Some time passed since Tashina discovered the notebook and shared the knowledge with her friend, and their lives continued as they were before. School, cram school, occasionally skipped in Tash's case, house tasks.

Lives of teenage girls became gradually busier as the end of their last academic year of high school approached and while they waited for a proof of the mysterious notebook, namely a real-life shinigami, to show himself, they didn't pay much attention to the escalating Kira situation. In fact, both friends seemed conscious that if the notebook isn't real, there is no real way for them to affect the case even if they wanted too. They were smart, sure, but so was a bunch of other people. In the end, the only kind of attention the "death note" got from Tash, who kept it, was making sure not to write in it.

Until one evening, when Tashina was sitting on her bed, with ears plugged with earphones, nodding to the rhythm, her eyes half closed. That is, until loud thud sounded in the room, a sound impossible for music to silence out

Girl immediately faced the direction from where the noise come and opened her mouth, dumbfounded. Right in front of the window in her room, there was a round monolith-shaped stone, covered in eyes of various sizes.

Tashina's voice got stuck in her throat. She just stared at the "thing."

And suddenly the "thing" spoke.

"I believe you have my notebook. I came to retrieve it." Creature's voice was surprisingly... polite. And feminine

"oh" Tashina only gasped, then reached for a notebook which was in her bag.

"You mean the Death Note... you are a shinigami, right?" Girl continued. While she was speaking, the shinigami's multiple eyes narrowed slightly

"That is correct, I am what you human beings call shinigami. And this notebook belonged to me. My name is Nu. I must also ask you to speak quieter. I find your voice annoying."

Tash lowered her head apologetically, and said, now in quieter tone.

"I'm sorry. My name is-"

"Kikutchi Tashina. I know. Now you should disclaim the notebook and give it back to me." Nu said, cutting girl's introduction short.

"Can't you... just take it?" Tash did her best to keep her voice down. To be honest, it worked for her advantage as well, if by a chance her mom wasn't deeply asking, talking loudly would surely attract her to come here and check on her.

"The moment the notebook touched the ground in this world, it became part of it, and you, by picking it up, claimed ownership of it. Had you not touched it, you wouldn't be able to see me or sense my presence in anyway. In the law of shinigami, unfortunately, you are the rightful owner now, until you give it up. I can't just take it if you won't consciously give up the ownership. Then I'll wipe out all your memories concerning the notebook and shinigami, as well as memories of all humans who came in contact with it." Shinigami explained in quite lengthy monologue, which gave Tash a funny idea, that this shinigami must like listening to her own voice, though she seemed to dislike it when the girl was speaking.

"Soo... that means it's mine. And you cannot take it until I decide to give it up. I would give it back to you... but I'd really wish to keep memories of it. Especially now. Is this person who people are calling Kira also an owner of your notebook?"

"Keeping your memories after you give up ownership is also against the rules. And no. The human who is using another notebook beyond any reason is haunted by a different shinigami. Each of us is permitted to own only one notebook. This is the reason why you should give it back to me."

"And what would happen if I would decide to not give it up? Would you kill me?" Tashina asked quietly, but also curiously. To be perfectly honest, this shinigami weirded her out, but did not terrify her. It was pretty bizarre in its form, or hers? The creature, judging by voice, appeared female. She expected such creature to look more... associated with death? Some kind of reaper or skeleton. Nu's appearance and polite, though kind of dominant attitude made a conversation between them a little more natural.

Girl didn't really feel like speaking to a personification of death.

"Had I had another notebook, I could. But then it wouldn't have much sense, there are younger people than you with more years of lifespan to extract, and I wouldn't need the second notebook if I had two. For now, it isn't possible for me to kill you directly through notebook, and the rules forbid me from influencing your lifespan in different way, as much as I would want to. It would be perfectly logical for you to give the notebook up, since I observed that you aren't willing to use it."

Nu's voice became somewhat ominous.

"So, you're telling me that technically, you can do nothing to me, without breaking your shinigami rules" Tash forgot herself and asked in louder and bolder voice

"Technically, you are correct. Keep your voice down please"

"Sorry. And you need it for... you said... "extracting lifespans"?" Girl asked, being quiet again.

