A/N: Hi everyone time for a new fanfic! This fanfic will be Sayu-centric bc she is underrated! Aaaa! Her relationship with her brother is also one of the more underrated aspects of the story so it will be center stage here. :) As well as her relationship with others of course. Tags may be subject to change as an FYI.

I hope that I'm able to finish this without losing interest, but we'll see. I was flip flopping between having most of it be in third person or first person, but I went with first because it's fun and I haven't done it for a while. Some parts will be in third person, I'll give those chapters different titles.

TRIGGER WARNING: this fic will contain panic attacks, anxiety, depression, and other mental health themes.

Anyway enough rambling on with the story! I hope you enjoy .

"Every man is a moon and has a side which he turns toward nobody: you have to slip around behind it if you want to see it."

― Mark Twain

Life. Death. Pain. Pleasure.

The higher beings were not surprised, of course. Over and over again, they'd been witness to human emotion.

Recently, the mortality rates were on the rise, all thanks to one human playing God. Humans were simple creatures. As soon as they got power, their true selves were revealed.

This cannot pass, thought the angels.

And thus, a greater power was born. A power to play with fate, a power to change things forever.

The angels nodded. This would suffice. This would put humanity in their place.

The ultimate sacrifice.

The weird thing about life is you never know when something really crazy is going to happen. You never know when some curveball is gonna come flying out of nowhere and change your life forever. You sit there and think that it's never gonna happen to you, it's something that only happens in TV shows or whatever. But then before you even know what's going on, everything's gone all to Hell, falling apart around you. What's the saying? Reality is stranger than fiction.

My name is Sayu Yagami, and at the time, I had just turned 14. I was a Japanese middle schooler attending Eishu Junior Middle School, currently sitting in the midst of the world's most boring mathematics class. I'd never considered myself to be anything special. Honestly, if anyone was special, it was my big brother, Light. He was a highschool genius. But as for me? I was just a middle schooler who liked shoes, idols, and hated homework.

Little did I know, everything was about to change.

I tried not to giggle as my best friend Mei pulled a funny face. I put my face into my hands. Mei was wearing the same uniform as me - just a plain white shirt, navy blue plaid skirt. She had short, light-brown hair and dark brown eyes. I'd always thought she was pretty; her hair had some nice natural curls, framing her soft face.

I was jealous; my hair was straight and dark brown, tied back by a small braid (boring). Our eyes were a similar brown, though.

"Miss Yagami, do you have something you'd like to share with the class?" the teacher snapped.

I went red. "No, sensei. Sorry."

Ugh. Focusing was such a pain. But considering all of the Kira business that had been on the news recently, could you blame me?

(Oh yeah. The Kira stuff. Long story short, there was a serial killer going around and giving people - mainly criminals - heart attacks. The twist is that it's all remote! No one knew how Kira was killing all those people.

Such a pain. I couldn't stand Kira. I wished there was another Kira to kill Kira.)

I groaned, gazing at the stupid homework we'd been assigned.

"Oh, come on, Sayu," Mei told me. "It could be worse! Last week he gave us twice the work!"

"Don't remind me," I shivered. "None of this stuff makes any sense!"

Mei held my shoulder. "Don't worry! I found it a bit confusing too. We can go through it at lunchtime if you want."

I gasped. "Really?"

"Of course!" Mei grinned. "We'll invite Sayaka and Kaede too."

My beam grew wider. Mei always knew how to make me feel better. That's why we were BFFs!

As I began packing up my desk, I noticed a weird notebook sitting there. It was small and white, 'LIFE NOTE' written on the front, in English.

What the heck is this? I picked it up. Why'd someone leave this on my desk?

I looked around. Nobody was staring back.

Maybe someone lost it, I thought.

I headed back over to Mei.

"Is this yours?" I asked.

My friend made a face. "Is what mine?"

"Uh, the notebook I'm holding…?" I waved it around.

Mei laughed. "Ha! Good one."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah. Very funny, Mei."

Mei did like messing with me sometimes. I gazed over the book. I kinda wanted to look inside, but… it was probably someone's personal business. I'm not that much of a snoop.

Maybe there's a name on this thing, I turned it around, but no name to be found.

I walked over to the teacher.

"Sensei, I found this notebook," I said.

The teacher stared at me like I was crazy. "Excuse me?"

"This notebook?" I asked, waving it around. "I think someone lost it."

The teacher shook his head. "I don't see a notebook there. Is this some kind of prank?"

"You…" I made a face. "You can't see it…?"

"What's this all about, Miss Yagami?" the teacher frowned.

"Um, nevermind," I backed off. "Bye!"

I clutched the notebook, giving it another once over.

What is going on?! I thought. Is the universe pranking me?

I walked up to another student.

"Sorry, is this your notebook?" I asked.

"What notebook?" the student asked.

I went pale. "Sorry, nevermind."

The student gave me an odd look as I walked away.

