When Worlds Crossover

Death Note

Disclaimer – I do not anything from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni or Death Note. Higurashi is the property of Ryūkishi07 07th Expansion and Studio Deen and Death Note is the property of Tsugumi Ōba, Takeshi Obata, Shūeisha Inc. and MADHOUSE Inc.

Summary – In the Shinigami Realm, Ryuk is not the only Shinigami who's bored and feels that the world is rotting. Another Shinigami, Turrok (pronounced Too-Rock) is also bored. After hearing about the Endless June of 1983 from Ryuk, Turrok decides to travel to the world in which Rika managed to finally beat fate and come out alive. One year after 1983 in the June of 1984, Turrok drops his spare Death Note, which is picked up by Sonozaki Shion, who is at first sceptical and believes it to be a prank, but after writing her grandmother's name and learning the following day that Oryō died from a heart attack from her sister, Mion, Shion decides to try the Death Note again, to see if Oryō's death was indeed a coincidence or not, targeting the three punks whose bikes are usually parked outside Angel Mort and after realising that the Death Note is real and Mion, upon witnessing the deaths of the three punks and reading the notebook comes to the horrifying realisation that Shion killed their grandmother, but curious about the Death Note herself, tries it out on the police detective who replace Ōishi Kuraudo, who's been giving the Sonozaki Family grief due to their Yakuza connections and upon realising that the notebook is real, both twins retreat to Shion's apartment where they meet Turrok, who explains everything to them and upon learning that neither twin is interested in the notebook anymore, transports them the world of October 2006, giving them till the end of the year to find a way to provide him with some entertainment or they both will have their names written in his notebook. Anyway, from the end of November going into December, criminals start dying of mysterious heart attacks and Kirā emerges. However, as it turns out, Shion happened to be in the same convenience store Yagami Light happened to be in when Shibuimaru Takuo was killed and studying Light's reactions, comes to the conclusion that he may have a Death Note and could possibly be Kirā and using disguises and fake names, the Sonozaki Twins try to get close to Light and spread rather unsavoury rumours about him, hoping that it'll anger him to the point of him blurting out something incriminating, but they soon attract the attention of L, the world's greatest detective, who suspects them of withholding information. Can the Sonozaki Twins bring down Kirā without Light learning of their true appearance and names or will they find their names in Light's Death Note and also, can they both adjust to the changing events as things progress, especially with the emergence of a second Kirā and will the taskforce be able to convince them into helping them? One thing's for sure, things descend into madness as the rumours about Light slowly drive him further and further into insanity.

Shinigami Realm – Wednesday 25th October 2006

The Shinigami Realm was nothing more than a vast grey barren wasteland with the sky being permanently overcast with grey clouds with the occasional break which showed a pale white sky above the clouds. Littering the wasteland were old rusted metal machines that were slowly rusting away to nothing and had been lying for so long that none of the realm's current inhabitants could remember what they had once been. Huge metal chains also sat anchored to the ground and leading into a cave; this was where the Shinigami King resided. There were also lots of curved pointed outcrops in the ground shaped like rib bones with two sitting on opposite sides with the points facing one another. Those formations tended to be situated in pairs and when those pairs were lined up, appeared to form a pathway. towards the Shinigami King's cave. Bones and other huge rocks also littered the landscape along with the occasional tree that had long since become petrified and entities of various shapes and sizes lay congregating in the vast wasteland.

Atop a huge rock overlooking a staircase that descended into a bright white light, two of those entities stood looking down into the light.

"So, are you really sure that you want to do this?" one asked the other curiously, "I just don't see how you can manage?"

"Well, Ryuk, let's just say that yer not da only one who can trick da Big S inta gettin' a spare notebook," the second entity replied with a chuckle.

"Don't you mean the Old Man, Turrok?" the first entity, Ryuk asked with a small hint of fear in his voice, "You know how the Shinigami King gets when you call him that."

"A ain't afraid o' 'im," Turrok boasted smugly, "Besides, he ain't 'ere, is he, so how can he complain?"

"Good point," Ryuk pointed out with a raspy cackle, "Anyway, you managed to fool the Old Man into giving you a second notebook? And here I thought I was special."

"Nope, sorry, but ya ain't special no more," Turrok boasted as he showed his companion that he did indeed possess two notebooks.

"Well, that's too bad," Ryuk said with an uncaring shrug, "Anyway, so you're off to the human world, I take it."

"Yep, but a ain't goin' ta da present," Turrok replied as he explained his intentions, "Didn't ya say that dis witch, Lamb…something or other commissioned ya ta kill for 'er?"

"Lambdadelta," Ryuk replied, sounding a tad bit offended, "And she didn't commission me as you put it, she bribed me with entertainment."

"A see," Turrok said with a nod.

"Corse, what she neglected to mention was that I would be the one who would provide the entertainment," Ryuk stated simply, "In other words, I ended up making my own entertainment."

"Gee, that don't sound like ya, Ryuk," Turrok replied with a tone of slight disappointment, "Yer usually not one ta create yer own entertainment, but rather, ya have others do dat for ya."

"Well, Lambda's a very powerful being," Ryuk said with a hint of fear in his voice and he involuntarily shivered at just thinking about the blonde-haired witch, "She's definitely not an enemy even the Shinigami King would want to have. As the Witch of Certainty, it is said that she has the power to kill unfailingly, though if you want my opinion, she basically just comes here and hires Shinigami to kill for her."

"Sounds like a total fraud ta me," Turrok said, shaking his head in disappointment.

"I wouldn't insult her if I were you," Ryuk replied in a serious tone that told his friend that he was no longer joking around, "As right as you probably are, Lambda is indeed very powerful and I doubt even the Old Man would want to mess with her."

"'Kay, Ryuk, Al take yer word for it," Turrok said, though from his tone, it was clear that he was still not convinced of Lambdadelta's power, but decided not to pursue the matter further.

"Anyway, over a century ago, Lambda was involved in this game," Ryuk explained as he recounted his past with Lambdadelta, "Basically, she's a witch, but she's more like a god like being and she's not the only one. There are more of them and basically, they exist in this strange world called the Meta World that's sort of like a limbo between dimensions and these witches like to play games using humans as their game pieces and pit them against one another and sometimes, these games span across multiple dimensions and each individual dimension is represented by a fragment or kakera."

