Hello friends,
This chapter took a bit of work and five drafts with different plot lines. It's difficult trying to twist an entire story into something different and make it readable XD
Hope you enjoy and please review at the end!
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Volume 1: Sun Setting
Chapter two
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"I believe the day Einstein feared the most is when people circulate pictures of dead bodies of relatives on WhatsApp and get Thumbs Down and Crying smileys as response."
― Ketan Waghmare
. _._._.
It was a moonless night sky.
Clouds had passed, sun had dropped and all but a few street lamps were lit. Two figures pass by. Shadows breathing in and out as they move. Coiling like stalking monsters ready to pounce. In and out they came, following the silent couple.
"And I killed him"
Snow crunches and shouts under their weight.
"And I killed him"
An echo on repeat.
A ringing in his ears.
Kai shuts his eyes. Conflicted. So very conflicted it was like he was being torn from the inside out.
He should be ecstatic. Light...
"And I killed him."
A shiver runs down his spine and he twitches. Something hot squirms its way up inside and he has to swallow to keep it down.
This was… Light killed someone.
"And I killed him"
He killed someone.
"And I killed him"
With a fucking notebook.
"And I killed him"
A notebook – not possible.
"And I killed him"
Kai feels something wrong clench inside of him. As though he was suddenly fighting off a virus.
"Say something," a voice bursts from behind and Kai twists around, noticing Light had stopped a few feet away. Expression unreadable and shadowed under the fluorescent street lamp.
"What do you want me to say?"
"Anything other than this petty silent treatment."
"Petty?" Kai repeats, eyes narrow. "I'm processing you murdering someone in such a - " he cuts himself off, face scrunching up in disgust.
Light arches an eyebrow, "wow," he says. "You're unbelievable. You're angry at me for my method of killing? That's what this was all about?" He tilts his head back and scoffs. "Wow, you are frustrating."
Kai just stares at him, suppressing a violent urge to slam Light against the wall and shout in his face.
If what he said was true, then doesn't he realize what he's just done?
He killed someone with pen and paper. No beauty. No chaos. No desire. No brutality in it whatsoever – what was the fucking point of it all? Light didn't even get to look the man in the eyes when he died. He never got to witness such –
Such life. Control.
Light never got to feel or smell the gushing insides of a human being. Never got to cup the person's face and trace the way their skin creases with their screams and cries of anguish and pain, listen to their beautiful pleading before slicing into flesh and -
Kai's not the religious type, but he considers this a heinous sin.
"Are you certain he's dead?" He asks, hoping that the man wasn't. Maybe if the person's still alive – that this 'Death Note' was a bunch of delusional crap - he could prove to Light –
"No, but I," A flash of something crosses his face.
"But you…?" Kai edges on, eyes narrowing even further.
"I could feel it."
A startled laugh bubbles from his mouth. "So he's not dead." Good. That's good. He could find out where this asshole lived then. Knowing Light wasn't opposed to the idea of murdering someone anymore – there was a hard and powerful drumbeat in his heart, born from excitement and anticipation. His mouth was moist - almost salivating at the blissful, fulfilling thought of watching Light slash away at his victim and understand his way of killing was better – Kai knew it wouldn't take much to nudge him in the direction of homicide.
He had to do this.
For Light.
That's what friends were for, right?
[God. First he takes up his Tou-san's responsibility of Kaa-san, and now he's doing somebody a favour.
How disturbing.]
"No," Light's eyes darken. "I know he's dead. I can tell."
Kai gives him a reasonable expression.
"It was like a part of my brain could sense something had happened – like spotting someone in your peripheral vision."
"Yeah, that was what little sanity you had finally going off the deep end, you miserable bastard."
"Kai," Light frowns, eyes wounded. "Don't you trust me?"
"That kicked puppy look doesn't work on me you crazy fuck," Kai scoffs and continues the walk to the bus stop. "I'm not one of your dopey-eyed girlfriends you can twist to your liking." He hears Light huff before his footsteps catch up.
"If you don't believe me, then lets skip cram school and I'll show you the body."
That makes Kai pause.
If that person was alive…If Light finds out this person was actually alive – what would he do? He would be angry. No. He would be infuriated and Kai wouldn't have to do anything except be a guiding hand in the background, manoeuvring Light like a silk thread as he finally breaks.
The prospect of it actually happening was enough to make his palms sweat in flustered anticipation. This was all so suddenly personal, Kai found it hard to maintain a calm expression.
"Alright," he pretends to sound challenging. "But if this person is alive, we're burning that goddamn book and you owe me a favour."
"And if he is dead, and the notebook has proven to work…" Light smirks at him, all smug and charming. "You'll owe me a favour."
Kai smirks back, digging a hand out from his pocket and propositioning it. "Deal."
Light's own comes out to meet him. "Deal."
. _._._.
A corner from Kyōto Prefectural Police, the bus comes to an abrupt halt. The driver swears, red and blue lights reflect off glass and bounce across the air. Red engulfs Kai's vision in the most ominous way possible.
In front there was a blockade. A police officer stood waving a light, shouting something.
Passengers begin whispering to one another.
"What happened? Why'd we stop?"
"There's an ambulance behind her – oh… did somebody die?"
"Hey, they're rolling out a gurney."
"Gosh, wonder what happ –"
The driver shuts off the engine and opens the door with a single tug at the lever. The police officer steps around. Well-polished shoes glint in the angry lights, following a bedraggled face. Everyone goes silent.
"Officer," the old bus driver starts. "What's – "
"I can't go into any details," the woman's clipped tone interrupts. "This lane will be cleared off in a couple of minutes, you can either stay here and build up traffic or turn around and go on another route."
