Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or any of its associated characters or fictional locations.
Nathaniel awoke as the sun hit his closed eyelids, blinking them momentarily as he caught sight of Ryuk's face inches away from his own.
"... You really are quite ugly". Remarked Nathaniel to the eternally grinning Shinigami.
Ryuk leaned backwards, away from Nathaniel, letting out a small grating sigh. "Most people at least scream the first time I do that to them".
Nathaniel ignored him and quickly changed out his pajamas and into his gray school uniform, a simple affair comprised of a gray jacket emblazoned with the school's coat of arms over the left breast pocket and grey pants with a white shirt and blue tie. Few others in the school actually wore the uniform but Nathaniel actually liked it, as opposed to the mainstream fashions that infested his age group.
Once he had finished straightening his tie he glanced over to Ryuk, noting with some amusement that he now only had one Death Note left in the leather strap pouch at his hip. "I see that you went to my neighbor's after all". Remarked Nathaniel innocently, resisting the urge to laugh at Ryuk's stunned expression, who would have thought a 'God of Death' would be so easily manipulated?
"Eh, how did you know that?" Asked Ryuk, confusion highlighted on his grotesque features.
Nathaniel sighed. "It was simple, you have only one Death Note left in your pouch, your own presumably. This means you must have dropped C-Kira's Death Note-"
"How does that mean I went to your neighbor's?" Ryuk interrupted, yeash, this guy loves the sound of his own voice.
"Shut up!" Snapped Nathaniel, "now, like I was saying, since you only have one death Note left you must have dropped C-Kira's, and there's no reason for you drop the Death Note unless you thought you had found someone entertaining enough to use it, aka: someone who matches the profile of Kira. And as it just so happens the only one who matched the profile of Kira in this entire neighborhood is my neighbor, Jessica Smith. Jessica is extremely similar to the late Light Yagami. Attractive. Highly intelligent. Liked by all. A strong sense of justice. Like Light in every way. Except her gender, of course. But that just makes her a better candidate, as females generally fall under less suspicion than males do.". Nathaniel folded his arms as he stood before Ryuk.
"I presumed that Jessica was the reason why you dropped the Death Note in this area in the first place, I found it on our shared route to our respective houses and by the appearance of the Note I would have to say that it had only been dropped recently, and from the trace amounts of mud found on the cover where the mud didn't touch it's present position, the rain would not have left the mud in such a position as I found it in so it was obvious it had been handled before me.
"However for whatever reason of their own somebody evidently decided to throw away the Death Note, leaving it beside the road where I later found it. From this evidence there was a strong probability that Jessica was your intended target, as she and I are the only ones who use the route on a regular basis, so I decided to play a little trick on you". Nathaniel allowed a small smirk to touch his lips.
"Oh, and what was that?' Asked Ryuk, his wide grin growing larger.
Nathaniel unfolded his arms and sat on the bed in front of Ryuk. "Well, it wasn't all that well planned out to tell the truth, and was dependent on whether or not you would figure it out, and if id, whether or not you would go along with it once you had figured it out-"
"Arghh, could ya get on with already?" Ryuk demanded, his boredom getting the better of him.
Nathaniel frowned. "Very well, it was quite simple, I wanted you to hand Jessica a Death Note again, this way I would know who Kira was if the killings began again. As long as you had C-Kira's Death Note to drop there would always be the chance of you giving to someone I didn't know, meaning that I would have to try to defend myself from an unknown enemy if they decided to try to find me, however so long as Jessica receives the Death Note, even if she does use it I will know who Kira is and if she became a threat to me I will be able to simply write her name into my own Death Note.
" My only problem was how to get you to hand the Death Note to her, if I asked you to hand it to her you probably would have figured out my plan and may have handed the Death note to someone else to ensure that I wouldn't know who Kira was, thus prolonging any conflict between myself and Kira, so I had to trick into doing it in such a way that my intentions would not be realized.