"And why would dey do dat?" Turrok asked curiously, "Sounds ta me like dey possibly tear entire dimensions apart just for the sake of dose games of deirs."

"Well, let's just say that us two and those witches have one thing in in common, which explains why they play those games," Ryuk replied sounding somewhat smug, "Like us, they're bored, which was why I was able to relate to Lambda when I met her and realised her intentions. You see, Lambda was involved in a game in which her piece, a woman who looked remarkably like her, a Takano Miyo was trying to kill her opponent's main piece, a ten-year-old girl by the name of Furude Rika because she was delusional and believed that by killing her and then wiping out her village, she would prove her grandfather's research into this strange disease was correct. Anyway, Rika had this spirit like friend called Hanyū, who was her one thousand-year-old ancestor and each time Rika died, Hanyū would transport her to another kakera and the whole process would repeat itself, albeit sometimes in a different way, but in all but the final kakera, Rika wound up dead and that game gave birth to Lambda's greatest rival, Bernkastel."

"Am not sure a follow ya, but Al bite," Turrok said in confusion, "So where da ya come in? Did ya kill Rika?"

"You got it," Ryuk said triumphantly with a sinister raspy laugh as his permanent grin seemed to widen even further, "That's what Lambda had me do. Not only did I kill Rika, but all of her friends as well. Everything they did that led up to their deaths… it was all written in my Death Note and not only that, but with all that kakera-hoping, I was able to write the same people's names in my Death Note repeatedly and kill off the same people repeatedly. Lambda may have neglected to mention that I would be making my own entertainment, but you know what, after witnessing the same people die over and over in so many different ways, it was so totally worth it."

He then let out a rather triumphant laugh, indicating that he was indeed glad that it happened.

"So why'd ya stop?" Turrok asked in confusion, clearly not understanding why his friend had stopped, "Did ya run out o' ways ta kill 'em?"

"Let's just say that Bern got involved and made me a better offer with a game set in 1986 at a place called Rokkenjima, but that Battler guy made the whole thing boring, so I left," Ryuk explained, sounding a bit disappointed, "And now I'm bored again."

"Sorry ta 'ear dat," Turrok said as he jumped down to the staircase, "Well see ya, Ryuk, Am off ta… where was it that dis Rika girl lived?"

"Hinamizawa!" Ryuk called out to his friend, "Though, be sure to find the right kakera, in most of them, Hinamizawa no longer exists. Takano or should I say, I had Takano slaughter the villagers in most of them using my Death Note. Of course, in all but one of the kakera that Hinamizawa still exists, Rika and her friends are mostly dead!"

Turrok then nodded to himself, deciding that he'd hunt down the kakera in which Rika and her friends were still alive past June 1983. Upon reaching the bottom of the staircase, he came to a ledge overlook the source of the bright white light and wisps of light periodically rose up from the brightness.

"Now, dis is gonna be tricky," the Shinigami mused to himself, "A need ta get ta another dimension. How can a get dere?"

"Perhaps I can be of assistance," a female voice spoke up causing the Shinigami to spin round and his eyes widened as he saw a long-haired human-shaped silhouette emerge from the darkness.

Okinomiya, XX Prefecture, Japan – Thursday 21st June 1984

In was about a year about Takano's defeat and the Great Hinamizawa Disaster had been averted and life had slowly gotten back to normal. Rika had finally pushed through and managed to shatter the broken record that had once been the Endless June of 1983, but only Rika and Hanyū, who had now acquired a physical body of her own and had essentially gained a second chance at life knew about all the previous worlds though the others were occasionally haunted by the memories of what they had done in some of those previous worlds in which they manifested as nightmares. However, none of them realised that they were in fact memories and so, they were mostly ignored.

Anyway, Sonozaki Shion was currently in her Angel Mort uniform working at her uncle's, Angel Mort establishment and was minding her own business. She was one of those who was occasionally plagued with nightmares and in some of the previous worlds, she had gone insane and went on a killing spree, convinced that everybody she had murdered had been responsible for the disappearance of the boy she had fallen in love with, Hōjō Satoshi, including his little sister, Satoko since she believed that her dependence on her brother had placed a heavy burden on his shoulders and was putting him under stress and Shion had twisted that particular fact into becoming a factor in Satoshi's disappearance, though it was only after she had killed Satoko that she came to realise that she was becoming a monster after recalling Satoshi telling her to look after Satoko, but she decided that she had gone too far and that atonement was out of her grasp and proceeded to kill her identical twin sister, Mion, whom she had been posing as. However, in the end while making her way back to her apartment after stabbing Mion's love interest, Maebara Keiichi, she had gotten caught up in her excitement and slipped and fell to her death, though she knew that she could have possibly saved herself, she had realised that she had gotten so caught up in her anger and rage over Satoshi's disappearance that she had in essence, ruined her own life and opted to die.

Anyway, as it turned out, Satoshi had been alive and was in a medically induced coma underneath Hinamizawa's Irie Clinic suffering from Hinamizawa Syndrome, a disease that drove people to insanity through paranoia and hallucinations and also drove its victims to commit murder and eventually suicide. In truth, Satoshi had murdered his abusive aunt two years previously during Hinamizawa's annual Watanagashi Festival to protect his sister and while in Okinomiya after purchasing a teddy bear that he intended to give to Satoko, he ran into Dr. Irie, who offered him a lift back to the village, but while on the way back, Satoshi became rather paranoid and hallucinated that everyone was transforming into his aunt and that she was out to get him and so, Irie drove him back to the clinic and had him sedated while he conducted research in search of a permanent cure. and only Shion knew about this. Irie had told her not to tell anyone about Satoshi and that he only told her because he knew how badly she was missing him, though Shion suspected that he knew how much she secretly resented Mion for being able to see the boy she loved while she couldn't.

Anyway, pushing those thoughts to the back of her mind, she noticed that her sister was currently sitting over by the window with her Gaming Club that consisted of herself, Maebara Keiichi, Ryūgū Rena, Mion's best friend and potential rival for Keiichi's affections, Hōjō Satoko, Furude Rika and Furude Hanyū, the newest member of the group who arrived a few days before Takano was defeated. Smirking to herself, she decided to have a bit of fun teasing Mion and wanting to see just how much of a rise she could get out of her sister.

"Damn it, I can't believe I lost again," Keiichi was complaining as he was bashing his head on the table repeatedly, after having lost yet another club activity, "Why do I keep losing? It's like someone up there really has it in for me."

