[IC] D E A T H + N O T E

[Tranquility]

T O K Y O , J A P A N

2 0 1 7 + N O V E M B E R + 2 7

Grey clouds hung low in the sky as a flurry of students meandered around Shibuya High. It was a dreary Monday morning and students weren't eager to attend classes when the first snowfall was gracing the famed shopping ward of Tokyo. Most teenagers would rather go out and spend time the many arcades and internet cafes or see the newest superhero movie than go to Physics or Calculus. Even Yumina was pining for a spontaneous day off so she could frolic in the thin layer of snow outside her classroom window. Sighing, she leaned over to look outside with her fellow 3-B classmates. A few of the girls breathed on the glass and used their fingertips to draw hearts with their initials inside along with whoever their boyfriend happened to be for the month.

Yumina Atarashi at the moment, wasn't seeing anyone but the idea of cuddling next to a sweet guy and share hot chocolate was nagging at her to set her sights on someone. But there were so many cute nice guys in the 3'd year grade and she hadn't even considered the 2'd or even 4'th years yet. It was a tough choice. Yumina shook her head at the girls who continued to stare down at the grass courtyard below which served as a grand entry to the school's enclosed campus. She assumed they were waiting to see their boyfriends come to class despite how tempting it was to fake a fever and snag an extra day off.

Turning to the desks, she made her way around them to reach the door.

There was still fifteen minutes before they had to settle in for a long dull day of lectures and lessons. So Yumina slid the door open and headed down the hall where other students were sulking, lamenting about how they were tired of school already and wanted the weekend to arrive all the more sooner. Yumina wandered into the library knowing not many students would be there at this early hour. She paced between the narrow bookshelves and spent her time on her phone, checking LINE and Instagram for any updates. With ten minutes to spare she felt a bit thirsty and was about to go to the vending machines on the fourth floor, mostly since they were closer than the ones all the way down on the first floor, but felt something rattle under her slipper.

"Huh?" She stepped back and bent down to see a black, rather fancy fountain pen. Squatting down, she picked it up and noted it was bound with a thin piece of worn soft leather. She had no idea who it belonged to and she wasn't sure if she ought to find its owner or not. It was such a nice pen. She got up and looked around but didn't see anyone around who could have just dropped it. Yumina shrugged and felt a sudden chill come over her. It felt as though...

She was being watched.

"Is...someone there?" She spun around towards the darker part of the library, clutching the pen, her sapphire eyes narrowing slightly.

[karamonnom]

Takeshi Kawano

It was still dark when Takeshi woke up. His eyes blinked in confusion and his first instinct was to go back to sleep. But when he checked the time, it turned out that he was already late. He thought about skipping class again and staying in his bed, which was warmed by his own body temperature. He reached for his phone and instantly felt a chill that made him retreat back into the blankets as soon as he got it.

If it wasn't for the conversation he had with his mother last night, he would've simply slept the day away. But the hurt expression she gave him when she found out that he was ditching classes was too much, even for him. So he found himself leaving the comfort zone of his bed and bracing himself for the cold as he got ready to leave.

To be honest, he liked going to school late almost as much as not going at all. Tokyo was usually a bustling place in general, but after the school and work rush, it wasn't as bad. He hopped onto the subway and put in his ear buds that weren't connected to any music but were there to block out some of the outside noise. His school was only one stop away which made for a quick ride; the main reason he chose it.

Since he was late anyways, he stopped by a bakery on the way over to school and ordered curry puff. The cashier raised an eyebrow at him suspiciously, as if to say, "Why are you not at school yet? Are you a delinquent?" Takeshi shrugged and paid for his food. The bandages on his face definitely him look like a delinquent, which he was. People always seemed to blame it on the fact that he never had a dad or because his mom was always out working late. Stuff like that pissed him off though. He couldn't have a stupid father complex if he doesn't have a father. Or so he thinks anyway.

