Howler's World

 This is where I'll put everything else I do. This includes writings and rough script ideas. This is also where I'll answer questions and things like that. I'll probably start posting here whenever I have the time (which can be whenever).

 I started writing a novelization of Death Note, with each chapter in the manga being one chapter in writing. I've only written two chapters so far, and here they are.

Chapter 1

Boredom

Same thing, day after day…what a bore.

The world is a rotten place…

The realm of the Shinigami, lair of the death gods. This barren world is where Shinigami live and stay. It is grey and colorless, inhabited only by the abundance of strange creatures carrying small notebooks and pencils. These creatures are the Shinigami, and the books are their Death Notes.

Ryuk is a Shinigami, and is possibly the scariest one. Around six feet tall and totally black, he looks like a huge Goth clown on drugs. Ryuk's mouth is large and contains large jagged teeth, which aren’t that bad compared with the large eyes that bug out from his head. On his back are two huge feathery black wings, he is dressed in tatters of a black costume. He got up and muttered something about “best get going”. Two other Shinigami look up from their gambling and scoff at him.

“Going? Where? There are not a lot of places to go here.”

“Why are you going, anyway?” The other death god asked, tilting his skull in curiosity.

“I lost my death note.”

“What?! You already tricked the old man into giving you a new one! Did you lose that one too?!”

“Yeah…”

“Any idea where it is?”

“Yup. The human world.”

The Shinigami yelled out more jeering and surprise as Ryuk soared into the portal and over a city in Japan.  

Elsewhere in a nearby school, the seventeen year old Light Yagami was looking out the window, bored out of his mind. He was a model student, and yet, even though life had many bounties, they all seemed in vain to him. Every day he saw the same news, same deaths, and the same meaningless violence. As he was about to look back to his class, he saw a black shape fall from the sky. It was square, and he saw some white writing on one side. From here it looked like a small book. He stared at it intently, and then looked back to his class.

After school, Light walked outside to where he had seen the thing fallen. Looking around to make sure it was not anyone’s, he picked it up and took a look at it.

It was a black notebook, with the words eerily stenciled on the cover “Death Note”. It wasn’t very big, and inside was written “This is the notebook of a death god. Whoever’s name is written in here will die.” Light laughed and glanced at the instructions. He then placed it in his bag and started walking home. What kind of prank was this? As if anyone would die from having their name written in a book! It was so stupid. So why was he taking it home? I suppose that humans are drawn to promises of power, so he took it.

After lying on his bed for awhile, Light decided to look at that “Death Note” again. He looked at the instructions closely for the first time.

They read:

Death Note

How to use it

·      The human whose name is written on this note shall die.

·      This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person’s face in mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.

·      If the cause of death is not written within 40 seconds of writing the person’s name, it will happen.

·      If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.

·      After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

Light considered this. In other words, you can make the person die peacefully or make them suffer. How stupid were the last thoughts Light had before falling asleep.

 The next day when he got home, Light greeted his mother who just smiled at him expectantly.

“Oh, yeah. Here” He gave her a piece of paper from his bag.

“Wow! First again! And these were national prep exams!”

“Yeah, well I’ll be studying up in my room. Please don’t disturb me.”

“If there’s anything at all you need, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

That morning, Light was seriously getting kind of curious about this notebook. Was it real? Opening it to a clean page and grabbing a pencil, he flipped on his small TV at his desk. There was a report that a man was holding hostages at a local nursery school, including teachers and children.

“I guess we’ll see what happens.”

After showing the name of the person and picture, Light scribbled it down. He waited. 10, 20, 25, 40 seconds.

“Guess that didn’t work.” He said with a sigh.

Suddenly the reporter gave a cry.

“What’s this? The hostages are being let out and they all appear not to be harmed. Special forces units are going inside the building as we speak…” The reporter paused to listen to his earpiece. “We have a confirmation! The attacker is dead!

Light stared at the screen and felt his lip trembling. Had he just killed this man? Probably just a coincidence, but still…did this make him a murderer? Light put it out of his mind and closed the book and switched off the TV.