"That's just your bad luck, Kei-chan," Mion boasted somewhat smugly, "Though you should consider yourself fortunate that I seem to have misplaced the dress I wanted you to wear."

"How could you have misplaced that dress, Mī-chan?" Rena asked, clearing unhappy that Keiichi was not being put through a punishment game, "I was so looking forward to see how cute Keiichi-kun would look in it."

"Why, so you could take me home?" Keiichi said in a nonplussed tone as he rolled his eyes.

"I have to admit that I'm surprised that you didn't make him wear one of the spares, Mion-san," Satoko said before Rena could reply.

"Well, to be honest, he's already worn those and well, it just would seem strange if he was to wear an outfit that he's already worn," Mion replied in her defence with a sigh.

"Hey, I'm right here, you know!" Keiichi protested, not all that happy that the others was discussing him as if he was not there.

"So, I wonder what else we can have him do," Mion went on, choosing to ignore Keiichi's protest much to his chagrin.

"Hey!" Keiichi shouted, causing Shion to laugh as she decided to make her presence known.

"Konichiwa, mina," she greeted in a rather cheerful and carefree voice before turning her attention towards Keiichi, "Hey, Kei-chan, what's wrong? Don't tell me that my wicked witch of a sister has you doing another of her punishment games again."

"Sh… Shion," Mion said in surprise, clearly not expecting, and neither was she pleased to see her sister, "What are you doing here?"

"Why, onē, I'm hurt," Shion replied in a teasing tone that was laden with mock hurt, "Haven't you forgotten that I work here?"

"Oh yeah," Mion grumbled under her breath, clearly not all that happy to see her sister since she knew that Shion was planning on teasing her.

"Hi, nē-nē," Satoko greeted cheerfully upon seeing the girl that had become somewhat of a surrogate sibling to her.

Shion then turned towards Satoko and flashed her a smile. It was true that two years previously, Shion had hated Satoko, believing her to be the root cause of all her brother's problems and she remembered that one day while posing as Mion at school in order to get close to Satoshi, she had furiously beat Satoko up after she had started crying over the fact that she had spilt her lunch, but Satoshi had come to his sister's aid, punching her across the room and Shion remembered how Mion was left to deal with the fallout from that incident since everyone there had thought that it was indeed Mion that had hurt Satoko, but thankfully Satoshi had accepted her apology and had told Shion, though he really believed her to be Mion to look after Satoko for him and Shion did indeed stick to that promise, becoming rather aggressive in her defence of Satoko, though she had to admit that her nightmares in which she had gone mad and ended up stabbing Satoko to death had something to do with it. She could not really explain it, but for some reason, she felt as if that had actually happened. Every time she would have that nightmare, she would wake up feeling that it was more of a repressed memory trying to surface than an actual nightmare and she felt that by getting close to and protecting Satoko, she was ensuring that she would not become the person she had been in her nightmare, though it did feel as if she was trying to make up for what she had done to Satoko in her nightmare, which made no sense since that had not actually happened, had it?

Anyway, putting those thoughts aside, Shion brought her attention back to Keiichi.

"So you lose another of my sister's games?" she asked in a playfully flirtatious tone.

"Y-y-yeah," Keiichi said, being taken completely aback by Shion's flirty nature.

Mion felt her anger increase at seeing her sister flirt with the boy she liked. She knew that Shion was just doing it to tease her, but she could not help but get annoyed anyway. It was as if Shion believed that the only purpose in her existence was just simply to annoy her, though Mion knew that Shion was just doing what many siblings did with one another. It was natural for siblings to annoy one another and yet, Mion just could not resist walking into her sister's proverbial trap. She knew that Shion was expecting her to object and in fact she knew that that was her intention and yet, despite knowing this, she just could not resist giving her sister the rise that she was looking for.

"Go away, Shion," she said furiously, clearly not appreciating her sister's presence, "No one wants you here."

"My, my, I was expecting you to be wearing one of those ridiculous frilly dresses that she likes to put you in," Shion went on, ignoring Mion's comment as she placed her index finger on Keiichi's chest and made little circles round his left pectoral muscle, which only further served to aggravate Mion.

"W, well, she was going to make me wear something, but she seemed to have misplaced it," Keiichi explained as he started to feel rather uncomfortable and was still shocked at Shion's behaviour.

"Shion!" Mion growled dangerously in a low voice as she felt her hands ball into fists, "I'm warning you!"

"She misplaced your punishment dress, that's not like her," Shion said, acting surprised and even placed her hands over her mouth to make it all the more convincing, though it was clear that she was clearly faking it.

She then turned her attention to Mion, who was clearly fuming and it only served to bring a smile to her face.

"My, my, onē, you're not usually forgetful, I wonder if this is just a one-off," she boasted teasingly, pretending to ignore her sister's current mood, "Or maybe you're starting to become forgetful. Maybe you're in the early stages of dementia."

"But, Shī-chan, isn't Mī-chan too young for that?" Rena asked curiously, clearly clueless that Shion was just teasing her sister.

"Maybe she's a freak-case," Shion replied, much to Mion's displeasure.

"I don't have dementia!" Mion snapped, causing Keiichi to jump in startled shock, "It was just a one-off, I'm sure, now go away!"

"Whatever you say," Shion said, still in her playfully carefree tone that only served to infuriate Mion even further and she turned her attention back to Keiichi to further get under her sister's skin, "Well, if you're ever looking for an escape from that Wicked Witch of the West, just come round to my apartment."

However, before Keiichi could reply, Shion leaned really close to him and brought her face right up to his and for a moment it appeared as if she was going to give him a kiss on his lips and Keiichi felt his eyes widen in shock as he was complete caught off guard and had no idea how to react, but then before their lips met, Shion pulled away at the last minute and then shot Mion a rather smug look as if to say, "Gotcha".

"Well, I best be going," she said with a laugh, "Otherwise Mion's gonna bite my head off. Sayonara, mina, till next time."

She then left, leaving a rather stunned Keiichi and a fuming Mion and everyone else just had shocked looks on their face, clearly unsure what to make of what had just happened.

"Bite your head off, I'll do a lot more than that when I get my hands on you!" Mion shouted after her sister, waving her arms in the air.

