Origin

Ryuk gives Sani a book to read about the origin of shinigami- the reason to why The King of Death sent Ryuk to the human world. Meanwhile, a death note owners kills those who ignore the less fortunate

Leaving Matsuda in Brazil to wait for Stephan and the boys by himself, she makes it to Japan around the same time Kiara and Near do. When she meets up with them at headquarter, Near is questioning Alejandro to figure out his motives and maybe even the motives of the other death note owners. He is very uncooperative though, still filled with rage over the death of his girlfriend. Easily getting annoyed by his unresponsiveness, Near lets Kiara interrogate him, but she doesn’t get much more information. Mogi and Yamamoto sit back and let L and Kiara do what they do best; both are still recovering from the long flight anyways.

“Has he said anything that could be of use?” Sani asks.

“Not much, all he said is that we were a bunch of animals for using his girlfriend to kill the shinigami and that we are not the kind of animals he was trying to save with the death note. He’s useless.” Kiara responds.

“Alejandro is it? I’m sure you used people to get the things you wanted and you killed those who stood in your way. I’m sure those people were probably someone’s father or mother, sister or brother, son or daughter, boyfriend or girlfriend to someone,” She grabs him by the shirt. “So don’t pretend you are innocent when it comes to the death of your girlfriend, you are as much to blame as we are and she was. You are no better than the people who exploit those animals and you are no better than any other human on this earth, so I advise you to start talking before my patience runs out.” She threatens as she opens the window to the side of her.

“Ah! Ok, ok what do you want to know?”

“Were there other people working with you?” Near asks calmly for the hundredth time.

“At first Selena and I were just trying to help our families immigrate to the States without border patrol being in the way and the public blew the incident out of proportion saying that Kira has returned and will punish those who have no empathy for immigrants. I used that as a distraction for Selena’s main purpose of using the death note: to protect the earth’s animals from extinction.”

“You still haven’t answered L’s question.” Kiara reminds him as Sani pulls him towards the window.

“I’m not done yet! When the other death note owners caught wind of there being more than one Kira their syndicates found Selena and I and gave us the option of joining their cause or die.”

“The World Order?” L remembers what the public is calling the new Kiras.

“If that’s what they are called. They want to start WWIII in order to wipe out all the ‘tainted ones’.”

“And the shinigami want to make our world another shinigami realm that has all the human pleasures their world fails to have.” Kiara informs the rest reminding herself of the conversation she overheard between Zellogi and the prostitute.

“Who are the ‘tainted ones’?” Near asks.

“That I do not know. I do know they all have alternative motives other than the major requests of their country’s citizens.”

            Near thinks of all the reports he has read and heard over the past few months. He goes through all the threats each of the countries have made to other countries and how they might be carrying them out in secrecy. He brainstorms out loud,

“Brazil wants to punish the greedy and help the less fortunate by spreading a new religion or ideology, North Korea wants to destroy the United States by bombing it and Egypt wants to reform the Middle East by force by raising an army of Africans. What other problems would they have with the Middle East, the United States and the first "world countries?”

“Many. Food and clean water, riches and debt, oil and other natural resources, disease and medicine, democracy and dictatorship, revenge from past civil war interventions…the list goes on L.” Kiara rattles off.

“Then I make it your job to investigate death related to each of those topics. Find any connects you can, any trends you can find that would fit with each country’s motivations as soon as you can so we can relay this information to my agents.” He says as he twirls his finger around the ends of his hair above his ears.

“Thank you, Alejandro.”

            Sani lets go of his shirt as Mogi takes him to a solitary confinement room. Kiara starts researching leads on the giant main computer in headquarters while L watches Yamamoto cook dinner. Sani drags her suitcase to one of the open rooms and tosses it on one side of the bed while she falls down onto the other side facedown. As she is lying there she feels something fall onto her back. Refusing to turn over she feels for the item with her hand. The item feels like a notebook but it is smaller and thicker. She grabs it and pulls it towards her face. She reads the title: “The System; Earth and Space”. She sits up and opens it to see illustrations of the solar system and the planets that inhabit this galaxy. Thinking it is a mini-textbook at first, she turns the pages to see a more storybook aspect to it; seeing the earth and its origin from the existence of bacteria to plants to animals to humans.