At school as class began, Light saw a bully get some money from someone. Should he try killing Sudou? No, probably not anyone he knew. Besides, he wasn’t really harming anyone-yet.

That evening, Light stopped off at a manga store and witnessed a man named Taku harassing a girl.

“Hey girlie, how ‘bout having some fun with me tonight?” He jeered insistently. In the store Light picked up a manga and slipped the Death Note inside of it. He wrote the man’s full name down in various spellings and wrote the cause of death as “traffic accident.” Know we just have to wait, Light thought. Soon the girl started to run away, but the man chased after her on his motorbike.

“Don’t forget, I have whe-“ Taku never finished his sentence because a bus hit him. Light stared in awe.

“This proves it, this proves that the death note really works!” Light ran away and stepped into an alley. He had caused the death of two people…TWO PEOPLE! He felt that he was going to puke. But wait…

“The world is a rotten place…and I’m going to clean it up…but the question is, do I have the guts?”

Five days passed, and Light wrote an abundance of major criminals in the Death Note. Then, finally, Ryuk the Shinigami found his Death Note.

Light had just gotten home from school and was looking at the Death Note when all of a sudden a ragged voice came from behind him.

“You seem to like it.” Light cried out at the hideous monstrosity before him.

“Why are you so surprised? I’m Ryuk, the Shinigami who dropped that notebook.” The Shinigami told Light. “The way you were acting just now, I can tell you know it isn’t just any old notebook…right?”

“A…a Shinigami?!” Light yelled again. He gathered his wits. “A…death god.” He stood from where he had fallen. “I’m not surprised to see you Ryuk. Actually…I was expecting you. Gee, a personal visit from a Shinigami. How nice of you. Not that I doubted that his was a “death god’s” notebook or anything, but seeing things with my own eyes gives me a greater certainty over things. Plus there’s something I wanted to ask you…” Light whipped open the Death Note and showed it to Ryuk.

Ryuk took it in his huge hands and chuckled. “This is amazing. Gotta say, I’m impressed. Death Notes have come down here before, but no one’s ever written this many down in five days! Most people would be too scared…”

Light leaned on his desk and looked hard at Ryuk. “I’m ready for anything, Ryuk. I took that notebook, knowing who it belonged to, and now that Shinigami is here.” Light took a breath. “What now? Do you take my soul?”

The demon looked around. “Y-your soul?” A huge laugh pierced the air. What’s this nonsense? I’m not going to do anything to you. This book landed in the human world, so now it’s yours. If you don’t want it, pass it on and I’ll have to erase its traces from your mind.” Ryuk stepped out the window, and flew out onto a lamp pole. “No one who hasn’t touched the Death Note can see me or hear me. Understand? The death note is the bond between Light Yagami the human and Ryuk the Shinigami.”

Light looked on. “The…bond…is there a price to pay for using this Death Note, Ryuk?”

“Not really, except you will be haunted by the terror and torment that previous users have experienced. Also, a user of the Death Note can go neither to Heaven, nor Hell.”

Light just looked at him.

“Uh…you’ll learn about it when you die.”

“Okay, one more question. Why did you choose me?”

Ryuk laughed again, harder this time. “Don’t flatter yourself! I didn’t choose you! I dropped it after I wrote the instructions in English, the most popular language in the world!”

“Then WHY did you drop it?!”

“Because I was bored, and this may sound strange for a death god to say, but there isn’t a whole lot to do in the Shinigami realm. If you’re caught writing in your Death Note, the other Shinigami will just laugh and ask why you’re working so hard. Besides that, we just kill random people in a different dimension. It’s no fun since you can’t kill Shinigami that way. Gotta say though, you really wrote a lot of names in here…”

“Well…I was bored too. That power makes the user want to use it at least once. The fact that the people you write down die of a heart attack automatically is even better too. If I do that to every criminal, someone will know that a person is passing judgment. And those small criminals that harass will die of disease and accidents. So, the world will become a better place. People won’t commit crimes anymore. People will realize that if they don’t change their ways, they will die, and that will help the world.”