By the time he reached the high school, the courtyard was mostly empty. There were a few students who were running toward the building and another few who were just like him. As he was walking in the courtyard, something caught his eye. It was something black, sticking out on the white snow. He walked over to it and picked up the thin, leather bound notebook. "Death...Note..." Takeshi read out loud. His English wasn't the best but it was enough to understand what the characters meant. He was about to just drop the book right there and then. Some emo kid with tacky taste probably just dropped his notebook or something. But instead, he decided to open it and see if there was a name inside. If so, he knew who to tease about this notebook.

However, in the inside cover, there were only a set of rules of how to use the notebook or something. He couldn't quite make it all out. There was something about a Death Pen though...

He decided to stuff the notebook into his bag and deal with it later. Maybe one of his buddies would make better sense of it than he did. Actually, he was the only one of his friends who still attended school... so maybe that wasn't the best idea. There was one thing that he could do though. He needed to find whoever had the matching Pen.

[Tranquility]

Yumina Atarashi

A fun activity that Yumina and her friends enjoyed, was watching horror movies. Yumina was easily scared which is what made them so fun. It always seemed like she could face the most frightening of things as long as she had her friends by her side. And yet as the girl stared off into the nothingness, she had a very stirring sensation. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she decided it had to be time to get to class. One of her friends was the class president and even though they were close, she wouldn't think twice about marking Yumina tardy if that was the case.

Of course Yumina was seldom tardy, let alone absent from school.

To her, school was a fun place to be.

It gave her challenges but also allowed her to spend time with her friends. Since she was one of the top ranked students in her class, many went to her with questions regarding subjects like English or Historical Literature or Chemistry. For the most part, Yumina never turned down anyone who needed help, even the slackers. She drew the line at outright doing homework for others, of course. Turning around she began to head back toward the classroom but heard a book fall from a nearby shelf near the back of the library where she had been staring off into. Yumina turned back and walked over to where the book was. She picked it up and read the title aloud, "Divine Comedy by Dante"

She quickly found where it had fallen and slipped it back in its place.

"You found it." A deep woman's voice called out.

"Found what?"

"The Death Pen."

"Death Pen?" Yumina repeated and looked around, trying to figure out who was talking to her. "I'm sorry, is it yours? Would you like it back?" She asked. Suddenly a very large figure slipped from behind the shadows. The creature was twice as tall as the smaller student and had long skeletal arms and legs. Their shoulders were bony and spiky. Their face had purple markings that framed the face and traced up to their matching purple lips. Their eyes were golden and very cat-like. Their hair was white with streaks of purple. "W-what are you?" Yumina asked, horrified. Was this some kind of joke put on by the Drama Club? She took a step back and felt her back bump into the bookcase behind her. "You can have it back, just don't hurt me!"

Holding out her arm, she offered the fountain pen to the towering creature.

"It is yours." It told her.

"You want me to have it?"

"Yes."

"Who are you? Are you sure?" Yumina pressed, her arm slowly dropping down to her side. "Do you want something in exchange?"

"My name is Rem. I am a Shinigami and that pen contains my blood. It works only with a certain Death Note. That pen has the power to kill anyone your heart desires but like the Death Note, it is bound by a list of particular rules. You must find whoever owns it, as their Death Note will only recognize the pen's power." Rem explained. Yumina looked to the pen again and brought it close to her face, trying to get a better look at it. When the girl looked up, Rem was gone. Had she imagined it? It sounded so unbelievable. Shaking her head, she quickly headed back to her classroom, C-B.

Once there, she saw she had barely made it. Once homeroom had concluded, with a few stragglers arriving late during the first period where most studied, Historical Literature began. Yumina took notes but kept eyeing the fancy pen which was resting on her desk. After another two classes, it was time for lunch and most students were beginning to unpack their lunches in the classroom while others were leaving to go get something quick down the street or at the cafeteria. Moving to the front of the class so she could make a proper announcement, Yumina held up the Death Pen. "I found this in the library before class, if anyone is missing a pen, please come and see me." She called out to everyone before she went back to her group of friends to dig into her bento.

