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Sex Note, written for the Death Note Anonymous Kink Meme, is a Death Note Alternate Universe Fic in which Light does not pick up a Shinigami's tool for killing people, but an Incubus's tool to aid in all things sexual. The different powers this 'Sex Note' gives leads Light down a different and far less murderous path towards improving the world.

Though the concept sounds like prime Crack Fic fodder, the work resists falling into Porn Without Plot, instead being a fairly serious exploration of an alt-power Light who can improve the world using far less harsh means than murder. Said means just happen to involve sexual manipulation to prevent rape from occurring.


Sex Note provides examples of:

  • Adaptational Attractiveness: Rather than the grotesque horror he is in canon, Ryuk looks like a very handsome man with bat wings. Kinda comes with the Adaptational Species Change mentioned below.
    • Light invokes this on himself once he discovers that the Sex Note can change people's physical characteristics.
  • Adaptational Heroism: Light. He retains his 'change the world for the better' goal, but using a Sex Note instead of a Death Note to accomplish it means he's gone about it in a less Well-Intentioned Extremist way.
  • Adaptational Name Change:
    • The media gives Light the name Kougoukan (literally "anti-rape") instead of Kira ("Killer"), because he just stops rape from occurring instead of murdering criminals.
    • Raye Penber's odd name gets changed to the more traditional American spelling of Ray.
  • Adaptation Species Change: Ryuk is an incubus rather than a Shinigami in this story.
  • All Abusers Are Male: Men are the most vocal about taking away their ability to rape as being a "violation of human rights."
  • Ambiguous Situation: The fact that Sayu tells Light that she believes that Kougoukan is not only a man but directly compares him to Light suggests that she's somehow aware of his secret, but it's not outright confirmed.
  • Archnemesis Dad: Souichiro is hunting Kougoukan as a terrorist.
  • Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: many police officers have been abusing their authority and there's a great outcry among the police because they can't rape people anymore.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Light with Sayu.
  • Bigger Is Better in Bed: One of the improvements Light makes to himself. Also this is one of Ryuk's more prominent features.
  • Brother–Sister Incest: Defied, after Ryuk begins hinting that Light might get that desperate later on Light makes sure that he'll never look at his sister, or any member of his family, that way.
  • Compelling Voice: Or rather a "Compelling Pen", the Sex Note works for Light this way though it's only applicable to sexual matters.
  • The Corruption: The Sex Note turns the user into a sex fiend.
  • Dead Fic: Hasn't been updated since 2014.
  • Deal with the Devil: it's the nature of the bond between the sex kamui/incubus and the first human who picks up the Sex Note.
  • Dramatic Irony: At one point, Light says that while Sayu accepts him, she doesn't understand him and might never understand him. The next time we see her POV, she lists off several things about him only she knows, suggesting that she knows him a lot better than he gives her credit for.
  • Establishing Character Moment:
    • Just to make it clear that this is still Light Yagami even if it's not a Death Note he's using, upon opening the Sex Note the first thing he does is read one of the rules and immediately think of a loophole around it.
    • L and Watari get one as well; after learning that L is being called on to investigate the sudden lack of successful rapes, L immediately deduces that these organizations only want to get their hands on this power themselves, and though Watari asks if they really should be trying to find Kougoukan, L reminds him that this power controls the victims and if Kougoukan decides to use his powers for unsavory means the situation could get much worse.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Light is doing all of this so that he can make the world safer for his sister Sayu, and he becomes uncomfortable when he realizes that the reason his father is so tired and overworked is because of him.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: Light, he had an easy enough time picking up dates before he began using the Sex Note to make improvements. Upon first meeting Light, Ryuk is stunned by how beautiful he is.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Since Light hasn't completely lost it yet, he has much more standards than in canon.
    • At one point, Ryuk jokes that Light has managed to cause more deaths than the average Shinigami with only a Sex Note, purely due to retaliatory attacks on those who rapists deem responsible for their 'impotence'. At the suggestion that he has killed people, Light gets incredibly uncomfortable.
    • While he does participate in a threesome with Naomi and Ray, he refuses to use the Note on them to make them more interesting to him (thus encouraging him to continue their unique relationship), arguing that it would only hurt them and he would rather just not continue to interfere.
  • Failed a Spot Check: Enforced; when Light recruits Naomi and Ray, he specifically writes that neither of them will make the connection between him writing in the notebook and their sudden mental shifts. Naomi ultimately notices anyway when Light makes her comfortable with being a housewife; it's such a large and instantaneous shift that she can't not put it together.
