A/N: This part was kinda tricky to write, simply because I've never actually been drunk before and therefore have no idea how a drunk person's mind works. Hopefully I managed to make it at least somewhat believable, though.


Second Arc

"Here's the package from Mr. Harris, sir," the secretary said as she entered the office.

Her boss was standing in front of his liquor cabinet refilling his glass. "Great, just set it on the table," he instructed her, motioning vaguely in the direction of a leather sofa and coffee table.

She complied, eyeing the drink and bottle in his hands as she left.

He made his way over to the sofa with the half-empty bottle in tow, then settled himself before opening the yellow envelope and pulling out a stack of papers.

'Bout time. For a writer, Rick sure complains about doing his job. It's just a rough draft of the sequel, how hard is that? He's the one who mentioned this thing's got a second arc in the first place.

He took a sip of his drink before focusing on the papers in hand. After a few minutes of reading, then flipping through pages and skimming, he finally stopped and stared at the script in silence for a moment.

"Welp, all of that's getting tossed out the window," he announced to the empty room as he leaned back in the sofa and crossed his legs. "Way too complicated for audiences."

So I'd better come up with some ideas for this thing if we want a workable sequel.

The man took another sip of his drink and this time didn't bother to set the glass back down.

So what can we salvage? Four years after the end of the first movie and the hero's just graduated from college and joined the police force under his dad, who's gotten some promotion. Captain or something, whatever it was.

Then pretty quick it's announced on TV that those impossible murders are happening again, and everyone's shocked. Hero's dad puts him in charge of catching this guy, so the hero calls up the famous detective and asks him to join and help. Detective tells him he's retired now, but sends his two protégés in his place.

Hang on, what were those guys' names?

The man quickly shuffled through the papers until he found what he was looking for.

Near and Mello? Eeeh, I guess those are English, but I think we'd better just stick with N and M.

Heh, sounds like the candy. M&Ms.

Anyway, this N kid's clearly an albino, and— wait, he plays with toys? That's so lame, we're ditching that. And this M… yeesh, he's messed up in the head, isn't he? I don't even know what to do with this character. So— hang on, he eats candy too? What is with these people and their sugar fetish! Bleh! Definitely cutting that part too!

Ugh, so anyway, I guess these two team up with the hero and start hunting down the new killer.

Except this is all sounding kind of boring so far, I need some kinda twist to make it interesting. What can we do with this new killer character, anyway? What's he about?

He skimmed the papers while taking another drink.

Wow, this guy's a certified nutjob. How's he get his notebook, anyway?

He sat pondering the dilemma for a moment, sipping from his drink as he did so. Suddenly he sat up.

Wait, we can bring back the hero's demon from the first movie! Just have some random weak demon that used to kiss up to the hero's demon use one of those erasers to bring him back! Then the hero's former demon goes back to earth and finds someone more suitable for his extra notebook, and that's how this weirdo ends up with one! Perfect!

Oh, oh, and since this demon's still mad at the hero, he tells the new killer who the old one was! This new guy thinks the hero abandoned his righteous path or whatever, so he kills off the hero's girlfriend to make him suffer! It's super tragic for him, but it's the catalyst that solidifies the hero's resolve to catch this guy!

So, uh, after that, um… hm, what else happened in this script?

The man skimmed some of the papers, pursing his lips in concentration.

Right, this news reporter chick. The nutso new killer starts contacting her to broadcast his messages to the masses or whatever. Giving them his rules to live by.

The good guys see the broadcasts and figure the reporter chick might know something, so the hero goes undercover to seduce her and get information from her. His girlfriend's already dead, so it isn't a problem.

The man brought his glass to his lips before noticing it was empty.

Figures.

He poured himself another one, then took a long swallow before bringing his arm back down to rest on his leg.

Where was I? Uhh, news chick, right. So I guess after that it's more tense detectiving from the good guys… but that doesn't sound exciting. We need something else to spice things up.

His brow furrowed as he pondered, absenting sipping his drink again.

We've kinda got too many good guys versus bad guys anyway, what if this M kid is playing the others? Maybe he wants the notebook for himself because… because ultimate power, whatever. Doesn't really matter. And he's secretly working with the mafia to get his hands on the notebook before the others. Maybe he's even sabotaging their investigation! Yeah, this is good!

So the hero and albino are working to find the new killer, and they think the psycho's helping them, but secretly he's making sure they don't find the guy before he does!

Finally the good guys get some kind of break and figure out who the new killer is, so they head over to catch him. Only the psycho got the info a little sooner thanks to his mob guys and gets there before them. He, I dunno, shoots the killer or something and gets the notebook! The others arrive just in time to see him… see him… Oh!

The man suddenly sat up in his seat with a grin spreading across his face and an unnatural gleam in his eyes. He didn't even notice he'd sloshed his drink slightly.

He becomes a demon! The psycho was really a demon all along, stuck in human form! I'm a genius! He needed to get his hands on a notebook to transform back into his true self! This is brilliant! He's the real big bad all along! The good guys are helpless against his power!

Suddenly his manner changed and he slumped down with a frown.

Wait, so how do they stop him? I can't repeat the ending from the first movie, that'd be bad. So… so someone has to sacrifice themself to kill him, I guess. Maybe that news chick was the one who told the hero where the new killer is and tagged along to stop him, but when the psycho gets his powers she sacrifices herself by writing his name down in another notebook that came from, uh, somewhere. Minor wrinkle, not important. But the point is if a human writes a demon's name down the human dies too. And it's all tragic for the hero again 'cause he's developed feelings for her. Cradles her body in his arms and all that.

But do I really want her to make the heroic sacrifice? Who else could die?

The man fumbled through the papers, taking a drink as he searched.

Oh, what about this Matt guy? Finally someone with a real English name. Maybe he's been hanging around the psycho the whole time trying to pull him back from the brink, but when he becomes a demon again the kid's got no choice but to sacrifice himself to stop his friend's madness. It could be all bittersweet and stuff. The good guys would be impressed by his sacrifice and comment on how brave and noble he was.

So the good guys win and bad guys all die, the hero stays strong even after his love interest's death —if she dies, whatever— and the albino… hm, wait, not much character development there, how can I fix that?

The man took a big swallow from his drink.

Got it. One of the task force members is a chick, and he's been after her since the beginning, but she was never interested 'cause he's freakishly pale and stuff. Then at the end she sees how heroic and brilliant he is so she changes her mind and he gets the girl. Bam, perfect, done.

Oh wait, no, and I guess the original demon leaves since the guy he gave the notebook to is dead now. Yeah, that covers everything.

He finished the rest of his glass in a single gulp and unceremoniously banged it on the table. Staggering to his feet, he made it to the phone at his desk and pressed a button.

"Chrisy, Chris —oh." He blinked a moment and pressed a different button, then started again, voice slightly slurred. "Chrisy, get Rick. He needs to fix this."

His secretary's voice came on the line and answered in an impressively cool tone, "Yes, sir. Of course, sir."

"Good," he mumbled, then turned around and teetered back over to the table to retrieve his glass and the bottle.