Authoress Note: Hey, hey! Look at that! Look at that! 14 reviews by my peepers, 14 reviews! Whoooooo! Thanks so much. So then, I have news to bring up first of all. So let's get down to the order of business.
Sorry I haven't gotten to Chapter 8 yet guys, I've just basically gotten back from a New York trip on Sunday and I have no time at all to update or type it up Monday, I got sick in school and had to go home, that's a lovely scenario to envision, huh? Never mind that, otherwise I've been sick for the past couple days. So I haven't been able to do anything at all except lay in bed, blow my nose, chuck cookies, and well…sleep. I've got a lot of schoolwork to catch up on and I know that my Pre-Calculus teacher will not approve of me missing any more class.
I send my thanks to Jillian Jiggs, this time I spelled it right, the last time I spelled it I was watching 'Not another Teen Movie', so…my bad on that part.
To Syrupdrip, who's always one of my best reviewers, I'm still working on that back story for the Life Script so be prepared for it. Haha. I'm not giving anything away on that back-story though. Muahaha!
To PiScEs-BlOsSoM69, Yes, indeed. Light does deserve what's coming to him. Though I fear I may make him overly psychotic with the way Keegan's messing with him as Kuro. If you have any suggestion son how I cannot do that it would be greatly appreciated. As I'm watching the series I realize that he's got that whole calm and collected psychotic personality until he gets found out near the end where he just lets the crazy all lose. I don't want to do that until he starts getting desperate though.
And finally Sharnii Brooke, I'm probably going to start having Ryuk just go and start pestering Light for a bit, but I don't want to make him leave Keegan alone otherwise his Crack-addiction for the apples will set in with the amount she's feeding him per day. Oh well.
Anyways, enjoy Chapter 8.
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note. Death Note belongs to Tsugumi Ohba and Takashi Obata.
Disclaimer 2: The idea of the Life Script belongs to me. Please do not steal. Thank you. Any Original characters, Keegan Phelps (no relation to Michael Phelps), belong to me. Thanks
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At about 8:00 am on a Saturday morning, Keegan flipped open her Samsung Alias phone and pushed a speed-dial button that rang repeatedly until an obviously disgruntled and tired voice sounded over the phone. "Ugh…Yeah, yeah. What Kee? I'm a little busy here?"
Ryuk was hovering over Keegan as she rolled her eyes at the voice on her cell phone. "Hey T.J Can you email me some computer hacking step-by-step process sheets? I'm trying blackmail your ex-girlfriend because she keeps harassing me thinking that I'm trying to get a piece of your ass." This was an obvious lie, since TJ's ex had recently been arrested for shoplifting.
"Oh…yeah. Psycho-bitch again? Hasn't she quit yet?" He asked.
"No. Not yet. It's like she thinks I'm your mom or something." Keegan laughed.
"What a good little liar you are." Ryuk shook his head. "Lame."
Keegan snapped her fingers at him in frustration to go play video games in the living room before Ryuk shrugged and did as he was told. Playing video games beat having the human girl pissed at him anyways.
"You are like my mom. I'm 18 and you treat me like I'm 5."
"You have porn stashed in every crevice of your room. You're lucky I actually care what you do with your life because your own mother damn sure doesn't!" Keegan yelled into the receiver
"Ow! Ow! My ears! Highly sensitive! Half deaf here with my hearing aid off!" TJ shouted into the receiver.
Keegan held her cell phone away from her as he began cursing in rapid Spanish at her before she shook her head. "If you don't start thanking me for the things I do I'll stop asking you for things."
"Gee, would ya, that'd be swell Keegan. Otherwise I can just go live back in Uruguay with my grandmother and she'd love to see me running around in the middle of the streets dodging cars." She could hear him snapping his fingers. "Tell me what you're gonna do about that then?"
"TJ, you do that here anyways. So what the hell do you want me to do? Stop giving a damn about you because I'm you're friend?"
"…Yes?"
"Well, have I told you that your subscription to that Hentai site you have is almost up. Your payments due pretty soon and I'd hate to see you look like a sick puppy without your porn. Because I gave you money the last time you paid for it."
There was silence on the other end of the receiver before, "When do you want this thing emailed?"
"ASAP, please. I'd appreciate it."
"Yeah, yeah. I get it. I swear Keegan. You're like the meanest white bitch I know out there. It's not funny. I thought my people were mean and nasty, but you? Oh, no no no. You take it to the extreme. When's my next payment due?"
"Next week."
"All right, all right. I'll send you the step-by-step 'How-To-Without-Getting-Found-Out' Are you happy Princesa Keegan?" He asked nastily.
