ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY
Chapter Ten
Eyes
Now let's go back to that morning from a different view…
Zando awoke in a sleepy state to the sound of water. Steven was in the shower which meant the Shinigami had a little while before he would be rudely awoken by the sound of Steven returning to his room to change. Zando yawned and rolled over on the floor. He had been having a good dream about bananas and now he had to wake up. Steven was going to make him wake up anyway so he guessed it didn't really matter.
With a sigh of annoyance, Zando remembered what Steven had discussed with him the previous night after he'd told him about his fight with the Hunter. Apparently the kid had come up with some kind of plan or something. Zando didn't feel like listening to Steven's incoherent mumbling under his breath, so he didn't hear what it was. Zando grumbled and tried to remember what else they'd talked about but nothing came to mind.
The bathroom door opened and Steven stepped out with a towel around his waist, ignoring the Death God on the floor and putting his school clothes on instead.
"Wake up, Zando." He muttered to him.
"Why? Aren't I staying home from school today?" Zando replied, his face in the carpet on the floor.
"That was the original plan." Steven said, slipping his shirt on over his head. "But I came up with something else last night that I'm deciding to go through with."
"You mean I'm coming?" Zando asked, sitting up a bit.
"Yes." Steven said.
"But I thought…" Zando paused, trying to recall what Steven had said. "…If I came, then the Hunter will see me and we'll both be found out."
"That remains to be true." Steven said. "If the Hunter sees you with me then it will tell whoever the other Death Note user is and they'll both kill us."
"So then how will I come with you?" Zando asked.
"You'll be going to school, but you won't be coming with me." Steven said. "You got wings, you can fly. Go to the school right now and do exactly what I tell you to do."
"And what do you want me to do?" Zando asked.
"There are cameras all over the school building." Steven said. "And the security room is sitting right above "the edge". If you hide in there you can watch all the videos and spot out where the Hunter is and who it is with. Since nobody but me and the Hunter can see you in this world then you should be safe. You can also move through objects to increase the chances of staying hidden from the Hunter. You should enter the building through the ceiling, which is another reason why I suggest you fly there right now before too many students get to the school."
Zando blinked, taking in this plan with an apprehensive look. "There's a risk that I'm going to die, though, right?"
"We're both at risk right now." Steven said. "But by doing this, you'll be able to see who the Hunter is following on the video cameras and then after school you can fly back here and tell me."
"You can bring this with you." Steven added, taking out a thin book. "It's a yearbook and its got everyone from Seniors, Juniors, and Sophomores in this year in there. And if the person you see with the Hunter isn't in there then it must be a Freshmen or a new student. That way I'll at least narrow it down a bit. But I doubt it's a Freshman or New Student because of the way this guy's been acting."
Zando frowned. The Shinigami was hiding something from Steven. The truth about the Death God's eyes. He didn't want to help Steven by telling him now, however, and would wait to see if it was all that necessary.
"Hey, Steve…" Zando muttered. "After school, there is something that I need to tell you…"
"Why can't you tell me now?" Steven asked curiously.
"I'll explain later." Zando said, standing up and stretching.
"You seem to be hiding a lot from me lately, Zando." Steven frowned.
"Sorry." Zando apologized. "Let me make that up to you by helping you with your plan."
"I suppose I'm just glad that you are actually helping me." Steven sighed, shrugging his shoulders. "After what you told me last night, I thought you would only be doing things to help you out only. But then I remembered that by helping me get rid of the other Death Note user, it will be helping you be getting rid of the Hunter."
"That too is a good reason." Zando nodded.
"See you after school, then." Steven smirked.
The Shinigami nodded and turned around. Zando's shoulders ruffled for a second and then spread into long, feathery wings that spread out around him. He took off and flew straight on up through the ceiling and into the morning dawn sky.
The Shinigami remembered the last time he went flying like this and being stopped by the Hunter. The fight, luckily, wasn't much of a fight. More like a chase if anything. Zando faltered slightly as he flew, for there was a scar on his right wing where the Hunter had slashed him in flight.
