2020

The shinigami, Belphagor drops his death note into the human world and it is picked up by a ten year old boy named, Taro. They hope to finish the work Kira started over a decade ago.

Shinigami Realm; three shinigami are bored and sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing. Another shinigami approaches them.

“What was that? You actually want to meet him?” The shinigami, Deridovely says.

“That’s right.”

“Why waste your time talking to him?” The shinigami, Zellogi sees no point.

“Yeah, it’s not like he’ll tell you anything interesting.” The shinigami, Gukku concurs.

“Forget it, it’s pointless.” Deridovely reiterates the point.

“Shut up and answer the question!” he slams his fish bone staff on the dry, cracking ground. The holes in his skull where his eyes should be glow red. “I know he’s around here somewhere. I just want to talk to that shinigami. I heard he had some fun in the human world.”

They point to a tall structure in the distance. Grey and dead, it resembles a tree of life or more like a tree of death in this case. This is where the shinigami, Ryuk resides. The shinigami with the fish bone staff tied to his back, red scarf wrapped around his head that holds back his spiked dirty blonde hair, blue crystal googles, worn jacket with undershirt, faded jeans and boots walks up the stone stairs to Ryuk. Still looking pretty human besides being a walking skeleton, this shinigami is a new one. Ryuk sits on a rock looking at the desolate world that is the Shinigami Realm. He turns around feeling a presence watching him. His eyes glow red, but as he sees the visitor, they turn yellow. Blue flames in rock torches light the area.

“Huh? Who are you?

“I’ve been looking for you. I want to hear your story.”

“Story?”

“I’ll make it worth your while.” He throws Ryuk an apple although this one is from their world which isn’t as good as the ones from the human world. He snickers as he holds the apple in his hand.

“Oh well, I would have like one that was a little more juicy.” He eats it anyways.

“I want to go down to the human world. I’m sick of this place, it’s so boring. I heard that the human world is a lot more interesting.”

“Well, it’s no use complaining about how boring it is here. Now, if you were thinking of doing something stupid like changing the human world, that would be interesting. I was getting bored anyway, I’ll humor you.” The shinigami is surprised. “Take it as my appreciation for that lousy apple. I’ll tell you the story of the human I once knew; the one who tried to change the world and become God.”

 

            A supernatural notebook became the “worst murder weapon in the history of mankind”; quite simply one of the more complicated methods used to kill but the most demoralizing and deceiving. Just picture someone’s face and write down their name and they die in 40 seconds. You can write down the circumstances around their death to cover it up or to lead the authorities astray, but you need a name and their face. A high school student in Japan found a death note and used it to kill the major criminals of the world, decreasing the global crime rate dramatically. No crime is worth your life. The world became submissive and paranoid, in constant fear of being judge by an unknown force. The only person brave enough to stand up to Kira was the world’s greatest detective, L. He and his two successors, Near and Mello were able to bring Kira, the “crazy mass murderer” to justice and disposed of the death notes the shinigami brought into the human world. It has been seven years since the death of Light Yagami and the disappearance of the Death Note. Crime is on the rise again and the world continues on like he never existed. However, the legacy of Light Yagami-Kira lives on. There are those who no longer fear being judged by Kira and continue to commit crimes and there are those who live honest lives and hope for Kira’s return to cleanse the world once again. The world’s greatest detective, Nate ‘Near’ River is currently the new L. He knows that there are more death notes out there than the ones he burned. He also knows that he can’t prevent another shinigami , a God of Death from dropping more death notes into our world and causing even more chaos than before. As always, his deductions are correct. When a human is granted immense power, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

 

Ryuk stares at the name in his death note, Light Yagami. As promised, when Light no longer eased his boredom, Ryuk would be the one to kill him.

“No Light, you weren’t actually a God back then. You were something else.” He looks up from his death note over to the entryway.

