(Indy's POV)

'Mum, I'm home!'

'Hey sweetie, dinner will be ready in about an hour.'

Filing that information in my head, I very quietly make my way up to my room and-

'Hey sis, how was the party?'

'Oh, yeah, it was great. I met that girlfriend of yours, by the way.'

'I... don't recall having any girlfriend.'

'Does the name "Kallet Vimerica" ring a bell?'

'She's a crazy fangirl, and possibly a Yandere, not a girlfriend. Learn the difference.' He then shuts the door to his room, and I enter mine.

There's my brother, overexaggerating as usual. I know he's retained our sense of cautiousness we picked up in the mafia, but sometimes I still worry about him. In any case, I have my own shit to deal with. I enter my room and insert my phone back into the charger on the bedside table. All the rooms in this house have the same overall color scheme, although as a remnant of my earlier years I still have a lot of bright pink in mine (bedsheets, mirror frames, that sort of thing).

First I open up my laptop and begin to look at today's news feed. It's mostly the usual boring shit but occasionally there's something interesting:

Major oil field discovered in Antarctica, US considering liberation

Scientists yet to find link between Malcom Roberts and reality

Homeless protesters told to go home

New shot reduces heart attack risk in non-criminals by 50%

Dead body found in cemetery

Giant footprints discovered in inland Japan

104 missing in inland Japan

Scissor-Paper-Rock to be added to 2020 Olympics

17 Pokemon species are now Endangered, study finds

Canadian man attempts to clear snow with flamethrower

World Bank says poor need more money

Local council to pay $250,000 to advertise lack of funds

Cheeseburger stabbing in Houston, Texas

France accidentally declares war on itself, surrenders

Suicide bomber instructor blows up suicide bombers in training

Google, Apple to announce new joint tax-avoidance program

Detroit goes "murder free" for 48 hours

Japanese politicians are thinking of building real working Gundam

North Korea faces famine after supreme leader eats all the food

Fish need water, states environment minister

Hanson: Renewable energy most likely cause of South Australian blackouts

Teen murders girlfriend with sulfuric acid

Local mother surrounded by L fans, what she does next is GENIUS

Queensland tap water now safe to drink... for extremophile bacteria

Army tank disappears after being painted with camouflage

New study finds Homicide victims rarely talk to police

WHO says terrorism risk is declining around the world

Alright, now I open separate tabs for the stories that sound interesting, and check my email. It just seems to be the usual stuff from my friends and my bo- wait, what's this? I do not recognize any email with this adress. Opening it, I see a brief message.

At exactly 6:00PM on November 3, go to the link below and wait there

- T

T? For a moment I consider this being spam, and then I see the end of the provided link.

.onion

Ordinary search engines can't go to .onion websites, and even the government has a hard time monitoring things up there. This link leads to somewhere in... the Dark Web.

A vast majority of internet users don't have the capability to travel to the DW, so this probably isn't spam. Could it be a message from the mafia? Since Kira showed up they've been suffering continuous losses, but surely they wouldn't already be trying to re-recruit ex-members. It could be from Viper, but then why wouldn't she talk to me in person instead? Same goes for my other friends, and my brother. Today is November 3, and the time is 5:58. Perfect timing. I open up TOR and copy-paste the URL into the search bar.

After a few seconds, the page finishes loading. Rather than somthing detailed, it is simply a black screen with two blank boxes and white styized font above them.

TO ENSURE THAT THIS MESSAGE HAS REACHED THE RIGHT PERSON, PLEASE STATE YOUR NAME AND DATE OF BIRTH

I reluctanly fill in the boxes.

India Atarashimono

October 18 1999

Suddenly the screen changes and fills with a black stylized "T" over a white background, just like L did in his broadcast two days ago, and a similar filetered voice comes through.

'Hello. I am T. I'll show you who I really am soon enough, but for now I'll stay anonymous for security reasons.'

'So are you, like, one of L's friends or something?'

'No, in fact I do not know any more about L than anyone else right now.'

'Then who are you, exactly.'

'Like I said, I'll leave that to some other time. But that time will come much sooner if I have your cooperation.'

