Dust

The End of this Story of the Death Note

Light lies on the stairs illuminated by the setting sun’s rays. The pain from bullets wounds is nothing compared to his unwavering feeling of not wanting to die. Thud. He can feel his heart jump out of his chest. His eyes open as much as they can before slowly closing half-way. As they close an apparition appears before him, standing at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for him. He watches Light die with calm eyes. He stands over him with a hunched back and hands in his pockets- no smirk or smile. Light sees L. His eyes slowly close as death takes him lucky that the last image he sees is that of a friend-a rival who he losses to.

“Let us explore the world of nothingness together.” L says, but Light does not return to nothingness yet.

            When his eyes open again, he sees a cloudy gray sky as he lies on his back. He sits up to find himself in a place with a desolate landscape with no sign of life. Everything seems to be in grayscale. A person is sitting on a boulder looking at him.

“Where am I now, you scum?!” Teru grabs him by the collar of his shirt. No blood or stab wounds are on his body and Light can feel that his gunshot wounds are gone too.

“This doesn’t look like nothingness to me…we are dead aren’t we?” Light looks pass Teru to see shinigami in the distance. Teru lets go of Light as Ryuk appears behind Light.

“You’re not there yet, Light. Welcome to the shinigami realm. The King of Death has chosen you to become shinigami whether you want to or not.”

“Wait, we are shinigami…but we still look human?” Teru looks at his hands and feels the flesh still on his face.

“It will start soon; you two will look like death in no time.” Light and Teru look at each other before they both collapse to the ground; clutching their hearts they simultaneously say,

“A heart attack…but we are already de-.”  Their hearts stop and then they are shocked back to life.

“What the hell was that, Ryuk?”

“Each person a human kills with the death note, they steal their energy. When that person dies by the shinigami’s hand, the energy they collected is transferred to the King of Death and Earth. Each time you die, Light and Teru, you are slowly drained of the energy until it lies within the King and Earth. Then you will have the appearance of death as the King forms a chain to you so he can receive this energy-sustaining your life and his. If broken a shinigami must keep a death note in the hands of a human, killing that human to get the energy and then repeating the process. If the shinigami uses theirs, then the energy will still be diverted to the King and Earth.”

            By the time Ryuk finishes, Light and Teru had already suffered ten heart attacks. They look at each other to see if their appearance is changing but it stays the same. Teru lies on the ground waiting for the next one while Light stands in front of Ryuk and says,

“So I have more power than the King of Death currently, correct? The King and you shinigami share the energy you collect. I stole the energy of thousands of lives and share it with no one. The King is more vulnerable than you think, Ryuk. I have plenty of time until I become a shinigami. In the meantime I think I’ll pay the King a visit.” Light limps away. Teru sits up trying to work through the pain. “It’s time for the shinigami realm for a change in leadership. Mikami, I have not failed…I will become God very soon.” Ryuk smiles as Light has not ended his excitement yet. He leads Light and Teru to the King, shinigami hear about Light’s mission and wait to see how this will turn out with great anticipation.

            Arriving to where the King of Death resides, Ryuk and Teru look on as Light approaches him. A massive being with the texture of a person’s insides, bones hanging from flesh, chains outstretched around him, a skull within an opened-mouth skull- he stares at Light already knowing why he’s here.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a human like you. That is saying a lot since I’ve been around for thousands of years. So you think you can defeat me, Light Yagami. You can kill a human but you cannot kill a god. You are a human, Light Ygami despite your legacy.”

“I’ve read the book; a real biblical like story on the origin of religion. You may be the King of Death, but even you were killed to be created. Whatever Earth was before was killed in order for her to be created. The only thing that will remain forever is the universe that is far greater than any god. You and I are the same, we want to save Earth and prolong her life as much as possible. Humans… have ravaged her and think only of the future of their kind. We need to take back control and help them help themselves. Catastrophe is the only way…so you tell me, King why do you want to be a human- depending on Earth to keep you alive?”

“Silly human…silly shinigami; you cannot kill me, you will die too.”

“Who said anything about killing? I shall merely replace you.” Chains appear around Light that connects to new death notes of several other shinigami, including the now more visibly shinigami-like Teru. He used the energy he had from the humans he killed to make death notes and chains to sustain him. The king feels the chains breaking off his body as the energy is transferred to Light. A few of the hanging chains rise up and chain to Light, drawing him towards the King’s mouth. The head lifts up exposing a gigantic ribcage containing a pure red light of the same size. It encases Light and seeps down the chains to all the other shinigami until all the chains are connected to the King of Death once again.

