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You know this city, not so far away? Down there is a street called No. 6. There, on that street, is a place where it’s fun to come. It’s right next to that restaurant called Hetalian Foods. It’s a bar, it’s called Shinya’s Bar. The owner’s name is Hiiragi Shinya. He always stands by the counter. By the door, you will usually see a woman named Awashima Seri. She is the one to kick you out if you are causing trouble. Sometimes she won’t be there though. In those cases, you’ll see Heiwajima Shizuo there instead. He is crazy strong but hates violence. Somewhere in the bar, usually in the background, you’ll find a young man named Max Alors. He always has a broom in his hand. He always seems to be working on cleaning the place, and it is needed. If you go behind the counter, you’ll find a door, behind that, you’ll find a hallway. If you follow that, you will reach a kitchen with the chef, Nanase Haruka, in a bathtub on wheels. This is pushed around by his friend, Matsuoka Rin.
In this bar, many strange costumers come by. You might know a few of them, and usually, a lot of crazy stuff happens.
Shinya was standing behind the counter like he usually did. He had just opened a bottle of cola from the mini-fridge below it. He poured himself a glass while he stared at the blue bowl on the counter. In it were ten red apples. He didn’t know where they came from. The box had just been down in the kitchen this morning with the non-alcohol delivery. No one could recall to have ordered the apples though and Haruka had then suggested it was a mistake. Shinya had then declared that they might as well take advantage of it and hand the apples out for free, if one agreed to buy a drink.
Max was sweeping the floor under the table and Awashima was standing by the door. It was getting warmer outside and therefore Shinya was wondering if people would actually come in, or if they would rather stay out in the almost summer-like weather.
But fortunately, luck was on Shinya’s side. He hadn’t even reached the point when he would give up hope when a young man entered the bar and went to sit on one of the chairs.
“Hello, welcome to the bar,” Shinya smiled at the young man.
“Could I have those apples over there?” the young man asked.
“You can have as many as you like… if you buy a drink,” Shinya smirked. “We have this special drink with cola, redbull and some other great stuff,” he said.
The young man shook his head. “I would just like a glass of water please,” he said.
It struck Shinya how well-mannered this man was. He was almost acting a little too perfect. It seemed as if he was trying to hide something by being this perfect, but who was Shinya to judge. Maybe he was just overthinking it.
“Just plain water?” Shinya asked.
“Yes,” the man answered.
“We don’t have it up here. It’s not an order we normally get, so you’ll have to wait a bit,” Shinya answered.
“That’s not a problem,” the young man said as Shinya turned around and opened the door to the back.
“Rin-Rin, we need some cold water up here!” Shinya called.
As usual, there was no response until Rin came up with a glass and a bottle of ice cold water. It even had ice cubes in it. He served it for the young man and glared at Shinya before heading back.
“So,” Shinya said. “What’s your name?” he asked.
“Why do you want to know?” the young man asked while pouring water in his glass.
“Ah, I’m just curious is all. I sometimes ask the names of my customers to get to know them better,” Shinya replied while raising his own glass of cola to his lips. As he did so, he thought he saw an apple disappear into thin air and when he counted the apples, there were only eight in the bowl.
“Okay?” The young man smiled. “My name is Yagami Light,” he answered. “Now tell me your name.” This was almost a demand more than anything else, but it didn’t affect Shinya.
“My name is Hiiragi Shinya,” he answered. “But you already did know the first one, didn’t you, Yagami?” he asked.
“So you are the owner of the bar.” Light answered. “How do you spell your name?” he asked.
Shinya smiled. “Isn’t it fine that it’s spelled like on the sign, although we both know it’s not the real way?” he asked. “Yagami, have you heard the saying about those criminals who died from heart-attacks somewhere? They say that it was a serial killer who only needed a person’s name and face to kill.” Shinya smiled at this and noticed how there were now only four apples left in the bowl. They were disappearing at an increasing speed it seemed. He was wondering where they went.
“I’ve heard of it, yes. I understand if you are mistrusting me,” Light answered. “I never told you how I spell my name either,” he answered.
