ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY
Chapter Fifteen
World
"Reports nationwide state that the death toll in America has reached a breaking point." said the Asian Woman reporter. "With the Death of President Bush, Dick Cheney has taken up office temporarily until this summer at the 2008 presidential elections. George W. Bush's funeral will be held in his hometown in Texas with his family, friends and supporters from across—"
The television channel switched to show a black man and a white woman standing behind a counter with a picture above them of a barbed fence and the words "Jail Break" above it.
"The states of Massachusetts, Wyoming, Texas, and Pennsylvania are all reporting recent break outs in the prison camps. They believe that they're escaping before the infamous "Kira" has a chance to kill them. As you know, Kira is only a—" The black man's voice was cut short when the channel switched again to a different news station showing a scale and bar graph.
"As you can see, the death tolls rumored to be caused by "Kira" in prisons alone have increased dramatically over the past week. Two weeks ago the number of criminals dying in prison was ranged to be 20 to 40 in a day across the nation, and they were all criminals on death row. In the past week, the death tolls nationwide have ranged between 80 and 130 per day, and this included criminals who were scheduled to be released from jail after a certain amount of years. It's clear that Kira has been getting vicious, maybe even impatient with—"
"I'm surprised by what they're showing on T.V. these days." Andrew said.
"I'm not." Steven muttered, glaring at the television screen darkly.
"You're not?"
"Of course the media would cover up the true amount of deaths taking place." Steven explained. "In truth, there are about 300 deaths a day now thanks to this "third" Kira."
Andrew nodded, laughing inside his head. He couldn't help but feel a little overjoyed that his plan to fool Steven into thinking that there was a third Kira out there was a crowning achievement for him.
They were sitting in the living room at Andrew's house. Nobody else was there with them, not even Ryoku the hunter. Katlynn had most of the Death Note with her at her house and Ryoku was following her. He didn't want Steven finding it and taking it. He'd never fully trust him. And visa versa. Andrew was fine with this working out for now, though, until he thought of something better.
And of course, Steven hadn't brought his Death Note either. Instead, they each had one sheet from their Death Notes in their hand. This worked because if Andrew tried to kill Steven then Zando would take the Death Note at Steven's house and fly off and if Steven tried to kill Andrew, then Ryoku would fly off with his Death Note at Katlynn's house. Those were the orders given. And they were both aware of this.
So in the meantime, they were safe in each other's company. For the past week, they'd been secretly getting together during school hours to talk but doing this wasn't very affective. The only things they could say to each other was the amount of people they would be killing that day and reporting how many deaths they've heard of from The 3rd Kira.
So today was the first meeting that took place at Andrew's house. Steven was surprised to find how well it worked out. Andrew's mom was never around. They had a television with all the news programs and Andrew had managed to hack a satellite dish onto the top of his house to broadcast other stations across the rest of America. Andrew reminded Steven of Zito's dad to some extent. And even though he hated him, he couldn't help but feel a little impressed with his knowledge of electronics.
Andrew had also hooked up his computer with a device that allowed him to hack into police reports in all the local areas of Washington State. Another useful device to use. Apparently the police would be starting a secret investigation with the FBI to start searching for the criminal called "Kira". This deeply troubled Steven. How did they know that the killer lived in Washington?
But his troubles were relieved when Andrew showed similar reports in some of the other states as well. They were all the states with the biggest amount of deaths. The police thought that the more deaths there were, the higher the chance was that Kira lived there. The same went with the states having the least amount of death tolls. In total, 21 of the 50 states were being investigated, including Hawaii and Alaska.
"Are you worried about the President's funeral?" Andrew asked.
"Not really." Steven shrugged. "I'm willing to bet that the 3rd Kira is going to kill off someone during the ceremony. As a way to get more publicity, you know? As if we need anymore. All the news talks about these days are Kira Killings."
"There are a lot of Kira supporters out there." Andrew muttered, scratching his chin and glaring at the television. "There's an organization out there calling themselves 'Kira's Fist.' They go around and try to make rally's supporting Kira and talking about the beginning of a utopia. Sometimes the riots get dangerous but nothing serious has happened with them yet."
"They're going to get bigger." Steven frowned. "Mainly because once Kira's killings grow on the scale, people will become afraid and will join the organization out of fear of being killed. They'll think that if they support Kira publicly then they'll be safe."
"The 3rd Kira will probably like that." Andrew said, shifting back into the sofa. "From the way he works…it looks like he wants a lot of publicity."
Steven nodded in agreement.
"What should we do with the break outs involving the break outs in the prisons?" Andrew asked.
"Kill everyone who breaks out. The news stations won't reveal their names or faces but the investigation reports have a list of everyone escaping each day. A lot of them are criminals who aren't even on Death row but because of this 3rd Kira they're afraid that they're at risk too." Steven took a sip of some milk and frowned down at the sheet of Death Note paper in his hands. It was filled out completely with that day's list of criminals to be killed.
"I'll do it tonight." Andrew said.
"Good."
Silence filled the room. Business was over. They'd talked about everything and the news channels were switching to different programming now. Steven looked at the clock. It was nearing 6.
"My mom'll be here in a minute." Steven said, standing up. "Tell me if anything happens tomorrow that you see on the news or the investigation reports."
"Alright." Andrew stood up as well and watched in silence as Steven slipped on his shoes. "It's funny…"
Steven looked up curiously. "What is?"