[karamonnom]

Takeshi Kawano

It was the middle of the first period when Takeshi waltz into his class, 3B. The teacher looked over at him, as if to consider scolding him but in the end, didn't. Takeshi couldn't be bothered with. So he took his seat in the back of the room and did not even bother to take out his textbook or notebooks. He was here and that was good enough. Even the teacher had given up on trying to get him to pay attention in class and didn't bother him anymore.

He let himself doze off as he didn't get a lot of sleep from the night before. There was nothing else for him to do, aside from actually listening to the lecture and that was the last thing he wanted to do.

When he finally woke up, it was because of one of his classmate's announcement. What was her name... Akashi? He forgot her name but he knew her as one of the top students in the class. "Someone I will never associate myself with," he thought to himself as he at least tried to listen to what she had to say. She found a pen in the library. It was a nice one too. Probably could sell it for a pretty penny. But as he studied the pen, he realized that it had a similar aesthetics to the "Death Note" that he had found earlier that morning. It seemed too much of a coincidence that this girl had found a fancy black pen the day that he found a similar black notebook. It had to be the 'Death Pen' that matched.

"She is probably one of the last people I would want to be in possession of the Death Pen," he groaned mentally. He hated girls like her. Sure, they acted nice and all, but they were probably stuck up and would look down on nobodies like him. Or even worse, she would try to sympathize with him and 'change him for the better'.

And he definitely did not want to confront her about the Death Pen while she was with her friends. He decided to go to the student store and grab a sandwich for lunch instead. He ate his lunch on the rooftop alone while watching the snow trickle down softly. He was absolutely freezing, but it was better than dealing with other people. No one except for him was crazy enough to be on the roof at this time.

But for some reason, he felt like someone was watching him. He shuddered and scanned around for the suspect but no one was there. "Maybe I'm going crazy."

After lunch was over, he went back to class and zoned out for the rest of the day. He was one of the first to leave the classroom when class was dismissed. He dashed out of the building and waited by the school entrance. Atarashi or whatever her name was, should go through here to go home eventually. He would ask if she wanted to go with him to behind the gym or something and confront her about the pen. He knew that she would be good at English too, but he wasn't sure if he wanted her to translate the notebook for him. For some reason, he felt like he needed to keep the notebook a secret.

[Tranquility]

Yumina Atarashi

The group of four girls began to gossip about the latest news regarding a k-pop band called Seventeen. Yumina was hopeful that her parents would buy her their upcoming album for Christmas or New Years. Her friends were just as hopeful and soon the conversation shifted towards the new games about to hit the 3DS and the Switch. Inside Yumina's bento was a section of rice, an egg salad sandwich, a collection of steamed and marinated veggies, as well as a sliced up apple. The lunch break was always too short in the girl's mind because she enjoyed chatting with everyone. Near the end, a student wandered over asking for her to check a translation which she was happy to help with. After she pointed out the errors and helped fix them, lunch was over.

Yumina cleaned up her space and packed her bento away in her backpack and soon the rest of the day just flew by. The short haired girl paused to clean her glasses and waved to her departing friends. Her vision wasn't so bad that without her glasses she was blind or left in a blurry world. Even without them she could read and write and even walk around, but they did help take some of the strain off of schoolwork so she used them mostly for class or when her doting parents happened to be watching. Otherwise, she didn't wear them all the time.

Once cleaned, she slipped them back on and collected her things, ready to go.

Her friends has their own things to tend to it seemed. One had cram school, another had a Chess Club meeting and the other had some sort of dentist appointment. So for today, Yumina had to make the trek to the bus stop by herself. While there had been a light snowfall, it wasn't terribly concerning. Heading down the three flights of stairs, she stopped by the vending machine and got herself a cup of hot chocolate. Making her way along the courtyard, she glanced up at the now barren trees. There was no sign of the red and gold leaves that adorned the branches just a month ago. Sighing, she could see her breath in the cold November air and brought the cup up to her nose to warm it.

