Daily Life with a Shinigami: The Great Death Note Cleanup Operation - When I got home, my little sister declared a test of courage, my mother approved of a major cleanup, and the Shinigami hid his notebook on the apple shelf.

"I'm doing a test of courage in your room, big brother!" Friday night. The moment he opened the front door, his little sister's voice came flying at him. Yagami Raito stopped mid-motion, one shoe off, and glanced back toward the living room. There stood his sister, Yagami Sayu, planted squarely in the entryway still in her high school uniform. "...I'm home." "Welcome back! So anyway, we're doing a test of courage in your room!" "What are you talking about, Sayu?" Raito loosened his tie as he stepped into the living room. White shirt, black slacks. As an elite bureaucrat at the National Police Agency, his body carried the weight of a full day at a desk. The expensive watch on his left wrist read eight o'clock at night. The Yagami house stood in a residential neighborhood on the outskirts of Tokyo. Two stories, detached, fifteen years old. Twelve minutes on foot from the nearest station. About three meters from the neighbor's house. An utterly ordinary home, the kind you'd find anywhere. But this house held one thing that existed nowhere else. A single notebook, sleeping quietly in the back of a desk drawer in Raito's room. "I was talking with my friends, and we figured, it's summer, let's do a test of courage. So then it was like, where should we do it? And I said your room, big brother!" Sayu laughed innocently, her shoulder-length black hair swaying, eyes sparkling. A bright, energetic little sister, every bit the high schooler. "Your room's always so clean and tidy, it's actually kind of creepy." "Creepy how?" "Because it's too perfect! Bookshelf, desk, bed — everything's just so. It feels like something might pop out at midnight!" Raito almost sighed, but switched to a smile instead. A perfect smile. The kind he'd shown countless times at the NPA, the expression that put people at ease. "Well, fine. How many friends are coming?" "Five! All girls!" "I see." Just then, their mother poked her head out from the kitchen. "Oh, Raito, welcome home. Perfect timing. Sayu told me. A test of courage — doesn't that sound fun?" She wiped her hands on her apron, beaming. "And while we're at it, why not make it a big cleaning too? Your room could use a proper going-over, corner to corner, once in a while." A cold chill ran down Raito's spine. A big cleaning. Of his room. Corner to corner. "...A big cleaning, you say." "That's right. You keep that room tidy day to day, but inside the drawers, the back of the closet — dust piles up in places like that, you know." Inside the drawers. In his mind, Raito pictured the back of a certain drawer. Where it was. "Big brother, what's wrong? Your face just went all stiff." "No, it's nothing. Just a little tired." Raito laughed. Perfectly. Without letting a single drop of his inner cold sweat show. "Do whatever you like. Just don't mess up the room. I'll handle the cleaning myself, Mom — you stick to the kitchen." "Oh, but—" "I take care of my own room. That's the condition." His mother looked a little surprised, but her smile returned quickly. "Is that so? Then I'll leave it to you. Make sure it's all tidied up before the test of courage, all right?" "...Yeah." Raito left the living room and climbed the stairs. One step, one step — with each footfall, his heartbeat grew louder. He opened the door to his room. No one there. Of course not. Raito locked the door. Then he went to the desk and reached for the lowest of its three drawers. A click, and the drawer slid open. Inside, documents and notebooks and stationery lay in neat order. Raito carefully lifted them out and reached toward the very back. His fingertips met something hard. There it was. He pulled it out. A notebook with a black cover. On the cover, something was written in white letters. "Death Note." Raito held the notebook and couldn't move for a while. This was the notebook once used by a man who tried to change the world. Anyone whose name was written in it would die. If you pictured their face, without fail. The being known as Kira. That was already a thing of the past. Raito had graduated from university and joined the National Police Agency. As a national civil servant, he now stood in a position to support this country. He no longer used the notebook. Had no intention of using it. But he couldn't bring himself to throw it away, either. If he let this notebook go, there was no telling who might pick it up. Someone might become Kira again. So Raito kept it himself. In the back of his desk drawer, quietly. "...What do I do?" Raito set the notebook on the desk and crossed his arms. The test of courage meant Sayu and her friends would come into this room. The big cleaning meant his mother might look through every corner. Either way, this drawer was far too dangerous. He needed to move it somewhere else. But where? Where in this house could he hide it so no one would find it? As Raito sank into thought, a voice suddenly came from the wall. "Yo, Raito. What're you up to?" Raito turned. A black body oozed out of the wall. A tall, lanky frame — over seven feet. Black skin, huge yellow-glowing eyes. A mouth stretched wide as if split open, sharp teeth peeking through. The shinigami, Ryuk. A being not of this world, visible only to Raito. "Ryuk, keep it down. Mom and Sayu are downstairs." "Your voice is louder than mine." Ryuk slipped through the wall and floated gently into the room, drifting up toward the ceiling in defiance of gravity. "A test of courage, huh? Sounds like fun." "You were listening?" "'Course