Chapter 3

Disclaimer: The Maiden of Autumn owns nothing.

-She thanks the readers and reviewers as always, and hope they continue to enjoy the story!

"Hey, Lawliet." Ryuk called his name hesitantly from his perch by the window, yellow and red eyes examining him cautiously.

Of course, the Shinigami might have been a little unnerved; Lawliet knew that this was so unlike him. To become so undone, to look so disheveled and…almost insane.

But that was alright. As long as no one else ever saw him like this… and it was alright for him to look just a little unhinged, because what he was thinking, what he was contemplating… was almost insane.

Well, insane to anyone who didn't understand what he would be doing, what he would be trying to create.

Lawliet bit his thumb as he crouched upon his bed, Death Note lying in front of him. He gazed upon it with contemplative eyes, not hearing Ryuk as he was developed within the intensity of his thoughts. He still wore the clothes he had been wearing earlier, when he had killed those three men.

The memory of the way the criminal filth had fell to their feet made a satisfied smile tug at his pale lips, eyes gleaming as he remembered. It was right that they had died; it was their due for all the wrongdoings they had committed, and it was his right to judge them.

He was the one who possessed the Death Note; if it fell into the wrong hands, that person could use it for all sorts of evil; but it had fallen into his hands, and with it, he could get rid of all the evil in the world and leave it pure and good for all those who were innocent.

Might as well call it fate; even if Ryuk had only dropped the thing by accident, he had been the one to pick it up, he had been the one to use it, and he would be the one to purge the world and make it a better place.

"Laaaawlieeeeet!" Ryuk wheedled from the window, and his head snapped up, taking in the hulking form of the Shinigami, irritation evident in his obsidian eyes.

"What?" Lawliet snapped, supremely irritated at being interrupted in the middle of his musings.

"Why don't you ditch that thing for a moment so that we can go get some apples? I'm pretty hungry, you know. And I go into withdrawal symptoms if I don't eat apples after a certain period of time. You don't want to see that, do you?" Ryuk cajoled. He wanted his apples, damn it!

Lawliet regarded him silently for a moment, before he closed his eyes and chuckled slightly, shifting out of his crouch and onto the floor. "You never know, Ryuk. It might be amusing."

"Amusing- hey! Hey. What are you doing?" Ryuk asked, cutting himself off and watching with a mixture of interest and horrified apprehension as Lawliet began tugging off his tie and unbuttoning his tan blazer.

"What does it look like? I'm getting undressed so I can change. It will look very suspicious if I go down covered in dirt," Lawliet explained, shrugging out of his white shirt. "If it bothers you, leave for a few minutes," he said, glancing back over his shoulder at the horrified Shinigami. He couldn't help but smile at the Shinigami's face- it was quite comical.

"Whoa, then, I'm outta here. I'm not interested in watching your skinny human body get naked," Ryuk said, spreading his wings and phasing through the wall.

Lawliet just chuckled and finished changing, throwing his dirty uniform into his hamper hand pulling on a pair of comfortable slacks and a plain, white shirt- his casual dress, for when he was at home.

He turned back to his bed and picked up the Death Note, stroking his fingers over the black cover almost reverently, thinking.

This was the object that had allowed him to both take and gove life simultaneousy- it was an object of divine karma, in a way. Those who were evil died, and in return, those who were innocent were allowed to continue living. Humans got what they deserved in the end, and now, he was the one to hand out this divine karma, instead of a God that seemed as if he had forgetten about the world, if he let bad people live and good people die.

No; God had forsaken the human race, and with his actions this night, he had stepped into that role. He had done what God would not- help that innocent woman by strking down those three men about to assault her.

A self-satisfied tweaked Lawliet's lips as he thought about that, his eyes glittering as lans swirled in his mind, about how to create a world that he had first caught a glimpse of tonight- a world where only the innocent survived.