Now taking a sip, she let out a pleasurable hum and continued walking. She reached the school's gate which was served as both the entrance and exit. Yumina took another drink of the sweet beverage and glanced to Kawano, not really very familiar with despite going to the same school and being in his class for the past three years. Since he sat behind her and never spoke up in class, even when called to answer the occasional question. Still, she tossed him a smile. "Good afternoon." Yumina greeted. The bus stop was a block away and would take her out of the congested area so she could make the walk home without traffic and excessive crowds. Though she had to consider the recent snowfall might make things even more tedious.

[karamonnom]

Takeshi Kawano

Takeshi leaned against the wall and glared at anyone who looked at him, whether it was out of confusion or curiosity. He was growing impatient, waiting for that damn girl to leave the school. And it was too freaking cold for him to be waiting out here without a jacket. He decided to give her two more minutes before he gave up and called it a day.

Right when he was about to leave, he heard a 'Good afternoon'. His head jerked over toward the source of the greeting and his first reaction was the scowl. Then realizing it was the girl that he was waiting for, his expression returned to its normal, but still unpleasant state. He was somewhat annoyed that she wouldn't just avoid him like everyone else in the school did, but just this once, it was actually a good thing. "Hey you," he grumbled before she could walk away. "I need to talk to you about that pen you said you found earlier today." His voice was unintentionally harsh and he was looking at her pretty hard. Some of the students who were also walking by seem to be whispering, wondering if Takeshi was harassing the girl or not.

Annoyed with the attention they were getting, Takeshi reached for Atarashi's wrist and tried to pull her along. He needed to find somewhere private to talk. He figured the back of the school should be empty so he was trying to lead her toward there. "Let's talk somewhere else," he said in a somewhat hushed tone. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you or anything. I just wanna talk." He added the last part as if it would make up for what he was doing. The last thing he would want was for her to scream and get him in trouble.

[Tranquility]

Yumina Atarashi

It was apparent that Kawano wanted nothing to do with her or to keep any company for that matter. She had wonder why he would always be in such a foul mood. It had to be so tiring. She teetered from one side to the other, not really sure what he wanted to do with her. She was even beginning to wish she hadn't greeted him but she thought after a while that maaaybe, just made he wouldn't be such a sourpuss who was stuck in the mood. Maybe he was happy being miserable but she didn't believe that was the case. Maybe he needed a friend. Not that she wanted to volunteer for the part but she didn't see why she had to treat him poorly when she didn't even know him.

"Um yes?" Kawano began to talk about the pen she had found. She gave a slow nod, not sure if it was really he. It was probably something he'd pawn, rather than use to do actual homework. To say she was convinced it was his, would be quite a bold-faced lie. Yumina stayed quiet as she considered wondered why he wanted to know about the pen. Him of all people. It was weird and very out of character for him to care about a pen. Before she could find a way to excuse herself and continue home, she was pulled away. "Ahhh ummm where are you taking me?" She asked, feeling eyes follow her as she was pulled away from public viewing.

Alarm bells started to ring as she began to fear he was going to beat her up and steal the pen. Yumina was now certain that this whole day had taken a very odd turn for the worse. When they reached the back of the main building, she tugged her arm back, using her other hand to rub her wrist, hoping it wouldn't bruise. "So you wanna talk about the pen...?" She was rather dubious as to his intent. She thought back to the Shinigami and how she had mentioned the pen was hers now. Could she give it to this boy? Her gut was telling her to be very very careful. "No offense but you don't...seem like the kind of guy who would put such a nice pen to uhh use." She tried to say carefully. He rarely did homework and she didn't think the pen would be of use of him, not when it supposedly only worked in a special book.

