Chapter 2: Experimentation
Light Yagami sat alone in his room, the black notebook lying open across his desk. The rain outside tapped softly against the window, but his attention never left the pages before him.
The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
He read the sentence again. And again.
It still sounded ridiculous. Impossible.
Yet the criminal from yesterday had died exactly as the notebook described. A heart attack. No mistakes. No coincidence that simple could explain it.
Light leaned back slowly in his chair, staring at the ceiling. "If this is real…" he muttered quietly, "then there has to be a limit."
He grabbed the remote and switched on the television. News stations flooded the screen - robberies, assaults, murder cases, escaped criminals. Humanity at its ugliest.
Then his eyes stopped on one report.
A hostage situation.
A man held several people at gunpoint inside a convenience store while police surrounded the building. The reporter's voice shook as the camera zoomed in on the criminal's face.
Light's fingers hovered over the notebook.
"No…" he whispered to himself. "I need proof."
He wrote the man's name carefully.
Thirty seconds passed.
The criminal suddenly collapsed mid-sentence. Police stormed the building as screams erupted from reporters outside.
Heart attack.
Light stared at the screen silently.
His heartbeat quickened.
This wasn't chance anymore.
Slowly, a grin spread across his face - small at first, then wider. Not excitement. Not joy. Something colder.
Power.
Real power.
He looked back down at the notebook. "Whoever dropped this…" he murmured, "they gave this power to the wrong person."
Hours passed.
Light continued testing the notebook carefully:
different causes of death
different timings
limitations of control
Every rule worked perfectly.
The more he experimented, the more his fear disappeared. In its place came certainty.
By midnight, pages of names filled the notebook. Criminals. Murderers. Violent offenders. People society failed to stop.
Light stood near his window, overlooking the glowing city beneath the rain.
"This world is rotten," he said quietly. "And the people running it are useless."
His reflection stared back at him from the glass. Calm. Intelligent. Certain.
Then, behind him, a voice echoed through the room.
"You're interesting."
Light froze.
A tall skeletal figure sat casually atop his desk, grinning with enormous teeth and glowing eyes.
The creature laughed softly.
"My name is Ryuk."
Ryuk had finally appeared.