A Death Note For Want Of A Nail fanfic written by CelticKawaii
, which starts off at around episode 24 of Death Note and takes off in a whole new direction when L fakes his death after striking a deal with Rem. He promises Misa's safety in exchange for allowing him to capture Light as Kira.
After deciding that his original method of solving the Kira investigation wasn't going to work, and that Kira would almost definitely get away if he were to die, L decides to take a different approach. Namely, he allows his successors to step in, hoping that they work together to catch Kira. That... didn't exactly work out.
So L readjusts the plan, and implores Matt to not only work the case with him, but also get Mello and Near to agree to cooperate, since, as Mello's friend, he can best get him to work with Near.
Along the way come mysterious trolls, European painters who oppose Kira, and hackers who Rickroll people.
Thus far, it has 13 chapters, and definitely promises more plot-twists along the way. It can be found here.
List of tropes in Xanatos:
- Ascended Extra: Matt and Linda. The two of them are fairly well-rounded characters in the story, compared to their original roles as Satellite Character and
One-Scene Wonder Flat Character, respectively. - Ass Shove: Alluded to in Chapter 11 by the Kira-troll, when he tells "L" to tell Kira where he can shove his notebook.
- Big Eater: L has sweets with him every other instance he appears in the story. Description of his consuming said sweets borders on Food Porn at times.
- Cool Car: Matt steals one in Chapter 6. A cobalt blue Lamborghini!
- Deadpan Snarker: Matt and L. The inevitable conclusion results when the two converse.
- Drives Like Crazy: Matt in Chapter 7. Dear lord...
- Fiery Redhead: Matt is actually a brunette in this story, but due to a mistake involving a prank Mello had intended for Near, Matt ends up with bright red hair. The author really likes that hair color, which is why she added the hair dye incident.
- Foreshadowing: L mentions the name of an artist who is opposed to Kira's agenda, by the name of Tilia O'Connor. Tilia is actually the name of a genus of plants belonging to the linden family. Since Linden is Linda's actual given name, it's implied that Tilia is really Linda.
- Jerkass: Whoever the hell *cough*Matt*cough* keeps sending harassing messages to Kira by hacking into his computer.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Mello says it word for word after Matt decides he likes the red hair resulting from a prank backfiring. It Makes Sense in Context.
- Say My Name: Light calls L by his "real"note name when he thinks the latter is dying of a heart attack. Probably to appear more dramatic (Light, not the author).
- Shout-Out: In Chapter 3, Linda and Matt sing Still Alive for Mello on his fifteenth birthday.
- Im on ur Internet, trollin ur Kiras.
- Rickroll, anyone?
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- Troll: Matt. He's been harassing Kira via taunting messages made through hacking his computer on and off for five years.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: No mention is made of Minori after Linda takes off and heads back to Wammy's House.