Unless the whole class is doing some kinda prank on me, I'm the only one who can see this stupid thing, I thought.

The fact that this book was weird as heck gave me all the permission I needed to peer inside. It was completely empty, aside from a wall text on the back.

I grimaced. My English was a little rough around the edges, but I could read it well enough:

LIFE NOTE

The Deceased Human whose name is written in this note shall come back to life. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the subject's face in mind when writing his/her name. This is to prevent people who share the same name from being affected.

Bring people… back to life? I thought. Yeah, right. What kind of weird prank is this?

I turned to Mei, who was just staring, oddly. I continued to read:

When bringing a deceased human back to life, they will be reincarnated near the place of their death, in their healthiest form before their demise. They will be disorentaited for a few moments, before going about business as usual.

The reincarnation will take place 40 seconds after writing the subject's name. However, the Life Note can only be used once per deceased person.

This is weirdly specific for a prank, I thought. Someone put a lot of work into this!

Life is not given out without a cost. To use the Life Note requires the ultimate sacrifice. The Life Note only appears to those who it deems worthy of said sacrifice. It is given to a human by a higher power, an Angel.

The… ultimate sacrifice? I thought. What does that mean?

Some of the English was getting pretty complex, so I was struggling to read anymore. But if it really did what it said…?

I mean, yeah, this book is weird, but there's no way it can actually bring people back to life, right? I thought. If it is a prank though, how did they make it invisible to everyone else?

I grimaced. I put the book inside my bag, before leaving the classroom.

What a weird day…

I arrived home, pushing the door open. I'd tried to put the weird prank notebook out of my mind, and instead focus on homework. Mei had explained some of it to me… but I still had a lot left to go.

Mom waved at me. She was in the kitchen as usual, wearing an apron.

"Sayu!" she greeted. "Come and help with dinner!"

"Sorry, Mom, I got a lot of homework to do!" I told her.

"Oh!" Mom gasped. "That's not like you to get right into homework!"

I chuckled, trying not to shake. "Well, I got a big assignment coming up!"

I breathed out. I headed upstairs, racing into my room. It was a small room, but cozy. My bed was in the corner, my desk nearby, which was covered in school stuff, my little TV screen… and a littleee rubbish. I had some Hideki Ryuga posters on my wall, and a shelf full of manga. My brother's room was a lot neater, but he was kind of a boring loser so mine was far more personalized.

Okay…

I brought out the Life Note, placing it on my desk. I stared at the black text.

THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE.

I gulped. The three words made my stomach drop. I wasn't exactly sure what the sacrifice was, but I really didn't want to find out.

I groaned, putting the book underneath my school stuff.

Whatever. This is all just some weird dream. I'll watch some Hideki Ryuga in the meantime.

I turned to the TV screen beside me. I switched it on. Unfortunately, there was no Hideki Ryuga… just more Kira stuff.

There was a man sitting there. His name was Lind L Tailor, judging by the name tag in front of him.

Lind L Tailor… L… I scowled. Hold on, isn't this the super genius detective that's gonna catch Kira?!

"What you are doing is evil, Kira," he droned. "You will be brought to justice."

Suddenly, the man collapsed, clenching his shirt in a fist. He was choking, sweat pooling all over his face. His eyes went cold.

I stepped back, my blood running cold.

He's dead! Ki… Kira did this…

Suddenly, an L logo appeared on screen.

"I never thought you'd actually do this, Kira," a glitched voice said, "you don't need to be there in person to kill. Listen to me, Kira. That guy you just saw? He was an inmate on death row. His information was kept private, so you wouldn't have been able to find out his name. But I assure you, L is real."

I jumped back. So… that guy was a fake?! He wasn't the real L…

I stared at the Life Note once more. An ominous feeling was crawling out from it, almost like it was calling out to me.

I wanted to write in it. But no, I shouldn't. I couldn't.

My hands were shaking. I forced myself to breathe in, slowly. I opened up the book.

No… I turned away. I can't.

But then I thought about that guy falling over, clenching his shirt, his eyes lifeless. Dead.

Do it do it do it-

I turned back to the book.

No no no-

Lind L Tailor.

I wrote the name down. My breath stilted.

"... although this was announced as a worldwide broadcast, we're only broadcasting in the Kanto region of Japan," L continued.

Nothing's happened, I thought, almost relieved. I knew it was just a stupid prank.

L went on, "It won't be long before we find you, Kira. We know you haven't-"

"NO WAY! THIS ISN'T POSSIBLE!"

I perked up. There was so much shouting in the background. I heard some coughing and spluttering.

"Oh?" L asked. "What's this?"

"HE LIVES!"

The screen flashed in and out for a moment. Then it showed Lind L Tailor was on the floor, holding onto his neck. He was breathing. He was alive.

"Well well well," L mused, "looks like you didn't kill him after all. That's odd of you, Kira."

I fell off my chair. I'd done it.

I've done it.

I'd brought the dead back to life.