Ryuk poked his head back into the room at the moment, his neck phasing through the wall as he eyed the room warily, his eyes finally landing on Lawliet. A relived look spread over his face as he saw that Lawliet was fully dressed, though a small grin spread across his face as he saw the black-haired teen staring at the Detah Note clutched in his hand, stroking the cover almost reverently.

Interesting... seems as if the compulsion was taking over.

"Hey, kid. You done yet?" Ryuk asked, deciding to break Lawliet's train of thought so that they could go get apples. He hadn't had any for awhile, and he could already feel the first twinges of withdrawal setting in; worriedly, he glanced down at his fingers, which were staring to twitch and curl involuntarily into add angles.

Lawliet's head snapped up, startled. He quickly recovered himself, though and calmly walked over to his desk, pulling open the drawer and setting the black notebook inside gently, then closed the drawer with a click. "Yes."

"Nice," Ryuk said happily, phasing the rest of his body through the wall as well. "Hey, I'm just curious, but what are you gonna do with the Death Note now that, you know… you've killed people?" Ryuk asked, truthfully quite curious. The kid had been so adamantly against writing in the Death Note, and now that he had… honestly, he seemed a bit off his rocker, crouching on his bed with the notebook in front of his fingers and staring at it silently for an hour. Ryuk had caught flashes of some weird emotion flash through Lawliet's black eyes, a few occasions where a small smile would twist his lips and his eyes would narrow before his features settled back into their apathetic stillness.

Kinda disturbing, if you ask him. But also kind of amusing, in a way; the Death Note had a nasty habit of twisting even the most resolute of minds, and it would seem that in Lawliet's case, though he had held out for a few days- the most anyone had, if Ryuk remembered correctly- he had succumbed in he end.

But, Ryuk allowed, the kid had done it out of necessity- and because of his personal ethics. He knew enough of humans- and the human he was attached to- that Lawliet simply could not simply sit by and let that woman get attacked. He had seen a means of saving that woman within his grasp and he had done it, even though it had gone against his beliefs.

And, Ryuk suspected, the absolute breaking of his staunch morals had been the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back- the kid's mind couldn't deal with killing people, and it had broken. But it had eventually pieced itself back together. Although, it would seem as if it had been warped
during the repair process, redefining its morals and ethics to justify what he had done so that he could live with himself.

Taking a life was murder, and murder was a heavy burden upon someone so morally upright as his human. No doubt, if he had continued to think along the lines of his previous thinking, the regret and guilt that would have plagued him in the after aftermath of his actions regarding the Death Note would have broken his mind firmly in half- not many people re-emerged totally sane after killing a person.

And it would seem Lawliet was no exception- except in the fact that his mind was sophisticated and intelligent enough to be able to continue on, justifying his actions and turning his way of thinking and seeing the world- adapting to the Death Note's influence, so to speak.

And in all of Ryuk's time on Earth, in the past centuries, he had slowly come to learn that geniuses had a funny way of wavering on the fine line between true insanity and brilliant lucidity- and Ryuk had come to know that Lawliet most definitely fell into the genius category, if his intelligence displayed in his classes was anything to go by. And it would seem as if Lawliet was one of the rare specimens of genius that was truly straddling the line between insanity and brilliance- if his suspicions were correct, Lawliet's words and actions seemed to imply that he wished to embark on a sort of "criminal genocide."

Erase the criminals from the world.

At least, that was what Ryuk thought Lawliet wanted to do. And if he chose to do this using the Death Note… it would be a most amusing time…

He was grinning happily at the thought, and so he missed the way Lawliet stiffened for a moment after Ryuk had asked him what his plans were with the Death Note. But Lawliet's body soon relaxed and he turned away from the drawer, walking to his door and unlocking it.

Ryuk jerked as he noticed Lawliet was leaving the room and hurried after him. "Hey! What about my question?!" Ryuk said indignantly, following the teen down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"What about it?" Lawliet replied nonchalantly, pulling the bowl of apples from the counter and taking one for himself, biting into it as he offered the bowl to Ryuk. "Apple?" Lawliet asked in between bites.