“Huh? Uh, he left.” He snickers to himself and turns his head to the gray cloudy sky. A light shines in the small clearing of the clouds. “Go on, why not give it a shot. If you’re lucky, some unbelievable guy might just pick up your note book. Maybe you’ll see something you will never forget for the rest of your life.” He stares into the light. “That’s what I think. Wouldn’t you agree, Light?”

            Mantua, Italy 2020. A class of fifth graders sits in their history class. Today’s topic is American History. Living in Italy, there is little interest in another country’s history, especially when they are still trying to learn their own. The students in this classroom are mostly international students. It is clear what continent the students are from because they sit with their people, talking to each other in their native tongue. Many are from other parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, but none from The United States. Most doodle in their notebooks, pass notes, fall asleep or even sneak in a little snack while the teacher is lecturing. Two boys have their textbooks open but work on their math homework that is due in less than an hour. For the one boy, Lucca math comes easy to him so he can wait until the last minute to do it. As for the other boy, Taro math is a challenge and saves it for last; he doesn’t care if he finishes it or not.    

            The teacher writes a quote on the board in Italian, “Quando il sangue nelle vene torna al mare e la terra nelle vostre ossa torna a terra, forse allora ti ricorderai che questa terra non appartiene a te, è lei che appartiene a questa terra.” She asks Taro to translate the quote to English. This is an easy task for Taro to do since he can speak three languages fluently: Italian, English and Japanese. He goes to the white board and says and writes the quote in English,

“When the blood in your veins returns to the sea and the earth in your bones returns to the ground, perhaps then you will remember that this land does not belong to you, it is you who belongs to this land.”

“Very good, Taro! Now, can anyone tell me what this means?” The kids look around the room at each other, all waiting for the other person to volunteer. Lucca stands up and takes the lead. From his desk he explains,

“The Native Americans were fed up with the colonials claiming land for themselves and using violence to get it. In reality, fighting for land that belongs to no one is pointless because when you die you will return to the earth from whence you came. Earth will keep on living and you will be nothing but a pile of bones in the dirt.”

             He sits back down and continues to do his homework. The children look away from him feeling uncomfortable around him. Some whisper to each other calling him, “weird”, “freak”, “creeper” in their native languages. Taro headed back to his seat while Lucca gave his answer. When he sits down an Italian girl whispers to him, “I’d stay away from him newbie. He’s got a couple screws loose. Let’s just say it runs in his family.” Taro doesn’t reply. He stares at Lucca as he finishes his homework, intrigued by his answer.

“Thank you, Lucca for that insightful, pretty morbid answer. And yes, Native Americans are very spiritual, nature-oriented people. They believe that every living thing has a unique spirit with its own energy that needs to be heard and memories that need to be collective and common with their ancestors. Like many people, they also have their own views on a supreme being, life, death, the afterlife and even resurrection. For your homework, I want you all to write a short paper on your views about your beliefs be they influenced by your family, the world around you or the things you’ve witnessed.”

“Like ghosts?” An African boy wonders.

“If you believe in such things then yes. Head off to lunch and we will pick up with math when you all get back. Dismissed.”

            The children grabbed their bagged lunches and headed outside to eat. It’s a cool autumn day but it was sunny so they didn’t mind. Many Italian schools usually end their day at lunchtime and have school on Saturdays, but this school for international students goes until dinner time with Saturday night classes for review. Most of the children rush out of the room while Lucca takes his time gathering his things. Taro stays in his seat wanting to eat his lunch alone. Lucca walks up to the whiteboard and writes in big red letters, ‘KIRA’. He sets his math homework on the teacher’s desk.

 “That’s my essay. Kira is what I believe in. See you on Monday.”

            With all his things in his backpack he heads home. It’s a Friday and the kids want to enjoy as much of the weekend as they can, so some follow suit and leave school early. The teacher doesn’t mind because she wants relax after a long week with this “special” group of students. Taro shoves the rest of his PB&J sandwich into his mouth and runs out the classroom to catch up with Lucca. He throws his math homework on the teacher’s desk as he leaves. Lucca isn’t a fast walker so Taro catches up with him quickly.

