A/N: This is a collection of 50 drabbles which read sequentially in a fic style (which if you've read The Curse of the Cat or Skittles, you'll be familiar with). So instead of chapters which link, these are just scenes that following continuously in the same time frame. Can contain flashbacks, but it'll be obvious when they do that. I say drabbles, but I consider that to be anything under 1000 words.

This is far more concise than The Curse of the Cat. This is because firstly I use that one to expand friendships/relationships like the Fruits Basket manga does in a sense. Death Note itself is far more succinct. Secondly because I'm using a 50 prompt list as opposed to a 200 prompt list (related to the first reason).

Five drabbles per chapter again. So ten chapters this time around. Four are done with the fifth in progress.

Uniforms are the same as the ones worn by Amara and Michelle (and Hotaru) in Sailor Moon.

Enjoy.

Blank Note

01. Truth

Koji wasn't accustomed to falling into the realms of fantasy; that was his brother's forte, although he could never be sure whether Koichi saw or simply imagined the images in his mind before transferring them onto a physical medium.

Regardless, he wasn't privy to seeing things other than as they appeared…nor looking too far into them and warping perception. So when he saw a black notebook fall from the roof, a hallucination was the last possibility in his mind.

Actually, he didn't think much on the occurrence at all, though it was mildly interesting to see a break in the perfect artificial lawn, painted with a solid uniform green. The same green the girls' pleated skirts and ties and boys' slacks sprouted – juxtaposed with their white blouses or shirts and everything else maroon. But such childish imprints were hardly of consequence in the larger world; the black was a single speck doing little to an infinite spread of monotony.

It was only when he passed the exact spot later that day, on his way to a new and equally mundane location, that he spared it more than a glance and a fleeting thought.

It was the truth, sad and simple, that a little dot on a canvas didn't paint a world. Nor did a little black book laying inconspicuously on the plastic the laws of physics, the laws of math: the laws of reality.

It was human nature though that defined curiosity: a thing that seemed at times out of balance with the laws of the world. And as such, it was curiosity, not reason, which prompted him to take the book and, instead of driving it out of his mind – throwing it in the bin like the discard it was – delve further into its pages.

02. Accept

It wasn't a particularly welcome sense of déjà vu, Ryuk felt, as he watched a student pick up the notebook he had dropped in the human world. Boredom had settled in after Light's death, and while the aftermaths unfold had kept him entertained for a time, for a Shinigami such times had moved so quickly that it wasn't long before the world was almost the same as it had been before Kira's intervention – people no longer danced before the grave of Light Yagami for their God. Very few still spoke his name; he had become little more than a legend, a myth. Even L – "Nate Rivers" was the name that hovered above his head – was absorbed in his new role and had left behind the circumstances that had placed him in that seat.

But having a complete repeat would be no fun at all. In retrospect he should have avoided schools altogether to avoid a replay – or avoided Japan. Sadly, he had little control as to what areas of the Earth he had access to. There weren't many portals free; they hadn't exactly been designed for convenience.

Well…they had. For different purposes. And he was an impatient Shinigami. He hadn't counted on déjà vu though.

He took a closer look at the boy. Actually, it might not be, he mused, a repeat performance after all. That buy was subtly different, and it would certainly be interesting to see how that affected things.

He'd watch for a few more days. Then he'd drop by to visit.

03. Chain

He read the odd book from cover to cover – and there was a surprising amount of reading involved in examining the blank note. The note pages themselves were clear save the faint lines traced vertical and evenly spaced, if a little further apart than most exercise books in their era. But the covers presented an inordinate amount of detail for a bit of cardboard binding the note together.

And in English. All in English. But he managed to read it all, though it took more time than he would have liked. And he had to admit he was impressed with the care one had put into it. Not a practical joke he fathomed; it was too careful, too meticulous, and when he tore a page he found the book not lacking thereafter.

So he slipped the page into a draw and looked at the book again.

'So anyone whose name I write in this dies?' That, he was sceptical about. It defied logic, being able to kill with ink alone. Sure, there were tales and beliefs about Gods or their Shinigami writing down the names of those to die, but he didn't believe in either of those things. There was no concrete evidence of them.

It was another way he was so very different from his brother.

He contemplated writing a name in it, a scientific experiment. Most likely, it wouldn't work. Perhaps it was a replica for what one believed would be a Shinigami's book. Now that he thought about it, a "Death Note" was a good name for such a book. But the slightest possibility that he could be correct stopped him: the possibility of killing someone in order to test out a book…

In the end, he shut it in his drawer as well. Until…

'Aren't you going to use the Note?'