Ryuk's eyes lit up- he had never had free reign over how many apples he could have before!- and he snatched the bowl from Lawliet, snarfing down the apples greedily, distracted from his enquiry by the treasure before him. "Mmhph…" Ryuk groaned as the crunchy juiciness of the apple hit his tongue. "Shanks, Lalwtsh…" Ryuk said, mouth full of apple.

The teenager didn't rely; he simply leaned back against the counter, finishing off his own apple before tossing it into the can and washing his hands, waiting for Ryuk to finish patiently.

Eventually, all the apples were gone and Ryuk put the bowl back on the counter, wiping his mouth as he followed Labiate back up to his room. He had to admit, the kid's silence was kinda unnerving him. Lawliet lacked the door after them and went to his desk, pulling out the Death Note from the drawer.

"Hey, kid, you never did answer my quest-" Ryuk started, trying again.

"Ryuk," Lawliet said seriously, cutting off Ryuk and holding up the black notebook. He turned back to Ryuk, and the Shinigami took a nervous step back upon seeing the deadly intent held within Lawliet's obsidian eyes. "Do you know what I'm planning on doing with this?"

The SHinigmai stilled upon hearing the tone of Lawliet's voice, and stared unblinkingly at the teenager, feeling as if something was off with the boy. Thinking back to the alleyway, Ryuk grew uneasy, reacalling what he had observed. "No," he simply said, deciding now was not the time for smart jokes and witty quips.

Lawliet nodded, lowering his arm to stroke the cover of the Death Note with his free hand, looking down at it contemplatively. "The world is filled with criminals- those who wish to hurt the innocent for their own personal gain or pleasure. I thought… At first, I was convinced that killing, unless it was in self-defense, was wrong. But… as it turns out…I was the one who was wrong," Lawliet breathed, looking up. "I will rid the world of criminals- all of them- using the Note."

"Kid, you can't be serious-" Ryuk started, but Lawliet cut him off, his eyes blazing with a self-righteous light.

"Oh, I'm deadly serious," Lawliet said, his voice hard as steel. "I plan to rid the world of criminals- each and every one of them. I was so blind before- the world's governments are corrupt. They convict criminals, yes, but they're let off too easily. Why should murderers and rapists roam the streets because they had a better lawyer than the victim, or because that country's laws are too soft? It's wrong, and I'm going to change all that!"

Ryuk waved his hands in front of his body, trying to make Lawliet slow down. "Whoa, kid. You have a plan for this?"

Foolish Shinigami. Of course he had a plan. What else di the Death God think he had been doing all night? "Yes." Lawliet set the Death Note down and turned the TV on his desk on, picking up the remote lying off to the side and switched the channel to a news channel. "I'll start out by ridding the world of the smaller criminals- starting small. I don't want people to notice what I'm doing- not yet, at least," he amended. No, it wouldn't be wise to just jump in. He had to be patient, to think and plan and do things carefully.

And maybe… Lawliet's thoughts took a detour as he thought of what he wanted to accomplish.

His father had always wanted him to follow in his footsteps, to become a detective or police officer and help uphold the law.

To be honest, his father had never spent much time with him- he had always been working overtime when he was young in order to keep his family out of debt. After being promoted to Chief of Police a few years ago, their financial situation had improved- but his father still wasn't around that much. And when he was, it seemed as if the only thing he cared about was if Lawliet was excelling in his classes.

His hands clenched unconsciously and his eyes narrowed as he thought about that. His father… he had been gone so often, that when he did come home, it was only to eat a meal tiredly, say hello and then goodnight to his family and then be gone before sunrise.

It was this action that had prompted Lawliet to crave more of his father's attention, to start excelling in school so that his father would be proud of him, so that he would be forced to take notice of him when Soichiro arrived home.

