XXIX –Welcome to the Party!


The Dragon no longer hesitated and took the matter into his own hands. He went to claim Diego's body and paid for an autopsy. Though he was initially told the results will be ready in a week, the man managed to arrange that Diego's case would have priority. He was told the results will be ready in three days.

Caterina was convinced it was murder, especially after she heard the nurses saying something about Diego having attacked one of the volunteers. She knew him well enough to know Diego would never attack anyone, unless he was defending himself. Even so, that wasn't enough to accuse anyone.

The police were there, as well as Light. They were talking to the nurses in the night shift and taking notes. To him, the story didn't seem logical enough. From what he had heard, Diego couldn't have had any sudden complications that would affect his behavior. All that Light could think of would be that the murderer had been with Diego when the man died. The rest confirmed him they were thinking of the same thing. Every nurse, doctor and volunteer was a suspect, even the auxiliary staff.

"Perhaps the surveillance cameras will show us something," Light suggested.

"We can't look over anything until the director agrees…" one of the policemen complained.

'And this is one reason I don't trust the law,' Kira thought. 'If he refuses to show us the footage, he certainly knows we will find our murderer that way.'

"What about the syringe?" Light asked.

"It will be taken to the laboratory and tested. The nurses said they don't use that type," the policeman assured Light. "We will have the results this evening or tomorrow morning."

Light nodded. As soon as he was left alone, Caterina came up to him.

"Well…? Anything?" she asked in a hopeful voice. She was obviously tired and Light couldn't help but wonder if she had slept at all last night.

"They found a syringe that doesn't match those used in this hospital abandoned between the sheets. You were right, this does look like a murder case… A very careless murder. I think it may be the work of an amateur."

Her green eyes widened in surprise. "An amateur…?"

Light nodded. "Our killer left the murder weapon behind, didn't they? I don't think it is the work of a professional assassin. We also found blonde hairs on the floor."

Caterina looked away. So the Snake had a new asset… Was this the initiation of his new associate? But working with amateurs was risky, why would someone like the Snake do this? "It still doesn't make sense yet…"

"Yet," Light agreed, "But we will find the murderer, I promise. It's only a matter of time."

That morning, Bianca woke up again. She had lost all sense of time. The woman felt numb, gross, covered in her own sweat and terribly thirsty. Her throat ached… Swallowing her saliva, she felt the familiar pain in the muscles of her neck. Cautious, she first moved her fingers, then her arms and slowly got up on her elbows.

Looking around, the blonde realized she was in the same green room as before, still clothed, with her arm bruised and a killing headache. On instinct, she took her hand up and tried to feel the painful place on her head. Her scalp hurt so bad, she couldn't stand her own touch. She didn't feel any bandage though. 'It's not broken… That's good,' she thought.

Soon enough, a man walked in. He had just one leg and Bianca found herself staring at his scars. He seemed familiar, but the woman didn't really have a name to associate to his figure. His expression wasn't very friendly, but she didn't feel threatened either.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her on a calm and reserved tone.

"…Numb, I don't know," she mumbled. "What happened? Where am I?"

The man sat on an armchair in the room and looked at her in silence for a moment. "Don't you know?"

Thinking back, Bianca began arranging the flashes of her memory. "I… I-I killed a man…" she mumbled in a weak, trembling voice. The man nodded. "I took a cab and then… I don't know."

"You passed out. Did you hit your head?" the Snake asked her.

"I don't know… It hurts, but not like a bump. I don't think I did… It must be from something else," she eventually concluded.

The Snake listened and decided not to tell her the truth right away. Instead, he let her the rest of the day to recover. He let her use his room for a while longer, even if he couldn't really understand why. Perhaps it was the loneliness that had been killing him for the past year, since he had isolated himself from everyone else who might mock him for his scars and missing limb. Instead of trying to figure out why was he allowing the woman to stay in his bed with her clothes on, he decided to ignore any of these confusing, contradicting thoughts. There were more urgent matters to be solved.

The next day, Light received his final exam results. After handling his mother the papers, he excused himself into his room. It was already evening and he was tired – no lie, this time. That noon he ran from school to the police station in order to look over the lab results of the blonde hairs and the foreign syringe found in the bed of the victim.

Light googled the compounds he could remember from the report and he had a frightening surprise. The syringe contained a deadly cocktail of snake venoms. The cause of death for Diego could have been shock, suffocation, or heart failure. Perhaps it was a combination of all that eventually bought his death. Light's skin was crawling in disgust and fear just thinking of everything the man probably felt before he finally passed away.

