Insanity's Ideals ~Prequel to Deathnote~

Chapter 13 ~Orange~

School was unsettling for me. On top of my new ordeals, I had to worry about the questions and constant daunting of fellow classmate had placed me on edge. Not to mention that we had the finals coming up. I needed a good grade or I would have another thing to worry about. I didn’t need people asking me what was wrong, investigating me to find out why they suddenly plummeted.

The worst part of the day was physical education. Normally, I did not really care about this class. I had athletic ability and I succeeded well in sports. Today was a different story.

“Ai, are you alright!?” One of the gym teachers repeated desperately. “Ai, hang in there! Someone get the nurse!”

“Dear God, she’s coughing up blood!”

“Ew, that’s so disgusting!”

You would think that humans were smart enough to think about my condition before sending me to run around like a maniac. Humans are so idiotic... They always forgot the important little things that needed to be accounted for. But it wasn’t there fault I was on the ground, hardly able to take in a single breath of air. I was the one who made the deal. It was my choice and I knew I choose right, in spite of the suffering I was going through.

The gym floor felt cold on my cheek’s bare pale skin. Above me, students crowded as the teacher loomed over me, trying to figure out what to do. I want to yell at all of them- no, I wanted to do more than that. I wanted to use them to further my knowledge. To rise above them all with knowledge and Holiness...

In order to that, I could not die. I refused too do so and let L win our game. In that instant, my throat opened up and I gasped, sucking in air to rejuvenate myself. I can’t die yet. Even if I am suffering during this meaningless existence, I absolutely cannot die until I kill L. Forcing myself to get up, I rose to be on all fours. Looking at the wooden floor below me, I watched as small red puddles formed. I guess I wasn’t done bleeding yet.

“Don’t push yourself anymore, Tagiyoshi!” A heard the gym teacher shout at me. Craning my head to bore my one eye directly into her, I decided to protest.

“Shut up! I don’t want to hear your damn pity!” I argued, beginning to shakily rise off the floor. “I’m not going to die anytime soon and I don’t want some idiot’s sympathy!”

By now, one of my classmates had returned with the school nurse. The woman, who looked in her early 40’s, rushed over to help me. As soon as she laid a hand on my shoulder, it was smacked away by me. Humans and their pathetic emotions-- I want no part in any of it. A few of the classmates, shrank back at my intimidating attitude. I didn’t care. Fear was an illusion. That’s what all emotions are these days.

I was silent as I followed the nurse down the long stretching hallways of our school. My mouth tasted of blood; a very salty and metallic flavor that reminded me of the smell of rust. The nurse behind me didn’t bother to say anything, she could probably tell from the tension in the air that things should not be said anymore. She respected that I did not want to talk. I was at least grateful that she had some common sense regarding what she was.

I shifted my glance discreetly over at Ren. He had been sticking very close recently, almost too much for comfort. It was a little annoying to me, and I figured I would have to lecture him or something along the lines of that later where no one was watching or listening in. He appeared to be almost on edge lately. My guess its because he hasn’t had an orange in awhile. He was obsessed with that orange fruit so much that he would consistently nag me about getting him some more. I would probably have to stop at the market on the way home and buy two bagfuls in order to shut him up.

A few hours later, in the nurse’s office, I was told to go home and rest more. Upon hearing this, my temper flared before something came into my mind that made it worse. Sauntering down the streets, I carried the bags of oranges in both my hands, observing Ren’s actions as he focused in on the bags. A smirk crept up onto my features. Looking around, I saw that nobody was nearby.

“You want one, don’t you?” I inquired watching as he glanced away quickly to prove my point even more. “The human body is filled with nerves. These nerves send signals to the human mind when something is either pleasurable or painful. Taste buds are nerves that contain something called ‘taste receptors’. These receptors detect whether your eating fits into the what element of taste perception. The elements are known as salty, bitter, sour, sweet, and umami. These oranges that I have are all of different kinds. Some are sweet, some sour, all containing a citrus-like quality to them. Tell me, Ren... See if you can figure out what kind of taste each orange is known for. If you guess all three right, then you can have both bags. If not, then I’ll toss them into the nearby river.”

