Choices

Choices: A death Note Fan-fiction
By Aurora Moon

I often depend only on spell-check, grammar check programs due to the fact that I often don't have people who are willing to beta my stuff.

so if some part seems weird, then forgive me! ^^;;

But anyway I hope you've enjoyed the story so far!

Edit: Changed some things to make things flow better, and corrected some errors.
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Two weeks passed by, and already there was news of mysterious deaths all over the news. Random people were dying of heart attacks. There was some innocent people who had done no wrong, some were old people but mostly it was criminals dying at the drop of an hat.

There was also the strange case of disappearing corpses, which Misa also found a little strange.

Misa's life had quickly gotten back to normal, save for the fact that she now had an Shinigami at her side. She had already memorized all the rules in the death note, and as an result she felt that she knew more than the news people did on TV regarding those strange deaths.

"I'm right, aren't I? There's other Death Note owners out there right now as we speak, killing people out there. Do you know how many there is right now?" Misa asked of Khepfi, her newfound Shinigami friend.

Khepfi shook her head, and then explained why she couldn’t tell Misa the full details.

"you see... the reason for this happening I cannot tell you. However I can tell you that there's something big going on in the world. it concerns the fate of certain destined humans and a few shinigami. You, Misa, as well as myself are nothing but pawns in an cosmic game being played right now. But that’s all I can tell you. I cannot tell you the rest."

Misa's eyes widened. "What?! Really? So that's the reason why you gave me the death note? it wasn't just so that I could save my family from harm?"

Khepfi's compound eyes seemed to glisten with amusement. "Well... to tell you the truth, I was supposed to wait until later to give you that death note. I was supposed to just let your family die and also let you suffer for a while before giving it to you. However... I felt that if I was going to be your..... ally, it would be cruel to do such a thing. You see, even though I might be a pawn now, that doesn't mean I can't make my own choices. I don’t want to mindlessly wait around for orders."

"I see..." Misa sat down on her bed, clutching her death note. She looked thoughtful for a while, and then she brightened.

"Well, I'm glad you warned me before such a tragedy occurred! I'm really lucky to have a friend like you. And you know something? I agree with you completely-- If Misa-Misa is going to be a game piece in some sort of game... then this pawn is going to play by her own rules! Misa-Misa isn't going to let anybody else shape her own destiny... only Misa can do that!" With that, she stood up and struck a dramatic pose.

Khepfi applauded her, and Misa couldn't help but take a bow. The Shinigami chuckled quietly to herself.

Oh yes, Misa was just so interesting... they were going to get along nicely.

Misa then sat back on her bed. "So... how can I tell a death note owner apart from other normal beings? There's some sort of magic trick to it, isn't there??"

Khepfi decided to make herself comfortable, before telling her. "Well... you see you can actually make deals with Shinigami such as myself in exchange for a few things... such as our eyes...."
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Light frowned as he watched the evening news. this was the second week where there had been more than a dozen people who had died very strange deaths. This wasn't just an coincidence--there was somebody behind those deaths!

But who?

He couldn't exactly ask his father right now, as seeing he was in an important meeting with other policemen right now. He couldn't help but suspect strongly that it was all about the deaths going on.

The strange thing about those deaths... Light couldn't help but feel like he somehow subconsciously knew what was happening... but at the same time he didn't. It was as if there was something hiding right in front of him, and he couldn't just spot it at all even though he knew it was there.

That sort of thing was just so maddening-- only if he could find that one vital clue he'd be able to help his father catch whoever was behind all those deaths!

He sat down in his computer chair and then sighed. He let this sort of thing get to him too easily. He was even starting to have those strange dreams in which he was writing down criminals' names and those same said criminals would just magically die.

That dream disturbed him for some strange reason.... especially when some of the criminals he had dreamed about would actually appear on the death list during news! It was as if he was turning his dreams into reality.

It also made him think. Most of the people who died on the news were criminals, and the rate at which criminals died were climbing to an alarming rate. The truth is... He actually didn't mind that it was the criminals dying, since they deserved to die anyway. He only minded it when it was found out that some few innocent people had died in the same way. That clearly proved that it wasn't just some "hero" doing this... this was a person who didn't mind innocents dying as well!

But what if it had been him instead? He couldn't help but wonder. Well... whoever was doing this seemed to have a similar mind-set as he did. If he read things correctly, whoever was doing this wanted to purge the world of evil, so that innocent people could lead good lives without having to live in fear of criminals.

