A/N: This story doesn't entirely follow the canon storyline. There will be some recognizable scenes but I will try and change them up a bit. I will be using Raito, not only do I think it sounds better but there is a use for it. There won't be any Misa-Misa. She annoys me. Lets just say she was killed along with her parents? :) All rules that you see at the beginning of each chapter belong to Tsugumi Ohba. Enjoy! x


Susanoo's Stratagem - 1

The Death Note will be rendered useless if the victim's name is misspelled four times.

Raito walked into the shop a little nervously. He needed to test the Death Note one more time, just to make sure it was real. It didn't matter who he tested it on, they just needed to have done something bad. There was a motorbike gang outside harassing a young lady and he heard the name of their supposed leader, Takuo Shibuimaru. No, the man wasn't exactly a criminal but if he carried on like he was with that woman, he would end up being one. Raito used a magazine from the shelf to hide the cover of the Death Note from prying eyes. The lady's screams were getting louder as he wrote every variation of the name he could think of. At least one of them had to be correct. He stared at his Campanola watch, watching the second's hand move incredibly slowly. It was a present from his parents, for being the top student in Japan the previous year. The lady's screaming was getting louder, catching the attention of passersby, but no one was stupid enough to interrupt them. The gang members only laughed.

A minute had passed and the gang was still surrounding the woman. She finally escaped and Takuo got onto his motorbike to chase after her. Raito expected him to crash, or for something to crash into him. He did specify it to be a traffic accident. It shouldn't matter if he dies a little late, at least the lady will be saved.

Nothing happened. Takuo caught up with the lady and she screamed again. Raito couldn't bare it anymore. He was actually disappointed that the book didn't work. Was he crazy? It's not like he would just start killing people. Would I?

"Aren't you going to pay for that?"

Raito looked around but there was no one in the shop. He turned to the counter to see a girl around his age behind it. She looked familiar.

"Don't think you can just walk out of here, especially after writing in that magazine."

"I wasn-"

"Don't lie to me. I saw you."

Raito looked down at the magazine he had chosen. He internally face-palmed, out of the entire magazine shelf he chose the only porn-related one. He looked at the price and saw it was one of the most expensive magazines as well.

"I'm not even old enough to buy this." He placed it on the counter hoping she would put it back on the shelf.

Instead the girl scanned the bar-code. "That will be 1,300 Yen."

"You've got to be kidding me. I just told you I'm too young." Raito was shaking his head at her.

"To me, it looks like you're a bit lonely." She winked at him. "I won't tell anyone if you don't."

Raito wasn't in the mood to argue anymore so just got out his wallet and paid the money. He could have used the line, 'the Chief of the NPA is my father', but he didn't think she would care at all. She placed the magazine into a brown paper bag and wished him a good evening.

The night air was colder and he wrapped his jacket around himself more tightly. His thoughts were on the Death Note tucked inside his school bag. Why didn't it work? He grabbed it out and just stared at it. There was a rubbish bin close by and he was tempted to just chuck it out. Obviously his first kill had been a fluke, therefore it wasn't his kill. People can't actually die just by having their names written down. He couldn't understand his own reasoning, the book was useless, but he couldn't let go of the book as he held it above the bin. It was as if the book had a hold over him and wasn't letting him go. Letting out a frustrated grumble he went home and threw the notebook in one of his desk drawers, to keep it out of his sight and the sight of anyone else.


She was going to be late. Hikari Shimizu, the 'weird girl', four-eyes, late-bloomer, was going to be late. This would just cause another reason for everyone to make fun of her. She had one more corner to turn but ended up falling backwards when someone bumped into her. All the books she had been carrying scattered and her vision went blurry. She began crawling on the ground trying to find her glasses, hoping they hadn't broken. Her parents wouldn't be happy to hear that she needed a second pair in the same month, though it wasn't as if they couldn't afford it.

"Here."

Hikari felt someone guide her hand to where her glasses had landed. She grabbed them and blinked a few times as her vision cleared again. Staring at a pair of legs in the school trousers, she looked up. A pair of brown eyes peered down at her. He made no move to help her up.

"You're the girl from last night." He stated.

"Huh?" It took her a few moments before recognizing him, he was also in a few of her classes. "Oh, you're the guy who brought porn. How is that going for you?"

He leaned down, trying to hush her as other late students made their way pass. "Would you not talk too loud about that? It's not like I had a choice."

"Of course you did." Hikari laughed. "All you needed to do was say no."

"But you wouldn't…" He pinched the bridge of his nose, taking in a deep breath. His eyes wandered to one of the books that lay on the floor.

Hikari had already started picking up her school books. The guy was about to help her when she hurriedly collected the last book.

"Is that a D-"

"Diary. Yes. I don't like people touching it."