Even so… his assassin was an amateur. They already had the DNA of the criminal and judging by those long hairs, it was most likely a woman. Kira couldn't wait for the investigation to drag the murderer out from the shadows so he could set up her grand finale. Certainly, she deserved a bit more than just a heart attack. Should he make her jump off a building? Or in front of a train? Maybe he will make her be eaten by stray dogs. Would it be possible for the Death Note to do that? It would be a horrible death, maybe even matching in pain and terror with Diego's final moments.

Light took out his notebook and looked over the names he had already written. They were so many… All lined up in columns like convicts on a death row. He was proud… Kira was overjoyed to see what he had accomplished so far. All of those criminals were dead, out of the streets for good and with no chance of breaking loose again. After all, nobody returned from hell, right? It was the safest prison for them. But just as he was preparing himself to write some more, Light heard a voice behind him and to the right, where his window was.

"You've taken quite a liking to it." It was hoarse and sounded amused, though Light turned around in fright. There was nobody supposed to be there.

Outside it was pouring. The rain was threatening to turn into a storm and when the lightning stroke somewhere in the distance, Light saw a creature he couldn't have ever imagined. A barely humanoid figure, hunched, with abnormally long and skinny limbs, all dressed in black. Its skin was the ashen gray of corpses, but what scared Light the most was its face. Round eyes seemed to be popping out of their sockets, yellow like those of liver disease patients. It had a wide grin and its teeth were uneven and sharp like the jaws of a shark. Shocked, Light tried to back away so fast, he fell off his chair. Not even in his worst nightmares had he seen anything as ugly, as distorted as the thing before him.

"No reason to act surprised," the thing continued on the same amused tone, "I am the shinigami Ryuk. That used to be my notebook. Judging by your laughter, you've already figured out that what you have is no ordinary notebook."

Taking over, Kira calmed down his other half. Once he felt secure enough, he held onto his chair and got up. "Shinigami… A god of death, huh? Well, I'm not surprised. In fact, Ryuk, I've been waiting for you."

His words surprised the creature still standing by his window. "Oh…?"

"I already figured out that this Death Note I've found is real," Kira explained. "Didn't take me long. And now, that I've witnessed the proof of its power, I only feel more comfortable in what I'm gonna do."

"That's interesting. I certainly wasn't expecting this," the shinigami said. "Several Death Notes had made their way into the human realm in the past, but you're the first to have written this many names. Look at how many people you've killed in only five days! Most are reluctant to write this much."

Sitting back at his desk, Kira smiled. "I've already prepared myself for this, Ryuk. I used the notebook, even though I knew it belonged to a shinigami, and now that shinigami has come. So, what will happen to me? You're here to take my soul, right?" Light knew enough stories of people finding strange objects with supernatural powers and using them. There were fairy tales, legends, myths of all kinds, parables – but always, there was some price to pay for these items.

"Hn? What do you mean?" Ryuk asked, obviously confused. "Is that some fantasy you humans came up with? I'm not gonna do anything to you," the shinigami assured Light. That surprised him. "The notebook becomes part of the human realm from the very moment it touches the earth. In other words," the death god explained while pointing towards it, "the notebook is now your's."

Light looked down at the Death Note in his hands. It was hard to believe… "This… is mine?" he hesitantly asked. Did he understand correctly?

"If you don't want it, just give it to someone else!" the shinigami grinned. "But if you give it away, I'd have no choice but to erase your memories of the notebook."

"So, then…" Kira began, demanding to know if he was getting everything right, "You're saying I can use the Death Note all I want and I won't be punished?"

"Let's just say this – you will feel the fear and pain known only to humans who've used the notebook. And when it's your time to die, it will fall on me to write your name in my Death Note. Be warned – any human who's used the Death Note can neither go to heaven, nor hell for eternity. That's all." Ryuk laughed. "Now you have something to look forward to when you die."

A knock on his door frightened Light again.

"Light?" he heard his mother from the outside.

"It'll be alright," Ryuk assured him. "Answer it."

Quickly, the teenager slipped the notebook under his bed and went to open the door of his room. "What is it?" he asked his mother. He couldn't help but feel a little agitated.

"I thought you'd like some apples," his mother said with a kind smile. "The neighbors bought them over for us," she explained. "Why on earth is it so dark in your room? You'll ruin your eyes like that."

Panicked, both Light and Kira were trying to understand. 'What's going on?' he asked his darker side. 'Mom can't see him…?'

"I'll turn the light on, then. I haven't noticed it's gotten this dark," Light said as he took the basket with the apples and thanked his mother. As soon as he did, he closed the door and returned to his desk. He wanted some explanations.

