March 8th, 2025
Classroom
So boring, the boy thought, so goddamn boring.
He rests his chin in his palm and looks out the window.
Day in, day out, same fucking thing on permanent repeat. I would give for some excitement.
"Excuse me," the teacher called, "student sitting in the back."
The boy looked forward.
"Pay attention."
The boy nodded. Once the teacher turned his back, the boy turned back to the window with a roll of his eyes.
School ended early due to a gas leak so he grabbed his backpack and marched home. He took out his phone and plugged in his earbuds to listen to music.
It's not essential to survive but the human mind craves excitement purely for pleasure. Humans wish to have sex not only for procreation but for pleasure.
He stops in front of a brothel.
Not my girlfriend nor can a whore satisfy my cravings; even sex can be boring and repetitive.
He resumes walking.
He finishes his walk across town before he stumbles upon his home.
A log cabin sitting in the woods located near the edge of the city, twelve miles away from school. He pushed the door open and threw his backpack on the ground.
"I'm home," he announced.
A dog snuck up on him from behind.
"Hi there," he petted the dog on the head. "Were you a good boy while I was gone?"
The dog barked.
"Good. I'll get us some dinner." He reaches for his backpack to take out his notebook and homework. "I'll finish up my homework before I go hunting."
He didn't attend traditional school: He attended regular school but attended special classes with several others on Saturday and Sunday while he had Monday through Friday off.
For every school week, he is assigned homework he's supposed to do one day a week for five days. He did his homework for Monday through Wednesday yesterday while he did the homework for Thursday and Friday right now, therefore, finishing up all his homework for the week and was ready to be turned in on Saturday and Sunday.
He puts his homework in his school folder before heading into his bedroom to grab a bowie knife from his closet. He petted the dog on his head, bidding farewell before he went out hunting.
He returned an hour later with two dead wolves over his shoulder, gutted, and ready to be cooked.
This is what I do every day: Spend the entire week hunting for five days straight and then on Saturdays and Sundays, attend a weekend school for eight hours.
The boy turns on the fireplace before sitting on the couch with his dog, a plate of cooked wolf meat in his hand, a bowl of wolf meat beside him for the dog.
Even the meat I cooked tastes predictable. I cooked it through and it tastes good, yes, but I want to taste a different kind of deliciousness.
Once he finished his plate, he waited for his dog to be done with before he went to go do the dishes.
The dog barked.
"I agree," he said, "I want to go do something interesting." He grabbed his jacket. "We are going into the city." He picked up his bowie knife, which he cleaned from earlier after his hunt. He tucked the knife into the holster in the back of his pants. "Follow me."
He didn't have a leash for his dog but it didn't matter because his dog would never dare to run off; they've been family since…
I lost count of how many years it's been just me and my dog.
They walked into the city, which felt more lively at night. He only came into the city to get supplies for his cabin or dog food when he was too tired to hunt or if he wanted to quench his boredom with a new video game for his gaming console.
He got a call on his phone as he was crossing a four-way intersection. When he checked the caller ID, it was 'Girlfriend'.
"Hello?"
"Hey there, cowboy," a female voice spoke.
"I prefer 'hunter'."
"Okay, hunter. What did you have for dinner tonight?"
"Wolves."
"Hunt them down?"
"Yep. Why are you calling, bored?"
"Oh, you know me so well."
"Yeah, I know me so well too." He sighs and turns into an alleyway. "I'm so bored." He leans against the wall on his shoulder.
"You want to come spend the night with me? I promise to make you feel good."
'Hunter' chuckled. "Sure, can I bring my dog?"
"Are you kidding, I love your dog. I wish you would give him a name."
"You already know that I won't."
She chuckled on her end. "Yeah. Well, I'll see you tonight."
'Hunter' licks his lips.
"By the way, before you hang up, what do you have in store for tonight? As much as I enjoy the act of sex, it's just been getting boring lately. Nothing to do with your or any of our performances, it just feels bone-dry. Y'know, like a wine that aged badly."
She gave a disappointed sigh. "Don't worry, I'll think of something fun for us to do."
"Thank you."
Seconds before she hung up, he swore he could hear shouting on her end of the phone.
It sounded like a male figure shouting at her to hang up the phone.
He put his phone away before turning around to find his dog. It had disappeared from behind him.
