Authoress note: We've reached Chapter 10! Yay! With almost 20! Almost 20 reviews! Yes people! Yes! Sorry, I feel celebratory. 'Tis the season folks. Also, to all of my reviewers out there: I'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, or any other celebratory holidays happening this month or next month in January. Happy Holidays.
Jillian Jiggs: Poor Ryuk. Getting stuck with Keegan's not the best way to spend time, but of course when somebody coughs on your apples wouldn't you be pissed too? Haha. Thanks for reviewing.
Sahxyel: Providing an interesting barrage of question, I'm happy you had input to offer. Wow. Longest review I think on this fanfiction so far, but that doesn't matter. Thanks for your review.
And thanks to the usual suspects: Sharnii Brooke, PiScEs-BlOsSoM69, and Syrupdrip. You're great Reviewers as always.
Enjoy Chapter 10
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note. Death Note belongs to Tsugumi Ohba and Takashi Obata.
Disclaimer 2: The idea of the Life Script belongs to me. Please do not steal. Thank you. Any Original characters, Keegan Phelps (no relation to Michael Phelps), belong to me. Thanks.
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"It has been brought to my attention that somebody wishes to challenge my power. How careless of you to think that you can win against me. You're nothing but a foolish coward who runs and hides when it's time to face up to the challenge. You bothered me once; I ignored you and merely thought of your message as a mere prank. Now that you've tried to challenge me again with a second message, I'm answering. So now the only question I want to know, Kuro, is will you live up to your challenge? Or will I kill you before then? I'll await your response at anytime, until then. You've been warned."
Keegan stared at the laptop screen as she carefully followed the instructions TJ had issued in the email he had sent about 'How-to-and-not-get-caught' and found herself in the Task Force Database. At the exact same time, this 'live-stream' message had popped up. "Mr. Yagami must have just sent this out. He's probably not at work at this hour…then again I don't know him."
"He's there. He probably had Misa send it." Ryuk cleared that situation up quickly, handing Keegan the box of tissues next to her on the couch. For the next few days she tried to do some miracle working here and there with the Life Script in spite of the fact that she had been sick, throwing up, and limited to the couch. She felt normal sitting there with the laptop on her stomach as she watched the plain white screen with the black K speak in a garbled and messed up voice that masked Mr. Yagami's voice from the world.
"He sounds obviously pissed at me." Keegan rubbed her chin, taking the box from Ryuk before blowing her nose into a tissue. "Thank you."
"Sure. I don't have anything else to do. Why didn't you just send me to get your medicine?" It would have been simpler if Ryuk went to get it. The humans wouldn't see him, have any knowledge of him, and Keegan would be able to get him apples if she got better faster. She'd ruined the bag she'd bought for him just a few days ago."
"Because then the pharmaceutical reps would think that some junkie stole it or I stole it and then there would be some major confusion. No evidence. And people would think the guys handling the medications were crazy and possibly lock them up in some psychiatric institution." She shrugged. "I appreciate the offer though. It doesn't matter right now. The medicine's here and I'm getting better. That's all that matters." She dabbed at her nose while copying the message like it said in the instruction 'manual' of her hacker guide before she saved it into a media file and played it again.
"You watched it once, what are you trying to get at Keegan?" Ryuk was stretched across the top cushions of her couch as she played the message again and examined the voice pattern closely. "He…was up late recording this."
"How do you know?"
"Psychology class and sociology lessons." She explained. "Ah…he did this sometime in the wee hours of the morning."
"I'd expect just shortly after I delivered your message to the Task Force they debated a bit more and he went home to work on it." Ryuk knew that would be the case because Light and Aizawa weren't seeing eye-to-eye on this subject. "Misa's just some dumb girl that happens to be like his lapdog at every command because she knows he's Kira."
"His love interest?" Keegan asked, deciding to put off on trying to further mentally analyze what time Mr. Yagami could have recorded this at. Even if she did ponder on it, it would be a bit impossible to figure out. She wasn't like that boy genius character on Criminal Minds.
"You kidding? He's practically using her for his own benefit. She has a Death Note too. So he can ask her to kill people if he doesn't have the time too. She's got Shinigami eyes."
"Wait." Keegan opened the Life Script and looked at Rule #11 on the inner cover. "If she has Shinigami eyes…she won't be able to figure out who I am. The Life Script is sneaky that way. Pretty damn good little book too." She read down the list of people she had saved in the past few days and from last week. "Hmm…The doctors say that they can't recall how they came back to life. Most of them just say they didn't feel pain anymore and recovered quickly. Some are still baffled as to how they're still alive."
"You're helping out people not only here but in other states too huh?" Ryuk asked.
"I watch Nancy Grace, CNN, and browse internet news articles on Yahoo, MSN, and other sites for info on people killed. Then I can find out if they had a myspace or facebook page or some sort of picture for them and bring them back."