"That notebook you found originally belonged to me," Ryuk clarified the situation before Kira could demand it. "And since you're now using it, you are the only one who's able to see me. And, of course, my voice can only be heard by you." Picking up one of the apples, Ryuk continued. "In other words, the Death Note is the bond between Light, the human, and Ryuk, the shinigami." Taking a bite of the apple, the death god was surprised by its texture and taste, chewing it with pleasure. "Yum!" Soon, he was devouring every apple in the basket.

"I just have one more question I want to ask you," Kira said, demanding the entity's attention. "Why was I chosen for this?" The death god was busy stuffing his face with apples, though. "Hey, are you even listening?"

"Apples in the human realm are worth the trip. What's the best way to describe these…?" it seemed to be talking to itself, still staring at the empty basket, "Juicy?"

"Just answer my question!" Kira demanded. He was already annoyed with the shinigami and with the situation at large. He didn't feel in control.

Ryuk chuckled. "I didn't choose you. Don't you see this is all just an accident? You actually thought you were chosen because you're so smart, or something? Don't be so vain. It just happened to fall around here and you just happened to pick it up, and that's all there is to it. That's why I wrote the instructions in English – the most popular language in the human world."

"Then why did you drop it in the first place?" Light demanded. It didn't look like an accident to him, especially not after all of his reasoning built around him being chosen to rid the world of criminals. He was mad, frustrated. This was not what he expected to hear. "You even wrote down specific instructions, so don't try to tell me this was an accident."

"You're asking me why? …I did it 'cause I was bored," came the shockingly simple answer. "The truth is, shinigamis don't have much to do these days. Most of the time we're either taking naps or gambling. If you take the time to write names in your notebook, the others just laugh at you for working so hard. Even if you wrote the name of another shinigami, it'd be pointless because they wouldn't die. And since we live in the shinigami realm, it brings us no amusement to kill those in the human world. So I figured I'd have more fun if I came down here myself. Anyway, I'm surprised by how many names you've written," the shinigami said while looking through the pages of Light's Death Note. "But I want to know why you only wrote the cause of death for that guy who was hit by the truck."

Kira began to smile. "If you don't write down the cause of death, the victim dies of a heart attack – and that's probably the best thing about the Death Note, Ryuk. You see, I've already exhausted the list of the world's most major criminals, and eventually, I'm going to get rid of them all."

Trying and failing to understand, Ryuk asked, "What's the point of doing that?"

"It's only a matter of time before people figure out that these criminals are being eliminated by someone. I want the world to know of my existence, that there's someone out there passing judgment on the wicked," Kira explained. Just the thought of it was enough to make his blood boil with excitement.

"Why even bother?" Ryuk asked again, still not getting it. "What are you trying to achieve by passing judgment on them? I mean, why do you care?"

Light stepped past the entity and looked outside his window at the street darkened by the rain and the gray clouds hanging heavy over the city. "Because… I've been bored, too. I wasn't ready to believe it at first, but it's obvious now. There's something about the Death Note itself that makes humans want to try it out at least once. This world… is rotten, and those who are making it rot deserve to die. Someone has to do it, so why not me? Even if it means sacrificing my own mind and soul, it's worth it, because the world… can't go on like this! I wonder…" Kira went on in his speech, "what if somebody else had picked up this notebook? Is there anyone out there other than me who'd be willing to eliminate the vermin from the world? If I don't do it, then who will? The authorities? The corrupted businessmen pretending to be heroes for a day? That's just it, there's no one! But I can do it. In fact, I'm the only one who can! And I'll do it… Using the Death Note, I'll change the world!"

The shinigami was listening, rather intrigued by this human's ambitions. He tried to understand him simply so it would make his experience in the human realm worth his time.

"At first I wrote the names of the worse criminals I could think of, like I was cleaning out the world – one name at a time, so that eventually, no one will ever do anything evil again. And while the truly guilty ones who deserve to be punished die of heart attacks, the people who are less guilty but who still cause trouble for others will slowly be erased through disease and accidental death. Then and only then, the world will start moving in the right direction. It will be a new world, free of injustice and full of people who I've judged to be honest, kind, and hardworking."

"But if you did that, it would make you the only bad person left," the death god drew his attention on the logical conclusion.

"Huh…? I've got no idea what you're talking about," Light innocently replied. "I'm a hardworking honor student who is considered to be one of Japan's best and brightest. And I…" Kira continued his other half's answer, "I will become the God of this new world!"

Ryuk grinned. The dark clouds were spreading and a few sunrays were peeking through. "By the way…" the shinigami said, "Aren't you forgetting something?"