A part of him couldn't help but slightly admire that, even if the said actions of the one doing it was evil. He somehow got the feeling that if it had been him, he would had been doing the same thing quite possibly. it was only a 12% chance that he would had done it as opposed to the 86% chance that he wouldn’t, but that chance was still there…

The question is... if it was him, would he had killed innocents for any reason too as well? What if those innocents had been in this killer's way somehow and so he had to kill them?

Light rubbed his forehead, looking slightly troubled. "Would I kill innocents for such a reason too, as well?" He wondered.

He then shook his head. What the heck was he thinking?

He wasn't the one doing this at all! He and the killer weren't the same at all.... there was just no way! He wouldn't do such a crazy thing at all....After all, like he thought earlier, even if the reasoning such an act was admirable, it was still evil no matter what.

There was a knock at the door, which startled Light out of his dark thoughts.

"Light? it's time for dinner." His mother called out from the other side of the door.

"Oh, okay. I'll be right down." Light called back. He got up to go downside, momentarily forgetting his dark thoughts for a while.
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Misa walked down the stairs to join her family, but parts of the conversation that she happened to overhear made her pause.

"Dear, don't be silly! She's still the same daughter we know and love. She's just been scared by what happened..." Her mother was nervously saying.

"Come on! you're just fooling yourself. this has been happening long before... well, what happened here. Those nightmares of hers that made her see things, her strange behavior and then what happened with that criminal! Misa has changed into some girl who we don’t even know." Her father said. “ I’m not sure if I like this change. In fact I’ll be honest with you. It scares me. I actually heard her talking to herself in her own room. What if she’s going insane? ”

"..........." Misa's mother didn't say anything at all.

Her father choose this moment to go on with his theory which he had cooked up in an attempt to explain Misa’s behavior.

"You know something? I don't think she changed for the worse until she joined up with that one entertainment company to become an star. I knew it was an bad idea for such a young girl like her to have been recruited like that. I had my objections about it back then, and you know it. I mean, you have to admit that she's busy enough as it is with high school and helping out with the chores around here. And then she has to spend extra hours posing in clothing just so that the public can gawk at her and ogle her body? As an father, I sure didn’t like that idea at all! ” Her father huffed. He then added: “ Maybe the stress from all that has been going to her head. She might be cracking under the pressure of juggling stardom and her personal life!"

"Hmm. that does make sense. Maybe you're right, darling. I'll see if I can talk her into giving up modeling for that teenager's magazine." Mother said, desperate to get that unpleasant topic done with. She just didn’t want to even think about the possibility of Misa going insane. What would the neighbors think if they had to send her off to some asylum? She’d just die of shame!

Misa couldn't help but gape at what was being said. Her give up modeling? But that was the best thing that had ever happened! She had became popular at school and made tons of friends thanks to that.

And to top it off, they thought she was going crazy? Well… now that she thought of it, she couldn’t blame them if they thought she was. She did think she was going crazy in the start too!

"You do that! I don't want to be one of those families who become shamed when it turns out that their celebrity children are ending up doing drugs or something!" Her father replied, "In fact I wouldn't be surprised if there was already somebody in the business who's trying to get her into drugs."

Both Misa and her Mother gasped at the same exact moment.

"Hideo!!" Mom yelled her husband's name. "You don't think our daughter would do something so disgraceful??"

"Emi, darling..." father sighed, "We've done our best in raising our children right. But you have to face the facts... at her age, a lot of girls can be especially impressionable and gullible. They just don't know any better, and often make bad choices like having sex too soon. And well, at her age, stardom often can go to their heads... they think they can do anything they want and there'll be no backlash! We have to protect her from such harmful actions."

At this point Misa was too angry to even face her parents like that, so she ran right up to her own room and slammed her door. She locked it for good measure, so that they wouldn't be able to come right in.

"How dare they! I can't believe that my own father thinks so lowly of me!" Misa fumed.

Khepfi, who had not gone downstairs with her, just looked at her quizzically.

"Here I thought my own parents trusted me to be an adult and make my own decisions.... and it turns out that they still think that I'm just some stupid kid who doesn't know any better!" She ranted.

There was an knock at the door.

"What is it?!" Misa snapped at whoever was at the other side of the door.

"Um... Onee-chan, it's me!" her younger brother said.

Misa unlocked the door and were about to ask what he wanted in a rather nasty way. However the venom on her tongue faded when she saw the scared, timid expression on his face.

"Well, what do you want?" She sighed, sounding tired.

"Uh, I just wanted to talk with you about something..." Her brother said.

Misa sighed again. "Alright, Rin-chan. come right in."

Her brother Rin then came right in, and then sat on her bed.

"You heard what our parents said, huh? I couldn't help but hear too." Rin asked.

Misa then stamped her feet in frustration. She knew that looked very childish but she didn't care at all!