"You were drinking last night and got yourself a nice little hangover, huh?" She asked, kind of concerned at this point. Keegan rubbed her temples. Okay, maybe she had rubbed it in a little bit but it was for his own good.
"A little. I had a cocktail and some other drinks. Why? Why do you care?" He was mumbling in Spanish again before he heard Keegan snap at him suddenly.
"Because if I don't who the hell will?!" She hung up the phone.
Keegan marched into the living room, where she found Ryuk playing Spyro the Dragon before she held out her arms. Attitude was written all over her face. "Go on, got something to say? Say it?"
The shinigami was focused on flaming down ugly toad things right now. Ryuk didn't really have much to comment on except: "Well, it's obvious he's got some problems and you're worried he's gonna kill himself whether its his fault or not."
She flopped down on the couch next to Ryuk in annoyance. "I used to baby-sit him when we were kids, it's a little hard for me not to be involved in his personal life. His dad's a construction worker and his mother's not exactly the best role model for him."
"And your aunt's the best role model for you?" Ryuk asked, clicking the buttons on the controller without looking at her.
"…She's all I have." Keegan muttered, pulling a pillow in front of her with the Life Script underneath of it. The book felt warm to her and she snuggled into the couch as she watched Ryuk play. "I got my research papers done."
"Yeah?" Ryuk said, obviously uninterested. "Big deal. You got an A plus I assume. As sneaky and sly as you are I wouldn't be surprised if you cheated."
"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not like that. You don't know me that well Ryuk."
"Whatever you say, but it's your funeral I get to hover at if Light finds out you're Kuro."
"You said that he wouldn't know it was me this soon."
"He won't, but you sure better hope that your friend's 'How-to' instructions better be helpful."
"He's been hacking computers for 4 years, he knows how to hot wire cars, and he thinks he's a little gangster. I consider that professional." She chuckled.
"So, was your ex-boyfriend your only boyfriend of is TJ an ex-boyfriend too?" Ryuk tried to hold in his laughter at the thought.
Keegan almost threw up in her mouth. "Ugh! Me? And TJ? Absolutely not! That could never happen! Oh, hell no!" She was adamant in proclaiming the truth about that. "First of all he's younger than me, he's dysfunctional, and he's a little criminal at that."
Ryuk could have cared less about Keegan's relationship with TJ but it seemed that they must have been close considering Keegan was basically acting like his mother. "So…porn huh?" He said suggestively.
"Don't start." She said, flipping the video game off and watching the afternoon news. She made Ryuk rather frustrated because he lost his place where he was when Keegan changed the channel.
"Hey!"
"Quiet, you let me work my magic with the Life Script and it's two slices of apple pie for you today." She offered. Ah, how she loved this bribery technique. It worked so well on Ryuk.
"Fine. You win, as usual."
"Good, time to get to work. Kuro's got a little reputation to gain." She pulled out her pencil and flipped open the Life Script before reading the names and staring at the face of several more people that had been killed in the lower east side of the city this week. A seventeen year old girl, a man who had been bludgeoned to death by some gang members, and two children that were recently unresponsive comas in the hospital. Keegan operated this notebook like it was connected to her very being. Ryuk watched with a distinct fascination. Something was off with the notebook today. The inner cover page was glowing and he heard an unusual sound (something that sounded like a fingernail scratching on cardboard).
In inner page was giving off a little florescent glow as Keegan worked. When she was finished, Ryuk nudged her with his elbow. "Hey…uh, take a good look at that inside cover page real quick. Something was going on when you started writing those names like crazy." He sounded a bit skeptical, but Ryuk swore that he heard something being etched into the book.
Keegan looked at him in disbelief. "Come on, you're kidding right?"
"No, really. I think something's off on the Script."
Keegan flipped it back to the cover page to find a new rule just underneath #10. "No…freaking way."
"You're telling me. It says this book's got less than twenty rules. I'm guessing the maximum is at least 20?" Ryuk took the Script from Keegan, much to her dismay, and he began rattling The Life Script. "This is a bunch of crap!" He snarled.
Keegan snatched it back, as though the book was a holy relic almost. "Hey! Careful, what'd the Script do to you?"
"Nothing yet…" Ryuk mumbled.
They were both staring with baffled looks at Rule # 11.
'The Life Script user's life span is blocked from being read by a user of a Death Note (excluding a Shinigami) with the ability of Shinigami eyes.'
"What are shinigami eyes?" Keegan asked, blinking at the glowing text that eventually faded to permanent black ink on the inner cover.
"It's what I used to read your life span a few days ago when you first got the Life Script. A human who uses Shinigami eyes can basically see the names and life spans of other people. For humans it usually results as a trade with a shinigami by offering half their remaining life span in return for it." Ryuk grinned. "Wanna try it? You know, you could trade half of your life span for them."