A second bell rang indicating that all students should already be seated in classes. Hikari was surprised because she hadn't heard the first warning bell. The guy stood quickly about to walk in the direction he originally was going, which had caused them to collide in the first place.

"Where are you going?" She asked.

"I have English first."

Hikari shook her head. "We have Calculus first… English last. Were you up all night reading?"

"No." He seemed to be getting really annoyed with her antics.

She decided to stop her teasing and just concentrated on getting to class. They both apologized to the teacher who just gave them a skeptical look and told them to quickly find a seat. The guy followed and watched as Hikari made her way to the back of the class, she was ignoring the stares from her classmates. He took his most favored seat by the window. In this seat he is able to look out the window while paying little attention to what is going on inside the classroom. There wasn't anything this class could teach him that he didn't already know.


Hikari sat outside in the cold wind, eating her lunch away from everyone who was smart and stayed inside. It was one of the reasons everyone called her weird. The other two nicknames for her were pretty self-explanatory. They didn't see the shinigami towering behind her, effectively blocking the wind. What they did see was the way her lips moved as if she was talking to herself.

"Yagami Raito… I can't believe I didn't recognize him last night."

"The boy owns a Death Note. We have to be careful. He saw yours."

"His didn't work though…" Hikari stared up behind her at the shinigami with her green eyes. "Why is that?"

"The boy wrote too many incorrect names into the Death Note." The shinigami paused. "Luckily he didn't do it on purpose."

"Imagine that?" Hikari laughed humorlessly, taking on a reporter's tone. "Most sought after guy in Daikoku Private Academy, Yagami Raito, dies of a heart attack. The cause of this calamity is unknown. Chief of the National Police Agency, the victim's father, as well as the rest of the NPA are doing all they can to find out what really happened."

"It's hard to tell whether you are being serious or not."

"Oh Ankh, you know I'm only joking around." She stood up brushing the crumbs from her skirt before making her way to the building. "I wouldn't really kill him, he hasn't done anything wrong."


Raito had been caught unaware three times that day. All the teachers just gave him looks of concern but didn't ask any questions. He was the top student in the school. They had no reason to worry about his grades. All day his mind had been on the Death Note and the girl that carried it. Any doubts he had about his own were erased. What was the likelihood of there being two in the same area? Maybe his was just malfunctioning at the moment?

He started getting the feeling that someone was watching him. He ignored it for a few minutes but the feeling wouldn't go away. He turned around to risk a look at her. She was staring straight at him, a tiny smile on her face. It was like a battle started, to see which one of them could stare the longest. The teacher had called her name causing her to be the first to turn away. Raito managed to catch her name from the teacher.

"Shimizu Hikari, can you please read out the next passage in English?"

Hikari Shimizu, how did you obtain a Death Note? He finally knew her name. It would be a lot easier to get information from his friends now, without seeming too suspicious. He was still watching her as she stood holding the book they were studying in her hands.

"It was His sacrilege which caused Her to hide in the depths of a cave. Taking with Her all the radiance and forsaking the world to darkness. Of no avail did coaxing or their powers help, yet She was caught by Her own curiosity."

After finishing with the reading, Hikari bowed slightly before sitting back down. Her eyes met his one last time before she chose to ignore him. The sound of the final bell of the day brought him to his senses and he faced the front to pack away his things.

On his way home, Raito tried to question his friend without seeming obvious. "Hey Yamamoto, what do you know about Hikari?"

"Shimizu Hikari? Why do you want to know Yagami?"

"I bumped into her this morning." He admitted, scratching the back of his head. "I don't know that much about her."

"Well firstly, she prefers to be alone and I can guarantee you will see her muttering to herself, like she's crazy or something."

"Do you ever catch what she says?" Raito hoped it had something to do with the Death Note and not symptoms of Hikari needing to be taken to a mental institute.

"No. No one ever gets close enough to hear, all we see are her lips moving." His friend stopped, having arrived at Raito's house. "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Wait." Raito held his shoulder to stop his movements. "Tell me one more thing about her."

His friend gave him a weird look. "I have no idea why you would want to know, but last year I had her as a partner for Science. Despite what everyone says about her having a Police record, she's a nice person."

Raito couldn't unlock his house fast enough. He was glad that no one was home because he forgot to remove his shoes as he ran upstairs into his bedroom. Another reason was because he would be able to get this done in peace. Yamamoto had said the one piece of information that he needed, the only piece that was important. Hacking into his father's computer to get to the Police records was easy. Finding where Hikari's folder is located, wasn't. In order to not leave a trace he needed to find it manually and there were over twenty categorized folders, with hundreds of records inside each one. Luckily they were organized alphabetically.

His sister and mother had arrived home by the time he found her folder. Inside it were three lengthy reports. Checking that he had enough time before being called to dinner, he quickly copied the files to his own computer and then opened the first report and began reading.