Hey guys, I'm back with a new story I made in less than 50 minutes on a whim after devouring all the tanaka minoru fics on ao3 and listening to the dn musical on repeat in Japanese and English for a few days straight... Hope you guys like it, and I promise I'll write a new chapter for my other stories.

By all accounts, Tanaka Minoru was an average Japanese high schooler, admittedly one with a high IQ (not that it helped his grades or anything). Yet, if there were one thing that made him different from the rest, it would probably be the Death Note sitting in front of him. Supposedly, the very tool Kira himself used to deliver justice on the (most likely) deserving criminals. Or so said the shinigami -Shinigami!- Ryuk.

"Well, aren't you going to do something with it?" Ryuk asked with his mouth full, showing Minoru the mushed apples he did not want to see.

Minoru shrugged. "There isn't much I can do with this. I don't have a sense of justice or a god complex like the first Kira, and I definitely don't want to kill anyone. Besides killing people, the death note is pretty much useless."

Ryuk chortled. It wasn't a nice sound. "That's the first time I've heard someone calling the death note useless. Light certainly didn't think so."

"Well, I'm not Kira, am I? The only thing I want is money and-" Minoru cut himself off as a thought popped into his mind.

He smiled. "Ryuk. I just thought of the perfect way to earn money."

Near stared at the screen as the world went crazy with the news of America winning the bid for the power of Kira. He lost.

"I lost," Near whispered around his thumb. It was unexpected. It was exciting. It was nothing like C-Kira.

The other FBI agents glanced at each other and said nothing. If L couldn't solve the case, who could?

There wasn't much the FBI could do anymore. The money would be fully transferred today, and America had the ultimate nuke. No one believed the president when he said he would not use it, but when they couldn't do anything, the world had no choice but to accept.

Near twirled a strand of his long white hair as he thought about this Kira. A-Kira. He wondered if this was the want, no, the need, L felt with Light Yagami. The personal interest he felt only rose the longer the auction went on. Now that it was over, he didn't know what to feel. Regret? Mello may have called him an emotionless, unfeeling robot that cared only about the result, but things changed. Monotony changed him.

Maybe like it did L.

Minoru stood in line for the atm. Hundreds of people were waiting in line, all buzzing with excitement. Some laughed out loud, unable to believe their luck. Others chatted on the phone, bragging to anyone they could. Minoru couldn't believe it worked. He had managed to get rich and not use—

Use what? He had no idea where his train of thought was going. It made him feel uneasy, and that uncomfortable feeling grew the closer he got to the front of the line. Something within him screamed not to take the money. His heart started pounding, started beating faster as he began to sweat.

Da-dum

Da-dum

He started inputting his pin, and his head began to pound. A splitting headache came out of nowhere, and Minoru screamed as people around him began to panic. Ringing pierced his ears, and as darkness began to overtake him, Minoru felt something bounce off his head and fall to the ground. Opening his eyes through the pain, he saw a book—a notebook.

Death Note.

And he remembered. A white light flashed in his eyes, and he knew no more.

Elsewhere, a certain detective curled up in pain before he, too, saw a white light and knew no more.

"L, I think there's something you might want to see."

A lanky man with unruly black hair glanced up from the screen at the sound of his name. He perused the files he was handed, never standing up from his crouched sitting position. His eyes widened slightly at what he read before continuing, the glint in his eyes slightly brighter than usual.

"How interesting...Kira."