17/02/2014.

A.N: Went back and edited everything. I just wanted to thank Mirthful-Malady for making the cover art (isn't she awesome?) and a whole bunch of fanart, which is posted on my profile.

New readers, enjoy, I guess. And tell me what you think, I'm always looking for ways to improve.

Chapter One - December 5th

But I assure you, L is real! I do exist!

The black knight strode down the corridor, his sword clinking against his side. He reached a large, oaken door, which he forced open with a blast of magic. The room beyond was large and empty - the throne room, and there, at the back, the King sat, hands folded over his scepter.

The knight slowly unsheathed his sword, the sound reverberating in the silence. The blade was as black as his armor, forged from the essence of shadows and darkness. "Checkmate, Your Majesty."

"Not quite." The knight whirled around as the figure of a woman emerged from behind a column. She wore pristine white robes that rustled in a soft breeze, and a golden cross hung from her neck. The bishop? It was a trap! He realized it too late, and-

"Jaylin! Stop being creepy and come over here!"

I sighed, setting the bishop down, and grudgingly made my way over to Sandra, hands in my pockets and mumbling. "I can't have a quiet minute to myself."

She rolled her eyes. "A minute? You've been sitting there for hours! What's so fun about playing chess with yourself anyway?"

I frowned. "It's not my fault you guys don't want to play."

Next to Sandra, Olm was scowling at me. Olm was stupid and violent, and believed himself to be better than me because he was older, richer or had parents - I hadn't figured out which it was yet. "Leave the freak alone," he spat. "Go back to the land of freaks, we don't want you here." Needless to say, the feeling was mutual.

Sandra hit him on the head with her book. "You're so mean. Of course we want you here."

My irritation immediately disappeared. I felt a warm glow spreading on my chest, and my adoration for Sandra climb to celestial degrees. In our orphanage, not many people could say they were wanted. We had, after all, been cast away by our parents or our families – we were the leftovers, the garbage.

I was sure there were nice orphanages where children were happy and encouraged to achieve their full potential, but the Weeping Willow wasn't one of them. The beds were small and the mattresses hard, and the food tasted like generic dirt. There were so many children living there that the caretakers barely remembered our faces, and they certainly couldn't be watching us all. There were fights, and abuse, and children could fall sick without anyone taking notice for days. But with one off-handed comment, Sandra had made me forget all of it. Those were the kinds of moments that strengthened my loyalty ten-fold. If she had asked me to jump out the window right then, I would have.

She smiled, a wide, toothy grin. "So, what should we do today? How about the park?"

Olm shook his head, brown curls bouncing. "No. Let's prank Bulldog Bertha again. That was fun."

I glanced at the TV while they argued. It was set on a stupid cartoon. The cat was chasing the mouse, but he fell off the roof into a catapult. The mouse laughed and pressed a big red button, and the cat went flying. I watched with interest, wondering what was going to happen next. "Today is candy day at the Sunken Corner," I input distractedly.

"Really?" Sandra grinned. "How did you work it out?"

"Last time, Bonman said he was going to make a batch of tiger chocolate, and the strawberry gummis. It takes him six days to make strawberry gummis, three days to make chocolate."

Olm did the math quietly, frowning. "That's nine days, stupid, not eight. Candy day is tomorrow."

"Shut up, Olm. Jaylin's never guessed wrong."

I was about to explain why it would only take him eight days when the screen abruptly changed, and all thoughts of candy disappeared from my mind.

"We interrupt your programming to give you an important message from the ICPO. This broadcast is live and world-wide. Translation to Japanese is offered by Yoshio Anderson. Now live from the ICPO."

The screen showed a man sitting behind a large desk. His eyes were a sharp blue, his black hair carefully brushed to one side. He stared straight at the camera, unwavering. "I head up an international police task force which includes all member nations. My name is Lind L. Taylor," he declared evenly. "More widely known as L."

I frowned. What was the ICPO? Who was this guy? Probably someone important, if they cared to broadcast it on every channel… I picked up the remote and changed the channel just to check, then back again. Yep. Every channel.

Sandra and Olm had stopped arguing and were staring at the screen curiously as well. "Criminals around the world are being murdered by a serial killer," Lind L. Taylor announced, his expression extremely serious. "I consider this crime to be the most atrocious act of murder in history. I will not rest until the person or persons responsible are brought to justice." There were a couple of breaths of silence. "Kira: I will hunt you down. I will find you."

Oh. So this was about that guy. Kira. Olm said Kira was a good guy for taking care of all those criminals. Sandra was convinced he was a criminal himself and should be punished. I thought Kira was a prank. He didn't exist.

Kira was like God, according to Olm. Kira could see everything. Kira could kill anyone from a heart attack, just by wishing it. Kira was punishing evildoers to make a world where only good people would live. This L - if he believed Kira existed, what he was doing was pretty stupid. Announcing his intentions was equivalent to giving up his life to the man - or in any case entity - he was trying to catch. He should have kept quiet and investigated secretly, or at least not painted such a huge target on his back.

