NOTE: Yobisute a term used in the Japanese language referring to the lack of honorifics. Yobisute is something that people generally only use when they are very close. Family, for instance, almost always uses yobisute, with the exception of terms like "niisan". Unless friends are extremely close, they won't use yobisute, and might use "-chan" or "-kun" instead.
For example, Amaterasu, who is friends with Sayu, calls her "Sayu-chan", whereas Azumi, who is very good friends with Sayu (they basically grew up together) simply addresses her as "Sayu".
To use yobisute without someone's permission/without knowing them very well is considered very disrespectful or forward. When Misa first meets Light she uses yobisute, which Light is very taken aback by (in the English version they change this to something like "my dear" in order to get across how forward Misa is being).

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Chiyoda, Tokyo - Mori Amaterasu

"Hey, Azumi-chan," Amaterasu had addressed her roommate one night. This time Sayu was the one out on a date, Azumi still too rattled to start dating again, which she certainly seemed to do a lot of.

"Yes, what is it?" Azumi asked.

"Sayu-chan's brother, Light. Remind me how he died."

"You shouldn't talk about that when Sayu's around," Azumi told her.

"That's why I'm asking you," said Amaterasu.

"Light-kun died shortly after their father passed," Azumi explained. "They both died working on the Kira case. After Light-kun died, the Kira killings stopped, so we thought that Light had sacrificed his life to stop them. Now they've started up again... I just hope his death wasn't in vain."

"I'm sure it wasn't," Amaterasu assured her.

"You know, I," Azumi said, pausing to think of the right words to express what she was feeling. "I'm really grateful; we've known each other for only a year, but you've been so good to me. Then you let Sayu move in with us. You... you've been a good friend, Terasu-chan.
"You can use yobisute with me, you know."

Amaterasu smiled at her roommate, glad to hear this. "The same goes to you, Azumi."

Woodhaven, Michigan - Ulysses Mallory

"Have a good day at school, honey! Be sure to call if you need anything! And don't forget to be home for dinner by six; you're grandmother's coming over."

"Jesus Christ, I know! I'm sixteen for crying out loud!"

"I'm sorry, Lori," her father apologized. "I just can't help but worry. No matter how old you get, you'll always be my baby girl."

"I know," Loretta replied, rolling her eyes in defeat. She hugged her father and gave him a peck on the cheek before turning away to walk to school, waving at him as she left the driveway. "Bye, Dad!"

Ulysses watched his youngest daughter walk away, unable to help but worry about her. No matter how many times he told himself that she would be alright, he could never quite convince himself, always fearing the worst.

Picking up the daily paper, Ulysses headed back into the house, where he turned on the coffee maker. Waiting for his coffee to be made, he sat at the kitchen table, opening the paper. He ignored whatever was on the front page, not really caring one way or another about the upcoming winter parade the town had every year. What he was interested in, however, was how the Detroit Lions were doing. He'd missed the last couple of games, overwhelmed by work, and wanted to see what he'd missed. He opened up to the sports page, glancing at an article on the Detroit Pistons while he skimmed the page, and finally found an article on the Detroit Lions. He began to look at the scores, but his attention was quickly drawn away when he noticed a local sports article directly below it.

He looked at the picture of the quarterback at his daughter's high school standing next to what looked like his older brother. The quarterback must have won the game for the team or something-Ulysses didn't bother reading the article. He just stared at the older boy in the picture, the boy who had once been captain of the football team before he graduated, his brother now following in his footsteps. He looked at his brother, at his smiling face. At the smiling face that he wanted to rip off with his bare hands, and he did the next best thing, tearing the morning paper to shreds, his anger getting the best of him.

"Son of a bitch," he cursed. He hated that face. That face that taunted him-that haunted him. Reminding him that there was nothing he could do, that he was untouchable, and that Ulysses could never undo what that bastard had done.

He remembered waking her up, only to see her face was swollen, and that she had a black eye.

"I fell down," she had explained to him, her tone unconvincing.

