Chapter 5: The Cult of Kira
The internet in this parallel world was a polite, well-ordered place.
Video titles were descriptive. Thumbnails were clear faces with bright lighting. Comments were usually "Great video!" or "I disagree with your thesis." It was a digital ecosystem stripped of chaos..
Then, Kenji Sato dropped a bomb.
Title: DEATH NOTE - Episode 01 [Official Live Action]
Views: 1,405,992 (and counting)
It had been twelve hours since the upload.
Inside the CEO's office at Golden Era Studios, the air was thick with the smell of burnt coffee and nervous sweat.
Mike sat on the floor, hugging his knees, staring at the projection on the wall.
"It's not stopping," Mike whispered, sounding terrified. "Boss, it's not stopping. The server at StreamHub crashed twice. They had to reroute traffic from the sports channel."
Kenji sat behind his father's massive mahogany desk, his feet propped up on the polished wood. He looked calm, but his hand was gripping a stress ball so hard it was warping.
"Read the comments," Kenji ordered. "Filter by 'Top'."
Mike clicked the mouse.
User: LawAbidingCitizen: "I reported this video to the police. The murder at the 12-minute mark looks real. Are we watching a confession?" (24k Likes)
User: GothGurl99: "The aesthetic... it's suffocating. I love it. Why is the apple red? Apples in movies are usually green. The red looks like a heart." (15k Likes)
User: Critic_Dave: "This isn't cinema. It's vandalism. The protagonist is a villain? The lighting is too dark? And that monster... if that's CGI, Golden Era Studios must have a budget of $200 million. But their office is listed as 'Foreclosed' on Google Maps. What is going on?" (45k Likes)
Kenji grinned. "Confusion. Fear. Curiosity. The trifecta."
He opened the System Interface.
[ viral Impact Report ]
Views: 1.4 Million
Retention Rate: 98.5% (Unprecedented)
Emotional Resonance: S-Tier (Fear/Excitement)
Total Points Generated: 145,000
Kenji did the math. The exchange rate was 1 Point = $10 USD.
"One point four million dollars," Kenji breathed.
It wasn't enough to pay the full $5 million debt, but it was enough to pay the $250,000 interest due next week and fund the rest of the season.
"Mike," Kenji said, standing up. "Get the car. We're going to the bank. We're paying the interest."
"We made money?" Mike scrambled up. "How? We didn't turn on ads!"
"We have... private investors," Kenji lied. "They pay based on engagement. And right now, we are the most engaging thing on the planet."
The lobby of the Zenith City Bank was quiet until Kenji walked in. He wasn't wearing his cheap, ill-fitting suit anymore.
He had used a few Points to buy a tailored black suit from the System Shop—something that screamed 'eccentric auteur'.
He slammed a cashier's check on the desk of the Loan Officer, Mr. Henderson.
Mr. Henderson, a man who looked like a dried prune, adjusted his spectacles. He looked at the check. $250,000.
"I see," Henderson said, his voice dripping with disappointment. He had been looking forward to seizing the studio's land.
"This covers the interest. But the principal remains. You have twenty-six days, Mr. Sato. One viral video won't save a sinking ship."
Kenji leaned over the desk. "It's not a video, Henderson. It's a religion. Keep the receipt. I'll be back for the rest."
He spun on his heel and walked out, his coat billowing.
Outside, Julian Thorne was leaning against Kenji's battered sedan.
The "Prince of Zenith U" was wearing dark sunglasses, but people were still stopping to stare at him. They didn't approach him, though. They gave him a wide berth, whispering.
"They're afraid of me," Julian said as Kenji approached. He sounded delighted.
"I went to grab a coffee, and the barista wrote my name on the cup with a trembling hand. She didn't write 'Julian'. She wrote 'Kira'."
"Good," Kenji said, unlocking the car. "Keep that energy. Because today, we kill the world's greatest detective."
Julian froze. "L? We're filming the confrontation?"
"Not face to face," Kenji said. "We're filming the Broadcast."
Golden Era Studios - Soundstage A
The "Broadcast" scene in Death Note is legendary. It is the moment the intellectual chess match begins.
L uses a death row inmate, Lind L. Tailor, to pose as himself on live TV to trick Light into revealing his location.
To film this, Kenji needed two things: A news studio set, and an actor to play the disposable decoy, Lind L. Tailor.
"We can't build a news studio," Mike said, looking at the budget breakdown.
"Even with the new funds, building a realistic news deck with the screens and the anchor desk... it'll take weeks."
"We don't need to build it," Kenji said. "We rent it."
"Rent it? From who? Zenith News Network hates us."
"Not a real news station," Kenji corrected. "A university broadcasting room. Zenith U has a media department, right?"
Kenji turned to Julian. "Can you get us in?"
Julian smirked.
"My father is on the board of trustees. I can get us the keys to the Vatican if you need them."
Zenith University - Media Center. 10:00 PM.