“Hey, Lucca! Are you heading home?”

“Yes, what of it.”

“You can just leave when you want to?”

“Yeah. Just because my aunt put me in this stupid school doesn’t mean I need to be in school longer than the average Italian.”

“Yeah, this would never happen in Japan.” Taro runs into Lucca as he stops abruptly.

“What do you really want?”

“I want to show you something, but we need to be out of sight.” Lucca sees a narrow side street on their left and Taro digs through his bag. He takes out a laptop bag with a lock on the zipper. He takes his left shoe off and shakes his sock. A key falls out.

“What are you hiding?”

“Give me a second.” He fiddles with the lock, struggling to unlock it with the key. Lucca is tired of waiting and stomps on the lock as well as Taro’s hand. The lock pops open and Lucca opens the bag. His eyes lighten up and a big smile goes across his face. He examines the note book. On its cover it says, ‘Death Note’. He opens it and reads the inside cover titled, ‘How to use it’.

 

            The human whose name is written in this note shall die. This note 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. If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person’s name, it will happen. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds. The human who uses the notebook can neither go to Heaven nor Hell. The human who touches the Death Note can recognize the image and voice of its original owner, a god of death, even if the human is not the owner of the note. The person in possession of the Death Note is possessed by a god of death, its original owner, until they die. A god of death can extend their own life by putting a name on their own note, but humans cannot. A god of death cannot be killed even if stabbed in his heart with a knife or shot in the head with a gun. However, there are ways to kill a god of death, which are not generally known to the god of death. One page taken from the Death Note, or even a fragment of the page, contains the full effects of the note. If you lose the Death Note or have it stolen, you will lose its ownership unless you retrieve it within 490 days. The individuals who lose the ownership of the Death Note will also lose their memory of the usage of the Death Note. This does not mean that he will lose all the memory from the day he owned it to the day he loses possession, but means he will only lose the memory involving the Death Note. Only a god of death that has passed on their Death Note to a human is able to kill the owner of the Death Note. There are male and female gods of death, but it is neither permitted, nor possible for them to have sexual relations with humans. The gods of death also cannot have sex with each other. The use of the Death Note in the human world sometimes affects other humans' lives or shortens their original life span, even though their names are not actually written in the Death Note itself. In these cases, no matter the cause, the god of death sees only the original lifespan and not the shortened lifespan. All humans, without exception, will eventually die. After they die, the place they go to is MU (nothingness). Once dead, they can never come back to life.

“So many rules and I bet that’s not even half of them. Is this a real? I hear there are notebooks like this appearing all over the world since rumors spread about how Kira killed all those criminals.”

“Oh it’s real. Gods of Death do exist. Can you not see him?” Lucca looks around and sees nothing. Taro points to the sky and Lucca looks to the roof tops. Sitting on one of the ledges is a shinigami, the same one that sought out Ryuk. He jumps down to them landing right in front of a shocked Lucca.

“The name’s Belphagor.”

 

            Just the night before, Taro was watching adult cartoons instead of doing his math homework. Being so late at night, his room is pitch-black and the only light is coming from his TV. His blanket covers his whole body. The only part of his body exposed are his feet and eyes. Wall scrolls of anime and videogame characters occupy all the wall space in his room. He put his dresser in front of his window to block some of the sunlight from waking him up in the morning. Clothes clean and dirty lie on his floor, bed and hang out of the closet. On his nightstand is a glass of water and a half-eaten margherita pizza. Zoned out in the TV, he jumps at the sound of the telephone ringing. He knows who it is and turns down his TV and leaves the door cracked to hear the conversation. In the living room is the man who takes care of him, his mother’s boyfriend, Stephan "Gevanni" Loud.