'...What is it you want?'

'Well first, I have some questions. Where were you at the time of Kira and L's broadcasts two days ago?'

'I was at a party at a friend's house. When L's broadcast began I was ouside, but Viper quickly pulled me in to join the dozen-or-so teens with their eyes glued to the TV. I missed the first bit of L's broadcast, but a few hours later when Kira's started I was alerted immediately and, well, by then nearly everyone was interested so the living room was rather crowed as we watched the second broadcast.'

'Okay, I didn't need to know that much but still, thanks. Now, have you noticed any changes in behaviour in your brother lately?'

'WHAT? WHAT HAS HE GOT TO DO WITH THIS?!'

'More than I can convince you of with words alone. Now, have you?'

'Well, about a week ago I caught him having a nightmare. He kept muttering things like "death gods" and "Shinigami world". But he hasn't had any other nightmares since.'

'... Anything else?'

'Well, he seems to talk a lot in his room. My best guess is that he's using skype or just talking to himself.'

'And one last thing, what are your views on Kira?'

'... I'm not sure how to answer that. I mean, I remember my brother reading and watching something about "Kira" and "L" for long before either appeared, but I never paid attention to it. But now, I do support Kira and wish him the best of luck in his ambitions.'

'So L's message didn't change your mind?'

'I don't care about letters. The ideas and opinions of others don't affect me. I decide with my own thoughts. That being said... I am still a little scared because, well, I used to work for the mafia, and I did kill a few people when I was in it's vigilante corps, and I'm worried Kira could see that and use it as a reason to, well, kill me.'

'Don't worry. If there is one thing I can say for absolute certain from the information I have, it's that Kira will never try to kill you. Now that you've answered my questions, I do have one final request. Since there's no way I can convince you of what I know without you seeing it for yourself, you'll need to do something for me.'

'... T, what do you want?'

'My request is that you place a camera in Chris's room and position it somewhere he won't see it, and from the moment he arrives home tomorrow to the moment he falls asleep, record everything that-'

'WHAT THE FUCK T?! I CAN'T JUST INVADE MY BROTHER'S PRIVACY AND SPY ON HIM LIKE SOME NSA PERVERT! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!'

'... Well, it was worth a shot.'

Suddenly the screen goes black.

...

...

Who was that person?

(Dimina's POV)

War, war never changes. Since the dawn of… wait, no, wrong story. Shit, umm… death! Death never changes! Yeah, let's go with that.

It's been over a week since Rugo left for the human world, specifically the one he was originally from, but only now have I found him through this observation orb. On one hand, it is good to know that he is being treated well, and that his human seems to treat him a lot like, well, a human. But I'm still worried. This human thinks much bigger than life wants him to, and on top of that he's childish and makes mistakes... then again, so was Rugo, all those years ago. In any case, just watching over them is just going to keep me worried. I'll go see if any of the others have noticed his disappearance.

Rugo is the only other formerly-human shinigami I know, at least, he's the only other one I know who is still alive, and something about his absence seems so... uneasy. After what must be well over five centuries of being a shinigami, I have gotten used to this world's overall appearance. From what I can tell the entire is darkened by constant cloud cover, and almost completely lifeless. Vegetation is an extremely rare sight, and even then I've never found anything growing past waist-level. While I still do not know how large this realm is, I have some theories about why it is this way.

During my travels to the human world, I have done much research into the kinds of events that can create this kind of world. I am still far from being called a certified geologist or archaeologist, but there are a few things I am rather certain of. All this jaggered terrain I'm walking over on my way to the nearby shinigami settlement used to be covered in plant and animal life, many of the naturally-occuring footpaths were once the locations of flowing rivers, and many of the large low-lying deserts nearby were underwater until sometime within the last few thousand years. What changed all of that, I have no idea.

I finally arrive at the settlement, which is really little more than a collection of structures formed from stone and half-fossilized bone. Upon arrival, a familiar armoured eight-eyed shinigami notices my prescene. Calikarcha.