"Um, please don't be too angry at our parents. I just don't think they understand what happened two weeks ago. and well, I think they've been feeling scared lately." Rin replied, as his short little legs dangled in the air over Misa's bed.

Some of Misa's anger faded, but there was only sadness left in place of that.

Misa then sat down on her chair, and groaned. "But this hasn't been easy for me nether. I felt like I was going crazy for a few moments there, when I kept on having those bad nightmares. I don't have those nightmares though anymore... thank god! All I want to do is be normal too... can't they understand that?"

Rin then tilted his head. "About the dreams.... is it really true that the attacker in your dreams were the same one we saw that time? You said something about your nightmares being visions of that future that one time."

Misa just nodded.

Rin's eyes widened. "Wow! but doesn't that mean that you're like some sort of Pyshic?? Hey, can you see into the future to see whenever I'll be able to win the soccer championship??"

Misa couldn't help but laugh at Rin's youthful innocence and his ability to accept the possibility of supernatural powers so easily.

"Well, I'm sure that if you work hard and practice often, that you'll be able to win many games!" Misa gave Rin an smile.

"Cool." Rin returned the smile.

Rin and Misa certainly were not like their parents at all, who had to grasp at straws while trying to explain away anything that they thought was even remotely supernatural.

Her parents were the sort who were easily scared by the inexplicable... psychics even made them uneasy. So maybe Rin was right... maybe her parents were just scared by the fact that her nightmares had somehow came true, and that she had somehow knew that criminal's name.

That thought made her even more sad... she didn't want her parents to think of her as something freakish. But it was too late already... she was already one of the destined humans, just like Khepfi told her. That is, unless she was going insane…

Misa then stood up. "Well, it's dinner time, right? let's go down and eat."

"Okay, onee-chan!" Rin replied.

With that, the two siblings went downstairs for dinner.
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The dinner had done nothing to lighten the dark mood that Light had been in.

So he decided that he'd go for an night stroll to clear his head.

He wondered why he was feeling so strange lately. Like he wasn’t himself anymore.

He somehow wound up at an bar, despite the fact that he definitely wasn't the type to drink.

somehow, it felt right anyway.

He ordered an scotch, since that was the only drink he really knew, what with it being his father's favortive after a long day.

He sighed in contentment after the scotch did it's trick. Mmm, he could understand why his father liked this drink so much. It didn't have the bitter tang of Sake, it went down smoothly but had enough alcoholic content to help him forget his troubles for a short time.

the drink of an policeman.

Now that he thought of it... why the heck did he have to think so much? The dreams he had were just stupid dreams that didn't mean anything at all! Of course he would dream about the criminals dying... he had been watching the news closely ever since he noticed the strange deaths happening. It was an mysterious case that he was highly interested in.

He wasn’t a killer.

That was all there was to it. There was nothing strange about it. He wasn't a killer period, and he doubted that he would ever become one at all.

loud laughter interrupted his thoughts. He turned around to see who were laughing so loudly, and to his surprise it was somebody who he had seen on the news.

It was somebody who had been released after he had been found innocent of some schoolgirl's rape and murder.

At first Light didn't think too much of it then. After all, the way the man was laughing...he was probably relieved at being found innocent, just as any normal innocent man would.

But then he overheard something that made his whole being freeze in shock.

"Yeah, yeah. I really did do it...." The man was saying, as his buddies laughed, "But I had an damn good lawyer who managed to find a loophole that set me free! How lucky, right? That bitch deserved it anyway... the way she hitched up her skirt so that it was short enough for me to be able to see her panties every time she walked. And then she had the nerve to tell me to fuck off when I asked her if we could do it. Come on man! If she didn't want that kind of attention, then why be doing that kind of shit, hmm??"

Something inside of Light began to boil in anger upon hearing this. They were talking about that dead schoolgirl as if she had been some sort of slut. She had been only 12 years old, the same age as his little sister currently. He was pretty sure, but she must had been similar to Sayu, the way she had been described on the news.
And here he was, laughing about as it had been nothing... as if that young, innocent girl had asked for it.…

He knew he shouldn’t respond to such disgusting, stupid behavior. After all, he wasn’t the emotional sort. But right now he wasn’t feeling like himself, and the scotch wasn’t helping at all.

He stood up quickly, and whirled around to face the hateful man.
"You're fucking stupid you know that right??" He screamed, attracting the attention of everyone in the bar.

"Why's that?" The said man stood up.