"Deirdre, do you take me for an idiot?" he had replied.

"Daddy, I..." Then came the tears. Uncontrollable sobs, and all he could do was hold her, oblivious as to why she was so upset, rendering him incapable of helping her, his little girl.

When she had first told him what happened he was stunned, to say the least. Unsure of how to react to this confession. This quickly turned to rage, something he had to do his best to hide in front of his daughter, not wanting to make things any harder for her than they already were.

They'd gone to court, and they were sure they'd got him. The bastard would pay. And then he heard the words. The words that made his blood boil whenever he thought about it. Innocent. "We the jury find the defendant, Jadon Frost, innocent of all charges."

It was called "date rape"; it has the word "rape" in it, prosecution had argued. It should have been treated as such. But no, the jury didn't see it that way. It was a date, therefore it was consensual. They couldn't even get him for assault and battery. Bullshit. That's what it was. Complete and utter bullshit.

Chiyoda, Tokyo - Mori Amaterasu

"Yagami Light," said Amaterasu. "I can't believe it."

"I never said it was him," Ryuk pointed out.

"You didn't have to," Amaterasu replied. "You practically gave it away."

"Hmm," was Ryuk's only reply. "You knew him?"

"No," said Amaterasu as she stepped out of the front door and grabbed the morning paper on the doormat, then headed back inside, "but I've heard about him. He was Sayu-chan's older brother."

Amaterasu skimmed the paper, looking for the usual articles on criminals. Later she would go online and look up criminals from other countries so that she would be unable to trace, as she had been doing for a while now. It was a system she had become accustomed to by now, and her roommates thought nothing of it, though they didn't know much about it, either.

A certain article caught her eye. There was a picture of a criminal, and the article was titled, "American Serial Killer Finally Caught!" She read the article, reading about how the notorious serial killer known as the Bostonian Butcher had been murdering people all over Boston and neighboring cities in Massachusetts. The victims were all woman who had been found in their homes raped and mutilated. Amaterasu would kill him. He deserved it. Petty crimes were one things, but this man was a monster. But as she read the article, she eventually noticed that the man's name was never given, only being referred to as the Bostonian Butcher. She took another look at the picture, seeing if there was a caption with his name. Nothing.

She went to her room and turned on her computer, going online and looking up the Bostonian Butcher, both in Japanese and in English. There were hundreds of articles, and she read each one meticulously, frustrated to see that no name was given.

"Damn it," she cursed. "No name!"

"There is a way to find out," Ryuk said.

"Huh? What do you mean, Ryuk?" Amaterasu asked.

"Shinigami, our eyes are different than you humans. By looking at a human, we can tell their name and lifespan."

"Why would you need to know that?" Amaterasu wondered.

"We don't have Death Notes just for fun," Ryuk explained, "it's actually pretty boring. When we kill humans, we get their remaining lifespan. It's how we live; if we don't have any years left, we die."

"Well what do the Shinigami eyes have to do with me?" Amaterasu asked. "Can you tell me his name?"

"Nah, that's against the rules," Ryuk told her, "but we can make a trade."

"A trade?"

"Yep," Ryuk said, chuckling in amusement, "I can give you Shinigami Eyes like mine."

"And what exactly am I trading?" Amaterasu inquired.

"Half of your remaining lifespan," Ryuk told her.

"Wh-what?" she stammered. "Half of my remaining..."

She looked at the picture of the criminal again, wondering if this was truly the only option, and then a thought occurred to her.

"I don't need your Shinigami Eyes, Ryuk," Amaterasu said with a grin.

"I know that look," Ryuk said, recalling the many times it appeared on Light's face. "You've got an idea, don't you?"

Woodhaven, Michigan - Ulysses Mallory

He was driving home from work when his car broke down. He cursed, then called a tow truck, assuring the man who came to take his car that he could walk the rest of the way home.

He passed a park on his way home, the park he used to take his children to. The park he used to take Deirdre to. He found himself drawn to the park, and made his way over to the swing set; where he noticed a red notebook on the ground next to one of the seats.