"You're working slowly though."
"It's best this way. I don't want to go in fast and scary like Mr. Yagami did when he first got his Death Note. See, if you hadn't dropped the Life Script you'd still be stuck being abused by him." Keegan reminded Ryuk of the night they had first met and how she was the only way he'd sate his addiction for apples if he didn't stick around.
"Well, Light only got that Death Note because I dropped it. I didn't drop my Death Note or The Life Script intentionally. But I gave Light a choice to give it back or use it to how he liked. And he didn't just like using my Death Note he loved it."
"Well, I'm sure that even if you did drop it on purpose you get a front row seat to all of this chaos either way. Right?" Keegan pointed out. Her aunt would be back any minute so she had to talk quickly.
"Where's Miss Piggy?" Ryuk snorted with laughter.
"My Aunt's not fat. That's baby fat and it makes her look adorable." Keegan rolled her eyes. "Don't call her that. She's all I have in this world."
"No brothers or sisters?" Ryuk asked, leaning over her shoulder to watch her browse through the reports of Kira's recent kills in the database.
"No. Only child. I wish I did have elder siblings at least. That would make me feel better knowing it's not just me around." Keegan scrolled down and looked at the pictures of all of these criminals that Mr. Yagami had killed. "Oh holy mother of God." Keegan whispered in disgust. "He's morally messed up. It's not just serial killers, it's misdemeanors too." She shook her head. "Mm. Well, that just proves he needs to be taught a lesson."
"Chances are he'll go tell Misa who to kill in order to assure the Task Force that 'Kira' is still out there and that he's not Kira himself."
"So he's trying to make it look like there's more than one Kira."
"You're so smart." Ryuk teased. The shinigami was getting annoying and pinched her cheek in mock affection. Almost like her parents might have done to just slightly embarrass her if they were alive.
Keegan slapped his hand away in aggravation. "Get the hell out of my face!" She snapped.
Ryuk drew back suddenly, Keegan's tone didn't just 'snap'. It had roared. Like an angry animal that had been neglected. "Sheesh. Come on, it was a joke."
"No Ryuk…it's not funny. He's messing with the balance of Life and Death and he's upsetting the Yin-Yang of the universe." Keegan was breathing hard against the congestion in her nose. "It's not right, it's morally wrong, it's spiritually wrong, and he doesn't deserve to have ever been born."
There was silence between them. "Oh. Harsh Keegan. Getting a little testy aren't we? Missing mommy and daddy?"
"I don't think it's funny when you have to sit here and patronize me, trying to get some emotion out of me when I know good and well that my parents are going to stay dead. Using the Life Script on them now would make no sense. They're cremated and I've grown up enough to live without them. There's no use crying over them when the world's balance is in danger because psychotic Mr. Yagami had to go and mess the planet up because he wants world peace. Death of every criminal in this world…does not obtain world peace."
Ryuk and Keegan shared silence again before the shinigami drew away from her and hung around the other side of the room. "…Why does other people dying bother you so much?" He asked.
"Because I do not always believe that God is a benevolent being when it comes to the people of their world." Keegan explained. "A lot of Christians would get offended if I made a speech about that. So that's why Ryuk. When it happens around me, it's because things happen and I use logic to help it move out of my mind."
She was confusing. Keegan's emotions changed from a day-to-day basis. At times she seemed relatively levelheaded and knew what she was doing; today she seemed offset in her mind and upset about something. "Did something happen today while you were sick? Not that I'm concerned but your behavior's been a bit off today."
Keegan was typing something up on the laptop. "TJ called my cell phone this morning while I was asleep and ranted something to me in angry Spanish before he told me his baby cousin Rico died because his aunt's boyfriend shook him. The funeral's next week."
"Uh-huh…" Ryuk grinned, cricking his neck to look at her. "So make TJ's day better."
Keegan perked her head up. "You mean…bring the baby back to life? I've yet to use the Life Script on a child barely able to walk and talk. I don't even know if it would work."
Ryuk was back in her face again, hovering over her in the air. "…What's the worst it could do? Bring back a recently dead criminal on the list that Light killed and the baby at the same time. You haven't brought back any criminals and you do want to stop him…don't you?"
"You're trying to influence me into doing something that could be potentially stupid?" Keegan asked, glancing up at Ryuk with a frown. "I don't know. I might not want to do that."
"You want to relieve TJ's suffering? You are like his mother, right?"
Keegan looked at the Life Script and she almost felt the book pulse from where it was on the coffee table. Her fingers tentatively reached out to pick it up before she opened it. "He does want more proof of my power. He wants to know that I really do plan to play my game like a professional." She stared down at the black pages before she picked up her pencil and began writing the baby's name into the notebook. "Rico Juarez. Death by SBS (shaken baby syndrome)…Life by my hand." She murmured to herself. "You're too young to die and I care about what happens to TJ." Little Rico had only been dead since Keegan had gotten sick. So no autopsy was performed because the cause of death was all too obvious.