  • Fan Disservice: 1) Ryuk hits on Light. The power imbalance still makes it squicky even if Ryuk is not as ugly as his canon counterpart. 2) Ryuk suggests that Sayu has a crush on her brother. 3) When Light realizes that if he hadn't specified that he harbored no incestuous thoughts for his family that he'd be lusting after his father.
  • For Want Of A Nail: The bored demon who leaves a magic notebook in the human world is a incubus, not a shinigami.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Light realizes that making Ray and Naomi completely at ease with him can also lead to them being perfectly fine with a threesome with him.
  • Genius Ditz: Sayu is of the strong opinion that Kougoukan is a guy, an over-protective guy just like her brother, and says as much to Light suggesting she may know his secret.
  • Genre Shift: Occult Detective to Harem Genre.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: Light/Kougoukan. While many women's groups on the Internet like Kougoukan, the police and a lot of guys do not. Chief Souichiro Yagami assumes that Kougoukan must be a terrorist of the highest order who is out to embarrass the police because there can't be such corruption in his department! Also, like in canon, some people hail Light's alter ego as a savior but since he's not ruling by fear there are even more public dissenters calling Kougoukan's works the work of the devil.
  • Hypocrite: L gets mad at Kougoukan for manipulating people in the same ways that he does all the time.
  • I Reject Your Reality: Souichiro refuses to believe that any of his men are rapists, even when they themselves confessed.
  • Idealized Sex: Even the most improbable sex scene can be made possible by using the Sex Note.
  • If I Wanted X, I Would Y: After having a Sex Note-fueled threesome with Ray Penber and Naomi Misora, Light explains to Ryuk why he has no intent of going back for more — their lack of intellectual curiosity makes them boring to him, preventing any real connection, and "If I wanted to stick my dick in something that wouldn't refuse and couldn't understand me, I'd have bought a blow-up doll."
  • Intelligence Equals Isolation: Light is so much smarter than everyone around him that nobody really understands him, and as a result he's lonely and bored. And while the Sex Note could theoretically solve this problem by boosting anyone's intelligence to a level where they could be a worthy companion to him, he refuses to do it because he'd just be destroying all their existing relationships with everyone they'd now be far too smart to connect with.
  • In Spite of a Nail: L doesn't do any live tests of Kougoukan's powers but Light still gets angry about L investigating his alter ego, L still manages to make Light his top suspect, and L still sends in FBI agents.
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Light uses his charm and the Sex Note to get information out of Ray Penber and Naomi Misora. Though Light didn't intend it to happen Ray and Naomi want to show their appreciation for Kougoukan with sex. Light protests but ultimately gives in and their little chat ends in a threesome.
  • Knight Templar Big Brother: Light is making the world a safer place for Sayu.
  • Lighter and Softer: Light has yet to jump off the slippery slope like his canon counterpart did, and hasn't murdered anyone yet.
  • Living with the Villain: Light/Kougoukan with his father Souichiro who is very anti-Kougoukan believing him to be nothing but a terrorist out to embarrass the police.
  • The Loins Sleep Tonight: Averted; one of the changes Light makes to himself is giving him complete control over his erections.
  • Loophole Abuse: One of the rules of the Sex Note is that no physical changes made by the Note can be reversed; upon reading this, the first thing that Light wonders is what would happen if he were to change someone's breast size from B, to A, and then up to C, since it's technically not a reversal.
  • Meaningful Look: Upon hearing Ray Penber come sneaking behind him "Light surreptitiously exchanged unimpressed looks with Ryuk."
  • Morality Pet: Sayu for Light.
  • Mundane Utility: The Sex Note has more uses than just the obvious, and when Light figures out that he can alter physical features with it, he immediately alters things about himself such as increasing his strength, speed, and giving himself complete immunity to all diseases. Also, he never needs to shave again, his tan is even, and his hair is always perfect.
  • New Year Has Come: After midnight on New Years' Light holds off talking to Ryuk so that he can have the first conversation of the New Year with his sister as is their tradition.
  • Non-Indicative Name: The Sex Note itself, sorta. It is a sex kamui's tool, increases libido, and has powers that focus around sexual matters, but the Power Perversion Potential is entirely up to the user, unlike the Death Note which couldn't be used for anything other than murder. Light's use of the Sex Note on himself just focuses on general improvements, and on others he just uses it to stop rape.
