Ryuk sat in a cold, dark cave in the Shinigami realm, staring down at an open page of his Death Note. In the middle of one page, was a single, large name scribbled down.
Light Yagami.
"You were anything but God," said Ryuk aloud. "You were just…"
Then he finally looked up to survey the cave. It was empty. Ryuk had been addressing someone before, telling them about Light Yagami and the story of Kira.
"Gone already?" Ryuk said. Then he chuckled and turned to the cloudy sky to his right. "You should go and check it out… Someone might pick up your Note if you're lucky. And you get to see something you won't forget for the rest of your life. I'm right, aren't I… Light?"
Death Note. The only remaining Death Note in the human world, owned by a boy named Nate River, yet forsaken in a heavily locked metal box in the wall of the back room of an building no one knew about. This was the fate given to it by its owner; to be locked away forever from human knowledge, perhaps eventually forgotten when its owner died.
However, it was not a Death Note's fate to remain unused in the human world. You see, every time a Death Note falls into the human world, it must be used. Usually, the Shinigami who dropped it makes sure it is used. This time, however, the Shinigami has died.
But the Death Note will not remain unused. Because, this simply cannot be.
Through the wall, a Shinigami appeared. Though he was hardly more than a skeleton, this was belied by the oddly modern clothes he wore: a button-down shirt and black jacket, though both were horridly ragged. He also had brown hair that spiked backward, and wore on his head a red bandana and faceted goggles. Only his skull face and hands, and lack of eyes showed him for what he truly was—that, and the large axe-like weapon made of bone strapped to his back.
His empty sockets roamed the room for a moment, and he finally turned his face toward the heavy steel safe door in the wall. He grunted to himself, then strode calmly over to the door and phased his hand through the lock. A simply twist of his fingers dismantled the lock from the inside, and as he withdrew his hand, he pulled the door open.
There lay the simple black notebook.
The Shinigami stared at it for a moment. "Rem's Death Note. What a strange place for it to wind up after all it's been through."
He reached out and slid the Death Note out of its hiding place, holding it softly in his bony fingers. As he did, the shrill pitch of an alarm emanated from the safe, and he turned to it questioningly. However, he only chuckled and stared at the Death Note again.
"Don't disappoint me." He then tucked the Death Note into a pocket in his jacket and stepped quietly from the room.
It was raining again today. Junichi Komori ran after his two friends into the woods by his house, but they were far ahead of him.
"Come on, Junichi!" shouted Takashi, the boy in front, holding the hoodie that had until a few moments ago belonged to Junichi. "You're never going to get your coat back if you keep being so slow!"
Taro, running behind Takashi, just laughed and kept running. But suddenly, Takahashi's foot caught in a tree root, and he went tumbling, and the hoodie floated from his grasp. Taro quickly leapt over him and grabbed the hoodie, but the short delay resulted in his being tackled by Junichi.
"It's mine!" cried Junichi, even though they were just joking around. "You'll never take it from me, I got it for Christmas!"
"Well, it's mine now, loser!" laughed Taro. But Junichi finally got the jacket from his grasp and ran for it.
"It's mine aga—" Junichi was interrupted by something hitting him in the face, and it startled him so much, he tripped over his own feet and went tumbling back to the ground.
"Easy there, leadfeet," laughed Takashi, and as Junichi rolled over, he exposed a black notebook pressed underneath his body. "What's this?"
Takashi grabbed the notebook off the ground and looked at the cover. All he saw were mysterious white characters that he didn't understand; they were unlike any writing he'd ever seen. When he flipped open, he found all the pages blank, but there was some writing on the inside cover that was scribbled in in Japanese.
"The human whose name is written in this notebook shall die."
Taro laughed and took the notebook from him, reading the sentence. "What's this? Some kind of joke? Yeah right, if you write someone's name in this, they'll just automatically die?"
