AN: This story has been originally written in Russian language and then translated and edited into English by Evabrine.
"Light-kun, what's wrong? Please translate this passage," asked the teacher.
"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you."
Utter boredom, every day is basically the same. With this routine I'm becoming the same as all these cretins. This world is too illogical and unnatural. I'm much more intelligent than my peers, but I still have to answer all these primitive questions and talk to these idiots. If there are higher powers out there, please — make something interesting happen. I want to be able to use my abilities in full, I want to break this degenerate routine and become something more…
A black notebook falls from the sky.
What's that, a notebook? Where did it fall from? The distance to the nearest school building is around 8 or so meters… Was it dropped from the roof? Interesting, is it possible to throw a notebook that far from the roof? I'll take a look at it after the classes are over.
A high school student named Arihiko was the first to find the fallen notebook.
"Dezu Noto," he read the unfamiliar English words on the notebook out loud, "Hey, Makoto, you're good at English, right? Can you translate this?" Arihiko looked at his friend standing nearby.
"It means Death Note. Probably some sort of prank, maybe something like a test of courage?" Makoto touched his chin in thought.
"What sort of test?" Arihiko blinked in confusion.
"Open it. I'm guessing there are photos of dismembered bodies or something," Makoto pointed at the notebook.
…
"It's just more English words, I don't understand it at all!" Arihiko raised his hands in frustration.
Yagami Light approaches the group. He got behind Arihiko and took a look at the notebook's contents.
"It says that the human whose name is written in this notebook shall die. Seems like that's what the supposed test of courage entails — to write your name in it." Light calmly translated the first passage.
"Oh, if it isn't the spoiled genius himself! We are terribly sorry for making you look at the worthless nobodies like us," Arihiko mock-bowed towards Yagami.
They know me? I guess it's not that strange, I always take the first place at all the tests after all. Interestingly enough I also appear to have a fitting nickname. I can play along, make it seem like I'm the same ordinary human like they are. That seems more entertaining. "That's okay, Idiot-1, give me the notebook, I'll translate the rest."
"Oh the great genius, why would you need this useless notebook? It's probably just someone's stupid prank," Arihiko waved the notebook around dramatically in his hand.
"Give him the notebook, Arihiko. I'm interested in what's next. Looks too convoluted for a mere prank. Maybe, it's some kind of new version of death letters?" Makoto chimed in, quite intrigued by the idea.
Arihiko gave the notebook to Light.
It was relatively easy to acquire the notebook. Why was it again that I wanted it, scarcity principle? Now that these idiots don't lay a claim on it anymore, it doesn't feel as important to me. Do I even need to translate its contents to them, or can I just leave? No, I shouldn't appear that asocial, the image I project here for them might prove useful in the future after all. "Don't kick over the beehive" - said a famous orator, that probably (certainly) stole it from someone else.
"This notebook will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected," Yagami read the second rule out loud.
This condition is very vague. If I were to write the rule myself, I would've used more clear phrasing. For example, would a simple photo be enough? What about a photo of a photo? At what point in generation loss will the condition "having the person's face in mind" stop working? And that's not even mentioning people with poor sight, actual blind people, people that see with their toes, twins with the same names, etc.
"If the cause of death is not specified, after 40 seconds the person will die of a heart attack." As Light read this part, others started discussing the rules.
"Why exactly is it a heart attack? That's the most common cause of death. Shouldn't a thing with such a name literally erase somebody from existence or something?" Arihiko asked in incredulity.
"Maybe, the purpose of this rule is to make the death seem inconspicuous. If I was making a weapon like that, I'd make sure to mask its effect, make it seem like an accident," Makoto theorized.
Quite interesting, he knows that cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of death, or he made an acute assumption. Maybe he's not quite "Idiot-2". For me the strangest section is actually the time – 40 seconds. Why not 4 or 44 if the author wanted to emphasize the homophony between the words "Death" and the number 4.
Seeing as everyone stopped talking, Light continued. "If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen."
Interesting. Wait, the next rule seems to be an addendum to this.
"After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds."
That means you can control the last 6 minutes of your victim's life? That can't be serious, maybe. It has to be by default that the laws of energy conservation have to be respected, as well as the laws of physics overall, the universal laws – whatever they may be. But still this sounds too powerful, even in the context of a magical artifact that can kill any person, knowing only their name and appearance.
