ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY

Chapter Four

Zando

The assembly was over and Steven found himself standing from his seat along with Zito as they made their way out of the Auditorium.

"At least we're getting our break back." Zito said groggily. Through the whole assembly he'd drifted back and forth between sleep. The assembly itself wasn't anything special. They got their logbooks and went through all the rules. At least they didn't have to go to third period. Steven didn't have anything against woodshop, except for some of the idiot juniors who liked to mess with Mr. Mejelli every day. But Steven himself was also quite tired.

It had been an entire week since he'd decided that he would use the Death Note to change the world. He'd spent a lot of late nights by himself thinking over what he should do but not once had he questioned that what he was doing wasn't right. They'd been in school three weeks now and already everyone around him seemed to be even more despicable than he'd already thought. Was this Death Note making him notice people's actions more clearly?

"You alright, man?" Zito asked suddenly.

Steven snapped to attention. "Huh? Oh, it's nothing. Just can't wait for lunch is all."

Zito gave a curt nod and said "Nacho day?"

"Yup."

"Awesome."

Stupid, Steven… Steven thought with a frown as he moved in line behind Zito. He'd let his tiredness appear on his face. That was one of the many things he'd been working on and thinking about. Hiding his true emotions with his face and his words. Lying was second nature for him but there were times where his face would give it away. When he lied to his friends it would usually be about something unimportant or just for fun so he wouldn't bother trying to hide his emotions. This had been proven already when Zito mentioned earlier that he knew his "lying" face. Steven had decided that he could use this to his advantage somehow if he ever needed to pretend to lie simply pulling off the lying face that Zito recognized.

He'd come up with a list of things inside his head that he would need to do in front of his friends. The first would be to act the way his friends would typically think of him. If he started showing signs of being tired or concerned about something then they would wonder what was going on with him. Even at that moment he had a straight face on as he searched the crowd of students all around him.

Steven hoped he wouldn't be forced to lie too often to them. Keeping track of certain lies may prove later to be difficult. But if he continued to pull off obvious lies and use his "lying face" in front of Zito on top of being his normal self then he shouldn't arouse too much suspicion.

There were a lot of times where Steven wondered if he was being too precautious and that he didn't need to take things so seriously. But whenever he thought this, the image of Ashley Peters floated into his mind and he knew that if people were to ever find out that he was the one who killed her then he would be severely punished. He had to be cautious about everything. Even his best friends, no, especially his best friends.

"Bush!!"

Steven looked up as Baker stepped into fifth period, Independent Living, with her orange backpack strapped over her shoulder.

"Baker!" Steven said with a smile, setting his backpack down on his table.

"Did you finish your resume?" She asked, sitting down in her chair in the section of tables next to his and Zito's.

"Yeah, it's just one page though." Steven said lamely, pulling out the resume he'd worked on the previous night. It wasn't too impressive. He'd put a lot of skills in the beginning to make up for his lack of experience involving jobs.

"Lemme see." Baker said, taking it from his hands.

Steven sat there and looked at the door, waiting to see if Zito would come in while Baker scanned his resume.

"Joe Bardsley?" She said.

"Hm? Oh, that's Luke's dad." Steven muttered.

"You put all your friend's parents on here?"

"Sure, why not."

"Did you get their consent?"

Steven blinked dumbly. "Uh, no? Were we supposed to?"

"Yeah! Bush!" Baker said, throwing his resume at him and laughing.

Steven scratched the back of his head and shrugged. "Oh well, I didn't hear that rule. I'll just tell them some other time."

In truth, he'd thought about asking them but doing it like this was a more normal thing for Steven to do. He didn't want to look like he was suddenly doing all his homework perfectly all the sudden. He could work up to that moment another day.

Steven locked the front door behind him and entered his kitchen. His backpack fell onto the table as he went for some food and grabbed a banana from the basket on the counter. He paused for a second and actually looked down at the banana with an odd expression. Since when did he eat banana's? And why was this banana so old and rotten looking? Laughing at himself, he tossed the strange looking banana into the trash and cooked himself a pizza instead from the freezer.

Another day of school was over, nothing special happened. At least, that's what he would've thought if it wasn't for the Death Note. But for the past week he'd also been watching people's actions and getting their names for future purposes. He'd managed a page of people from the school that he'd seen doing something or saying something that was either greatly intolerable, or simply annoying. He probably wouldn't write all of their names in the Death Note. But if he kept notes on separate pieces of paper of their names then he would be able to use them for later just in case he did decide to kill them.

