A/N: The following is a pilot chapter for a NieR/Death Note story. This occurred simply because I ended up playing NieR Replicant (the 2021 edition) and re-watching Death Note at the exact same time. Also, this story in general is meant to be more of a drabble than an actual story with plot, but this first chapter is one big introduction piece, and I hope you guys will enjoy what I randomly threw together...and then spent roughly two days editing and rewriting like some kind of maniac. XD Lol.
General summary: I'm beyond saving. This whole rotten world is beyond saving, and I should have known that from the beginning. The last thing I remember is passing out in a warehouse while waiting for the inevitable heart attack Ryuk would deliver...yet here I am, alive, and wondering why this barbaric woman fights monsters in lingerie.
Disclaimer: Death Note & NieR are properties of their respective creators. I'm just one crazy lady using these two franchises for my diabolical purposes.
Warnings: This first chapter is pretty tame, but I am going to rate the story M straight away primarily because of Kainé's creative way of speaking. I am going to tone it down, for my own sake more so than the sake of the story, but to make up for a lack of expletives from this lady I'm going to have to get really creative with how she talks. But more on that later. There will also be some heavy themes in future chapters. This is, after all, a story set in the NieR universe...which means there's bound to be some heartbreak, tragedy, or just generally disturbing stuff involved. Of course, I'll save those warnings for when the chapter actually requires it. For now, let's just get down to business.
Death is NieR
Section 1A - Beginnings
November 28th, 2012
Everything that lives is designed to end.
Shinigami know this best despite their ability to outlive all other creatures. Countless eons have come and gone since their existence began. Far more will pass before the last of their kind fades from this world..
Just like everything else...they too shall meet their demise.
Light Yagami, age 23, should have known better than to reach toward godhood. No matter what power he gained or how he used it, he was a mere mortal man with a finite lifespan. There was never any chance for him to ascend to something greater. Even if all his schemes with the Death Note had proved successful, his heart would have stopped beating eventually. All his dreams of grandeur for the world would inevitably fall to ruin, and every sin he ever committed would serve to condemn his immortal soul.
Just like every human in existence, Light Yagami...Kira...lives on borrowed time.
Ryuk, the Shinigami who originally dropped his Death Note in the human realm, knew these irrefutable truths from the very beginning of the young man's journey to purge the world of all he deemed unworthy of redemption, but opted to keep his mouth shut. After all, he had his entertainment to think about at the time. Plus, it gave him a good excuse to stick around and gorge himself on apples.
And so, six years came and went while Light systematically eliminated criminals with nothing more than ink along the pages of the Death Note. Early on he convinced himself that this dark path was for the sake of a better world where honest, hard-working people could live in peace, but this mindset quickly devolved into a god complex in which his thoughts concerning justice were all that mattered. After all, he was the one granted this divine power to distribute judgment upon the scum poisoning the world with cruel, malicious ambitions born out of foolish pride and greed.
Light never realized the hypocrisy displayed in these thoughts, especially not after L challenged him through that first televised broadcast. By that point, his "holy" crusade transformed into a vicious battle of wits between two geniuses who loathed losing more than anything else.
"That...was truly a perfect victory."
Surrounded by fellow task force members and the SPK, Light smirks at the memory of his former adversary dying in his arms, but the expression quickly slips into a harsh grimace as Near shouts at him.
"No," L's successor continues, lowering his volume significantly after a short moment of silence. "You're just a murderer, Light Yagami, and this notebook is the deadliest weapon of mass murder in the history of mankind. You yielded to the power of the Shinigami and the notebook, and you have confused yourself with a god."
The words were spoken lowly, without any emotion whatsoever and yet each one burned through Light's conscience.
On a deeper level he'd known that truth all along, just as he'd known passing judgment on others was wrong...
And yet he'd still gone through with all those killings under the delusion that he was helping the world somehow, but perhaps even this was a lie.
"Light, tell me...has there ever been a point in your life where you've told the truth?"
"In the end, you're nothing more than a crazy serial killer." The inflection in Near's voice changes slightly, conveying something between playfulness and disgust. "That's all you are. Nothing more. Nothing less."
"Useless fools..." the thought trails off as Light glances at the other task force members glaring at him. "As if they could ever...no, something feels off about this. Haven't I..."
He closes his eyes for a moment to calm his racing thoughts. There was something on the edge of his consciousness poking at his mind, but now wasn't the time to pay attention to it. Perhaps later if he managed to escape.
"It probably doesn't matter anyway."
Letting out a sigh, Light turns his back to all the different sets of eyes gazing upon him while contemplating a possible escape plan. Though antsy and desperate, he could buy himself a little more time with enough manipulative bravado. All he had to do was make Near doubt his own victory.
Yes, that would give him the edge he needed to save himself.
"Near," he begins, his smirk returning. "The notebook you brought and the one Aizawa is carrying...are they both real?"
There was no answer, but Light knew he held the boy's undivided attention. Everyone else's eyes are on him too, but their cold stares barely register in the killer's mind. They're nothing more than spectators as far as he's concerned.
