Insanity


This world is insane.

Key sighed again as he stared holes into the window of his classroom. A sharp rap on his desk brings his attention back to the front. His eyes meet the exasperated face of the teacher and caretaker of Wammy's House, Anthony Rester.

"Really, Key," He said evenly, "If you're going to be the only one attending the lessons, try and pay attention or you might as well not come. Save both of us more time."

Key glanced around the room. Empty as usual. The residents of Wammy's House were a whimsical, genius bunch. Most other students had better things to do than sit around in lessons far below their intellectual standard.

Unlike me, Key thought bitterly to himself.

"Sorry, Mr. Rester." He said apologetically, fidgeting his glasses awkwardly "I really enjoy your lessons. Do continue."

"No need to say sorry, Key" grinned Rester, "At least you show up. That's more than I can say for the other 50 kids who live here. Class is over for today. The weather is great, why don't you head outside?"

Key smiled sardonically, "I'll be the only one." He rose calmly from his desk, gathered his stuff and walked slowly out of the empty classroom. Rester's gaze follows him as he leaves.

"Grows more like him every day," He mutters to himself. Shaking his head, Rester gathers his papers and follows Key out the room.

Turning a corner quickly, Key walks into the library, pausing to dump the books in his hand into the return box.

Walking to the shelves of L's previous case files, his fingers skim over the folders of varying sizes, labelled by date. It was a common game among the denizens of Wammy's House to solve old case files or create new ones based on the old, playing at being L.

His fingers pause at the section marked for the time between 2003 and 2010. There was only one file during this time span, a binder labelled simply, KIRA.

There was surprisingly little information about the supposed case of the century. A case that stumped 2 previous Ls until the current L, previously a member of Wammy's House named Near, put the case to rest.

Key gently removes the file from the shelf, pulling up a chair from a nearby desk to read it. There is a list of all the recorded deaths under Kira's name, thousands upon thousands of people, including members of the task force who brought him down: Raye Penber, Hirokazu Ukita, The first L, Wammy's House's Matt and Mello, the first Watari and Soichiro and Light Yagami. Key flips through the pages upon pages of victims, both criminal and innocent, verging on the million. And not even counting the untold thousands of criminals killed who were not found or linked to Kira's killings.

Past the list of deaths was the description of the murder weapon. A strange thing called a Death Note, dropped to earth by a Shinigami, a Death God. A list of rules followed the collection of photographs of the death note. Key touched the first one lightly: "The human's whose name is written in this note shall die." A strange alien notebook. The cause of a million deaths and years of terror.

The file goes on to explain equally strange things. A name and a face was all that it took to kill someone. And exchange with a God for magic eyes and half of your lifespan. Key's eyes lingered on the page for another beat before moving on. He had read these rules a thousand times.

Past the record of the deadly notebook was a short collection of news clippings and pictures of strange deaths under Kira's name and then nothing. Key fingered the empty space on the rings at the end of the binder. There should be binders and binders on this case. The current L had all of the other information regarding the Kira case destroyed. Even the information Key had now was one of the last copies and highly classified. L had given it to Wammy's House saying that it was important in case the murder notebook appeared on earth again.

Why would L destroy information that was already classified and then hand it over the Wammy's house. Key mused. I need to find more information on this case. I need to—

BAM

A hand slammed down on the desk, snapping Key out of his reverie.

"Heh! Startled you didn't I?" A grinning mask of a face floated into view, "Memorizing the Kira file again are we? Last-Place."

Key sighed heavily. That nickname again.

"What do you want, J?" Key sighed.

"It's Jack this week, Last-Place, get with the times." Jack grins even wider somehow, "I'm here to challenge you."

Jack stood right next to Key, staring. He was a slight boy, a few years older than Key. He had messy blond hair that was short in the back but with lank bangs that hung over his eyes. The most unsettling things about Jack were his eyes. Big black eyes that constantly stared as if they could see into anything. Jack leaned easily on the desk, his face almost masklike with his usual huge, wicked grin.

"Again, Jack?" Key said with an edge of exasperation, "You challenged me last week. And the week before that. Why does the second ranked person in Wammy's House constantly challenge a last-place student like me?"

"Because it's fun, K" Jack said, crawling onto the desk, his baggy black shirt barely hanging onto his shoulders. Flicking his long, pale bangs out of his eyes, he lies down on the desk, looking upside down at Key.

Why is everyone in this place so abnormal?

"Aren't you even going to listen to what challenge it is this time?" Jack pouted, "I made it just for you too"

"Alright Jack. What is the challenge this time?"

Jack's face settled back into his grinning mask. Looping both hands around the back of Key's neck, he dragged Key's face close until they were inches apart, staring into each other's eyes. " Since you love the Kira case so much, lets play a name game."

Key flinched a little, coughed awkwardly and sat up, adjusting his glasses on his nose. "I refuse."

"But you haven't even heard the rules of the game!" Jack was back to pouting. "It took me all of 10 minutes to think up!"

Key smiled a bit to himself. Leave it to J to rub his intelligence in his face.