He turned to glare at the other, a man in a rather gruesome outfit.

'How did you get in here?' he asked coldly. 'And what exactly are you wearing?'

'I floated through the roof,' the other responded. 'And I'm wearing what I always wear.' He looked down at himself. 'Why, is something wrong with it?'

'If you prefer being a fashion disaster.' Koji turned his back to the other and returned his attention to the desk, removing his math homework from the pile.

'You know,' the other said conversationally. 'It doesn't matter whether you use the Note or not; your life is still in my hands because you picked up my Note. The one I dropped, being bored and all, hoping for some entertainment. The only thing is, if you don't use it, things would get rather boring and I'll have to kill you quite soon. Days maybe…if you're lucky.'

The odd man grinned, a sharp grinned and Koji turned on his desk chair with a scathing look. 'Who are you to walk in here and threaten me?' he asked coolly.

'Weren't you listening kid?' The other wagged a talon finger at him. 'I didn't walk, I floated through the roof.' He drifted a few feet off the ground to prove it.

Koji looked at him closely; he was sure nothing in his room would allow such a performance.

'What are you?' he scoffed. 'A Shinigami?'

'You were rather slow,' the other replied. 'Ryuk's the name, and yes. Being a Shinigami's my trade.'

'How do I know you're not an illusion?'

The shinigami rolled his eyes. 'I could write your name now…but you're proving to be interesting so that wouldn't be any fun. So here's the deal. You keep that Death Note. You use it for whatever you want, and when I get bored, I'll write your name in here –' He knelt down and drew out a second book, identical looking. 'And you'll go into nothing.'

'Again, how do I know you're not an illusion?' The boy didn't appear phased at all.

Ryuk grinned again: a shark's grin. 'I'm a fan of apples you know. I hope you don't mind me grabbing a snack before I leave.'

He made to fade out the door. The scraping of a chair against wood made him stop for the tiniest moments.

'Does the Death Note…really kill?'

Ryuk turned, expression unchanging. 'Well, you'll just have to find that out, won't you? But isn't there anyone you think deserves death?'

Koji wished he'd never seen the notebook fall from that window. Wished he'd never picked it up…or that someone else had before him. For with those words that black book would burn a hole into his desk like stolen notes burnt in a thief's pocket.

Except he wasn't a thief, because the other had abandoned it of his – or its – own free will. And now…it was up to him what to do with it.

As for the question…the answer was yes. There were people he could think of that, in his view at least, deserved death. But by logic's rules that was a natural instinct; it was only when one raised the weapon and snuffed out the book of life that they became a murderer.

But what sort of life did it have to be? Because without restriction every living creature on the earth was a murderer.

04. Save

Koji found his brother downstairs, inspecting the fruits basket.

'What are you doing?' he asked.

'Wondering if the God of Death likes apples,' came the reply. He held up the apple in validation; there was a rather large chunk missing, but the imprints left behind did not resemble a human's jaw in the least. In any case, it was only the pair of them home and neither one of them had a mouth big enough for that.

Koji had to wonder if his father even did.

'No,' Koichi answered as though reading his mind…but maybe it had simply been the other's expression.

'Do I want to know how you know that?' the younger twin asked dryly.

'I draw enough,' the other shrugged, which was true. With years of experience and being a student at a private school that specialised in manga and anime style art and his natural talent, he was probably correct in his speculation as well.

Unlike Koji who went to an academically orientated private school. One that specialised in the science field.

'It would make sense,' Koichi continued. 'The garden of Eden is said to be full of apples: the forbidden fruit.'

Koji shook his head, remembering the one who claimed to be a shinigami – standing in a corner of a kitchen and laughing at him! He gaped. Koichi looked at him curiously.

'You look like you've seen a ghost,' he said bluntly.

Koji closed his eyes, cursed the shinigami his brother's perceptiveness, and denied it.

'Who believes in ghosts anyway?' he scoffed. 'I mean, what physical basis is there for them?'

'Things that can't be explained,' the elder twin replied innocently. 'Anything caused by some force we cannot see can be called a "ghost".'

He took the fruit knife and sliced the bitten fruit off.

Koji grimaced at that.

'There's no sense throwing away the whole apple,' Koichi pointed out. However, he did wash it under the tap before dividing it into further slices and peeling the skin.

