Week #7 - higuchi
Title: The Monster
Rating: PG-13
Pairings/Characters: Higuchi, Rem
Warnings: Swearing
Word Count: 1446
Higuchi didn’t know why someone had dropped a black notebook on his doorstep but he wasn’t pleased about it.
He’d had a fucking bad week, truth be told. He knew they were all laughing at him and he fucking hated it. People were assholes which was why he found it hard to work with them. Was it so god damn wrong to know that you were better than everyone around you and to show it? Why the fuck should he have to act like those idiots in the company were even close to his level?
“You just can’t work with people, Higuchi-san. If you just tried harder, maybe we wouldn’t have to do this.”
He tried to give the notebook a kick and was infuriated when he nearly went flying. What the fucking fuck was wrong with the world today? Reaching down, he snatched the notebook up, frowning when he saw that there were words written on it. His English wasn’t excellent but the second word was definitely “note.” After a moment, he managed to work out the first word: Death.
Death Note.
Oh for fuck’s sake. If the fucking shitty little kids that lived nearby were playing jokes on him, he’d kill them. He’d fucking sue them for death threats or something. It was quite clearly really fucked up. He squeezed the notebook tightly in his hand, scowling and fumbling for his keys.
Once he was inside, he hurled the notebook into the bin and went to pour himself a glass of wine. He needed it after this day. Sipping at it, he turned around.
There was a monster beside the bin.
The wine glass fell to the floor, shattering and splashing red liquid everywhere as Higuchi followed it, screaming with pure terror. The monster - a strange, humanoid, white bony sort of thing - stared at him with creepy dead eyes. It didn’t move closer to him but it didn’t move away either. It just watched him cower.
“W-what are you? I’ll … I’ll give you money, only don’t hurt me!”
“I have no interest in hurting in your money.”
The monster spoke quite softly, almost gently with a decidedly feminine voice. It moved a little closer to him then and Higuchi automatically cowered away, raising a hand to protect his face.
“I also have no interest in hurting you,” the monster said calmly. “You are the owner of the notebook now.”
“The … the what?”
“The notebook,” the monster said, pointing down at his bin were the weird notebook lay. “It is yours. The notebook belongs to whoever picks it up and you did. I chose you to be the owner and now you have picked it up, you can see me.”
“I don’t want to see you! Go away! Shoo!”
The monster regarded him coldly. Gently, it kicked the bin over to him, knocking it over. The notebook fell out at his feet and Higuchi automatically tried to move away, bumping into his drinks cabinet. The monster just continued to stare at him, blinking its dead eyes and seemingly unbothered by his fear.
“You are the owner,” she repeated. “Read the rules in the notebook.”
“Will … will you go away? If I do?”
“You may give me the notebook back, if you should so desire it,” the monster said. “But you must understand first. Read the rules.”
Higuchi glared at the creature. She - he supposed that really it had to be a female - was speaking to him in a way that annoyed him. Patronising. He hated being patronised. Even more so by monsters. Snatching the notebook up from the floor, he opened the front cover and glared at the English that was scrawled inside it. He didn’t have the patience for this foreign language crap. He could speak English fine but reading it was a fucking pain. He gave the monster a glare.
“What’s with the English?”
“It is the most commonly used language. Do you require a translation?”
He scowled and grabbed another glass from the counter. If he was going to have to do this, he was going to have a drink first, fuck it! The monster continued to watch him passionlessly. Higuchi sat at the coffee table and began to read.
When he’d finally finished reading, the glass was empty and he was shaking slightly.
“So … so I can kill people. Anyone. With this.”
“Yes. In almost any way that you wish. To an extent, you can control their actions before their deaths too.”
Higuchi stared at the notebook. Assuming this was for real … this could be one of the most useful things he’d ever found. The things you could do with something like this! Anyone who threatened you, anyone who pissed you off … and you could get money. Control their actions … Shit, you could just about be a God with a notebook like this.
Or perhaps be the most powerful person in your company …
“There is one condition to your using this notebook,” the monster said quietly.
“Condition?” Higuchi said, not really paying attention. “What condition?”
“You must kill the criminals that Kira has not been killing.”
Higuchi stared at her. Kira’s sudden disappearance was an annoyance because crime rates were rising rapidly and that made people uneasy which affected business. And it plain annoyed him. He’d never particularly been touched by crime but it was pretty pleasing to think of any bastard that tried to fuck up his life dying of a heart attack. He thought Kira was too lenient to be quite frank. If it were him …
Apparently now it was him.
“What if I don’t want to?” he asked, flipping through the book.
