I Know Your Secret-Death Note

It's Too Quiet (Edited)

       "Honey, it's time to wake up!" A voice too cheery to be real pulled Ori from her dreams of sleeping longer. Her eyelids fluttered up and down groggily at the sunlight streaming through the crack in her gray and teal curtains. She shifted her gaze over to the alarm clock on her nightstand to see that she had another two minutes before she actually had to get up. She let her eyes drift close and snuggled back into the covers. She'd wait until the alarm went off.

       BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

       Too soon. Far. Too. Soon. Ori rolled over to face the clock. 7:00 glared at her with angry red digits. The noise was like a banshee in her ears. Ori groaned and smacked the off bottom.

       Fine, she'd go to school.  

       But she wasn't going to like it.

       The trek to school would be the same as always. It was a monotonous cycle she couldn't escape. 

       'Oh well, we still have a little bit until winter officially starts.' Ori thought as she sat up in her bed. It had been six whole months since she and Raito had become friends, and life's been pretty boring up until a few days ago.

       It had first started when a man held a primary school hostage. It had only been a couple of minutes, but the kids began filing out into the sidewalk and street. Teachers had been hugged up against them as if they were trying to protect them from something outside. As soon as everyone was out of the building, the police force stormed the inside. Apparently, the man had died of a heart attack. 

       People would be buzzing about it for a few days. They could discuss how the man got what he deserved. Ori agreed. Holding up a school? For what? Children's lives could have been taken, but he died before that could happen.

       So yes, it was a nice coincidence. 

       Until it wasn't. 

       From that point on, more and more criminals started dying if heart attacks. Only criminals. At that point, it couldn't be a coincidence anymore. 

       They called the faceless force Kira, meaning killer, and they were all over the news. Some called them a murderer, while others called Kira a ray of hope. In almost an instant, society was torn. 

       Not on the surface. It was like a gilded lake. Everything was still mostly normal if you just gave Japan a glance. If you didn't look too deeply, everything was fine. 

       The internet was a different story. Opinions were clashing back and forth. Websites were made in honor of Kira, where you could remain anonymous, where no one knew who you really were. You didn't have to hide what you thought. Anyone could say that those bastards needed to die through a screen, and then look someone in the eye and say that any kind of killing was wrong. 

       Of course, Ori drank it all up greedily. She took notes of the dates and times of criminals deaths. She copied and saved the discussions people had on computer chat rooms. There wasn't much, but she iom in all the information she could. She just had to find her first clue to Kira's identity.

       "Hey, Ori. You're early!" A familiar voice behind her made Ori turn. It was Raito in all his tall glory. Ori frowned as she had to crane her neck up to look at him. 

       "Hey, Raito." She greeted as they fell into pace next to each other. "How was your weekend?"

       "Pretty boring. I got some studying done, but not much else." He gave a nonchalant shrug, but Ori just narrowed her eyes. She was good at determining if someone was lying or not, Vivian often called her a human-lie-detector. She always had a hard time with Raito, though. His speech was so smooth it almost seemed practiced, and his reactions were so mild it was like he had predicted any kind of outcome. Ori wouldn't be surprised if he did. He had proven himself to be calculating and insightful from the very beginning. Sometimes, it made Ori nervous. The fact that he seemed ready for anything made her wonder what was going on in his head. 

       This time, there was something off about his tone. He sounded a little giddy, almost nervous. 

       His speech was the tiniest bit rushed, almost like he was trying to convince himself that nothing had happened. A curious weight settled on her chest, but she did her best to push it away and shrugged. 

       "That does sound boring. I was looking into the whole Kira business."

       "Oh yeah? How's that been going?"

       "Not very fruitful, I'll tell you that. All there is are victims and people making up theories on the internet."

      "I'm sure you'll find something." Ori didn't quite know how to respond above a quiet 'yeah', and so the conversation died. They walked in comfortable silence, but Ori felt like something was wrong. Raito's eyes were clicking around him, barely looking at anything for more than two seconds. 

       "Are you OK?" She asked after a moment's hesitation. Raito's brown eyes lock on her. There was something feral about his gaze. A quiet wildness that had her shivering. The look vanished, and Raito put on an easy smile. 

       "Yeah, I'm fine." it didn't sound like a lie, but it didn't sound completely true either. 

       "All right." He finally caved. The comfortable silence turned sour. There was a twisting in her gut she couldn't ignore. She almost cried when Daikoku finally came into view. It was upsetting. Silence had never been awkward between them before. Raito was a quiet guy, and Ori usually clammed up when she was finally able to focus on something, so stillness wasn't uncommon, but this was new, and it was scary.

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"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."
       -Anton Chekhov