 

            Yellow-Box Warehouse. Near, Sani, Stephan and Kiara wait for Lucca and Taro to arrive with the death notes. Sani holds onto the death note they obtained in North Korea. They face the only entrance to the warehouse; Stephan stands next to the door making sure they don’t try to pull the same thing Teru attempted to do years ago. The door does not slide open slightly but slides open quickly. Taro walks in first while Lucca enters in second closely behind him with a backpack on his back. Stephan can see the excitement in Lucca’s eyes and the fear in Taro’s. Belphagor is nowhere to be seen.

“So, everyone is here; all the players in the game, how exciting.” Lucca expresses.

“You brought the death notes with you, Lucca?” Stephan asks.

“I did and all I need is the one you have. Hand it over and I shall spare your lives…including Taro’s.”

“Taro, so you don’t want to kill us? I knew it; I knew Lucca was the one with the evil intentions.” Kiara is relieved but Taro says nothing and hangs his head.

“Hand over the death notes, Lucca. This is no game! The death notes have no place in the human world. Mankind, shinigami and Earth lives are at stake. There will be no future for anyone if World War III happens. Give up on your childish notions of becoming a God of destruction and no one has to die here…we can save everyone.” He smiles at him, taunting him, teasing him, showing him that death does not scare him either.

“Ha, save everyone, really Near. No matter what happens people will die. The war will happen and I will be alive and ready to lead as a shinigami, as their King! It doesn’t matter if I die…you are too concerned with trying to keep everyone alive. You lose, Near. You will die sooner or later and be nothing but bones in the ground.”

            Stephan points his gun at Lucca and Sani and Kiara move in to get his backpack. Lucca readies his death note.

“Stay back or I will kill Taro! I already wrote down his first name.” He shows them the death note. Stephan still aims at him,

“I bet my bullet will kill you before you can make that move.”

“No! I can’t let you live with the killing of a child on your conscious. Put the gun down, Stephan.” Sani steps in the gun’s path to Lucca. “I have the death note Lucca. Let them go and I will give it to you and Taro. Promise me you will not kill them and I won’t finish writing your name in my death note.” She shows him his name in her death note.

“Fine, they can go but you stay.” Stephan lowers the gun and puts it away still feeling very uneasy about the situation. Kiara and Near look at Taro to see eyes full of sorrow. Ryuk whispers to them as they leave,

“Taro gave up ownership of all the death notes. I can see his lifespan and there isn’t many numbers.”

            Sani holds the death note in her hand. Lucca commands Taro to retrieve the death note from Sani. She hands it to him without resistance. Still, he says nothing to his mother.

“You’re the last one, Sani. I’ve waiting so many years to have a face to go with the name, Sani Wammy.”

“You’re his son aren’t you?”

“The others have been taken care of by Kira, but he seemed to have missed you. You let my father die, just like Taro’s. Now I shall kill you both for causing the death of my father.”

“I believed your father to be innocent and Taro has nothing to do with this!”

“Do you know how I found out my father and mother? My drunk aunt told me as she was beating me just because she felt like it, because her husband had died and she wanted to take her anger out on someone. You left me with that despicable excuse of a caretaker!” He barks at her but he calms himself down. “She’s dead now, I killed her and her stupid boyfriend like Kira killed Teru Mikami and that real murderer. You’re next.”

“Lucca, I will kill you with my bare hands before you finish writing the S in my name! You hear me!”

“Oh really let’s test that theory.” Lucca takes out a pen and a death note. As he places the point on the page, the death note is ripped from his hands. “What?!” He looks behind him to see Telivhan with intense red eyes.

“You shall die before writing down a letter in her name.”

 

           Earlier that day,  Belphagor tells Lucca and Taro that he is leaving them to find the King and Earth having unfinished business to take care of.

“Watch your back, Lucca. Taro wants to kill you when this is all over. I advise you kill him before he kills you.”  Belphagor releases his wings and flies off to the shinigami realm. There he confronts the King and demands to know where Earth is.