For a moment, Light looked as if he had just woken up from a dream. "What do you mean?"

"Is this another human thing to leave threats between treats? As far as I know, that night of the year has passed."

Light looked at the empty apples basket only to find a note. The text had been printed, it wasn't handwritten and Light had no idea who could it be from. All it said was 'The reason of your Fall' in cursive letters. "My… fall?" Light frowned.

"What does it mean?" the shinigami asked, intrigued by the situation. He was eager to find out more about this human and his story, because it was already obvious he had done something pretty bad… other than using the Death Note. Or perhaps that was it? Ryuk couldn't wait to find out.

"I'm not certain…" Kira's enthusiasm was gone in a split. Instead, he called Caterina to inform her. When she didn't pick up, he decided to go down into the living room and see if he can find out which one of the neighbors had brought them the apples.

The reason why Caterina wasn't picking up her phone was at least convenient for her. Shin had called her to meet at a café, but she convinced him to join her for dinner at the restaurant of the hotel. The girl didn't find it important enough to contact her father though – the man was currently away and that meant he most likely had something urgent to solve.

"What did you want to talk about?" the girl asked with a smile. Her phone was vibrating in her purse, but Caterina ignored it.

Shin heard, but if she wasn't going to pay it any attention then perhaps he shouldn't either… Sighing, the boy lowered his head. "I'm not sure how to put this… I mean, I think your father is pretty rich, right?"

The phrase had caught her attention. Caterina nodded, keeping her green eyes glued to him, even if he avoided her. "Yes… What exactly do you know?"

"I-I'm not a stalker or anything, I just noticed your phone, your driver and so on. I just thought your father must have some business or something that's going well." The boy was nervous, jumpy, immediately feeling accused.

"Shin, look at me," the girl asked him. "I never said you were a stalker. I'm not accusing you of anything, I just want you to relax, okay? Take a moment."

Nodding, the boy looked around once again. "Can anybody hear us here?" he asked hesitantly.

"No," Caterina quickly reassured him. "The guards are hired by my father. There's really no reason to act so agitated, this restaurant is perhaps the safest in town."

The teenager breathed in a few times. "Alright, I will take your word for it. I wanted to meet with your father too. I think you're in danger, Caterina," he began. "I don't want to scare you, but…"

Caterina nodded, waiting for him to continue. "It's alright, go on."

"I told you I work, right?" he asked and the girl gave a small nod. "I usually stop on my way back and do the groceries at a small store that's open late. It's right in the bus station. I was waiting for the bus – it's only one an hour at night so sometimes there are more people waiting…"

The girl was running out of patience. "Yes, Shin? What happened?"

"Well, there was this guy there. He asked me for a lighter, but I don't smoke so I told him no. Then, he showed me this huge stack of money… I'm not sure how much was that, but it was a stack… kind of this tall," he gestured. "He could barely hold it."

"Why would he offer you so much money?" Caterina asked.

Shin bit his lip. "It's… kind of embarrassing. He thought you were my girlfriend and, uh…"

"Yes…?" the girl said, waiting for him to continue.

"…He, um… told me to bring you to a bar. He said something about someone who wants to meet you, but your father doesn't agree, or… something like that." Shin couldn't even stand to look at her, feeling ashamed of his situation.

Instead of judging him, Shin was surprised to see the auburn-haired girl staring off into the distance. She had her lips pursed, apparently chewing her tongue and frowning slightly.

"Did he say which bar?" she asked after a moment.

Shin shook his head. "I don't think he did."

"Have you seen the guy's face?"

"He was wearing a hood. I know he has a pointy chin, that's all. A little taller than me. Are you going to tell the police?" he asked, feeling a little less anxious. He thought Caterina would be afraid, perhaps even accuse him of lying – it wasn't the most believable story, right? But it was true.

"No… You will tell my father too, but not right now. For now, I want you to go along with the offer."

Shin frowned in confusion. "Wait… Why not call the police?"

"You haven't gone there yet, right?" she asked. When he shook his head, she smiled. "Good. You see, if they can offer you so much to bring me to a certain bar, then they can most likely corrupt a few policemen as well. We can't trust them right now – or anyone else. Instead, I want you to meet with that guy again and tell him you've had a change of heart. When he tells you the exact place and time, return to me. My father will take care of the matter from there."

