ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY

Chapter Eight

Hunter

"What a day, eh?" Zando said as Steven came home from Zito's house and locked the front door behind him,

His parents were in the kitchen talking so Steven refrained from commenting. Instead he walked past them into his room where he closed the door and sat down on his bed to take his socks off.

"I don't blame you for killing that one girl, though. She was ugly and annoying." Zando went on, scratching his chin and grinning up at the ceiling.

"I didn't kill her." Steven muttered.

"Huh?" Zando looked down in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"I didn't do it. How could I? I didn't bring any pieces of the Death Note with me…" Steven said, glaring up at the wall in front of his bed with a dark expression. He had a few questions for Zando that he had been waiting to ask for the last half of the day. And now it had finally come. "Zando, is it possible that another Shinigami could've dropped a Death Note nearby? Or that you dropped two instead of just the one?"

Zando raised an eyebrow. "I suppose, it's possible but I didn't bring a second one with me."

"Then it must be another Shinigami who's given someone their Death Note." Steven concluded. "And it's someone at our school who had a grudge or something against Heather."

Steven looked up at the Death God to see what he thought and saw for the first time that Zando had a look of worry on his face. "What's wrong?" Steven asked curiously.

"Nothing…" Zando muttered.

"Don't lie." Steven smirked. "You can tell me."

Zando frowned and looked down at his feet. "Well, you see…"

There was a sudden knock at the door and both looked up to see Steven's mother standing under the silhouette looking annoyed about something. "Steven, can you come out here for a minute?"

"Why?" Steven asked, a little ruder than he intended to sound.

His mom glowered at him and with a sigh, Steven stood and left his room but his thoughts remained on what Zando was about to tell him. Why did the Shinigami look worried at the sound of the possibility of another Death Note user?

"What is the meaning of this?" His mom burst out, slamming a report card down on the table. Steven blinked and looked down at it.

There on his school report was an "F (52.1 )" under his Government class. Great. The first F of the year always meant a great, big, fat scolding from his mom followed by a sarcastic comment from his dad.

"I'm sorry." Steven apologized immediately. "But this class is much more difficult than it should be." And it was true; Ms. Shaunesty had become even more bitchier than normal since the death of Sean Church in her classroom. Perhaps it had been a mistake to kill him in front of her like that.

"Look at all the failed assignments!" His mom shouted, going down the list with her finger.

"No missing assignments though." Steven muttered.

"That's a first." His dad scoffed.

"At least I'm doing all my work." Steven shot his dad a glare.

"Not well enough, obviously!" His mom shrieked hysterically.

Steven hated it when his parents were like this. It didn't happen often. But it was true; he had been slacking slightly because most of his thoughts were on the Death Note. He decided that he would have to balance school work with the rest and make homework more of a priority. He did all the work but he didn't study so his grades were low.

"You're grounded this weekend until your grades improve." His mom sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"That doesn't make any sense…" Steven muttered. "How can I be grounded for the weekend but improve my grade at the same time?"

"Look! Study and I may decide not to extend your groundation to next weekend!" His mom shouted and Steven glared at her for the injustice of it all. He turned and went back into his bedroom, closing his door and looking around the room. For he'd just noticed that Zando was no longer there.

"Zando?" He whispered, looking under his bed and spinning on the spot in confusion. Great, the Shinigami had abandoned him. Probably to avoid any further asking of what he looked so worried about earlier. Steven sat down on his bed and lied back, resting his hands underneath his head and looking up at the poster of all the skulls on his ceiling.

This was just what he needed. To be stuck alone for two days wondering about who this other Death Note user could be or if maybe he was just paranoid and Heather really did just die of natural causes…but the chances of that were much less than another Death Note user… And what was Zando afraid of?

Steven took the Death Note, formulating a plan to please his parents and do his duty as the notebook's owner at the same time.

He stepped out from his room and walked into the family room where his mom sat watching television.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Studying, like you said." He told her, setting down his Government book and taking a normal notebook out to write his notes in.

"Hmph…" His mom grunted as he leaned the government book in his lap and set the normal notebook bellow it. He sat back in the sofa and opened the government book to reveal the Death Note inside, hidden from his mom's view. His mom would see him taking notes but he would secretly be writing in more names from the normal notebook he had bellow him which had criminals written inside of it.