Keegan frowned at Ryuk for trying to pull something stupid like that and she smacked him over the head with The Life Script.
"Oh! Come on!"
"Not even if your life was on the line, bub."
One thing was for sure, Keegan sure wasn't as stupid as Light when it came to that. Maybe Ryuk was just imagining things, but lately he'd found America to be a lot more interesting to hang around in than Japan. The pros of being around Keegan was he was fed apples regularly on a daily basis, he got to hang out in every room of her house except the bathroom and her bedroom when she was doing girly things in general and he got a front row seat to how this whole 'Kuro vs Kira' thing would go down.
Cons to this were that Keegan was too smart for her own good, she wasn't bothered by death in her own life, but when it came to other people dying she got involved in it and she got pretty emotional about it. Ryuk couldn't figure Keegan out. Her whole personality was confusing and he hated not being able to figure out what her whole agenda was. 'All I know is that she's trying to stop Light from messing with the balance of life and death. She's messing it up herself though, but it's all part of her plan I suppose. Americans are sporadic and jump from one place to another. She's way too smart. Light may seem like a genius at times, but she's like Einstein.'
"I should be receiving that email sometime today. But for now, I'm going to do a draft message to send to Mr. Yagami, edit it a little, and then put it in a removable file before burning it to a disk. An original copy for me and one for the Task Force." She retrieved her laptop from the kitchen and set it on the coffee table near the couch before setting up her camera again. "I could get a voice recording device but it makes it sound more enhanced with the camera."
"So, am I getting my pie or what?" Ryuk demanded obnoxiously.
"Well, I should just give you the whole rest of the pie if you're going to be delivering this, giving me information, and telling me the names of the people he's going to kill so that I can look them up after getting my 'How-To-Hack' lesson."
"Damn it! You keep getting me with these bribes I'm just going to have to just stay around you permanently." Ryuk clutched his hands into his head. "This isn't fair."
"Life's not fair. Also, I'm considering having you try some apple butter I bought at the store. Later, when you've brought back what I've asked for." Keegan adjusted the camera with the cap still on it.
"Apple butter's different than apple pie, huh?" Ryuk asked, turning his head this way and that.
"Yes. A lot different. And Apple sauce just as different as the other apple dishes of the world."
"Mmm…Fine, fine. But I'm eating the pie before I go." The shinigami informed.
"Use napkins please and thank you, I'm sick of picking up after you. You don't pay rent and board." Keegan warned, wagging her finger at him.
"What do you want me to do?" Ryuk asked, chowing down on the pie after taking it out of the fridge. "It's even better cold."
"It's better hot." Keegan disagreed.
"I can eat it better this way. Now, what do you want me to do all ready?"
"I need you to bring me back the homepage website of the Task Force. That way I can stream my messages to them whenever. So it'll make sense right after. I can even record the miracles on the news when they come up on the time slot."
"Not the best idea. That would lead them right to you then." Ryuk advised carefully. "I wouldn't."
"Good point, it would be an easy give away. I just need a well thought out plan on proving that I, Kuro, am the one working the miracles." Keegan pondered. "Oh well, for now I'll record my message and you're delivery boy. Same place as last time."
"Mailboxes are cliché'. Just like you." He chuckled. "Madame Kuro."
Keegan shook her head at Ryuk's taunts and set to work. It didn't take TJ long to send her the 'How-to-Hack' document and Keegan was learning as she went. So her hacking tactic might have seemed clumsy, but she could practice on that later. It was better to perfect it than hack into anybody's computer anytime soon. When she had finished the disk (after using oven mittens to avoid giving off fingerprints), Keegan handed it over to Ryuk and sent him on his way. "I'm counting on you."
"And I'm counting on the orchard." Ryuk grinned devilishly.
"When this is all over, I promise." Keegan assured. "I don't break promises."
--
It was the early hours of the morning when Light got the call. He wasn't too pleased when he was just finally getting some sleep when his phone started ringing and he picked up. "Yeah?"
"Light, You're not gonna believe this but we just now received another Kuro message." Matsuda always had to be the morning person. Stupid. Light rubbed his temples, frustrated with the fact that Kuro had probably struck again as opposed to his own killings.
"What time? Did it arrive?"
"About 20 minutes ago. Boy, this Kuro sure does know how to sneak in and out of this place without being seen or caught on camera." Poor Matsuda still didn't get that Ryuk was delivering it. Of course even if they did find out that Ryuk had delivered them, Ryuk could just lie and make up and excuse that he thought there might have been apples in the mailboxes and that he hallucinated and hadn't even seen the envelope with Kuro's message in it.
