Chapter Text
Prologue: December 3rd, 2003
“You’ve taken quite a liking to it. …No reason to act surprised. I am the shinigami Ryuk. That used to be my notebook. Judging by your laughter, you’ve already figured out that what you have is no ordinary notebook.”
“A shinigami, huh? A god of death… Well, I’m not surprised to see you, Ryuk. In fact… I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Oh?”
“I had no doubt this notebook belonged to a god of death, but seeing that god of death with my own eyes allows me to act with even more confidence. Take a look.”
“Wow, this is amazing… Gotta say, I’m the one who’s surprised. I’ve heard of Death Notes making their way into the human world before, but you’re the first person to have written this many names. Most are afraid to write this much.”
“I've already prepared myself, Ryuk. I used the notebook even though I knew it belonged to a shinigami, and now that shinigami has come. So what’ll happen to me? You're here to take my soul, right?”
“Huh? What do you mean? Is that some fantasy you humans came up with? I’m not gonna do anything to you. The notebook becomes part of the human realm from the very moment it touches the earth. So that Death Note is now yours.”
“This is… mine?”
“If you don't want it, just give it to someone else. But if you give it away, I'll have no choice but to erase your memories of the notebook.”
“I just have one more question I wanna ask you. Why did you choose me?”
“You think I chose you? Why, ‘cause you’re so smart or something? Don’t flatter yourself. All I did was drop the notebook. It just happened to fall around here, and you just happened to pick it up. I wasn’t expecting anyone in particular to find it. That’s why I wrote the instructions in English— the most popular language in the human world.”
“But why did you drop it at all? You went to the trouble of writing specific instructions, so don’t tell me it was an accident!”
“Why did I drop it? I did it ‘cause I was bored. The truth is, shinigami haven't got much to do these days. Most of the time we're either taking naps or gambling. If you take the time to write names in your Death Note, the others just laugh at you for working so hard. Sitting around in the shinigami realm killing humans all day gets pretty tiresome after a while. But if I wrote the name of another shinigami, they wouldn’t die. So I figured I'd have more fun if I came down here myself. I gotta say, though, it seems like you’re really having fun with it. You’ve written quite a lot of names in here.”
“I’m on a mission here. I’ve been writing the names of the world’s most brutal criminals. All the data I need is right here. World news twenty-four hours a day on TV, plus everything on the Internet. I’ve already covered the most vicious criminals, so now the level of atrocity is going down. And every single one of them will die of a heart attack. It’s only a matter of time before people notice that someone is bumping off the bad guys. I want the world to know of my existence. That there's someone passing righteous judgement on the wicked! Then nobody will commit crimes anymore. The world will start to become a better place. It will be a new world, free of injustice, and populated by people who I've judged to be honest, kind, and hardworking. And I… I will become the god of this new world!”
November 28th–December 5th, 2003
Same old thing, day after day… What a bore.
Most of my classmates weren’t paying much attention to the lesson that day. I could hear them whispering to each other, passing notes— one of them was even playing on his Nintendo DS, which was sure to get confiscated by the end of the day.
I wasn’t paying attention either. I was staring out the window wishing something interesting would happen. I knew if anyone got in serious trouble for not paying attention, it wouldn’t be me. My unimpeachable grades were proof of my intelligence and dedication.
“Yagami-kun?”
I looked up, startled. The teacher was looking at me. “Are you still with us? Please translate the sentence into English.”
Right. My English was pretty good, best in the class. I guess the teacher wanted me to show off. I stood up and recited the passage. “‘Follow the teachings of God and receive his blessings, and so it shall be that the seas will again become bountiful and the raging storms will subside.’”
My English teacher nodded approvingly. “Very good, Yagami.”
That was the most interesting thing that happened to me at school the whole day.
When I got home, I went straight to my room to lie down for a bit. I ended up turning on the TV. “…The same assailant who attacked six people at a busy shopping district in Shinjuku yesterday has struck again, taking eight people hostage at this daycare center.”