"We shinigami extend our lifespans by writing in these notebooks and extracting years of lifespan from humans. Do not get false impression though, notebook doesn't work the same way when human is writing names. Then the lifespan goes to waste."

"How did you lost it then? It is important for you, apparently." Girl inquired in hushed tone.

"I was searching for a human with possibly most years of remaining lifespan to kill while looking through a portal to human work. And then one of those low-rank shinigami decided to disturb me with his hideously loud voice, which made me accidentally drop the notebook. Apparently the other human who taken this other shinigami's notebook was so interesting." This time there was blunt annoyance in the voice of Nu.

"Well, I can't give it back to you right now." Tashina said, rather boldly, though not really vigorously.

"You don't need it. I do." Shinigami stated.

"You're right, I don't need the notebook, but I need memories of it... If I am to stop this second dude who found it. "

"Why would you endanger yourself by attempting that?" Nu inquired, without bigger hint of curiosity in her voice. She sounded rather like she was considering girl's idea to be dumb to the core.

"Assuming I would trust you to not take my life after I give it back to you, which I kinda do, you seem bluntly honest, I still guess value of human life is not great for you... but it is to me, after all, I'm a human. And not only my life is important to me. Not only life itself, but also the quality of life. Living under the rule of this person who claimed other notebook would be... uncomfortable for me. For many." Girl explained her reasons, as well as she could, considering that her trail of thought was a little upset by the presence of Nu.

"Quality of life you say..." Nu pronounced the first word in the sentence quite strangely

"Yes, I guess, since our lifespans are probably short compared to the age of a shinigami who can prolong their lives, we have to make the best of it when we can. And this guy... he's probably out for power and if somebody won't stop him, he'll just end up oppressing us." Tash said, directing her gaze towards the side window.

"Matters of your world are none of my concern. The second notebook, as well as mine, shouldn't even appear in this world. But of course some low-rank shinigami felt it would be funny to drop it on purpose." Nu said with badly hidden disdain for this second shinigami in her voice, narrowing all of her eyes.

Girl shook her head. Not of her concern? If she was such high positioned shinigami in her own world, and it looked like it judging by her manner of speaking, then wasn't she responsible for upholding these "rules" she was talking about?

"Well, I guess if the other shinigami is messing with our world, then I have perfectly valid reason to use resource of your world to fight it." Girl wasn't upset... yet. You could say she was irritated with shinigami's attitude, and, feeling a little braver when knowing that shinigami shouldn't really hurt her without the note, she decided to not back down.

"Whatever impression you've got, I am not responsible for any other shinigami. It would be best for you to give up the notebook. It has been known to only bring misfortune to human beings who own it."

"Then I'll dare to face it. To the point, I considered myself a lucky person, you know? Maybe the bad luck will be cancelled out?"

"It is plain to me that you have no idea how this works." Nu stated.

"Maybe you're right... still... I can't give it back to you. Not now." Tashina sighed and stood up. She approached her desk and picked up the phone, dialing Shina's number.

"Shina... you need to see this.."

-...-

What the Shinigami, Nu, wouldn't admit, was that she was quite desperate to write another name in the notebook. Like most of other shinigami, she wrote names only when she needed more lifespan. She wasn't planning to drop the notebook, and now she felt like she should have just killed the first person she seen through the portal, to grant herself at least few years to search for a human with fine length of remaining lifespan left. And now, how she was? A few weeks away from dying, with this dumb human kid refusing to give up the notebook. Never had she thought that She, the second most powerful Shinigami, would have to die for such stupid reason like dropping the notebook.

All because she had to grow these fragile tiny arms to write, when other shinigamis only grew wings when they needed.

But she wouldn't let the human kid know of her desperation. She didn't need this inferior being to feel any kind of power over her.

On the other kind, Tashina already felt as if she was on a higher position than the shinigami, since Nu couldn't harm her in any direct way. And she wasn't stupid. She noticed that the shinigami is acting like she needed death note here and now, and it wasn't probably caused by Nu's impatience.