"Oh my, you'll get your hands on me!" Shion called back in mock shock, "Could it be that I was wrong about you and Kei-chan and that you actually want me in the sack!"

Mion looked confused for a moment, but then the implications of Shion's statement slammed into her like a ton of bricks and caused her to scream in frustration that Shion had succeeded in getting her yet again. However, while Mion calmed down and the others moved on and started to talk amongst themselves, no one noticed that outside, a notebook with a dark grey cover and white katakana lettering fall to the ground having seemingly fallen from the sky.

Later that same day after Mion and the others had left, Shion walked out of the Angel Mort complex in her normal casual clothes after finishing her shift. The sun was already starting to go down and the sky was a bright orange hue. Anyway, Shion could not help but remember how she came to work at Angel Mort. It was a known fact that within the Sonozaki Family whenever twins were born to the Head of the Family, then the second born was strangled to death before their first bath. However, fortunately for Mion and Shion, their grandmother, Oryō did not have the heart to go through with it. Since Oryō was the Head of the Sonozaki Family, it had fallen upon her to carry out the deed, but she could not do it and so the second born was spared. In truth however, Shion was really the oldest, having been born as Mion and Mion was really the younger twin having been born as Shion, though Shion remembered back when she was still "Mion" that she hated it that her sister was effectively being ostracised and constantly being trodden on and all because of the simple fact that she was alive. Shion knew that there were many in the Sonozaki Family who were not happy that her sister was still alive and she knew that if any of those people had been the Head of the Family, then Mion would have been killed long ago. However, Shion had come up with the idea of them both trading places because she felt that her sister deserved a chance at happiness. However, unfortunately during one of those switches, her sister had been branded with the Oni tattoo that was reserved for the next head of the family and that was how she had become Shion on a permanent basis. The Oni tattoo should be on her back since she was the oldest and she did admit that she was a bit peeved at that. However, that did not change how she felt about her sister.

She remembered after that incident that "Shion" had ran away from home and she remembered finding her sister cold, wet, hungry and terrified for her life and she thought that "Mion" was going to kill her, but instead all it did was bring them closer and Shion (the current Shion) remembered vowing that no matter what, she would protect her sister no matter what. However, the tattoo had made switching rather difficult and all of a sudden, Shion found herself dealing with what her sister had had to deal with. She was now the one that was being ostracised and persecuted. However, she managed to take it in her stride. However, she did remember that after Mion had run away that when they both returned, Oryō blamed her for it and even though Mion tried to reason with her, Oryō had basically struck her as well for daring to defend her. It was no secret that Mion was also resented by some of the Sonozaki Family for being close to her and refusing to get in line with them. Anyway, eventually Oryō had seen her continued presence as a problem and had her sent away to St Lucia Boarding School, or as she called it, a "Factory for Manufacturing Ladies" and she was constantly on the bad side of the administration, always getting into trouble for one thing or another, but she managed to escape after studying the layout of the building and the security detail and her uncle, Yoshirō, who thankfully was not among those who had despised her hired her to work at his establishment, though she had to pose as Mion, which in other words, she was temporarily regaining her true name.

However, unfortunately, Oryō had found out about her escape from St Lucia and was understandably furious, but it wasn't until after the Watanagashi Festival after Satoshi had murdered his aunt that Oryō discovered where she had been hiding after the police confronted Satoshi about his aunt's murder and she had provided him with a false alibi and had to tell them who she really was because she had been disguised as Mion at the time and Mion had been seen at the festival. However, what she did not account for was that the police would get in contact with the Sonozaki Household to confirm that she was indeed who she said she was and the fact that Satoshi had been persecuted and ostracised by the village because of his stepfather and mother's support of the Dam Project only served to aggravate the situation even further, though Shion knew that those who despised her were probably secretly glad that she was wanting to pursue a relationship with Satoshi since they what have the perfect excuse to bring their displeasure out into the open. However, Shion did not let that get her down and let her grandmother know exactly what she thought of her to her face, but Mion, seeing that the situation was close to getting out of hand stepped in and taking up her role as the Family's heiress had managed to get her to apologise to their grandmother and as punishment, she had been forced to rip out three of her fingernails from her left hand, though she managed to rip one out, she had started to freak out and two Sonozaki henchmen had to do the other two.

"Can't say that I'm happy about that, onē," she thought to herself as she remembered how she had briefly come to hate Mion for siding with the grandmother, "But now that I think about it, had it not been for you, I probably would have ended up in real hot water."

She had to admit that much. Before Mion had stepped in, Shion was considering physically lashing out at Oryō and had Mion not stepped in, she would have probably punched their grandmother and she would have had to have faced an even more frightening punishment because of it. Considering what those other punishments were, Shion had long since come to realise that having three of her fingernails ripped out was fairly light in comparison to what she probably would have been put through if she had physically struck their grandmother, so in a way, Mion had actually saved her and she remembered Mion apologising afterwards, after Satoshi had disappeared, though Shion remembered saying that she did not blame her and that she had only done what was expected of her as heiress, which was true, but the truth was, she did have a degree of resentment towards her sister and Mion knew it as well and that just seemed to make it even worse. However, after Mion had mentioned Satoshi, Shion remembered how she had briefly become enraged and tried to strangle Mion, only stopping when she noticed that Mion also had three fingernails missing and Mion had been reduced to tears and it was clear that their whole arrangement and the system that the Sonozaki Family abided by upset her. Shion knew that her sister was aware of her suppressed resentment towards her and it upset her. Mion was upset because she knew that her sister had a bit of resentment towards her.

"Gomenasai, onē," Shion whispered as she let out a sigh as, hanging her head down.

Despite her resentment, she also loved her sister and she remembered that promise she had made to her when she had discovered her with the tattoo on her back.

"Guess I'm not really that good at keeping my promises, am I?" she went on as she started to walk towards her apartment.

However as she brought her head up to look in front of her, she could not help but notice a dark grey notebook lying on the ground with everyone else walking by ignoring it.

"Huh, someone must've dropped their notebook," she said to herself as she quickly went over to where it was and picked it up, not really all that happy that everyone else was just ignoring it, "Yeah, that's right, it's not mine, so it's not my problem. Oh, I just can't stand idiots like that."

However, curiously, she studied the notebook and found white lettering on the front that was written in katakana and which read "Desu Nōto".

