Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

We’re all familiar with the story of Yagami Light. If you aren’t, why are you reading this? Well, I don’t feel like giving a whole summary when I could be doing better things. (Like writing this story. The story which I’ve been procrastinating. God, please give me the will to actually go through with this whole thing.) All you need to know is, whoever wrote it, got it wrong! Yagami Light wasn’t her name, first of all. It was Yagami Tsuki (Yes, the name displayed above her head.), and she was not a he.

Of course, not many people knew this. Because, truthfully, there had never been a point in her life she had ever told the full truth.

But, what’s the harm in a white lie, really? If she needed to be a man to get through life, then so be it. She was bitter about it, yes, but as long as her family was at least satisfied with her, it was just the best option.

How do I, the narrator, know this? I don’t know, fuck off. I don’t feel like answering any questions. You’re on ao3.

So anyways, here she was, sitting through a dull lecture in a classroom where no one knew what her real name even was.

The teacher went on and on, and on- God was it irritating. People seats over going on about some meaningless drama.

“Yagami, are you listening?”

She was pulled out of her thoughts.

“Can you translate the following sentence into English?” He motioned towards the board.

She wished she could kill everyone with her mind. Blow their heads up or something. Everyone here was so idiotic, shallow, narrow minded. She could hardly stand their muttering. Still, she was the top student. She didn’t have the time to dwell on her thoughts.

She placed her hands on her desk and pushed herself up. Speaking with perfect accuracy, as always.

“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.”

Walking home, Tsuki tried to tune out the clatter of terrible noise. News reports on large screens.

Murders. Hate crimes. Assaults.

Day in, and day out..the same thing over and over again…

It’s all you ever hear on the news these days..

This world.. is rotten.

Tsuki gazed out the window, daydreaming of a better world.

School was almost out, wasn’t it?

Something- Falling, from the rooftop? Caught her attention. A notebook, she thought.

She internally sighed at whoever chucked their notebook off the roof. Now she would feel like she had to go pick it up.

Exactly as she thought it, the bell rang.

She slung her bag over her shoulder, leaving the classroom.

Before she knew it, she had made a choice that would change the direction of her life drastically.

“Death note..?” The cover was written out in English, in a font that she had a bit of trouble reading. “As in, a notebook of death?”

She flipped it open, scanning over the words.

“How to use it. The person whose name is written in this notebook shall die..”

She chuckled at the absurdity, shutting the book and tucking it under her arm.

A messed up prank. No better than one of those chain letter emails.

There must’ve been something wrong with her. She took it home without hesitation. It’s just a joke, it’s not like someone will actually die.

But if someone does-

No, she shut down that train of thought.

..A messed up prank, but curiosity got the better of her.

She found herself sitting at her desk, reading through the made up rules.

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.

If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of the person’s name, it will happen

If the cause of death is not specified, the person will die of a heart attack.

After writing the cause of death, the details of death should be entered within the next six minutes and 40 seconds.

“So.. you can let people die peacefully, or make them suffer..”

Detailed for a prank, She thought to herself. If it were real, imagine the good it could do if in the right hands.

With an exasperated sigh, she fell onto her bed.

“Write their name and they die.. This is stupid.”

She rolled over, and focused her gaze on the tv, on a local network.

If anyone had to die…

Yes, if anyone had to die, it would be a criminal. 

I know just what kind of criminal.

Tsuki had always known, some people deserve to die. People who hurt the innocent, the disadvantaged, the weak.

Still,

She hadn’t expected it to work.

Through the nausea and tears burning in her eyes, the panic rising in her chest, she felt a rush of adrenaline.

No, she didn’t just kill a criminal. She was saving victims. That was it.

If you kill one person, you’re a murderer. Kill three, you’re a serial killer. Kill a thousand.. Well, the government does that already, and calls it justice. Right? What’s the difference if a citizen does it? That was her current justification. Maybe she felt desperate to prove she wasn’t bad for it.

So, she kept writing.

Opening her computer, she searched the news.

Name by name, she had to-

If she had this power, and refused it, that would be bad. And she was not bad.

The only people who should live in fear are people who hurt others. If every bad person died, good people wouldn’t be hurt.

Yes. The world can be divided into good people and bad people. She would be the one to judge, because who else could?

“Light!” Her mom, Sachiko, called up to her.