“Near, did you want me to read this?” She asks as she turns around to see Ryuk standing behind her instead of Near.

“No, the King of Death wanted you to. Light and I received it and the King gave it to me to give to you. This is the only reason why I am helping you save mankind.”

“The King of Death, I feel flattered.” She says as she bats her eyes and places her hand on her heart. Ryuk sits on the bed next to her as she scooches away-a bed length’s distance away. She opens the book and begins to read, intrigued by the foreign yet familiar nature of the book.

 

“The source of all life is Earth; every non-living thing on the planet is one being.” A picture of the earth with streams of light cover its surface carrying rocks, water, air and fire in its path.

“Earth formed billions of years ago; plants, animals and humans were created much later in its life, causing a threat to Earth by stealing its energy.” An illustration of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with plants and animals absorb light from Earth.

“Earth sends out diseases to control the population growth. Humans, however, became more resistant and avoided death thus their population becoming too enormous for the Earth to handle.” Bacteria and viruses’ energy being harnessed by humans as they draw more energy from Earth is the next drawing.

“Earth reached out to a human who could control their population by becoming a messiah. This person causes a great schism in the human population in which religion is born causing a new kind of war and fluctuations in populations.” A stream of light shines upon a human with no face: no gender, race or other indication to who this person was.

“Making this human the King of Death, He as humans called It was granted the power to kill any human but this power came with limitations. He was only allowed to kill to lengthen his life and keep the populations steady throughout time.” Chains wrap around the King of Death who is nothing but a ball of bones and a skull for a face.

“He was given a Death Note, channeling energy away from humans and Space to Earth and to the King of Death.” An hourglass is filled with the energy of humans on the top and Earth and the King of Death on the bottom.

“A small piece of Earth becomes the Shinigami Realm that lies in the skies above the human world.” A stark land lies invisible in the sky, appearing to humans as the moon.

“The King recruits others to help him and calls them Shinigami and with each new Shinigami, the King of Death loses energy to that shinigami.” Bones from the King of Death become shinigami, humans who love to kill. Chains stretch out from him and to the shinigami.

“Great penalty comes to those who use the death note to lengthen the life of a human because that would mess up “The System”. When this happens, the Shinigami turns into sand and returns to Earth as energy.” A shinigami is a pile of sand in the human portion of the hourglass, pouring into the bottom.

“Without the energy, Earth will lose to Space, taking all the energy from shinigami and it will eventually crumble away.” Light bursts out of Earth as it cracks and floats into Space, becoming nothing but rocks floating around the planets of the Solar System whose lights are shinning on.

            Sani stares at the last page, processing what she just read. Ryuk was floating behind her as she read; looking at the illustrations in the book he had never paid attention to before- he wonders who drew them. Baffled, he lifts the book out of Sani’s hands to examine it closer. Sani is curious too, thinking that this was the workings of Space- something too grand for humans to comprehend.

“So you shinigami live to kill humans, us humans need Earth to live, while our existence is killing Earth, and Earth uses you shinigami to live and will kill them if they mess up ‘The System’. So in other words, if Earth seizes to exist there will be no more shinigami or human world. But if humans die, the Earth can live but the shinigami  and the King will die. So in essence you’re only helping us because you’re afraid to die too…right?”

“Maybe the King of Death is, but I rather live in the shinigami world watching endless entertainment from you humans from afar or even up close. If you humans die, there goes my entertainment. If this war goes to the end, the King won’t think Earth will withstand the damage. The shinigami fail to realize that.”

            Ryuk hands Sani the book as she walks over to the window. Staring, outside is a city full of lights and life has a dark cloud hanging overhead. The sound of car horns blowing is carried in the wind with the sounds of train breaks screeching, boats sloshing through waves and airplane engines roaring overhead. She can see people walking through the streets going somewhere only known to them; some walk alone, some in groups while some sit on the sidewalk looking down at the ground or up at the sky.

“Hey, Ryuk. Do you think humans know? Do you think we look at the moon to get a glimpse of the place we wish we could go? Looking at the ground hoping we will be more than the dirt under the living’s feet when we die…dreaming of a paradise for the pure and an inferno for the sinners knowing it’s all a lie. Why must Earth sustain the very thing that’s causing it to die? It’s stuck in a system with no loose ties. The noose we hang ourselves by gets tighter and tighter every day and we have no one but ourselves to blame.  I only wish my children’s generation realizes this; that is all I pray…for them to find that inner spark-life through a collective flame.”

