Promise

Near promises to avenge the death of his comrades, knowing that when they confront Taro and Lucca-all might not make it out alive. Near and Sani remember the day they thought ended it all.

Immediately, Near and the rest arrange for the victim's families to retrieve the bodies and begin funeral arrangements while they head to North Korea. Near promises his team that they will not miss any of the funerals and he will avenge their deaths. Flying out on the next flight to South Korea, they arrive in North Korea the next day and meet Chung-Ho Bae.

“We can take down the man now. He is at his penthouse in Pyongyang with his daughter. His name is Shin Kang-Dae.”

“Let’s do this. This is the last death note. We must get it before Lucca and Taro or I fear we all will die.” Near warns them.

            At the high-rise where his penthouse is, they make their way to the roof access without detection. Ryuk confirms that the shinigami is not there. Kiara, Stephan and Aizawa scale own the side of the building while Near, Sani and Matsuda watch for a shinigami while Ryuk goes to find it to steal its death note. He finds the shinigami, Midora hanging around a park near a pond. Ryuk finds it hard to figure out where she keeps her death note since she wears no clothes or accessories. He sees Taro and Lucca talking to her with Belphagor. Overhearing their conversation he hears that they are warning her about Near and the others wanting to kill her. Belphagor asks Midora for her death note but she tells him that she left it in the shinigami realm with Justin. Ryuk immediately fly to the shinigami realm to retrieve it before Belphagor does, but he also knows that he wouldn’t dare to step foot in the shinigami realm.

            Midora is a rank 9 shinigami who’s a bit lazy but loves to kill. She likes being near water because she likes humidity and hates how dry heat is present in Pyongyang, which is why she usually doesn’t go to Dae’s home because it isn’t near water. She is a massive shinigami that looks more like an overgrown alligator or crocodile than a skeleton as most shinigami look like.

            Ryuk returns with the death note and hands it to Kiara who is in the man’s library. On his desk is the death note given to him and records of infectious disease victims-worldwide. Some have check marks next to their names, some have stars and some have X’s. Kiara switching his death note with Midora’s. From the outside they look the same but Stephan copies the names from Dae’s into Midora’s. Aizawa wiretaps the room. Taking Dae’s they head back to the roof, waiting for him to use it so Midora will be destroyed. Not long after they leave, Shin enters his study and grabs the note book and leaves. From the roof, they follow him using a powerful infrared camera. He goes to his daughter’s room; she is resting in her bed with an IV attached to her arm. They can hear their conversation since Chung had put wiretaps an surveillance cameras throughout the house days ago.

“Mina, I will make them pay for this. Airlines are so careless; letting people with deadly diseases on planes, governments using them as a bioweapons…it’s disgusting!”

“Father, they will find a cure.” The girl drifts off to sleep.

“The only cure we need is the eradication of the viruses and bacteria these people harbor. They all must die.” He opens the death note and takes out his “hit list”.

“Hmm where to start…Julie Fatima Moskah, MRSA infection kills her in 24 hours from midnight. See Mina, it’s easy to kill people when they will die soon anyways. All I’m doing is putting them out of their misery sooner.”

            This man reminds Sani of B, Bran, Beyond Birthday but even worse. B may have staged his victims’ deaths but he didn’t end their lives sooner than destiny had given them. This man is justifying his actions by believing that he is being merciful. She feels that Light used that justification too, killing criminals who would die in jail anyways, so he felt merciful in hastening their deaths. Ryuk flies to the park to see if Midora is dust.

“Damn, they beat us to it!” Lucca holds the sand that was Midora in his hand. “Now they can kill us if they so choose…do you want to take that risk? We need to get it from them and then kill them. Then, this world will be ours.”

“Yeah, we should head back to Japan and finish this where it began.” Taro looks around to see Ryuk hovering in the sky and doesn’t let Lucca knows he sees him. Lucca takes out a death note,

“Sun Seung, buys two plane tickets to Narita International Airport and gives them to two boys with her daughter at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport. Her daughter, Serenity Seung dies from freight when her mother collapses from a heart attack twenty minutes after the boys' plane arrives in Tokyo.” He says as he writes away in the death note. “We must leave no loose ends.” Taro is devastated that he is going this far, Serenity is only eight years old. He can’t do anything about it-once the name is written it cannot be undone.

            Near and his team move in to arrest Shin and take Midora’s death note and him back to Japan. He takes out a gun from under his shirt and points it at his head.