The Death Note itself was still completely empty. He'd decided it'd be best to erase the names of the Three Mexican students and Ashley. He wondered briefly if doing this would cause them to come back to life but he'd erased their names three days ago and there had been no news of any resurrections and his math class remained void of them which meant erasing their names wouldn't do anything and could also mean that if he had to he could erase names that he'd written in to make more space in the Death Note.

He ate his pizza and watched some television for about an hour before deciding to go into his room and do his homework. Luke was hanging out with his girlfriend today and Zito had plans to go B.B. Gunning with a few of his friends at Maplewood park. Steven was simply not in a mood to hang out today and had refused both their offers to hang out with them after school. Something, even he thought, wasn't a normal thing for him to do but he knew that they wouldn't mind.

Steven grasped his door knob and entered his room and was forced to drop his backpack. For what he saw sitting on his bed was something he had not anticipated.

At first, it looked like a person wearing black, tattered robes and was supporting a mop of long, messy raven hair. But a few seconds of staring and Steven knew this wasn't anything normal. It wasn't human, that was for sure. But it didn't look like anything else he'd ever seen in his life. It was a monster of some sort. He could see that now. The thing's arms were very long and skeletal and it was wearing a cluster of different shaped belts around its waist.

And then there was its face. The right eye could be seen from between the hair lines of its bangs. The eye was nearly bulging out from its socket. And its mouth was wide and had a frightening, almost silly grin. Its nose was flat like a snake's. And its skin was as pale as the moon. What the fuck was this thing?

When Steven had entered, the monster had looked up with a dumbfounded expression and stared at him without a word. For a few seconds they both remained where they were, staring at each other. And then Steven slowly stepped forward and closed the door.

"That won't be necessary." The thing said, pointing a bony, claw-like finger at him. "Nobody else but you can see me."

Steven blinked, staring speechlessly at him. At least, he thought it was a guy. Its voice was more masculine than if it were to be a girl.

"Not gonna talk?" The monster asked, tilting its head slightly. "Weird. You humans always surprise me. Most scream or let out some kind of emotion when they see a Shinigami."

Admittingly, he'd nearly shouted and fallen backward at the sight of this beast on his bed but his sister was home and he didn't want to cause a commotion. One of the reasons why he'd shut the door behind him. Besides…

"A Shinigami?" Steven asked with a frown.

"Death God." The thing replied, taking out what Steven recognized as a half-eaten banana and finished the rest of it in one gulp, throwing the peel on the ground behind him.

"Death God, huh…" Steven frowned. "So then I was right…"

"Huh?" The Shinigami blinked, this time he was confused. "Right about what?"

Steven walked over to his shelves, tearing his glance away from the creature on his bed, where he opened up the drawer and took out the Death Note that had been hidden underneath a bunch of socks.

"You came for this, right?" Steven said, holding up the notebook to show the reaper the cover.

And just like he'd expected, the Shinigami nodded. "Well, I didn't technically come for that…Wait, so you were expecting me?"

"Not exactly." Steven sighed, lowering the Death Note and glaring down at the banana peel. "I read and reread the rules in this thing and it doesn't look like it was written by any kind of human hand writing. Plus, it didn't say who published it or wrote such a thing. Because of the rules written inside I knew that someone must've had it before me but I didn't think that it would be a Death God."

And to Steven's surprise, the Shinigami laughed. "So you really do believe I'm a death god then? I remember once, one of the people I blessed with that notebook thought I was a man in a Halloween costume."

"I can tell you're real." Steven said. "And if I wanted I could just get Amanda in here. If she doesn't see you then you must be a real Death God, right?"

"I suppose." The Death God shrugged and scratched his chin.

"Anyway…" Steven went on "Ever since I made that realization that someone had written this thing, I figured I might end up meeting him one day. I didn't really expect to meet him in my bedroom, though…"

"So you were waiting for me, eh?"

"Yeah…"

Steven looked up with a frown still on his face. The Shinigami was looking back at him with his eye wide and unblinking. It was truly a strange looking thing, but it didn't frighten him. There were instances where Steven had actually been expecting a whole lot worse looking dude showing up. If anything, this Death God was rather tame in comparison to some of the images that went through his head earlier of what a Death God would really look like.