“That I do not know. You humans were divided long before your ‘Messiah’ came along.” He says as he eats an apple he had has in the death note holder on his leg.

"I have a feeling you’d say that.”

“You won’t have to worry about it though; your time is almost up…maybe that’s why the King wanted you to read the book. You don’t have much time to change the world; but you’re the only one who can.”

            Suddenly an alarm sounds off causing Sani to cover her ears and Ryuk’s body to get a shiver. Near was listening to the conversation for the hallway while eating a snack to give him brain power; Yamamoto had left the baked chicken in the oven for too long allowing the smell to creep into the ventilation system and the fire alarm to go off. With fire extinguisher in hand, he battles the small fire while Mogi waves a towel over the closest smoke detector to relieve all of it annoying ringing. Kiara can’t help herself and dumps a big bucket of water on the fire and opens all the windows to air out their “house”. Sani and Ryuk come out of the bedroom to see all the chaos going on and Near laughing at it all. Near informs Sani that he will send Kiara and Mogi to Egypt to start a thorough investigation and instructs Sani and Yamamoto to stay here with him as more death note owners are captured.

 

            Meanwhile, Stephan’s plane touches down in Brazil and on the runway is a limo waiting for him and the boys and out steps Matsuda; he views this assignment as a vacation opportunity. Taro eyes light up as he sees the wondrous city of São Paulo: the largest city in Brazil; city that is a major economic center of the southern hemisphere having the largest economy and home to two stock exchanges. The city is rich with political and cultural influences nationally and internationally with many museums and memorials as well as hosting events like the Brazilian Grand Prix, a fashion week, art biennial and the world’s largest gay parade. This is the week of the grand prix and Matsuda intends on having front row seats to tone of this city’s biggest events. Dressed in a sharp suit and tie, he hurries Stephan and the boys to the hotel so they can shower and change into more proper attire for such an event. The boys know that a t-shirt, shorts and sneakers should suffice since this is a high speed sporting event with fast vehicles and not horses carrying the weight of their fancy jockeys. Matsuda informs Stephan that he has been tailing this woman who seems to be from new money so not many know much about her past or what business she makes her money from.

“She’s suspicious because when she started infiltrating the elite class of the city, some of them have been killed. Oddly enough though, it is no one she has communicated with, but the rivals of the victims are still alive.”

“Meaning that she is getting the inside scoop on these high rollers and is killing them off in a way that would lead other to think their rivals did it.” Stephan concludes.

“The target’s name is, Juliana Dulce. Many believe she made her riches in the food industry- succulent sweets in particular.” He pulls up a website to the homepage of sweets shop called Succulent Sweets.  “A major portion of their proceeds goes to worldwide hunger relief efforts.”

“Steal from the rich, give to the poor.” Lucca says to them remembering one of the demands of Brazil.

“Sounds like our woman then! Let’s get her.” Taro throws a water bottle and a tourist guidebook to Brazil he was given at the airport in his backpack as he and Lucca walk to the door.

“Hey, hold on. Who said you kids were coming with us? You two need to stay at the hotel.” Matsuda demands.

“Yeah I agree with Matsuda, it can get pretty crazy here, especially with an event of this size going on. If we need you or Belphagor’s help we will let you know.” Stephan tells the boys as he escorts them back to the couch and away from the door.

“Besides there is plenty to do around here; a pool, an arcade room, a gym, a sauna, a nightclub for kids, plenty. Enjoy your vacation while we are working.”

“Working…attending lavish parties and driving around in a limo sounds like a lot of work to me.”

“Hey, you got to play the part of a high roller to catch a high roller.” Matsuda puts on his shades and pops his collar. “You’re just bitter because you missed all the fun.” He claims as he tilts his sunglasses down and winks at him. Stephan rolls his eyes as he heads out the suite.