Curious, he picked it up, expecting to find some sort of coloring book that a child had left there. Instead, written on the cover in silver ink were the words, "Death Note".

"Death Note," he said allowed. "What the hell is this?"

He opened to the first page, and noticed that there was more writing on the back of the cover, and silently read to himself what was written down:

The human whose name is written in this note will die. This will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing their name. That way, anyone with the same name won't be affected.

Within forty seconds of writing the name, if the way they die is specified, it will happen, otherwise they will die of a heart attack. If the cause of death is specified, details can be written only within the next six minutes and forty seconds

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

"What kind of person writes this crap?" he wondered. Then he thought of that face. That face he despised, and that face was enough motivation, enough reason for him to test it out. Desperation. This is what desperation had driven him to, and so he picked up the notebook and put it in his briefcase before continuing on his way home.

As soon as he got home he locked himself in his bedroom and opened his briefcase, grabbing the Death Note and opening it to the first page. Not a heart attack; the boy was athletic and it would be obvious that something was wrong, and so he stopped to think. He pondered all of the possible ways he could kill Frost in the most gruesome manner he could think of without connecting the murder to him. He shuddered when he realized what he was doing, how gullible he was for actually trying this and how much he wanted to kill someone. But it was this someone.

He grabbed a pen and wrote in the notebook: Jadon Frost gets intoxicated at a party and gets into a car accident when driving home on December 16th, 2014.

Jadon was just one of those kids. Captain of the football team, even in college. Everyone liked him and he was the life of the party. Then there was another football game coming up, and Ulysses had no doubt in his mind that Frost would come home to see his younger brother's game. It was perfect. It was ridiculous. Realizing what he had just done, Ulysses Mallory threw the damned notebook into the trash bin next to his desk, feeling utterly stupid.

Chiyoda, Tokyo - Mori Amaterasu

"Thanks again, Yamamoto-san," said Amaterasu.

"I-it's no problem," Yamamoto assured her. "I was happy to help. I couldn't just leave you out in the cold."

"I feel pretty stupid," Amaterasu said with a laugh. "I can't believe I locked myself out of my own home."

"You're not stupid," Yamamoto replied, a faint blush on his cheeks, "these things happen."

"Well, I'm glad you helped out," Amaterasu told him. "It was freezing out there!"

"I-I could get you some coffee... or something," Yamamoto suggested.

"Would you?" Amaterasu said. "That would be great."

"Sure, no problem," said Yamamoto, heading to the kitchen.

"How's this supposed to help you find out that guy's name?" Ryuk wondered.

Amaterasu remained silent, having no intention of answering Ryuk's question. She quietly made her way to Yamamoto's computer, glad to see he had no password, as this would save her time. She slipped a chip into the computer and typed in a few things on the keyboard. A row of incomprehensible letters, computer code that was frankly giving Ryuk a headache just by looking at it, made its way across the screen. Once it had finished, she returned to the program Yamamoto had originally been on, returning the mouse to the exact same place Yamamoto had put it and then removed the chip.

"What was that?" Ryuk answered. He quickly became frustrated when he realized that Amaterasu wasn't going to say anything.

"H-here you go, Mori-san," Yamamoto stammered nervously as he exited the kitchen, handing her a cup of coffee.

"Thank you, Yamamoto-san," she said. "Thank you so much."

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"Son of a bitch!" Amaterasu cursed, slamming her fist onto her desk, prompting Ryuk to laugh. "It's not funny Ryuk. Someone else has a Death Note, and now they're ruining everything."

Nearly a week had gone by, and just when things had seemed to be going Amaterasu's way, there was an unexpected bump in the road that threatened to ruin everything

"What's the big deal?" Ryuk wondered, taking a bite of his apple. "He's killing criminals."

"No he's not," Amaterasu said, "well, not always, at least. He's killed a lot of people who were never proven guilty or never went to trial. They could have been innocent for all we know.
"And he's only been killing rapists. Which is a terrible crime, I'll admit, but it's just... odd. Not to mention the way he's been killing them. The fact that the deaths haven't been from heart attacks is no doubt going to draw suspicion. The method he's been killing them... it's disgusting. Heart attacks are quick and only so painful, but having them slit their own throats? That's practically murder in of itself."

