Chapter Text
Misa pushed up her glasses to scan her eyes over the crowd passing outside the Note Blue. Rem stood just behind her, but no one else could see her, only someone who’d touched a Death Note could see it’s Shinigami after all. She watched as a group of good-looking young men started to walk past and she lifted her eyes to the names and life spans floating just above their heads.
She locked onto one name. One that didn’t have a lifespan attached.
“Found him,” Misa whispered with a small smile. His name was written with the characters for moon and god- “Moon… Yagami, is it?” the only one with a lifespan she couldn’t see, that meant he was Kira! Her work here was done.
Misa planted her hands flat on the table in front of her and stood to her feet. “Alright Rem, time to go.”
Rem shifted slightly, confused. “You’ve finally found him and now you want to leave?” she asked.
Misa watched as Kira walked away, he was so young and handsome, nothing like she imagined he’d look like. “Well, I can’t just walk up to him and say, ‘hi Kira, nice to meet, I’m the second Kira’ with all of these other people around.” she tapped one of her feet behind the other for a moment before standing up straight and brushing off her uniform. “I know his name now, so I can easily find out all about him.” She adjusted her glasses. “After all, it’s such a unique name.” the thought of going to meet him in person, having him see her and realize who she was- it made her smile and gave her a slight ach in her chest.
Misa lay on her stomach on her bed, scrolling through all the information she recently acquired. “Oh, his name is written as moon, but read as Light.” she beamed. “What a beautiful name.” there were pages and pages of information about his academic achievements. “Wow, he’s so smart, look at all this.” she giggled and kicked her feet. “He really is incredible isn’t he.”
Rem leaned over to try and look at her computer screen as she read over his many accomplishments.
“He’s in university- oh, who’d have ever thought Kira would be so young and handsome?” she giggled and blushed, her chest ached slightly, but she chalked it up to just love. “Time to make a new message to send to the news station!”
Misa got up and sprung into action, carefully getting out the tape recorder to make the next message. Rem watched in silence from the corner of the room as Misa did her own thing. Once she was done she packaged it up and used a stamp to put the mailing address, that way they couldn’t trace her handwriting.
Misa paused as she put on her shoes with a tight pain in her chest.
“Misa, are you alright?” Rem asked, worried.
Misa quickly put on a bright smile. “For sure! I’m totally okay, nothing to worry about.” she put on her shoes and grabbed her jacket. “Now, let’s go deliver this.”
In her tape, Misa told the world she had found the real Kira, so then all she had to do was wait for the right time to go to him.
She would lie awake at night, thinking about Light Yagami, waiting for the day she would really get to meet him. Wondering what kinds of questions he would have for her. One night she woke up with a tickle in her throat and started coughing.
“Misa?” Rem looked over from where she sat. Shinigami didn’t need sleep, so she just watched over Misa.
Misa put a hand to her throat and coughed harder, her chest tightening painfully as she tried to dislodge whatever was stuck. She put a hand over her mouth and when she pulled it away again, in her palm were a few yellow flower petals.
Misa’s eyes widened in fear and she stared at the flower petals. “Rem-” she gasped, her voice raspy from all the coughing.
Rem came over and looked down. “Is that- do you have Hanahaki?” she asked. Rem’s voice was cool and even, never giving any hint to her emotions.
Misa looked up at her strange friend, a slight bit of panic in her eyes. “This isn’t good,” she muttered.
Light sat up in his room working like he normally did, Ryuk floating above his bed as he ate an apple as noisily as he could. But by now Light had gotten pretty good at blocking him out when he started talking nonsense.
He heard the doorbell ring and he checked the time. It could have been his dad, but he doubted it was. So who could it be? Light put away his Death Note in the false bottom of the drawer just in time for his younger sister, Sayu to knock on his bedroom door.
Light walked over and opened it, Sayu was in her pajamas, and she answered the front door in her pajamas. What a weird girl.
“Hey Light, there’s a girl here for you, she said you left a notebook at school so she brought it back for you.” she grinned and giggled like she knew some kind of big secret.
A notebook? Who was this? He didn’t have time for games, not after the second Kira made that announcement, and then the one L made on the T.V. about the FBI agents, he had enough to worry about without random house guests showing up and asking for him.
“Alright.” Light nodded and followed his sister downstairs to the front door. Just outside stood a pretty young woman wearing all black with blonde hair and bright red lips. He didn’t recognize her from school, so her story must be a lie. He stepped outside onto the porch with her and closed the door.
He just stared at her, waiting for her to speak first, to state her business. After a long few moments, she bowed respectfully.
“Pleased to meet you, my name is Misa Amane.” she stood back up, politely holding her back with both hands in front of her. “I thought you might worry if you say that message on the TV, I just couldn’t take it anymore- so… I brought this notebook-” Misa slipped a black notebook from her bag, the words ‘Death Note’ written in Japanese at the top.
A Death Note?
Light did his best to keep his shock from showing on his face. But it was harder than he expected. The second Kira- a woman? Light stepped forward and touched the corner of the notebook.
Instantly he could see the looming Shinigami behind the girl. That settled it. This was the second Kira. Light cleared his throat and stepped back. “Put that away.” he nodded then opened the door. “Please, come in.” he smiled.
Misa bit her lip and followed after him, removing her shoes just inside the door as Light approached his mother.
