So, I've made some decisions. For the last 3 years of this project, I've been planning to upload it as three separate stories:

私は、キラ I, Kira

私は、キラ I, Kira Spinoff about Rugo's backstory

私は、キラ I, Kira Season 2

For three years this was the plan I had, but since then things have changed. In particular, my style of writing has changed. If I were to stick with my plan, I might end up with 200,000 words in the first part, 10,000 or so in the second and 80,000 or so in the third. I initially expected that to be balanced more like 200,000/50,000/200,000, but as I said, things have changed. I won't go into the details of exactly what has happened between the 2016-17 "golden age" of 私は、キラ/ I, Kira and the present day, but the bottom line is that I have decided to instead keep all three segments within the same story.

Besides that, shoutout to Lindell Alissa for favouriting and AltairShadow for following. It always brightens my day when I see someone new take interest in this.

(Lauren's POV, 14:50, January 28)

'A bunch of kids did this?'

The cops seem amazed at the scene. Or horrified, it's hard to tell. Anyway, that's enough eavesdropping. I return to my rageful father on the other side of the room.

'And you! Lauren! Do you understand what you've done?!'

'I killed a monster. Those bastards killed mum for fuck's sake!'

'Lauren!'

'Tom and I would've been long gone if we'd just waited for the police to arrive. It would've been too late!'

'That's no excuse! Nor is it an excuse to let that teenage thug get away!'

'He saved my-'

*SLAP*

'…'

'…'

'…'

'Not another word, got it? This boy you met is not your friend, he's not your savior, he's just a criminal doing the mafia's dirty work for his own paycheck. You were just lucky he didn't hurt you too. And if I hear you talk about him like he's some kind of hero again, you'll deeply regret it.'

'Hey chief, come take a look here!' Moorga shouts. At least I think his name is Moorga, I'm not entirely sure.

'…I'll be back, you two.'

Finally I can breathe a sigh of relief. Just us two kids now, ignored by everyone else at the crime scene.

'Tom, how are you feeling?'

The fear and despair in Tom's eyes appears to have been replaced with a new emotion. Is it… rage? Agony? Anger? Something like that.

'One day, one day I am going to find everyone responsible for this. They're going to regret getting within a mile of our family. They're going to regret it all. We'll avenge her death, I promise.'

'Yeah, I hope so. One day.'

(Viper's POV, 14:55, January 28)

'Alright, Chris, time to update your score.'

He doesn't hesitate to roll up his right sleeve, but he isn't hiding the fact he's annoyed.

'Two lives saved, three taken.'

'Okay, now just hold still…'

'I know, I knoAH! AH!'

'I said hold still!'

'I'm trying! AH! AH! AH!'

'There, done, now that wasn't so hard was it? Now you're at 7 lives saved, 5 taken, and a total score of 2.'

'What about you? After today's operation, what's your score?'

'Oh, umm… don't worry about me, okay?'

'It's a negative number, isn't it?'

'I said don't worry about it!'

'Listen, Viper.'

'Yes?'

'This has to be my last mission. I can't do this again. Indy and I have agreed, we're leaving the mafia.'

'W-What? But, but Chris! You have so much potential! You're already one of the best we've got! You're such a great asset!'

'Asset. You're talking about me like I'm some fancy piece of equipment. Well I'm not.'

'Chris, please! Don't go!'

I'm starting to cry. I know it makes me look weak. I don't care.

'We can still see each other at school, Viper.'

'It's not the same. Having all of us in the same group, it means a lot to me.'

'…I'm sorry. I can't go through another goddamn horror movie scene like that.'

'I don't see how that's a problem. After all, the only thing that separates a horror movie from an action movie is how smart or well-equipped the protagonists are… Chris? Chris?!'

(Chris' POV, 08:25, February 4)

The last few days have given me a good chance to reflect on things. Being outside of a criminal syndicate is going to make my life a lot easier, at least.

Connor seems happy about it too. It's cute how he cares about my safety. The two of us showed up the school a little early so to pass the time we're talking about everything we've been up to these holidays.

'And he was like, why do chicken coops only have 2 doors?

'I dunno, Con, why?'

'Because if they had 4, they'd be chicken sedans.'