"Desu Nōto, what as in the Japanese pronunciation of the English Death Note?" Shion said, looking somewhat confused before her eyes widened at a rather frightening possibility, "Wow, could it belong to an assassin who keeps a list of all his hits in this notebook?"

She could not help but feel a bit fearful at that moment, realising that she may be holding something that could implement an assassin in unsolved deaths or deaths that had originally been passed off as accidents. What she had could possibly prove that certain people who initially were believed to have perished in accidents could have been murdered. Curiously though and defying her better judgement, Shion opened the notebook and was surprised to find that the pages were all totally blank apart from the lines that were provided for the writer to write on.

"Guess I'm safe," she sighed with relief, "Guess they haven't started using it yet."

She then cautiously looked over her shoulder, half expecting the notebook's owner to be standing behind her and ready to kidnap her since she remembered in the past when she had accidentally knocked over three motorcycles and upon trying to leave the area, she was suddenly confronted by the motorcycles' irate owners. She was half expecting something similar here. However, fortunately, there was no one behind her and she cautiously looked around her in case there was indeed someone watching her, but fortunately there was no one and she then let out a sigh of relief.

"Gee, I'm getting really jittery," she said to herself, "Okay, Shion, calm down, no one's going to kidnap you."

Looking through the notebook once more, she double-checked to make sure that it was blank, though she was still partially fearful that the notebook's owner would show up and kidnap her just for having picked it up and seeing what it was. However, as she came to the first page since she had been scrolling through it backwards and brought it down on top of the other pages, she noticed white writing on the back of the front cover.

"How to use it," Shion read, speaking aloud, "The human whose name is written in this notebook shall die."

As she spoke, her tone became one of pure boredom and disbelief.

"Oh come on, this is obviously someone's ide of a joke," she went on with a laugh, berating herself for thinking that she had picked up an assassin's hitlist, "Just a joke. The human whose name is written in this notebook shall die. So what, I write someone's name and that person just drops dead or something?"

She closed the notebook, despite there being other instructions, but she was no longer interested as she decided that it was just a prank. She then walked over to a dustbin that was sitting in the edge of an alleyway and lifting the lid, she placed the notebook over the round opening. However, before she let go, for some reason, she hesitated. Looking at the notebook, she just could not help but become rather curious about it again.

"What, come on, that's just a load of baloney, there's no way that something like that's real," she said to herself as she made a second attempt to drop the notebook, but once again, her curiosity stopped her from dropping it in.

She just could not explain it. Something about the notebook had piqued her interest and no matter how much she tried to dismiss it, it was as if part of her just refused to let it lie. She had considered taking it to the local police station, but unfortunately for her, Detective Ōishi Kuraudo's replacement did not like the Sonozaki Family all that much due to their Yakuza links and she knew that he would probably claim that she had stolen it or worse, claimed that it belonged to her and would undoubtedly stitch her up as an assassin. Yukimoto Ginjurō was his name and not only did he hate the Sonozaki Family, he was convinced that they had something to do with the Watanagashi disappearances and murders despite it being proven that they had just been a series of coincidences and Takano and the Yamainu had been proven to have been behind at least some of them, but that was not good enough for Yukimoto. In fact, he was convinced that the Sonozaki Family had been in league with the Yamainu and had effectively cut their losses when it was clear that they were beaten. In other words, he was basically Ōishi before Takano's defeat since Shion knew that Ōishi had also believed that the Sonozaki Family were behind everything and had been determined to prove it. However, unlike Yukimoto, when he learned the truth, he had been willing to accept it. Yukimoto on the other hand just simply refused to listen to anything he did not want to hear and he had given Mion a hard time whenever they crossed paths.

Deciding that it was best to take the notebook home she found herself putting the lid back on the dustbin and started walking towards her apartment.

It did not take long for Shion to get to her apartment. Once inside, she immediately went into her room, passing her bodyguard and caretaker, Kasai Tatsuyoshi, who just watched her go into her room, but otherwise said nothing.

"Oh, Kasai, I'll be in my room for a while," Shion's voice came from the other side of the door, "Please don't disturb me, okay."

"Okay, Shion-san," Kasai called back in a professional tone.

Inside her room, Shion placed the notebook on her desk and then went over to the phone. Sure, she was curious about the notebook, but she decided to check up with her sister first since she was a bit scared that perhaps she may have taken her teasing a bit too far. Sure she liked to tease her sister, but she did wonder though if perhaps Mion was becoming fearful that she was trying to steal Keiichi away from her. She did admit though that that was indeed tempting. After all, despite looking nothing alike, Keiichi did have similarities with Satoshi and Keiichi had patted her on the head like Satoshi had done. However, she found herself having to berate herself and remind herself that Keiichi was not Satoshi. After all, Satoshi had a soft and warm hand when he had patted her head, but whenever Keiichi patted her head, his hand felt rather rough and it made her feel uncomfortable and she had to admit that Keiichi's brash personality was a bit of an off-put. However, Keiichi meant well and she knew that he was only trying to be kind.

"I wonder, if perhaps I am taking this whole teasing thing a bit too far," she said to herself.

She had to admit that despite flirting with Keiichi in order to get under Mion's skin, she had to wonder if perhaps she was subconsciously developing feelings for him. Sure, she admitted that she was in love with Satoshi and did not want Keiichi replacing him, but she just could not help herself. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Mion has someone and she did not. Okay, Satoshi was alive and in comatose beneath the Irie Clinic, but perhaps it was due to the fact that Mion could actually interact with Keiichi and he could respond to her that really got her. Satoshi couldn't interact with her and despite her talking to him, he did not respond to her at all. Maybe that's what annoyed her.

Anyway, putting her frustrations aside, she picked up her phone and dialled her sister's number and after about three rings, someone answered.

"Mushi-mushi," Mion's voice came from the other end.

"H-hey, onē," Shion said hesitantly with a gulp as she sat down on her bed, "H-how are you?"

"Oh, hey, Shion, what a pleasant surprise," Mion said in a rather carefree tone, acting as if their previous meeting back at Angel Mort had never happened, "What's up?"

Shion then breathed a sigh of relief, glad that Mion had not shouted at her or hung up.

"Look, onē, about what happened at Angel Mort earlier," Shion started to say.

"What, you're calling about that?" Mion's voice came, sounding a bit annoyed before regaining its composure, "Look, don't worry about it. You were only teasing. All siblings do that."

