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The Kira Sequel Consultation
By Marie Nomad
Morgana Ray in Hollywood walked down the street, reviewing her pitch for the latest streaming show. There had been demands for a documentary about the Cult of Kira. She remembered the Kira incident from her childhood. People would say that if you don’t obey your parents, Kira will kill you.
But that was in the past. She looked up to see a sea of different masks and face coverings. She reached up and felt her mask, a sleek pink mask that enabled her to see around her with one way material. It matches her purse and shoes. It was common for everyone to walk around wearing something to hide their faces, after the Traitor President betrayed the World and knelt down to Kira. Showing your own face is now seen as either brave or foolish.
She paused when she saw a notebook fall right in front of her. The woman scoffed. “Must be a prank.” She said as she picked up the notebook. She studied it. It had the words ‘Death Note’ on it. Whoever has this notebook must really have a dark sense of humor.
“Not a prank!” A large entity appeared before her. He was black with glowing eyes; his wings were long, and he looked like the angel of death. It was as if a special effect came to life.
“Charming magic trick.” Morgana looked at him. “If you’re a magician trying to interest me, I admit, it’s an excellent trick.” She looked around for any cameras. “Where’s your camera set up? I want to sign a waiver if you’re going to use my image for a YouTube video.”
Ryuk stared at her. “YouTube?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, TikTok? I love your costume, by the way. You must have a high budget. Who was your sponsor?”
“You’re not scared at all?” Ryuk asked again. “I mean, whenever I appear in front of humans, they scream in fear.”
“Oh no, you are very scary. I've just been ambushed by performers all the time. You have a magnificent presence about you. I think you’re better off going to something that specializes in horror. I suggest Shudder, but they tend to focus more on gore. You seem to be more fantasy-based. I’m more into consultations and trends.” Morgana said as she tried to find a way around that man. He was taking up a lot of room on the sidewalk.
“Uh… wow, how do you explain this?” Ryuk said as he put his hand through her chest.
Morgana’s heart pounded. She could feel something pass through her, but it wasn’t like anything she had felt before. She reached up and felt his arm, and then to where her chest and arm met. It wasn’t a trick of the light or some elaborate illusion. “Wh-“
“Oh, and only you can see me since you’re holding the death note. My name is Ryuk, Ms. Rey Morgan.” Ryuk said as he pulled out his hand and waved. Morgana’s jaw dropped. How did this stranger know her real name? When she was a little girl, when the Kira incident happened, her parents changed their legal names just for protection. Everyone used an alias, it was common, almost like a second name that could hopefully protect them, just in case. She never bothered to change it back since her alias was as much her name as her legal name.
Morgana struggled to maintain her composure. This thing wasn’t human; he was real. He knows things that not even her boss knows. He knows her real name. She closed her eyes and focused on being professional. If he wanted her dead, he would have killed her. He knew her name. He is a god. She glanced at the notebook in her hand. “So, this is… a Death Note?”
“Yup.”
“Can… you follow me to my office?” Morgana said as she adjusted her purse and quickly walked to her office. She’s going to treat this like an unexpected opportunity. Her heart was still pounding at the sight of this supernatural creature. Screaming in fear will solve nothing. No one else could see him. If she screams for help, she will just be locked up in an asylum.
She walked with Ryuk, just flying behind her. It was unnerving to have him behind her like that; she had so many questions about Kira, the death notes. Is Kira still alive? Did Kira exist? Was this Ryuk Kira?
“You’re back already, Ms. Ray?” Her receptionist asked. She was working late as usual, as someone who has to work with people all the time, she was wearing a wig, thick glasses, and makeup to hide her skin tone. She had her face hidden enough so that if people were to take photos, they can’t identify her face. And all that was on her plaque was ‘Receptionist Jones’.
“I… I had a last-second appointment. A video call.” Morgana smiled back at her, doing her best not to act like she had a ‘god of death’ following her.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just… had to do some last-minute paperwork.” Morgana lied as she hid the Death Note in her purse. She didn’t want to get the Receptionist in trouble with this ‘god’.
“All right, well, don’t burn yourself out.” Receptionist Jones said cheerfully.
“Wow, all these humans wearing disguises here in America.” Ryuk said as he hovered right in front of the unaware woman. Morgana wanted to warn her, but she couldn’t. “Seriously, I can see right through it. I was in Japan, everyone just went back to normal. How interesting, two different countries reacting to Kira in two different ways.”
“I need to go.” Morana hurried to her office and closed the door. She sank into her chair and stared at the creature sitting with his legs crossed while hovering upside down, gravity has no hold on him. “Okay… Mr. Ryuk.”
“Just call me ‘Ryuk’.”
“Ryuk… what… do you want?” Morgana asked as she sat straight up, her posture tight; she could not show fear to this being. No, it was more like she could not afford to lose control of him.
“I need your help.” The god floated there. Morgana was confused. How could she help this ‘god’?
“My help? I don’t understand; I am just a media consultant. I help out with movies, TV shows, and even documentaries.” She paused. “Is it about Kira? Did Kira sent you?”
“Yes, and no.” Ryuk said as he hovered right in front of her. “But, you can help out with entertainment, right?”