“The world order is set. Even if you arrest me there are those who will carry out our will. The syndicates have infiltrated ever country with no indication to who is part of one; everyday people who wait for Kira to begin the world anew. Their numbers run in the millions. Kira’s rule is absolute with or without the death note.” He pulls the trigger and falls on the IV stand attached to his daughter. Stephan plugs her back in but Aizawa knows she is dead. In the death note he reads:

Mina Kang-Dae dies peacefully in her sleep.

            Ryuk returns and informs them that Taro and Lucca are heading back to Tokyo and that they should do the same saying that Lucca will contact them soon wanting the last death note. Near and his team leaves the man and his daughter as is and heads to the airport and back to headquarters. When they arrive a shinigami appears before them with no other death note but his. He allows himself to be seen by Sani, Near, Kiara, Stephan, Matsuda and Aizawa. He is a fairly new shinigami too but the King trusts him far more than Belphagor.

“Teilavhan, I thought the King wasn’t letting anymore shinigami into the human world.”

“He isn’t and he didn’t send me here.”

“Who did?”

“Earth. She wants me and you to destroy Belphagor without the restraint of the King. She broke our chains to him like Belphagor did by himself. He has grown too powerful with taking the energy from the humans lives written in the five death notes the humans possessed and the five the shinigami possessed which contains thousands of years of names. We need to stop him before he destroys humans, shinigami, the King and Earth.”

“Finally, I was waiting for this. We need to find these two boys and he is with them. We can take him out then."

“Perfect, let us begin then.”

            Stephan is able to get in contact with Lucca who demands that they hand over the last death note and he will spare them at Taro’s request. Lucca tells them to meet in the warehouse where Light was defeated and where his son will avenge his death- the Yellow Box Warehouse; a warehouse with only one door that is an entrance and exit.

“Sani, Taro is confused. He thinks Light is his father and he knows that Light was Kira. He knows we all played a role in his demise. Even if we give them the death notes I fear Lucca won’t hesitate to kill us regardless of how Taro feels. We have to kill Lucca and maybe even Taro too.”

“I know, Stephan. I knew it would come to this, just like the first time."

“Lucca killed most of our team, I’m sure of it. He was the one doing most of the killings. It was his handwriting in the death note they received. Taro isn’t the smartest kid but I believe he sees how corrupt Lucca has become. I sure he wants Lucca dead as much as we do, unfortunately.”

“I couldn’t save his father but I can still save my son from his legacy. I pray for my son not to meet the same fate.” Sani thinks back to that day.

 

            January 27^th, 2013.  Sachiko has taken Kiara and Taro with her see Sayu and they stay overnight with her so Sani has the house to herself. She talks to Near on the phone confirming that everything will run smoothly tomorrow. He asks her if she wants to confront Light too and she doesn’t, telling him that she will stay home too afraid to see the monster her cousin has become. Near understands and tells her that he will see her in a couple days when everything is dealt with; arresting Kira and Teru, deciding what to do with the death note and keeping its existence a secret while letting the world know that Kira is no more. Sani gets ready for bed as she makes sure all her doors are locked, outside light are turned off and anything that can be unplugged is unplugged. As she puts out the fire in the fireplace in the living room she begins to wonder when this stretch of warm weather will end. When she heads to her bedroom the doorbell sounds. It’s ten o’clock and she decides to ignore it, but it rings twice and then three times. Annoyed she looks through the peephole but doesn’t see anyone. She looks out the window beside the door and sees someone standing on her porch. She grabs a kitchen knife and slowly opens the door.

            When she opens the door, a man in a black shirt smiles at her sensually before grabbing the back of her head; bringing her lips to his, he kisses her roughly. The knife impales his shoulder but he pays it no mind. She tries to push herself away with her free hand by moving into the house but he grabs her wrist and forces her to go inside. He closes the door behind him with his foot and then pins Sani to it. She drops the knife as he kisses her on the neck heading towards her chest. She catches her breath,

“Teru, you’re bleeding on me.” She moans as he slides his hand under her bra and caresses her chest with one hand while he unbuttons his shirt with the other.

“They are bigger than I remember.”  He takes his shirt off on one side and leaves it hanging on the arm with the bloody shoulder. She wraps his shirt around his shoulder and applies pressure.

“That’s what happens when you have two kids.” She lifts her legs off the ground and wraps them around Teru’s waist while using the door for support as he unties her robe, unzips his pants and shimmies them down his legs until they are off. He then uses this hand to find his way to the inside of her underwear.

“No, Teru…not there. It…feels too good.” Her moaning becomes louder the deeper he goes. Eventually he removes his fingers and lower her so their faces are level; she runs her fingers through his hair and then down the small of in his back pulling his waist closer to hers. They kiss wrapping their tongue around the other as he puts his hands on her butt cheeks.  She removes her robe as he carries her to her bedroom; he tossing her onto the bed so he can remove his boxer shorts. Naked, he fixes is glasses on his face and asks,

“Do you want it?”