Taro and Takashi laughed, but Junichi wasn't so light-hearted. "Does it really say that? It sounds like some kind of Kira thing…"
"Yeah right," said Taro. "It's just a prank. There's no such thing as a killer notebook. Watch…" He slipped a pen out of his notebook and started scribbling on the first page. "Takashi… you are a criminal that must be eliminated for the sake of the world! Hahaha!"
He finished writing and snapped the notebook shut, then threw it at Takashi, who was obviously still standing. In turn Takashi, seized Taro's pen and stepped away, also scribbling in the first page.
"No, I'm the real Kira, you're just an imposter who must be eliminated!" Takashi laughed, and threw the notebook at Junichi, who awkwardly caught it. "See? We're both still alive, it's a prank! If it were real, then we'd both—"
Takashi abruptly stopped talking, and his hands suddenly flew to his chest, where he clutched at his heart, and fell to his knees. Taro just laughed, watching the act progress, until finally Takashi collapsed, face-first onto the ground.
"Oh no! Another death at the hands of Kira!" Taro laughed. However, when Takashi didn't laugh with him, he quieted down a bit. A short minute of silence passed, and not a sound was heard from the boy lying on the ground.
"Takashi?"
Then Taro suddenly let out a short scream, clutching his own chest. He made a horrible gurgling sound, before keeling over to his side and lying still, his eyes facing slightly in different directions.
"Taro? Takashi?" Junichi set the notebook down and nudged Takashi, who still hadn't moved after two minutes. "This isn't funny, get up!"
But when he rolled Takashi over with his foot, he gasped, for Takashi's face was contorted into an expression of horrible pain. Nervously, Junichi bent over and placed his fingers on Takashi's neck, feeling for a pulse.
When Junichi felt silence under his skin, he thought he might faint. He slowly stood back up, and everything began to go into a haze.
"Dead? No… No way… It's not possible!" He clutched at his head and screamed, but there was no one around to hear him.
It's not a joke… There was no pulse… Did I do something?! Why are they—?!
As he backed away, his foot brushed the black notebook that he had dropped. His eyes flew to it, and instantly the words came into his mind… "Shall die…"
The notebook did something? "Those person… shall die." Was it really the notebook? "The human whose name is written in this notebook shall die."
"It's not true!!" he screamed. "That's impossible!!"
Before he knew it, he grabbed up the notebook and with all his might, tried to rip it in half. But, try as he might, the notebook wouldn't even slightly tear. He might as well be trying to tear steel.
Tears running down his face, he dropped the notebook again and violently shook Takashi's body.
"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" he screamed, and even once punched him in the face, expecting him to react to the pain, breaking his act of death. But, Takashi's head just flopped loosely to the side.
Junichi backed away, falling silent for a minute as it all began to close in on him. This notebook… They're dead… They're never coming back… For a few moments, his mind was racing, lost in a haze.
Then, he grabbed the notebook again and ran for it. He was crying again, but this time his face was locked in a fierce determination.
Burn it… I have to burn it… This thing is cursed, and evil! Nobody should see this thing!
He jumped over logs and bushes, and tripped many times as he scrambled back toward the edge of the forest. He finally stopped as the trees parted to give way to the street that ran to his house. He stopped for a moment to catch his breath, then started forward again.
A figured dropped from the sky and landed directly in front of him. The first thing he saw was the empty eye sockets, the skull-like face of the huge figure before him. He immediately screamed and stepped backwards, tripping over his own feet and hitting the ground.
"What were you thinking of doing to that?" asked the Shinigami coldly. "Destroying it?"
Junichi just looked up in pure fear, his breath coming shaky and fast. He couldn't even move.
"You can't do that, I'm afraid," said the Shinigami. "I came here to have some fun, and you're not going to ruin it. That Death Note is your responsibility now."
Junichi managed to scoot backwards a little, and sit up. "What… What are you…?"
The Shinigami smiled at the boy's obvious confusion. "I'm a Shinigami. And I'll teach you all about that notebook you're holding."