Chapter Text
Kagehara wasn’t a particularly notable boy in any way. He did his part as a human to partake in society, nothing more and nothing less. Any ordinary person would not have noticed him in a crowd, nor would anybody in his class. He flew perfectly under the radar, without any trouble. Life like this was how he liked it. Unnecessary attention, whether positive or negative, was something he avoided at all cost.
If he were truly to do this, it would mean sacrificing the peace he has grown accustomed to his entire life. Was it worth it?
Kagehara stared at the notebook on his desk. A notebook… of death?...
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The teacher seemed to be droning on forever. Kagehara wasn’t a particularly bad student, but class bored him to death. Instead of making use of his time in class, he opted to use the silence of the room to get lost in his thoughts. That’s when he noticed it, amongst the sudden movement of the grass in the courtyard. Somebody had seemingly dropped their notebook. Desperate for an excuse to leave the classroom anyway, he jumped out of his seat. The teacher yelled after him but he had already left out the door.
Walking out into the courtyard, he approached the spot where the notebook had seemingly dropped. Flipping it around revealed the front of it. ‘Death Note’.
“Hah… how stupid” he muttered under his breath. Some chuunibyou or something stupid must have dropped their diary. Glancing to each side, he checked the coast was clear before he slipped the notebook into his schoolbag anyway. Reading someone else's diary seemed like such a thrill! It’s not like he stole it. Someone was careless enough to let it drop out, so it’s entirely their fault if their secrets get exposed!
Kagehara left class early that day, excitement building up inside of him as he clutched his bag and darted out of the school building.
Kagehara was a normal boy. There was nothing special about him at all. He didn’t stand out, and he didn’t want to. Living life under the radar made getting away with all these disgusting perverted things he did so much easier! Stealing some random diary.. The cover said ‘Death Note’... what if it was some hot emo chicks or something? Or hot emo dude? The thought of reading someone's private, innermost secrets that they never thought would be seen by anybody but themselves turned him on so much!!
Although, once he arrived home, it seems his perverted fantasies would stay as such, as the notebook was completely empty, aside from the front pages which seemed to have some kind of.. Instruction?
The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
The human whose name was written would die? If their name was written in the notebook? How ridiculous, he thought. There’s no way just writing somebody's name would kill them. Clearly, this notebook was somebody's idea of a sick joke, maybe even a setup!
But curiosity got the better of him. What if it was true? Surely there would be no harm in just writing a name down to check. It’s not like they would die, and then he could simply disregard the whole thing as a prank.
Turning on his TV, Kagehara pondered who he would test out the notebook with. Should he kill one of his annoying classmates? Names flickered through his mind.. Momota-kun… no, it would be too noticeable if he were gone.. Akamatsu-chan? No, she would absolutely cause too much of an issue if she were to disappear… Maybe killing a classmate wasn’t a good idea.
When he began to lose his train of thought, the TV flashed with an emergency announcement. It seems some deranged criminal was attempting to rob the local bank. How disgusting, Kagehara thought to himself. What a perfect subject to test this notebook with!
The TV illuminated his otherwise dark room, lighting up the page of the notebook just well enough for him to write down the name shown under the picture of the suspect on the TV. The notebook’s rules stated that after 40 seconds, the person whose name was written down would die. But obviously, that was bogus.
40 seconds passed and nothing seemed to be happening. Desperately holding out hope, Kagehara stared at the TV screen. His brain was telling him that, obviously, nothing was going to happen. It’s impossible to kill somebody by simply just writing down their name, but deep down, the anticipation was building up. The thought of being able to kill from afar, untraceable and with information as easily obtainable as someone's name and face was so… exciting!!!
He continued to watch TV. 60 seconds after he wrote the name, nothing was happening. It seems like it was just a lame prank after all. Reaching for the remote, he sighed, but just as he was about to hit the power button, the broadcast showed the front doors of the bank bursting open, a small group of people in business attire leaving in a rush. Hostages? If the hostages were leaving the building like this, it must mean…
“We’re just getting word from the bank manager himself, it seems the gunman suddenly collapsed whilst-” Saihara stared in shock as the situation on TV seemed to resolve itself magically, surely it was just a coincidence, and had nothing to do with the notebook, right? It all seemed too convenient.
He shut the TV off, still slightly shaken from the thought that this notebook potentially actually has the power to kill people just by seeing their name and face. It couldn’t just be a joke, right?
He had to try it one more time.
Kagehara put his coat on, and went for a walk, keeping the death note in his bag with him. He just needed to clear his mind before trying again with the notebook. If it was the real deal… he just killed somebody! He’d watched shows about killing before, Danganronpa being one of his favourites, but to think he’d actually be responsible for taking another human life himself? It was too much.. It was scary.. But the feeling of being so powerful, to be able to take the life of another human being so easily and without the slightest effort at all was absolutely thrilling!
He stepped into the convenience store. He’d visited this store almost every day when he was younger, but hadn’t visited as often since he started highschool, schoolwork keeping him busy. Kagehara grew up without seeing his parents often. His father had left, or died, or something before he was born, and his mother was never quite the same after. Because of this, he spent most of his time out of the home and in the streets, playing with the neighbourhood kids. He knew almost everybody in the area, including their names. That meant that he’d just have to pick one human worthless enough to be a test subject for his notebook. It was just his luck that just a minute after he entered the store, one of his old friends crazed, older sibling entered the store and pointed a gun at the clerk.
“Give me.. Give me the money!” he slurred at the clerk. It was fairly obvious that he had taken some kind of substance. His words were slurring, his stance was off and he had trouble even holding himself upright. What a waste of human life, Kagehara thought. He knew his name. This was the perfect chance to test the notebook, to see if it actually works!
Slipping deeper into the isles, he slowly opened his bag and pulled out the notebook and a pen. With much care not to make too much noise, he wrote down the name of the man waving his gun around in the store, and slipped the book back into his bag.
He pulled his wrist up, staring at his watch.
10 seconds…
5 seconds…
3, 2, 1.
There was a loud clang as the gun slipped out of the gunman's hands and onto the floor. His entire body went rigid and his gaze turned from one of anger to one of complete shock. The hand that once held the gun darted to clutch his chest, as he fell to his knees and collapsed. He spasmed for a moment before his body just… stopped.
He died.
The notebook was real..?
Kagehara reappeared from behind the aisles, trying to not be too loud. Now that he knew this notebook could kill people, he had to think of what that meant for him. Killing people was, obviously, very illegal, and he had just done so in plain sight! If anybody were to catch on and find out what happened here tonight, they could just simply check the security cameras and see him write the perp’s name right before he died, and that would not bode well for him. Thankfully, the clerk was cowering behind the counter with fear, clutching his head and curling himself into a ball on the floor. He could easily slip out without being seen.
Thrill and excitement coursed through his body. The unlimited possibilities of all he could do racing through his mind as he tried his best to speed home under the cover of the darkness. With a power like this in his hands, nobody would be able to stop him from doing whatever he wanted. A power like this, however, would not come without consequences. If he was going to continue to use it he’d have to be smart and plan accordingly.
Kagehara got back home unnoticed. The stress of the day finally caught up to him as he fell backwards into his bed and fell asleep without even getting to change out of his clothes first.