Eventually, Lawliet's excellence in school had become the norm, and it was expected- he would get disappointed looks if he came home with anything less than exemplar grades. His actions outside of school were monitored- nothing that would hinder his academics were allowed, and he was only allowed to do tennis because Lawliet had mentioned that his physical state would deteriorate if he was not allowed to do something.

But he was encouraged to do well in that too- leading him to become the national champion in his league at school. Of course… this regimen of schoolwork hadn't left him a lot of free time in his youth, dn he was on his room studying more often than not, instead of being with his family.

Ad when Sayu had arrived… well.

Lawliet was the eldest and a boy nonetheless. He was the one to be proud of, to make their family look good. Sayu was younger than and not as smart as him- they all knew this. She would never live up to her brother, and so there was no reason to push her to do well. She passed, and that was enough.

Most of their parent's love and affection went to Sayu, and in return, he got their pride. But still…

It made him a bit resentful of Sayu and his parents, sometimes. They had not known how to handle and raise a child when he was brought into the world. And they had made many a mistake in raising him- they were too strict, wanting the best for him but they were misguided in their attempts at parenting.

Now, though, they knew how to handle Sayu, but it was still a bitterness that rose in his chest when he thought of how differently his childhood could have been if his parents had showed him more affection and not made him desperate to excel in order to gain his attention. Perhaps he would not have come out so aloof, so advanced beyond his classmates that it was awkward to interact with them.

"Hey, kid. What's your plan? You sorta trailed off."

Ryuk's grating voice brought him back from his reverie, and Lawliet shook his head, focusing back on his plans for the Death Note, swiping a hand through his black, feathery hair and taking a deep breath, getting back on track.

"Yes… and then, after a month or so of killing petty criminals, I'll start killing the world's worst criminals- the dredges and scourges of society. They'll be dropping like flies- the world's most dangerous filth erased from existence by a simple heart attack."

Lawliet sat down, reclining back in his chair with a pleased smile set on his face. It sort of reminded Ryuk of a cat who had just gotten the cream: self-satisfied and oh so haughty. "They'll connect the deaths of the lesser criminals to the bigger ones. The world will realize that there's been a person-no, a god- watching over them all along. They'll know of my existence, of my work. The crime rate will have already been going down with the deaths of the lesser criminals, and now that the worse criminals are dying, the world will come to appreciate my work. It's like boiling a frog, Ryuk. You toss a frog in a pot of boiling water, and he'll jump out immediately. But if you put a frog in a pot of lukewarm water and slowly heat it, he won't realize what's going on until he's boiled and dead."

"Uh, frog?" Ryuk asked, thoroughly confused. He had never boiled a frog before, so he had no inkling as to what Lawliet was talking about. "I'm not sure I get where you're going with this."

"Exposure, Ryuk," Lawliet explained, sitting up and leaning forwards intently. "It's all about exposure. If I start killing famous criminals, people will rebel. The thought of killing criminals is still too fresh an idea, too against what people believe-what I used to believe- to be accepted right away. But, if I expose them to it slowly, make them not realize what's truly going on until they realize the good effects of what's happening, they'll be much more open to my actions. If I just started killing off criminals, I'd be regarded as a vigilante of the worst sort. But once the world comes to connect the deaths of criminals to a lowering crime rate, they'll be that much more grateful for what I've done."

"Oh," Ryuk said, nodding as realization dawned. "I get it. Nice," he said. He had to give the crazy kid props- he had a good idea. Not with the whole "I'm gonna kill of all the bad people and live in a perfect world," because it had been tried before and shit did not end well, but with the whole exposure idea.

But, like he had thought before- the last time someone had tried this with a Death Note, it had not ended well. In fact, all the people associated with the Death Note and the investigation had died, the investigators killed by the holder of the Death Note, and then the owner, his mind broken and unable to handle what had happened, killed himself by writing his own name in the Death Note.