“That’s correct.” Morgana couldn’t help but feel like she was in an anime where a god shows up asking for help. She didn’t think it would be a god of death.
“You see, we Shinigami are always bored. We can’t do anything but just kill humans and gamble. Very tedious, I must say.”
Morgana resisted the urge to shiver at the thought of a bunch of gods of death being bored while randomly killing people. Not exactly what she thought of when she thinks of the Grim Reaper.
“We can watch the events on Earth, but it’s no fun. So, one day, I went ahead and dropped my Death Note into the human world to see what would happen.”
“What effect does it have?” Morgana grabbed the Death Note and gripped it tightly. Did this guy just drop a possible ancient powerful artifact just out of boredom? She remembered all the videos of random teenage guys just dropping TVs from high places just to see what would happen.
“The Death Note is what enables us to kill humans. If you write a name and the cause of death, that person dies. You can just write the name and kill that person that way. However, you need to know what that person looks like. That way, you don’t accidentally kill the wrong person.”
Morgana felt her fingers sweat as she stared at the Death Note. This god had just dropped an instrument of death among humans, just to see what would happen. “I… I see. Does it kill automatically?”
“Oh no. As long as you don’t write in it, it’s just a normal notebook. Anyway, one day, I dropped a Death Note in Japan with instructions in it, so that it could be used properly and… Kira found it.”
Morgana took another deep breath. The power to kill at any time, any place, all that the person needs is a name and a face. Both are things that one can get easily back then. She was glad that she was wearing her mask. “I see, so that is how Kira got his power.”
“Oh yeah, it was great. He decided to use the Death Note to kill criminals and become a ‘god of justice’. Way more entertaining than the previous times.”
“Previous times?!” Morgana exclaimed and then clenched her mouth. She didn’t want to risk this god being mad at her and killing her.
“Oooh! You really do have emotions!” Ryuk laughed at her. “We did drop them a few times. Usually, the person would accidentally discover the power, scared about hiding the notebook, and it just either ends up destroying them, or the Shinigami attached just went ahead and killed them. The past owners of the Death Note only wrote a couple of names. Kira was different. He killed, and then he kept on killing. It was a complete surprise.”
Morgana analyzed the story. So, Ryuk tried to spark something with the Death Note before, and nothing much happened. But Kira was different. In media terms, Kira was an unexpected smash hit.
“He was brilliant, the way that he evaded the police, the FBI, how he had tricked his father and close friends, he even worked with them to catch Kira!” Ryuk laughed. “The things he did, the chaos he caused. It was the most fun I had in centuries.”
“What kind of man was Kira?”
“He’s smart, I mean, really smart. He thought of ways to use the Death Note that no one had ever thought of. I mean, maybe we would have, but we never really tried. But, he was eventually caught, and so I killed him.”
“You killed him.” Morgana was surprised. The way Ryuk was talking about Kira, she thought that the god liked him.
“If I didn’t, he would be in a jail cell for years after that; that is boring.” Ryuk rambled on. “Anyway, we had been trying to make a new ‘Kira’, but nothing worked. We dropped a death note near a devoted follower of Kira, but L had made him kill himself. Dull ending.”
The god leaned into the woman and said, smiling, “So, I thought, maybe I can ask a human how to recreate Kira. You humans are just so crafty and inventive.”
“My entertainment doesn’t involve killing people.” Morgana rejected but then realized that she wasn’t speaking to a man but to a being not like a man. For all she knew, he saw her as an ant. “But… you don’t care.”
“Not really.”
Morgana closed her eyes. She focused on her business side. She cannot get scared; she must concentrate. She had talked to criminals, known monsters, and people with bad reputations. Ryuk is not going to kill her yet. He is asking for help. Ryuk is a god, but he’s still a potential client. The best thing she could do is to see if another Kira could be created. People online always think that Kira will return. Is it possible? “All right, let me think. Let’s think in terms of entertainment, you had a ‘smash hit’ on your hands. It was a surprise. This unexpected development entertained you and your fellow gods.”
“Yeah!”
“You wanted to keep being entertained, but unfortunately, Kira had met his end. Now, you want to make a sequel, another Kira.”
“Oh, good, you understand.” The god clapped in joy.
“I need to know what can be replicated. How old was Kira?”
“He’s about 17 years old, male, a high school student in Japan.”
“Kira was a teenager?” Morgana realized. “A teenage boy got the power to kill?”
“He was smart. His father was a police commissioner.”
“And that added to the ‘entertainment’.” Morgana sighed. She could tell that it added to the plotline of hiding vital information from the parents. A young person who is still developing may act more impulsively. A teenager might be egotistical enough to believe he can be a ‘god’. She had heard of child actors being given so much power, but then became corrupted by it.
“It was so hilarious and so tragic. The father was hunting down Kira, not knowing that it was his son.” Ryuk sighed.
“I bet.” Morgana took a deep breath. “Back then, the Internet was still growing. Kira’s name was spread, and I bet that he could access information easily. Not only with the Internet, but he probably got information from his father. Back then, I bet that the computer wasn’t even locked, and that Kira could get them right away.”