"The plan I came up with in the end was quite simple, I knew you were partial to apples to I simply directed to the Smith house under the excuse that they have an apple tree for you you to pilfer knowing that you would probably see Jessica sleeping through her window, her curtains are always open and there would be no reason for her to close them now. Upon seeing her you would have two choices, a: give her the Death Note or leave it where she could easily find it again, or b: leave with the Death Note having decided that Jessica would just throw it away again. You wouldn't have thrown down the Death Note just anywhere, otherwise you could have had another one of the fools who've had the note across the past few years, so there was little to no chance of you doing that so I set my plan into motion."
Nathaniel lent back onto the bed, looking at Ryuk out of the corner of his eye. "Truth tell I didn't expect it to work, you are after all a Shinigami, a god, and as I said before the trick wasn't that well planned out and depended on several variables which I have little to no way of knowing the status of or controlling, but ultimately even if you didn't fall for it there would be no harm done. My confirmation that it had worked came when I saw that you only had one Death Note remaining in your hip pouch, and that is how I knew that you went to to the neighbors".
"Hunh?" Asked Ryuk, having forgotten about his original question during Nathaniel's long winded explanation. "Whoa, you really love to hear yourself talk don't you?"
Nathaniel snickered. "Well I don't usually have anyone to share my little plans with, and I must admit I do enjoy having someone around to appreciate them, and I thought you might as well know about it considering we're going to be practically joined at the hip for a while".
"Whatever," replied Ryuk dismissively. "As long as I'm having fun I couldn't care less."
*****
Nathaniel's lips were still curved in a half-smile as he departed down the stairs from his room on the second floor of his house. It was one of the many that formed the London suburbs, s rectangular house sharing it's walls with its neighbors as well as a small lively garden out the back.
"I see that you're in a good mood today, did you manage to fix your computer?" Asked his mother, a tall woman in her early thirties, as he settled down at a round table in their small kitchen, her blue eyes resting upon the gray laptop resting on her son's knees. Ryuk saw her name floating above her head: Michelle Winters
"Apparently it was just a glitch in the system, it's sorted out now." Replied Nathaniel as he took a piece of toast from the plate in the middle of the table and spread some jam from a small jar to the right of the toast.
"This is boring..." whined Ryuk.
Nathaniel glared at him out of the corner of his eye, "be quiet until we get to school, then we can talk." He whispered, Michelle sitting down opposite to him at the table, taking a piece of toast.
"Ah," Nathaniel's mother groaned as she sank into the chair. "That party went on forever..."
Nathaniel raised an eyebrow, "oh dear, so you've been sneaking out to go to parties again, how disappointing..."
"I'm not in the mood for jokes right now dear," groaned Michelle, rubbing her temples. "I think that blasted Samson boy spiked the punch again..."
"If you knew he did it before you shouldn't have risked it," replied Nathaniel in a curt tone. "And just where did you go anyway? I don't remember you telling me anything about a party."
Michelle withdrew her hands from her head as she looked at her son. "It was one of the neighborhood watch meetings, I know you hate them so I didn't say anything and left after you went to bed. Anyhow, it turned out that the 'meeting' was really more of a party set up by Mr Smith to celebrate a year without a single incident in the neighborhood- are you alright dear?" She asked as Nathaniel froze, a halt-eaten piece of toast falling to the tables as the blood drained from his face.
Nathaniel turned to her, face white as snow. "I'm sorry could you repeat that last sentence?"
Michelle frowned. "... it turned out that the 'meeting' was a party set up by Mr Smith-"
"That's what I thought," said Nathaniel sighing heavily.
Michelle frowned, but shook her head. "Well anyway I couldn't get away until well after two O'clock in the morning, and I could barely walk at that. I tell you one day Samson is going to meet a sticky end if he keeps up this type of nonsense."
"Agreed," said Nathaniel, suddenly standing up. "Sorry mother, I just remembered that I agreed to meet with Sam before school today, I've got run, see you when I get home!" He walked briskly to the door, leaving his mother as confused as ever before a small smile crept up on he face.
"So that's what's going on," she said to herself. "It's about time..."
