May 1st, 2031
The world suddenly seemed darker, quieter, these last few days. The birds were flying and flapping their wings but she could hear no chirping. There was rain dropping from the sky but she couldn't hear the sounds of the raindrops. The moon was out but she couldn't see the moonlight in front of her. The world sounded like the volume dialed all the way down to zero, muting everything around her. Even her skin was drained of color, especially around the eye areas.
The only sound she could hear was the sound of her sobbing.
The rooftop which she stood atop was drenched in failing rain and she didn't have an umbrella. It didn't matter anyway; even if she had overhead protection, her face would still be wet with tears, tears she couldn't control leaking out of her tear ducts.
She stood over the edge and leaned her hands against the railing, head hanging down with drops of rain mixing with her tears.
Even though it's been days since the incident in the courthouse, she could still see the expression on her younger brother's face flashing through her mind, not bothering to leave her. These flashes of her dead brother were what were keeping her up at night.
She clutched her chest and let out a painful sob, collapsing to her knees and cried into her forearm.
Her undead ally, Muter, walked up behind her and kneeled beside her.
"I'm sorry," he spoke, "for your loss."
Sora sobbed louder. She pushed herself up and cried into Muter's arms.
May 2nd, 2031
With Knight
Knight switched on the television in his living room to check the most recent updates on the Kira/Keiri investigation.
A few days after Minato's outing at the courthouse, police have kept everything under wraps, especially with Minato explicitly killing a security guard in the courtroom on live TV. This was not the first time that a victim of Kira or Keiri was shown on TV but how the kill was conducted still managed to evade the public's eyes. Minato had used a scrap of the Death Note to kill the security but kept it under the table and out of the camera's view. After that, he ran off and was executed outside when he was unmasked.
As ordered, Murasaki quickly frisked him and confiscated all papers on him before police could catch up while her husband, who was let in on the plan, retrieved the scrap of notebook Masi stole from Muter to out Minato in public. Knight was worried about too many scrapes of Death Note pages being out there in the human world but with his disciples backing him up, his worries had gradually faded away.
As for Arata Tashi, Knight executed him.
As for the Nameless Keiri, Knight was having Iris look over pictures of people with the first name of Sora or people with absent lifespans.
The news was recycling the same thing: Minato's outing and execution as Keiri with police keeping a tight-lip on the whole situation.
Gilth made himself visible to Knight.
"Feeling proud of yourself?" Gilth asked, "Knight?"
Knight chuckled. "Of course I am; one less threat to worry about.
He stepped back and sank into the couch's cushions.
"So, what's the next step on your to-do list? Kill criminals? Find this Sora Takada? Kill this 'Muter'?"
"All of the above. Lately, I've been trying to come up with a plan to kill Muter and Sora at the same time."
"You could pull a Break-Grudge scenario."
"I could but I'm trying to picture if that can work in my head. If Muter is the Shinigami reincarnation of Teru Mikami, and he chose the Takadas to give his notebook to, then he must be on a quest for revenge. If our memory serves us correctly, Mikami is just like us: Not hesitating in letting an ally die if it benefits us. He killed Takada to serve Kira and if he's serving revenge, he probably won't sacrifice himself to save Sora Takada."
"Yeh, I guess you have a point there. So getting him to extend Sora's life doesn't seem like an option."
"No, it's not an option. We could try it but if it fails, then that just means that Sora is dead and Muter is alive and flies off to give his notebook to someone else."
"Muter turned into quite the nuisance. So, sacrificing his life is off the table. So, we're going to have to come up with a different plan."
"Yeah." Knight touched his chin. "I've been going over dozens of scenarios in my head and they all involve Sora. A god of death dying must involve a human somehow; Rem, Gelus, and Grudge all proved that logic. So my plan has to involve Sora somehow. But what?"
"Don't beat yourself up about it, Knight; ever since Minato's outing, Keiri hasn't made a move. I think it's time for you to relax."
"I can't afford to relax; letting my guard down is what'll get me killed."
"And overworking yourself is what'll cause you to make mistakes."
Knight glared at him.
"If all you're going to do is give suggestions leading to my downfall then why don't you leave."
Gilth held up his hands apologetically. "I'm just offering some advice, no need to be a bitch about it."
"You try to get me to relax when there is an active killer out there and now you've got the nerve to curse at me?" He rises to his feet and points at the Shinigami. "Let's not forget who the real Kira is in this situation. Unlike you, I can kill whoever I want and not suffer consequences, like turning into a pile of dust. You, you have to be cautious about who you kill because I'm pretty sure you don't want to break some Shinigami law and face one of nine Shinigami punishments. If you are going to be no help to me then fly away."
