Alliances Are A Killer

Raiden walked beside a young blond girl with bright green eyes to a picnic table in the park we had arrived at. Her name was Aiyaka Akira. She was fourteen years old though her body could very well have been confused for an eighteen year old's… I found myself relieved that we had finished shopping. I was getting tired of walking around. It was quite annoying to fly after his motorbike too. In short, I was thankful for the period of rest that Raiden had finally presented me. The girl herself was quite beautiful, I could see what Raiden probably saw in her. But when she began to speak the first time, I began to question his taste in women. If I were him I would have considered Kyoko. As we finally sat at the table for a lovely picnic, I found myself annoyed by her.

"Oh, Rain baby, isn't it like so cool that like Kira is back?" Aiayaka said with that cute voice of hers that I was surprised had not become annoying to Raiden. "He's come back… with a bang too! Did you watch the news this morning!? Your dad was on and everything! I hope Kira doesn't kill your dad!"

"Oh I was wondering when you'd mention that." Raiden replied as he stared at a group of kids playing baseball on the grassfield. "By your expression, I suppose you agree with Kira."

"Don't you, I mean like come on! He is so awesome! He is a God, the pinnacle of justice!"

"Well …" Raiden said. His mind was racing… If she worships him, who's to say she wouldn't be willing to join him? I'm sure if she knew I was Kira, she would undoubtedly devote every waking minute of her life to my will… Hmm… seems appealing, but she isn't necessarily useful… "I suppose I can agree. Kira does seem to symobalize a version of justice close to my own idea of justice… and don't trouble yourself with my father, I have a feeling Kira won't be doing anything to him…"

"If you met Kira, what would you say to him?" Aiayaka asked him as she pulled out two sandwhiches from her lunchbag. I brought sandwiches! But no eating to you answer my question!"

"Ha ha!" I exclaimed with laughter. "You just have to look in the mirror and say good morning me!"

Shut your mouth Shinigami… Raiden thought as he tried to keep a smile on his face.

"Hello… Earth to Rain! Answer my question, get a free sandwich!" laughed Aiyaka as she waved the sandwich in front of the boy's face. "Free sandwich, baby!"

"I'd ask him… why he wasn't there to save my mom…" Raiden said as he glanced over at me. It seemed in some way, perhaps his own intuition talking, that he suspected I knew something about his mother's death. "That's probably what I'd say…"

Aiyaka's smile faded from her face as she placed the sandwich in front of Raiden.

"Um… so why did you bring your backpack?" the girl said, trying to change the topic of discussion. "You never use to bring your backpack when we went out, Rain… we went out three times this week and each time you brought that darn packpack… why?"

Raiden looked down at his backpack at the side of the table. "Let's just say… I have a few things I can't do without…" the Death Note in particular… which reminds me… I have work to do…

The next couple weeks brought about the continuous deaths of more criminals, but also others who had not committed any crimes yet were viewed by many as public nuisances. Beggars, drug addicts, bullies, and other individuals who had been on the news or had otherwise had their identities made public in some way shape or form. In a time where information was spread throughout the internet, it was easy for Kira's judgment to spread. And the police were getting nowhere in their investigation. It seemed Kira had made his comeback… there was no denying it now… they were infact dealing with a new set of Kira murders…

In an investigation room set with many computers and TV screens, a large team of investigators tried to track down any leads and investigate every call from those claiming to be Kira. It had only been two weeks since the investigation had begun on the new string of deaths and suicides, yet no solid leads had been presented. The police were becoming unnerved by the thought of another Kira and some had begun to leave the task force for fear of their own lives.

"Agent Ozaku," spoke a detective, "we found out from an unconfirmed source that the death of Lain Horutio was in fact a heart attack. We're looking at the possibilities of toxins in the body possibly contributing to his untimely demise."

Raito Ozaku was a handsome older gentleman. He had short black hair, and wore a dark grey suit with a red tie and dark brown shoes. Often times he wore the dark grey fedora that was placed next to the key board on the desk he sat on, but at the moment Raito seemed content with not wearing it considering that air conditioner was not functioning.