"You're Botan Tanaka, right? The man who just recently got cleared on all charges of raping and murdering that 12-year-old schoolgirl. And here you are, loudly bragging to everyone in sight that you did it, and that just because you found her uniform too sexy, that she was asking for it! How fucking stupid!" Light yelled, "You're a fucking pervert who should die! in fact I sincerely hope that you drop dead and go straight to hell for what you did! I bet you don't even care about who you hurt when you act out those sick schoolgirl fantasies of yours, huh?? Scum bag!! Fucking pedophile!!"

Botan's eyebrows started twitching in annoyance. " Oh, look boys. looks like we got a hotshot here who thinks he can just say whatever he wants just because I was on the news. Hey, buddy! Guess what? I was proven innocent, so there's nothing you can say or prove about me, okay? So just fucking leave me alone if you know what's good for you!"

Light growled, and shoved Botan hard so that Botan fell backwards into his assigned table, which broke.

At this Botan's buddies jumped up and started to throw a few punches here and there. Light dodged some of them and started fighting back. However he wasn't able to dodge all of the hits, and as an result started to get a bloody nose. But he didn't care, he was just too angry right now.

With that, an big fight broke out in the bar, with some men who had overheard the bragging pedophile as well, jumping into the fray against the pervert and his friends. They didn't know Light, and they certainly didn't know Botan... but they surely didn't want some pervert bragging about his dirty deeds here... it just looked bad for this bar and for the rest of them.

Just in a few minutes the Bouncer was already throwing out Light, Botan and Botan's friends.
"Don't come back dere 'less you can play nice!" The bouncer said, before closing his door.

Light groaned as he got up off the dirty cement sidewalk, his face starting to swell up in different shades of blue, purple and red.

Damn, that hurt!

Botan was knocked out cold, but his friends were coming around.

Not wanting to get into another fight against this many people on his own, he wisely choose to go somewhere else. Plus, he had gotten all the self-righteous anger out of his system, and he didn’t have it in him anymore to pick another fight.

He gingerly touched the bruises on his face, and then flinched when it stung.

He couldn't go home right now like this. His mother and sister would raise way too much of an fuss. He didn't feel up to dealing with that sort of thing right now.

He sighed. looks like he'd have to wait until he was sure that both of them had gone to bed. maybe in the morning he'd be in a better state of mind to deal with them then.

He walked down the path, and then found himself in the park where he often took his little sister to play in the past.

He sighed as he sat down on an park bench. Man, what an shitty day. That's all he could say about it.

All of a sudden, something dropped down from the sky in front of him. He blinked, and bent over to see what it was.

A black notebook, with the Gothic lettering on front of it which said, “Death Note” in English.

He looked upwards, puzzled to as where it could had come from. It had seemed to come right out of the sky.... but that was impossible, wasn't it?

He was curious now. His troubles forgotten for a few seconds, he picked up the notebook. He then opened it up, and the first thing that caught his eyes were a set of rules that was written in English.

"The person whose name is written in this notebook will die. Huh, sounds strange. Must be some sort of joke..." Light thought to himself. However, something told him that it wasn't a joke at all.

In fact, he suddenly had an strange sense of Déjà vu...like he had gone though something like this before. And he had the distinct impression that he had used something like this before....

He shook his head. What the heck was he thinking?! There's just no way he could had used something like this... if this was real, then that would had meant that he had been killing people. Which was just plain impossible.

He then suddenly had an chilling thought, as he recalled his dreams where he had been writing in an notebook.... just like this one. Magically killing criminals with this.

What... what if that had been an vision of things to come? What if he had been meant to write in this all along?

He couldn't help but shiver at the thought. But could he really? After all, he was the son of an policeman... and he wanted to be an policeman himself too as well. Doing such a thing would be against everything his own father had taught him about what it meant to uphold the law.

"Hey, there's the little shit." A voice snapped him out of his morbid thoughts.

He stood up quickly when he saw that it was Botan and his little gang.

"Ya didn't think you would get away so easily, did you?" Botan growled. "Not after the way you insulted me so much."

Light's right eyebrow twitched, as his temper from earlier rose to high heights once again.

Fucking pervert. Well... to be perfectly honest, here was one of the people he wouldn't mind killing at all.... In fact, why don't we just test this little thing on this pervert right now, hmm? See if it was really for real.

With that thought, He reached into one of his pockets and then took out an pen, and whipped open the notebook.

"What the fuck are you doing, dipshit?" one of Botan's friends asked.

"Oh, I'm just going to write down something for my family in case I die. Can't die without saying a few words to your loved ones, right?" Light cunningly replied.

Botan and his friends then laughed loudly at this.

"Alright, I'll let you write down your final wishes before we beat you to death then..." Botan sniggered.

Light just nodded, and with eerie calmness he wrote down Botan's full name, while keeping eye contact with the pervert.

