Light Yagami is a genius high school student who discovers the “Death Note”, a Notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it. After experimenting with the notebook, Light meets the Shinigami Ryuk, the notebook’s original owner, who dropped the notebook to the human world out of boredom. Light tells Ryuk of his plan to rule over a new world free from criminals as a god, where only people he deems morally fit to live remain. Light eventually becomes known to the public as Kira, which is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the word “killer”.