"Very good. Keep me posted." Raito replied as he turned to a monitor screen and began to type something on the keyboard in front of him. "Chief Fujimoto, can you come here a moment?"

"Yes I'm coming…" called out the chief detective as he stood from a table of investigators and rushed over to the agent's desk. He was tall and scruffy looking, with a dark brown suit and brown shoes. "What is it?"

"I have been contacted by a man named O who says he works for Near and is willing to assist us in the investigation. I have to admit the idea of working with Near or an associate of his is quite appealing but we have to do it in secret. If we were to reveal to the world that we were now working with Near, no doubt Kira would be very displeased and attempt an attack on the police. Of course, I am asking your opinion, Chief."

"Well, it is true that Near would be a great asset," Taiko Fujimoto replied, "but if he or his associate come in here and try to take over my investigation, I can assure you I will not stand for it! Kira is mine to catch, mine alone!"

"Oh yes, I forgot… Kira killed your father when you were young." Raito said as he looked up at Taiko. "Strange that the deputy chief has allowed your involvement in this case."

"Sir." An older gentleman came rushing in. "Near and O have arrived!"

"What!?" Taiko exclaimed as he turned angrily towards Raito. "Damn agents! Why ask if you're going to invite them to join the investigation any way!?"

"I assure you," Raito replied as he stood up, "I did no such thing! I am surprised as you are!"

"I invited them…" The voice was that of an older gentleman standing at the door way. He was clean shaven with black hair and wore a black suit and tie. He walked into the room, followed by two men. One was in a wheel chair, the other simply walking. The one in the wheel chair wore a white shirt and jeans and had white hair covering his face. On the back of his wheel chair was an oxygen tank which pumped air through the mask on his face. The other man seemed younger though his face was barely recognizable. He had messy white hair that was slightly noticeable under the black hood of the hooded sweatshirt he wore. He had black jeans and wore a torn glove on his right hand.

"Who are you people?" Raito asked as politely as he could.

"Who the hell are you!?" Taiko yelled.

"The chief asked you a question!" yelled a young woman detective.

"Please refrain from yelling…" spoke the hooded man. "Taiko Fujimoto and Ayame Shuchito…"

"Who is this punk?" Taiko demanded. "Who are you guys!? What the hell is going on here!?"

"I am O." answered the hooded man. "Before you continue asking pointless questions, I'll go right ahead and answer everything you need to know. Whatever I do not say is not because it is forgotten but simply because it is not important at the very moment… As I said, I am O. The gentleman to my right is FBI Senior Agent Touta Matsuda. Your leaders have requested the help of the FBI in the Kira investigation and so Agent Matsuda has been elected to be the leader of the team of agents who will be working alongside you in what I hope is a short time of excellent police work. The gentleman in the wheelchair is none other than Near. He has contracted a lung disease which attacks his respiratory system. But that is not why we are here…"

"Touta Matsuda, who has had much experience in these matters and was in fact one of the men that ultimately caught Kira alongside my mentor, has decided to hand over the case to Near and Near, feeling confident in my skills, has chosen me to take over for him. In short, it seems I will now be your lead investigator in this case."

"Near will be serving as my mentor as always, but I assure you that my investigative skills are quite unmatched. Now first thing… Hello Raito Ozaku, it is quite a pleasure to meet you sir. Your reputation as an appointed investigator for the ICPO has served to demonstrate to me that you are perfect for this investigation… Thank you Taiko Fujimoto for your understanding, I promise you I want nothing more than to catch Kira together. This is not a power struggle gentlemen. We will work together to catch Kira. And in the end, justice will prevail…"

"Thus, my next order of busines is to ask you if you would so kindly find a place for myself and Near to sit so that we may begin to conduct our own investigation into these deaths…"

"Umm…" Chief Fujimoto said. "There's an office in the back… Miss Shuchito will take you…"

"Right this way, gentlemen." Ayame told them as she walked towards the back of the room to the office that would now be occuppied by the three investigators.

