, feeling optimistic for the first time in quite a while.