“You know what I want.” He climbs into bed between her legs and slides her panties off with his mouth. She grips them with her fingertips, pulling his head to hers and his waist into her.

“If you love me, Teru then you will come and get me.” She tosses her underwear away as Teru thrusts away into the early hours of the morning.

            January 28^th, 2013. In the morning, he is still there when she wakes up. A streak of dried blood goes from her shoulder to her hips matching the one on Teru’s body. She slides out from under him, unties his bloody shirt from around his shoulder that managed to stay wrapped around his arm all night and tosses it in her bathroom sink and looks for gauze, cotton swabs, antibiotic ointment and medical tape. Teru wakes up and puts his boxers back on as he looks for his glasses. Sani laughs as she twirls them in her hand.

“You must have gone to the bathroom at some point. Here,” She hands him his glasses. “You should really keep pressure on that wound before it opens up again.” She wipes away the dried blood with a rag, soap and water, dries him with her sheets and applies antibiotic ointment to his wound before covering it with cotton swabs, gauze and medical tape. He looks around the room to see little spots of blood on her floor, bed and walls.

“It looks like someone died in here.”

“You almost did; you should know better than to creep on a woman’s house that late at night, especially when I’m home alone.” She heads back to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth.  He goes to the living room to retrieve his cellphone from his pant pocket. No messages but he does check the time, 10 o’clock am. He has three hours to get to Yellow-Box Warehouse with the death note. He paces back and forth with anxiousness and anticipation. Noticing the house is really quiet he shouts to Sani from the living room and asks,

“Where are your children? With your aunt?” He returns to her bedroom.

“Yes…are you going? It’s the twenty-eight.” Teru leans against the window in her room staring at his own reflection.

“Yes. God needs me there, God wants to meet me…God will let the world know his will is absolute.”  Teru walks to the bathroom door as Sani dries her face with her towel. “Sani, please come to the warehouse with me. I will keep you safe from those who don’t see God when he stands before them. I want you with me, by my side as all my dreams become a reality.” He hugs her from behind, wrapping his arms around her stomach. He rests his chin on her shoulder and whispers in her ear, “I love you, Sani.” She places her hands on the sink and lowers her head. She doesn’t want to see Light get arrested or even worse see him die or everyone else die if Near's plan fails. She doesn’t want Teru to go, but she also doesn’t want him to go into the situation alone. She knows everyone’s minds are made up and now she has to make up hers.

“I’m not going anywhere until I shower so I advise you to let me go so I can.” She kisses him on his cheek as he releases his hold.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t want you to go out in public nude.” Sani didn’t realize that she never put her bra or underwear back on.

            1:00pm. Light arrives to the warehouse with Ide, Aizawa, Matsuda and Ryuk while Near, Mogi, Stephan, Carter and Halle are already inside; Near sits on the ground wearing a mask of L’s face. Teru and Sani arrive in the area but don’t make their way to the warehouse right away. Its pouring outside and they are immediately soaked.

“Teru, can’t we go inside?”
“No. We need to wait outside.” They hide behind a pile of wooden crates for a half-hour or so before he approaches the door. Sani sits against the building behind two barrels to the side of Teru. Teru ever so slightly opens the door and peeks through the small opening to see them all standing there, waiting for something to happen, someone to come, someone to see them-Teru. With one eye, he looks around the room first seeing Near and his real name, Nate River. The last person he sees is Light Yagami whose lifespan is not visible.

“God!” He is elated. Without a second thought he writes down Near’s name first and then everyone else’s; as he writes the names he says, “Delete” over and over again and with each one his voice becomes more fanatic and his face more manic.

When he finishes writing down the last name, overwhelmed with satisfaction he screams, “DELETE!!!!!” as he bends backwards and looks at the sky with a devilish smile. Sani can see that insanity has taken him. She knows he will wait forty seconds before making his presence known, before he meets his God. She can hear someone call to him but their voice is muffled. Teru responds to it,

“Yes, I’ve written them.” Seconds later a quick show of fear shows on his face as Near calls him by his full name and asks him to come in. He jumps to his feet and slides open the door gladly when Light asks him the same. He looks at his watch and begins to count,

“30 seconds, 31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38” His enthusiasm grows again and he closes the door. “39, 40!” Sani runs to the door to hear what is going on.

Everyone is still alive.