  • No Man Should Have This Power: L acknowledges that while Kougoukan hasn't abused his powers thus far, there's still a very real chance that he could be corrupted or that somebody who doesn't have Kougoukan's apparent morals might steal his abilities.
  • Noodle Incident: Ryuk once gave his Sex Note to a Scotsman, which apparently resulted in a lot of amusement for the incubus.
  • No Social Skills: L.
  • Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Sayu with Light.
  • Ordered Apology: Sachiko forces Light to apologize when Light and his father get into an argument when Light speaks in defense of Kougoukan.
  • Pædo Hunt: In between targeting general rapists and the police force, Light forces the staffs at orphanages to only be attracted to those older than 20. It causes a round of complaints online, much to Light's disgust.
  • Power Perversion Potential: Inverted Trope. Light uses his magic sex toy to change the world and prevent rapes from occurring, along with the Mundane Utility mentioned above.
  • Really Gets Around: Ryuk reveals that owning the Sex Note increases libido. Most owners don't notice because they're having too much fun.
  • Rewriting Reality: The Sex Note can be used to alter people to make them more appealing to the owner and to enable Idealized Sex. It also works for more mundane purposes too, like giving the subject superhuman abilities, immunity to disease, and a perfect tan.
  • Rules Lawyer: Light uses the Sex Note to improve himself, giving himself a perfect body without any drawbacks. Later he figures out how to use it to prevent rape on a global scale. And later he gives himself the alteration that he will know everyone's name and face through skin contact.
  • Sherlock Scan: Upon first meeting Souichiro, L can tell that he had been arguing with someone about Kougoukan given how defensive his answers are.
  • Sickeningly Sweethearts: Light's reaction to watching Ray and Naomi.
  • Sneeze Cut: When Light is discussing with Ryuk how even though he's lonely and bored he still refuses to use the Sex Note to change people and destroy lives for his own amusement:
    Ryuk: Maybe in university you'll find someone with no friends and no family who you can change!
    Light: Sure, Ryuk, there'll be people with no friends and no family who'll ask me to change them.
    In two different parts of Japan, a bleached-blonde model and a reclusive detective both sneezed simultaneously.
  • Spotting the Thread: Despite Light writing in the Sex Note that Ray and Naomi would never connect him writing in the book with their sudden thoughts, Naomi still figures it out when she instantaneously becomes comfortable with being a housewife. By that point, however, he's helped her and Ray so much that they don't particularly care anymore.
  • Succubi and Incubi: In this AU Ryuk is a sex kamui, also known as an incubus, and looks like a handsome naked man.
  • Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: L and Watari are actually sympathetic to Kougoukan and are disgusted with the people who hired them, but they still hunt for him. In L's case, it's because he thinks that if L doesn't catch him, a corrupt official will, and an evil person with the Sex Note would be just as much of a terror as canon Light was with the Death Note.
  • Tautological Templar: Souichiro Yagami believes it's impossible that his men are raping people because they are the police, the good guys, so of course they'd never abuse their authority like that!
  • Then Let Me Be Evil: When Light learns that the great detective L is hunting Kougoukan like a criminal, he snaps.
  • They Would Cut You Up: L wants to find Kougoukan first to prevent this from happening to him.
  • A Threesome Is Hot: Light has a threesome with Naomi Misora and Ray Penber and from the look of things he'll be having one with Misa and L if the Sneeze Cut is anything to go by.
  • Trans Tribulations: In chapter 27, Light begins experimenting with using the Sex Note for more radical bodily transformations. Later, in chapter 30, one of his test subjects, who was magically gender-shifted, makes a blog post about the experience, prefacing it with some troubles they'd been having — losing a court case against their ex-boss, getting evicted, and being denied SRS for health reasons not explained to them — which is why they were desperate enough to accept the offer of a random internet stranger claiming to be Kougoukan.
  • We Can Rule Together: Inverted Trope, L wants to find Kougoukan in order to protect him and, if Kougoukan continues to use his powers responsibly, recruit him as his partner.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Sayu does this indirectly to Light when she tells him her thoughts on Kougoukan and how he should just butt out of other people's business.
  • What You Are in the Dark: Apparently, Light and Sayu have a tradition to be each other's first conversations every New Year's Day. This means that Light stops talking to Ryuk after midnight, even though no one else would have any way of knowing he had broken the tradition.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Light, at least at first.


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