"Thank you…" O replied as he walked passed a stunned Raito Ozaku and Taiko Fujimoto, and followed Ayame to the office. "Oh yes… some tea would be nice if you have any…"

Raiden was sitting at his desk smiling as he stared down at the hundreds of names he had written. Two weeks had passed since the picnic with Aiyaka. Raiden Ozaku had not stop writing names in the notebook those entire two weeks. It was night outside and the beginning of summer vacation. I was relieved not to have to attend another one of those boring lectures that seemed to plague every class Raiden attended throughout the year.

"So…" I interrupted his evil snickering. "Want to play a game or something?"

"No time for games today, Ryuk. I want to finish my judgment of ten more. I've been attempting to place my judgment in five different patterns. It makes it easier to judge secretively. I grabbed too much attention. I need to be more careful as I judge my victims."

"Judge… Interesting choice of words… Don't you mean kill?"

"Yes Ryuk… but the world kill seems so evil. And I am not trying to do evil! I am changing the world for the better. I am ridding the world of those who are guilty of crime… but most of all, I'm ridding the world of those who are unworthy of the life they have been given! Those who are not appreciating their lives nor respecting the lives of others must perish!

"Those who have taken their lives for granted… those who have wasted their lives, those who simply do not deserve to live! I am making the world a better place by cleansing it of the unworthy… Therefore, Ryuk… I have no time for games… But I do have some apples in the cooler by the TV… You may help yourself… I should be done shortly…"

"Did you say apples!?" I exclaimed happily as I rushed to the cooler. "Don't mind if I do!"

As I juggled a bunch of apples and ate each one by one, Raiden Ozaku stood up and held the book to the light with a smile on his face.

"I suppose I should thank you, Ryuk, for bringing me this notebook. With it I am changing the future. I am rewriting history as I see fit. With each name, I am creating a new world filled with those who are worthy to experience its pleasures. All those who are unworthy of life, all those who do evil onto others, they will no longer plague us."

"Well, you'll be the only evil left…" I said to him as I swallowed the last apple.

"What are you saying?" Raiden laughed. "I am an angel of justice. I am the savior of the world."

Figures… another one with crazy ideals… still, he's amusing me…

"Why don't we watch some television, Rain?" I asked as I moved towards the TV. "You could kill… I mean judge a few extra people and be entertained at the same time…"

"Good idea, Ryuk. Let's go downstairs though. It is nearly dinner time."

"Very well… But I'll want another apple later…"

He took the notebook and put it in his backpack and placed the bag over his shoulder as he walked to the door. I suppose he is not willing to be apart from the Death Note. He's cautious. Reckless and cautious… interesting mix… it's good to be cautious… his reckless side might be a problem though… Light Yagami was smart, but reckless… He made too many mistakes…

We went downstairs to the living room. Rei and Juno were playing a board game in the living room as Kyoko sat reading a book on the couch. Though I'm not human, it was clear to me that Raiden was quite shocked that she was wearing one of those sleeveless shirts that females often wore when comfortable… nothing more than thing strings holding up the thin shirt that barely covered her chest… and there were the shorts she wore barely covered her thighs. In a word, she looked quite attractive just then. And I don't believe Raiden could deny it.

"Um what are you doing?" Raiden asked as he sat down and turned on the television.

"Reading, silly." Kyoko replied as her fingers rubbed the top of her chest. "You know that thing you do when you want to fill your mind with knowledge…"

"What are you reading?" Raiden asked her as he placed his bag next to the couch.

Can me and Juno go play on the computer?" Rei asked, scratching his short brown hair.

"Sure honey… Dinner will be ready in an hour though alright?"

"YAY!" the two kids shouted as they ran off. As they did this, they kicked the backpack that Raiden had placed by the couch. The bag was half open and the notebook fell out. As much as I wanted to say something, I decided to keep my mouth shut and see what happens. And sure enough something happened that changed things for Raiden Ozaku. It seems that Raiden Ozaku is not as cautious as I originally had thought… ha… this should be interesting…

Several minutes passed. Raiden was flipping through the channels on the television when Kyoko decided to stand up and start walking to the kitchen. As she walked she noticed the notebook on the floor. The book was facing up and she could see the words Death Note clearly written on the top. And to my very delight she leaned over and picked it up.

