Light Yagami seemed like the generic smart kid, just with an extra dose of genius. He was popular, smart, and hardworking. If you peeled that all away, though, you would find a morbidly interesting being. Under his polite smiles and charming demeanor was a man weary of nearly everyone and tired of the world he lived in.

That does not mean, however, that he wasn't a sensible person. He could tell the real from the knock-offs, and the knock-offs from the plain stupid. So, of course, he was more than a little skeptical when he saw a notebook with an odd name on the ground. Raising his eyebrows, Light picked it up.

"Death Note?" Light muttered. "As in a notebook of death?" He opened it. "It's in English...what a pain." Sighing, Light read the first thing on the inside of the cover.

"'Any person whose name is written in this notebook shall die.' Wow, that's morbid...and stupid. Who would actually believe this?"

Light, being the sensible person he was, walked over to a trash can. Right before he threw it in, however, he paused. He seemed to weigh the notebook in his hands. "Well," Light muttered, "it is mostly paper, so..."

Light Yagami then proceeded to chuck one of the most deadly weapons on Earth into the recycling bin.

Ryuk, who had been watching the whole transaction, raised an eyebrow but didn't make a move to retrieve his Death Note. "Oh my," he said, "this world is definitely in for a nasty surprise."

...

Hideyoshi Tachibana was the definition of a love-sick sixth-grader. His one and only love (read: crush)? Ayame Fujimoto.

Of course, being a love-sick sixth-grader is a full-time job. Writing Ayame's name in his notebook certainly took up a lot of his time.

Today, he got a new notebook, and he had chosen it out himself. After reading about how many forests were being cut down, he decided to buy a 100% recycled one, and he felt so much better about himself.

Now that his teacher, Mrs. Kawaguchi, has started their lesson, he could finally do it.

Ayame's name would be the first words in his new notebook. Carefully opening it, he lovingly spelled out Ayame's name.

Ayame Fujimoto.

He put hearts next to it and, for almost a minute, everything was alright. Then-

"Aaaaaah!"

Ayame let out a horrible scream, clutching her chest. Then she slumped over.

Hideyoshi looked on in horror. "A-Ayame?"

She died of a heart attack.

As for poor, poor Hideyoshi Tachibana...well, he was thrown in a madhouse for claiming that a Shinigami was following him around.

Good times.

~The End~