Zando pushed memories of that night out of his mind and enjoyed the view of the morning sun rising over the horizon. He could see Hazen High School standing in the distance and already cars were driving into the parking lot, mainly teachers. Zando landed on top of the roof and fell through it where he landed in one of the top hallways.
"He said it was by the "Edge"." Zando muttered to himself, running down the hallway and turning the corner where he found himself looking over the balcony to the Edge. There were a couple of students walking around but no Hunter. Zando scratched his chin, wondering where the security center could possibly be and then saw a door to his right leading into a room looking out over the slowly social progressing room bellow.
"Is that it?" Zando wondered out loud, walking toward it and going through the door as if it weren't there.
The Shinigami was standing in a small, dark, boxed, empty room filled with television monitors, a shelf full of video tapes, and a window overlooking "The Edge". It was an interesting room. Each of the TVs was showing different corridors and classrooms throughout the building. Many TVs were split screened to show four or eight rooms. So all Zando had to do was sit there all day and watch the monitors to see if he could spot the Hunter? Sounded easy. But boring as hell.
Zando sighed through the slits of his nose, glaring down at the nearest TV. This was Steven's grand plan? For Zando to sit there for six and a half hours while Steven got to roam the school and have fun. Oh well, it wasn't like it was any different from before when all he did was follow Steven around and listen to him. But at least when he did that he could study the social behaviors between the humans. He always found them quite interesting.
Zando searched the room for any sign of bananas as the buses started to pull in. But Zando was left unlucky as always. Great, no food either.
And then something spotted his eye on the camera. Zando leaned in closer and saw something getting of the bus with some of the other kids, except it had floated straight through the window as if it weren't there.
Shinigami! Zando thought, recognizing the Hunter's face straight away. But there was a crowd of students beneath him and Zando couldn't make out any of their faces or…
The Death God gave a yelp of surprise when the door behind him opened and to his shock, Mr. Bailey walked in with a banana half eaten in his hand. "Damn that Shaunesty…." The Security guard muttered, collapsing into his seat next to the invisible Shinigami and glaring through his shades at the televisions.
Zando stared at the banana with a look of desire on his face but quickly remembered that he had to be watching the cameras. He looked back but the Hunter was gone as well as the group of students it had been following. Zando couldn't see the faces of any of the kids and even if he could he wouldn't have been able to tell which the Hunter belonged to because they were all together in a pack making it impossible. But the Hunter was definitely at school now, which means Zando was officially in danger.
And then a horrifying thought crossed his mind. What if the other Death Note user was just like Steven and thought of having the Hunter placed in the very same security room to do exactly what Zando was doing?
Instinctively, Zando looked around his shoulder but the door was closed and there were no signs of a Shinigami there.
Mr. Bailey continued to mumble stuff under his breath, completely unaware of Zando's presence there. Zando sighed and continued to do his job, hoping that the Hunter wouldn't come up behind him when he wasn't looking and kill him. Zando couldn't help but feel fear at this horrible thought and when Mr. Bailey yawned the Shinigami was forced to jump in fright. But the security guard was just getting up to leave, the banana peeling left forgotten upon the desk.
And then Zando was alone. Even though Mr. Bailey's presence there didn't mean anything, it did feel comforting to not be isolated with the possible looming threat of danger behind his back. And he was hungry.
Zando picked up the banana peel and stared at it for a few seconds hesitantly. It still had the scent of a banana and it was better than nothing. So he swallowed the peel whole and gulped it heavily down his throat.
Three hours passed and Zando had decided that it would be safe to assume that the Hunter wasn't going to go in there with him. There had been some occasional times where the Shinigami spotted the Hunter in the hallways but it would only be for a brief couple of seconds and it was never with anyone that he could see clearly by themselves. So the day wore on into lunch and Zando found himself sitting in the chair and leaning against the desk with a bored expression on his face.
If he couldn't spot the Hunter's human in the hallway then what were the chances of him seeing them alone during lunch hour?