The teenager sighed. "Caterina, what will happen…? This whole situation sounds like a bad movie about the underground business. I don't want to get involved in this, I was just worried for you. I don't want anyone trying to hurt you…"

The girl was growing annoyed by his words. Initially, she thought Shin could compare to Light. He seemed confident, with a strong mind and will, rebellious enough to claim his own life and with a pretty sharp mind. Now though, she only saw him as hesitant and confused. Shin was making her regret she had ever labeled him as one of the strong ones. He was yet another weakling, or perhaps he was the mediocre type her father had warned her about.

"Look, if they know about you, then you are already involved. Now you can either do as I say and we will both get out clean, or you can act on your own, make some foolish mistake and sink somewhere in between us and them."

"Caterina, who are 'They'?!" Shin asked on the verge of despair.

"…The people who are behind my mother's assassination," she said in a low voice. "That's all you need to know for now. So, are you with me or not?"

The boy looked at her with small eyes. "…Just once, I am. But there are others depending on me – innocents. I can't afford to go to jail, I can't even afford dying. Can you guarantee I will come out clean?"

Caterina returned him the cold look. "My father can. Your only role is to do what I told you. With that, you are done."

All this time, the Snake was trying to enjoy his dinner. He found out from the news that Bianca's syringe had been found and the substances used, identified. Everyone was shocked of how strange the case appeared, titled the 'Amateur Assassin'. It looked like a joke from the outside. The police had Bianca's DNA and her finger prints. They were trying to get the security camera recordings from that night as well.

"…Tell me again, lemon pie, how did you manage to make so many mistakes in one go?" he sighed. The food was barely going down his throat from how angry he was, but even so, the Snake tried to appear calm. After all, all women seemed to be scared out of their skin whenever they saw him a little more furious than usual.

The blonde sighed. "I'm sorry! I've been apologizing for the past two days, what more can I do now? …It's not like I can go back and clean the scene of any clues." She was still weak, getting dizzy whenever she tried to stand up and nauseous most of the time. Apparently, these were simple side-effects of having been poisoned, though she hated every second of it.

"It so happens that I am not Merlin and you are not Sir Arthur's female alter-ego," he man spat out with so much irony, it reminded Bianca of her uncle, Vincent.

"I still can't believe you used snake venom to kill that guy…" Bianca mumbled.

"Why?" the man leaned towards her from his office chair. "Is it too ironic for you? I thought your country was the birthplace of irony and sarcasm."

"It's just too mainstream! It's like Spiderman wrapping someone in spider web. It works in a movie, but it's just too… obvious! It's tasteless in real life," she tried to explain her disapproving of his method.

The Snake began grinning, then chuckling. "What if I told you we all have our signature? The Dragon burns people – how obvious is that? Lucky 8 breaks their teeth and twists the head backwards. Black Panther rips them to bits or feeds them to his pets. Kanye Bail supposedly eats them. Vitto Vittorio drains them of their blood."

Bianca cringed. "Who does that guy think he is, Dracula?"

"Something of that sort. He supposedly identified with a book character."

Still horrified, Bianca set her plate on a side table. "You, people, are just sick. And who would actually eat people? That's just disgusting."

The Snake simply shrugged. "That's the rumor, anyway. Whatever the guy is doing, nobody ever finds the bodies of those he kills. You must admit it takes a professional team of hitmen and assassins to achieve that."

The blonde sighed. "I suppose… If that was another sting about that night, I don't want to hear it. I blew it, I get it. And I don't want to hear any joke about me blowing anything," she continued when she saw the man's expression.

He rose his hands in self defense. "Alright, no jokes this time around. But out of curiosity, what happened there that went so terribly wrong?"

In her mind, she could hear Diego's last words. 'You will pay for me, just like V. paid for his wife.' The more she thought of it, the more she felt her values and beliefs crumbling under Diego's words. Could her uncle have really been a murderer…? Biting her lip, she looked away from the Snake. "He was conscious and I panicked. That's all."

Sighing, the man shook his head. "I should have known…"


Author's Notes:

As always, this chapter had been proofread by my beta, AbandonedSock.

There is a reference at the end of this chapter I'd be glad if you took the time to check out. The names the Snake mentions are all fictional. "Vitto Vittorio drains them of their blood. [...] He supposedly identified with a book character." The book is Vittorio the Vampire by Anne Rice and if you haven't read it yet, go read it now. It's basically Romeo and Juliet with vampires and angels thrown in and lots of supernatural action on the side.

I'm still waiting for reviews. If you're out there and still reading, I want to hear from you. If you don't want to review, PM me instead.

Also, I'll be taking requests for one-shots in this fandom. You can choose a canon character or an OC of mine, dead or alive, at any time. I will need to know the main character/s and the premise of the one-shot. I will not write anything yuri or yaoi, but other than that, feel free to ask.