*****
Nathaniel's lips pressed together as he walked briskly from his house, ignoring the chortling Shinigami beside him. The Shinigami however seemed unaffected by Nathaniel's silence as he laughed like Hyena.
"Hyuk! Hyuk! Hyuk! You've really screwed up now! Hyuk! Hyuk!" The Shinigami laughed.
Nathaniel whirled around, facing the Shinigami without warning. "Did you know about this?" He snapped.
"Hyuk, nope!" Laughed the Shinigami. "I just left the note underneath that apple tree you talked to me about where Jessica could find it, I guess the party started after I left! Hyuk! Hyuk!" Shinigami was nearly in fits.
He's right to laugh at me! Nathaniel cursed internally as he turned to continue his path on the gray concrete path set alongside the black tar road that split the numerous nearly identical houses. I thought myself so clever, I never anticipated that there would be more than three people in the Smith household at any one time, Jessica Smith, her sister and their father, only three possible suspects. However, because I failed to account for the possibly of visitors my 'little trick' has turned against me. Now if any of the guests ventured out into the garden any one of them could have picked up the Death Note, the only advantage I have now in finding a potential Kira is that only members of the neighborhood watch would have been at the party- no what am I thinking? They could have easily brought along guests of their own, and it's hardly likely they would have kept a guest list, and even less that they would have kept it after the night of the event, what a fool I am!
"Hey Nathan, did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?" Nathaniel withdrew himself from his musings to see that he had arrived at the bus stop where he caught the bus to school each day, unfortunately too few students from his school came from around the area to warrant a school bus route to the stop, even the bus he caught was just a regular public version that happened to have route that passed near his school.
The voice that had shaken him from his thoughts belonged to one of his few friends, Sam, dressed in the same uniform as Nathaniel was with a loose tie and open jacket as opposed to Nathaniel's neat tie and properly buttoned jacket. The delicate-featured teenager leaning against the metal bus shelter
"What do you mean?" Asked Nathaniel, coming to stand next to his friend.
"Well you look like Samson when he took a football between the legs two years ago!" Replied Sam, obviously barley suppressing a grin.
Ryuk looked down at the blue-eyed blonde boy in front of him, surprised at the name he saw floating above the boy's head.
"I'm fine, my mother has hangover though." Replied Nathaniel as the blonde boy ran a hand through his short hair.
"Argh, I heard about that, my dad's got the same thing. Well past is past, did you manage to fix your Laptop?"
"Yes, just a glitch in the programming, don't tell Samson though, he'll be begging me to use again for the internet during cla-
"I don't 'beg'!" Ryuk glanced to see that a slightly boy with red hair had come from the same path as Nathaniel, unlike the blonde boy who was about Nathaniel's height but significantly more attractive with higher cheekbones and a pale yet living shade to his skin as opposed to Nathaniel's nearly gray tone. This new boy was slightly taller than the both of them, wearing a dark green coat and white shirt over dark blue pants. "And besides its not like you use it during class anyway!" The new boy sent a glare Nathaniel's way.
Nathaniel sighed. "It's because I occasionally study in class, here you might as well take it, just have it back before the end of school". He said, handing his Laptop to the new boy.
"Thank you," replied the boy, tucking Nathaniel's uniform under his arm, there was a low rumble as a bus turned around a corner further up the road.
"Oh, one more thing Samson." Nathaniel said, turning to the new boy. "If you give my mother a hangover again you won't be using my laptop for month."
Ryuk stared as they got onto the bus, the familiar feeling of boredom settling into his brain. He floated over to where Nathaniel sat next to the blonde boy, a close to seat to the front with the blonde boy- Sam his name was- at the window seat and Nathaniel on the outside, Samson sitting in the window seat behind them, having already opened the Laptop. Ryuk grunted and settled into the seat next to Samson and prepared to wait out the trip when suddenly a loud ring tone came from Nathaniel's pocket, interrupting his conversation with Sam.
Nathaniel quickly pulled out a small mobile phone, pressed a button, apologized to his friend and pressed it to his ear.