Light clenched his phone in frustration. "Damn it." He grunted. "I'll be right in then." He managed to struggle out of bed, into proper dress code, and finally he strolled out leaving a note for Misa about some case that had come up. Just so she wouldn't call any bother him anymore than usual. If he didn't she'd be leaving 40 different text messages on his phone and 29 voicemails.
On his way, Ryuk suddenly was floating idly behind him. "Hey, I heard that you've got some pest control to handle." He snickered. "Somebody's yanking your chain Light."
"Where have you been? I haven't seen you for weeks." Light said, strangely baffled at how Ryuk just returned all of the sudden at a time like this. "Things have gone down while you've been gone."
"Yeah? Like what? All I know is that somebody's trying to piss on your territory. Moving on in it seems." Ryuk taunted.
"Yeah, some unknown challenger calling themselves 'Kuro'. This character has just recently come around. Ryuk…can I ask you something?"
"Like you haven't asked me things before."
"Death Notes…can't bring back life can they?" Light asked, obviously knowing the answer but he just wanted to make sure that it was true.
"You know that they can't. It's not possible." Ryuk scoffed. "You losing your brain cells there?"
"Just an odd theory I had. It was just to make sure." He sighed, shoving his hand sin his pockets. "You don't know anything about it?"
Ryuk shrugged. "I just know what I hear. I haven't been here for a while. So I really couldn't tell you. And remember, I'm NOT on your side."
"Oh yeah." Light mumbled. "I almost forgot."
Boy, Light MUST have been losing brain cells. He didn't suspect Ryuk of anything. 'Keegan better watch what she's doing.'
--
"What do we got?" Light asked.
Aizawa, always skeptical of Light, wasn't too sure when he answered. Since Matsuda had went over the last Kuro message it was his turn to review this one. Now, since Aizawa usually suspected Light, it was hard to tell if this was 'Kira's' doing or not. Otherwise he had nothing and had to take Kuro's word for it if Kuro meant good for the world. "New details on some cases of people coming back to life in America. It's like Miracles are popping up in just one place right now. Kuro could move at any time."
"Play it." Light demanded, obvious waiting to see what taunts Kuro had in store for them at this time. The older man placed the disk into the laptop and it played the message recorded. As usual the same black background with the backwards-white K had popped up and the mechanized computer voice was speaking again.
"By now I'm sure that you've received this message if you're watching this. Good for you Task Force. You've passed the common sense test." The voice chuckled.
"Now, to test your tolerance. How are you all taking current miracles? Do you still think that I'm some idiot trying to tempt Kira out of hiding."
Ryuk obviously had left no details out when he explained everything to Keegan.
"What?" Light sneered under his breath. "He's mocking us!"
"Shh!" Matsuda hissed. "Just listen."
The rest of the Task Force was now fully interested in this video release than the last one.
"So you think I'm stupid. Ha, hardly. It'll take a while for you to figure this one out. I've got a riddle for Kira out there if he's listening."
Light seemed concerned now. "Riddles? He's playing games with us and Kira now?"
"He just said Kira, not the Task force." Aizawa said suspiciously. "But even so, maybe it's not just to Kira, but us as well. You say he wants to be caught, but what if he's leading not just Kira on a wild goose chase, but us too?"
"Then he's a fool for both. He'll get caught either way." Light answered.
"What's the best kind of religious book to read? Tick-Tock, tick-tock."
"What kind of riddle is that?" Matsuda asked.
"Give up? It's a Bible. Try reading the Bible. Preferably the Old Testament, Kira. Maybe you'll find more about yourself there. Afterwards read the New Testament and find that just as God can take life, so shall he bring it back. I'm still waiting for your response that I didn't receive…What's the matter Kira? Scared? I ask for a response and you don't give me one. You are quite rude. Well then, I leave you and the Task Force goodnight then. Until then…respond or I'll keep saving lives so that there are none you may take."
Standing there with his face cold and unresponsive, Light chuckled. "Well, Kuro's playing games with everybody then. We should go check out what he means by a 'Bible'."
--
Ryuk's return was expected and Keegan was holding out a piece of toast to him when he flew through her open window and into the kitchen. "Hey, obviously you got Light looking a little more on edge than usual. So, do I get my prize or what?"
"Here. It's apple butter." The gooey brown paste on the slice of toast was presented to him and Ryuk tested the taste before devouring it.
"Hey, not bad. Got more?"
"Later Ryuk…I want details." Keegan ordered, her eyes growing dark.
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Authoress Note: I leave you with that. Hope you enjoyed!