            Thirty-five year old detective, he once was part of the Special Provisions for Kira, better known as SPK. He worked under Near during the Kira investigation seven years ago. He tailed Teru Mikami, a man suspected of being Kira, to learn more about how the death note works and the locations of the other death notes while trying to determine where the real ones were. He was able to tamper with the death notes by creating fake pages and a complete replica that prevented Teru from killing everyone when confronted. Other than Near and Mello, he was one of the major players in executing the capture of Kira by getting Mikami to expose Light to be “God”. Now living in Italy, his work is more local than international. He is the primary care-taker of Taro while his mother is away on business trips which are pretty often.

“Good Morning, beautiful. How are you? That’s good. No, he’s asleep, I think. He thinks I don’t know, but I do. I was his age once. You know I don’t mind. He’s a good kid. Believe me, if they need me they will call me. I just don’t want him to have to move and switch schools again. Yeah, school’s not so kind to transfer students… until college maybe. Hey, I have a serious question. What are you wearing right now? That sexy shear baby blue lingerie? I know you too well. Yes, I’m wearing my briefs tonight. You need to hurry up and get home, it’s been too long. I miss waking up to your smile and kissing you every morning.”

“Gross.” Knowing where this conversation can go, he opens his door to make sure Stephan know he’s awake. The last thing he wants on his mind is his mom and her boyfriend’s phone sex conversation. He grabs his cup off his nightstand and heads to the kitchen.

“Hey, Taro! You’re awake. Do you want to talk to your mom?”

“No, she always calls this late just to talk to you. I’m getting me some water.”

“Well seeing that you’re never asleep or studying at this time, I wonder why you don’t pick up the phone knowing she will call.”

“I have nothing to say to her.” He slams his door and finishes watching his show. He hears tapping on his window and thinks it’s a tree branch hitting it. He turns up his TV to drown out the noise but he can still hear the tapping which is getting louder and closer. He slowly gets out his bed with his blanket still wrapped around his body trying to find the source of the sound. Standing in front of his window, the shadow of the tree outside is there but no branches are touching. A big thud is heard behind him, he freezes in place. Turning around cautiously he scans his room to see a black notebook sitting on the ground in front of him. The back cover is facing up.

“Where did you come from?” He bends down and picks it up. As he raises his head he finally sees the thing that dropped it. He lets out a terrifying scream.

“How did you, when did you get there? Who are you?” He falls back onto his dresser causing all his hygiene products to fall off the top.

“I am the shinigami that owns that Death Note you just picked up. Now you are its owner. The name’s Belphagor.” Taro rubs his eyes to make sure he isn’t dreaming, but no matter how hard or how many times he rubs them, this god of death remains standing in the middle of his room.

“So they are real! And this, this is Kira’s power. Did he wish for me to have it?”

“More are coming to this world. A war is coming for you humans; six death notes, six continents all fighting for power over mankind. You’re the chosen one for this continent and now you have accepted.” Taro smiles and holds the death note to his chest, cradling it.

“Father, I will not let you down. I will create the new world, the vision you had for this world before I was even born. I know you’re watching, God, Kira. Let me carry out your will.”

 

“What an interesting name, shinigami. And so, Kira returns.”

“Will you carry out his will with me? I can see it in your eyes, you worship Kira, you think like Kira and most importantly, you know the truth behind death. A war is coming over land that doesn’t belong to us, so why not dispose of those who fight over it.” Lucca hands Taro his death note.

“Alright, Yagami. I will help you. And you’re right, my eyes see a lot more than you know.” He puts his hands on his shoulders and stares into his eyes intensely. “I have the eyes, Taro. I was born with Shinigami eyes, so I knew your name before our teacher told us.” He steps back and looks above his head. “I don’t see the numbers above your head like the rest. I don’t know how long you or I will live, but I can kill anyone just by seeing their face now that we have the death note.”

“Well, that’s a relief. I guess I won’t make that deal then, Belphagor. Ok, Lucca. Shall we begin?”

            Belphagor snickers to himself as he follows them to a nearby café. As they walk through the streets, none but the two of them can see Belphagor. They get a table near the TV which is on the national news. Taro takes out his homework to cover the notebook while Lucca watches the TV to catch the faces of Italy’s criminals.

“The price of peace is death.”