"What's going on Ryuk?" He asked in a genial tone.
Ryuk grinned as he worked out what Nathaniel was doing. "Hyuk, hyuk, pretending to talk on the phone so we can talk without you being sent to the loony bin, pretty smart."
"No, no really," replied Nathaniel. "It was just a matter having a pre-set action program downloaded and knowing the bus route."
Ryuk laughed again, "hyuk, so what are you going to do about all those possible Kiras?"
"Nothing at the moment." Replied Nathaniel,
"Huh? But what about all the Death Note?" Asked the befuddled Shinigami.
"As long as whoever has it don't use it there is no reason to do anything, in fact it would be worse if I acted, it could prompt them into using it and becoming a problem when they otherwise would not.
"I wasn't thinking clearly earlier, I was upset that my little trick had failed and thinking the worst, but now I realize that's it's unlikely whoever has it will use it, and since most of the suspects can be presumed to be adults who would only use it to benefit themselves if they used it at all, few adults nowadays have the necessary sheer idealism necessary to use the note in such a way as Light did, there is no reason to be worried. In fact things are better this way for me, this way even if the note is used it's likely to be on a small scale, not at all a threat to me, and there's no chance of you randomly dropping it to somebody who might be a threat.
Nathaniel continued. "The only way they would try to hunt me is because you would have told them I was a threat to them and was trying to do them harm, and even if you do that the chances are that I would be able to easily counter them and use my own book to destroy them, having an advantage in knowing the note's limitations. So Ryuk, I will do nothing at the moment." Nathaniel sighed and turned off the mobile phone before re-pocketing it, turning to his friend once again.
Ryuk scratched his head absently. "I was right, you are more long-winded than Light."
*****
The notebook lay before them, open upon the wooden desk, the pen in their trembling hand. The television to their side was witched on, showing a live live robbery.
Slowly they wrote the name of the suspect shown on the screen with his face within their mind's eye. What if it really does kill him? Of course it won't, the notebook's just a sick joke! Then why am I writing his name? The voice of their conscience and their common sense filled their mind, telling her to stop writing the name, to cast the notebook aside and return to the familiar rote of life. Yet their hand continued and it was done, the man's name branded in black ink upon the white paper.
Their eyes were drawn to the ticking of the clock set upon the their wall, the lengths between the seconds becoming longer, the ticks of the clock somehow louder than the television, the beat of the heart, the countdown to the end.
Five... the clock's needle crawled across the expanse between each second.
Four... the heart beating deep within began beating like a drum.
Three... the trickle of sweat making its way down the cheek fell from the jaw.
Two... the apple upon the desk, sitting above the notebook, the void where hungry jaws had wounded it seemed to mock them.
One... final second passed like a judgment's falling hammer.
They turned their eyes back to the television, half expecting the reporter to condemn them. But nothing changed, the reporter was still talking about motive and the suspect's history. They laughed to themselves, a killer notebook, now that was an idea! The grasped the edge of the notebook intending to throw it into the trash it belonged when the suddenly frantic voice of the reporter cut through their complacence and they turned to see what had shocked the woman so.
And there it was, the hostages were coming out of the bank, families were crying with joy as they were reunited, the reporter was speaking of a sudden heart attack, of a miracle. But this was not what they heard, the reporters words twisted within their heart to their damnation, to their benediction.
Their hands froze, the hands which had had seen a man to their death, the hands of a murderer, the hands of savior. The crossroads stood, the paths clear and the signs painted in black and white.
*****
Ryuk was bored again, for the past few hours he had been subjected to nothing but a particularly nasty combination of small talk, Maths and English.
"Arghh," he moaned. "Even Light's school days weren't as boring as this, can't you find something more interesting to do?"
Nathaniel, who was speaking to Sam again, ignored him. Currently they were sitting at one of the benches in their school cafeteria. The school itself was a two-story building built from red bricks with a large oval behind it, as it happened today was one of the rare occasions when the London skyline was free of any sign of clouds so the majority of the student population was out on the oval, either playing some kind of sport, or observing those who did.