"Do you mind getting off my bed?" Steven asked politely.

The Shinigami didn't show any emotion on his face at this request. And after a moment's hesitation, it obliged and stood up. Steven walked over and took a seat on his bed, crossed his legs, and looked up. The Death God was taller than he had anticipated. So tall it had to hunch over from hitting his head on the ceiling. Or maybe it just had bad posture.

"I have a lot of questions for you." Steven said.

"I figured you would." The Shinigami smirked.

"Firstly, do you have a name?"

"Yeah. It's Zando."

"Zando?" Steven repeated with a raised eyebrow. "Sounds like a clown's name."

"Thanks." The Shinigami named Zando sneered.

"Second Question…" Steven began. "Why exactly are you here?"

Zando paused for a second before eyeing the Death Note. "That thing right there. When did you get it?"

"Almost a month ago."

"Ah. Well, you see. I dropped that Death Note on the ground about a month ago and I've been searching for it ever since. And I managed to trace it back to you at last." Zando told him.

This was what Steven had been expecting. "So you want to take it back?"

"Actually…I can't." Zando sighed.

Steven raised his eyebrow in surprise. "Why?" he asked.

"Well, you see, once a human takes over ownership of that notebook, then no Shinigami, including myself, can remove it from you unless you give it up willingly. And if you were to do so, then you would forget every memory involving the Death Note."

Steven looked down at the Notebook in his hands. So he was the rightful owner of it. He knew that for sure now and not even a God of Death could take that away from him?

"So you Shinigami have rules too, huh?" He asked.

"Yup…Sadly." Zando shrugged.

Steven frowned and crossed his arms. "Then when I die, do you get it back?"

"Yes…well, you see…" Zando seemed to smile even more wickedly than usual. "The rules are, when a human picks up the death note, it is theirs until they forfeit their rights of it to someone else. But when the person owning the Death Note dies, it becomes fair game and the first person to touch it becomes the owner. And since I'm a Shinigami belonging to this notebook I will follow you wherever you go until you die."

"So you'll end up taking it from me since you'll be there when I die, huh?" Steven sighed. "That makes sense. This Death Note was actually found by three other students at my school. The one who picked it up first must've been the owner."

"What!?" Zando exclaimed in shock.

"What?" Steven asked, taken aback by the Shinigami's surprise.

"But then, how come they're not the owners of the Death Note?" Zando asked.

"Because they were stupid enough to write their own names inside of it. They thought it was just a prank." Steven sighed. "Even if I thought this was a prank, I wouldn't have written my own name in it."

"So then how did you get it?" Zando asked.

"I was there when they all dropped dead. I found the Death Note lying next to them so I picked it up and left."

"Why'd you pick it up?"

Steven smiled. "Well, I was curious of course."

Steven never thought in a million years that he would be sitting there talking to a Death God so calmly in his bedroom. And Zando never thought a seventeen year old boy would be so accepting of him so quickly. It was abnormal…

"So how come only I can see you?" Steven asked.

"What? You mean you don't know already?" Zando smirked.

"Well, I have an idea…" Steven began. "Does only the rightful owner of this Death Note have the ability to see you?"

"Not exactly…" Zando said. "Anyone who touches that notebook will be able to see me. Whether it be the cover, back, or any of the inside pages. Doesn't matter. As long as they touch it once I'll appear before their eyes. But even if they touch it, if you are still the owner of it then you will remain the owner."

"I see." Steven nodded. "That makes things a bit more complicated. Guess I really can't bring my Death Note to school now since you'll be following me there and back every day, right?"

"I suppose." Zando sighed, looking longingly at the door. "Could I go get some more bananas?"

Steven scoffed. "You like bananas?"

"Well, you see, food in the Death God's Realm is rather poor and tastes like sand. And I've never tasted bananas that were so…delightful!" Zando exclaimed with a mad gleam in his eye. "Oh, I must've left one from my world in your kitchen!"

"Go ahead." Steven said with a wave of his hand. "I'll just say Zito ate them all or something if anyone notices that they're all gone. And don't worry, I found the one you left. It does look pretty disgusting..."