“That’s right,” Shinya said while noticing as two more apples disappeared. Now there were only two remaining. “Are we going to talk about how we spell our names?” he asked.
“Only if that’s what you want,” Light answered while taking out a black notebook from a bag he was carrying.
“I’m not really up for the idea, to be honest,” Shinya answered while drinking some more cola.
“I understand. I’m not up for it either,” Light answered while grabbing a pen and opening the black notebook. He started writing something down, what it was, Shinya had no idea about. He didn’t have any idea of where the two last apples disappeared either, but he was wondering what would happen if he served some apple juice to this invisible customer.
Light looked up from his notebook around five minutes later to notice Shinya placing a huge glass of apple juice where the bowl of apples had been standing. The bowl was now in Shinya’s other hand and he smiled as he looked at Light.
“The apples disappeared,” Shinya answered to Light’s look. “I figured someone else was here and that they just might like apples, so I decided to give them some apple juice.”
“You’re rather sharp,” Light commented.
“I’ve got my moments,” Shinya responded. “What are you writing?”
“It’s just some studying I wanted to do in peace,” Light answered.
“What are you studying?” Shinya asked.
“Law at a nearby university,” Light answered. “I’m actually collecting data about those mysterious heart-attack killings at the moment,” he said.
“Oh, really?” Shinya asked. “That sounds interesting,” he said. What was even more interesting was how all the apple juice had disappeared within only a few seconds. Shinya grabbed the glass and turned around to pour more apple juice in it. He then placed it back on the counter and turned to Light again. The young man was already back at his studies and Shinya returned to his cola glass. He then noticed it was empty and started pouring more cola into the glass.
“Who is that invisible person anyway, do you know, Yagami?” Shinya asked.
Light didn’t look up. He only shrugged, not turning his eyes from the blank page. “Perhaps,” he answered.
Shinya noticed how the content of the glass disappeared evenly fast. Light turned his head slightly in the direction of the glass and started speaking in such a low voice that Shinya barely heard it. What surprised Shinya was how well Light was ensuring that no one could even read his lips.
“What is it they call that murderer again?” Shinya asked. Kita or Kiwa or something like that, right?” he looked at Light who turned to look back at him.
“Kira,” he said.
“I see,” Shinya said. “And you are studying his case?” he asked. “That’s gotta be interesting.” He did put on an interested expression as he leaned forward and attempted to take a look at the page in Light’s book.
“You’re rather curious for a bartender,” Light commented coldly.
“Is curiosity not allowed?” Shinya tilted his head slightly while trying to seem innocent.
Just then they were interrupted by the glass with apple juice falling over and someone invisible bumping into the counter. Shinya smiled. Although he couldn’t see what was going on, he sure was feeling amused.
Light sighed. “We’re heading out,” he said as he placed his book on the table and stood up.
“So soon?” Shinya asked. “That really is a shame.”
“Maybe so,” Light said. “But I think my friend has had enough.”
Shinya nodded. “That really is a shame,” he said as he placed his hands on the counter and leaned forward a little bit to peek at the things written in Light’s notebook. He saw a long series of names and descriptions of some deaths. He let his eyes trail over the page. It was all upside down for him, but he could read upside down just as easily as he could read normally.
Light reached out and closed the notebook before shutting his back. “Well, now that you know about Ryuk and have seen that, you should’ve guessed who I am,” he said.
“A guy with a good skill for lying and pretending,” Shinya answered. “Are you going to threaten me not to let it slip?” he asked, feeling confident that Light had nothing on him.
“In fact I am,” Light said. “Hiiragi Shinya was it?” he turned around, but continued to look at Shinya over his shoulder.
“So?” Shinya asked.
Light started heading towards the door. “Hiiragi is written with the kanji for holy and Shinya is written with the kanji of deep and night,” he said. “There’s a nametag on the back door.”
“It appears I’ve been outsmarted,” Shinya concluded as he watched the door close behind Light and that invisible Ryuk.
“What was that about?” Max asked.
“It seems I’ve got a death threat over my head,” Shinya answered in a carefree tone that didn’t suit the wording at all. Awashima and Max were both wondering how Shinya could take such a thing so easy and later on found themselves wondering when the death threat was even mentioned.