"Lets do an experiment, Yagami-senpai! Write down the name Makoto Koyama, or any other person that you don't like," Arihiko chuckled.
"Hey shut up Arihiko! Don't write my name in, why don't you try writing your own name in it!" Makoto yelled out.
"Even if there's only a smallest fraction of a percent that this is real, it makes sense to try proving it on a death-row criminal. I can't remember any on the top of my head, so I'll bring it home with me." Yagami turned around, ready to head home.
"Please wait a minute, Yagami-san," Makoto calls out, "Can you write down the name Tofuji Naoki – he's the main suspect in the murder that I saw yesterday on the news. Here's the photo, look." He took out his phone and showed the screen to Light.
Yagami took one glance at the photo and shook his head, "It's too pixelated, what is this a JPEG? Also you didn't seem to hear me, I said a death-row criminal. This is just a suspect."
"Does it really matter?" Arihiko said impatiently, "Yagami-senpai, just write down his name and nothing will happen. Then we all can go home."
"And how would we know is nothing happened, Retard-1. Do you perhaps have access to his holding cell?" Light retorted coldly.
"We'll probably know from the news, but yes, I guess you're right, no reason to kill him if he's not yet proven guilty," Makoto reasoned it out for Arihiko.
"I'm guessing you're assuming that the notebook works for the purpose of discussion?" Yagami asked.
Makoto nods and continues explaining, "I agree that only the criminals that are proven guilty deserve death. Although I don't think limiting ourselves only to death-row criminals is correct. I think less severe crimes are enough."
"And what crimes do you think deserve a death sentence then?" Light looked at Makoto questioningly.
"Pedophilia, murder, rape, robbery, burglary," Makoto lists on his fingers, "Evil is evil and it doesn't matter in what scale it's committed." He nods confidently.
This is quite an exaggerated point of view. Did he just reinterpret Aristotle with that? If you use that logic, you can just write down every person that ever lied in the notebook. Even in this extreme there must be a lower limit. I personally think that he just heard this somewhere and pretends to be smart. Maybe he liked the idea, or maybe he's just mocking me.
"First obvious question – if a person robs a restaurant to feed starving children, do they deserve death too?" Yagami asks with a blank stare.
"No, because it's a lesser evil for a greater good," Makoto replied without hesitation.
Light shakes his head, "This contradicts your earlier statement that "Evil is evil", which actually solves the problem of overusing the concept of "lesser evil". Moreover, how do we introduce a value to measure this exact dichotomy of normative-evaluative categories? In other words, how do we measure good and evil?"
"I have… no idea," Makoto admitted faltering. "If it was that easy, people would've thought of it hundreds of years ago."
"Second obvious question," Yagami continues, not bothering to give a reply, "A person robs a restaurant to feed starving children. But they're doing it because they want to be written about in the newspaper as a hero that saves orphans. What outweighs in this example – good or evil? Do they deserve death?"
"It's the same as in the first question, Yagami-senpai," Arihiko butts in, scratching his head, "He's still saving the children, right? His motivation shouldn't matter to us, I think. Anyways, my brain is starting to hurt from all this. I hope this won't be on the exam…"
"No, wait a bit Arihiko, Yagami-san is trying to say that the act can be defined by the motive behind it," Makoto thinks about it more, "In the first situation, it implies that the person is robbing the restaurant with the intention to save the children. In the second one though, the person does it for the fame. Obviously, those situations are different. I wouldn't say such a person deserves death, but I also don't think he deserves to be written about in the newspaper."
"Why? Why does it matter why he's saving the kids. Even if he's doing it with malicious intentions, in the end the children will be fed. This is the most important point" Arihiko argues back.
"Really?" Makoto raises his eyebrow at that, "A person would act in different ways depending on choosing one of these two motives. Think about it, if he's doing it for the fame, he'll put the minimum effort required just to prove they did it. Just like you're doing the minimum work in order not to be held back a year," Arihiko sheepishly lowers his head at that, "On the other hand, a person that is acting with the intention of saving the children will also make sure that they won't be hungry in the future either."
