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midsummer-afternoon · 2 years ago

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〜The Clockwork Man〜 Chapter 1: Justice

Notes: This is part of a bigger story project dedicated to Teru Mikami's past. It's still in the rough draft stage, so things may be subject to change. Please keep in mind, a lot of the names of products and places in this story have been made-up, and if by some chance they are real, it was a coincidence. I hope it's interesting^^

In this world there is only good and evil. That was one of the first universal truths I grasped from observing the world around me as a child. Every human being without exception ends up falling into one category or the other.

The rain poured from the dark nighttime sky as though the clouds were crying in despair and thunder roared like a wild beast that can never be tamed. Here on this stormy night in Showa City Hospital, Gumyo, June 7th, Meisho Year 2, Teru Mikami was born.

His father and mother—Yushin and Tokie Mikami respectively, were of low economic status given that Yushin was a construction worker and Tokie was a full-time convenience store employee. Although they were poor, they were a well-matched couple and overjoyed by the birth of their son.

Unfortunately, two months after Teru was born, Yushin died in an accident during his job. This left Tokie having to raise their son on her own, and thus, Teru could never recollect his father. Teru only knew of him through pictures he can look at and the things his mother will say.

With Yushin gone and no longer able to provide a second income into the household, Tokie had to work more days and longer hours, eventually taking on the role of hired manager at the Urabachi convenience store. However, even this was not enough to lift them out of poverty.

Tokie and Teru lived in a small, two-room apartment in an old, worn-down mansion building. They were closed into such a small place, the mother and son had to sleep in the same bedroom, but of course, slept on different beds. So Teru almost always knew when his mother woke up to go to work or came back from work in the morning, no matter how quiet she was.

Upon beginning Birakoshi Elementary School, Tokie, not being able to afford high-tech and fancy Supernova phones or Pear phones, bought her son the same kind of phone she had—and the only one she could afford, a flip-phone whose model was known as the Power phone. And not being able to financially provide Teru his own personal computer, they had to share a second-hand computer, a G Ignition Lite. Teru often had to rely on the school’s computer lab for the best homework and project results.

However, Teru did not feel unfortunate in the least. For he loved his mother and looked at the world with stars in his eyes.

He was always an exceptionally fast learner and a mature child for his age. He observed the world around him, and instead of only passively receiving information, he sought for answers, trying to understand how the world works and how it’s supposed to be. Based on the cartoons he watched and books he read, he quickly picked up the world was divided into good and bad. Furthermore, and most importantly, he knew which side he wanted to be on.

When Teru reached 3rd grade and was placed in Class A, life was not as simple as it used to be. Not only did school subjects, in particular math, become more difficult, but so did human relations. But Teru was never one to let challenge intimidate him.

He made sure he would achieve great things for his classmates, he endeavored for them to be the number one class in the nation. Teru took on the role of class president.

One day, three of Class A’s meanest students, Sadao, Seiji, and Kiyoatsu began to bully Rintaro. First, Seiji knocked over and crushed his pencil case.

“Stop! Please!” Rintaro says as Kiyoatsu grabbed the collar of his shirt from behind.

Teru rushed over to shield Rintaro as the three other boys came at him.

“What do you want, nerd?” Sadao asks in a condescending tone. Letting go of Rintaro, Kiyoatsu grabbed Teru by his shirt instead. A fight broke out between 5 boys and the classmates just walked out of the room as if nothing was happening. Among them, there were those who didn’t care and those who were concerned, but too afraid to get involved. Despite this, Teru never backed down and fought until the end to defend Rintaro.

Because Teru and Rintaro were outnumbered, they did get beaten up by the other three. Sadao, Seiji, and Kiyoatsu left the them, laughing as they walked away.

“Thanks, Teru,” Rintaro said as he and Teru got up.

Teru had his arm around Rintaro as they walked out of the school together. The words of gratitude from Rintaro and other bully victims were enough for him to be happy to keep saving them over and over again. Teru spared no effort.

At times, the enemy gave into Teru’s dedication. At times, he swayed most of the children in his class to his side…and proved his justice to be right.

Although Teru was able to get good to triumph over evil in school, he was not oblivious to how perpetually exhausted his mother Tokie seemed to be. His mother never gave him details about what her job was like, but he was able to pick up that working in a convenience store was harder than it seemed.

Even on days Tokie was supposed to be off from work, there were countless times she was called in anyways, for a manager had to be constantly available. Teru, understanding this without ever having to be told, made sure to be independent and take care of himself as much as possible. He decided he would get a part time job as soon as he hit the legal age to work. He made it his goal that when he grew up, he would change the world for the better.

One day in school when Teru received an assignment that required him to write an essay concerning what he wanted be as an adult and why. Being influenced by the Morphbots series, at the time watching the Fierce Animal Wars with Alpha-1 being his personal hero, Teru wrote about becoming a soldier in the military and his reason for it being he wanted to be there to protect the innocent. Like all of Teru’s finished assignments, it was an easy 100 for him.

On one extremely rare occasion, Tokie was able to get a vacation. She had three days off, so she made plans beforehand to take Teru to Tokyo. She knew the bullet train trip from Gumyo to Tokyo would take about 3 hours so they would have to spend one night there and come home the next day.

Tokie and Teru woke early to head out for the Omichigashima station, and from there they had to switch trains to reach Shimahidaka station where they can go from Gumyo to Tokyo by bullet train. Teru was excited to ride a bullet train for the first time in his life. He looked out the window mesmerized by the scenery. And when it was lunchtime, Teru was able to enjoy salmon, vegetables, and rice in the bento boxes Tokie had prepared the night before.