"He's dumb," Olm commented, voicing my thoughts out loud. "Kira will just kill him."

And though I had predicted it, I couldn't help the breathless "Ah" that escaped my lips when Lind L. Taylor suddenly stiffened and his eyes rolled back in his head. A strong convulsion shook his body before he went limp and his head slumped on the desk.

He was dead.

So Kira existed? L had just proven it... By dying?

"Did he just die?" Sandra asked, pale and wide-eyed.

I didn't answer, shocked. Had I just seen someone die right now? For real? On TV? Kira could really kill just like that? My mind was reeling from what this implied. I'd always believed that Kira was a farce. The idea that there was a God-like existence that could really kill by will alone was utterly ridiculous. In my mind, I'd always looked down on the people that preached it as fools, I'd even looked down on Olm to some degree. It defied reason. It shouldn't be possible.

And yet it had just happened in front of my eyes. I couldn't deny that kind of evidence.

Kira truly did exist.

As two men with suits took the corpse away, the screen suddenly went blank, save for a big initial L in the middle of it. What-

"Wow… I… I had to test it just in case, but I never thought that it would actually happen… Unbelievable… Kira… So you can really kill people without being there in person." This new voice was synthetic, like a robot's. There was no way to tell if it was male or female, an adult or a child's.

I drew in a sharp breath.

"It's really true… I would never have believed it if I hadn't just witnessed it," the voice continued. All three of us were still like rocks, transfixed by the screen.

I came to a conclusion then. Kira may be a God, but L was a genius. I could feel myself leaning towards the television, waiting for what was to come. Because it was obvious he wasn't done yet. My hands dove into my pockets, fingers toying nervously with the elastic I always kept there.

L didn't disappoint. He revealed that Lind L. Taylor was actually a criminal they had used as a stand-in, to draw out Kira and test his power. And Kira had swallowed the bait whole, too. "But I assure you, L is real! I do exist! Now, try to kill me! Come on, what's wrong? Kill me!"

I grinned shakily, not believing my ears. What? He was actively provoking an entity that had seconds before proven its power? What?

"What's wrong, can't do it?"

There was a long silence from the voice. The blank screen was impersonal, adding to the mystery. L intrigued me more and more with every passing second. Who was he? How could he be so certain that Kira didn't have the power to kill him? My heart was thundering in my chest, my blood rushing in my ears. What next? Would he die? But time passed, and nothing more than a smug silence coming from the screen.

Absolutely captivating and surreal. My fingers wound tighter around the elastic. I held my breath, waiting impatiently for the voice to continue.

"Can't kill me after all, huh?

So there are people you can't kill. Thanks for giving me the hint. Let me return the favor: I'll tell you something that I think you'll find interesting. Although this was announced as a worldwide broadcast, the truth is that we're only broadcasting in the Kanto region of Japan."

I grinned. Masterful. L went on to explain his deduction on Kira's location and the nature of his power. I listened intently, absorbing every word coming from who I would later learn to be the greatest detective of the century, my grin widening with every sentence. L proved, in under five minutes, that Kira existed, that he was in Japan, and that he wasn't truly all-powerful, not as God-like as Olm thought. It was like watching someone pound a nail into a wall, every sharp, precise jab driving it in deeper. It was brilliant.

Finally the cartoon started up again. I shook my head and turned to Sandra and Olm. Their expressions were of total confusion. "What was that about?"

"The police are trying to catch Kira," I summarized.

Olm clacked his tongue, irritated. "Yeah, duh. But what happened?"

"They hired a detective called L, that was him talking. He..." I smiled to myself, searching for a vocabulary that they would understand. "He's a really smart guy."

Sandra was even more baffled. "But what about the man who died?"

It took me a while to explain to them what had really happened. Olm started shouting before I was halfway done, exclaiming that I was just a freak and he didn't need any explaining from me, and of course Kira could kill L if he wanted to. Sandra hit him again and asked me to kindly start from the beginning, while he sulked in a corner, mumbling insults. Then she went over to explain things to him in turn. He didn't seem to mind when the words came from her mouth.

It had always worked that way between us. Sandra was the bridge between Olm and me; we both adored her, and were willing to put up with each other if it meant we could be close to her. She was the leader of our little group, confident and charismatic.

I made my way to the chess board while the two of them talked, split my mind in two, and started playing again.

But I assure you, L is real! I do exist!

The white bishop moved forwards, knocking the black knight off the board. "Check," she told the black King.

His Majesty looked at the bishop, the shadow of the crown hiding his eyes. The bishop slowly lifted an accusatory index finger. "You pretend to possess God's power? Who do you think you mortals are?" The King's mouth became a grim line under the finger's accusation.

I leaned back in my chair, eyes lidded.

The date was December 5th, 2003.

Sandra and Olm were nine. I was seven.