It's during one of her photo shoots that she sees it. She almost doesn't notice it at all actually. It's just a twitch of black that makes itself known, just barely caught in her peripheral vision. She doesn't know how important it is, then. Just how much her choice in that moment would change her life. Change history.

This time, they're taking pictures for the school year, while it's still nice outside. It's sunny and hot and she hates it a little but she's used to these sorts of conditions. Used to being under hot lights, sweating profusely, and still trying to look impossibly pretty. She's good at it. In any case, she's in a school uniform- with a gothic Lolita twist, of course. Right as they go on break, she sees it.

She was going to ignore it, figuring it probably wasn't all that important, but something stopped her. There was this odd little instinct in her mind saying 'You should take a chance. You should take it. How much could it hurt?' So she does, because Misa has always been one to follow her instincts. That's what had gotten her this far after all.

So, she wanders just a little bit away. She peeks over a bush to see just what had fallen out of the sky. It's a little black booklet and she wonders why it feels so significant. There's a pull, her heart beating fast, telling her she should take it. She should try and figure out what it is. It's frightening.

She wants to run, feels another, deeper instinct making her want to turn around and forget about it. She almost does. Instead, she ends up just standing there, looking at it, unable to make a choice.

"Misa!" someone calls from the set, "Hurry up, we need to get going."

She stays where she is, frozen in indecision.

"Misa!" is shouted again.

She grabs it. Puts it in the group of school books she's already holding.

"Misa Misa is coming!"

-=-1-=-

She gets a better look at it later that night. She's tired and sweaty and just wants a bath and to go to bed when she gets to her apartment that evening. She ends up taking a shower instead. She goes through her nightly routine, which involves a lot of skin care and hair products. She chooses to go and have a protein shake before putting on her chap stick and crawling into bed. As she's putting the shake together in her kitchen, she remembers the book.

Later, she's sitting on the couch, sipping on a straw, the book spread out in front of her. Her sleepy mind sparks awake in interest as she reads the contents. It's a little difficult- her English isn't perfect after all, but she begins to understand it. She also comprehends how dangerous it could be if it fell into the wrong hands. That doesn't stop her from setting down her glass and running to grab a pen.

She knows exactly who she will test it on.

-=-2-=-

It's about a week before she gets the news. She's feeling a little twitchy by then, her mind filled with both anxiety and impatience. She's afraid of someone finding out what she did but even more so that it won't have worked. That the person who she feels most deserves it won't be punished, won't be dead and unable to ever hurt anyone again. Thinking of that happening makes her skin crawl. She needs to know and it's taking too long.

Finally, her manager pulls her aside. It's a Friday and she's just gotten finished with a signing. Fans are finally wandering off as she's brought away, security guards around her until her manager deems it safe enough to drag her off to have a word. Her nerves are buzzing, but she settles down to listen, not knowing what the woman wants to talk about.

"The man who…allegedly killed your parents died. He had a heart attack a couple of days ago." She said, "I only just found out. I felt you should know."

"Misa Misa doesn't know how to feel about this," she said, looking at the ground and doing her best (which was pretty amazing, if she said so herself) to appear conflicted, "Misa is relieved that he won't be hurting anyone else but is also sad."

Because if there is one thing Misa is, it isn't stupid. Sure, she's not the sharpest crayon in the box, but she's a damn good actor. She's amazing at pretending emotion, at understanding other people and their motives. She doesn't plan on getting caught, either. Not for this man's murder.

"Why?" She asks, looking at her in slight confusion.

"Death is always sad." Misa said, even as her heart sang.

Her manager smiled at her, a little soft, a little sad.

"You're a better person than I am." She said.

-=-3-=-

When she finally got home she was so happy it felt like her heart was going to burst. 'He's dead' she thought in sing-song, desperately, viciously satisfied, 'he's dead, he's dead, he's dead'.

She looks at the notebook, which she'd pulled out of it's hiding place under her couch, and she knows what she's going to do. She realized a long time ago that the justice system isn't infallible, that people like him go free all the time. Knows that she doesn't want anyone to suffer like she did. To see a killer walk free.

'No one else,' she thinks.

Her pen sets to paper.