“Do not read the rules at the back,” the monster ordered. “They are not important.”
“What do you mean?” Higuchi said suspiciously, instantly going to the back cover and staring at the rules written there.
“They are not true,” the monster said after a moment. “They were written in there for a joke.”
“A joke?”
The monster smiled slightly.
“Others of my kind have a sense of humour.”
“There are more of you things?”
She twitched. He’d clearly slightly offended her.
“There are many of us,” she said. “I am a Shinigami. My name is Rem.”
“S-shinigami?”
He tried not to sound nervous but it was difficult, particularly when Rem walked over to him. He feet made no sound on his thick carpet and there was no displacement of air when she moved. Her movement was just not human-like and it made him shiver.
“Listen to me,” Rem said, her voice firm. “I do not care what you do with the notebook. You may use it to get whatever you desire in your human world. All I request is that you do as I asked and kill the criminals that appear on the news. I will ask nothing else of you. If you will not agree to this, I will take the notebook from you and give it to someone else. If I do this, you will not remember ever seeing it. So make your decision wisely.”
Higuchi looked at the notebook in his hands again. He could use this to get anything. Anything. With this, it wouldn’t matter what he couldn’t get on with people or that he didn’t grease the right palms. He wouldn’t need all that fucking bullshit. He could be chairman of Yotsuba within months.
And if he had to kill a few people for that … well, it wasn’t like he was killing them, was it? Writing a few names in a notebook … kids did that, didn’t they? It wasn’t like shooting someone or anything. Just writing down names. And lets face it, who the fuck wanted criminals around the place?
“Okay,” he said with a shrug, opening the notebook at a blank page, grabbing a pen and flicking on a 24-hour news channel. “What the hell? You won’t interfere?”
“No,” Rem said, moving back so she was somewhere behind him. “I will not interfere with your use of the notebook.”
Higuchi smirked as he wrote the first name in the notebook. His mind was already racing ahead, planning exactly how to go about getting himself in charge of the company without anyone knowing he was killing people, how to get people on his side, how to get promoted, how to get more money, how to get the status he’d always craved … soon, they’d all respect him, they’d all regret laughing behind his back. They’d all understand that he, Kyosuke Higuchi was the big cheese in their lives and treat him accordingly.
It would be almost like being a God.
Rating: PG-13
Pairings/Characters: Higuchi, Rem
Warnings: Swearing
Word Count: 1446
Higuchi didn’t know why someone had dropped a black notebook on his doorstep but he wasn’t pleased about it.
He’d had a fucking bad week, truth be told. He knew they were all laughing at him and he fucking hated it. People were assholes which was why he found it hard to work with them. Was it so god damn wrong to know that you were better than everyone around you and to show it? Why the fuck should he have to act like those idiots in the company were even close to his level?
“You just can’t work with people, Higuchi-san. If you just tried harder, maybe we wouldn’t have to do this.”
He tried to give the notebook a kick and was infuriated when he nearly went flying. What the fucking fuck was wrong with the world today? Reaching down, he snatched the notebook up, frowning when he saw that there were words written on it. His English wasn’t excellent but the second word was definitely “note.” After a moment, he managed to work out the first word: Death.
Death Note.
Oh for fuck’s sake. If the fucking shitty little kids that lived nearby were playing jokes on him, he’d kill them. He’d fucking sue them for death threats or something. It was quite clearly really fucked up. He squeezed the notebook tightly in his hand, scowling and fumbling for his keys.
Once he was inside, he hurled the notebook into the bin and went to pour himself a glass of wine. He needed it after this day. Sipping at it, he turned around.
There was a monster beside the bin.
The wine glass fell to the floor, shattering and splashing red liquid everywhere as Higuchi followed it, screaming with pure terror. The monster - a strange, humanoid, white bony sort of thing - stared at him with creepy dead eyes. It didn’t move closer to him but it didn’t move away either. It just watched him cower.
“W-what are you? I’ll … I’ll give you money, only don’t hurt me!”
“I have no interest in hurting in your money.”
The monster spoke quite softly, almost gently with a decidedly feminine voice. It moved a little closer to him then and Higuchi automatically cowered away, raising a hand to protect his face.
“I also have no interest in hurting you,” the monster said calmly. “You are the owner of the notebook now.”
“The … the what?”
“The notebook,” the monster said, pointing down at his bin were the weird notebook lay. “It is yours. The notebook belongs to whoever picks it up and you did. I chose you to be the owner and now you have picked it up, you can see me.”