“You can’t waste such a perfect fruit like that!” Ren protested, staring at the river that lie on the bottom of the hill. I stopped and picked out a big orange from the bag. Walking over to the railing that stood between me and the steep hill, I smirked.

“Watch me,” Moving my arm back, I threw the orange off the top of the hill, keeping my eye trained on it before it disappeared into the waters forever. Ren expression was one of horror. Circling back to him, I crossed my arms. “So, let’s play.”

“Fine.”

Searching through the bag, I took out a small orange and tossed it at him. “Number One. Go. Tell me the flavor that you should be perceiving.”

“It tastes bitter.” Ren said, confused as he chewed.

“Correct. The bitter orange, also known as the Seville Orange,” I explained, choosing another from the bag. “Number Two. Go.”

“This one is sweet.”

“Correct. Mandarin Orange. Number Three.”

“This one... tastes both sweet and sour.”

“Correct. That’s a regular orange.” I kept walking forward. “You can have them when we get home.”

Taking step after step, I felt a strange feeling come over me. The feeling that things may be going downhill from this point on. I knew that coming to terms may be difficult for me, but I also knew I had to meet them head on. The verdict stood with me. If I didn’t find L soon, I was just going to be another meaningless life smudged out of existence. This, in itself, bothered me. The other thing that worried me was I had no idea how much progress L was making. This gave me the revelation that I wasn’t being too cautious. If I didn’t clean up my act, I was going to be caught. And if I did clean my act up, I may never find L. I needed the attention, but I couldn’t be caught in the spotlight. This is so frustrating that it made my head throb.

If I had another clue, maybe I would be smart enough to solve this puzzle. In my head, I went over the things I knew about the Deathnote and Shinigami:

1) You can’t kill someone without a name and a face.

2) You can manipulate the actions of my victim before their death.

3) You can control the time and cause of death.

4) If you don’t write the cause of death within the first 40 seconds, that person will simply die of a heart attack.

5) After writing the cause of death, the details of the death must be written in the Deathnote in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

6) Shinigami are the owners of Deathnotes.

7) If a Shinigami drops a Deathnote into the Human World, it becomes the property of the human world.

8) The Shinigami must then remain in the Human World until that human relinquishes the Deathnote or dies.

9) You can use anything to write on the Deathnote with as long as it legible. (Paint, blood, ect.)

10) Shinigami are able to offer humans the ‘Eye Deal’. This deal allows humans the power of Shinigami eyes which means that human can see anyone’s name and lifespan with these eyes. The cost to obtain the Shinigami Eyes is have of the human’s original lifespan.

I only knew that much about the Deathnote so far, which wasn’t much. I had to make a move soon, whether it be before or after L makes his. I had to find him, but I didn’t even know where to start. I had no clue about where he was. For all I know, he could be in America! Then again, now that I think harder about it, he must know that Tenshi is somewhere in Japan. Because of earlier carelessness, I have focused on killing criminals around the Tokyo region. That was my first mistake. L had probably locked in on that little detail and is probably somewhere in Japan. That was good. I had something solid to base this off.

I wondered how I would even begin to try and get into police files. If I wanted to know what L was doing, that was the first priority. I had too search through their files and find out what was going on and whether or not they were getting closer to me.

Lifting my head, I looked at the setting sun. The mixture of pinks, oranges, golds, and yellows looked back at me with their colorful beams of light. It was a transfixing sight that did nothing to help my tense muscles relax. I am, on this rotted earth, a wanted criminal. To the world up in the clouds, I am a holy being, waiting to prove myself. And I will. That was something people could count on me doing. My followers and my haters, they would all see me rise.

“I won’t lose...” I said aloud to myself. “L...”