Zando's attention snapped to one of the smaller television screens and his eyes widened with shock. So that's who it is… He thought, a wicked smile spreading across his face. Looks like things are going to be a bit more interesting if that's the case…
Zando squinted a bit harder to confirm what he saw and after a few seconds he smiled and nodded to himself. "Yup, that's the one. So the Hunter is following that boy, is he?"
The Death God stood up, preparing to leave but stopped. If he left and flew away now…then the Hunter might see him and everything would be ruined.
Great, so for his own safety Zando would have to wait inside the security room all day anyway. He supposed that he could leave during a class hour so that the chance of being seen were gone completely but then what would he do? Fly around outside and wait for three more hours?
The hunter turned and looked directly up at the camera and all thoughts of leaving were wiped from Zando's mind. What the…?
The Hunter stared at the camera for a few seconds in silence. Zando watched with batted breath but the nothing else happened. Why did the Hunter look at the camera? Did he know that he was being watched? Impossible. There was no way to look into this room unless you were in the edge and if that had happened then Zando would've noticed and not once did he see the Hunter in the edge all through that day. But then why did it look at the camera? Was it just a coincidence?
No, it felt like the Hunter had been looking directly at Zando himself, almost daring him to do something.
Zando frowned and shook his head. No, it wasn't possible. The Hunter couldn't possibly—
"I know you're there." The Hunter said suddenly and its voiced echoed from the monitor screen. "You're not fooling anyone."
Zando opened his eyes and took a step back away from the camera. What? Was Zando's ears playing tricks with him? He looked down at the monitor and saw the Hunter looking back up at the camera. The boy he was with gave no sign to have been hearing what the hunter had said which meant he must be pretending not to have heard him; kind of like what Steven did whenever Zando made a comment behind his back.
But how could the Hunter know Zando was there? Was he just messing around? Maybe the Hunter was only saying it on the off chance that Zando really was watching them. But what were the odds? Surely the boy was curious as to who the Hunter was talking about and would probably ask him once they were alone. But if the Hunter really did know Zando was there, then he was in immediate danger.
The Shinigami turned and fled from the security room, running down the hallways full of students. The bell rang signaling the end of lunch.
"Damn it." Zando muttered.
He rounded and corner and hid in the nearest room… A broom closet.
If Zando flew away, the Hunter would see him because of where he was right now. In fact, he was probably being hunted down even as he thought all this. Zando couldn't risk leaving the room for the rest of the day. If he did and came face to face with the Hunter, he would be dead.
"Damn you, Steven for making me do this." Zando muttered. "He doesn't even realize that the boy he's looking for is—"
Zando froze. There was a shadow outside of the door he was currently hiding behind. The Death God waited in fear as the door opened slowly and he was left facing…
The Janitor carrying a wet mop. Zando blinked as the Janitor stuck his hand straight through his torso to put the mop away. "Damn kids…" The Janitor muttered before closing the door and leaving the Shinigami in a state of fright.
Three hours later and the last bell rang. Zando had fallen asleep inside the broom closet and decided that he could risk leaving now with the absence of all the students in the upper hallways. He opened the door groggily and looked around. Not a Hunter in sight. He immediately flew up through the roof and onto the ceiling where he perched himself there for a minute to gaze at the sun. Being in the dark for so long made the sun seem too bright. After about a minute he was used to it and took off into the sky like a bird spreading his black wings. He soared high above and out of sight, making his way back toward Steven's house.
Zando didn't know that the Hunter had been sitting only twenty feet away on top of the roof, watching him with a smirk on his face and his massive blades resting by his sides. It had long hair and wore a cracked mask with eye holes revealing bulging black pupils that were similar to Zando's eyes.
"What a disgrace to the Shinigami." The Hunter muttered to himself in a dark, musky kind of voice. "You will live today, Zando, because of what you told me earlier, but…Don't think that I'll give you this opportunity again…"
And now we return to present time, that same day, after school in Steven's bedroom…
"Did you see who it is, then?" Steven asked.