'Hey Dimina! What happened to Rugo, I haven't seen him at all these last few days! Has he gone back to hibernate in the mountains?'

'No, he... he dropped his Death Note into the human world.'

'Seriously? The same thing happened just a decade ago with-'

Before she can continue she is interrupted by another death god, with a cattle skull for a head and a large geen beaded necklace. Gook.

'Perhaps he still cares about the human world. Remember, he didn't grow up here like the rest of us. Same goes for his little girlfriend over there.'

'THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY?!'

'Oh, little Dimina's using grown-up words! I'm sooooo scared!'

'ENOUGH YOU THREE!'

'Ah... sorrysorrysorry-'

'Gook, Cali, both of you leave her alone! You don't know what she's thinking or feeling right now.'

As they run off, I look up to see who it was, and recognize him instantly. I don't know his name, or anything else about him for that matter, but I have caught a few glimpses of him over the past few days, and I think I also saw him once about three years ago. Wait... how is it that he coincidentally starts showing up again right before Rugo leaves for his human world? I mean, Rugo would've somehow had to have aquired a second Death Note to have one to drop into the human world in the first place, so it isn't unthinkable that there could be a connection between the two.

'Umm... hi.' I extend out my hand. 'Dimina Corabelle.'

Shaking my hand, he simply replies, 'You can call me whatever you want.'

'Huh? Okay. So you must be newer than most, since this is the first time we've spoken to one another.'

'Well, out here age doesn't really mean anything. So tell me, what do you think of Rugo's human?'

'Why do you wanna know?'

'I'm just curious.'

'I... what do you think?'

'Here's what I think, death god. The moment that the kid discovered the Note's true power, seeing the look on his eyes as he held up the book, that I became certain that Rugo had made the correct decision. At long last, his dream had come true, and he could begin to change the world.'

'I know, but so many people see him as so... villainous.'

'Listen, men like him, men like me... we choose to be called villains for the good of our worlds.'

(Chris' POV)

'Tell me, Rugo, are there any unexpected consequences for using the Death Note this much?'

Sliding a pawn forward, he replies. 'Well, not for Shinigami, no.'

'Well no shit Sherlock!'

'As for humans, well…'

'Well what?'

'There is one important thing regarding the fate of a human who uses a Death Note, but while there is no rule specifically preventing a Shinigami from telling a human what it is, doing so is highly frowned upon.'

Moving my knight I ask, 'Aren't you already frowned upon?'

'… Actually, I don't know what the others up there think of me.'

'But if you did, would you give a shit?'

'Nein.'

'So tell me!'

'Well… how about I tell you on your birthday, as a gift,' he replies, advancing his one remaining tower and killing one of my pawns.

'Fine.' I suppose I can wait. I think.

'In any case, don't you have much bigger problems to deal with? Like, how are you going to hide your Death Note? You can't do what Light did because L knows about Death Note too and he'd be looking out for a trap like that.'

'Indeed, however I do have a simple solution for that. If you want to hide a tree, you plant it in a forest, right?'

'I suppose.'

'Well similarly, I can hide my notebook in plain sight if I keep it between a bunch of similar-looking books that not even L would inspect each and every one of.'

'So that's it? You're just going to hide it in plain sight, where anyone can steal it?'

'Well, almost. I've also set up a system where, if I think someone is stealing the Death Note, I can use my phone to remotely detonate a Mini-Nuke hidden under the house.' I traverse my Queen several spaces across the board, wiping out Rugo's most threatening knight.

'Shit, doesn't that seem like a bit too much?'

'No, in fact I probably should've made the bomb bigger, just in case. Oh, while I can still remember, do you want me to show you something cool I found today?'

Wiping out another pawn, he replies, 'Sure.' I pull the object out of my pocket for him to see.

'Designed by the KGB, this may look like a normal pen, but its special ink disappears completely within 48 hours, after which even UV light won't find a trace of the writing. I was originally planning to lend it to Alex or Kallet during finals, but now I think I'll keep it and use it for killings that I don't want anyone to ever link to Kira even if they see the notebook.'

'Where'd you get it?'

'I got as a present from...'