"Y-yeah, I suppose so," Shion said in agreement, though her voice sounded rather hesitant to believe that, "So, we cool?"

"Of course, we're cool, Shion, you big dummy," Mion reiterated, sounding rather frustrated, but gentle at the same time, "You're my sister, Shion, and I'd hate to fall out with you over something normal siblings do to each other and besides, you never actually kissed Kei-chan, so no worries."

"Arigatō, onē," Shion thanked with relief as she let out a sigh.

"Hey, I know that I act like you annoy me and that I'd be better off without you, but don't take it to heart," Mion went on, "You tease me and I react and sometimes say things that I don't actually mean. If that's what you're concerned about, then don't worry. I don't mean anything I say."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt," Shion thought to herself.

"Oops, I gotta go," Mion suddenly said in a rather urgent tone, "Family Meeting and Oni-baba's waiting."

"Oni-baba," Shion growled contemptuously as a wave of anger suddenly caught hold of her.

It was the name that both twins had given for their grandmother due to their dislike and in Shion's case, pure hatred of her. Both twins hated their grandmother, that much was true, but for Shion, her hatred was far greater due to the fact that she had been ostracised and viewed as a disease to the family. Shion blamed her grandmother for that and believed that she was the driving force behind the resentment that many in the family had for her and despite Mion trying to assure her that Oryō did indeed care for her and was only treating her the way she did for the sake of appearances, Shion had a hard time believing that. As far as she was concerned, Oryō hated her since not once had she seen any evidence to indicate that her grandmother did indeed love her.

"Hey, come on, Shion, Oni-baba's not that bad," Mion said, trying to reassure her sister.

"Yeah right," Shion thought to herself, "You're probably deluding yourself, Mion."

"Mion!" a male voice that Shion recognised as belonging to one of those who hated her came from the background over the other end of the phone, "Family Meeting, stop talking with your carbon-copy and get your ass in here, now!"

"Gotta go," Mion said rather hastily, "Love you."

Shion then heard Mion hang up as she felt a wave of pure anger wash over her at hearing the voice yelling at her sister.

"Curse you, Oni-baba," she spat hatefully, "A thousand curses on you and the rest of your despicable family. I can't believe I was actually spawned from the same gene pool as you."

She then slammed the receiver down, got up from her bed and marched over to her desk before taking the chair out from underneath it and sat down and opened the notebook at the back of the front cover and started to read the instructions.

"Okay, the human whose name is written in this notebook shall die," she read, knowing that she had already read that part, "Okay, I know that part."

She then started to read the other instructions underneath.

"This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind while writing his or her name; therefore people sharing the same name will not be affected," she continued to read on as her curiosity continued to grow, "If the cause of death is written within the next forty seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next six minutes and forty seconds. Wow, I have to say that for a prank, this sure is quite detailed. Whoever thought this up must've put an awful lot of thought into it."

She then found herself taking a pen of the small plastic cylinder cup sitting on her desk that had a variety of pens and pencils in it and then placed the ball of the pen above the top of the first page of the notebook.

"So, I just think of a name and a face and then write the name down and depending on what I write down, the victim can die quickly or slowly, huh?" she mused to herself, "Yeah, as if that's really gonna work."

However, even as those words left her mouth, she just could not help but wonder if it was really true or not and unfortunately, she was finding herself wanting to try it out. Even though she was convinced that it was just a prank, she had this almost maddening urge just to try it out anyway.

"Now, if I'm gonna write someone's name in this thing, who's it gonna be?" she found herself thinking before she even realised it, "But wait, if I write someone's name down and they die, would that make me a murderer? Does someone who drops dead after having their name written in a notebook count as murder?"

Shaking her head, she went through a list of people that who could be potential guinea pigs for this, but remembering her grandmother and believing that she was responsible for the pain and hardships she had to endure and having already burned Oryō's hate-filled glare into her mind, it was easy for Shion to picture her grandmother's face and before she had even realised what she was doing, she found that she had already written her grandmother's name in the notebook.

"Huh, what, did I just…?" she said to herself in shock and disbelief as she realised she had written Oryō's name in the notebook, but this shook her head, "Nah, you're worrying over nothing, Shion. Nothing's gonna happen, but still, it's nice to dream."

She then closed the notebook and got up from her desk before lying down on her bed.

Meanwhile in the main meeting room in the Sonozaki Estate in Hinamizawa, the Sonozaki Family had all taken their respective spots as Oryō sat at the head with Mion taking her place beside her as the heiress of the family. Normally, it would have been her mother, Akane who would have been the heiress since she was Oryō's daughter and would have been heiress. Unfortunately for Akane, she had fallen in love with someone who was not native to Hinamizawa and it was a well-established fact that Oryō absolutely hated outsiders and Akane stood up to her mother and it led to a falling out between them and Oryō had been forced to disinherit her daughter. However, what saved Akane's lover and Mion and Shion's father was that he had ties to the Yakuza and he managed to prove himself useful to his mother-in-law and so, Oryō tolerated him. However, because Akane had lost her position as heiress, the position as heiress now ended up going to Mion… well technically Shion since she was the older twin and the real Mion, but unfortunately due to that twin switch, "Shion" now ended up finding herself having to deal with the responsibilities of being heiress as well as having to take the name, "Mion" on a permanent basis.

That had proved rather terrifying for her since she had been the one who requested that they switch that time. However, what she did not expect was that she would be branded with the Oni tattoo that signified her status as heiress; something that should have been her sister's and afterwards, she felt as if she had robbed her sister and she remembered how she had panicked and fled, believing that her sister would come to believe that she had deliberately sought to steal her position from her. However, that was not the case. In truth, neither twin had known that that time was when the family had been planning to mark their heiress. However, Mion, who was still Shion back then then had ran away, fearing that her sister was going to kill her and she remembered getting caught in a rainstorm and ended up cold, wet and hungry. However, Shion, who had been Mion back then had discovered her and noticed the tattoo and Mion could remember getting rather hysterical, begging her sister not to kill her and she remembered how Shion had slapped her across the face to calm her down and then embraced her in a gentle and loving hug and also she declared how she would protect her from then onwards.