It was weird and she didn't want to dwell much on it at the moment. At the moment, the pen was stashed away in her leather satchel and she had no intention of showing it to Kawano unless he started making sense.

[karamonnom]

Takeshi Kawano

Once they were finally alone, Takeshi knew it was safe to talk. The girl had yanked her arm away from him, which kind of pissed him off, but now was not the time for that. However, the words that came out of her mouth next did the trick. "Didn't ya learn from your damn stories in kindergarten to not judge a book by its cover," he growled in response to her skepticism. Though he wasn't going to admit it, he was somewhat offended by her statement. Sure, he was used to being treated like a delinquent and yeah, he was one, but that doesn't mean he couldn't own nice things. He wouldn't mind owning a couple of nice watches like those rich kids do.

"Look," he said with something that was in between a sigh and a groan. Then he pulled out the Death Note, though he covered the English letters so she couldn't read it. "Don't you think that this book matches that pen?"

He held it up to her so she could look at it for a moment before stuffing it back into his backpack. "So would you ever be so kind as to give me the pen?" he asked with an eye roll.

He was freezing cold and just wanted to go home. If she told him no, then he supposed that would be the end of that. He could probably steal it from her easy if he wanted to. But for a weird book that was probably some sick, twisted kid's game? Even he wouldn't be dumb enough to get arrested for it.

[Tranquility]

Yumina Atarashi

Yumina was taken aback by Takeshi's reaction, not thinking he'd care much about what people thought about him. If he did, she would have thought he would put more effort into doing work and not acting like such a outcast. In her mind, it was his own fault he didn't engage in people which then led people to assuming things about him. But she held back her thoughts, wondering what he wanted with the pen. Takeshi pulled out a thin leather book with the words 'Death Note' on it. Her heart skipped a beat. "I suppose that's possible." She swallowed as he put it away.

Yumina held back a laugh when the boy then demanded the pen. Despite the attempt at being nice, his eye roll sealed his fate. "What? Why would I give you the pen? That's as crazy as me asking for that notebook." She pointed out, not sure why he would think she'd comply with his request. Not when he was acting like a creep. "I am not giving you this pen." She told him firmly as she took a step back. "A weird lady..." She tried to think of her name. "Ah! Rem. She's a Shinigami and she told me the pen and notebook need each other to work." Yumina said, quickly realizing how silly it sounded.

Sighing, she rubbed her neck and looked sideways at Tekeshi. "If you won't give up your book and I won't give up my pen then I guess we're both stuck with a useless item." She gave a dramatic shrug. Even though she didn't know the details or the rules, she had to believe this was something more than a prank. Takeshi clearly hadn't seen any weird Gods of Death or he wouldn't be so casual about the items. "I don't know what these items do but," She felt a bit uneasy and looked around quickly before continuing, "whatever they do...it's probably something really freaky." She said quietly. "Just thinking about the pen fills me with dread. I can't explain it."

[karamonnom]

Takeshi Kawano

Okay, he figured that she wouldn't just give him the pen like that. He wasn't the most polite person about it and she seemed to not be too intimidated by his reputation. But what did surprise him was what she said after her rejection. "A shini-what now?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. If he remembered correctly from the stories he heard as a child, a shinigami was some sort of death spirit? It wasn't like Miss Goody Two-shoes to make up some story about spirits unless she was actually insane.

He rubbed his hands together in attempt to warm them as he listened to her ramble on. "Well, if that pen fills you with so much dread, why not just get rid of it then?" he asked while rolling his eyes once more. How did something called the "Death Pen" get into her hands in the first place? Then again, he couldn't even read the English letters of his Death Note, so he wasn't one to judge. Throwing his hand up in the air, he added, "Throw it away or give it to me. I don't care too much either way."

