"Hahaha, Oda!"
Ando clutched his stomach, doubled over with laughter.
"Only your first chapter took first place, and that was thanks to the full fifty-three-page opener. None of the other chapters have even cracked the top five."
Oda's face turned beet red.
He mumbled his defense. One Piece had only just started. Luffy's legendary adventure hadn't unfolded yet. The story needed setup. The good parts were still coming.
"But Death Note was unstoppable from day one," Ando said, cutting off every escape route.
Oda's expression shifted several times, but eventually he took a few deep breaths, steadied himself, and admitted it.
"Yeah. Right now, I'm not as good as Kanzaki. I'll give you that."
Even today, he still remembered the shock of reading Death Note's first chapter.
'This guy is truly amazing. I could never come up with plots like this.' Those thoughts had left a deep mark.
Torishima had been right to bet on Death Note.
"However," Oda looked at his assistant, "look forward to my performance going forward."
Ando gave a dry laugh, realizing he'd pushed it too far.
Oda could take a joke, but telling a serialized Jump manga artist that he wasn't as good as someone else was still a blow.
Every manga artist signed to Weekly Shonen Jump was obsessed with taking first place.
Plenty of people had their sights set on Kanzaki. Oda was one of them.
"Let's give it everything we've got!" Ando clenched his fist.
"Yeah!" Oda shouted.
Both of them were fired up.
"No sleep tonight! We draw until dawn!" Oda declared.
"I'm with you!" Ando leapt to his feet and thumped his chest. "I'll lay down my life for Oda!"
Before Oda could be moved, Ando sat right back down, instantly calm again. "But the most important thing right now is that I need to check out the latest chapter of Death Note."
He picked up his copy of Weekly Shonen Jump and disappeared into the story.
Oda's face soured.
...
L had begun testing Light Yagami. He asked question after question, hoping to provoke a slip that would confirm Light as Kira, or to draw out details that shouldn't be known.
But Light deflected every single one flawlessly. Left with no other move, L invited him to join the Investigation Headquarters.
Just then, both their phones rang.
Light's father, Police Chief Soichiro Yagami, had apparently been attacked by Kira and collapsed from a heart attack. He was in emergency treatment.
Had Light killed his own father?
'This day was always coming. Light Yagami is that kind of person. But there has to be a twist.'
That was what Ando thought.
Sure enough, Soichiro had collapsed from overwork and stress. It had nothing to do with Kira.
The fear of Kira had kept him awake night after night, and his body had finally given out.
Soichiro confirmed L's identity, and because of this, Light agreed to join the Investigation Headquarters.
Soichiro was worried about his son, still a student, stepping into such a dangerous situation. But Light persuaded him with righteous conviction.
"If anything happens to you, Father, I will personally send Kira to the guillotine!"
It was a perfectly generic line of dialogue, but paired with the close-up of Light Yagami's face, it was hilarious. Funnier to Ando than most actual comedy manga.
Slipping humor into a dark, oppressive story relieved the reader's tension and created breathing room before the next explosion.
Ando nodded and jotted this down in his notebook.
'Kanzaki really knows what he's doing. I learned something again.'
...
"Kira is evil. There is no doubt about that."
"But what is truly evil is that power to kill."
"Anyone who possesses that power is unfortunate. No matter what means are used, happiness built on taking lives can never be true happiness."
This was Soichiro Yagami's perspective on Kira.
In other words, Kai was expressing his own views through the words of his characters. The appearance of the Death Note had led to Light Yagami's downfall.
But Light didn't see it that way. This power was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He would use it to build the greatest world.
"Light's been corrupted by the Death Note beyond saving. Even when visiting his father in the hospital, he's thinking about how to play the role of the dutiful son. He knows exactly what he's doing." Ando shook his head. "Turning a model student into a terrorist. The Death Note is terrifying."
"The Death Note doesn't change people's thoughts," Oda said. "It's just that its power is so overwhelming that it let Light's ambition expand past all limits."
"Hmm." Ando nodded. He looked at the manga. Light Yagami's jawline was cold and sharp like a blade. His face was gaunt, his eyes drained of color. A world apart from chapter one.
"I want to see a plot where the original Light and L team up. That would be incredible too."
Oda blinked. "The original Light?"
"I mean the pure version. The Light from before. To contrast with who he is now."
"I see." Oda shrugged. "That kind of thing could only work in a short story or a spin-off."
He couldn't figure out how to fit it into the main story.
The characterization was too fractured. Even if Light pretended to be a good person, the readers wouldn't buy it.
"But a team-up between the current Light and L is still possible," Oda said.
Since he'd read the advance copy, he already knew what was coming in this chapter.
All he could say was that he was impressed.
"Team up?"
Ando's curiosity spiked.
...
Kira had appeared on a television program. Not in person, but through text and audio.
She had mailed four videotapes. The first was a murder notice, which she used to prove her identity to the station staff.
Then she had Sakura TV broadcast the second tape.
And so, before a national audience, Kira's voice rang out.
She killed two TV hosts who regularly spoke out against Kira.
Proving beyond doubt that she was Kira.
She addressed the people with her philosophy. Kill the wicked. Purify this world. Build a beautiful future.
To stop Kira from killing again, to prevent the spread of her ideology, and to seize the remaining tapes for evidence, a detective from the Investigation Headquarters rushed to the station.
He leapt out of his squad car and charged toward the entrance.
And then he died of a heart attack.
Ando's eyes went wide.
Did Light do this?
Did he know this officer's name? Or had he traded for the Shinigami Eyes?
You could never predict what came next in Death Note. There was always something waiting around the corner.
Where would the story go from here?
Even L was at a loss.
But one man acted.
Soichiro Yagami, bracing his sick body, got behind the wheel of an armored vehicle and drove it straight through the front of the TV station.
______________________
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