“I don’t want to see you! Go away! Shoo!”
The monster regarded him coldly. Gently, it kicked the bin over to him, knocking it over. The notebook fell out at his feet and Higuchi automatically tried to move away, bumping into his drinks cabinet. The monster just continued to stare at him, blinking its dead eyes and seemingly unbothered by his fear.
“You are the owner,” she repeated. “Read the rules in the notebook.”
“Will … will you go away? If I do?”
“You may give me the notebook back, if you should so desire it,” the monster said. “But you must understand first. Read the rules.”
Higuchi glared at the creature. She - he supposed that really it had to be a female - was speaking to him in a way that annoyed him. Patronising. He hated being patronised. Even more so by monsters. Snatching the notebook up from the floor, he opened the front cover and glared at the English that was scrawled inside it. He didn’t have the patience for this foreign language crap. He could speak English fine but reading it was a fucking pain. He gave the monster a glare.
“What’s with the English?”
“It is the most commonly used language. Do you require a translation?”
He scowled and grabbed another glass from the counter. If he was going to have to do this, he was going to have a drink first, fuck it! The monster continued to watch him passionlessly. Higuchi sat at the coffee table and began to read.
When he’d finally finished reading, the glass was empty and he was shaking slightly.
“So … so I can kill people. Anyone. With this.”
“Yes. In almost any way that you wish. To an extent, you can control their actions before their deaths too.”
Higuchi stared at the notebook. Assuming this was for real … this could be one of the most useful things he’d ever found. The things you could do with something like this! Anyone who threatened you, anyone who pissed you off … and you could get money. Control their actions … Shit, you could just about be a God with a notebook like this.
Or perhaps be the most powerful person in your company …
“There is one condition to your using this notebook,” the monster said quietly.
“Condition?” Higuchi said, not really paying attention. “What condition?”
“You must kill the criminals that Kira has not been killing.”
Higuchi stared at her. Kira’s sudden disappearance was an annoyance because crime rates were rising rapidly and that made people uneasy which affected business. And it plain annoyed him. He’d never particularly been touched by crime but it was pretty pleasing to think of any bastard that tried to fuck up his life dying of a heart attack. He thought Kira was too lenient to be quite frank. If it were him …
Apparently now it was him.
“What if I don’t want to?” he asked, flipping through the book.
“Do not read the rules at the back,” the monster ordered. “They are not important.”
“What do you mean?” Higuchi said suspiciously, instantly going to the back cover and staring at the rules written there.
“They are not true,” the monster said after a moment. “They were written in there for a joke.”
“A joke?”
The monster smiled slightly.
“Others of my kind have a sense of humour.”
“There are more of you things?”
She twitched. He’d clearly slightly offended her.
“There are many of us,” she said. “I am a Shinigami. My name is Rem.”
“S-shinigami?”
He tried not to sound nervous but it was difficult, particularly when Rem walked over to him. He feet made no sound on his thick carpet and there was no displacement of air when she moved. Her movement was just not human-like and it made him shiver.
“Listen to me,” Rem said, her voice firm. “I do not care what you do with the notebook. You may use it to get whatever you desire in your human world. All I request is that you do as I asked and kill the criminals that appear on the news. I will ask nothing else of you. If you will not agree to this, I will take the notebook from you and give it to someone else. If I do this, you will not remember ever seeing it. So make your decision wisely.”
Higuchi looked at the notebook in his hands again. He could use this to get anything. Anything. With this, it wouldn’t matter what he couldn’t get on with people or that he didn’t grease the right palms. He wouldn’t need all that fucking bullshit. He could be chairman of Yotsuba within months.
And if he had to kill a few people for that … well, it wasn’t like he was killing them, was it? Writing a few names in a notebook … kids did that, didn’t they? It wasn’t like shooting someone or anything. Just writing down names. And lets face it, who the fuck wanted criminals around the place?
“Okay,” he said with a shrug, opening the notebook at a blank page, grabbing a pen and flicking on a 24-hour news channel. “What the hell? You won’t interfere?”
“No,” Rem said, moving back so she was somewhere behind him. “I will not interfere with your use of the notebook.”
Higuchi smirked as he wrote the first name in the notebook. His mind was already racing ahead, planning exactly how to go about getting himself in charge of the company without anyone knowing he was killing people, how to get people on his side, how to get promoted, how to get more money, how to get the status he’d always craved … soon, they’d all respect him, they’d all regret laughing behind his back. They’d all understand that he, Kyosuke Higuchi was the big cheese in their lives and treat him accordingly.
It would be almost like being a God.