Gilth laughed. "Where do you get off talking back to your parent like that?"
"Don't look down on me, Shinigami, don't think you're better than me just because you're my parent or you're a god of death. Unlike you, I wasn't defeated by some pale-skinned, white-haired boy who sits like a monkey playing with finger puppets."
Gilth glared. "You say that I have to be careful with who I kill?" He takes out his personal notebook. "Shinigami rules dictate that I can kill my human for whatever reason I like, such as hating the human. Rub me the wrong way again Knight and you'll be a dead knight."
Knight's glare turned to a chuckle. "We'll see about that, Gilth." He sank back into his couch and sighed. He lifted his feet off the ground and planted them on the coffee table. "Why don't you go grab a bag of barbecued-flavored potato chips and stuff your face full of them."
"I could go for some BBQ chips right about now." He sprouted his fingers and flew to the kitchen. "Don't worry, I'll get out of your reddish-blonde hair and take a bag of potato chips and eat 'em."
May 3rd, 2031
With Iris
For the past few days, Iris has been checking the names and faces of every known Japanese person online for the name, 'Sora'. Luckily, she had a filter on her computer to narrow down the search but it was still taking a long time and it was starting to strain her Shinigami eyes.
Masi materialized behind her. "How do you like your eyes, Iris? Seventy-twenty vision?"
Iris has noticed that she can see more clearly now. She remembers Osamu Ibata and how Knight coerced him to deal for the Shinigami eyes. What stood out to her was that Ibata had been blind but when he traded for the eyes, his vision came back, eye measurement above average and now she was starting to see the benefits of the Shinigami eyes. Not only can she see names and lifespans floating in the air, but she can also see details more clearly like the world was in 4K for her.
"I can't find anybody named Sora," Iris said, "and me eyes are starting to hurt." She winces her eyes shut and rubs them.
"Yeah, I had that problem when I had the eyes. You get used to it after a while."
Iris removed her hand from her eyes and licked her lips.
If I find Sora, I'm supposed to tell Knight straight away, she reminded herself.
She went back to searching for Sora.
"You want to know how long you have to live?" Masi whispered.
"I thought ya weren't supposed to say," Iris responded.
"I know, I'm just messing around." Masi reached into her pouch and pulled out a strawberry sundae in a cup. She popped the lid off and began licking out of it.
"We don't have much time; this Sora lass will be miffed and emotional now that she has lost both her aunt and her younger blud. If we're too dozy and reactive then she'll get the upper hand on us.
"That's why you have to follow Knight's orders to the letter; find out this Sora character, and report back to him. Once we find out his name then I'm sure he can come up with a plan."
Iris searched through her computer once more.
"I've looked up Minato's address and his apartment has only one bedroom and one khazi and it was rented to him alone."
"Have you checked the neighboring apartments?"
"Course I have and there is no one named Sora and no one with a missing lifespan."
She did another search.
"I've looked up residents for the past six months and there's nobody named Sora."
"Is it possible she went off the grid?"
"Maybe." She paused to think. "Then again..."
She gasped.
"The courthouse!" she exclaimed. "The ol' bill station! What if the Nameless Keiri was at the ol' bill at 6:40 or at the courthouse during Minato's outing?"
She searched up for footage of the police station and the courthouse.
May 4th, 2031
With Sora
In a new building after clearing out all of her belongings from Minato's apartment, she sat in an abandoned loft apartment with some power running throughout the building. To save power, she kept only the essential electricity turned on like the fridge, printer, and television. For additional lighting when she needed it, she would let in light from the window when it was daytime and from the moonlight if it was bright enough.
She poured herself some coffee to keep herself up; bitter coffee with no creme or sugar would do that, especially with how bad it tasted.
She put her coffee mug down next to an empty manilla folder and continued writing in the Death Note.
Ever since she retrieved the Death Note from the hollowed-out bible back at Minato's storage unit, she made the deal for the Shinigami eyes. She didn't really have much to live for, considering the fact that she lost her mother, her father, her aunt, and now her little brother.
She had been writing in the names nonstop ever since she became the owner and printed out photos of dozens of criminals.
"Sora," Muter materialized behind her, "What are you doing? You've been writing names down for three days straight? What are you trying to do? And what's with the printed photos?" He looked down at her feet and noticed a cassette player. "And the tapes?"
"Insurance," she answered, "It's the final battle. Kira's had the Shinigami eyes since Minato's mask was pulled from his face so I gotta stay one step ahead." She opens up her phone and looks up photos. "It's only a matter of time before Kira kills me and I've gotta strike back."