"Well, it sure is an interesting change of pace," Ryuk noted.

"Ryuk, do you have any idea who has this other Death Note?" Amaterasu asked.

"Even if I did, I couldn't tell you," Ryuk said. "We Shinigami have rules, you know."

"Just my luck," Amaterasu sighed.

Hearing her door squeak open, followed by a bark, Amaterasu turned around with a laugh. "Hey, Kazuki. You can tell I'm upset, huh. Or do you just want some treats?"

Kazuki just stood there panting, and then approached his owner, tickling her by licking her hand. Giggling, Amaterasu accidentally bumped into her desk, knocking the Death Note onto the ground. Kazuki stepped onto it.

"Uh oh," said Amaterasu, picking up the Death Note.

Kazuki's ears perked up when he heard the noisy sound of chewing, and turned to look at the Shinigami lying down on his master's bed. He jumped and then faced Ryuk, assuming a threatening position and barking like mad.

"Stupid animal," Ryuk said. "Ugly, too."

"You're one to talk," Amaterasu said as she tried to quiet her dog down. She put her hand over his mouth, muzzling him until he finally calmed down, though he still growled at Ryuk in warning. Ryuk spread his wings, which framed him like a dark, menacing veil. Kazuki retreated back, tucking his tail between his legs in defeat.

"Sometimes I wish Death Notes could work on animals," Ryuk said, dropping the core of his apple into his mouth.

Woodhaven, Michigan - Ulysses Mallory

"You're either a figment of my imagination," said Ulysses, "or real."

"Wow, you're pretty calm, considering," said the creature. "Last time I came down the guy started screaming 'monster'. Took him a while to calm down."

"I've seen monsters," said Ulysses. "They disguise themselves as human beings."

"So much for introductions," said the creature. "Oh well, I'll do it anyway. My name's Midora, and if you don't plan on answering me, that's fine. I already know who you are, Ulysses Mallory."

Ulysses put down his pen, slipping the Death Note into his drawer and calmly turned to face Midora. "And what is it that you want, Midora?"

"Nothing," Midora answered. "You picked up my notebook, so I came down to sit back and watch. Looks like I got lucky this time, and so did Ryuk. He always gets the good ones."

"Kira?" Ulysses guessed.

"Yeah," Midora answered, "but I can't tell you who Kira is."

"I honestly couldn't care less," Ulysses replied.

"Huh, well you're pretty boring," Midora said, "but I guess the killings are pretty interesting. Still, what the hell's your drive here?"

"Dad, I'm home!" rang Lori's voice.

"My drive," Ulysses hissed, standing up and heading towards the door of his home office, "is to make sure no one hurts my family ever again."

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A/N: I apologize for the short chapters. I'm good at writing oneshots and personalized quizzes because they're short and I have to make up limited things, but with fanfictions it's different. I'm fine with my two Naruto fanfictions, "Ai no Itami" and "Avenge Us", as well as my Death Note fanfiction "Riddles". That's because, while they have different underlying plots (especially Riddles), they all have canon plots, so to speak. While Tori and Itami are trying to get a better understanding of themselves, we still have everyone looking for Sasuke. While Suzu is hiding from the Akatsuki, we still have the regular plot of Naruto going on. The best way I can explain it is that they are bases, foundations, if you will.

Something to hold the stories together and help them move along, whereas with this story, it's after the events of Death Note; I'm on my own here. Nothing for me to cling onto and help me keep the story floating. I'm without a life preserver this time, and have to swim on my own. It's similar to why I discontinued my Dragon Age fanfic on FanFiction; the main story was coming to an end, and the ending was extremely short, whereas I had a lot of things I needed to include in my story and limited canon events to help keep it moving.

That's why, for this story especially, feedback and any other input would be greatly appreciated.