Chapter Two - The Shinigami
Darkness is like a veil,
That shadows even the most innocent intentions.
It haunts us when we are at our weakest,
And growls threats in our ears.
Darkness is like a cloud of smoke,
That suffocates the pure of heart.
When we are at our strongest,
It whispers promises of victory in our ears.
Only those with conviction so strong and righteous,
Darkness will not enter their souls.
"What are you?" I whisper, looking at the beast before me. The light in the room flickers and the lights shut off; the small space is submerged into darkness. The sunlight won't even pierce the dusk.
"Haven't you figured that out yet? I'm surprised," the monster hisses in an unnatural voice. I pause. Yes, I know what this thing is.
"The Shinigami Vile, isn't that right?" I sneer. I muster all of my sensibility and stare it straight in the eyes. It's a hideous creature, one that only exists in corroded minds.
"Nice to meet you," it smiles, or I think it does. I can't really tell.
The one word that I can think of to describe Vile: Monstrous. There are probably thousands of other words I could use in many different languages, but this one sums him up nicely.
The Shinigami is tall, much taller than a man. It's very thin, so thin that its ribs are extremely prominent on its torso. It stands like a human, even though it's obviously not. Its skin is reptilian, like a snake about to shed; some of its scales are missing here and there. Its legs are long and thin, and its feet look like bird talons with sharp, wicked claws. The arms are also long and thin, extending to its knees. It has talons for hands as well - claws and everything. Around its waist is a ripped and battered belt, clinging desperately to its thin form. It's wearing what looks like a tattered pair of shorts made from some type of leather. A Death note is secured to the belt by a rope. The arms and legs are wrapped with bandages: they are yellow, and in some places stained with what appears to be blood. Instead of a head, there is a large reptilian skull. In the eye cavities, red lights glare from the darkness of the mask.
"Likewise," I say, and then grin slightly.
The Shinigami almost seems taken aback. "You're not scared anymore …"it hisses in disbelief.
"You're only a hallucination brought on by grief. There's no reason to be afraid."
It laughs.
"So, you really knew my father?" I say with a small hint of sarcasm. I'm just going to go with the flow for now. If I'm going crazy, might as well do it with dignity.
"Yes, he was a complete idiot."
I say nothing, neither denying nor confirming his statement.
"Why is it so dark in here?!" Yae's annoyed tone reaches my ears. I glance over at the open door, squinting as the light streams in.
"I happen to like the dark," I say simply, playing with my own degraded thinking cycle.
"Oh, so you're talking now?" she flicks the light on and drops her bag unceremoniously on her bed. I am puzzled. She looks awfully tired. Then I remember - she has been working a lot lately. She must have been awake the entire night. Yae stalks past the Shinigami and me to open the blinds. Even more light streams in, and I shield my eyes.
"What? Are you allergic or something?" Yae scowls. "And why don't your pupils shrink?" Well, she may be childish and not the brightest bulb in the box, but she isn't stupid … much. "It's really freaky you know." Her bad mood is searing obvious, thickening the air in the room to the point where I fidget.
"I don't care," I say simply – she scowls again. I really know how to piss people off. Yae tries not to yell at me (she knows that I'm still grieving and her pride wouldn't let her) and storms out of the room. As her footsteps fade, I stand once more.
"That girl is a real bitch," Vile points out the obvious.
"Yeah, well, there is no helping it," I mumble, and walk across the room to where my pillow is hiding my Death Note. I thank my sudden actions and revulsion. Who knows what would have happened if she had actually seen the disgusting thing. Yae probably figured that I had a fit of some sorts and threw the pillow across the room.
I pick up the pillow and toss it back onto the bed. The notebook is still there, in all its innocent looking evil. With it in hand, I cross the room to the small desk beside Yae's bed and fetch a pen. Then the television is flicked on.
"What are you doing?"Vile asks as I close the curtains and flick off the lights.
"Proving that this is a fake," I reply simply, and then sit down on the bed with my legs dangling over the edge.
Flicking through the channels, I quickly find what I was looking for: a news broadcaster. It doesn't really matter which in particular, as long as I can get the name and face of a criminal.
"Why are you looking at that?"Vile asks. He knows that he'll get an answer – in fact he probably knows what I'm up to. He just wants me to explain it for him. No harm in humoring him for now.