The Shinjuku killer… I’d heard about this guy on yesterday’s news. The TV displayed a mugshot. “Police have identified the suspect as 42-year-old Kurou Otoharada, currently unemployed. We expect negotiations to begin immediately.”
I looked at the man's saggy, dead-eyed face with disgust. What kind of monster holds a daycare center hostage?
“At the present time, that’s all the police are telling us.”
“You can't help but feel concerned for the safety of those hostages.”
I checked my watch as the news anchors droned on. It sure would be convenient if that man dropped dead right now. That was a strange thought, but it was true. If such a thing were to happen, who would complain? Those hostages would sure have been grateful.
Otoharada did not, of course, drop dead. Well, miracles don’t just happen. I reached to turn off the TV.
“Wait, we're seeing something here! Looks like there's movement at the front entrance!”
I froze, finger hovering over the off button. “The hostages are coming out!” cried the anchor on the scene, the cameraman moving to try and get a clear shot of the crowd of small children and nursery workers rushing from the building. “And they all look to be unharmed! The Special Forces are taking action; they’re moving in!”
There’s no way…
“We don't know if the suspect's been arrested,” said the anchor breathlessly. His hand went to his earpiece. “Huh? Yes? Okay, we now have confirmation. The suspect has been found dead inside! I repeat, the suspect is now dead!”
“Dead…?” I gasped aloud. Just when I had been thinking that something like this would be…
“The Special Forces are denying allegations that they shot the suspect.”
“So, it's quite possible he was feeling cornered and decided to commit suicide?”
“Well, according to statements from hostages the suspect just suddenly collapsed!”
No way…
Though the camera’s view was obstructed, I caught a glimpse of the police removing a body from the scene. I couldn’t believe it. It’s a coincidence! It has to be a coincidence!
I wasn’t sure why, but I couldn’t shake the paranoid feeling that I had somehow killed Kurou Otoharada with my mind.
No, that’s unbelievable. I had nothing to do with this. You can’t kill someone by thinking. Besides, even if I could kill someone simply by wishing, I’d never use such an ability.
“Light!”
It was Mom, calling from downstairs. “It’s already 6:25, you know! Don’t you have cram school tonight?”
“Yeah!” I answered shakily, shoving my notebook into my backpack. “I’ll be ready in just a sec!”
I kept thinking about the incident on TV during night school. As I sat down, I saw a couple of bullies corner some poor kid. “Hey, Ryo, buddy,” grinned the ringleader.
“What do you want, Sudou?” Ryo asked nervously.
Sudou grinned. “How about you lend me some money? Twenty thousand yen oughta do it.”
“What? A-again? I can’t do that…”
“Well, that’s too bad…”
Sudou… I quenched the thought as soon as I had it. Though nobody would have even noticed if a guy like that disappeared…
Ryo must have given in, because I heard Sudou clutch the money and cheer, “Yo, dudes! Looks like we’re hitting the arcade tonight!”
I craned my eyes to see Ryo sulking in defeat. The teacher snapped his fingers. “You, Yagami-kun! Mr. Number One Nationwide! Don’t go spacing out on us now! You’re our star pupil! We need you to place first again in the national exams!”
“Yes, sensei!” I said hastily, looking away from Sudou’s triumph. “Sorry, sensei!”
I felt bad for Ryo. But I didn’t feel so bad for him after school when I heard him whining about how useless his mother was for being late to pick him up. Nobody should talk about their own mother like that. As I began my walk home, I heard a couple of girls talking about going to a party at 10pm the next day— a party with college boys. What self-respecting female honor student would have agreed to that? Honestly, it’s like people have no respect for others or themselves anymore.
I saw a woman walking alone just ahead of me. That seemed dangerous, especially given the heinous violence all over the news lately.
As if on cue, the sound of motorcycle engines roared behind me. I stopped in my tracks, observing the scene as a gang of bikers rolled up. The leader swerved in front of the woman, cutting her off. “Hey girlie! How ‘bout havin’ some fun with me tonight?”