"Any minute now." She went back a few pages as to when the last criminal in the Task Force database had been killed. "Sunday." She mumbled, lifting up her pen as she stared at the picture of the grungy looking drug addict. "Hmm…" She wrote his name into the Life Script. "Sorry guy, I don't want to bring you back because I don't like scum bags like you, but it's only natural if we want to scare Mr. Yagami."
"It's all a matter of time now." Ryuk and Keegan stared at each other for several moments before-
"If you lied to me about what I just did. Consider yourself punished." She slapped the Life Script closed and tucked it under her pillow.
--
The report was just about as baffling as the one that had been about little American Cameron Simpkins being healed of her cancers. Light looked disturbed as he stared at the screen. Matsuda's jaw was halfway open with his cup of coffee in his hands, Aizawa looked speechless, and the rest of the members were just shocked. "How can that be?"
The report of Toshihiro Takata being recently admitted to a hospital after the coroner had found the man screaming in the body cubicle. No signs of his autopsy scars were visible and he just seemed horribly shaken and frightened. All he remembered was the attack and all went black. When he woke up he found that he was in a very scary position. He was alive any nobody knew it until he started screaming.
"Wow…Oh God." Matsuda whispered. "This Kuro means business. If Kira had recently killed that criminal…then-"
"Kuro's power is real." Light, for the first time, looked worried. An emotion he hadn't shown in a while. "No…Kuro's…It's-"
"A miracle and Kuro can perform them. I suppose that's Kuro's response to Kira's message we got this morning about Kira trying to make Kuro live up to the challenge he made." Aizawa coughed out, lighting a cigarette. "This Kuro's got guts and some magic in his hands."
'Kuro's a madman. Why would anyone besides L wish to stop the world from becoming a better place? Why Kuro? Why are you doing this? What is your motive? Are you really so bold as to challenge the power of Death with the power of Life? What is your secret? Are you using an enhanced Death Note that I don't know about? Is there such thing?' Light rubbed his chin in deep thought. "Well, there's no mistake. Kuro is trying to take Kira's spotlight. I just wonder how this will all play out."
"Kuro vs Kira." Matsuda shook his head rapidly to get his brainwaves flowing again. "Wow…It's…It's astounding."
"It's crazy." Aizawa grunted.
"Kuro's mentally unstable." Light added.
Suddenly their computer beeped and this time a live-stream 'Kuro' message was coming it. "Hey! He's contacting live now!" Matsuda exclaimed, rushing to the computer before Light could and stared at the black background with the backwards-white K again.
"Greetings Kira and Task Force. Surprised to be hearing from me so soon? I figure it's only fair since I plan on staying on good terms with you. I refuse to say the same for Kira. You all must be pretty shocked. Like my display of power? I know Kira certainly shall. See I figure that if Kira can take life…why not give it back. Quid pro quo Kira: You tell me, did you read up on the Old and New Testaments? I certainly hope so. Just as you can be cruel, I can be kind. I saved a baby today. A little tiny life that didn't deserve to die so soon…right at the same time I brought back Mr. Takata to the living world.
"I imagine that Kira will be pretty angry that I keep sending my messages to you, but I think that he should get the message soon enough when I say that I'm not going to stand by and let you work the show anymore. It's time for life. It's a new age Kira, Task Force, and others who fear Kira out there. It is time…for salvation.
Until then, I leave you with yet another riddle, what walks on two legs in the morning, three legs in the afternoon, and no legs in the evening? I figure you've heard this before but I want to hear your answer…
I fare thee well."
"Well, that's easy. It's…ah…" Matsuda scratched his head. "Uh. No it's not."
The rest of the Task Force grumbled at poor Matsuda's incompetence for figuring things out.
"Kuro's knocking at Death's door." Aizawa said in concern. "I just hope he knows what he's doing."
'Kuro's laughing somewhere and mocking me.' Light thought.
--
Back in Ohio, Keegan was laughing at her success. She had successfully hacked into the database, brought back a criminal, and TJ's baby cousin. "Oh. I haven't had this much fun since I first figured out how to color on walls when I was a kid." She laughed. "I'm dying over here!" She wheezed, taking in deep breaths from her laughter.
"What?! Are you serious?!" Ryuk snarled.
"No, I'm kidding." She tittered, trying to hold in her laughter.
"You better be. Remember girl, you still owe me."
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Authoress Note: Ooh…getting personal now with Light are we Little Miss Kuro? Naughty, naughty. I can attest that he won't be happy about that next chapter. Oh well. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I did. Until then stay tuned.