"You could always forfeit ownership back to me," he suggested, "I promise not to kill you."
"No thank you. There's a good chance you'll just end up giving the notebook to someone else."
"Yeah, I would because Kira must be stopped."
Sora didn't reply.
"So, what's the plan now? Minato is dead, you have the Shinigami eyes, you have the power to continue, yet, you are writing the names down of criminals, saying you intend to strike back."
Sora looks over her notebook pages and does a headcount for every name written.
There was enough room on the pages to fill four rows of names but each page had only two rows of names as there was a death date for each name beside it.
"They're not even dying by suicide," Minato pointed out, "What's the point?"
"The point is this is the final match between Kira and Keiri," she answered, "the finale, the showdown. Whoever wins will become will have achieved godlike status. Kira will be the god of justice while Keiri will be the god of defeating a god."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Muter chuckled, "If you die, I am going to give the notebook to someone else who is Anti-Kira and the cycle of Keiri will start over once again. If you lose then you won't be a stepping stone as your death will be in vain as I will make sure my next successor defeats Kira."
Sora glared at her Shinigami and bit her lower lip.
"You and I used to be supporters of Kira. The difference between us is I'm still a supporter while you turned your back on him."
Muter laughed at her statement."
"Muter, I am a believer of Kira. Sure, he killed my brother but ever since I was a little girl, I've looked up to Kira."
She thought back to her time as a youngster.
"Minato and I had a similar sense of justice in terms of black-and-white until Dad took us to the courtroom to show us what guilty and innocent people looked like. Minato's justice was, 'Anybody who broke the law was evil and deserved to get tossed in jail.' My sense of justice was, 'There are good and bad people in this world but it's nature vs nurture'. Most of the criminals in the court case were brought in due to nurture, not nature. It's why I aspired to be a reporter, so I can get down to what nurtured these people into becoming good people and bad people. Minato only believed in bad people deserving to die because the criminals in his courtroom were evil due to nature, not nurture."
"Oh," Muter said, "So Minato's been dealing with the evil people while you've been dealing with what's making people evil? Interesting. What would be your opinion on Kira be?"
Sora thought about this before she answered. "Tough to say but Kira is quite a complex character. Nature wise: He is a good person. Nurture wise: He was raised a Kira worshipper."
Muter laughed again. "Trust me, Kira is evil."
She glanced at him. "The Kira you met, Light Yagami, he was evil by nurture, not nature. I'm sure he was a good person before he picked up the Death Note."
"But he killed your aunt."
She glared at him, remembering Muter's role in attempting to murder her aunt.
"You tried to kill my aunt."
"Before we veer of this topic, I just have to ask: If you win, then what do you stand to gain?"
Sora laughed. "Minato wanted to humiliate and kill Kira for corrupting the minds of innocent people. Me, I'm more realistic. I want to be remembered as a superhero."
"Huh, you're going to have to explain."
"I want to be a superhero. I've always looked up to Kira as a superhero, the Kira that kills criminals, not the Kira that kills innocent people, and I thought that if I took over as Kira, I could be a better hero than he was. I want to be a nice Kira."
Her laughing smile suddenly vanished into thin air.
"Unforatnely, that can never be." She pouted and sipped her bitter coffee. "My goal of becoming a superhero is something that can no longer come true."
"What do you mean?"
"Kira will stop at nothing to find me and when he does, he'll kill me. This Kira is super smart and hard to outmaneuver. The best I can hope for is to stump him for a brief second but he'll still find a way to kill me. Which is why I have a different goal in mind." She sips from her coffee. "I want to meet Kira in person, I want to meet him and I want to talk to him. I want to understand him, see what makes him tick, why he is the way that he is, and then... if he wins, he is a god. If I win, I will be remembered as a goddess."
Muter looked at her suspiciously. "Remembred as a goddess?"
She choked on her words and put her mug of bitter coffee down.
"It's nothing, forget it."
Sora, Muter thought, do you have a god complex?
"I have come up with a plan to meet Kira, talk to him in person, and then see once and for all, who will achieve godlike status in this world."
She begins ripping out blank pages of the Death Note.
May 5th, 2031
Playground
"Five more minutes," Daichi shouted, "then we really have to go."
"Sure," Leiko yelled back.
Leiko climbed up the brick wall and did a double frontflip off it.
Sosuke charged up and did a wall-run up the brick wall and finished with a handstand.
Kaemon charged forward and frontflips over a large rock and rolls forward with a somersault.
Daichi clung to the monkey bars above him and kicked his feet out before he let go and landed with a front flip. After that, he backed up and charged up the stairs on the playground, leaping over the railings and doing a double frontflip as he landed.