“Taku can spot a hottie a mile away,” laughed one of the bikers.
The lead biker lowered his shades with a grin. “The name’s Takuo Shibuimaru, but you can call me Shibutaku. Come hang out with us, pretty lady!”
“I-I don’t think so,” the woman stammered.
Shibutaku… What a poser. I ducked unnoticed into a nearby convenience store, rolling my eyes at Shibuimaru’s egotistical wordplay as the bikers laughed at the woman’s obvious discomfort. “Heh! She doesn’t think so, dude!”
“Aw, c’mon!” Shibuimaru wheedled. He revved his motorcycle obnoxiously while the woman cringed.
I picked up a manga from the magazine section and opened my cell phone inside it, ready to discreetly dial the police if Shibuimaru started getting physical. Imagine if it happened twice in one day…
“Hey, she’s getting away!”
I looked up. The woman was sprinting down the street in terror. “Hey girlie, I got wheels, remember?” Shibuimaru yelled, speeding after her on his bike.
“Taku! Watch out!”
CRASH.
My eyes went wide as a huge truck slammed directly into the biker. Pieces of his vehicle went flying as the truck raced by. The woman screamed as she ran further into the darkness.
“Takuo!” Shibuimaru’s friends yelled in anguish. “Stupid driver came out of nowhere!”
I stumbled from the shop with a knot in my stomach. Bile rose into my throat as I ran into a nearby alley. Unable to hold back any longer, I vomited in my mouth. Only my hand kept it from spilling on the ground. A man just died… A man was just killed right in front of me…
I couldn’t get those screams out of my ears. The awful crunching sound of Shibuimaru’s bike being smashed to pieces. To say nothing of what had happened to his body…
I clutched the brickwork for support, my other hand leaning on a trash bin. At least the woman got away. Whatever god intervened to save her from those… thugs… Still, if I were a god, I wouldn’t have killed a guy just for being a loudmouth idiot.
No. I’m being stupid again. It was a freak accident. If anyone’s responsible, it’s that driver. People need to watch where they’re going…
The next five days after that were a blur. I would go to school as usual, keeping my composure as always. But when I got home… When I made it up to my room… I would get jittery. Laughing at nothing. I must have lost ten pounds over those five days, and my usually perfect sleep schedule was all but shot. Witnessing two deaths in one day had taken an extreme toll on my mental health. But I refused to let it affect my studies. I had to ace the college entrance practice exams.
I watched the news obsessively. It had long been my goal to join the National Police Agency, so I’d always made a habit of watching the news in preparation to apply for the police academy. I wasn’t about to give that up. In fact, I was doing research on criminals every spare moment, looking for more lowlifes like Otoharada. Over the course of my research, I noticed a trend. An epidemic of heart attacks seemed to be spreading throughout Japan— and the strange thing was, it seemed only to be affecting criminals. The media picked up on this not long after I did. There were many theories— a virus, a shadowy organization of assassins— none of them could explain how so many prisoners and fugitives could drop dead out of nowhere while the rest of the population remained healthy and alive.
On December 3rd, I took the national practice tests. Mom could barely contain her excitement when I got home with the results, which I handed over without sparing them a thought. “Goodness! You placed first again— and these practice entrance exams are nationwide!" she beamed. "Look at these scores, they’re the highest you’ve had!”
“Uh-huh,” I replied absently. I'd known I would do well on the exams; no need to make a big fuss about it. “I’m going to study in my room so please don’t interrupt me, okay?”
“Alright, dear.” As I reached the top of the stairs, she said, “Oh, Light, is there anything you want, dear? Anything at all— just let me know.”
“No, I’m fine, Mom. Thanks, though.”
A few minutes later, however, she came upstairs anyway. “I thought you might like some apples. The neighbors brought them over for us.” She frowned at my room— the light was off. “Why is it so dark in here? You’ll ruin your eyesight.”