Of course, Lawliet was a genius, he knew. If anyone could hold his own against the police and people who no doubt would wish to investigate the deaths of all the criminals dropping dead, it would be this kid.

He was just excited to see how this was going to pan out.

"But," Lawliet said, his inky brows furrowing and the words drawing Ryuk's attention back to him, "I'll not be able to see all that is going on… Ryuk," Lawliet addressed him, turning his serious, obsidian eyes up to the hulking Shinigami. "Would you be willing to help me?"

"Whoa, hey, I'm not on your side, nor anyone else's," Ryuk said, holding up a boney hand. "It's against the rules to interfere with something like this. Could get me killed, you know."

"Ah, yes. I had forgotten," Lawliet said, turning away and looking quite dejected. He had hoped… but perhaps the Shinigami could be guilted…

Ryuk blinked, surprised that the kid had given up so quickly. But looking at him, with his shoulders slumped… Ryuk remembered how interested the kid had been in him earlier. Well… Ryuk reconsidered. The kid was kinda cool… and if he were careful, and laid down some ground rules so that Lawliet knew exactly what he would and would not do… meh, why not? And he really did kinda like the teen. He certainly was more interesting than the previous holders of his Death Note, once he had started talking and not being so boring. And this little plan the kid had cooked up certainly was promising…? It might be amusing to help the kid out. It certainly might help the kid live longer one he put his plan into action.

Because no owner of the Death Note lived very long.

"Eh," Ryuk started, making Lawliet's head snap back up and over to him. "Well… there are certain things I could do that won't affect me any… and you're a lot more interesting and definitely more different than other humans… why not? Sure, kid, I'll help you, as long as what you want me to do won't get me killed for breaking the rules."

"Really?" Lawliet asked, his black eyes gleaming. He glanced away, closing his eyes and nodding. "Thank you, Ryuk!"

Just looking at Lawliet's thankful face made the Shinigami think that maybe it had been a good idea to help the kid out. He kinda liked being an idol- at least, that's what he thought that Lawliet regarded him as. He certainly had felt so yesterday, when the kid had been so interested in him and the Shinigami Realm. And maybe he could get Lawliet to give him more apples in exchange for his help… Just the thought made Ryuk's eyes glaze over and his thoughts trail off dazedly.

But what Ryuk didn't catch in his happy state, distracted by the thoughts of apples was the satisfied smirk that twisted Lawliet's lips, nor the sadistic glitter in his black eyes as he slitted them open to regard the Shinigami in triumph.

The Death God would be most useful. It was sad, really, how such an ancient being had been so easy to manipulate.

"Three men died of heart attacks simultaneously in an alley in Japan? Are you sure?"

"Positive, sir. The coroner that was called into handle the corpses after the bodies were discovered by a civilian made extra-sure of this, after examining the bodies. The D.O.D. was all within a few seconds of each other, and the oddity of the situation was only offset by the fact that all men were extremely fit and healthy- there was no cause at all for them to have heart attacks."

"How odd… and certainly most intriguing. Have they been identified?"

"Yes."

"And their family's health histories checked?"

"Of course, sir. All of their predecessors had no history of any heart-related complications, whether it be disease or a history of frequent heart attacks."

"Hm…" How absolutely intriguing… it sounded almost like murder… but how that person would pull it off was still a mystery. And he lived for mysteries such as this.

"How would you like to proceed with this, sir?"

"Contact the Japanese embassy. I'd like to be kept up-to-date on this phenomenon. Watch and follow the situation closely- I want to know right away if anything else like this occurs."

"Of course, sir."

"And Watari?"

"Yes sir?"

"When you come this way again… I'd like some more potato chips. I happen to be out of them."

"As you'd like, sir."

-How odd. It seems as if FanFiction has been eating snippets of the chapter... It's fixed now, but still rather intriguing as to why this happened...