“But, why? Why won’t they die?!” She hears Mikami scream, “God, I did everything you told me!” She hears Near voice telling Carter and Stephan to take him down and Teru screams as he is handcuffed. Moments later she hears a desperate Light shout,

“It’s a trap! This whole thing is a set-up. This is all part of Near’s plan to frame me! Isn’t it a little odd that no one died after everyone’s name was written in the notebook? This proves it’s a trap!” She can hear the nervousness in his voice. Near reminds him that he said no one would die.

“No…er…that can’t be. This is a set-up, I don’t know this guy!” Mikami is devastated that God would deny him, discard all the effort he put into helping him get rid of all those who know about the notebook. He hangs his head with sorrow, defeat and frustration. Aizawa tells Light to give up. Matsuda falls to the ground in disappointment as Mogi moves in to handcuff Light.

“Stop it!” He shoves Mogi away from him before he is handcuffed and runs to the wall, stumbling over his own feet, running from the fear of losing.

“Light Yagami, L, Kira. It’s over, you have lost the game.” Near declares as Light breathes heavily. Near tells Light how he was able to keep everyone alive, thanking Mello for his sacrifice and Gevanni for his diligence and accuracy. He also reveals that he was able to see Ryuk the whole time. Sani is in speechless seeing that all Near told her was real: the death note, the shinigami and that Light is Kira and most importantly their plan worked and she and him are still alive. She hopes that Near will leave Teru in her care and not in jail.

“I bet that Mello knew in his heart that by working by ourselves, neither of us would be able to obtain out goal and surpass our mentor, L. But together, together we can stand with L! Together we can pass L! And now acting as one we face the Kira that defeated, L and with solid evidence beat him at his own game! Let’s see you try to talk your way out of this one if you can.” Near holds up finger dolls of him, Mello and L as Light twitches his eye and grinds his teeth-annoyed.

Suddenly he laughs uncontrollably and psychotically. The task force members look at him shocked as they see him unravel before them-his sanity slipping away quickly.

“That’s right, I am Kira. And what can you do? Kill me right here? Hear this, I’m not only Kira, I am also God of the new world. Kira has become law in the world we now live. He’s the one maintaining order. I have become justice; the only hope for mankind. Huh? Kill me? Is that really the right thing to do? Since Kira’s appearance years ago, wars have stopped and global crime rates have been reduced to over 70%. But it’s not enough this world is still rotten! And with too many rotten people…somebody has to do this! And when I got that notebook all those years ago I knew I had to do it. No, I was the only one who could. I understood killing people was a crime. There was no other way; the world had to be fixed! A purpose given to me! Only I could do it…who else could have done it and come this far?! Would they have kept going?” He declares as his voice calms down instantly. “The only one who can create a new world is me.” He closes his eyes and takes a breath.

“No! You’re just a murderer Light Yagami and this notebook is the deadliest weapon of mass murder in the history of mankind. You yielded to the power of the shinigami and the notebook and then confused yourself with a god. In the end you are nothing more than a crazy serial killer. That’s all you are; nothing more and nothing less.”

            Silence fills the room for a couple of minutes before Light asks near if the notebooks he has are real, claiming he only knows where the real one is to distract him as he pulls on a nob on his watch. One, two, three times a small plate opens with a small piece of paper on it from the death note. He starts to write down Near’s name, but Matsuda shoots his hand. Blood streams form the wound covering his hand.

“Matsuda, you idiot! Who the hell do you think you’re shooting at! Don’t screw with me!” He sounds like a demon as his breathing become as erratic as his voice. Matsuda points the gun at him again.

“What was it all for then? What about your dad, what the hell did he die for?”

“My dad? Hahaha, you mean Soichiro Yagami? That’s right Matsuda, in this world all these earnest people like him who fight for justice they always lose. Do you want a world where people like that are made to be fools?!” His blood drips on the floor from his hand as Light puts pressure on it. “Hehe, I know you understand so kill the others, shot them!” He demands as Matsuda cries with hatred in his eyes as he looks at Light. His whole body shakes as the gun shakes in his hands.

“You lead your own father to his death. Now he is gone and you call him a fool?” Light says nothing and tries to use his blood to finish writing Near’s name. Matsuda shoots him five times on his arms, shoulders and abdomen. Light falls over into a puddle that has formed on the floor from a leaky roof on a rainy day.

“I’ll kill him…I’ll kill him! He has to die!” Matsuda stands over Light with the gun pointed at his forehead and shoots. Sani jumps at the gunshot and puts her hands on her head; she can’t catch her breath as her body shakes and tears drown her face. She never thought it would go this far, but deep down she knew that someone might snap after learning the truth-after seeing the man who killed so many of those who just stood in his way. Matsuda misses Light as Mogi and Ide hold him back and Aizawa takes the gun from him.