Girl waited for her friend to come, in relative silence, since that shinigami hushed her way too much

Finally a doorbell rang. Tash ran downstairs to open the door, previously ordering shinigami not to follow her, though Nu disregarded the order, making teenage girl aware that no one who didn't touch the notebook would be able to see her.

When Shina entered hallway, she froze.

"What. Is. That?" She asked right away, before Tash hushed her,

"Maybe... we'll better go for a walk?" Tashina said, quickly putting on her shoes and then dragging Shina out of the house. Nu of course followed.

-...-

"So this notebook is a real thing... to be honest I expected a shinigami to look a little... different?" Shina commented.

"In fact most Shinigami do look similiar to what you humans would expect, there aren't many like me." Nu said, levitating behind girls who walked down the path near a narrow road. Sky was starting to get dark above them.

"Then now... I guess we can find this "Kira" before police can." Tash proposed.

"But how? For all we know he's in Kanto, so, somewhere here. But that we know from L. There are thousands of people in here."

"Don't be so pessimistic, Shina, it might be simplier than we think. We just have to use our brains. Maybe we shouldn't focus on who might be Kira, but who couldn't be. This Kira person is kinda Idealistic... at least yet. Someone who would want to take control just for the sake of it, would start killing off the government first."

"If so, he probably isn't very old. Usually older people are at peace with the way world is and would use such power for personal gain, or at least gain of their family and friends. I guess from his lack of sympathy towards financial criminals that he isn't a shady character or a high class businessmen either" Shina noticed.

"I'd give him not more than thirty years old... he also got to have lived a peaceful life to this point. I mean, his first victim, as this L said, was a fresh criminal. The motive for this killing rather didn't have much to do with revenge. It would seem as the murder was committed under an impulse, to prevent hostages from getting harmed." Tash mumbled under her breath, loudly enough for her friend to hear.

"But doesn't it mean that he cares for people? You sure there is a need to stop him? I mean, what if he won't get corrupted by the power? World could be a safer place this way."

"He already began getting corrupted. For what we know now he's an ordinary human. He couldn't have known L's impostor on TV was a criminal. He must have believed that he is a detective, and still killed him because... apparently he couldn't take criticism. Besides, we're not trying to catch him first just to turn him to the police. You remember what I told you? Shinigami's have the power to erase the memories connected with a notebook. We could save him from the death sentence awaiting him." Tash explained. On the way, she kicked a random stone into someone's garden.

"Without consequences, like that?"

"Yeah. Kira would disappear, case will meet its dead end, and dude's friends and family will continue their lives normally. Dude won't remember a thing about having such power and committing these murders, so It won't hinder his psyche. If every resocialization would be that simple, we wouldn't need prisons."

"And what about the families of the victims? Don't they deserve justice?"

"Tell me Shina, have you ever been on a real trial? It's nothing about justice. It is just people whining and trying to push the blame on someone else. And the judge... the lawyers. These people don't have any sympathy, even for the obvious victim. They doesn't care why things happened as they happened. That is, unless they are new to the work. It is hard for a lawyer or judge to have any consideration for human feelings and truth, if they wouldn't force themselves to see the situations as just "paragraphs" they would go insane quickly."

"And you've been at the trial..."

"Yes... three cases, lost count of how many trials. You know, there was more trouble to my parents' divorce, than the divorce itself. Dad did some illegal things too, hurting me and my mother in process... but somehow, I can't bring myself to hate him. Trials still deemed him innocent due to lack of evidence and Mom wanted to put charges against him again, but it wasn't worth it."

"You never told me?"

"That's nothing important right now. Sometimes, past is better left in the past. We're doing quite fine with my Mom. The point is, Justice as we know it, is, according to me, quite pathetic. And not because it's not effective. Because angry people think they'll feel better if a person who made them suffer will suffer too. But they won't. Revenge is never a good way. It just drags good people down to the level of their oppressors. " Tashina said, raising her gaze into the sky, taking a deep breath before continuing her little speech.