After five minutes of parkour around the children's playground, the seventeen-year-olds picked up their hoodies and began walking away as children began playing.
Stay low and keep your head down, Daichi thought, Kira won't notice you. Just keep your name and face out of profile pictures.
Daichi kept his hood up and his head down with his hands in his pockets. He looked over his shoulder to make sure that Leiko, Sosuke, and Kaemon were trailing behind them with their identity concealed. There was no reason to keep his head down as he and his small-time band on teenaged delinquents were barely recognizable within the Yakuza syndicate known as 'Imperial' and even if they were, they doubt Kira would care. Kira only goes after bloodthirsty criminals and Daichi, Leiko, Sosuke, and Kaemon were far from bloodthirsty. Sure, they were a part of the Imperial Yakuza but at the very least, they were scouts sent out to find enemy territory and never participated in any killing nor were they witnesses to any killing.
Then again, Daichi thought, Kira won't hesitate in killing innocent people so I gotta be cautious of that. Just keep your head down and keep moving.
Daichi and his small gang walked around town before they reached their destination and made it inside the abandoned loft apartment and locked themselves on the top floor. Before they could settle in, they look around and realize that the TV has been left on.
"What the hell?" Sosuke exclaimed, "who left the goddamn TV on."
"Lower your voice," Leiko, the sole female of the group, scolded, "shut up!"
"Why? Afraid Samara Morgan is going to pop out of the screen?"
"No, we haven't been to the loft in four days and if the TV's on then that means someone had been using our loft. Given that the TV is still on, they could be anywhere."
Kaemon, the sole gunman of the group, drew his pistol and waved it around the room.
"Search the place," Daichi ordered. As he was the oldest at seventeen, he had the authority to give orders to these sixteen-year-olds.
The four of them scouted the place, with Kaemon searching the upper floor with Sosuke behind him while Daichi and Leiko searched the kitchen and living room.
Leiko went over to the TV and checked the channel that was on. Static.
"Looks like our intruder couldn't find anything interesting to watch," she cracked.
"Leiko, did we leave any evidence about our most recent scouting behind?" Daichi asked. "If a rival gang broke into the loft, they'll know of Imperial's scouting."
"No," she answered, "no, we use this place to sleep in when one of us has a falling out with our parents or for meetups. We also made a pact not to leave any evidence here."
"Guys!" Sosuke shouted from above. "Check out what me and Kaemon found."
The two of them come walking down the stairs to meet up with Daichi and Leiko in the middle of the floor. Kaemon had detected no threat evident by his storing his gun away but what they were focused on what the manilla folder in Sosuke's hand.
"It's addressed to us," Sosuke said, reading off the names written in permanent marker on the front.
"Someone broke into our fucking safe place and they know our fucking names," Sosuke cursed. "No return address so it musta been hand-delivered."
"Open it up," Daichi ordered.
Sosuke tore the top off and dumped the contents on the table beside him. What fell out were dozens of sheets of paper along with a cassette and a player for the cassette.
"What the fucking hell," Sosuke curse and lifted up the cassette. "Someone went '96 and left a cassette player for us."
"It's addressed to us so let's listen to it," Leiko said.
"What if it's from the cops?" Daichi asked, timid. "Or a rival gang?"
"All the more reason to hear it then."
They set up the cassette player to listen. Daichi and Leiko were waiting patiently for the sound to come on by leaning on the table with their elbows while Sosuke and Kaemon, the two aggressive members of the group, kept a lookout for any hostiles around the loft.
"Hello," a warped voice sounded off. "No need for any introductions on your part, I already know your names. Daichi Nagasawa, Leiko Hanada, Kaemon Katagiri, and Sosuke Chiba, scouts for the Imperial Yakuza. It is because I know your names and faces that you should be afraid of me." There was silence hanging in the air before the voice sounded off again. "I am Keiri."
Daichi and Leiko gasped and went wide-eyed. Kaemon and Sosuke side-glanced the radio with sweat running down their faces.
What, Daichi's thoughts ran wild, I thought Minato Natsuki was Keiri? Then again, L did say there were TWO.
"This is not a joke, not one fucking bit. If you don't believe me, here's a gift. Five minutes after you open your loft door, your associate, Akeno Mochizuki, will knock on your door."
As if on cue, there was a knock on the door. The four delinquents gasp in terror and Kaemon draws his gun.
The voice suddenly went silent on the cassette player.
Sosuke and Kaemon ran to the door and opened it, revealing the bandana-wearing scout of Imperial, Akeno Mochizuki, standing there with a blank expression on his face.
