Chapter 9: Resurrection

The headlines were beautiful. Emi leaned back into the sofa, eyes focusing on the flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. The news had been on all morning, running headline after headline, theory after theory. And yet, every one had been practically the same.

Kira Returns?

Emi wanted to laugh. Beautiful, the way it had turned out. With all of them working together, more names had been written in an hour than in the original Kira's first few days of owning the notebook. Each of them had taken a country, found a list of criminals… and struck. It was easier than any of them had imagined. And now the world was taking notice. Every news channel was covering the story, as they had made certain that every criminal died with Kira's trademark: a heart attack. And now the world stood still in fear, terrified that what had happened over seventeen years ago was occurring again. And Emi laughed, because they had accomplished what they had set out to do.

Bring the Killer-lord back from the dead.

Even if he was already back, according to Taro he had no part of what had made him Kira. He was simply an ordinary man, not the near-God that the history books spoke of in the same light as Robespierre and Adolf Hitler. But even such terrible men as they had had their supporters, and amongst the news channels pro-Kira demonstrators flocked anywhere there was a camera. Emi smirked in delight, almost unable to believe that this had been entirely their doing. She glanced at Shidoh, who was happily munching a bar of chocolate, a habit he'd picked up from his last visit in the human world if she had heard correctly. She smiled to herself, picking up her phone and calling Himeko.

"Meko-san, are you watching the news?" She listened for a moment, then laughed. "Yes, a complete success, of course. We should go out to lunch. Drevan's plane lands at ten forty-five." Another moment of listening, then, "Sure, that's fine. Will you call Taro? I'll call Teil and tell him to get ready. Sayonara, Meko-san. See you in a little while." She closed the phone, an air of joy around her, and glanced at Shidoh. "We have to go by the airport to get Drevan before we go to lunch. I'm going to call Teil, and then go get ready. Finish your chocolate, because you can't eat it in the restaurant. People will see."

Shidoh watched as Emi drifted off in the direction of her room, flipping the phone back open and looking for Teil's number on speed-dial. He turned his attention back to the chocolate, taking another bite hungrily. He had yet to figure out why Ryuk preferred apples, when there were such great things as this. It was possibly the only thing he could have thanked that Mello-child for.

xXx

Light and L gazed at the small TV in the kitchen, unable to believe what the small black-and-white screen was showing them. Neither was sure who moved first, but suddenly both of them were running for the living room, where the larger TV was, fumbling hurriedly to turn it on the news.

Over two hundred convicted and known criminals are confirmed dead at this time, and we can only wonder, has Kira finally returned to continue his killings again?

L turned wide eyes to Light, who shook his head. "Taro… That one kid couldn't have done all of this by himself… How in the hell…?"

"Emi…" L muttered. When Light glanced questioningly at him, he said softly, "Taro mentioned an 'Emi', twice during our conversation, implying that they would be upset that you are not the same as you were then. Perhaps this person, probably female from the name, is a ringleader of some sort?"

Light nodded. "That would make sense. But we have no way of knowing how many of them there are. With killings on this scale, in just this short period of time, we can tell it's more than one person. But it's also highly likely that it's more than two. It's impossible to guess how many or who they might be. It could be anyone."

L stared down at his feet. "I hate this, Light-kun. I don't want to do this anymore."

"I don't like it any more than you do. After all, they're using a name I created. A name that I regret very deeply." Light said. "At the moment, there isn't really a lot we can do. We should just watch for now."

"Yes…" L didn't want to watch. He didn't want to be involved at all. He had tangled with Kira once, and had ended up dead. It wasn't fair, but he was tied to this simply because of who he had been. But he wasn't the world's greatest detective anymore, and he didn't want history to repeat itself.

xXx

Emi leaned up to kiss her boyfriend on the cheek. "Welcome back, Drevan."

He smiled at her. "How have things been while I was away, Emi?" He reached up to brush his brown hair from where it hung into his eyes. "Anything interesting happen?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'll tell you in the car. We're meeting the others for lunch." They walked across the airport together, getting into Emi's small car and driving back into downtown Tokyo. Emi explained the majority of what had occurred, including Taro's meeting with Kira and L.

"He's not the same as he was before. He's… just like everyone else, now. I can't say for certain, but it's probably L's influence at work on him." Emi said, pulling up in front of a small sushi restaurant. "I don't know if he'd be any use even if we could separate them, though. He seems too far gone from what he once was."