She dropped the pen.

“It’s almost 6:30, don’t you have cram school tonight?”

Tsuki tucked the book into her bag, “Yeah, I’m getting ready now!”

Sitting in class, internally she was breaking down.

Some people deserve to die.

She kept her bag under her desk to prevent herself from killing more. Even if some of her asshole classmates deserved it, that was too obvious.

One of her classmates, Sudou, pestering some poor kid for money. Ryo was his name, I think.

Though.. could she be legally convicted for killing with a magic notebook?

The thought made her have to stifle back a laugh.

There technically was no law against it. So.. she really wasn’t a bad person.

She felt somewhat better now. (Even though she has already written names in the double digits.)

Reaching towards her bag, she slipped out her notebook.

It could be argued that it was just immature, and not worthy of death.

She didn’t think she could afford to let even one person go.

Eyes flickering up to him.. She wrote it neatly. Like she wasn’t even killing someone.

‘Sudou returns the money, and without a word, collapses and dies due to a heart attack.’

She didn’t feel even a tinge of guilt, lips curving into a smirk as she looked over to him.

And class was let out early that day.

“Uh, hey, Yagami.” Ryo approached her, nervously rubbing at his arm. “Uhm.. Thank you.”

Tsuki smiled, and nodded in understanding. “I think you’re thanking the wrong person.”

I’d be doing society a favor by killing some of these people.

The world needs me.

How many names.. It must’ve been more than 200, at least.

She felt.. detached. Only 17, with a body count (and not the fun kind) in the triple digits.

Did.. she really have the guts to do it?

She hadn’t been able to sleep lately. And any time she tried to eat it would come right back up.

Maybe she was going crazy, because she couldn’t help but break into a fit of laughter.

“You seem to like it.”

Who-.. She’s hearing things.

A scream tore from her throat, what the HELL.

Scrambling to get up, panicked.

The thing , the monster, only laughed. A terrible laugh.

“Why are you shocked? The one who dropped that notebook was me, Ryuk. A shinigami.”

The lanky shinigami towered over her,

“From what I just saw, you’re already aware that that's no ordinary notebook..”

She placed a hand on the back of the seat in front of her, pulling herself up.

“A shinigami, huh.. I’m not shocked, Ryuk.” Well, she was. But she was too embarrassed to admit it. “In fact, I’ve been waiting for you, Ryuk.”

“Oh?” It asked curiously.

“I didn’t think the Death Note was real, at first, I’ll admit. But after seeing it’s results, I can act with certainty.”

“I see,” it said in amazement, “You surprise me. I’ve heard of notebooks falling into the hands of humans before, but you’re the first one to use it to this extent in just five days. Most people would be too scared to try it out.”

“I’m prepared, Ryuk.” She smiled in a way that seemed too innocent to be coming from someone talking about murder. “I used the notebook knowing it belonged to a shinigami, and now that shinigami is here.”

She turned slightly to face him, “So what’ll happen to me? Are you going to take my soul?”

“Huh? What’s that about? Some fantasy you humans came up with? I’m not going to do anything to you.” Ryuk looked confused, “It belongs to the Human World now. In other words, it belongs to you.”

“It belongs to me?” She looked down at the notebook.

“If you don’t want it, give it to some other human. But if you do that, I'd have no choice but to erase your memories of the notebook.”

“So.. using the Death Note doesn’t have a catch?” That was.. too easy..

“Let's just say this, you will feel the fear and pain known only to humans who have used the notebook. And when it's your time to die, it will fall on me to write your name in my Death Note.”

Tsuki’s eyes widened,

“Don’t think for a moment that any human who’s used a Death Note, can go to Heaven or Hell. That’s all. Now you’ll have something to look forward to when you die.”

“Well,” A smirk displayed on her face, “At least I’m not going to hell now.”

A knock came from the door.

“It'll be alright.” Ryuk said. “Answer it.”

She nodded, tucking the notebook under her bed.

“What?” She answered the door.

“I thought you'd like some apples, the neighbors brought them over for us.” Sachiko smiled, holding them out. “Why on earth is it so dark in there? You’ll ruin your eyesight.”

What..? Mom can’t see Ryuk..

Tsuki thanked her, and closed the door.