"Shouldn't you be challenging someone worth your time? Beating me is not going to change your rank or anything. What about challenging Isa? Take the first place for yourself."

Isa was the first ranked person at Wammy's House. Everyone at the orphanage was ranked according to yearly tests and personal challenges between students. Scoring well on various tests, solving small cases delegated to the House by L and winning challenges against students who ranked higher raised each student's rank. Top ranked orphans earn a name letter from L and Watari, symbolizing their eligibility for L's name. J enjoyed rubbing his letter in people's faces by changing his alias from day to day.

"Don't mention Isa in front of me, Last-Place." The humour in Jack's face is gone, replaces with the mad glint of fury. He sits up, grabbing a fistful of Key's shirtfront, "That air-headed bitch doesn't deserve the first place."

"But you can't beat her, can you?" Key said, unfazed by Jack's seething face, inches from his own, "How many times has it been now?"

Jack hissed, his fist rose. Suddenly the anger drained, as fast as it came. "No matter, I didn't come here to discuss her. I want to challenge you."

"Why? Why won't you stop annoying a last place like me?"

"Because." Jack's grin was back, "I want to know why a last place like you can earn the letter K. How can the worst student in this House have the closest letter to L?" Jack's face got even closer. "I want to know what it is you've got that's so special."

Key sighed, jerking back from Jack's grip. He pulled the binder out from under Jack and folded it up, walking away. "I still refuse." Key said over his shoulder.

"Why?" yelled Jack at him, giggling to himself, "Think of how much your rank will raise if you win! I'll even stop bothering you! Just one game, come on!"

Key shook his head and walked even faster. Shoving the file violently back into its place in the shelf, he headed out of the library.

Name game…a close call. He thought as he hurried down the hall. I really need to try harder and avoid him. It's a good thing that today's a normal day though. Nothing scheduled.

He turned into the common room of the mansion. Kids were lying around the room, playing, talking and reading. A large fireplace is burning, reflecting off the floor to ceiling mirror near it. The room is filled with light through the many giant windows that line the room. A large portrait of Quillish Wammy, the founder of the House, occupies the large wall at the end of the room. Key flopped down on a window seat, his hand wiping over his eyes, sighing deeply.

Suddenly, from the entrance way a loud bang. Key bolts upright, staring.

Isaac, a rather average student who was very gifted in photography and art, was standing in the doorway, swaying. He had kicked down the door to the common room and was now shuffling, almost in a trance, to the large wall at the other end of the room. Key and the other children stared after him. Isaac was rather weak and was not usually capable of such strength.

Reaching the wall, Isaac tears off the large portrait of Quillish Wammy. As the other children looked on, stupefied, Isaac takes out a box cutter from his pocket and slashes his hand. Blood pours from his broken skin and splatters, disappearing into the maroon carpet.

Isaac doesn't react to the pain or the blood, but simply raises his palm to the wall and writes in large bold capitals, three words.

Suddenly, he comes to. His eyes widen, his mouth opens, shrieking in pain as he clutches his arm.

Then, a silence, even more horrible than Isaac's scream, washes over the room.

Isaac is clutching his chest and falling, slowly, as if through water. The rest of the children watch, too preoccupied by the message on the wall or shocked from the sight of the blood.

Key snaps out of his stupor first as he rushes forward to catch Isaac in a confused daze.

No, no, no, no, no….

"He's not supposed to die. Not today. Not today." Key mumbles to himself, his eyes wide and searching, "He's not supposed to die today."

Other children start to snap out of the initial shock. Screams start as they comprehend the meaning of the three words painted in blood on the wall.

Key grips harder on Isaac, his eyes searching, straining to read the rapidly fading name and numbers above his head.

"Aberthol Spark" he mutters to himself. His head spins as he calculates, converting numbers from a strange unit to an understandable one.

"No." He says again with more conviction and desperation, shaking Isaac's limp body in his arms, "No! You have more than 60 years left! You're not supposed to die today!"

It's not possible. Key thinks to himself I never see it wrong. It's not possible. Then, in a moment of clarity, he lifts his eyes from Isaac, no, Aberthol's face to the three words on the wall:

KIRA IS BACK

The last of Aberthol's name and lifespan fade from existence. Key drops his eyes, seeing his own frightened face reflected in the mirror. His eyes widen slightly, his normally brown eyes seemed to flash gold and red for a brief moment, illuminated by the firelight. His name and lifespan reflected above his face had begun to flicker. The numbers began to change, counting down. Decreasing.

"No" he whispers helplessly to Isaac again, "You're not supposed to die today."


Hello everyone…..anyone who's reading…..OTL

I'm the author to this Death Note fic. Hopefully this chapter was suspenseful enough…

The point of this is what I imagine as a potential sequel to the series. I always thought Wammy's House had a cool dynamic and would be a really good hub for the next Kira game. I also wondered what would happen if I increased the number of crazy genius in the plot….and Wammy's has a whole house full of them.

Key is what I imagine BB would be like if he was younger….sane….normal?

In any case I hope you will read this and enjoy. I will update quite often as I have a lot of time this summer so please Read and Review~!

Xoxo

Sushifan123