'Hehe, so as I was saying-'

'Holy shit! Did you guys see the news?!'

Harry shoves a newspaper in front of us and I skim over the top headline.

NEWSPAPERS STILL EXIST

'Oh, wow, that's a surprise…'

'Uh, Chris…'

'I'm trying to focus, Connor.'

'Look, I know this doesn't affect me but, you might want to take a look at this.'

'What is… oh my god…'

Exiting a black limousine nearby, a medium-height girl probably around the same age as us steps out. Her golden hair and blood-red eyes look very unique, and below that… well, she's one-of-a-kind there as well. And from what she's wearing I think she knows it too. If I had to guess I'd say that's just barely within the school clothing restrictions.

'Oh… oh wow. New kid?'

'She looks incredible. Just look at that-'

'Okay Harry, you don't have to be descriptive out loud.'

'What part do you like most? I mean, hypothetically, are you more of a butt guy or a boob guy?'

'Actually, I judge a girl based on her personality. Also her boobs.'

'Hey boys! Feel free to stare, I'm used to it.'

'Hi, I'm Chris.'

Surprisingly, she seems flattered by the introduction, and extends her hand out at me.

'Kallet Vimerica. I'm new here so it'd be great if someone could show me around.'

'Sure, I'd-'

*WHACK*

(Connor's POV, 08:26, February 4)

'Sorry about that, ma'am, we have a bit of a loser infestation. Alexander Rockley.'

Fucking asshole… and of course, those two leave hand-in-hand. It's as if she never even knew Chris was there.

'Chris, are you okay?'

'Yeah, Con, just scraped my elbow.'

'Let me see… oh, jesus! There's blood everywhere!'

'I'll be fine, don't worry. 'Tis but a scratch! Come on, we have to get to class.'

'Okay. To be honest I'm still really dreading it.'

'Gets harder every year, I know. You know there's a problem with the education system when students are in tears every single night and wake up every single morning wanting to throw up at the thought of getting out of bed while thinking they'd rather be dead than go to school.'

'But it's all worth it, right?'

'Partially, yes. But remember that today's governments don't want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. That is against their interests. They want obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept it.'

Sometimes it's hard to tell if Chris is full of wisdom or nonsense. But he certainly knows more about this kind of thing than I do so I'll take his word for it.

'So, Harry. Chris and I already talked about how our holidays went, what about you?'

'I went on a family trip to Africa, actually.'

'Oh wow! How'd it go?'

'Okay I guess. Fun fact: While it may look small on a map because of the Mercator projection, Africa is really so large that you could fit Iowa, Idaho, Greenland, Mexico, Brazil, China, America, Canada, Antarctica, Africa, Russia and the rest of the observable universe inside it.'

'So, what did you do there?'

'Charity work, mostly. Helped starving people, helped Ebola victims, helped blind kids…'

'When you say "I help blind kids", does that mean you help kids who are blind, or you help to make kids blind?'

(Chris' POV)

Where am I? What's the time? Where can I get a good cellphone connection? Why is the sky blue? Does it-

'Onomihsarata.'

In the featureless void I can't tell if she's somewhere in front of me or behind.

'Mizu? Hello?'

And now the void fades away, replaced by the gray, abandoned, concrete facility in which I completed my last mission in the mafia. I find myself standing on the roof of the smaller building, with Mizu looking down at him from the edge of the larger one.

'Out of the way, I'm coming down there!'

Superhero landing, she's gonna do a superhero landing…

*THUNK*

Woah! Superhero landing! That does strain the knees a bit.

'So, why are we back here? I don't remember, well, right now I can't remember anything that's happened today.'

'This is not your turn to ask questions, Chris.'

'…'

'Why did you do it? Why did you leave?'

'Because, I simply can't, I can't… those criminals we took down, they killed the kids' mother, they were going to kill them too. And we both know that that kind of bloodshed, that kind of heartlessness, the mafia does all of those things too.'

'The vigilante corps has never killed anyone innocent.'

'But the other sections of the mafia have, and they're the ones funding our operations. And besides Indy and us two, I don't think anyone even within the vigilante corps has clean hands. We both know that Viper's a paid assassin, and Rico worked with terrorists in Columbia. Y'know, between coffee and cocaine, it almost seems like Columbia's mission is to wake up the world.'