"The First Kira… While it would be intriguing to have him on our side, we can't count on that." Drevan said. They got out of the car, and he added, "Besides, this is our crusade, now."

Inside, the others had already gotten a table. They greeted Drevan enthusiastically as he came in. He was the eldest of their group, twenty years old. The others were mostly seventeen and eighteen, with Taro being the youngest at thirteen. Drevan sat down, looking around at them all.

"How was America?" Himeko asked. "What was it again that you had to do?"

"My sister was getting married. I had to go home for the wedding." Drevan replied. "America was the same as it always is. There's a reason I moved to Japan, you know." He had always been intrigued by Japanese culture as a child, and had left America behind as soon as he had gotten the opportunity.

"Of course." Himeko agreed. She looked around the table, saying then, "Well, everything went just as planned, didn't it?"

They nodded. Emi smiled, saying, "Better than expected, actually. There's been a media firestorm over this. It's been on every news station, all day. I'm glad we decided to do it like this instead of gradually. People have definitely recognized Kira's calling-card."

Teil looked up from his lunch, saying quietly, "Even if the real L, not this reincarnated one, gets involved, we've taken steps to ensure our safety. At this point, the only thing that remains is to continue to be careful." He picked at his food absently, not liking the fact that he had to be in this crowded restaurant. He much preferred it when they set things up over the phone. At least they had had the sense to get a table in the corner, where they couldn't be overheard. "Did we have to meet in public? Isn't it a danger to be seen together?"

"What's wrong with a few friends having lunch together?" Drevan laughed. "No one knows that Kira is more than one person, at this point. I'm sure the current L knows about the Death Note, but unless he touches one he won't be able to see the Shinigami. With the fact that two of them are colors besides black, and none of them have writing on the cover, it makes it nearly impossible to find. What could L do, check every black notebook in the city? And he'd still miss Taro's and mine." Drevan's notebook was a bloody red color, granted to him by his Shinigami.

"Right." Emi agreed. She smiled at Drevan. "Perfect logic, Drevan."

Mizuki rolled her eyes. "So all we have to do is keep up the killings, right? Eventually the crime will stop, when they realize that Kira's back with a vengeance. Then we'll get the world that the original Kira strived for."

"Correct. And we'll secretly have the power. We won't strive for godhood, but lead from the shadows. Even if we come to a point where the world is secure, we can't rule it like the First Kira wanted to. That's what led to his downfall: his desire for power." Drevan said. "We're smarter than that."

Taro, who had been quiet till that point, piped up to ask, "And what do we do about Kira and L's reincarnations? We can't just leave them alone. They know what's happening."

Drevan looked thoughtful. "The best option would be to kill them, as soon as possible." he mused. "But we don't know their names, and we don't know where they live. It would be a waste of time to trek all over Tokyo looking for them to see their names. We may as well leave them alone for now. Even if they were to go to someone with what they know… if they so much as mention Shinigami or reincarnation, whoever they talk to will think that they're crazy. We're safe from them, I think. But eventually, they'll have to die."

The group talked for a while longer, before going their separate ways. Taro headed for home with Ryuk. When he got off the subway, he started up the street to his house, taking an opportunity to talk to the laughing Shinigami.

"So you can't tell me their names, right, Ryuk?"

Ryuk chuckled. "Nope. Shinigami aren't allowed to give out the names of other humans. It's in the rules. You should look it up."

Taro thought of his notebook, safe underneath his mattress. His was different from the others in the way that all of the rules were written out. Not just the basics, but every rule that applied to human use of the notebook. It had been helpful thus far, especially for determining what he could and couldn't control a person into doing before they died. He wasn't allowed to control someone to kill Kira and L, and he wasn't allowed to ask Ryuk for their names either. Names from their past lives also wouldn't work, and he didn't know L's previous name anyway.

In any case, they still had time to figure out their names. But Drevan was absolutely right in one respect.

Eventually, they'd have to die.

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

And so the bad-guy squad makes their next move. The plot's gotten its ass back in gear after recovering from a fluff overdose, so we've actually made some progress this chapter!

Next chapter is HUGE. It's at least a full page longer than any of the others have been so far. Yes, it's already written. No, I'm not posting it now because I want to have a decent stock of chapters in reserve for the summer, when I won't be able to type every day. Freakin' school laptops.

So, be prepared for a great chapter next time!
Hug!
Li