"Yes." Zando said and a wicked smirk lifted across his face. "And you're not going to believe who it is."
"Wait!" Steven said suddenly, holding up his hand to stop him.
"Huh? What?" Zando was slightly taken back.
"You said this morning that there was something you were going to tell me after school." Steven recounted. "Tell me it now before you tell me who it is."
Zando frowned. "Alright, now don't get mad but…Well, I forgot to tell you something that I didn't think was very important because you didn't seem like the type to do it but…I might as well tell you now since these recent events have reminded me."
He took out the yearbook Steven had given him and tossed it to Steve. "I didn't need to bring this with me."
"Why?" Steven asked, crossing his arms and leaning back into his pillows.
"Because a Death God has the ability to see a person's name above their heads." Zando said.
Steven blinked and looked up. "Really?"
"Yeah." Zando nodded. "As well as their life span…"
Steven frowned. "And you had to wait to tell me that now…why?"
"Because I don't want to help you, Steven, unless it personally helps me." Zando replied. "You know that. And by telling you this now, I think it will help the both of us in the end."
"How so?"
"Because remember when I told you about how a Death God survives on the life span of humans they kill?" Zando asked and Steven nodded. "Well, there is another way for the Death God to gain life span from a human. It's through a certain deal…"
"What deal?" Steven asked.
Zando smirked. "The Deal between a Shinigami and a Human. The trade of the eyes, is what they call it. You gain the ability to see people's names and life spans of their heads and I gain half of your total remaining life span!"
Silence filled the room as Steven sat on his bed staring at Zando with a dark expression on his face. "Is that so…?"
"Yeah." Zando said. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you until now, but…well, I think you know why this is useful information, right?"
"Yeah." Steven said. "Because if what you said is true, then whoever had this other Death Note might have made the deal with the Death God already."
"That's right." Zando sighed.
"Tell me one more thing." Steven said. "What would happen if someone with the Shinigami eyes looks at someone who has Shinigami eyes or a Death Note as well?"
"Then they wouldn't see their life span." Zando said, surprised that Steven had already thought of something like that so quickly. "Why?"
"Because if that's the case, then…" Steven frowned. "If this other Death Note user did make the deal with the eyes and saw me, then that would mean they wouldn't have seen my life span and would know right away that it was me. Even if you weren't there with me all day."
Zando blinked. "I didn't think of that." The Shinigami admitted.
Steven glared down at his blanket in frustration. So there was a good chance that he had been found out all because he didn't know all of this information before hand…No, if that was true then why wasn't he dead yet? Maybe he had gotten away without being seen by this person. It all depended on the answer to his next question.
"Alright, Zando." Steven said, looking up at the Shinigami. "Who is it?"
Meanwhile…
"Oh! Oh my god!"
Katlynn moaned with pleasure as the movement of the waterbed came to an ease and Andrew gasped, collapsing on top of her underneath the blanket.
She smiled weakly and snuggled into his shoulder as they both lied their in her room with the fan blowing next to them to cool them off after a good twenty minutes of sex.
Andrew looked up at the ceiling for a few seconds in silence with a dark look on his face while his girlfriend nestled against him.
"What are you looking so serious for?" Katlynn asked.
"Don't be stupid. You know why." Andrew muttered coldly.
He rolled away from her and looked over at the corner of the room. Standing there by the closet was none other than the Shinigami Hunter.
"I can't believe it's him." Andrew muttered, glaring out the window.
Katlynn narrowed her eyes and sat up as well, covering herself with a blanket so that the Shinigami couldn't see. "I'm sorry." She muttered.
"No, you did fine." Andrew told her. "Though if I hadn't decided to make you do the eye deal with Ryoku, here…" He gestured to the Hunter in the corner briefly. "Then we wouldn't even know it was him."
"Yeah." Katlynn frowned and looked down at the bed in silence.
Andrew didn't notice and was too busy staring out the window with a smirk on his face. "When you saw him, you were sure that he was the only one without a life span above his head, right?"