            Heading to the racetrack, they walk through streets filled with entertainers, artists, musicians, merchants, food vendors, tourists and locals. Every day since Matsuda arrived in Sao Paulo it has been one big long and grand festival. He is already becoming familiar with some of the locals and tourist at and around the hotel he is staying at; a Japanese immigrant who owns his own noddle shop, a Brazilian woman who runs a beauty salon, an African man who’s a fisherman and a Portuguese man who sells fine jewelry. These four people are not only very charismatic and knowledgeable about their crafts, but they are well known gossipers and not as well known-excellent sources for criminal activity in the city.  They know the inside scoop of everyone who comes and goes from the city everyday by placing their people among all groups residents and visitors. The Portuguese man who sells the fine jewelry goes by: “P”.

He was part of the first generation of L successors. Currently on the third generation, the first two generations are young adults or well into adulthood and have spread out all over the world-all 48 of them take away a few that have been killed, died or committed suicide. Matsuda admits that e was doing most of the work narrowing down the suspect list as more elites were killed while other stayed alive. Juliana was very kind to the fisherman who would give orphans food free of charge and the beauty shop owner who’d give them free hair washes, but she would glare at P ad the Japanese man for reprimanding the orphans who attempted to steals their goods. Luckily for those two they always wore sunglasses and sunhats.

            P is accompanying Matsuda and Stephan to the grand prix and an after party at his residence. They sit not too far away from Juliana who sits with some big named people of the food industry of Brazil and other foreign countries.

“She is going to try to make a deal with them tonight at my party. If one or more doesn’t agree and they end up dead, I think it is safe to say that she is our girl and needs to be taken in. “ P thinks.

“But the shinigami, how will we know where it is and how to kill it before it kills us?” Matsuda whispers to Stephan.

“We need Belphagor to come with us. We need him to lure the shinigami away.” Stephan calls Taro to let him know the plan.

            That night at P’s mansion, the three men keep their distance from each other as they stakeout the party. Taro and Lucca snuck in with Belphagor who floats around the party looking for a shinigami. P surrounds himself with the prettiest women guest he can find, Stephan hangs around the bar starting conversations with anyone who sits down and Matsuda by the pool with a golddigger who believes he has a fortune. Taro and Lucca hide by the pool house waiting for Belphagor to give them the signal to move in; they have come up with a plan of their own to deal with the shinigami. Seeing Juliana, Belphagor sees that she owns a death note by not being able to see her lifespan, also seeing that her name is Juliana Guicy and not Juliana Dulce; either would be a good name for a seller of sweets. Flying overhead, he spots a shinigami in the fruit fields behind P’s mansion. Getting closer, he is able to identify the shinigami as Calikarcha.

            Calikarcha is a shinigami with multiple eyes that go up the sides of his face-eight eyes to be exact, but he is missing two. A shinigami who kills on occasion who isn’t very smart, curious or takes much action he has a rank of 11/13. He does go down to the human world frequently to taste the sweetest fruit he loves-no, not apples but blueberries-but only at night because he hates sunlight. Right now he is stuffing his face with blueberries while his owner is inside the mansion. Belphagor couldn’t help but to laugh at him for having blue stains on his skull.

“Calikarcha, you look pitiful. You’re just as bad as Ryuk with apples, no worse.” He turns to Belphagor and wipes his mouth.

“They are so good though. I want to try the apples next and then chocolate, Sidoh said chocolate was really good.” He tells him as he begins searching for apples.

“Hey, two of your eyes are missing. You didn’t give them to a human, did you when you made the eye deal or to a newborn?”

“Ha, what are you talking about? You’re such a newbie. Every shinigami knows that the eyes are granted by the death note. The humans that are born with the eyes are the descendants of a human whose shinigami died and their death notes lay unclaimed in the human world.”
“So those born with the eyes in a sense own a death note?”

“Yes, that human took ownership over the shinigami’s death note when it died and when that human died it was passed on to the next of kin since their wills include all their possessions.”

“Well thanks for the information; I’ll keep that in mind when I encounter such a human. So where are your eyes then?”

“Let’s just say that the King got very mad at me for one little mistake many, many years ago.” Belphagor smirks as he has stolen two more of them without him noticing.

“Makes sense since a shinigami’s eye is the single most important thing we have. Without them we couldn’t kill humans! Lucca , Taro now!” A blinding light illuminates the fruit fields and Calikarcha screams.

“Ah, what the hell is this, Belphagor!” He yells as he closes his eyes.

“I have some humans who want your eyes.”

