Shien's Chapter: Fanaticism

Yuki Shien carries the memory of a man named Namekawa slaughtering his family and nearly killing him, only to walk free on grounds of mental illness. Raised in an orphanage and tormented by nightmares of his own murder, Shien found purpose when Kira struck Namekawa down, and he became a devout follower. After Kira vanished, he hunted for any trace of him and turned his skills to cyber terrorism in the name of mending the world. While breaking into a system one day, a notebook falls into his room.

Shien fixes on two men who killed a family and were released a decade earlier. Kazutoshi Namaki remains an unrepentant addict, while Taichi Kunugida has buried his past under the name Amazawa, living quietly with his girlfriend and scrubbing toilets for a wage. When the woman reveals she is pregnant and proposes marriage, Amazawa crumbles, feeling unworthy, and she insists his old self is gone. Namaki then resurfaces at the workplace, pushing him toward fresh crime and threatening his family.

Shien writes Namaki's name, and the man drops dead of a heart attack as Amazawa walks away. Resting easy at last, Amazawa proposes the next morning and plans a celebration. At work, though, Shien corners him and names him Kunugida, declaring that a changed name cannot erase his sin. The plea of regret means nothing against the killing of a small girl. Shien's first attempt under the old name fails, so he writes the assumed name instead, and Amazawa dies, leaving his girlfriend waiting over baby magazines.

Shien settles into a daily routine of condemning criminals as the new Kira. When an emergency bulletin reports people collapsing in the streets and a national task force forming against the notebooks, he digs into the story, traces a revealing post, and uncovers Sakura Aoi. Casting himself as Kira's messenger charged with gathering every notebook in the world, he takes his own and tells Ryuk he is heading out, drawing only a delighted remark from the death god.