"We probably wouldn't be hanging out like this unless it was for these Death Notes…" Andrew smirked, looking down at his feet.
Steven frowned a little. "Yeah…"
"I guess…I'm glad I'm not doing this alone." Andrew admitted with a coy smile.
Steven stared at him for a second before smiling as well. "Me too."
What an idiot. Steven sat next to his mom as they drove home glaring out the window with his chin in his hand. It was usual for him to brood silently on car rides alone with his family so his mom wouldn't think anything of it.
Was Andrew really going to think that he could be his friend? Of course not. Steven saw right through that little smile. Andrew was planning to betray him in the end just like he was. Steven was going to have to put up with it until his plan came together. Steven would much rather work alone than with Andrew. The only good thing coming out of this was that he could now use his T.V. and computer for his own personal gain.
Steven's mind wandered to the rest of the world. How were other countries going to take this? So far only America has been affected by Kira which meant that the chances of Kira living there was almost 100 true. That didn't worry him. What worried him was what Andrew was planning to do with the 3rd Kira. Andrew thought that Steven didn't know anything so he could be the 3rd Kira and kill as many people as he wanted. And why? Because Andrew wanted to be fucking famous. He wanted to create fear throughout the nation and so far it was working. What Steven had said about the break out and "Kira's Fist" was all true.
When Steven got home and entered his room, Zando emerged from underneath the hatch in Steven's floor looking much more gaunt and haunting than usual. Though spending each day down there for a week must not be terribly satisfying.
"How was your day?" Steven asked with a wicked grin as he set his backpack down on the floor by his bed.
"Dandy." Zando grumbled.
"Here." Steven tossed him a banana and Zando's face lit up.
"Groovy." Zando said, gulping the banana, peel and all, down his throat.
Steven sat down on his bed and the Death God handed him the Death Note. He flipped it open and looked at all the pages with a bored expression on his face. He'd ripped out a few pages in the middle that were completely filled out but every page inside the note was completely clean except for a few smudge marks on the first page where he'd erased all the names he'd written to save space. He didn't know why, but it felt a little unsatisfying to know that he'd gone on for two months with this notebook and it was so empty of names. He'd stop erasing names for a while just for pure personal pleasure.
"Something wrong?" Zando asked curiously.
"No." Steven said, closing the Death Note and setting it down. "I'm just a little tired is all."
"Ah." Zando nodded, understanding. "Has it hit you yet?"
"Has what hit me?" Steven asked, staring up at the ceiling.
"The question: is all this worth it?" Zando grinned.
Steven's eyes narrowed but he continued to stare at the light bulb above him. "Is it all worth it?" He asked.
Zando shrugged. "That's not my question to answer."
"It's mine, I know." Steven said. "Of course it is worth it. To end all evil…I'm doing this for the greater good."
"And you're fighting your first enemy right now."
"Andrew…" Steven smirked. "If all my enemies are as brain-dead as he is then I'll have my utopia by the end of the year."
Zando laughed. "Is that so?"
"There's nobody in this world that can stop me, Zando." Steven said and the Shinigami noticed an evil gleam reflecting in his eyes. "Nobody."
The room was dark so the light coming from the big television set in front of them made everything else around them glow and eerie blue color. Their eyes never left the screen as they watched George Bush fall on top of the stage to the floor where he lied there rolling and clutching his chest for a few brief moments before death.
"We watched this a million times…" One of the boys muttered.
"I agree. This is pointless." Another boy said, standing behind the sofa biting the edge of his thumb out of habit. He had long, untidy black hair and a sickly appeal to him.
"I don't know…" The third boy said, his quiet voice barely being heard for his mouth was muffled into the back of the couch on which is small form was hanging from.
"Paying attention to detail is important." The 4th and final boy said, his eyes watching the president as he was taken away by ambulance men. They were watching scenes of the President's death but some of scenes had never been shown to the public before. The clips switched to the president's autopsy which had been recorded.
"It was a definite heart failure." The Mortician said, wiping his brow with his wrist. "If I were to give my personal opinion…It was Kira."
"I think we've all agreed on that." Said the old voice of the man recording the scene.
The next scene showed a long stream of reports from news stations across America talking about the increase in Death tolls from Kira along with the break outs and etc.
"There's nothing here, F." The first boy, who was sitting in the sofa watching the T.V. said, glaring side-ways at the boy next to him. He was hanging upside-down and of the four boys he was the only one with hair not hanging low over his face. He had a black pen in his mouth that he was chewing on absent-mindedly.
The boy he'd addressed had long, curly blonde hair and deep, sunken eyes that were staring steadily at the television screen as if seeing something nobody else could. "I've concluded something." He said
"What?" the upside-down boy asked with a small frown.
"This is Kira's doing."
"No shit!!"
The upside-down boy kicked the blonde boy in the side of his head. The scared looking boy hanging from the back of the couch squeaked and buried his eyes into the sofa. The sickly looking boy who had been standing, however, reached out with one hand and stopped the foot from hitting the blonde boy again.
"You shouldn't fight, E."
"Shut up. F made us watch these videos for three days straight trying to find something to help us but there's nothing." The upside-down boy named E snarled.
"You misunderstand." F said, apparently unaffected by the blow to the head. He looked at the three of them with a small smile. "The killer is indeed Kira, but not the same Kira we've been investigating."
"Explain." E said bluntly.
"There's at the very least…" F looked back at the huge T.V. for a second, appearing to space out again. "Two Real Kira's involved with this situation."
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