Ryuk explained, “That notebook originally belonged to me. And since you’re the one using it, only you can see me. Of course, my voice, only you can hear it.”

He reached for an apple, “In other words, the Death Note is the bond between Tsuki the human, and Ryuk the shinigami.”

“My name.. it’s really..?” My ‘true name’..?

Oddly validating.

Ryuk took a bite of the apple, ignoring the question completely. “Tasty.”

She sighed in annoyance. “Let me ask you one more thing. Why did you.. choose me?”

Crunch, crunch—

“Hey! Are you listening?” Tsuki shouted at it.

Ryuk swallowed, “Apples in the Human World are awesome.”

“Ryuk-“ Am I going to have to deal with this for the rest of my life?

“What would you call them? Juicy?”

“Answer my question.”

“I didn’t ‘choose’ you.” Ryuk scoffed, “I just dropped the notebook. Did you think you were chosen because you were smart? Don’t flatter yourself. It just happened to fall around here and you just happened to pick it up, that’s all.”

Ryuk pointed to the pages. “That’s why I wrote the explanation in English, the most popular language in the Human World.”

“Then- Then why did you drop it!? Don’t tell me it was by mistake when you went to the trouble of writing all those instructions!”

“Why’d I drop it?” Ryuk grinned, “Because I was bored.”

“You were.. Bored?”

“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. Even if you wrote the name of another Shinigami, it'd be pointless because they wouldn't die. And since we live in the Shinigami Realm, it brings us no amusement to kill those in the human world either. So I figured I'd have more fun if I came down here myself.” Ryuk shrugged. “Anyway, I'm surprised at how many names you've written so far, but I wanna know why you only wrote the cause of death for that guy who was hit by the truck.”

Right. The causes of death.

“Oh. It’s because if you don't write down the cause of death, the victim dies of a heart attack, and that's probably the best thing about the Death Note, Ryuk.” She said proudly. “You see, I've already exhausted the list of the world's major criminals, and eventually, I'm going to get rid of them all.”

“Eh? What’s the point of that?”

“It's only a matter of time before people figure out that these criminals are being eliminated by someone… I want the world to know of my existence. That there's someone out there passing righteous judgment on the wicked!”

“Why even bother? What are you trying to achieve by passing judgment on them?” Ryuk seemed lost on the idea. “I mean, why do you care?”

“Because… I've been bored too, Ryuk.” She admitted. “I wasn't ready to believe it at first, but it's obvious now.”

She looked down, and her hair fell against her eyes, framing her face in such a way her eyes were hardly visible.

“I've wondered… what if someone else picked up this notebook? Is there anyone out there, other than me, who would be willing to eliminate the vermin from the world? If I don't do it, then who will? No, the world is lucky it fell into my hands. I can do it. In fact, I'm the only one who can. I'll do it, using the Death Note, I'll change the world for the better. No one will have to suffer anymore.” 

…

“At first, I wrote the names of the worst criminals I could think of, of course. Then, people who got away with crimes against disadvantaged minorities. Like I was cleaning up the world, one name at a time, so that eventually no one will ever do anything evil again. And while the truly guilty ones who deserve to be punished for their crimes die of heart attacks, the people who are less guilty but who still make trouble for others, will slowly be erased through disease and accidental death. Then and only then the world will start moving in the right direction. It'll be a new world, free of injustice, and populated by people who I've judged to be honest, kind, and hardworking.. and I’ll be the God of that new world.”

“Yeah, but wouldn’t it be hard being the only bad person left?” Ryuk mocked.

“That’s it, though. I have to ruin myself with this so no one else has to. That’s just the price I have to pay for being justice.”

“It's just as I thought, humans are so interesting ..”

Chapter Text

In the past, she would have never thought it would even be possible that she would find herself in this situation.

It was ridiculous, really. But she was oddly comfortable with it.

I guess she could call it a 'girls night'...

Stripped down to a cropped tshirt and underwear, having a spa day with a shinigami.

Self care.

"Eh.. Tsuki, I don't think this is going to fit on my face…" Ryuk fumbled with the spa mask gripped between his hands… claws?

"It's alright Ryuk, your face is unfixable anyways," Tsuki rubbed the cream into her legs, "You can leave if you're not interested, you know. I’m doing this for myself.”

"I'm not uninterested .."