"Hey, Rain, what is this?" She asked as she opened the book.

Raiden turned and saw what she was holding in her hands. With horror of the consequences of her discovery of the Death Note, clear frustration at himself for being so careless, and probably great rage towards me for not telling him, he jumped and rushed to grab the notebook.

"Hey! What's your-" and then she noticed me, and all she could do was scream. "AAH! What… What is that!? OH MY GOD! GET AWAY FROM ME!"

"Kyoko… shut up!" Raiden yelled as he held her down and covered her mouth. She kept screaming through his hand while he tried to explain the situation as best he could.

"Kyoko Takamo… You need to calm down… The being you see before you is a shinigami… a god of death… He is the owner of the Death Note…"

Kyoko's cries were muffled with Raiden's hand as he held tight to keep her from bringing the children downstairs with her screams. But through the muffled cries, Raiden managed to hear her say, "Shinigami?"

"What are you gonna do now, Raiden?" I mocked. "You gonna kill her? Write her name down?"

"Shut up… Yes, Kyoko, a shinigami… his name is Ryuk. Years ago he dropped his notebook from the Shinigami realm into the real world. This notebook… the Death Note gives the person who uses it the power to kill people simply by writing their name in it… When he dropped it, the Shinigami's notebook ended up in the hands of an individual… this individual became known as Kira… He used the power of the Death Note to attempt to change the world…"

"His vision was great, but he lacked conviction and therefore, he was eventually caught… and although Ryuk has not explained to me, I suspect was killed. Either by those who caught him, or by Ryuk himself… either way, Kira died before his dream could be realized. I am Kira now…"

Kyoko's whimpers had finally subsided. And so Raiden let her go and stood up, the notebook in his hand and myself hovering over his shoulder. The two of us looked down at Kyoko who in turn looked up at us. Her expression had changed. She was no longer afraid. In fact, she had an eerie smile on her face, one of excitement.

"I've always loved you… Kira…" She said as she stood up. She walked up to Raiden and kissed him passionately. When she was done, she looked him in the eyes and said, "I'll do anything for you… Kira… anything…" and with that, Raiden had inadvertently found himself an apprentice.

Meanwhile, O sat at a desk staring at the list of recent deaths in the last month. Near sat staring out the window as storm clouds had begun to cover the once blue skies of the city outside… Darkness was creeping into the world again. O and N were sure that somewhere in the files were the necessary pieces of evidence needed to find Kira. The evidence was all set before them in pictures and rows of files. All they had to do was think of all the possible patterns that were not obvious to the police…something that O was very good at doing…He was always good at solving puzzles. He was by far one of the best code breakers in the world. And N knew that he break this code… In his mind, O tried to make sense of the sporadic killings of Kira…
Who are you Kira? What is your motive? Light Yagami strived to make the world a better place. But he was not killing innocent. At least not unless he had to… You on the other hand… you are different. You do not blink at the thought of killing individuals who are innocent so long as they meet criteria that you yourself know. But why, what do you hope to achieve in the end? Light Yagami's ultimate goal was to rule a perfect world made in his image of perfection, and he would rule that world as a God. In short, he nearly succeeded were it not for his overconfidence and carelessness. I know I said you were overconfident. But you may just be very smart.

I find it astonishing how random your murders are. Some are killed by suicide. Some die of heart attacks. Others drug overdose… Oh yes, don't think I did not notice you adding drug overdose to your method of killing. Drowning as well… there have been twenty-two unexplained drowning victims in the last week. There was also a man heading a faction of the KLG that gathered his whole gang for a meeting at his home and then detonated a bomb, killing all twenty-two of them... Wait… Twenty-two...?

You're creating patterns, your testing the Death Note, aren't you? It would explain why there have been fewer heart attacks from last week… Wait… there were twenty-two over the weekend… You're doing five patterns… separating each type… criminals… corrupt… unworthy… diseased… and ENEMIES… you're killing people you hate aren't you? But why do you hate them?

Is this it? This man… Daren Karts… An American… but he use to work for the ICPO… Why did you kill him? Wait… He worked for Raito Ozaku before… Could this be it? Kira… I'm coming for you…