He wrote in seven or so names that were scheduled to die within the next couple of days at random times, all by heart attacks, before closing all his books and standing up. "There…" was all he said before walking away back into his room and setting all the books down on his shelf next to the clock which said "9:45"

Steven had a major headache and decided that he would go to bed early that night and try to wipe his mind of all the frustrations that happened in the past 24 hours. He guessed that Zando was right in saying the Death Note would test the users mental stability. And it was finally doing its job.

Shutting off the lights, he put a CD in the CD player next to his bed and the band, Korn, started playing. Steven rolled over underneath his sheets and closed his eyes to try and block out the thumping in his temple but it wasn't working to well. What could he possibly think about to make his frustrations and worries go away?

And then suddenly he saw the eyes of a girl staring at him as the memory of his run-in with Jennie flashed before his own eyes. Suddenly the throbbing in his head lessened and Steven smiled into his pillow.

The weekend went by slower than normal. Because he was excluded from his friends, Steven stayed home watching T.V., playing video games, and going to the computer. Zando never showed up on Saturday and on Sunday Steven was actually starting to worry a bit. What if the Shinigami had been so afraid of something that he'd decided to leave Steven for good and not come back just in case. But what did it have to be afraid of? Zando had already said that the Death Note doesn't affect any Death Gods…

And who could the other Death Note user possibly be? By now, he or she had probably figured out that there had been a bunch of previous heart attacks in the school which means whoever killed Heather must know that there is the existence of another Death Note user. So both of them knew of each other's existence with the Death Note but don't know who each other is… So even at school, Steven would have to be careful how he acted. It could even be one of his friends…

Steven sighed as the Sunday afternoon drew to a close and he sprawled across his bed, looking up at the ceiling with a frown on his face. Everyone he knew at school was a suspect. Whoever had the other Death Note must be thinking the same thing about Steven. It was a cat and mouse game now. Who would find each other out first?

I must… He thought with a determined glare.

"Hey!"

Steven shot up from surprise to the abrupt voice in his room. Zando was sitting on his windowsill with the same smile he always had on his face. It was hard to read a Shinigami's emotions.

"Where have you been?" Steven asked coldly.

"Didn't worry about me, did you?" Zando asked with a smirk.

"I thought a Death God can't leave the person holding the Death Note alone until that person dies." Steven frowned.

"True." Zando sighed. "But I wasn't much for following the rules…"

"What do you mean?" Steven asked.

"You're curious?" Zando asked.

"Yeah, where did you go?" Steven stood from his bed and crossed his arms.

"I'm afraid if I told you that then I would be helping you and helping you out isn't something of my common interest." Zando said with a wild grin.

Steven frowned. "How would telling me where you went help me out? What's going on with you, Zando?"

"When the time is right I'll tell you the whole truth but I want to see you figure it all out for yourself first." Zando told him.

Steven paused for a moment before saying "Does this have anything to do with the other Death Note user?"

Zando blinked. "Yes."

"When I mentioned it earlier you looked frightened…" Steven stated.

"Also true." Zando nodded.

"Are you afraid…of other Shinigami?" Steven concluded with a raised eyebrow.

"Bravo!" Zando clapped his hands together. "Faster than I thought."

"I had time to think." Steven said. "If there's another Death Note user than that person must have a Death God with them as well. But why are you afraid of them?"

"Since you figured the main part out, I might as well tell you the whole truth." Zando sighed. "But I thought I'd make you suffer a couple days wondering at first. I didn't expect you to get it on your first try."

"So start with why you left for two days." Steven said, leaning against his door and glaring at the Shinigami.

"Well, when I found out there was the possibility of a Death God down here, I wondered…why?" Zando began. "It is only every couple hundred years that a Shinigami comes down here. But I came to only one possible conclusion…It's hunting me."

"Hunting you?" Steven repeated. "Explain."

"You see…" Zando began. "There's a lot about Shinigami I haven't told you. Especially about me."

"Then start talking." Steven demanded, but in a calm voice so that he didn't seem to forceful.

"Well…" Zando scratched the side of his neck. "I'm a Criminal Death God. I caused a lot of havoc in the Shinigami realm because it was boring and I had my own ideas but nobody ever listened so I went down into the Human world and caused trouble there too. So I was put away into the Shinigami prison…It was a horrible place…" Zando gave a kind of shudder before continuing. "I managed to escape, just recently, and flew down into the Human world to hide. I guess I should have seen this coming, but…well, there's a Hunter Death God on my tail now and I've confirmed that last night when I went out and found him."

"Where is he?" Steven asked.