1-0 to him. Although you don't need much to win an argument against this imbecile, his argument is right on point. "It's better to be a fool in your own eyes, than a genius in the eyes of others" – as was summed up by a famous thinker. It's a relatively interesting human flaw, some sort of sybtype of internal conformism.
"No!" Arihiko denies it, "People can't be that complicated. A person that only thinks about fame will always able to find another way to get it. I really don't believe that there are people that save children that do it just for the excuse!"
"Denial," Yagami Light smirks, "The most predictable human reaction. On some level you understand that you're wrong. The only thing left to do at this point is to change your beliefs."
"Whatever!" Arihiko raises his fists, "Yagami-senpai, Makoto, this whole thing stopped being interesting from the moment we started talking about who deserves to die. I'm about to hit those slots. Makoto, you're coming?" He looked at Makoto.
"I'll catch up with you in a bit." Makoto waved him off, as Arihiko slowly and thoughtfully walked away from the inner courtyard.
That one is gone, one more to go. His IQ must be around 110-130. Platonist? Hard to judge, definitely smarter than the other one. He understands where I'm going with my point, even acknowledged his own mistake – threw away his "Evil is evil" concept. Seems like he's enthusiastic about the discussion.
Light continued explaining to Makoto, "That's why we have public institutions, judges, jury in order to let people judge the crimes and the motives of a person themselves. We don't need an all-encompassing theory to use the concepts of good and evil in practice," Light elaborated further, "Now imagine, that there exists a final authority that has the capability to kill everyone it finds a nuisance. With just a snap," Yagami snapped his fingers in demonstration, "A whole city of sinners can become a graveyard. Will this entity consider the opinion of our public institutions when it gives its final verdict?
"Okay, okay, I get it," Makoto raised his hands in surrender, "That's why capital sentence is being abolished as a practice in many countries nowadays. There always exists a possibility of a mistake…" Makoto reasoned. "Anyways, I should get going. See you later, Yagami-san. Let me know if anything works out with this notebook," said Makoto before leaving in a hurry.
Easy. Intriguing, he didn't ask the next obvious question. If the notebook really works, then what values would the notebook's user need to follow to pass their judgment? And, the last obvious question, is it worth it to live in such a world, where life and death are defined by the will of this notebook's holder? Maybe he just didn't want to linger. It looks like he's almost caught up to that… Who was it? Arimiko? That guy.
Damn it, what have I come to… Do I really have nothing to do if I'm willing to spend 20 minutes of my life discussing good and evil because of this notebook? I'm going to be late for my courses. I can check the news, maybe I'll find a candidate for testing the notebook. Light turned on the screen.
Just as Light started watching, the news started reporting an ongoing incident. 6 wounded and 8 hostages, he's holding them in the nursery school. Is that enough to use the notebook? If it really works then no, it isn't. However, the chances of it working are infinitely small, 10 to the power of minus seven percent. Does he deserve to die with these odds? Definitely. He definitely deserves a meteor falling on top of him. And chances of that are higher than the notebook working.
Well then.
Yagami Light writes down the name "Otoharada Kurou" in the Death Note. Making sure to take as little space as possible as he does it. Afterwards he looks back at the screen.
"The hostages are coming out! We're getting reports that the culprit died unexpectedly! The culprit is dead!" The news reporter yelled out in incredulity.
WHAT? He's dead?
"The police are emphasizing that they did NOT shoot him! Could that mean he committed suicide?" The other news reporter asked.
"No, according to one of the hostages, he suddenly collapsed…"
Just like from a heart attack? No, that can't be. The notebook works? No, I need to think clearly. The chances of it working definitely rose just now but, it's still more plausible that it was just a coincidence. I need to check it again, this time preferably using rules 4 and 5. Why didn't I make him write some sort of a code word before he died, like anatidaephobia? Most probably, he wouldn't even be able to write it. There's a high chance that there are some hidden conditions to control the person's behavior before their death. Something like: "The victim must understand the meaning of the word". What I can do is to make him write a random set of words. Wait, but what will he write with? It can't be blood right? What if he doesn't have a pen? Will he be able to find one if you write this in the notebook?
"Light, you'll be late for the courses, you need to go!" Yagami heard his mom's voice from downstairs.
"Yes, I'm going," He replied, distracted from his musings. I definitely need more tests, using rules 4 and 5. I need to find a person that has committed a serious crime…