Ryuk looked up from the apple he took from Lights desk. “If you do that, you’ll be the only bad person.”

“What are you talking about Ryuk? I’m a straight A model student!” Light had a huge grin on his face. “And I…will reign over a new world!”

“I was right,” Ryuk thought. “ Humans ARE fun!”

At the G8 Summit, the Interpol were discussing all of the deaths of the various criminals, all from cardiac arrest. There had been over 50 deaths, all of which criminals who died of cardiac arrest. Somewhere else, a boy with black hair wearing a white sweatshirt and jeans knelt barefoot in front of his computer on the floor. He was listening in on Interpol’s conversation, and started to think aloud.

“Hmmm…so Interpol’s started to get into this investigation…this is one that I’m going to need help from the police.”

Chapter 2

“L”

A man spoke up from his desk at the Interpol meeting.

“Fifty two in the past week, and that’s just the ones that we know about. Every single one from cardiac arrest.”

Another man shared his report. “All of the victims were criminals that were prosecuted or were behind bars. We may assume that more wanted criminals, whose whereabouts are unknown, are dead as well, making the death toll possibly more than one hundred.”

An argument broke out about whether or not it was murder.

“How can it be murder?”

“You think that one hundred heart attacks happening at the same time is a coincidence?”

Another group, Germany, started to make their opinion. “We believe that this killing was carried out by a large organization.”

Another country adds, “The only large organization capable of doing something like this is the FBI or the CIA.”

“I dare you to say that again!”

Much later, after everyone started thinking realistically, everyone came to a conclusion.

“It looks like it’s a one for L.”

At the Japanese table, an assistant to the Japanese Security Chairmen leaned over to his boss.

“Say chief, who or what is this “L”?”

The chief took off his glasses and cleaned them. “Well, to be honest, nobody knows. All we DO have knowledge of however is that he has an assistant, Watari, who is the only one that can contact him. No one knows where L is or what he looks like, but there is one thing for sure:  HE’S SOLVED EVERY CASE HE EVER TOOK ON.”

Just as the Japanese finished their conversation, Russia rose up. “We can’t contact Le, and he’s incredibly arrogant. He only takes on cases that he’s interested in.”

Suddenly a voice boomed out. “L is already interested.” All eyes turned to Watari, a tall man wearing a black hat and trench coat. His face was hidden in the shadow of his hat. “L has been looking into this case for some days now. He will now speak to you.” He took out a laptop and opened it, pointing it at the crowd. It showed a picture of a gothic L and soon the screen behind Watari showed that too.

L started to speak. His voice was distorted like a computer, probably to conceal it from the public. “Good afternoon. This is L. The case before us is unprecedented in scope and difficulty, and is a monstrous crime of mass murder that must be stopped at all costs! In order to solve it, I request the full cooperation of police worldwide, with a resolution to that effect passed at the Interpol meeting today.”

Somewhere else in the city, Light Yagami was walking home with two other boys from his class. “Man, I am GLUED to the news these days.”

“Yeah, all this stuff about the criminals dying...I guess it isn’t that bad since they totally deserve it!”

Light smiled and looked at his friends. “Yeah, but I guess now we can’t do anything bad.”

“Yeah, I know. I did some shoplifting in grade school and I’m really freaking out about it!” This wasn’t the case because he had a big grin on his face. “To be honest it’s probably the cops.”

“How can they do it? It’s most likely some super hero brigade, like the X-Men.”

After Light said goodbye to his classmates, he started to go into his house. Ryuk hovered behind him. “You seem to be enjoying this, Light.”

Light let his smile fall. “Not really. I haven’t slept almost at all in the past week, and I’ve lost ten pounds. Besides, I leave the Death Note at home.”

In his room, Light took out the black notebook. “Until I see this, at home, school, or anywhere, I just can’t relax!” Light turned on the TV, and started typing on his computer. “Check this out Ryuk,” He said, pointing to the screen. On the webpage there were some ornate designs encircling the words:

The Legend of Kira the Saviour

Why are the world’s criminals

Being eliminated one by one?