"Even so..."
"At the moment, I'm the only one who knows where the real notebook is," Light continues, masking his nervousness with a small chuckle. "If you truly want to defeat Kira as well as test the notebook Aizawa is carrying, then I guess you'll have to either write my name or Mikami's."
A lone bead of sweat rolls down the side of his face as he brings his fingers near his watch.
It's the only way to know if it's real..."
Pulling the mechanism on his watch four times in quick succession, he glances down at the scrap of the Death Note resting in the small compartment that bursts out.
"OR FAKE!"
This was Light Yagami's fatal mistake.
He could have used the sharp needle inside the compartment to poke his thumb and subtly write Near's real name down as the boy continued his quiet contemplation of Light's words, but desperation and mania had already begun to claim the young man's mind, causing him to act erratically. With sharp movements he grasps the pen in his coat pocket and starts to write Near's name...
Matsuda fires his gun.
The bullet tears through the compartment of Light's watch and the top of his hand so quickly that he almost doesn't feel the searing shockwave of pain that shoots up through his entire arm. He hears himself scream as his body pivots of its own accord and sees the blood spray out of the wound, but it takes him several seconds to feel the warm liquid seeping out of him and down toward the concrete floor beneath his feet.
Only then does the adrenaline kick in, replacing the initial burst of pain with rage.
"MATSUDA, YOU IDIOT! Who do you think you're shooting at!? Don't screw with me!"
"What was it all for then?" Matsuda asks with shaking hands and unshed tears glistening in his eyes. The other task force members stand around him with expressions of shock and horror on their faces as the younger man's volatile emotions boil over the surface.
"What about your dad? What did he die for!?"
All Light could do was laugh in response to the questions. He hadn't thought about his father since the night of his death.
"My dad...you mean Soichiro Yagami?" More manic chuckles slip past his lips unbidden, almost as if he were proud of himself despite this being far from the truth of the matter.
"That's right, Matsuda. In this world, all those earnest people like him who fight for justice...they always lose."
Light shook as he spoke, whether from pain or from the mad giggles seeping through his lips he couldn't guess. Probably a combination of the two.
"Do you want a world where people like that are made to be fools?"
More crimson droplets sprinkle down to the warehouse floor, and the man who'd slaughtered thousands with pen and paper freezes in pure terror at the sight of his own blood making a tiny puddle between his feet.
"I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die unless..."
"I know you understand, so kill the others!" he shouts, truly desperate now. "Shoot them!"
The raw hatred in Matsuda's stare makes it clear he doesn't understand Kira's motives at all anymore.
"You led your own father to his death." He spits the words slowly, vindictively. His tears finally escape his eyes and roll down the sides of his face "And now that he's gone, you call him a fool?"
"That's not what I said," Light thinks, staring at his blood-stained hands to avoid looking Matsuda in the eye. "Once an idiot, always an idiot I see. Even so..."
A small pinprick of guilt shakes through him. "Rage doesn't suit someone as nauseatingly cheerful and optimistic as Matsuda. It makes him look like the monsters I wanted to eliminate from this world. He looked up to my father though...more than I ever did."
Light's smirk returns in earnest as he watches more of his blood flow down to the ground. "I guess my father would have been better off with a son like him instead of me."
With another erratic movement, the fatherless murderer begins writing on the scrap of paper with the crimson substance leaking out from his body.
And then the shots begin.
One...
Two...
Three...
Four...
Light feels the impact of each one. The scrap of paper flew from his hand when the first shot hit, but Matsuda kept shooting until he hit the floor, breathless and in greater agony than he thought he was capable of ever feeling.
It wasn't just physical either. Something inside of him broke with each bullet that tore through him.
Without warning he starts to realize...he's alone.
He has nothing left. He can't save himself.
A fifth shot rings out and bounces off the floor near his head, but Light barely registers it amidst memories roaring through his mind like an emergency siren that just won't stop. He hears the distant laughter of his family, feels small hands around his left arm, sees the grim yet joyful expression of his father in his final moments, remembers his mother's horror-stricken face as he told her the news of his death, and Sayu...
He remembers Sayu as she was before Mello kidnapped her. She was a bright and happy girl with so many dreams...dreams he wished he could listen to her talk about now.
A moment later he sees Misa Amane, an equally bright presence in his life despite how aggravating she could be. If she were here in the warehouse with him, the girl would no doubt throw herself on top of his body to protect him. Her loyalty was endearing in that way. No matter how poorly he treated her...she was always there when he needed her most.
But he had cast her aside.
"Where are you, Misa!?"
Her name is a broken, discordant note on his lips. He feels something wet in the corners of his eyes as Kiyomi Takada makes her appearance in his mind's eye. She'd been so radiant, so intelligent, so full of life...
But he killed her without batting an eye.
"Where's Takada!?"
It's a pointless question and he knows it, but his mouth moves without his consent as a sudden, violent wave of grief rushes over him. Truths he buried within himself rush to the surface so violently that it takes nearly all of his willpower to stop the sobs that ache to wrack through his body. And suddenly...Matsuda's questions don't seem so idiotic anymore.