Tsuki sighed and turned to Ryuk, helping him get the mask on, "What is your skin even made of, Ryuk?"

Ryuk looked mildly offended, but still shrugged, "I dunno."

"No wonder you're so dry. Ugh… "

She held out her hand and Ryuk handed her the razor.

"You could stand to wear a bit of makeup, too," Tsuki commented rudely, shaving her legs as she spoke. "You know, I nearly had a heart attack when I first saw your face.”

Ryuk took the abuse silently, he had never had a human talk to him like this before…

"Don't be sad. You're pretty on the inside," She smiled sweetly. "Ah, well… maybe you're ugly there , too. I can’t really tell."

”…” Ryuk considered stopping her heart just for that comment.

As if she said nothing rude at all, she continued talking.

Tsuki kicked her leg out gracefully, "Check out how smooth my legs are."

"...They certainly look like legs to me."

"No,” Tsuki sighed and gestured to her leg, “Feel my legs, come on."

Ryuk visibly grimaced, "Just because I’m stuck with you doesn’t mean I have to do that."

Do all shinigami have such poor taste? She thought, Jeez. "You don't appreciate me enough. I look great,” Tsuki sighed, leaning back. She smirked, “You’re in the presence of a literal goddess, Ryuk.”

Ryuk cackled at the ridiculousness of that statement. ‘Goddess’? She was getting too into this “Kira” role.

It didn’t help that she got gender euphoria from killing people. Maybe she needed to get her brain checked out. (Ryuk chose to keep that to himself, though. It was funny to watch her become unwell as time passed.)

Tsuki hummed in thought, “Hey, Ryuk?”

Ryuk tilted its head, “Yeah?”

”Do you think we’re friends?”

“Friends?” Ryuk seemed amused by the question. It wouldn’t hurt to answer, “I wouldn’t think twice before writing your name in my notebook, kid.”

”Oh, hmm.. Frenemies, then?”

“Eh?” Ryuk hadn’t been down in the Human World for quite some time, so he wasn’t fully aware of this new human slang.

”Frenemies. You know,” She vaguely gestured at him, “Friend-enemies. Like girls that hangout and talk shit about other girls while doing the same to each other behind their backs.”

That seemed accurate. 

Ryuk laughed in response, “Sounds about right.”

“Greetings to all of you at the ICPO. I…am L.”

L’s voice echoed throughout the conference room, albeit distorted by the usual voice filter.

L sat in front of the computer, analyzing the data of this new case.

What a strange case, really. L had never seen anything like it.

The Kira Case. Criminals dying from unexplainable heart attacks. No prior health conditions for the majority of the victims.

It’s impossible to explain through pure logic, L thought, Coincidences do exist, yes. But, at what point can you no longer use that excuse to dismiss the clearly supernatural elements of this case?

Despite having been able to solve every case given so far, this was much more challenging than usual.

L had already looked into it quite a bit. The public seemed convinced of a God-like figure being responsible, but it was already clear the only criminals dying were ones who had their names available to the public. Why would a God need a name to kill? That just seems inconvenient.

This would be fun to solve.

THE PROGRAM IS INTERRUPTED FOR A SPECIAL BROADCAST

The television screen flashed blue, turning to a new broadcast.

“We'd like to apologize for the interruption. As of now, we're bringing you a live worldwide broadcast from Interpol, ICPO.”

Ryuk looked over to Tsuki, “Hm? What’s this?”

”Interpol..?” Tsuki mused. She was just as lost as him.

“We now take you live to the ICPO.”

The screen once again changed, showing a presumably American (Maybe English?) man. In front of him, there was a nameplate displaying an odd name in roman characters.

Lind L. Tailor

“I head up an International Police Task Force which includes all member nations,” The man on screen, Lind L. Tailor, spoke. “I am Lind L. Tailor, otherwise known as L.”

“What? Who is this guy— L..? Never heard of him..”

“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. Kira, I will hunt you down. I will find you.”

“He seems certain he'll catch you,” Ryuk commented, amusement lacing his tone.

”Catch me?” Tsuki scoffed and held out her Death Note, “What a fool. He’ll have to get this first! I’ve set things up so that there’s no way of that happening. So as long as the police don't find it, there won't be any evidence to convict me, which means catching me will be absolutely impossible. I made sure of it.”