'I can't speak for Rico and I certainly can't justify M, but Viper relies on what she does. It's the only way she gets food on her plate. She doesn't have any other options.'

'That isn't an excuse, she's still a murderer.'

'You and your sister both killed-'

'Only those who deserved it, so it's irrelevant. And I don't have anything against you either, you've only ever killed in self-defence.'

'So, that's it? You don't want to work with heartless criminals again, so you're just giving up?'

'I'm not giving up. I left, that's all there is to it.'

'So you've chosen. Well, it's too late to turn back now, and I've said all I can.'

Mizuki then appears to fade away in front of me until she disappears completely, replaced by a grid of glowing white letters floating motionlessly in the air.

Yeah, I've got to be on some kind of drug. I won't try to guess which one. So, what does this, uh, wordsearch thing say?

HZDSFOLLOWGSWSZ

AEHAYOURMTENZAP

IBRTDESTINYLUNJ

LSTAVEESAVEBTTM

DNTNZGSCHERESAT

YWJAATPESAVESCA

XBZSRNXTHEMEMLY

BMGXZCONSUMELAW

FIGQWZQYALLEAUS

PSLEIGHSFLESHSQ

Okay, let's see…

HZDSFOLLOWGSWSZ

AEHAYOURMTENZAP

IBRTDESTINYLUNJ

LSTAVEESAVEBTTM

DNTNZGSCHERESAT

YWJAATPESAVESCA

XBZSRNXTHEMEMLY

BMGXZCONSUMELAW

FIGQWZQYALLEAUS

PSLEIGHSFLESHSQ

Nope, that can't be right. Let's try another set of words.

HZDSFOLLOWGSWSZ

AEHAYOURMTENZAP

IBRTDESTINYLUNJ

LSTAVEESAVEBTTM

DNTNZGSCHERESAT

YWJAATPESAVESCA

XBZSRNXTHEMEMLY

BMGXZCONSUMELAW

FIGQWZQYALLEAUS

PSLEIGHSFLESHSQ

'Follow your destiny, save her, save them all?'

*CRACK*

*CRUNCH*

*ROOF COLLAPSING NOISES*

'AHHH! Ow! Fuck!'

I'm okay, I'm, wait, this is the room where the Blackheart kids were being held hostage… the blood on the walls is still wet. It should've dried up ages ago. Something isn't right here.

'Hey, you brat!'

I spin around and sight two silhouettes in the hallway. Both of them are coming this way, although one of them doesn't even seem to have a head… wait a minute, these are two of those damn criminals that killed the Blackhearts' mother! Now I can see that the other one has blood pouring out a big hole in his chest, at the exact spot where he was shot, when the girl saved my ass from dying. As if my mere memory of it is enraging him, he lurches at me as fast as his half-decomposed body can move.

'This isn't, you're not real! This isn't real!'

I pick up a heavy piece of rubble and aim it straight at him. The chunk embeds itself in his head and he falls over, dead.

'THAT'S RIGHT YOU LITTLE SHIT! AND YOU TOO, FUCK YOU!'

I'm now yeeting everything I can at the decapitated corpse. It isn't even slowing down.

'I SAID FUCK YOU! EAT A DICK! EAT A DICK! EAT A DICK!'

(Lauren's POV, 04:44, September 1, 2017)

'Eat a dick. Eat a dick. Eat a… wha?!'

'Hey, you! You're finally awake.'

'Uh, Lauren, Lauren!'

Okay, under any other circumstance I'd find it cute that he's wrapping his arms around me like a Koala on a branch, but this really isn't a good time.

'Chris, look around.'

'Why, what's going…'

And now he sees it. You know that scene in Attack on Titan where Eren wakes up next to Armin and Mikasa and they're surrounded by soldiers ready to kill them? Yeah, this looks exactly like that. Except we're in a big dimly-lit room underground, and they're holding riot shields at us so I can't see anything besides their shoes.

'Is this the part where he kills us?'

'Yeah, I think this is the part where he kills us.'

At the back corner of the room a door opens, and Luci steps in.

'Hello! This is the part where I kill you!'