The last part was somewhat a lie as he was still a little bit curious about the whole Death Note and Pen dynamic and the new information about the shinigami only made him more curious. He knew that he rubbed her off the wrong way, which worsened his chances of getting the pen. But he decided to give it one last shot. As a sign of good faith, he decided to let the girl have a closer look at the Death Note. He pulled it back out of his bag and said, "Here. I can't read the damn English and I guess you would have a better shot at it anyways. If you tell me what it says, we can figure out what we're going to do with these stupid things." He didn't trust her enough to let her snatch it way from his hands, but held the first page open so she could read the inscription on the binding.

[Tranquility]

Yumina Atarashi

Even though Yumina didn't want the weird pen, she couldn't give it to someone who was so eager to get his hands on it. For all she knew, he'd do something dangerous or stupid and she couldn't live with herself if he did something bad in which she had inadvertently helped. Takeshi threw his hands up as claimed to not care. She didn't believe him at all. "I...I don't know." She wasn't sure what would happen if the Pen and the Book were together but with the word 'death' so obvious and some crazy looking God of Death involved, it had to be pretty twisted. Yumina had to think that maybe finding it was something out of a manga. Very crazy but still very serious. She had to wonder if Kawano was thinking of the same possible outcome as she was.

The boy seemed a bit fidgety as he took the notebook back out and granted her a closer inspection of it. Her curious couldn't be quelled so she tiptoed closer to Takeshi. "Hm?" She squinted as she tried to quickly translate from English to Japanese. "The Death Note...and the Death Pen are both needed to cause a person's death? The Death Note cannot be used with any other writing utensils and the Death Pen cannot be used on any other surface." She frowned as he brain began to hurt. She hoped she was on the right track. English was a bit of an odd language but one she thought she was good at. "The next rule says um...the person whose name is written in the Death Note um with the Death pen will...die."

Now that sounded too crazy to be true!

"Wh-what?" She took a step back as a few other bits of translation leaped out at her. "These are instructions and guidelines for killing someone!" She gasped. Her heart began to quicken as she reached back out and traced a random rule with her fingertip. "If we remove a page or even a small bit of paper from the Note, it will still have the same power to kill." She frowned, roughly translating the tenth rule on the first page which was the last one. It looked like there were many other black pages with white rules scribbled inside. She took another step back and dug out the pen again, deciding to let Kawano look closer as well. Holding it firmly between her right thumb and pointer, she held it at eye-level for the boy to touch or observe. "Why would two humans be given such a power..." She wondered, despite having great doubts about it even being real.

[karamonnom]

Takeshi Kawano

The first thing that popped into Takeshi's head was that all of this was some stupid prank. No freaking way was some stupid notebook and pen able to kill people. Well maybe if you stabbed a person with the pen and stuffed some paper down their throats to suffocate them... But not some weird magic mumbo jumbo. It made no sense for some person to die just because they write their names down in this stupid journal.

When she held out the pen in front of him, he was tempted to rip it out of her hands. She didn't look strong enough to stop him. But for some reason, he didn't. Maybe he was going soft. He took a closer look at the pen. There wasn't anything too special about it aside from its elegance and sleekness. Most pens came in black anyways, so it's not like it screamed 'Death' or anything. He poked it and as he thought, nothing happened.

"It's probably just some prank," he said with an eye roll. Still, the concept was interesting to him. "Why don't we just write a random name down in the book and see what happens? If nothing happens, then we know it's a fake. If someone dies... well, that's definitely not going to happen. But maybe just in case, we should pick someone who we hate."

He could think of a few people he could kill off with that 'Death Note' or whatever. The first person being his dumb, good-for-nothing father. On the other hand, he was sure Atarashi would go on about how it is morally wrong and that if there was even a chance that a person could die because of this notebook and pen that they shouldn't do it and blah, blah, blah. Maybe he could persuade her otherwise, but that seemed unlikely since he couldn't even convince her to give him the Death Pen in the first place.

"So what do you want to do?" he asked impatiently while tapping his foot on the ground.