I think that was what made me realize I’d been slipping so much. I decided to whip my sleep schedule back into shape and concentrate extra hard on my studies. I continued to follow the news of the mysterious criminal heart attacks. I had a very small window to research criminals— only from the time I got home from school to the time I went to bed. I still needed to sleep so I could maintain my average and stay at the top of my class (obviously, I couldn't be sleeping in class.) Plus, there was all the studying at home and at cram school. I couldn’t let myself get too tired. It would start to affect my health and my mental performance. That's what I told myself when the little voice in my head asked me why I was working so hard. I needed to make the most of my time.
My friends were likewise invested in recent events surrounding the world’s criminals. It became a topic of conversation on one of our walks home. “Man, I’m glued to the news these days.”
“Yeah, me too!”
“It’s crazy, all these criminals dropping dead like that.”
“It’s kinda scary, but pretty cool, too. I mean, they totally deserve it.”
“But now we can’t do anything bad anymore,” I laughed.
“I know, I did some shoplifting in grade school and I’m freaking out about it.”
“It’s gotta be the cops, right? Who else could it be?”
“The cops couldn’t pull it off. It’s gotta be some superhero brigade, like the X-Men or something.”
I laughed again as we reached my house. With the amount of research I’d been conducting over the past week, I felt as though I knew something they didn’t. “Well, I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
“See you around, Light!”
“Be good, dude!”
On the Internet, I found websites popping up about the mysterious criminal heart attacks. The homepage of the most popular site read as follows:
THE LEGEND OF KIRA THE SAVIOR
WHY ARE THE WORLD’S CRIMINALS BEING ELIMINATED ONE BY ONE? BECAUSE LORD KIRA HAS RETURNED. LORD KIRA IS A MESSENGER FROM HELL WHO WILL NOT SUFFER THE PRESENCE OF EVIL IN THIS WORLD!
BEWARE: YOU MAY ONLY ENTER THIS SITE IF YOU BELIEVE IN LORD KIRA’S RESURRECTION.
I thought “Kira” was a pretty lame name— obviously taken from the English word “killer—” but that was the name they'd decided to give him. When I searched the word “Kira,” I pulled up tons of sites like that one. The media hadn’t picked up on it— they were still calling it a succession of unexplained deaths among the world's most hardened criminals. But the people of the world could already sense that there was something happening— that there was someone out there passing judgment on them.
And they were happy about it. Well, that’s just what human beings are like. In a school forum or a public debate over whether bad people deserve to die, any normal person would say that killing people is wrong. That would be the proper response, of course. Anybody would say that to protect their public image. But on the Internet, where you could remain anonymous, Kira ruled. It was all pretty sickening. Glad as I might have been to see the murderers and thugs of the world removed from existence, I didn’t like the idea that there was an actual person out there killing them off. No human being should have that kind of power. But I supposed the people cheering Kira onward had clean consciences. They obviously didn’t think they had done anything worthy of punishment, so they supposed they would be safe from Kira.
My musings were interrupted by the TV, which I had left on. “We'd like to apologize for the interruption. As of now, we're bringing you a live worldwide broadcast from ICPO–Interpol…”
“Interpol?” I furrowed my brow, turning my full attention to the TV.
“…with Japanese voiceover by interpreter Yoshio Anderson. We now take you live to the ICPO.” The picture showed a white man in a suit with long black hair. The plaque in front of his microphone read LIND L. TAILOR.
The man began to speak in English, with another man’s voice following in Japanese. “My name is Lind L. Tailor, otherwise known as ‘L—’ the sole person able to mobilize police in every country worldwide.”
“What the hell?” Who is this guy? Able to mobilize the police in every country… Why haven’t I heard of him?
“Criminals all over the world have been the target of a killing spree which has turned into the most atrocious act of mass murder in history,” Tailor— L— continued. “This monstrous crime must be stopped at all costs. The perpetrator, commonly known as ‘Kira,’ will be brought to justice. Kira, I will hunt you down. I will not rest until I find you.”
I leaned back in my chair, my interest piqued. I figured the police would get involved and something like this would happen. I was more than a little intrigued to learn that the police had someone like L up their sleeve. Revealing his existence seemed like a dangerous move— a position like L’s would be ripe for abuse. The international community might not take too kindly to a revelation of this magnitude.