When they arrived to Tokyo, the first thing Tokie did was take Teru to Yugahama, where they were able to take a tour around the studio that brought the world the Morphbots franchise. Teru was able to see the early conceptual designs and statues of the characters such as Alpha-1, Wreckblaze, etc.

After the tour, they stopped by one of the toy stores in the area. Teru excitedly checked all the aisles. When Tokie finally caught up to him, she saw that he was longingly staring at an Alpha-1 model. She knew her son rarely asked her for anything, and she was sure if she urged him that they had to leave now he would come quietly. However, Tokie found herself wanting to buy the figure for him, despite it was somewhat out of her price range. She wanted this to be the perfect day for Teru.

“Do you want that figure?”

Teru looked to his mother; his expression bewildered.

“Eh? Umm, well, yeah…but.”

“I’ll buy it for you.”

“Are you sure?” Teru asked, confused as ever.

“Absolutely.” Tokie answered with a warm smile.

“Thank you, mommy! I’ll take good care of it.”

They left the toy store with Teru clutching the figure close to his small body as possible. They stopped by Saffron Canopy Café next for dinner, where Teru had curry rice and Tokie had meat sauce spaghetti. For dessert, Tokie let Teru order a slice of chocolate cake.

“So… how do you like the food?” Tokie asked him.

Teru looked up to his mother, smiling while keeping his mouth closed as he was chewing. After he swallows, he says enthusiastically,

“It tastes good, it reminds me of the cake you always make for my birthday.” And then, Teru lowered his voice as if not wanting to be overheard by others in the café, continued to say, “Except yours tastes even better.”

Then Tokie took Teru to the Galaxy Kingdom, an amusement park filled with unique rides and foods. They rode the giant ferris wheel, Teru watched in awe at the buildings that almost looked like toys from below as Tokie nostalgically recalled that she had rode this ferris wheel with Yushin when they started dating. It was on this same ride when he first held her hand…

“Mommy!”

Teru’s voice broke her train of thought.

“Yes? What is it, dear?” she asked.

“Where is the inn we’re going to stay at tonight?”

“It’s very close to this amusement park, we’ll be able to walk there.”

“Okay.”

“Is there any other ride you want to try before we go? We still have some time.”

The next day, on the train ride home from Tokyo to Gumyo, Teru was looking at a map of Tokyo and found The Forest of Dreams labelled on a forest near Japan’s number one university, To-Oh. Because Tokie had told him she was going to take him to Tokyo again someday (after saving some money), he wanted to know if they can go there, the next time.

“Mommy, the next time we come to Tokyo, can we go to the Forest of Dreams?” Teru asked.

Upon hearing the name, Tokie’s cheerful face turned white in horror, instantly Teru knew this could not be good news.

“We won’t go there.”

“Is there something wrong with it?”

Tokie sighed and said, “Yes.”

“What’s wrong with the forest?” Teru asked innocently and curiously.

Tokie was silent for a few minutes. She seemed to be trying to find the right words.

“I know this is frustrating to hear but…I cannot tell you why, not right now, at least. Someday, I’ll tell you.”

But that day never came.

#death note #death note fanfiction #death note headcanons #teru mikami #x kira #tokie mikami #OCs included #teru's childhood

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midsummer-afternoon · 2 years ago

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Death Note Ambiguous Timeline Creation & Fictional Places Explanations:

Ambiguous Timeline: I understand that Death Note took place in a specific time period in our world. However, I am one of those fans who prefer stories in undefined time periods, so I invented fictional emperor reign periods. In Japan, both the Gregorian calendar and the Japanese calendar are in usage. The Japanese calendar is based on the reign period of Japan's emperors, I will list the eras and the corresponding Gregorian calendar years, real life examples are Taisho (1912 to 1926), Showa (1926 to 1989), Heisei (1989 to 2019), and finally the current era, Reiwa (2019 to the present). I need to ignore the Gregorian calendar in order to keep the fictional timeline ambiguous. I made up the "Meisho" 「明昭」 and "Taisei" 「大成」 eras. Meisho takes place after Taisei, and Taisei ends in Year 47. To keep this ambiguous timeline organized, I have declared that Light picks up the death note in Meisho Year 23, using this piece of information, and that Taisei ended in Year 47, keep in mind the next January was automatically Meisho Year 1, with this, the character's ages are adjusted and calculated. We can call characters who are born in the Taisei era "Taisei babies" and those born in Meisho, "Meisho babies." I might create a separate post indicating who is a Taisei/Meisho baby in the near future.

Fictional Places: When I write fanfiction, I find it easier to write about places that don't exist in real life, it also makes the creative process more fun. I will, of course, keep places like Tokyo, Kyoto, etc. consistent with canon, however, in regards to characters whose hometowns and such were never specified, I just made stuff up.

-Gumyo 「紅明」 is a fictional prefecture located in Western Japan, close to Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto. (The name drew inspiration from real-life Gumyo train station, but they have nothing to do with each other and I have altered the Kanji) The capital is Gumyo Shintoshin「紅明新都心」, the most wealthy and fancy part of the whole prefecture. Other places include Showa City (That is Teru’s birth place and the hometown of Tokie Mikami and Hitoshi Demegawa) and Omichigashima「大道雅縞」 (Teru’s hometown).

This post will keep updating based on new info and my fanfic updates, so it's not complete. But I hope it was interesting and cleared up any potential confusion people who read my stories might have. Thank you. ^^

#death note #death note headcanons #death note fanon #ambiguous timeline #fictional timeline #fictional places #explanations

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