"Awesome!" Zando said, walking straight through the door and into the kitchen. Steven opened his door and followed after him. And then he watched, to his great surprise, his sister walk straight through Zando as if he wasn't there.

"What?" Amanda asked, seeing Steven's look of shock.

"Nothing. Just surprised to see you're not on the computer." Steven said, thinking quickly and changing his expression into a defiant smirk.

When Steven and Zando went back to his room, Steven lied down on his bed and looked up at the ceiling with his eyes narrowed while Zando went over to the closet and sat down in the clothes bin on the floor. He had a cluster of bananas in his hands and was eating them one by one with a look of delight on his face.

"So when you picked up those bananas, someone who wouldn't be able to see you would see the bananas floating in mid air, correct?" Steven asked, thinking it was obvious but wanting to make sure just in case.

"Yup!" Zando said merrily.

"Now I have some questions involving the Death Note." Steven said, still looking at the ceiling in concentration.

"Shoot." Zando replied.

"Alright…Well, I've read those rules that you wrote inside of it pretty carefully but there seem to be a lot of other stuff you didn't include." Steven said. "For example, what would happen if I tore out a page in the Death Note and wrote someone's name on the piece of paper?"

"Well, I don't know." Zando said simply. Steven glared over at the Shinigami, forcing Zando to lean back and hold his hands up defensively. "Hey, hey! I didn't create the Death Note or anything like that! Nor have I really been curious of what would happen if you did do something like that. The rules I wrote in the inside cover were rules that only I've had to follow, really!"

"Well as a human I have to be more careful when I write a name in there. It's not like you where you can do it whenever you want." Steven muttered scornfully. "I guess, since you don't know anything, I'll just have to try it out myself."

"Hey, you don't have to be so mean." Zando sighed with a banana sticking out from his mouth.

Steven ignored him and grabbed his backpack, where he preceded to take out a sleeve of notebook paper from inside. Zando watched curiously as he sat up and placed it down next to the open Notebook.

"What're you doing?" Zando asked.

"I'm going to complete my tests on people who are criminals." Steven said. "And also, I'm going to complete one on a student who goes to my school."

"Huh, why?" Zando asked dumbly.

"Well…" Steven went on, taking a newspaper out from his backpack. He'd gotten it from his Government Class to use on his Response Logs for Homework but now that he thought about it, surely there would be a lot of people in it who were either criminals or a menace to the public. And if he killed someone famous enough it would be all over the news. And nobody would be able to piece together that they were all from the same person. And when he explained this to Zando, the Shinigami nodded wisely but secretly didn't understand.

After an hour, Steven folded the News Paper up and threw it in the trash. He then shoved the notebook paper full of people's names from his school inside his backpack. Finally he closed his Death Note and smirked up at Zando. "Finished."

"Now what?" Zando asked.

"After school tomorrow, I'll find out if all the experiments worked or not. And then my questions will finally be answered." Steven said.

"How come you want to use the Death Note, anyway?" Zando asked absentmindedly.

Steven chuckled under his breath. "Well…" He began. "This world is a rotten place. Everywhere I go I see people who are bad guys and deserve to be punished. One day I'll focus on criminals but right now I am going to focus more on people that I personally know. Once my own life is rid of the filth of society then I'll focus on the rest of the nation. And when I'm an adult, the whole world. And I'll let people know that someone out there is killing people off by killing people with heart attacks only. People will realize that they're being punished and crime will stop. People will stop being idiots and will stop being rotten. The world will become a utopia created by me.

Of course, there will be people who will try to stop me. But if I'm careful enough, nobody will be able to narrow it down to me. And if they do narrow it down to my school, which I'm prepared for, then I will probably end up being followed or watched by someone. Most likely the government. But if I am ever stuck, then I'll simply burn the Death Note into nothing and any evidence of me being the murderer will be gone forever."

"But then you'll lose your utopia." Zando pointed out.

"That's why burning the Death Note will come only as a last resort." Steven said. "I am still human, Zando. I would rather stay alive without the Death Note than be in jail or worse with the Death Note in somebody else's hands."

Steven looked up at his ceiling and a flicker of light appeared in his eyes. "I will succeed, don't worry. And you'll be there the whole time watching."

Unknown to Steven, Zando, for some reason, had a truly evil look of glee on his face as he stared at the prodigy of his Death Note.

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