“Kira, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what you’re trying to achieve,” said L solemnly. “But what you are doing is evil.”
Damn right, I thought. So this was the man who would bring this Kira to justice. It was a battle to the death— either this L would find Kira and see him executed by the law, or Kira would find and kill him first.
L said nothing further for almost thirty seconds. What is he doing? Is he finished? What is he waiting for?
I checked the clock to see how long L would be silent. Thirty-eight seconds, thirty-nine, forty…
L gasped and clutched his chest. In front of the entire world, Lind L. Tailor suffered a heart attack live on television. He collapsed face-first onto the table.
I gasped in horror. It couldn’t be. A heart attack— exactly what had happened to the criminals killed by Kira!
Agents in shades came to remove L’s body when the image on the screen was replaced by an image of a blackletter L. A new voice emerged, speaking Japanese.
“I… I had to test this just in case, but… I never thought it would actually happen…”
The voice that came through was modulated, with one channel pitched up and another pitched down, obscuring the speaker’s real voice. I stared at the screen, frozen in shock. “Kira… It seems you can kill people without having to be there in person. I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t just witnessed it.”
I didn’t want to believe such a power existed, but… it was the only thing that made sense.
“Listen to me, Kira. If you did indeed kill Lind L. Tailor, the man who 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.”
I found my voice. “What?” Then L… L is still alive! And Kira… Kira is…
“The police arrested him in absolute secrecy, so you wouldn't have heard of him on TV or through the Internet. It appears not even you have access to information about these types of criminals.”
I had to give it to him. He’d just tricked Kira into proving his own existence, and that he was human. And that decoy of his— he was wise to use a death row inmate. That would have been the only ethical thing to do.
“But I assure you, L is real,” said the modulated voice. “I do exist. Now…”
What is he doing?!
“Try to kill me!”
My mouth hung open. Is he stupid?!
“What’s wrong? Go ahead!” L urged. “Come on, right now! Kill me!”
He just found out Kira can kill people without being in person, and now he’s taunting him?! Unless…
“Can’t you do it?”
Moments passed. Then… nothing.
“So there are some people you can’t kill. You’ve given me a useful hint.”
Of course… L is anonymous. Kira can’t touch him!
“Let me return the favor. I'll tell you something that I think you'll find interesting,” said L. I could've sworn I heard the smirk. “Although this was announced as a worldwide broadcast, the truth is, we are only broadcasting in the Kanto region of Japan.”
What?!
“I had planned to broadcast this message around the world until we found you, but it looks like that won't be necessary. I know now where you are.”
So Kira lived in the Kanto region… where I also lived. How interesting.
“The police treated your first killing as an unrelated incident, but in actuality, the first of your victims was a suspect in Shinjuku.”
Kurou Otoharada! So it was Kira who had killed the man that day…
“Of all the criminals that recently died of heart attacks, this one's crime was 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.”
I was mentally kicking myself for not figuring that out on my own. The deaths were taking place all over the world— in fact, there had been more deaths in the United States than anywhere else— but Otoharada couldn’t have been killed by anyone who wasn’t local to my area. Well, in my defense, I hadn’t known the rules until now. L’s little test had just established the limits of Kira’s killing ability.
“We decided to broadcast in Kanto first because of its large population, and, luckily, we found you.”
A thought occurred to me, one I could hardly resist— if Kira was operating out of the Kanto region, perhaps I would be able to catch him before L did.
“To be completely honest with you, I never expected that things would 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're 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.”
I sat back in my chair. I wonder, if L catches Kira first… Will he share the answers to those questions?
“I will hunt you down wherever you’re hiding and I will eliminate you!” L declared. “I am… justice!”
Justice, huh? I raised my eyebrow at such an arrogant declaration, shouted like a self-important toddler. L followed this outburst with a soft-spoken taunt: “See you soon… Kira.”
The broadcast ended, giving me a lot to think about.