Xanatos

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

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. Except Rem believes she's already killed L.

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.

But then there's Linda. L hadn't planned on her coming along with Matt, but since she knows that L is still alive, she's a part of the case, whether she likes it or not. Not even her leaving can take away from the fact.

Along the way come mysterious trolls, European painters who oppose Kira, and hackers who Rickroll people.

As of July 2020, the fic appears abandoned at thirteen chapters, all written in 2011. What there is of it can be found here.

Tropes used in Xanatos include:
  • 108: Mentioned in the prologue, L figures he has a 10.8% chance at his plan actually working. Of course, since any percentage he spouts is just some random number anyway, and the number itself was meant to be symbolic, it's probably more accurately 108% chance...maybe.
  • Anti-Hero: Unsurprisingly.
  • 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.
  • Character Alignment: Linda is established as a Lawful Good, which is both Lampshaded and Deconstructed.
    • Arguably, Matt could more or less be stated as Chaotic Neutral, since he doesn't really care about morality one way or another, and seems to enjoy stealing cars and trolling Kira a little too much.
  • 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...
  • Faking the Dead: L and Watari.
  • 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.
  • Foe Yay: Light and L. They aren't even on the same continent and it's all over the place! Light internally admits that he actually misses L, and he even dreams about him. L also seems to have a kind of love-hate relationship with Light, mainly within their similarities:

He was Lawliet - the darker, more cynical version of Light.

  1. ↑ Technically, it is his real name, but Light would have no way of knowing that
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