"Dog, where are you?" He ran down the alleyway, which seemed to get darker as he moved in. "Dog, come back."
There was a small gap between two buildings to his left that had shed fur on the ground between them. Recognizing the fur as the same kind on his dog, he shimmied through the opening and onto the other side, where he was in another alleyway.
He heard whimpering.
He turned and saw his dog laying on its side, a pool of blood around him.
"Dog," he screamed in terror.
Something as hard as a brick collided with the back of his skull. He falls to his knees.
"Your fucking dog bite me," a voice spoke, "I told him to leave but he kept following me."
'Hunter' looks up to see a man standing over him with a crowbar gripped in his hand.
"He tried biting me in the shins, even when I did nothing."
Crowbar Man kicked him in the ribs.
'Hunter' convulsed and fell to the ground in a fetal position.
"Your dog entered my territory and I stabbed it with the sharp part of this crowbar. I like dogs but it was necessary."
The man looked forward.
"And what would you know, it's crying in pain. I'll do the humane thing and put it out of its misery."
He smashed the crowbar against 'Hunter's' back before stepping over him to get the dog.
You dumb fuck, 'Hunter' thought, you made a fucking mistake.
He reached for the bowie knife in his back holster and picked himself up.
I hunt animals with nothing but a bowie knife on a repetitive basis; getting hit with a crowbar is nothing compared to the encounters I've had.
He holds himself above the ground on his elbow and knees before launching himself forward.
He plunges the bowie knife through the man's back between his collarbones, pushing it all the way up to the hilt.
The man screamed and dropped the crowbar as he fell to his knees.
'Hunter' yanked the bloody knife out the man's back and kicked him in the sides. The man fell on his back and he drove the blade deep into the man's heart.
"I've killed animals with this knife," 'Hunter' growls, "I've stabbed more wolves in the heart than I can count." He twists the knife counterclockwise. "You're just another one of my kills."
The man screams in pain before the sounds dry out and his head goes limp.
He rips the knife free.
OH MY GOD!
He gasps with his eyes wide.
What the fuck have I done? I killed a man!
He picks himself up and folds over with his hands on his knees to keep him up.
He vomits.
I took a human life; it's not a wolf or a deer but a human being with emotions.
He suddenly remembered.
"Dog!"
He runs over to the fallen dog and lands on his feet. He puts the bowie knife down before he puts his hands under the dog to lift him up and holds him to his chest, rocking him back and forth.
Crowbar Man said he put a hole in the dog's chest and surely, there was a circular hole around the dog's heart area leaking blood.
"It's okay," he hugged the dog, "it'll be okay. I'm here with you."
The dog whimpered in pain and began howling when it felt blood starting to gush out faster and stained the front of his shirt.
'Hunter' cried as he picked up his bowie knife and shoved it deep into the dog's heart.
"I'm sorry," he bawled, "I'm so sorry!"
Later That Night
'Hunter' arrived at his girlfriend's house, shirtless. He walked right up to her door and pounded on it. The person who opened it wasn't his girlfriend but a boy he recognized as her Big Brother wearing a leather jacket.
"It's you," he sneered, "the boy with no name."
"I'm here for your sister."
"Why aren't you wearing a shirt?"
He pushed past him to get inside. Big Brother stepped aside, only to grab the back of 'Hunter's' hair.
'Hunter' yelled in pain before wrestling to free his hair. Once his hair was free, he quickly charged up the stairs and down the hall until he reached the last door on the left. He pounded on the door as hard as he could and quickly as possible.
Big Brother charged up the stairs and was charging to tackle him before he stopped suddenly.
A teenage girl opened the door and stood between her Big Brother and 'Hunter'.
"Stop," she shouted. "Leave him alone; I invited him."
Big Brother backed off but not without shooting 'Hunter' a glare.
"Don't screw with me again, you nameless child," Big Brother said.
'Hunter' held up both hands in mock surrender.
"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Girlfriend asked. "Don't you have a gang reunion to attend?"
Big Brother turned to walk away.
Girlfriend turned to face him. "What happened? Why are you so late; I was up all night waiting for you." She noticed his bare chest. "And where's your shirt?"
"My dog is dead," he said absentmindedly.
Big Brother, who was about to turn at the end of the hall, stopped dead in his tracks.
Girlfriend looks at him with a shocked expression. "What?"