As the seconds passed, Botan and his friends formed an circle around him, while whispering obscenities at him.

Suddenly, Botan clutched at his chest and started shaking violently. Within moments, he was dead.

Light was forgotten at once by Botan's friends as they rushed to Botan's aid. They shook him, screaming at him to be okay... that they'd call for an hospital.

Light was completely shocked.

it had actually worked?

But…A part of him wasn't completely surprised at all. In fact that part of him had completely expected it, as if it was the most natural thing in the world for a simple notebook to have that power.

But a larger part of him suddenly felt sick, and he felt like he was now trapped in an nightmare.

He whirled around and just ran the hell out of there, without Botan's little gang even noticing at all.

He ran until he his sides were hurting and he felt like he would pass out. When he did stop, he collapsed into the hard concrete sidewalk, gasping for air. Bile suddenly rose, and he found himself throwing up without even trying to hold it back at all.

Oh god, he had killed. He killed somebody, He killed somebody… He was a fucking killer now!

That thought repeated itself in his head as if it was an endless mantra. He gasped for air, wondering if this was really meant to be for him all along.

Were he just going completely insane now? He really felt as if he was going mad now…

He heard harsh laughter right above him. The rough voice then said: "Huh, that's strange. you don't seem to be enjoying it like you did last time. What's the matter, didn't you enjoy it when that man died? After all, he was bragging about such vile acts, right?"

Light slowly looked upwards to see who was speaking to him.... and then he screamed when he saw the hideous monster.

It was the most hideous thing he had seen... the monster was like a giant man, with a big upper muscular torso which caused him to hunch over... he had the longest arms too as well that he had ever seen on anybody. he was dressed Gothic-style, with an deformed face to top off the monstrosity of his appearance. The black, angel-like wings on him didn't seem to suit him at all.

Ryku chuckled from his sitting place on the lamppost. "So what are you going to do? are you going to use the little gift I gave you or are you going to give it up? it's your choice."

Light panted heavily. Just as he was about to ask the creature who or what he was, he suddenly felt as if there was sharp stabbing pain inside his head. clutching at his head, he screamed as sudden images flashed though his head.

The images played as if he was watching an video-- with that monster promising that once everything was over, that he'd be the one to kill Light. he saw himself with bullet holes in his body, as he was being shot at. He saw himself running for his life like some sort of pathetic criminal. And then finally dying as he laid on some stairs in some dirty warehouse. He saw that monster write his name down into the death note, saying that while Light had provided him with the best entertainment he had hoped for but now that Light had lost it was over. oh god, this vision where he was dying... it felt too real!

He blinked, and the images were gone. The pain was gone too… How odd!

He looked up quickly, and that damn monster was still there staring down at him with that stupid grin of his.

That grin looked so familiar to him... almost like an old friend's face. But at the same time, he couldn't help but feel sudden rage and fear upon looking at that face. Those images of his.. was that another vision of things to come?

There was no way in hell that he would ever want to do anything with some creature who just wanted to use him for entertainment and then kill him afterwards.

Light dropped the notebook on the ground, as he screamed at Ryku, "Whoever you are, I want nothing to do with you at all! Do you hear me?! so leave me alone!"

With that he ran all the way home, the terror fueling him to run faster than he would normally.

Ryku then looked down at the abandoned death note. "Well, he let go of it sooner than I thought he would. But why do I get the feeling that I haven't seen the last of him?"

He flew down and picked up the Death note. "So what do I do with this?"

Nu appeared out of nowhere. "Well, there is one other person who I'd like to test in this game... wasn't there a man who 'worked' for Light, acting as an spokesman for him?"

Ryku then grinned. "You mean Mikami Teru?“

Nu nodded. “Yes. He hasn’t gotten an death note yet and I’d like to see if he’d do the same things this time around. ”
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Light closed the home’s entrance quickly and then ran right up the stairs to his bedroom, not caring if he was making too much noise along the way. He collapsed in relief on top of his bed once he was in the confines of his familiar bedroom.

The terror was gone, now that he was taking slow and deep breaths. and now confusion set in.

What the hell was with this bizarre turn of events? Nothing made sense at all!

He didn't like it when things were so unpredictable..... he liked being in control, being able to know what was going on.

A sharp pain suddenly shot down his chest, and he couldn't help but scream loudly as he clutched at his chest.

He started shaking violently, as a million images and voices flashed before his eyes once again.

It was too much for his mind... being bombarded by this many visions at once.

He felt his heart seizing up. Oh god, he was having an heart attack!!

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Yep, an cliffhanger... I'm so evil. :P

The chapters seem to be getting longer, or is it me?

Oh well... reviews are loved!