"In the end, if this attitude of people is to ever change, there got to be this one fool who will forgive the worst instead of taking revenge. Just to show other people that it's possible."

"Wow, Tash... that was deep. But anger is a powerful emotion, you know. It won't be that easy to get people to just forgive."

"Maybe someday they'll understand on their own. But for that, Kira must be stopped. And not killed, because that would be a hypocrisy of the century." Tash sighed.

"Sooo... a young person, not older than thirty, in Kanto, Idealistic, smart, probably... do you notice how these details dangerously narrow the suspects down to us and people in our surroundings? And even more when we'll go to the university? We'll have to watch out for police too, because as you said, they may be just seeking for the guilty. So many weeks and their superiors must yell at them for incompetence."

"And we do not have all these data bases to narrow the list down any further... so we can hardly find a person so probable to be Kira that approaching him or her with this wouldn't end up with us turned to the police... but..."

"But what?" Shina inquired.

"I know! We have to make Kira notice us... and, for our safety, we need not to appear as if we're pursuers or enemies. We can't find Kira, but Kira can find us. No... one of us. It will be safer if only I will get exposed like that. Then if Kira would appear willing to kill me, then i could make a threat that if I'll die, my accomplice will kill him, and because you will act clueless, he won't suspect you, and won't kill you."

"Well, acting clueless in company of this... no offence" Shina pointed at Nu "would be rather hard"

"This" have a name" Nu interfered, apparently feeling offended

"Oh, Shina, just act natural, be busy studying, make comments about me doodling over another new notebook... things like that, which would give an impression of 'I don't have an idea that the thing can kill people'".

"I guess I can do that."

"Now... do you still have this belt with a pocket for a book?"

"Sure."

-...-

Another day, two friends came to the school together, but on the breaks between classes, they separated, as usually. Tashina doing a millionth patrol through all hallways in the school just for the sake of walking, and Shina studied while sitting beside door of the classroom. The only difference was that Tash was wearing a belt with a transparent pocket attached to it, and in the pocket there was a death note.

She managed to convince Nu to stay at home or somewhere before they approached the school , since the shinigami greatly disliked intense noise, and school was full of it.

She didn't expect Kira to tap her on a shoulder right away – this would be much more probable when they got into To-oh university, and she was patient. Yet, she managed to notice something strange.

This adult man in formal suit, who for sure wasn't a teacher, was staying suspiciously close to where her classmates waited for next class, and appeared as if he didn't want to be seen by them. Yet, he was observing.

On the last break on the schedule she paid closer attention to him, and to her relief, he didn't seem to follow her or Shina. He was observing the group of boys. Only what for? And who he is?

One way to find out. Even if it was particularly stupid way.

She approached the man, who was too concentrated on observing the male herd of her class to notice her and tapped on his shoulder.

The man jumped and turned his eyes to her, looking quite nervous and shivery

"Sorry, mister, I didn't mean to surprise you, but the way Mister is following my classmates is kind of... creepy. Please, stop doing that, or I'll inform teachers. "

Man calmed down and scratched the back of his head.

"Sorry, miss. I'm afraid I can't tell you why I'm here, but it's official matter. Your classmates are in no danger"

"So... who you are? You aren't a cop, are you? Did something happened at school?" She was genuinely curious.

"Ah... I see I'll have no choice but to tell you. I'm an FBI agent, I'm on a secret operation which Japanese police can't know about so, please, do not call the security. " Man felt that since the girl wasn't even on the list of suspects, it couldn't possibly do more harm to tell her than it would do to tell it to the security guards.

"Woah, FBI? That's cool... but, unbelievable. Aren't there better excuses to spy on teens?"

"No, no, I'm telling the truth. Here is my ID" he handed her out a card of FBI ID. Tash narrowed her eyes, staring suspiciously at the agent.

"Okay, I believe you, but seriously, what happened that FBI is spying in this school?" She could guess, but she could hardly believe her own thoughts. Was that even possible than out of all schools and universities in kanto this one could hold Kira? The thought itself was surreal to her, even if she went on a quest to find him.