"I don't know where it lives right now but when I was searching it found me first and we fought for a little while. It took me a while but I managed to shake him off me." Zando explained.

"And you couldn't tell me this before?" Steven asked.

"Like I said, I'm not on your side. I'm on my own side." Zando said. "So I can't help you unless you figure it out for yourself."

"But you're helping me by telling me this right now." Steven smirked.

"It is true that this information is helpful to you but it is also helpful for me to let you know all of this." Zando said. "So in the end, I'm still only helping myself."

"Alright, go on." Steven waved his hand. "Tell me something though, how does a Shinigami fight another Shinigami? Aren't you guys immortal or something?"

"Well, I suppose I should tell you this also." Zando sighed. "Naturally, there are only two ways for a Shinigami to die, but if you totaled it all up, there are three ways. The first is for a Death God to die away of age. You see, the reason we're called Death Gods and have Death Notes is because when we write a human's name inside the Death Note, 1/3rd of their life span is added onto ours which is why we're considered immortal."

"And you're telling me this now?" Steven frowned.

"Sorry, slipped my mind earlier." Zando said. "Actually, that's not true. I didn't want to tell you all of this until I was completely sure that you could handle the responsibility of the Death Note."

"What's the second way for a Shinigami to die?" Steven asked.

"Love." Zando grinned. "If a Shinigami falls in love with a human and decides to extend their life by saving them from something then the Shinigami will scatter into dust and become nothing."

"Another interesting fact." Steven muttered, glaring down at his feet. "A Death God loving a human?"

"It's happened before. But rarely." Zando nodded.

"And what's the third way?" Steven asked.

"This is the way that I will probably end up dying one day." Zando sighed. "There are certain ranked Shinigami with the power to kill other Shinigami called "Hunters" and they are the only ones who can use this. Of course, if they use this power out of their restrictions then they will have it taken away from them by the Death King but that's never happened."

"And there's a Hunter Shinigami down here after you?" Steven asked.

"Yup." Zando nodded.

"And that same Death God is probably watching over the other Death Note user right now?" Steven went on.

"Maybe." Zando shrugged.

"I see…" Steven said. "Well then, I'm sorry but you're not allowed to come to school with me anymore."

"What?" Zando exclaimed, stepping back in surprise. "Why?"

"You don't know?" Steven asked. "It's obvious that since you fought with this Death God that it can recognize you when you're there. But I won't be able to see it. I can only see you. If you come to school with me then you'll be killed by the Hunter and the person who the Hunter is watching over will know that I am the one with the Death Note. In fact, I might already be in danger if this Shinigami was with the user on Friday. They could've seen me. But the chances of that are slim because I'd already be dead."

"So you're looking out for my life?" Zando asked.

"Technically I'm looking out for my life." Steven frowned. "You being there doesn't actually matter much. Since you're not on my side you wouldn't tell me where the Hunter is or who his Death Note prodigy is unless it directly helps you, right?"

"True… But now that you brought all this up…" Zando muttered. "I don't exactly want to go to school anymore."

"Exactly." Steven said. "Don't worry, though."

"Huh?" Zando looked down at him.

"I'll find out on my own who this other Death Note user is and I'll kill him…" Steven smirked.

"How do you plan on getting rid of the Hunter?" Zando asked.

"Well, since you can't kill him and we can't exactly wait for him to die naturally, there's only one other way." Steven sighed. "We'll make him fall in love with another Human."

In a dark room far away, there was a figure sitting on a bed staring a television screen with a controller in his hand. There were no lights on in the room, only the white glare coming off from the television as the person on the bed flipped through channel after channel at a slow pace.

"How'd it go?" the person asked softly, as if talking to himself.

"Bad." replied a figure standing in the shadows. It was a big, robbed creature and it wore a strange mask over its' face with eyes holes and a mouth guard. Its hair was long, white, and untidy. There were strange gauntlet blades attached to its' arms and its feet were just as hairy as its' head. "He managed to get away."

"Did you see who he was with?" The boy on the bed asked curiously.

"No. He was alone." The monster said with a growl.

"That's a shame. Some Hunter you are…" The boy sighed and shook his head. "School's going to be interesting tomorrow…"

"Yeah, it is." The Hunter replied. "How are you going to find your target?"

"Don't know." The boy said. "Guess we'll just have to wait and see what I come up with, huh?"

"If I see anyone with a Shinigami I'll inform you of it." The Hunter said.

"Good." The boy said. "And also, there's something I want you to do for me…"

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