"The letter said that if I don't write a cause of death, that the person would die of a heart attack."
"You're not going to just trust my word?"
"No. You, Shinigami, are the essence of dishonestly. Quite frankly I don't trust you as far as I can throw you."
"That's not nice."
"Shut up."
"I mean that really hurt my feelings."
"I said shut up." You are a figment of my imagination; you have no feelings. Opening the book to the first page, I quickly jot down the name of the first lesser criminal that pops onto the screen.
"So what's the point for killing the criminal? Why can't you just kill that other girl?"
I chuckle ominously, "Bastardizing the Kira killings for my own general amusement."
"English please."
"Basically just for shits and giggles."
"Oh," he says simply. And I swear, if he could smirk, he would. I lie back down on the bed and sigh heavily.
It's simple logic really. When I first read the line about death by heart attack (before I was as upset and only minimally skeptical) it had crossed my mind that it was just like the Kira killings. Kira slaughtered his victims with a heart attack.
But that also meant a few other things. The letter said that the Death Note could kill in ways other than a heart attack: a heart attack is what happens when you don't designate the cause of death. But why kill in a pattern? That's a sure way to get caught …
Kira wanted to be known.
Why not kill criminals through other means? Why just wipe them all out with a sudden pandemic, or a fire, or some other means? It means he wanted people to connect the dots and realize that he was out there – that he was real.
It was more deranged than I had immediately thought. Just outright despicable.
What does he want? Does he want Money? No, he would probably would have targeted innocents then contacted some large form of government and demanded money. Neither has happened. He is obviously too childish to realize what he is actually doing. Cutting off people before their death dates, all the while hiding away in some little place, pen in hand.
Maybe he wants power? Yes, but probably in some indirect way. He probably thinks himself as some sort of judge of criminals, sentencing them to death with the stroke of a hand. How pathetic. He shows no sign of stopping now, so I doubt he would commit suicide after he killed off the largest criminals in the world. Could it be he wants to be seen as justice? The very thought fills by stomach with disgust. My mind briefly flicks to some lessons in earlier high school. Ancient civilizations, such as the Greeks and Romans depicted Justice as a sentient being: a goddess. It's the very symbol of justice today, a blindfolded woman holding a scale and a sword.
Does Kira want to be seen as a god?
Either way, this is all hypothetical at the moment. My imagination is so deranged that I'm coming up with theories on a mass murderer to filter my frustration and anger at my father's death.
That's when my attention is brought back to the television.
A man in a business suit is standing before the camera, holding a small stack of papers in his hands. Behind him is what looks like some office interior. Judging by the lack of editing, it is live.
"We apologize for the interruption,"he says, voice almost nervous. He shifts the papers slightly, "As of now we're bringing you a live world-wide broadcast from Interpol's ICPO." There is some slight rumbling in the background. I sit up again, interested. A world-wide broadcast from an international police organization (one connected directly to the United Nations)? One thought flickers through my mind: Kira.
God, if this is still a hallucination, I am going to be pissed. However, I doubt I would be able to concoct something this strange in my subconscious. So, for now, I am going to trust that this broadcast is reality.
"We now take you live, to the ICPO."
The screen changes. Sitting in front of white backdrop with the Interpol logo behind a desk was a younger man wearing a nice slick suit. On his face was a serious expression, his hair was brushed to the sides, a microphone on his ear and sitting neatly in front of him is a shiny plaque displaying his name. Above his head I see the same name. With a quick calculation, his lifespan states that he is going to die very soon …
LIND L. TAILOR
"I head up an international task force, which includes all member nations,"he begins to speak. "I am Lind L. Tailor, otherwise known as L."
I frown, recognizing that name. "L …" I whisper, the singular letter rolling over my tongue. Oh, now I know. I've heard of him over the internet. He is supposedly the world's greatest detective. Nobody knows anything about him, except that he's the best, takes large cases (ten victims or over a million dollars at stake), and is known internationally by the letter L. That's about all anyone knows. He has never shown his face, nor has he told anyone his name.
He has just done both.
"Criminals around the world are being murdered by a serial killer. I consider this crime to be the most atrocious act of murder in history. I will not rest until the person, or persons responsible are brought to justice."
L thinks that Kira is real? This is absolutely fascinating.