Maybe it felt that way because beside of ordinary family grief nothing particularly exciting , adventurous or extraordinary ever happened in her life. But now, it seemed, world wasn't going to exclude her from all the important stuff that happens.

"Listen girl, what is it in top secret that you think I can tell you?" Agent, namely, Raye Penber, let out irritated sigh, then held some device up to his face.

"I'm leaving, I have been noticed." He said then turned his gaze to the girl.

"Believe, young lady, these are matters you do not want yourself involved in." then he turned around to leave, only to have Tashina tugging a corner of his trenchcoat.

"If what you're investigating is Kira then please, don't give out your ID just because somebody doesn't trust you... life's more important than reputation, right?" She smiled kindly at the agent.

"How you..."

"This school is full of smart kids. Doesn't take a detective to know someone of our age group could be suspected. And, I'm not skipping that much classes to not know if something else had happened to attract FBI." She laughed a little in the end.

"Okay... I'll keep that in mind." Raye said and walked away in hurry.

-...-

Last class passed without any further suspicious events, Light taking occasional glances at Tashina with the notebook on her sight didn't count. In fact, he tried his best to keep his eyes elsewhere. He knew that she knew, and if she knew, then showing her any sign of attention in public place would be like handing her a knife to cut his throat. That is, if she wanted to.

He had to admit that he didn't know much about her attitude, aside of the fact that she was more of the type to get out of the way than fight when in tense situations. Until few weeks ago, when she attempted, at least, to help Ryo with bullies. But she was bad at this. Had he not interfered, she could have been hurt by them.

She couldn't be that much of a danger. If he confronted her all alone, he could win the battle with charisma alone, which would be better, since killing people in his surroundings couldn't possibly work in his favour. If he only knew what was her opinion on Kira. Maybe she would be an ally? But she didn't look like person who have guts to kill someone. Too much of a coward, even if she had a bunch of neglected potential, intelligence-wise.

Yes, he thought, it'll be better to keep her in check, and ensure that as quickly as possible. She's plainly looking for Kira's attention, and that might in worst case lead to Police catching her and discovering the note... since, if she didn't turn it over to police already, then she wasn't going to... right?

He hoped so.

Then again, it wouldn't be so hard to catch her alone... she had a tendency to wander around when her only friend here was busy. He didn't even had her phone number, and that would be the only girl in his class he didn't have phone number too... Do she even have a phone? He never noticed her taking any phone out in school.

Wonder if her friend knew about the notebook too.

He decided to approach Shina after the class. Casually, seemingly just to ask about studying. They were on civil terms after all, unfortunately, since Shina had a boyfriend already, he couldn't make her infatuated in him for the sake of easier manipulation, but they talked sometimes. Nothing out of ordinary.

"I was also wondering" He slipped the thought into discussion which was primarily about applying to university

"what's up with Kikutchi-san showing off the weird notebook like that? That's quite unusual... she isn't turning goth, is she?"

Shina swore in her mind. C'mon, act naturally... and cluelessly... – she repeated in her thoughts.

"I don't know. She found it sometime ago and didn't even let me to look into it... I suppose she's just doodling in random places, if she went to such lengths to be able to carry it with her." Girl shrugged.

"Doodling?" Light appeared weirded off.

"Yeah. Did you know, she never take notes until I tell her to take them for me? And somehow she remembers all this stuff." Light shrugged this information off. Looks like he worried needlessly. Shina didn't look like she knew anything. They conversed for a while, and once they reached the school's front gate, they parted ways.

And once Shina disappeared from his sight, he started to look around. Oh... there she was.

Tash was walking in tortoise's tempo down the nearby pavement, which led to the school ground's park. A park that nobody ever visited when it wasn't 14'th february.

She is so asking for it. – He thought.

But he was going to take this on peacefully, at least until he knows. Is she an enemy, or an ally.

He followed her into the park.

A/N: I don't know if I didn't go a little overboard with the shinigami introduction, length-wise... I feel like I did...

Aside of that, please review! Let me know what you think of the story!