"We were walking down an alleyway when he ran off to chase somebody. This guy with a crowbar said that my dog was biting at him, said he entered his territory so he stabbed him with a crowbar."
Girlfriend gasped. "Oh my god…"
"He hit me over the head." He touches the back of his skull. "He was going to kill me after he killed my dog." He reaches down his legs to pull his bowie knife out from a holster hidden by his black sock. Since he'd gone shirtless to get rid of the blood, he had to find a new place for his holster as it was no longer concealed by the shirt. The sock seemed like the best place since it wasn't white and wouldn't show the blood-stained color.
Girlfriend steps back at the sight of the knife.
"I killed him," he said, "and then I killed my dog."
"Wha-"
"The man was a gangster; he deserved to die for killing my dog. But my dog, he was my best friend for years. I killed him to put him out of his misery."
Big Brother looked over his shoulder and stared at 'Hunter'.
'Hunter' began crying. "It was self-defense; it was a mercy kill, I swear!"
Big Brother turned around.
"You," he growled, "you're the one who killed my partner."
'Hunter' looked at him. "What?"
"The man you killed, he was my partner in this gang we were in. They stumbled upon his body and they called me an hour ago, telling me that my partner was dead."
'Hunter' grabbed his girlfriend and put her behind him.
"In our gang, we have a code: Honor among thieves."
"Listen," Girlfriend spoke up, "big brother, he said it was in self-defense."
"I get that," he snapped, "I hated him to begin with, but because he was my partner, my gang is going to be expecting retribution."
'Hunter' cocked his head. "What are you talking about?"
"They said if I don't kill the person who killed my teammate, they will kill me and my family for not avenging one of their own." He takes a moment to swallow a mouthful of saliva. "I don't want to kill you but if I don't, they'll kill me and my sister." He reaches into his jacket pocket to pull out a switchblade. "Better you than me and my sister."
'Hunter' held his free hand up while keeping the one with the knife down by his hip. "Let's not do this."
"You think I have a choice?!"
Big Brother rushes and slashes the knife. 'Hunter' jerks his head back and brings his bowie knife up to deflect. He quickly punches the brother back before tackling him to the ground.
The brother puts his feet on 'Hunter's' stomach and launches him back. He crawls on all four to climb on top of 'Hunter', sitting on his chest like it was a beach blanket.
"Stop," Girlfriend shouted, "both of you!"
The brother raised his hand above his head and drove the knife down.
'Hunter' stopped the blade just inches from his heart by grabbing the forearm with the knife in hand and pushed back. The brother lifted his foot and planted it on 'Hunter's' hand with the bowie knife, giving himself the advantage of using both hands to drive the knife down.
Girlfriend grabbed Big Brother's hair.
"Get off of him!"
The brother winced in pain and elbowed her off of him.
"If I don't kill him, you and I are as good as dead."
This momentary distraction was all 'Hunter' needed.
'Hunter' brings one of his legs up and wraps his knee around Big Brother's neck. The brother coughed and gagged for air but he was knocked off by balance when he was pulled back. When he felt the brother's strength deplete, 'Hunter' freed his hand from the brother's boot, smacked the switchblade away - but not out of his hand - and lunged upward and headbutted Big Brother in the nose.
I'm a hunter; this is not the first time I've been held down by a predator.
'Hunter' frees his knife hand and instead of stabbing the brother, he uppercuts the brother in the jaw and knocks him on his back. He quickly picked himself up and kicked him up the jaw and knocked the switchblade out of his hand.
He rotated the bowie knife in his hand and reeled his arm back.
The brother crawled back on his elbows and put one hand up as a sign of surrender but it was too late.
'Hunter' throws the knife into the brother's heart.
The brother convulses and reaches for the knife but he goes limp seconds later.
"NO!" Girlfriend cries. She collapses to her knees and holds her brother's head like a mother cradling a child. "No…"
'Hunter' pants and stepped back. "It was in self-defense," he told himself, "it was either him or me."
"You killed him," Girlfriend cried, "you killed him…"
'Hunter' snatches the knife out of the brother's chest and looks it over, making sure the blood doesn't get on the carpet by holding it over the corpse's stomach.
"We have to go," 'Hunter' said, "your brother's gang might come after you."
"I'm not associated with them!"
"I can't risk it; if they find out I killed two of their men and that you are my girlfriend, they might use you to get to me and I can't allow that."