"Yeah. Everyone else had numbers but he didn't." Katlynn muttered, looking disgusted with herself.
"Why don't you kill him right now?" The Hunter named Ryoku asked, remaining rooted to the spot like a soldier wearing long, ragged clothes.
"Simple." Andrew said. "I want his Death Note. But if I kill him now then someone else might find it and take it, and if I make him burn it before he dies then I won't get it anyway. I want that Death Note, Ryoku."
Andrew looked at the Hunter with a frown. "You're sure Zando saw us?"
"Yeah." Ryoku nodded. "I can sense a Shinigami's presence when they're watching me."
"Then that means he must know that it's me by now." Andrew sighed. "Too bad, I don't think he could've predicted that I'd have Katlynn using Shinigami eyes. Plus, I got a more reliable Death God on my side than him. Though I must say, Ryoku…" He glared at the Shinigami darkly. "If you hadn't told Zando at lunch that you could see him then Steven wouldn't think that I knew that he had been watching me and I could use that to my advantage."
"My apologies. I wasn't thinking." The Hunter bowed respectfully.
Ryoku and Katlynn both watched as Andrew stood up from the bed, the blanket slung over his shoulder and a Death Note in his hands, as he stared out the window into Katlynn's backyard. "Steven…" he muttered. "You aren't smart enough to use the Death Note. You don't deserve that kind of power."
Steven stood from his bed, glaring at the window with a grimace on his face. Andrew was the person with the Death Note. It had to be. Andrew was the only person who Steven hadn't hung out with during lunch that day and since Zando saw the Hunter outside with Andrew that must mean it had to be Andrew.
He couldn't believe that he'd been sitting right next to the Hunter for an entire half an hour, glowering about his problems with Jennie and his despise, no, his hatred toward Andrew. But Andrew was the one.
Now that he thought about it, Katlynn had given him a strange look when he was getting up to leave. If Andrew had forced her to do the eye deal with the Hunter then that means she would see that he was the only one there without a life span above his head. It seemed like the kind of cruel, possessive thing for Andrew to do, making Katlynn have the Death God's eyes instead of himself. Shortening his own girlfriend's life in half just for a chance that she would see him… By now she would've told Andrew that she saw him without a life span which means that they were both aware of each other's possession of the Death Note now...
"Damn you, Andrew." Steven muttered, glaring out his bedroom window into the forest that stood in his backyard. The Hunter had seen Zando somehow through the cameras which means Andrew knew that Steven knew it was him and was probably thinking the same things that he was thinking at that very moment.
Whatever it was, they were both still on same territory. And neither of them were dead. Steven eyed the Death Note on his bed and smirked. He could easily write in Andrew's name right now if he wanted. And there wasn't a doubt in his mind that Andrew was thinking the same thing about him. But Andrew hadn't yet…which meant that he was waiting for an opportune moment. This could only mean that Andrew was after his Death Note as well, or wanting to join sides with him but that didn't seem plausible.
Steven pounded his fist into the wall a couple times lightly, thinking deeply about the situation while Zando stood watching by the lampshade waiting to see what came next. Steven knew he couldn't kill Andrew right now precisely because if he did that then someone else could find his Death Note before him and the cycle would never end. Steven would just have to somehow get the Death Note from Andrew himself and take it as his own before killing him.
This was still a chess match, only this time their lives were depending on their keepsake of their Death Notes. If either of them got their hands on the other Death Note then that meant certain death for that person. Yes, there was no other way and they both knew it. This was only the beginning of their duel for the Death Notes. It had been Steven's intention from the beginning to the other Death Note as his own, after-all.
Steven could feel a strange sense of excitement as he thought about this all in his head. A sadistic smile spread across his face. "I will win this battle." He muttered. "Andrew…You don't deserve the power of this Death Note…I will take it from you and write your name in the very same Death Note you hold now."
Two Boys. Two Death Notes. And only one victor. Whoever gets the Death Note from the other wins and the loser dies. Those are the rules. Let the game begin…
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