“She came all this way to return my notebook, could you make us some tea?” he asked politely as his sister stared at the girl with wide eyes.
“Sure, I don't see why not.” his mother nodded and Light began to lead the way to the stairs but paused to look at his little sister.
“Staring is rude, Sayu,” he smirked and she blushed and looked away.
Misa bowed to Light’s mother in gratitude before following Light up the stairs. He led her into his room and closed the door behind them.
“Please, have a seat.” he waved a hand to his desk chair and Misa nodded.
“Oh, thank you.” Misa gripped the strap of her bag nervously, chewing on the inside of her lip while she watched Light sit down on the end of his bed, just waiting for him to say something. Anything.
“How did you find me?” Light asked, looking up at her with his eyes, but never lifting his head.
Misa beamed. “I knew it! You never made the Shinigami eye deal!” Light furrowed his brow in question, not sure how that answered his question. “Well, if you have the eyes, you can see everyone's name and lifespan, except for anyone who has a Death Note,” she explained.
Light huffed and shot a glare at his own Shinigami, who only shrugged in return. “I didn’t know that.” he defended himself.
Light scowled at Misa. “well you found me.” he nodded. “Even so, you were careless. What if you were caught? Then the police would know everything about the Death Note.”
Misa shifted. “But everything’s okay, they didn’t catch me, I’m smarter than I look you know,” she responded. “And besides, you need someone to see L’s real name, don't you? I can do it, I can be your eyes!”
“Why do I need you? I’ve come all this way on my own, what makes you think I’d even consider that?” Light scoffed.
Misa frowned. “I- well- Light- I had to come to you and at least try-”
Light stood and crossed his arms. “You just had to have your time in the spotlight, I see how it is.”
“No, Light, that’s not it-” Misa paused and coughed, covering her mouth with her hand. “Just hear me out. If you don't want my help that’s fine- but- but at least give me a chance.” she looked up at him with big, sad eyes.
Light frowned. “A chance at what?” he asked.
“At being your girlfriend,” she whispered. She couldn’t take it. She was so in love with him it hurt. And the way the flowers took her air was worse, she had to get Light to love her back.
“Girlfriend?” Light didn’t have time to hide the shock on his face.
“Yes.” Misa hung her head.
“That- that’s ridiculous, not to mention impossible-” Light started to say, but before he could finish, Misa was coughing again. Violently this time. Light stepped back, not sure what to make of this. But when Misa pulled her hand away from her mouth, there were yellow flower petals in her hand. Light’s eyes widened at the sight.
Hanahaki.
This girl was seriously in love with him? No wonder she was coughing up flowers, he didn’t even know her, not to mention she was the fake Kira, and a list of a million other things, he could never return her feelings.
“Misa-” the new Shinigami put a hand on her shoulder. “Are you alright?”
Misa nodded slowly and whipped her mouth with the back of her hand as she looked back up at Light. “Light, please, just give me a chance, I’m sure I can make you love me, I’m sure of it, all I need is a chance. And I’ll do whatever you say, and help you however you can. I swear it.”
Light wasn’t sure what to say. Refusing to give this girl a chance would be the same as killing her. And as far as he knew, she wasn’t anywhere near a criminal, just someone who idolized Kira. “it’s a bad idea, there were hundreds of cameras in Awayama when we were both there, we would have both been on camera.”
Misa quickly pulled out photos of what she looked like on that day. “But look, I’d disguised myself, no one will know it was me that day.”
Light took the photos and looked them over. She was right, her disguise was really well done. How did she- Light shook his head. She was just a dumb blond. She probably used her father's money on childish things like this all the time.
“What about those tapes? They had fingerprints.” he jabbed.
“Those aren’t mine.” Misa shook her head. “I took them from a friend, those are her fingerprints.”
“Where is this friend now?” Light scowled.
Misa felt like she was getting nowhere with him. “Why are you asking all these questions? If you want me to kill her I will! But that’s not the point!” Misa put her hands to her chest.
The Hanahaki.
That was the point.
Light was not going to let himself be manipulated with the sob story of her dying last days. But he couldn’t just tell her no, she could kill him.
“If you still don't trust me-” Misa pulled out her Death Note. “I’ll even give you this- you’ll just be holding onto it so I can keep my eyes, but then I can’t kill you.” she handed it over and Light gingerly took it.
“You could have removed pages from this, you could be hiding them for all I know.” Light scowled down at her.
“Why are you so suspicious of me-” Misa started to say, but coughing cut her off and she clutched a hand to her throat. More flower petals fell from her lips and she fell to her knees. “Please- all I’m asking for is a chance… a year ago my parents were killed in a robbery- the man did it right in front of me, the trial went on for ages and it looked like he was going to be let off- and then it happened. He was punished by Kira- ever since then I’ve wanted to find you and thank you, Kira means everything to me.”
Light looked down at her as he pondered her words. What were the odds a girl like her would find a Death Note? And not just that, this same girl would be one of the few hundred people who can actually get Hanahaki- and for him no less? These odds were extremely unfortunate. But the girl had offered to do anything he needed. She could be useful.
Light set down the Death Note and knelt in front of Misa, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Misa, it’ll be alright. If you can do as I say, then I will give you the chance you so desire.” He offered with the most sincere fake smile he could muster.
“That won't do.” Rem’s voice loomed over them and sent a chill down Light’s spine. “You must give her a chance now and save her life, or I will take yours.”