”Kira, I've 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. No amount of murder will solve the issues you seek to fix in the world, you will only create more violence.”

“Evil?” Tsuki froze, “I’m.. evil? ” She stood up, disgusted by the insult, “I’ve done nothing but good! I protect the innocent and those who fear evil! Trying to stop Kira- That is what’s truly evil!”

She uncapped her pen, resting it against an open page in her notebook.

“I guess you're just too stupid, L. It’s too bad, this could've been a lot more interesting if you'd only been a bit smarter,” Her features distorted into a deranged grin, messily scribbling down a gruesome death, one that would show the world what would happen if you dared to defy Kira.

She SAVED people! How DARE L call her evil after all she had done for the world!

He would get what he deserved.

A laugh bubbled up from her throat, staring down at the name sprawled across the lined page.

”I'll show the world what happens when you cross me. The entire world is watching…L.” She glanced at her watch as Lind L. Tailor stared into the camera. She smiled, “5 more seconds.”

She watched in glee as her writings came into action. Lind L. Tailor’s face distorted into pain, slumping over, before being forced upright again, his head slammed into the surface below him repeatedly. He must’ve been dead, but that didn’t stop him from continuing. Blood dripped from the man’s head, splattering onto the once shining nameplate, coating it in red.

Eventually, he went still and was dragged away.

Tsuki laughed, consumed by her newfound power. She grinned, “What’s wrong? You’ve got nothing else to say?!”

A gothic letter ‘L’ appeared on screen. Ryuk made a noise of interest.

Tsuki stopped laughing faster than she had started, ”Huh?” 

A distorted voice came through the speakers. “Ah, I had to test this, just in case, but I-I never thought it would actually happen.”

There was a pause, and then a shaky breath.

“ Kira… ” The name was spoken in such a way it could’ve been mistaken for admiration, “ 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 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. ”

“What?” She almost felt like she was talking to L directly, trying to ask-

“The police arrested him in absolute secrecy, so you wouldn't have heard of him on TV or through the internet…” L sounded amused, satisfied. Tsuki could almost hear the detective smirking through the speech, “It appears not even you have access to information about these types of criminals.”

Ryuk laughed, “He’s got you there.”

“But I assure you, L is real. I do exist. Now…try to kill me!”

Tsuki gripped onto her desk, seething in rage, humiliation, “You- You.. Bastard, L…”

“What's wrong? Go ahead!” L was teasing her, mocking her— “Come on, right now! Kill me!”

If only she had L’s name, she would do it.

She would slaughter L right then and there.

“Can't you do it?”

Another pause. L’s taunting words were replaced with silence.

L hummed into the microphone, “Well, Kira, it seems you can't kill me after all. So, there are some people you can't kill… You've given me a very useful hint.”

Shut up… Stop talking like that! Tears of embarrassment burned in Tsuki’s eyes, she felt.. stupid.

She was supposed to be a genius. Top of her class.

”Let me return the favor, Kira. I'll tell you something that I think you'll find interesting. Although this was announced as a worldwide 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 be necessary,” Something in the tone changed, “I now know where you are.”

Ryuk made a comment, but she couldn’t be bothered to listen, instead consumed by pure hatred and mortification.

“The police treated your first killing as an unrelated incident, but in actuality, the first of your victims was a suspect in Shinjuku. His crime was only ever reported inside Japan, and his crime wasn’t as severe as most of your heart attack victims. 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 that things would go this well, but…it won't be too long now before I am able to sentence you to death.”

Damn L, Tsuki seethed as L continued.

”You must be upset. I mean… What a gruesome death, especially for someone who you had presumed not to be a criminal… But, he deserved it, didn’t he, Kira? Yes, that must be how you justify it to yourself... I’m 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.”

Tsuki’s hands shook, a horrible feeling shaking her to her core. Yet, the worst of L’s confessions was yet to come.

“Oh, and one little thing. Keep this between us, but based off some of your more specific targets… I know what you are, Kira.”

The broadcast ended, leaving Tsuki speechless.

L knows.

“I know what you are, Kira.”

Why announce it on live television?

“Uh, Tsuki?” Ryuk spoke from behind her, “You’ve been kinda quiet…”

She ignored him, placing a hand on her cheek. Her face was warm, and there were butterflies in her stomach.

That settles it, Tsuki thought.

L has to die.