"That will delay me," the bus driver grits his teeth. "This is my second last stop and the last one is ages away. If I go off on another route that will take more than ten – " He stops at the way she scowls. "New route. Got it Officer, no problem."
She harrumphs before stepping down, metal door shutting behind her loudly. The bus driver mutters something under his breath, starts the engine and turns the bus around the narrow lane.
Kai pulls out a cigarette and shoves it in his mouth.
"You can't light a cigarette in public," Light cocks his head, grinning widely. All teeth and gaze hyper. He was delighted. "So, now do you believe me?"
Kai just grunts. Feeling something akin to sorrow wash through him – Light, you idiot– then alarm.
The 'Death Note' works.
How?
He wasn't religious, he wasn't into the occult or supernatural. Neither of them were.
But what else could explain this atrocity?
. _._._.
They end up sitting outside a convenience store drinking coffee and smoking. Backs resting against cool wood, knees bent and arms dangling over them. Ten minutes pass, their coffee is half-empty and long forgotten on the ground.
"I think," Light begins, breaking the heady tension between them, "that fate gifted us this book."
Kai squints at cars passing by and inhales cigarette smoke.
"I told you two days ago that we were destined for something better than this," he gestures wildly in front of him. As though he could see something Kai couldn't.
He exhales, glancing at Light. Unmoved.
"This messy, boring world. We're better than them – we are better than them. The Death Note proves it," he grins. "It can't be a coincidence I just happened to find it. Out of anyone in the world, the school, I saw it drop from the sky. I picked it up. A psychopath and a sociopath both happening upon a notebook of destruction. Tell me this wasn't predestined."
Kai wants to, but his mind was too busy reorganising itself with the newfound discovery of the supernatural.
What a clusterfuck this day has turned out to be.
"I'm going to keep using the Death Note."
...uh huh.
Closing his eyes Kai tilts his head back against the wood. Inhaling deep and polluting his lungs the best he could. Trying to push back the boiling impulse to grab Light by the throat and yell in his face.
No.
He couldn't do that. Loose control like that. Not again.
[Especially on Light.]
"I'm going to kill every criminal in the world."
…God. That again.
What a dismal design.
Like putting an eagle in a cage and locking it up.
"Gain public trust – win over city officials and become the most powerful individual in the world. Nobody will be able to stop us. We'll be able to walk free with no masks on because everybody will see us as something Devine. Nobody will know of our nefarious intent. Our behaviour would be seen as prodigious." Light's grin widens like a predator finding new prey. "We could start and end wars, we could cause chaos and end it – because we'll be Devine. We'll be Gods of a new world."
Oh fucking – Kai coughs against the smoke building up in his lungs and take out the cigarette. Breathing fresh air and thinking.
Light's megalomaniac tendencies was making a full appearance tonight. Another day and Kai would have found great amusement and joy out of it, but right now…
Kai took a deep breath and thought. He couldn't just take Light's Death Note away, Godly gifted or not that book was poison. No artistic abilities or beauty in it. Killing by a name? Unseen, unnoticed, like he never even did anything. Hah! Light was better than that.
Light needed to see that – you stupid boy, out with these dirty ideas and in with the good! – and Kai was going to prove it.
He was going to show Light.
I'll paint all of Japan red until he understands what it means to kill.
[And the monster inside of him roars with delight]
"Yeah," Kai plays along with Light. Insides vibrating and cheeks stretching like a rubber band. "Gods."
Light hums happily, reaching over his knees to pick up his coffee. It slushes unforgivingly. "I fucking hate this stuff."
"I could offer you a cigarette."
"Hand me one of those and I'll shove it down your throat."
"Maa maa~ so sensitive."
Light chucks his coffee at him and Kai wishes he had kept his mouth shut.
. _._._.
Across the ocean sat a young man illuminated in front of a computer screen. He was positioned uncomfortably on the chair, knees to chest and back preposterously arched. His scrawny frame was buried under a white stained jersey ten sizes too large and dusty blue slacks that sagged heavily around his waist.
Perfectly round eyes glared, ghoulish hand clicking and typing as he corresponded with contacts around the globe. Searching for something, anything that would relieve him of his monotony.
Someone knocked at the door.
"Yes, Watari?" his voice droned.
An old man strolls in with a tray of treacle tarts.
"Aah?" dark eyes stray over as it's positioned next to his keyboard. "No strawberry cheesecake?"
"Sadly not, L." Watari replies, tone appropriately sombre. "Naturally, you finished the last piece this morning."
He was met with guilty silence.
"Oh…Did I?"
"Certainly."
"In that case, would you – "
"I will venture out first thing tomorrow morning and visit your preferred bakery."
"Thank you, Watari." L peeks up. The old man smiles back, lines creasing around his eyes in a way that can only be described as soft.
"My pleasure."
L turns back to his screen and begins typing a response to his contact in Brazil, when he notices something odd.
"Is there anything else, Watari?"
"Hmm?" The older man hums genially. "Oh nothing really. I'm just wondering when you will decide to unlock yourself of this hibernation you appear to have wedged yourself into." He eyes the drawn curtains and dusty room with no little distaste.
"When I feel like it."
Watari puffs out a breath. "I see." With that the man turns heel and strides from the room.
Leaving L motionless at the table and staring at a treacle tart. Mind far away in thought. In a single click, L brings up a live video feed. It showed a white padded room and a man retrained lying in the middle.
Red eyes glare up at the security camera, mouth stretched into a crooked grin.
L takes a bite into his treacle tart.
And glares right back.
. _._._.
L and co. is making an appearance! Whoo~
Thoughts? Feelings?