He holsters his knife in his sock before he wraps his arms around his girlfriend's throat.
"I'm sorry, but I can't risk leaving you knowing that your brother's gang might come after both of us."
Girlfriend loses oxygen to her brain and passes out.
March 13th, 2025
It has been five days since the night 'Hunter' made his first human kills…
… and it wasn't his last kills.
He came home with two envelopes in his hand, knocking on the door to let his guest know that he was coming in.
He let himself in and looked at his girlfriend on the couch.
Hog-tied and gagged.
"Hey," he said sheepishly as he held up an envelope. "We go to the same school except you go Mondays through Fridays while I go Saturdays and Sundays, but I told our teacher, we have the same one, that you were sick so I brought your report card home."
She stared at him.
After he put her envelope down on the coffee table, he opened up the envelope addressed to 'Anonymous Student', and read over his report card.
"Straight A's again," he said, "I would open your mail but I wish to respect your privacy."
He went into the kitchen to retrieve a kitchen knife before returning to the couch and cutting the ropes that bound her hands and feet together.
He tugs the gag off her mouth.
She recoils and looks away.
"I'm sorry for kidnapping you," he said as he sat down next to her. "I didn't want to risk your brother's gang finding you and killing you; and about your brother, it was in self-defense."
"I wish you died," she said but with sadness in lieu of venom, "anybody was better off dying than my brother."
He scooted next to her. "I understand your feelings of sadness because I lost somebody that night too: My dog."
She looks at him. "How can you compare losing your dog when I lost my brother?"
"That dog was my best friend for years; I never had a mother nor father growing up and I got by on my own. When I first saw the dog, I mistook it for a wolf pup until it licked my hand and I brought it home. He was my one and only companion for so long, the only person who would follow me." He looks away. "I loved that dog like a brother like you loved your brother."
She scoffs and picks herself up.
He grabbed her hand. "As much as I love you."
She snatched her hand back. "How can you say that after kidnapping me?"
"I did it to protect you from your brother's gang?" he said as a question rather than a statement.
"And now you decided to let me go?"
He shook his head. "I let you go because I decided that you are safe."
She looks at him with narrow eyes. "What do you mean?"
He shoots a smile at her. "I killed them."
Her eyes widened.
"I hunted them down and I killed all of them. Counting your brother and the guy who killed my dog, I've stacked up sixty bodies."
"How could you do that?" she snapped. "All you had to do was call the police!"
He chuckled. "Don't worry, I made sure to stalk my targets and then set them up in a situation where they'd attack me and I'd have no choice but to kill them in self-defense." He stands up to meet her eye-line. "Who would've known that living in the woods your entire life would've paid off as a serial self-defense killer?"
"How can you stomach killing a person?"
"The same way you can blindly accept the fact that your brother joined a gang."
"I didn't blindly accept it and it took me a while to even comprehend it."
"Same with me."
She stares at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
March 8th, 2025
The boy known as 'Hunter' smeared alcohol on his unconscious girlfriend's mouth as he carried her home. People gave him looks as he was carrying an unconscious girl across his shirtless chest bridal style but the stench of alcohol seemed to ward them off.
When he arrived home to his cabin, he opened the door with a kick and laid her down on the couch before putting a pillow below her head.
What have I done?!
He collapses on his rear.
My best friend is dead, I killed a gangster, kidnapped my girlfriend, and killed her brother. Not only that, but I pissed off her a gang and they're going to be hunting for me.
He takes the knife out of his sock.
But it was in self-defense so they can't charge me with anything. But they can charge me with kidnapping. When she wakes up, she'll scream for help; I can't let her go or she might go to her brother's gang and they might kill her to get to me.
He climbed to his feet.
If I want to protect her and myself, I have to kill the rest of the gang members.
He started pacing around the room.
I could call the police but… no, I have to kill them but I'll be charged for murder and vigilantism so if I do kill them, it has to be like my first two kills: Self-defense.
He stopped pacing in the center of the room. He looked down at the knife in his hand and caressed it.
The first time I killed a human, it was to save my best friend but it was in self-defense. The second time I killed, it was to protect myself and no one else.
He held the blade to his chest.
I've killed dozens of animals but it was never in self-defense. I was hunting and killing and skinning animals cause I was motivated by hunger. But when I killed a human for the first time, I was motivated by something else.