“She is inside you as she is inside me. Every time your eyes glow red, you can feel the faint light, the faint energy she shares with you.” The King lifts his massive body up to expose the red lights swirling inside of him. “Killing me or Earth means you will kill yourself.”

            The red light circles around Belphagor like blood circulating through veins in the body; he is mesmerized by how his eyes glow without his control, how comforting the light feels to his bones. From the light, he hears a strong voice speak,

“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. I will need your energy like the brothers before you have given. Belphagor my child rest now; we have a plan to make all right again.” The red light transforms into streams of lightning, water, rocks, fire and clouds flowing from the face of a woman with the most heavenly expression anyone has ever seen. He is the first shinigami to see the being called Earth.

He reaches out his hand to her slowly turning back into his human form,

“All I ever wanted was to be the best, to surpass L and be the world’s greatest…person, be I recognized for good or evil. I see now that I am great having Earth personally wanting my help; seeing that L, Kira and the King failed to stop me and you had to step in. Earth, thank you.” His skull head floats away from his face to reveal the face of a young man who changed his appearance to look identical to his rival. His eyes glow red with great satisfaction as he enters the arms of his mother. Fading away no shinigami is attached to the death notes in Lucca’s and Near’s possession.

 

“Telivhan! Why? Lucca won’t die.” Lucca runs away towards the door but trips over his own feet, spraining his ankle. Telivhan walks to Sani and Taro

“Yes he will; Belphagor is gone. I remember... Sani, Taro I am happy I finally met God. She’s everything I imagined her to be.” As he turns to dust he appears as his human self again for brief seconds: Teru the father of Taro, former Kira, prosecutor and boyfriend of Sani. “I will always love the both of you.” He turns into sand and seeps through the cracks in his family’s hands. Taro is broken out of the spell the death note had over him.

 

“I deserve to die. I wanted to do whatever was necessary to carry out my father’s will-get rid of anyone in my way…I was going to kill all of you.”

“Taro, your father was right before you. Teru Mikami is your father not Light Yagami.”

“Then I realized that Lucca would stand in my way and wanted revenge against the world that has made his life a living hell. He wanted the world to burn; I wanted the world to reform.”

“As did your father. It took him until his death to realize he was doing more harm than good…that good can’t exist without evil. It’s just human nature.”

“Yeah I guess he really is my father then. Lucca already wrote my name in the death note before we came here. He was controlling my action before I die, but I guess his death freed me. I love you mom, I sorry it took me this long to realize that.” Sani puts her hand over her mouth in disbelief. Suddenly the pile of dust flies into the air as Taro falls over from a heart attack.

“No! Taro…Taro!” Sani wipes the dust off his face and cradles him in her chest. “I’m sorry…I’m so sorry! My baby, please don’t go.” She rocks back and forth, soaking his hair with her tears.

“What? No…I can’t die. I won’t die. Taro will though, he’s already dead. He won’t become a shinigami, I won’t let him. I’ll become a shinigami and the first thing I’ll do is kill you, Sani! You hear me! I will kill you by the most unbearable death imaginable.” He digs his nails into the floor until they are bloody, grinds his teeth in anticipation for the heart attack and smirks at the lifeless body of Taro in his helpless mother’s hands. She raises her head with dagger eyes,

“Nothing you do to kill me will hurt as much as my life has. I’m not afraid to die, I’m afraid to live in world of pain with all the people I love dying well before their time. So come on, kill me! I deserve it anyways…I failed L…Light…Mello…Matt…Teru and my son.”

She sets Taro on his father’s remains and walks over to Lucca who is on his back. His face is frozen with a complex expression of fear and satisfaction. She reaches down and turns him over to his stomach and takes the backpack off his back. She empties its contents surprised to see he actually brought the death notes with him. She yells,

“Near, you can come back in, it’s all over.” The door slams open with Stephan rushing in first and runs straight to Sani. Kiara enters and looks around the room to see Taro and Lucca unresponsive before falling to her knees. Near retrieves the death notes and hands them to Ryuk before cradling Kiara. Stephan and Near walk the women over to Taro once again feeling guilty of causing unintentional deaths. Following the same fate as his father he dies in the hands of the struggle for justice at the warehouse that concludes another story of the death note once again. Ryuk looks over the city like he did seven years ago to see it still calm on the surface but internally chaos runs rapid through the streets. He flies off to see the skies becoming painted with orange from distant fires on the lands and seas. World War III has begun.