A/N : Hi there! It's me again.
I've decided what I'm going to do with the story: BB will still be here, and there's no death note that exists, but other than that, I won't tell you what to expect! :)

and over 100 reviews? Thank you guys SO much! This really keeps me going.

This is chapter 1, rewritten. I've made some changes to the plot, but the first chapter is entirely different from the prologue of the original version. For those who read the original first chapter out there and are reading this, please inform me if there's any improvement! And for those who are reading this for the first time, I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it :)

Warnings: mentions of gore and death and other things along those lines.

Of All That's Unworldy

It was still 4:34 a.m. when a not-so-ordinary five-year-old boy left his quiet bedroom and went downstairs, into his father's working area, looking for his laptop which he knew would be there. His father, Soichiro Yagmai, was the Chief of Police, working for the NPA in the Kanto region of Japan.

It was true that the five-year-old boy, whose name was also not-so-ordinary, always admired his father's line of work, and decided at an early age that this was the path he wanted to follow. But, unlike some of you may think, looking at his father's cases, or learning how an investigation went in real life was not his reason for sneaking up so early in the morning, when he knew his father would still be sleeping after returning home very, very late in the night.

Then why, do you ask?

It was because Light Yagami was a very bright kid. He knew that there was something not normal about him, especially his eyes, ever since he could understand what 'mama' and 'papa' meant. When he was three years old, he was fully aware of his unnatural ability. He kept trying to observe, to understand. And from what he was able to grasp, he understood that his mother didn't see numbers floating around, and his father couldn't see kanji letters, or any other letters for that matter, swimming and shining bright red above everyone's head if the effort he made to search for a serial killer, or a drug dealer's real name in his work was any indication.

A true phenomenon, as he heard scientists call not-so-ordinary things on TV.

Or a curse, as he liked to call it in his own mind.

When Light finally reached his father's desk, he pulled out a chair, climbed on it, reached for the laptop, turned it on, opened the newest file that contained data about that case with so many dead people, then closed his eyes for a moment and held his breath. He was vaguely aware that his tiny fists started shaking a little, and his heart started pounding a bit more faster, but he paid no attention to that. He was here for a reason and he had to continue what he was doing.

A few seconds later, he opened his eyes.

The reason for sneaking up so early in the morning was the photographs.

It was the third time in a row, on the third day in a row, that Light snuck up like that just to take a peek at those photographs. As gruesome and shocking they were for a five-year-old, they never stopped Light from coming back again to them. For one more look.

His father had been coming home very late at night for several days in a row now, so Light guessed that there was a very troubling case at work requiring most of his time and undivided attention. The Chief of Police would leave his computer at his desk without bothering to lock it, sigh heavily, and then go to the kitchen and heat up the dinner his wife left for him earlier in the fridge.

Light took advantage of that and pretended to sleep for only as long as his father would usually stay awake after he'd eaten his dinner, which was usually only a matter of minutes, and claimed the opportunity to start looking at those photographs.

Alas, Light, for two days now, felt his appetite go away when it was time for breakfast, and yesterday he had a nightmare, but at least he knew what he wanted to know. He was secretly thankful that his mother was too busy with his baby sister, and his father was too busy with work. If not, they might've noticed something was amiss.

It looked like everything worked out in his favor, somehow.

Two weeks ago, Light's mother told Light that they were going to visit his grandfather, his father's father, because he was ill and in hospital. Being the observing kid he was, he immediately noticed that there was one less number above his grandfather's head when laid eyes on him. Of course, he noticed that the numbers above everyone's head were changing all the time, but it was the first time he'd seen it decrease so. One week later, they were all at his grandfather's funeral.

That's how Light linked the two events together, and wanted to start and explore his ability more. That's how Light came to know that he could see someone's death.

See someone's death…

His inner thoughts were interrupted when he heard his young nuisance crying upstairs, so young Light shut down the laptop quickly, and, satisfied that he was finally able to learn one more fact about that unworldly curse of his, tip-toed out of his father's working area, and went upstairs, back to his bedroom, to continue pretending to sleep.

It was just like that. He could simply see someone's name and lifespan just by looking at their face. Even though he didn't know what numbers with more than two digits valued exactly at his age, he was more than smart enough to conclude that the more numbers above someone's head, the longer they had to live. The less numbers there were, the closer their death was.

And now, thanks to the photographs of the victims on his father's laptop, he also knew that if there weren't any numbers at all above someone's head in a picture, then the person's already dead. Though it took a while to know that because some of the photographs showed people with no faces - or heads for that matter.

But despite his unrivaled deductive skills and impressive logical thinking patterns, even at that early an age, he couldn't for the life of him figure out one last curious thing about his eyes. it was the simple fact that he couldn't see his very own life span. when he looked in the mirror, he could see his mirrored name, but there were no numbers. Surely, he came up with some theories, like him being actually dead, but was able to get to this world somehow, and was here for some important reason. Another theory was that he was never going to die, that he was immortal. He entertained that thought for a while; his little (literally and not figuratively) mind calculated the endless possibilities and wandered to the achievements he could make, but decided at last that it was not very pleasant if he kept growing sicker and older and weaker with time, because he could obviously see that his body was growing like any other normal human being.

But unfortunately, or maybe fortunately - a little voice in the back of his mind supplied, Light had no means to test his theories.

He would have to leave it at that. For now.

During that short, epiphanous period of Light's life, soon after he goes back to his bedroom, his sister's cries would embark the beginning of the day. His mother's fast-paced footsteps would rush down the hall and into his sister's bedroom, contradicting his father's slow ones to the bathroom. It was always like that, and little attention was paid to Light, but that never bothered him anyway. It was just that the young boy had too much to think about that all the thoughts that whirled in his mind all day made up for lack of communication with other human beings. He never thought of his classmates at school as worthy of his time, and he kept pushing them away in a way that gave him what he wanted without anyone even guessing what he was actually doing. The rehearsed acts he'd been putting up in front of his parents and teachers were to avoid raising unnecessary questions, nothing more.

When Light was a bit younger, looking at people wasn't really much of a nuisance because the only names and life spans he would see were his family's – not too many to be enough to bother him. And even when his mother took him and his sister to picnic or to shop for groceries, it wasn't that bad either because there wouldn't be too many people – his mother went out when almost everyone was at work. But things got worse once he started going to school. Red blinded his eyes the first time, and had a terrible, terrible headache for the rest of the day, so it was then that he knew that it ought to cause him some trouble. He knew he had to cope with it – and fast.

With time, the young boy was able to polish his skill of being able to look at someone's name without them noticing. And he was able to calculate the time left some unfortunate human or another had to live - but he supposed all humans were unfortunate anyway. But he avoided doing that a lot though - it gave him nightmares about death and all that came with death.

But the lack of comfort around people aside, being very young and very curious, Light still tried to at least guess where his ability came from. Was it really an extraordinary ability, or was it merely an eye malfunction? Was he just born like that?

Was he cursed by some evil being from above at some point of his short life just because they found it amusing?

Light immediately shook off the last thought, wondering how he even came up with it. It wasn't the logic and the science the young boy believed in.

A few years have passed, and Light's curse still plagued him whenever he was awake and wherever he went. He knew better than to tell anyone about his 'ability', and he knew better than to dwell on the fact that he could see death for too long, and started focusing on his life and future instead. He would just have to cope with it until the day he died, that's all.

Who knows? Maybe it'll even come in handy, someday.

Even if that very thought made him shudder for a reason unknown to him at the time.

ِ.