However, unfortunately, circumstances had dictated that Shion's promise would be all but impossible to fulfil. Shion had been blamed for her running away and Mion remembered when she had stood up for Shion, their grandmother had physically struck her for daring to stand up for her twin and then a few years later, Shion had been sent away so that the family could be rid of her and Mion remembered how painful that had been for her. In fact, the entire twin switch in which they had permanently taken on each other's identities had been painful and difficult. Both twins practically had to brainwash themselves into thinking that they were each other to avoid alerting the family to their mistake. Mion used to call her sister, aneki before the switch and Mion remembered how Shion would call her, imōto. However, after the switch, after a while, Shion had come off with just addressing her as, onē where she just called her Shion or she would sometime use, onē as well when addressing her sister.

"Okay, is everyone here?" Oryō asked, bringing her granddaughter out of her thoughts as she looked around the room to see if anyone was missing and when she saw that everyone was indeed presence, she relaxed, "Okay, first agenda for today's meeting is…"

However, as she was talking, she suddenly stopped and tensed up and her hands flew up to the left side of her chest over her heart and she grasped her chest as she took a large intake of breath before she fell forward, collapsing on the floor.

"Bā-chan!" Mion exclaimed in frightened alarm.

"Okā-sama!" Akane gasped in shocked alarm, unsure what to do.

"Huh, Oryō-sama, are you alright?" someone asked rather fearfully as someone else cautiously approached Oryō's silent and motionless body.

Bending over, the man put two fingers to the side of her neck where her pulse was situated and after a brief few seconds, he looked up with a rather grim expression on his face and even before the words left his mouth, everyone present knew what it was he was going to say.

"She's dead," he said in a tone completely devoid of emotion.

"D-dead!" Mion exclaimed in complete and utter disbelief, refusing to acknowledge what she had just seen despite having witnessed it first hand, "No, impossible, how?"

"Well, I can honestly say that from the way she clutched her chest before she died, the cause of death was most likely a heart attack," a man that Mion recognised as her father summarised as he studied Oryō dead body.

"A heart attack?" Mion said in a tone that still held a vast amount of disbelief as she still did not want to accept it since now it meant that she was Head of the Sonozaki Family and she feared that she was not ready to take up such a role yet.

"Well, she was really old and coming to the end of her life anyway," Mion heard someone say and the tone they used infuriated her.

From the way they had said it, it was like they did not consider it a big deal and Mion did know that the Sonozaki Family did have its internal disagreements and in fighting. Not everyone had been happy with Oryō's rule over the Sonozaki Family, especially after she had spared her youngest granddaughter when she had been obligated to kill her. A lot of people had deemed her unfit and unworthy of being the Head of the Family, but Oryō had managed to keep them under control. It was the main reason why she had appeared so cold and cruel while in public. Mion knew her grandmother well. After having been forced into the role of heiress, Mion had come to learn that her grandmother was not the cruel and heartless tyrant she portrayed herself as. In truth, she had only acted that way because it was what was expected of her as Family Head. In truth, she really did love Shion, but had to hide it due to her opponents and because of them, she could not afford to look weak as she had known that they would have capitalised on any show of what they perceived as weakness at every opportunity they could find and use that to undermine her rule. It had come as a shock to Mion. She had been shocked to learn that her grandmother had actually loved her before she and Shion traded places and that she genuinely loved Shion. Also, Oryō genuinely loved her daughter and in private, they were both rather close, but unfortunately, since Akane was viewed as a disgrace by many in the family, Oryō had been forced to keep her daughter in a subservient role that was beneath her because of her opponents from within the family.

Mion remembered six years previously when the Japanese Government were planning on building a dam that would have flooded the village and many in the village were opposed to it. However, there was a small minority in the village that were okay with the dam project and they were not happy at Oryō's opposition and felt as if she was trying to oppress them. Their leader was none other than Satoshi and Satoko's stepfather and during a meeting in which the construction company were trying to appease the angry villagers, the Head of the Hōjō Family stood up and told everyone exactly how he felt and actually had the gall to disrespect Oryō to her face and it ended up descending into a brawl. However, after the dam project was cancelled after the Construction Minister's grandson, Inukai Toshiki had been kidnapped and the ransom had been paid, those who had supported the dam project found themselves the targets of persecution and were ostracised; especially the Hōjō Family since they had been the leaders. However, unfortunately, the villagers' stigma towards the Hōjō Family extended to their children, something that Oryō had not intended, but unfortunately, she could not step in as her opponents would have undoubtedly used that to undermine her rule and Oryō had instructed Mion not to do anything either. However, after the death of Satoshi and Satoko's parents in the June of 1980 during that year's Watanagashi Festival, both of them went to live with their stepfather's younger brother, Teppei and his wife, Tamae, where they were frequently abused and Mion did the only thing she could have done, though she had ran it by her grandmother to see if it was okay and Oryō agreed, albeit rather reluctantly. What Mion had done was establish a safe-zone in the school in which Satoshi and Satoko would not have to face the stigma of the villagers and in doing so, she had also founded the Gaming Club as a means of keeping Satoshi and Satoko away from their abusive aunt and uncle for as long as possible. The original club membership had originally consisted of herself, Satoko, Rika, Rena and Satoshi and she came up with the club rules to provide motivation for its members to win. Each club member was to strive for first place with a full-hearted attitude and also, as a club member, one had to do whatever it took to win, which unfortunately meant that cheating was not only allowed, but actively encouraged and also winners were allowed to do anything to the losers, which were known as Punishment Games and the losers had to go through the Punishment Games no matter what. She invented those rules in the hopes of providing motivation to win and the fear of punishment games would give everyone an incentive to win. It was hoped that with this on their mind, Satoshi and Satoko would forget about everything else and just be themselves and she also hoped that the villagers would see it and come to accept them.

Unfortunately, that's not what happened. Despite the villagers coming to accept them, they feared making their true feelings known, fearing that they would end up being branded with the same stigma. In truth, everyone had decided to let bygones be bygones long ago, but had feared that there were those who refused to let it go and so, the persecution had continued even though no one really minded Satoshi and Satoko anymore.

Anyway, not only had Oryō forgiven the Hōjō Family, when she learned that Shion had fallen in love with Satoshi, she actually approved, but unfortunately, she had been forced to denounce her and Mion remembered that it had led to Shion and Oryō getting into a huge argument in which Shion let her hatred for her be known and Mion knew that had she not gotten into "Heiress Mode" and stepped in, Shion would have ended up doing something she would have come to regret. She knew her sister and knew that Shion was getting ready to physically assault their grandmother and if that had happened, Mion would have been powerless to do anything and Shion would have ended up having to have faced a far worse punishment than having three of her fingernails ripped out. Afterwards, Mion had ripped three of her fingernails out so Shion wouldn't have to suffer alone and then confronted Oryō about the situation and even contemplated killing her, but Oryō had assured her that she was okay with Shion and Satoshi one another, but that she had to keep up appearances.