If I take a step back and reinstate the hypothetical scenario, then that was just an incredibly stupid move. Besides, if I assume the information I was given about the supposed 'Death Note' is valid, then it's safe to assume that L hasn't connected all the dots. There isn't really much you can believe when working with this.
Of course, Kira wanted this attention. He waved a brightly colored flag so that people would notice him. And I will bet everything I own that L has thought of this too. So … something isn't right. Why would he be doing something like this?
"Kira, I will hunt you down. I will find you,"he paused. "Kira, I got a pretty good idea what your motivation might be, and I can guess what you hope to achieve. However, what you're doing right now is evil."
After that he sported a smirk.
I visibly wince, and beside me Vile is silent. Is he trying to provoke Kira?!
Wait …
My eyes go wider as I watch something incredible happen on the screen. I've noticed that I can only see the name and lifespan of a person if I am really there, or am watching a live taping. Right now, Lind L. Tailor's lifespan has vanished.
"What the hell, his lifespan … it's gone!"
This is definitely not something that I would come up with. This is real. I am tense, but it doesn't seem like a long time before the next amazing thing happens.
Lind L. Tailor gasps in sudden shock and his hands fly up to clutch at his chest. He then collapses on his desk. His name disappears as two men in suits drag the body off the set.
What were you trying to accomplish, L?
The screen goes white, and I find myself staring at the large gothic capital L in the center of the screen. There is a gasp of shock coming from the other end. It's masked by a synthetic voice.
"I had to test this just in case, but I … I never thought it would actually happen." The voice says. I was right.
"Kira … it seems you can kill people without having to be there in person. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't just witnessed it. Listen to me, Kira. If you did in deed kill, Lind L. Tailor, the man you just saw die on television, I should tell you that he was an inmate, whose execution was scheduled for today. That was not me."
"Heh, this L character has all the bases covered, doesn't he?" Vile remarks.
"Certainly lived up to his reputation," I add.
"The police arrested him in absolute secrecy, so you wouldn't have heard about him on TV, or through the Internet. It appears that not even you have access to information about these types of criminals.
'But I assure you, L. Is. Real … I. Do. Exist. Now, try to kill me!" L stated.
"You son of a bitch," I chuckle. "You have no idea what you're up against, and you still have the balls to yell at Kira."
"How interesting …" Vile says.
"What's wrong, hurry up! Come on, right now. Kill me!"
Taunting Kira …
"What's wrong, can't you do it?"
Declaring …
War.
"Well, Kira, It seems that you can't kill me after all. So there are some people you can't kill … You've given me a useful hint. Let me return the favor. I'll tell you something that I think you'll find interesting. Although this was announced as a world-wide broadcast, the truth is, we are only broadcasting in the Kanto region of Japan. I had planned to broadcast this message around the world until we found you, but it looks like that won't we necessary. I now know where you are."
I laugh softly, "Kira must be feeling pretty foolish by now."
"The police treated your first killing as an unrelated incident, but in actually, the first of your victims was a suspect in Shinjuku. Of all the criminals that have recently died of heart attacks, this one's crimes were by far the least serious. Furthermore, his crime was only ever reported inside Japan. I used that information to deduce this much; you are in Japan, and your first victim was little more than an experiment, which means you haven't been killing for very long.
'We decided to broadcast in Kanto first because of its large population, and luckily, we found you. To be completely honest with you, I never expected things to go this well, but, it won't be too long now before I am able to sentence you, to death.
'Naturally I am very interested to know how you are able to commit these murders without being present, but I don't mind waiting a little bit longer. You can answer all of my questions when I catch you. Let's meet again soon, Kira."
The television turns to static.
Maybe Kira is real indeed. I'm still declaring the whole 'Death Note' thing as bullshit, but the evidence to me is so overwhelming at the moment that I'll go along with this fantasy. I mean, I just saw someone's lifespan disappear. The only person who I couldn't see the death date of was my father. Without fail, every other person on the globe has presented a name and a lifespan to me.
L … he doesn't know about all that. He's grasping at straws.
"Hey Vile."
"Yes?"
"What would you think … if we helped their little investigation?"
"I wouldn't care."
"Good."
Kira, you have defied everything that is good about the world. You are disgusting - a total monstrosity, even worse than the Shinigami. I will assist L.
But that's not even the beginning of the thoughts whirling through my mind.