If he noticed he ate less slices than he cut, he didn't say anything. It was possible he hadn't noticed though as Koji handed him a second apple to prepare, and the slices were small enough to lose count.

Koji however could see the apple-loving Shinigami enjoying a snack with them – or rather, stealing them away to munch on in a different location. He little theft was only saved by the fact that the elder twin apparently couldn't see him.

Which was…a surprise; the apples failed to accommodate though, as between the three of them, they were quickly devoured.

Koichi made to stand and take the empty plate.

'Koichi?'

The elder twin blinked at him.

'Do you think…someone has the right to kill another?'

Koichi set the plate down again. 'Depends on what you mean by killing,' he responded after a moment's thought. 'You can take a person's life – who can really stop that process – but you can only have the right to do that if there is a reason behind it. To keep the balance of life, it goes to reason you also need to be able to restore life to someone else.'

'But the dead don't come back to life.'

'You're talking about the physical sense,' Koichi pointed out, picking the plate up again and running a finger in circles around the base. 'If you think about life and death in a metaphorical sense, for example someone who has lost all purpose in life. If you give them a new purpose then in essence you're giving them life. In the same way, if you destroy the hope or dream that defines a person's life, in effect you are killing them, even though in both instances the body is alive. And what about people who are comatose? Brain dead? Would you consider them, in a metaphorical sense, to be dead or alive?' The gaze drifted to the ceiling.

Koji remained silent.

'Why ask?'

The younger twin blinked in confusion. 'Do you mean why –?'

'No.' Koichi shook his head and stood. 'Why ask at all? What I think shouldn't matter to you.'

He left for the kitchen, picking up the knife along the way.

05. Ring

Koji decided as he picked up the phone that he would be leaving it off the hook once the person on the other line hung up. The phone had been ringing all day, but not one of those calls had been for him or his brother. Anyone after Koichi knew well enough though he'd be far more likely to respond to an email, except the group with which he was working on a manga serial, whom he would converse with through internet chat. Sometimes, he would talk aloud when he typed, but only around Koji and alone (or so it was presumed). Most other people couldn't get a word out of him. In his school it didn't matter though; no-one needed to talk to hand in portfolios, get the information to do sketches for anime series designed of manga books (and for the advanced students the chance to create manga of their own on the sidelines) and attend fine tuning classes in lecture format.

It was actually one of the few things that Koichi was passionate about, and Koji was one of the few people who got to hear that. Their mother was another, but their parents were divorced and Tomoko was currently alone in the apartment she normally shared with her elder son. It was only because the school was so far away from Kyoto that he was staying with them in the first place, but Koji, despite being initially against the idea (having not even known he had a brother at the time), found himself quickly warming up to the idea. Satomi appeared to have no problems at all…or showed none. In fact, she was pleased as the elder twin's arrival in the household had somehow gotten the younger twin talking more to her as well.

The problem was their relationship with their father. Or lack thereof.

Kousei worked heavy hours and so was barely home, making it very difficult for Koji to get the entire story out of him and very easy to lay blame. And it didn't help matters that Koichi seemed to avoid both adults.

Actually, he had tried to avoid Koji as well, but that had proven impossible as he evidently wanted to get to know the other as well. So it had turned into a game of dancing around one another until it had collapsed. Actually, it had been Koichi who had collapsed, managing to slip and fall down the staircase outside his bedroom when he emerged suddenly and consequently wind up with a concussion.

So they got along…relatively well. It wasn't the perfect relationship; they were close but it wasn't, if his classmates' complaints about their siblings held any stock, a regular sibling relationship. Perhaps it was because Koichi could never call the place his home. Perhaps it was because he simply did not talk to anyone else (except his mother but that was by phone for the last month or so).

However Koichi flat out refused to pick up a phone call, because there was simply no telling who it was, even with call recognition. And so that left Koji to do so, and he was none-too-pleased to have to deal with business calls referring to his father, particularly with a cacking Shinigami in the corner.

'Shut up,' he said irritably, forgetting momentarily he had actually lifted the receiver and so the person on the other line could hear him.

'Honestly,' Takuya's voice replied. 'I haven't said anything yet.'

Should he be relieved? Somehow, Koji wasn't so sure. If nothing else though, Takuya was a brilliant distraction.

Of course, it helped that Ryuk wasn't around to bother him about the Death Note. He was bothering himself enough.