“What the hell is this?” Light finds it harder to breath and even harder to get up. “Mikami, what are you waiting for? Write down their names! Write them down! Ah! Kill them now!”

            Teru doesn’t know what to do, but he does know that he looks pitiful. Light is covered in blood, rolling around in a puddle until he settles on his back. A light shines on him from the window on the roof as the sun comes out. He calls to Misa and Takada wondering where they are-wanting them to kill for him. Teru tears up seeing that Light is not God but scum and mad at himself for letting Light drag him into this situation. Knowing that he is going to jail for a long time, maybe even life he decides that he wants to end it, right here-right now. He takes the pen in his hand and stabs himself with enough force to impale himself deeply enough to cause external and internal bleeding. He also manages to reopen the wound he received last night. Blood streams from his body like a fountain as he screams in agony.

Sani heads for the door but she can’t keep herself together; she can’t see through the tears in her eyes and can’t think about moving her body correctly with a distraught mind. She only manages to open the door slightly.

“Quick, stop the bleeding!” Ide tells Carter and Stephan.

“It’s already too late. He will be dead in a few seconds.” Stephan believes.

            In the commotion, Light manages to get up after Ryuk denied his request to kill them for him. He makes his escape as everyone is distracted, somehow having the strength to open the door and run. He runs right pass Sani and they make direct eye contact. He doesn’t ask why she is there or recognizes her and she doesn’t recognize him, but the image of him moments before his death is still vivid to this day; a man running from death knowing that it will catch up to him because he is anything but immortal or divine.

He runs, slowly losing feelings in his arms and legs thinking of the boy he was before he found the death note; how hardened his heart already was back then and how his eyes always showed a deep disappointment for mankind. How innocent he was in believing that he could fix a rotten world and unaware of what the future holds when he found the tool to repair it with. Most importantly, he sees how alone he was in a world that doesn’t comprehend his idea of justice and how alone he is now having no one to turn to. He sees himself six years ago reading a book while walking home, blocking out the world around him. He also sees how he was living a life of boredom; everything was too perfect, too unchanging in good and bad ways. One thing is for certain, he can never go back to those days even if he wanted to. Now, he finds  himself in another warehouse with a small ceiling window that illuminates a staircase.

            Back at the Yellow Box Warehouse, Aizawa, Matsuda, Ide and Mogi go after Light surprised that he was able to get away in his condition. Sani enters the warehouse to see Stephan still holding Teru as Halle gives Near the death note Aizawa had and Carter starts to call an ambulance but Sani stops him.

“What will you tell them when they come? No one needs to know what happened here.” Sani can see that he is lightly breathing, but his eyes are closed. Stephan lays him on the floor.

“So you decided to come. I’m sorry that it came to this.” Near crumbles up the piece of paper with his name and Light’s blood on it. Sani sets her head on Teru’s chest, in a pool of blood that sits there. Weakly he speaks,

“Taro, he does…look like me…at that…age.”

“He is your son.” He manages to put his hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry that I’ve…subjected him to…the same fate. I lost my father …when I was young too. Being a single mother…will be hard and raising a son without his father will…be even harder.” He groans as sharp pains run through his body. “Promise me that you…will raise him better than my mother…raised me. Support him no matter…what his ideals and feelings…are about this world…maybe then will the real God answer his prayers…like he did mine all those years ago…before Kira. It is up to you…what those prayers…will be.” He coughs up blood. She uses her body to apply pressure to his multiple stab wounds. Stephan looks away, feeling just a guilty as Sani.

“Teru, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…please, don’t leave me…don’t leave us.”

“It’s too late...make Taro is your first priority. It’s easy…to get lost…in this world…”

“Mikami, I’ll help raise him. It’s the least I can do…for the both of you.” Stephan promises, but his promise is not heard here for Teru is dead.

            Stephan uses his jacket to wipe the blood off Sani and carries her to the car he came in. He and Halle comfort him as Near and Carter wait for the other to return. Mogi and Ide couldn’t find him but Matsuda and Aizawa keep looking after Sani points them in the right direction. Sani saw Ryuk fly off to find Light while sitting in the car. Soon, in the distance she sees him fly into the sky. When they return, they do without Light but know where his is.

“He’s dead, Near from a heart attack. Ryuk, killed him and is nowhere to be found.” Matsuda informs the rest as he holds Light’s watch in his hand. They all go to the warehouse where Light spent his final moments before a heart attack kills him like so many of his victims; where this story of Kira and the death note ends. Sani is relieved that it is all finally over.

“A strange light shines here for a man who doesn’t deserve it or that name. For such a tragic death, he looks pretty peaceful.” Sani strokes his head like she did when he was a child, trying to see him in that light again.