"It's not you, bā-chan, it's the damn system," she thought as she remembered that confrontation, "Damn it all, why can't we just be ourselves instead of putting up those accursed masks just for the sake outdated traditions?"

Friday 22nd June 1984

The following day back in Okinomiya, Shion was in her apartment, lying on her bed with her hands clasped behind her head as she stared up at the ceiling. She had a day off from work and unfortunately for her, she found herself just lazing around in her apartment doing nothing and it was safe to say that she was bored out her brain. She just did not know what to do of her days off. Normally she would have gone to Hinamizawa and teased Mion, but unfortunately, thinking about their confrontation the previous day and despite Mion assuring her that it was okay, she decided to play it safe and give her sister a break. After all, Mion would always go ballistic every time she saw her in Hinamizawa. She also decided against going to see Satoshi since it was the main reason she went to Hinamizawa in the first place with teasing Mion being just a secondary objective and since no one else knew about Satoshi, teasing her sister also provided her with an excuse to be there. However, despite their conversation, Shion decided that Mion was probably still coming down from the rise that she had gotten out of her. After all, despite constantly teasing Mion, Shion did genuinely love her sister.

However, her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when she heard the doorbell to her apartment.

"Huh, that's odd, I'm not expecting anyone," she said as she got off her bed and went over to her desk and opening the top drawer that was on top of her desk, she pulled out her taser that was sitting next to the notebook she had acquired the previous day and then slowly walked out of her bedroom and to the door.

Kasai was currently out shopping for food and Shion knew that it could not be him since he would just walk in. She knew that she was not expecting anyone and wondered if perhaps it was a stalker or an enemy of the Sonozaki Family. After all, the Sonozaki Family had ties to the Yakuza and Shion knew that given those ties that the Family had also gained quite a lot of enemies and even though, no one was supposed to know of her existence, which was one of the reasons why Oryō had sent her away in the first place, she knew it was possible that someone may have uncovered her existence. Unfortunately, if it was indeed an enemy of the Sonozaki Family, then Shion figured that they would be wasting their time as there were many in the family who would be glad to be rid of her in which case, they would only be doing them a favour.

Alternatively, it could be a stalker who had been stalking her. She was under no illusions about her own beauty and knew that her Angel Mort work uniform highlighted her beauty pretty well and she remembered having to deal with perverted morons in the past who tried to harass her during her shift. It was not too much of a stretch that perhaps one of them decided to stalk her and see where she lived and despite having Kasai for protection, the fact of the matter was that at the moment, Kasai was not here to protect her and so if it was a stalker, they would be free to strike without fear of being discovered. However, for them to have known that Kasai was gone meant that they had to have been studying his daily routine as Kasai was normally at the shops during this time of the day and also, they had to have known that she was off work. However, if they thought that she was just a defenceless porcelain doll then she was going to show them just how wrong they were. She always carried a taser around for self-defence.

However, once she got to the door and opened it, ready to zap the would-be attacker with her taser, her eyes widened in shock when she saw that it was none other than her sister.

"Shion!" Mion exclaimed in surprise as she noticed that her sister had been ready to thrust her taser right into her.

"Onē?" Shion said in equal surprise, but then calmed down, "Gomen, I thought you may have been a stalker."

"A stalker?" Mion said as her eyes widened, making it clear that she was feeling rather offended at her sister's remark, "Whatever gave you that idea?"

"Well, I wasn't expecting anyone and well, you can't be too careful," Shion replied in her defence, "Anyway, what are you doing here? I thought you'd be having one of those outlandish club activities of yours."

She glanced over at a clock that was in the room and saw that she was right. It was early and Mion should be back at school with the Gaming Club.

"Club's been cancelled for the day," Mion said with a sigh, sounding rather depressed and Shion then noticed that her sister was not really all that cheerful.

In fact, Mion looked rather distraught, depressed and upset and from the looks of it, she was fighting to hold back tears.

"Kei-chan had to go into Tōkyō with his parents," Mion started to explain, "Satoko's come down with a rather nasty cold and so Rika and Hanyū are taking care of her and Rena's otō-san had an accident and is in the hospital."

"What, is he alright?" Shion asked curiously, fearing for Rena's father.

"Yeah, it's nothing really all that serious," Mion said in assurance, "His hospital stay is just simply a precautionary measure. However, Rena wanted to be with him just in case."

"I see," Shion said with a sigh, "And what's up with you? Somehow, I get the feeling that you would have cancelled the Club anyway given that you're really depressed. What's wrong?"

Mion then let out another sigh and for a few moments, she seemed to be fighting to hold onto her composure, but it turned out to be a failing battle as the tears suddenly started to roll down her cheeks in torrents as if a dam had just burst.

"Oni-baba's dead!" Mion cried as she ran over to her sister and wrapped her arms round her causing Shion's eyes to widen in shock.

"W-w-w-what?" she stammered in disbelief.

Mion did not seem to hear her and cried into her shoulder.

"Hey, Mion, what are you saying?" the older twin asked as she suddenly felt a horrifying feeling of dread threatening to flood her mind.

Mion did not answer right away and it took her a few seconds for her to regain her composure.

"Oni-baba's dead," she repeated with a sniff, "I don't know what happened, but not long after I hung up after talking with you, she was about to start the meeting when all of a sudden, she had a heart attack and died."

Shion's eyes widened in horrifying shock and complete disbelief as she remembered the notebook and the rules on how to use it and she remembered how she had written her grandmother's name in the notebook.

"No way," she thought to herself as the feeling of dread washed over her, "There's no way, it's just impossible."

Author's Notes – This is my latest project and I decided to do something different from my usual. Okay, this is my first chapter and just one thing to point out. All those supposed grammar mistakes in Turrok's speech are intentional. It's just the way he speaks and not mistakes. As you can see, I've gotten into Higurashi and despite the references to its sequel, Umineko; I'm not all that knowledgeable on Umineko, though I have a fair idea of what it's about.