What was it all for? Wasn't it for innocent people like his family? Wasn't all this for heartbroken victims like Misa? Didn't he kill criminals for the sake of honest, hardworking people like Takada?
In the end...maybe it was just for himself.
Exhaustion replaces his grief. He notices Ryuk isn't around anymore either.
"I've lost..."
He took the greatest gamble life had ever offered to him when he picked up the Death Note. He was victorious so many times...
At some point he stopped thinking he could ever lose.
Overconfidence blinded him to the truth.
In the end...he is only a man...an incredibly stupid man who made a reckless, foolhardy attempt at godhood to satiate his boredom.
"That's the truth isn't it..." The thought trails off when he hears Mikami screaming. Barely shifting his gaze, he sees a wild, frenzied explosion of blood spilling from his follower in all directions. The task force members, the SPK, and Near all turn their attention away from him to address this new debacle, but Light understands what this truly is.
"Mikami...useful to the very end."
Mustering up what little strength he has given his injuries, Light stumbles to his feet and makes his way to the door Mikami entered in through. At some point Matsuda spots him, but he gives that no heed while running out into the sunset. He knows he won't get far, but he rather die alone than in the presence of people who considered him a monster.
With Ryuk absent, Light is all too aware of what's going to happen next. Losing to Near meant the Shinigami's entertainment would come to an end, and he wasn't about to wait around for the natural end of his lifespan, especially when he could just take those years for himself.
At best, he has a few more minutes left to live...not nearly enough time to contemplate where exactly he went wrong or why things had to play out like this.
"It doesn't matter anyway. I'm beyond saving. This whole rotten world is beyond saving. I should have known that from the beginning."
Sighing angrily, he stumbles into another empty warehouse. A few errant thoughts ring on repeat in his head.
"I hope they die. I hope they all die."
With a grunt of effort, the man once known as Kira begins to climb the stairs in front of him, but only makes it up halfway before sitting down. His breaths become more labored as he stretches out against the staircase. Eventually, his amber gaze drifts up toward the last traces of sunshine shimmering through the skylight above his head.
"Humanity isn't worth saving. All of them should just die."
June 17th, 2059
The following report is a Level S-Class security document for the future of Project Gestalt reserved for all sets of the twin Devola and Popola Units.
Though the White Chlorination Syndrome still runs rampant through the Earth, there has been a substantial decrease in cases as of late. This indicates a slow but sure decline of the disease and the Legion slaughtering survivors. However, several Gestalts have begun to experience a deteriorating sense of self as of late. This has led to bouts of destructive behavior in various Gestalts. In addition, while we were able to secure the base of Replicant production,we have lost data concerning Test Subject 004 due to an increase in Gestalt relapses. The subject remains in good health, but we no longer have records regarding the antibodies keeping it safe from the disease or the method for awakening. Other operational units will conduct new tests when possible, but until then the subject is to remain in stasis. We will send Test Subject 004 to a secure underground facility away from any Gestalt subjects to prevent further data loss. Please keep in mind that this subject, should Project Gestalt fail, is humanity's last chance for survival. Protect Subject 004 at all costs. Copies of the subject's remaining data will be sent to all units within two weeks time. That is all.
~1,452 Years Later~
April 27th, 3,464
Live! You have to...s-save...t-the world I l-loved...
With a sudden jolt, Light Yagami opens his eyes. A wide expanse of blue sky and puffy clouds are the first things he sees.
"Where...am I?"
Just as he finishes asking himself this question, a scowling woman with white hair and stern, brown eyes appears above him, blocking his view of the sky.
"You got a death wish or are you just stupid?"
"E-excuse me?" His voice comes out hoarse, like he's been sleeping...for a long time.
Clicking her tongue in annoyance, the woman reaches down and roughly pulls him into a sitting position. The sudden movement makes his spine crack in protest, eliciting a soft hiss from his lips.
"You have ten seconds to start explaining why you're taking a nap on my property before I plunge this blade deep into your pea-sized brain." the woman states coldly, raising one of the two swords in her hands.
Still a touch disoriented, Light's amber gaze drifts to the woman's attire...or lack thereof.
"Is that..." He averts his eyes for the sake of her decency. "Why are you wearing lingerie outside!? P-please...put some clothes on!"
The woman's scowl darkens considerably. "Wrong answer, prick."
A/N: And that is the end of chapter one! I hope you guys enjoyed this pilot chapter, although chapter 2 is already written out. It's going to need some extensive edits though, so I don't know exactly when the next chapter will be out. If you guys are interested in this story though, let me know in the comment box. This is going to be more of a drabble story overall, but I hope this made for an interesting and compelling first chapter. Best wishes to you all! Thanks for reading and God bless you!
Additional note: If you guys catch any major grammar errors up there, feel free to tell me. My grammar and general storytelling ability goes up and down in quality. I'd like to make a stronger attempt to be consistent, so if there's anything majorly bad up there on a technical level please inform me and I'll do what I can to fix it. Thank you guys in advance!