“Sounds right.”
“Well, now, the Internet tracks requests for information easily. Corporations can know more about me than I do. If someone were to kill criminals using the Death Note, they would have to search for their names and faces. The corporations would find out. Not only that, if groups of ‘L’ supporters were to track the criminals and figure out who Kira is, they could go off and either kill the new Kira or knock him out and steal his Death Note.”
“Way to give me spoilers.”
“This is just a theory. Also, the first time, the entertainment must be watching the authorities get confused and trying to figure out how Kira kills from a distance. However, they are probably now aware of the Death Note and how to avoid it. The mystery appeal is gone. Maybe figure out ways of getting around the ‘name’ by changing their names or getting plastic surgery. They could pass laws asking for anonymity or fake names, especially political leaders.” Morgana rambled off. “Before, Kira seemed all powerful, but he’s not.”
“What about dropping the Death Note in another country like… South Korea? Or America? It’s like Japan.”
“Countries that are allied with Japan and the United States probably had at least a rough idea of Kira’s power. Like, say there was a new Kira in South Korea. The authorities over there would request help from Japan. Also, South Korea has many influencers who could easily track down the Death Note.” Morgana let her analytical side take over. “You may try dropping the Death Note in more volatile areas like the Middle East or North Korea. However, suppose a terrorist were to get the Death Note. In that case, he may use it to cause widespread damage, chaos, kill every enemy with a known face and name, and accidentally trigger a nuclear war, killing all of humanity.”
“Whoa! Whoa! All of humanity?!” The god stood up and leaned into her face, a look of panic on his face. “Everyone?! That’s not possible; there are lots of humans. Billions. You can’t just wipe each other out.”
“Yes. That had been a great fear for the modern world for decades. There were also fears that it could disrupt the natural ecological health of the planet.” Morgana nodded, startled at the look of fear. Did this god not understand what Nuclear Armageddon means? On the other hand, it was recent, and this entity had lived for eons. Nuclear Apocalypse was relatively recent.
“When I was thinking nuclear bombs, I was thinking just a city or two, maybe a country, not an entire planet?! We can’t allow that! Shinigami need humans to live! A few thousand at a time is fine, but all that obliteration, no way! Humans can destroy themselves at any second?” Ryuk stared at her. “You humans are scary.”
Morgana didn’t know if she should feel honored or worried that a god of death was scared either for humanity or of humanity. “You need humans to live?”
“Yeah. You see, when a Shinigami kills a human, the remaining lifespan transfers to us. There are limits, for instance, we can’t kill babies or little kids. But, if you humans decide to obliterate yourselves, it’s game over for us.”
“I see.” Morgana understood. The Shinigami are predators who rely on humans. They understood that obliterating all of humanity is bad for them. “In a sense, you were lucky. If Kira is Japanese, he might have worked to avoid nuclear war by avoiding killing any political leaders.”
“I’ll have to tell the King about this, he will be so pissed. We can’t save humans but we really can’t let them destroy themselves either!”
Morgana saw how the imposing figure was now panicking and sighed in relief. “Now, you would have to find a teenager, a privileged, intelligent teenager, to start killing. This teenager will also need to have relatives who are either law enforcement officers or political workers. But he would be tracked down. There’s also the chance the teenager would be so scared that he would vow now to kill again and burn the Death Note.”
She picked up the Death Note. “You would have to replicate the conditions and environment needed to make another entertaining Kira. But you can’t. Someone who is willing to kill so many people and be smart about it is rare. The times had changed, and the world was aware of the Death Note. I had seen this all the time. There was a hit, something went viral, and so it was tried to be replicated, and a sequel was granted. However, the sequel will lose some of its vitality because the audience already knows what is going to happen. And a reboot has to be slightly different from the original to maintain its freshness.”
“Argh!” Ryuk moaned. “So, Kira was… a one in a billion shot in the right place and time, and it can’t be repeated?”
“I don’t know. You can try to trigger different events with the Death Note, but I don’t have any idea of what you can or couldn’t do.” Morgana took off her mask, put it on the desk, and folded her hands as she mentally prepared herself for a possible death. “I’m sorry, I cannot help you. Are you going to kill me and take back the Death Note?”
“Nah.” Ryuk hopped off the desk and waved his hand. “You helped me out, and I have my fill already. If you want to forget everything, return the Death Note to me, and you will forget me and our conversation. Everything about the Death Note will be forgotten. Unless you want to kill a few people.”
“No,” Morgana said as she held out the Death Note. What she learned was horrifying, but she couldn’t change anything, even with this destructive weapon. She wants to forget about how magic is real and that there are gods just casually killing humans. Does that make her a coward? Maybe. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. She slipped on her mask. If Kira comes back or someone else gets the Death Note, she will need it. “I give this Death Note back to you.” She said as she out the notebook with shaking hands.
Ryuk accepted the notebook and flew up and away. Morgana’s body collapsed as she felt memories starting to slip away and changing. She curled up in her chair letting go of the horror she had felt.
XXX
Morgana Ray blinked as she sat in her chair in her office. Wasn’t she going home? She wondered as she stood up. Oh well, it can’t be that important.
The End