Nathaniel and Sam however, apparently immune to sports-fever that predominated the adolescent male population had opted to spend their recess in their usual places in the school cafeteria, their boy Samson sat beside Sam, still obsessively staring into the electronic screen as he had done all morning.
Ryuk's boredom, however, was not to last. Samson suddenly gasped and rushed over to Nathaniel and Sam, shoving the Laptop between them. "Guy's you have to see this!"
Nathaniel raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh, really, this had better not be one of those 'UFO' siting again, I told you I don't believe in that nonsense-"
"It's not that!" Said Samson excitedly. "Just look at it and you'll see for yourself!"
Sighing resignedly Nathaniel turned his gaze to the article on the Laptop's screen, and felt his heart plummet for the second time that day.
The second dawn of the New World?
By Jacqueline Spencer
The world was shocked today as Timothy Baker (49) was killed by a mysterious heart attack at 11:45 AM today. Mr Baker had been committing a bank robbery after suffering a psychotic break when the heart attack occurred.
This story bears the hallmarks of the 'Kira' phenomenon that occurred between 2004 and 2010, claiming the lives of thousands of criminals and spawned cults around the world worshiping the 'god of the new word'.
The situation as it stands has no further developments and Parliament has refused to make any comment. In addition the famed 'L' who is accredited with solving the original 'Kira case' has made no statement regarding the issue. Will there be more mysterious deaths? Has Kira' returned to bring judgment once more? Only time will tell
"Pretty exciting stuff huh?" Asked Samson excitedly. "I mean, I know its bad that a guy a died and all but Kira!"
"I suppose..." said Nathaniel dazedly.
"Well I don't know what you're getting all worked up about," said Sam, arms folded. "I mean, it was just one guy, it might have been a coincidence, maybe he had a history of heart problems or something. There's no reason to think that it has anything to do with 'Kira'."
"Well I guess you're right..." Samson frowned. "But what if it is? What if Kira really has returned!?"
"Then you can gush about it then," snapped Nathaniel, seemingly recovered. "Until then can you bother someone else?"
"Fine then," huffed Samson. "I'll just spread the word in my forum!"
"You do that," replied Nathaniel as Samson took the laptop back his previous seat at the cafeteria table. He got up and glanced at Sam, "sorry I just remembered, I have to make a call."
To this mysterious 'Ryuk' you were talking to before?" Asked Sam with a small grin. "Is there something going on between you two that I should know about?"
Ryuk choked on air.
"Yes to the first and hell no to the second," deadpanned Nathaniel
"Whatever," said Sam with a grin, waving Nathaniel away. 'Well don't let me keep you lovebirds apart!"
Nathaniel muttered something inaudible as he walked into a remote corner, far from Sam and Samson, pretending to press a few buttons on his mobile in case they were watching.
"Hyuk! Hyuk! What was that about the other note owner 'not being a threat'? Looks like your trick backfired, bet you're not feeling so smart now! Hyuk! Hyuk! Laughed Ryuk.
"Shut up, the situation's gotten worse, there can be no doubt of that, the other Death Note holder has proven themselves willing to use the Death Note." Nathaniel's fingers tightened on his phone. "We now come to a critical point, the owner has killed, there are six options they can pursue, continue using the Note for Kira's purposes, use it for their own advantage, commit suicide out of guilt, pass on the Notebook, choose not to use it or destroy it.
Nathaniel continued. "I can only hope they choose the second or last two options, that way they won't be a threat. However if they choose the first option they will inevitably become one, and if they choose the third or fourth option there's no limit to who could come to posses the Death Note.
Nathaniel's lips twisted into a scowl,"I made a disastrous error, there can be no doubt of that... right now, everything depends upon the owner of C-Kira Death Note, what happens next is entirely up to them."
Author's Note: I'm so sorry the update took so long, blame exam stress and having update sixteen other stories at the same time! But I promise to have the next chapter up within two weeks!
-Mregent.2