"Is this some kind of fucking joke?" Sosuke yelled. "Didn't Mommy and Daddy tell you not to pull pranks on people, especially if one of them has a gun!"
Akeno took out his personal pistol and aimed it at his head.
BANG!
Kaemon and Sosuke yelped and jumped back.
Daichi stumbled and fell on his ass while Leiko covered her eyes.
"Annnnnnnddddddd he'll commit suicide," the warped voice continued.
Sosuke and Kaemon dragged Akeno's corpse in and shut the door.
"We need to get the fuck out of here," Sosuke said, "someone will have heard those shots popping the fuck off."
"Don't you think we know that?" Leiko snapped, "But there's more on the tape."
"If he's already committed suicide then you should still believe my power. Your friend, despite being a scout for Imperial, was a Kira supporter and he had to be executed. The four of you, you aren't Kira supporters but you're still criminals and you need to die. However, I will give you a chance to redeem yourselves. The pieces of papers you have in front of you are how I killed your friend. I wrote his name on a piece of paper and he died when I specified. If you don't believe me, there should be a couple of pictures I printed out of rival Yakuza members that you can kill. If you write their names down now and check tomorrow, you'll know for sure they're dead. I even wrote their real names down at the bottom of the photos so there won't be any confusion."
Daichi reached into the manilla folder to find twelve pictures of rival Yakuza with their names written at the bottom.
"Once you have faith that I am the real Keiri, this is what I want you to do: I want you to create chaos with these killer notebook pages."
Chaos, Daichi thought, what the fuck is going on?
"I have a plan to take down Kira but in order to do that, I'll need a substitute and you four will fit the bill perfectly. What I want you to do is kill as many random Kira supporters as you want, just as long as you create chaos. You are free to kill rival Yakuza members but make sure they are killed through disease or accidental death while the Kira supporters are killed through suicide. All you have to do is write their name down, picture their face in mind as you write, then write the word suicide next to their name."
"Does this bitch expect us to believe 'em?" asked Sosuke.
"Did you not see Akeno blast his brains out?" Leiko argued, "this might be the real thing."
"But Keiri's power comes from writing a name down on a page?"
"If you don't follow my orders," Keiri hissed, "I will kill your families. I know about all your loved ones. Daichi, I will kill your mother and father. Leiko, I will kill all of your siblings. Kaemon, I will kill your girlfriend. Sosuke, I will kill your infant child. And after I kill them, I'll kill all of you."
These threats sent chills down the four teens' backs and caused them to shiver.
"Remember, create chaos by killing random Kira supporters through suicide and make sure to use at least one page a day starting tomorrow. That's all for now."
The recording ended and the four delinquents stared at the cassette player in silence.
Holy shit, Daichi thought.
What did we get ourselves into? Leiko asked herself.
How did he know about my girlfriend? Kaemon asked.
How did he know about my six-month-old child? Sosuke asked.
"D-" Daichi stuttered, "-did everybody get that?"
Sosuke spoke up, "You mean we're being blackmailed into becoming pawns for Keiri? Yeah, we heard it."
"They know about our family," Leiko whispered, "they know about our loved ones."
"Shit," Sosuke cursed, "how the fuck did we get ourselves into a can of worms."
How could he, Kaemon thought, he made death threats to my girlfriend. Shit.
"What are we going to do?" Daichi asked.
"You're the leader," Leiko said, "I mean, that's what you keep saying."
"I thought I was because I'm the oldest but... what the fuck do we do?"
"Maybe we should go to the police?"
"Hell no," Sosuke shouted, "we're scouts for the Yakuza and if we go there, the police will bite our asses off or the Yakuza will do that for us for stepping inside a police station. We keep the police out of this."
"So, we're just killing people?" Kaemon asked, "On Keiri's behalf?"
Daichi pushed his hands on the table. "I can't believe it; I didn't sign up for the Yakuza for this."
"I'm pretty sure none of this but hurry," Lieko urged, "W have to do something about Akeno and we have to make a decision. What do we do? Do as Keiri asked or do we ignore it?"
"We can't ignore it, not when Keiri knows about our families." Daichi's head went limp. "I never wanted to kill anyone but if it means saving our family and loved ones, then I say we do it. If following Keiri's lead means coming home to our families then so be it."
They grabbed the killer pages.
If the victim's name has been written and then the Death Note is destroyed in the middle of writing the cause of death, the victim will be killed by a heart attack in 40 seconds after writing the name.
If the victim's name and cause of death have been written and the middle of writing the situation of death, then the victim will be killed within 6 minutes and 40 seconds via the stated cause of death if the cause is possible within that period of time, but otherwise, the victim will die by a heart attack.