            Taking his bone staff and starts pounding at his skull, breaking it to expose the many eyeballs it contains. Taro runs to them with a bag and puts the eyeballs in them as Belphgor tears them out their sockets. Calikarcha claws at Belphagor but he doesn’t let up on his attack. Kicking him away, he runs through the fields blindly. Lucca keeps the light on him for Belphagor to follow him. He only has three eyes left intact. The guest notice the light and rush to the front yard thinking they are under attack and/or the police has come to bust many of the guest with dirty money. However, P runs towards the light with Matsuda while Stephan tracks Juliana who is sneaking her way to the backyard with some of the more curious party guests.

“Where is he, Lucca?” Taro texts Lucca.

“I lost him, do you see Belphagor?”

“No…oh wait look up!” The shinigami have taken flight, Calikarcha only has one eye left and uses it to see where he is going.

“What is he running from?” Juliana is confused to what is going on. She is trying to follow him by foot.

“Juliana, we know you have the notebook, hand it over and we shall spare you!” Lucca announces using a megaphone he found in the pool house. P and Matsuda slowly close in on Juliana as she tries to find the source of the voice. She plows through bushes of fruits and follows the light.

“Confirmed, she has the notebook in hand. Take her down before she finds Lucca.” Stephan tells Matsuda when they cross paths.

“I’m on it!”

“Where’s P?”

Matsuda points to the sky to see a helicopter approaching; P and the fisherman who is also a pilot search for Juliana by arm, ready to take her down. The light that Lucca is operating and the light form the helicopter eventually focus on one spot; Juliana has come face-to-face with Taro as Belphagor and Calikarcha stand behind their respective human.

“Give me back my eyes, Belphagor!”
“Nah, I think we will hold on to them for a while.” He response as he tosses one up and down from his hand.

“What do you want, kid? Why do you stand in my way?” Juliana has a pen in one hand and her death note in the other.

“You’re death note will be mine, there will be only one Kira in this world and that is I, the chosen one. You and your shinigami are making a mess of things, prompting more bloodshed than necessary. You are causing this world to rot, you and the people you killed.”

“Just because you are a kid, you are far from pure. You will grow up and become like the people you kill to protect yourself. Do you really think the others won’t kill you just because you are a kid…you’re giving them more of a reason to because you are the future, the future we don’t want!” She pulls out a gun and aims it at him.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Belphagor is the only one who can kill me and if you kill me, he can kill you and finish off your shinigami.”

“You’re right, but I can kill your friend!”

            She shoots past him at Stephan hiding in the bushes, he get hit in the shoulder as the bullet grazes Taro’s cheek. Matsuda shot at Juliana hitting her mask off her face. Lucca was hiding in the bushes too, waiting to see her face.

“Write it, Juliana Guisy!” Lucca tells Taro as he tackles her and knocks the gun away. Taro starts to write the name as Belphagor attacks Calikarcha stealing his last eyeball.

“Sorry, Calikarcha, but you served your purpose and now you are nothing without your eyes.” Belphagor holds his last eye in his hand as Calikarcha turns into sand.

“Don’t write it, Taro! We need to take her back to headquarters!” Matsuda commands as he runs to Stephan who is putting pressure on his shoulder.

“I know, I didn’t write it.” He shows him the page. Lucca grabs Juliana’s gun and dismantles it

            P and the fisherman handcuff her and bring her back to the hotel with the boys while Matsuda takes Stephan to the hospital. Lucca puts the death notes with the other two from Mexico. Taro sits on the couch ready to go to the next country, hoping that Stephan is okay too. The hotel phone rings and Taro picks it up.
“Hello?”

“Is this Stephan or Matsuda?” the female voice says.

“No, this is Taro. How is this?”

“Taro! Oh my God, your voice sounds so different on the phone! I know it isn’t dropping already.”

“Kiara?”

“You got it, little brother! Well since you picked up, mom says you and Lucca need to stay at headquarters with her and L. She doesn’t want you two in Egypt and North Korea.” In the background he hears his mother ask for the phone.

“Taro, how are you sweetie?” Her reply was the dial tone of the phone being hung up. Lucca sees that Taro is mad about something.

"Who was that?"

"My mother."

"You don't like her?"

"I hate her. She led my father-Kira to his death."