The Media Center was empty. It was a sleek, modern room with a green screen, a generic news desk, and professional teleprompters.
Kenji and his small crew—Mike on camera, Julian (out of costume) holding the boom mic, and a new recruit—broke in using Julian's keycard.
The new recruit was a man Kenji had found sleeping on a park bench.
[Target Identified]
[Name: Gary "The Roach" Miller]
[Profile: Former alcoholic, failed stage actor. Desperate for $50.]
[Soul Resonance: Lind L. Tailor - 95%]
Gary looked perfect. He had the arrogant, slightly sleazy look of a criminal trying to look respectable in a suit.
"Alright, Gary," Kenji said, handing him the script.
"It's simple. You are the world's greatest detective. You are announcing that you will catch the killer known as Kira. You need to sound confident, but... slightly artificial. Like you're reading a speech you didn't write."
Gary adjusted his tie, his hands shaking slightly until Kenji handed him a bottle of water (laced with a System item: [Potion of Focus - Minor]).
"I got it, Boss. I just read the teleprompter?"
"Yes. And at the end... you die."
Gary blinked. "Die how? Like, clutching my chest?"
"No," Kenji said, his eyes dark. "I want you to imagine your heart is being squeezed by a hydraulic press. I want you to scream, but no sound comes out. You fall off the chair. You thrash. It needs to be ugly. Not Hollywood ugly. Real ugly."
Kenji turned to Mike. "Set up the lighting. Flat, bright, TV lighting. We want this to look like a boring government announcement. That way, the death hits harder."
"Rolling," Mike said.
"Action."
Gary looked into the camera.
"To the killer known as Kira... I am L."
He delivered the lines with a surprising amount of gravitas. For a moment, he actually looked like a genius detective.
"What you are doing is evil. I will catch you. I will bring you to justice."
Kenji watched the monitor. He signaled to Julian, who was standing off-camera holding the Death Note prop.
"Write it," Kenji mouthed.
Julian, immersed in his role as Light even when behind the scenes, mimed writing a name in the air. Lind L. Tailor.
"Now!" Kenji snapped his fingers.
Gary's eyes went wide. He gasped, a horrible, wet sound.
He grabbed his chest. He didn't just fall; he collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
He hit the desk, sliding off, knocking over a glass of water. He writhed on the floor, his face turning purple (thanks to holding his breath, a trick Kenji taught him).
"Cut!"
Gary lay on the floor, panting. "Was that... okay?"
"Gary," Kenji said, helping him up. "That was Oscar-worthy. Here's an extra hundred bucks."
The Edit - 3:00 AM.
The scene wasn't done yet. The broadcast was just half of the equation. The other half was L—the real L—watching from the shadows.
Kenji had filmed Elias earlier that day in the "Byte Pit" internet cafe.
On the editing timeline, Kenji spliced the footage.
Screen 1: Lind L. Tailor dies on the broadcast.
Screen 2: Light Yagami (Julian) laughs at his TV screen, calling the detective a fool.
Screen 3: The broadcast cuts to a giant letter 'L' in a gothic font.
And then, the voice.
Kenji used the [System Audio Synthesizer].
He took Elias's monotone mumble and ran it through a filter. He deepened it, added a mechanical distortion to hide the identity, but kept the strange, rhythmic cadence of Elias's speech.
"I had to test it," the synthesized voice of L said through the speakers. "I had to know if you could kill without being there."
Kenji watched the scene play out. Light's laughter cutting off. The shock on Julian's face.
The realization that he—the God—had been played.
"I am L. And I am real."
Mike, who had fallen asleep on the couch, woke up as the distorted voice filled the room. He shivered.
"That voice," Mike rubbed his arms. "It sounds like... metal grinding on bone."
"It sounds like a challenge," Kenji corrected.
He looked at the upload bar.
Episode 2: The False Messiah.
Status: Ready.
Kenji hesitated.
"Mike, if we upload this, we're declaring war."
"War on who?"
"On the genre," Kenji said. "Episode 1 was a thriller. Episode 2 is a battle of wits. Once people realize this isn't just 'horror', but a high-IQ chess match... they won't be able to look away."
He clicked upload.
Almost instantly, the view count from Episode 1—which was now at 3.5 million—began to bleed over..
[Notification: User 'KiraKira' commented on Ep 2]
"HE TRICKED HIM?! The detective sacrificed a guy to find the location? That's... that's messed up. But genius. I'm Team L now."
[Notification: User 'JusticeForNone' commented]
"No way. Kira is right. The guy was a criminal. L is the monster for using him as bait. Team Kira forever."
Kenji watched the comments section turn into a battlefield. People were arguing about ethics, justice, and morality.
They weren't talking about the CGI or the lighting anymore. They were talking about the philosophy.
The debt was still there. The studio was still crumbling. But Kenji Sato leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
He could hear it. The sound of a world waking up.
"Just wait until they see the Potato Chip scene," he whispered.
(To be Continued)