Because Lord Kira has returned.

Lord Kira is a messenger from

Hell who will not suffer the

BEWARE:  You may

only enter this site

if you believe in Lord

Kira’s resurrection.

Light looked at his screen with amazement. “Kira...” He murmured. “I don’t like how it obviously comes from killer, but I guess this is what people already know me as. All you have to do is Google “Kira”, and you get sites like this! The media and world are already starting to recognize that someone is passing judgement on them.” Then Light explained to Ryuk that this was what humans were like, and that in school killing would be considered wrong, but in real life, they are all cowards and this is what they are really like.

Just then, on the television, an announcement began. “We interrupt this program to bring you this special announcement. A man appeared on the TV with long black hair, strands of which fell into his face. He had dark, sunken eyes and a thin face. He had a microphone and name plate reading “Lind L. Tailor.” The man started to speak. “Greetings. I am Lind L. Tailor, more commonly known as L. I alone posses the power to mobilize every police force in the world.”

Light stared. “What...the hell?” What was L doing on national TV? Didn’t he hide behind a mask and never reveal his identity? What was going on?!

L, or Lind, continued. His voice was obviously dubbed into Japanese.

Meanwhile, the Japanese police force Chairmen and his crew were watching the very same broadcast. “So this is L...” The chairmen murmured. “Alright, if this is your plan, you now have to prove what you said at the Interpol meeting. Previously at the meeting, L had requested the full cooperation of the world’s police forces, especially the Japanese. L then explained that he had the idea that the murderer was either Japanese or in Japan. He promised to show this in a direct confrontation with the killer.

At Lights house, Lind Tailor had begun to speak. “Criminals have been the target of a killing spree which has turned into the biggest mass murder case in history. This monstrous crime must be stopped at all costs. “Kira”, as the perpetrator is commonly known, will be caught. I guarantee it.”

Ryuk laughed behind Light, who was now standing. “He guarantees that you’ll be caught, hyuk, hyuk, hyuk!”

Light gave a loud cry of laughter. “Like HELL I’ll be caught! I’ve got the Death Note! See?” Light held it up to the TV mockingly. “I knew this was coming. I was so ready.

L started to speak again, but for the last time. “Kira, I’ve got a pretty good idea why you’re doing this, but what you are doing...IS EVIL.”

Light didn’t react for about 15 seconds. “M-me? Evil? I am righteous! I’m the hero who’s liberating the world from suffering? How can I be evil? Those who try to fight me, THOSE are the evil ones!” Light cried as he scribbled down “Lind L. Tailor” in the Death Note. “Heh...now we’ll see what happens to those who offend Kira. The whole world’s watching, Ryuk. 40, 30, 5, seconds. Lind L. Tailor died right on screen. “HA HA HA!” Light laughed again.

Another voice came from the TV. “I...I don’t believe it.” The voice was distorted, like from a computer. This was an experiment to test a hunch I had, but I never really thought that you could kill people without direct contact. Listen Kira; if you just killed Lind L. Tailor that was on TV, you just killed a condemned criminal due to die today, at this hour.”

“Hyuk, hyuk, he got you there.” Ryuk chuckled.

“But, I, L, do in fact exist. So come on. Kill me! Kill me if you can! I’m still here! What’s the matter can’t kill me. So, you can’t kill everyone. That’s an important clue. Oh, and even though police missed this, your first killing was the man who held the nursery school and its employees hostage in Shinjuku. His crime, compared to yours is mild. Kira, it interests me how you carry out your murders, but that’s something I can find out after I catch you.”

Then, at a twist of fate, both boys started to speak the same words at the same time.

“I’m going to find you and dispose of you if it’s the last thing I do! I am RIGHTEOUS!”

Ryuk looked at Light. “So you’re going to play a game with L, find out who the other person is, and whoever loses, dies.” Humans are a riot were the only thing that Ryuk thought.