…

…

'… Umm, Chris? … Chris? Are you okay?'

'… Yeah, I'm fine. Just… flashbacks, that's all.'

'What of?'

'… My father.'

'After over a week of living alongside you, I don't think I've even caught a glimpse of him.'

'Well, there's a reason for that. I only have vague memories of him, but what I do know is that, sometime when I was about seven or eight, he just kind of… disappeared. No-one knows what happened or where he went, with the possible exception of my mother. But she's kept her lips sealed on the matter for nearly a decade. At this point, I don't even know if he's alive anymore.'

'I'm not too different. I also had to grow up without any fatherly support, but that was under… very different circumstances-'

'And the weirdest thing about it all is… not even my own mum will tell me what his name was.'

'-oh. Well, in that case I'm the exact opposite.'

'And what do you mean by that?'

'I… don't think I should say.'

As Rugo makes his next move with his King, I decide to change the topic.

'So, while looking through Japan's national crime archives I found something interesting that might involve the Death Note.'

'What?'

'It came from a school in the Kanto region, the same area where Light lived in Death Note.'

'So what happened?'

'It seems several students died of unexplained heart attacks over a decade ago, in 2006. But that's not the crazy part.'

'I'm listening…'

'The children came back to life soon after they died.'

'The fuck? How is that possible?'

'You tell me, Rugo,' I answer, seizing his last Bishop with a pawn.

'Well I've never witnessed or even seen conclusive evidence of a dead human coming back to life, but I remember once hearing rumors about a device that could counter the power of the Death Note.'

'What, like a Life Note?'

'I don't know. I always assumed it was just a myth.'

'Well, after the students died, it appears two detectives took notice and were both killed as well after entering the classroom where the victims went. They were also brought back to life.'

'So if these detectives know something… where are they now?'

'They died. Again. In early October of that same year, they and the victims were killed by various accidents and illnesses, along with one of the students who had previously been questioned by the detectives.'

'So was there any connection between the students?'

'Well, they were all said to be stereotypical bullies, with one exception.'

'This definitely sounds like the work of a Death Note. If the perpetrator wasn't the one "exception" you mentioned, that means they were someone in that-'

'All the victims came from the same class, so the perpetrator must've been too. Now we need to find out as much as we can about all those people… eventually. There's no rush. In any case, I have much bigger fish to fry.'

'You mean L.'

'Yes. Specifically, I do have my first lead as to his identity. You see, not all ICUP and UN member nations joined his coalition against me. There were a few countries who are staying neutral, the most powerful of which are Russia, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Sealand. Now, what do these six have in common?'

'They're all anti-western dictatorships?'

'Yes, but what else?'

'They… shit, I give up.'

'Well, the difference is that these are among the very few countries in the world that have a central bank independent of the Rothschild dynasty.'

'The Rothschilds? Oh I remember, my dad was actually good friends with them! Yeah, I remember all that now!'

'You see, the Rothschilds today are one of the most powerful bloodlines on the planet, with a net worth of over half a quadrillion dollars. With their massive influence they've manage to solidify control over the mainstream media, news, oil and government in nearly every country on Earth. There used to be a lot more "Independent" nations, but since 2001 Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan and Libya have been knocked off the list. And these fuckers have also financed every major war since Napoleon. To summarize, they and their allied bloodlines are closest thing the real world has to the "Illuminati" or "New World Order" or whatever the tin-hats call it these days.'

'And you're saying L has some connection with them.'

'Probably. Then again, he may only have a connection with one of their allied bloodlines, such as the Rockefellers or Clintons. And even then I can't say anything for certain.'

'So we still aren't far past square one.' Rugo flicks a pawn my way, straight into the trap I've set out.

'Yup. Still, I have my advantage against L and his subordinates.'

'And what would that be?'

'I can't die because I'm the main character!'

'You can't be serious!'

'I'm so serious I suppose you could say I'm… dead serious! Get it? Because I have the Death Note?'

'Yeah, sure, I get it.'

'Oh, and one more thing, Rugo... checkmate. Of course, a game where your life isn't on the line is a piece of cake.'