I was. Your little sister's got some energy." Ryuk spun a slow pirouette in midair. Raito sighed. This one was always like this. Amused by other people's troubles, showing up uninvited, talking up a storm. "So, what're you gonna do with that notebook?" Ryuk's yellow eyes fixed on the Death Note atop the desk. "...Move it somewhere else." "Where?" "Haven't decided. I'm thinking." "Hmm." Ryuk began drifting slowly around Raito. "Sounds like a pain, all that. Want me to do it?" "Huh?" The next instant, Ryuk dropped onto the desk and plucked up the Death Note. His long fingers closed around the black cover. "Hey — don't touch that!" Raito lunged, but Ryuk nimbly dodged. "Relax. I know a good spot." "Where?!" "The kitchen." "Excuse me?" Cradling the notebook, Ryuk sank straight down through the floor. "Hey — wait!" Raito bolted from the room and pounded down the stairs. When he reached the kitchen, Ryuk was hovering in front of the overhead cabinet. "Here." Ryuk opened the cabinet door and tossed the notebook toward the back. Inside sat a cardboard box. In the box, a cluster of red apples. The notebook settled neatly beside the box of apples. "...You." Raito dropped his voice to a whisper. His mother and Sayu were in the living room. He couldn't shout. "This is dangerous. This is the single easiest place in the house for L to find it." L. The world's greatest detective. The man who once chased the Kira case and faced off against Raito. Even now, somewhere, he had to be hunting for information on the Death Note. "A kitchen shelf — anyone could open that." "Yeah, but it's next to a box of apples, right? Nobody'll look twice." Ryuk pulled an apple from the box, opened his mouth wide, and bit down. A crisp, satisfying crunch. "Delicious." "You..." Raito pressed a hand to his forehead. This one was truly, utterly hopeless. "I'm putting it back where it was." Raito reached for the cabinet. "Don't bother. I went to all the trouble of hiding it." "You're the one who hid it." "Come on. Besides, if you're gonna move it, gimme another apple first." Ryuk munched his apple, eyes tracking Raito's hand. "...Why apples?" "'Cause I'm hungry." "That's not what I meant. Why do you like apples so much?" "Who knows. 'Cause I'm a shinigami, I guess." Raito stared at Ryuk for a moment. The yellow eyes showed not a trace of guilt. "...Fine. I'll give you apples. But the notebook stays here. Don't move it on your own." "Got it." Raito took an apple from the fridge and handed it to Ryuk. "Why am I the one buttering up a shinigami..." Raito muttered under his breath. Ryuk bit into his second apple, grinning with satisfaction. "Watching you struggle is pretty entertaining." "This is the worst." Raito left the kitchen and peeked into the living room. His mother and Sayu were chatting happily. "Hey, Mom, make some kind of snack for the test of courage day, okay?" "That sounds nice. Maybe I'll bake some cookies." "Yay! We'll share some with big brother too, right?" "Of course. Raito's been looking so tired from work lately." Raito stood in the doorway, watching his family's smiling faces. The two of them, knowing nothing. Nothing of the Death Note, nothing of the shinigami, nothing of the time he'd been Kira. All of it, Raito carried alone. "Mom, Sayu. I'm heading back up to my room." "Oh, big brother! Look forward to the test of courage day, okay?" "Yeah. Don't mess up the room." "I know, I know!" Raito climbed the stairs and returned to his room. He sat on the bed and let out a long sigh. "Ryuk." "Hm?" Ryuk's face appeared upside-down from the ceiling. "Your appetite is my greatest enemy." "What's that supposed to mean?" "When the apples run out, you'll start moving things on your own again. I'm afraid you'll let slip where the notebook is without even meaning to." Ryuk hung there upside-down, watching Raito for a while. "Don't let the apples run out." "...Yeah, I know." Raito pulled out his phone and opened his notes app. "Restock apples." He typed it in. "There. Done." Raito set the phone down and looked up at the ceiling. Ryuk had already vanished into it. Silence returned to the room. Outside the window, the sound of summer insects. Raito closed his eyes. His family's peace, and his own career. The battle to protect both of them began today. Hide the notebook, placate the shinigami, survive his sister's test of courage, dodge his mother's big cleaning. And keep the notebook's existence hidden from the eyes of that great detective, L. "...Good grief." Raito lay back on the bed. He stared at the ceiling. A white ceiling. An empty, perfectly clean ceiling. Beyond it, Ryuk was there. "Hey, Ryuk." No answer. "...Asleep, huh." Raito closed his eyes. Tomorrow was Saturday. The test of courage was still a ways off. But the preparations had to start now. The safety of the notebook's hiding place. Ryuk's apple supply. His mother's and Sayu's movements. And L's surveillance. Right up until the moment he fell asleep, Raito ran simulations in his head. To think the brain of an elite NPA bureaucrat would be spent on something like this. But there was no help for it. This was the path Yagami Raito had chosen. Raito's consciousness sank slowly into darkness. Around that time, in the kitchen's overhead cabinet, the Death Note lay quietly beside the box of apples. And outside the Yagami house, far in the distance, a satellite gazed silently down upon it. Raito didn't know yet. That tomorrow, this house would receive an unexpected visitor.

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Episode 1

Name: Daily Life with a Shinigami: The Great Death Note Cleanup Operation
Author: Novelia

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