He put a hand to his heart.
I kill animals to survive but when I killed a human for the first time, it felt…
He suddenly found peace and tranquility.
… thrilling.
Present
"You opted to kill the gangsters instead of turning them in, why?"
'Hunter' looked away and towards the fireplace. "To be honest, I've been bored."
"What?"
"I've killed animals in the past but it was always the same kind of hunt I've dealt with countless times. But when I kill humans, they actually have the ability to think and strategize and the higher up in status they possess, the harder they are to kill." He crossed his arms over his chest as he walked over to the fireplace. "I was starting with the lowlife gangsters, stalking them, sabotaging their guns, and provoking them to attack me so I could kill them in self-defense, then I worked myself up the ladder."
He grabbed the poker and started stoking the fire.
"When I got to the gangbanger lieutenants, they put up more of a fight but I outwitted them. Then just hours ago, I confronted the last member of the gang, provoked him, and he almost killed me, had it not been for him slipping in his own blood that threw him off balance and allowed me to deliver the final blow."
Girlfriend gagged. She looked at the door, contemplating running off, but decided against it. She moved over to the fireplace and stood next to the boy.
"Now that you've proven yourself to be a deadly hunter, what are you going to do now?"
He got down to one knee as he continued stoking the fire. "I'm going to hunt."
She got down to one knee to meet his gaze. "What do you mean?"
"I'm going to hunt down criminals and I'm going to kill them." He used the poker to flip a log in the fireplace. "In case you haven't noticed, crimes have skyrocketed recently so there are plenty of criminals for me to hunt."
"What's the point?"
"I've told you: Boredom."
"You got bored of hunting animals so now you're going to hunt criminals down?"
"And I'm going to set up the situations so that every person I kill is in self-defense."
She felt herself getting ready to throw up but she choked it down. "What if I report you to the police?"
"If you were to do that, then I'll tell them the truth: I was attacked, fought back in self-defense, and I hid you to protect you from a violent gang and I fought to kill everyone when they tried to kill me."
She sneered at him with a glare. "If it wasn't for the fact that crime has skyrocketed, and the fact that I'm a Kira supporter, I would definitely report you."
He laughed. "If I ever get tired of killing gangsters, I'll aim higher. I'll kill corrupt officers and criminal business people. Once I get bored with them, I'll aim even higher. Warlords, terrorists, people with their own Wikipedia page, high status. Once I kill them or if I get bored, I'll aim even higher."
"What's higher than warlords and terrorists?"
He widened his smile to the point his lips were stretching across his teeth.
His hair and eyes turn green.
"Kira."
January 2nd, 2032
Tokyo, Japan
The Subway
The boy, known as 'Hunter', was not a boy anymore but a grown man wearing a leather jacket. He paid for a newspaper with yen from his pocket before turning and taking a seat on a bench. He opened the newspaper and skimmed over current events, seeing what headlines caught his interest.
The headline for page three is definitely what caught his interest.
'Not Even Anonymous Criminals Are Safe'.
I think I have something to do with this, he thought. While Kira is killing the criminals whose names and faces were posted online, I have the mind to go after criminals who remain anonymous and out of the spotlight.
He skimmed through the article before finding what he was looking for.
Ever since my killing of the gangs all those years ago, they've been calling me the KIA Killer. I'm not a fan of it and if I had to choose, I would stick with the nickname my girlfriend somewhat gave me: 'Hunter'.
When a train slowed to a stop in front of him, he held the newspaper up so that his face was hidden behind it. He quickly flipped back to the front page.
Since Kira's return, crime has started to fall. All the criminals I hunt online are killed with heart attacks and I have to get hands-on when stalking my next victim.
He sighs with a smirk.
I was growing bored with hunting lowlife criminals.
He folds the paper and stands up.
I've already killed lowlifes, corrupt people with status, and wanted international criminals and with Kira back, I think it's time I aim higher.
He walks away.
A couple stepped off the train and over to the bench 'Hunter' was previously sitting.
The girl was of European descent - not hard to guess - and had green eyes and red hair that fell over her shoulders.
Her boyfriend was a man of Japanese heritage with blue eyes and reddish-blonde... strawberry blonde hair.
AN: And here I present you, the third arc of Death Note: Light's Out: The Kindred Spirits Arc. I must warn you, however, that this arc may be darker than the previous two.