Can the Death Note manipulate people whose names aren't written in it?


For example let's say James wrote: "Bob Schneider gets stabbed at 13:30 by his
best friend. Dies of blood loss one hour later."

Would the Death Note control his friend whose name isn't written in the Death
Note, or would it result in Bob having a heart attack?




The answer to your question is quite complex and can best be summarized
succinctly as -- "maybe". The death MAY play out exactly as you wrote it, it
may play out similarly, but with someone or something else causing the
bleeding, or he may die of a heart attack. Or if certain criteria are met he
may not die (but most likely he will!).

Let's dig in.

* * *

### Rules of the trade

A complete list of rules from the comics and manga is [compiled
here](http://deathnote.wikia.com/wiki/Rules_of_the_Death_Note).

Note, while many share the first 10, there's more rules in the canon than
that. In total there are at least 66 rules that have been compiled from the
source material, many of which are found in the thirteenth manga volume,
_[Death Note 13: How to
Read](http://deathnote.wikia.com/wiki/Death_Note_13:_How_to_Read)_.

Some rules that are applicable to this scenario/question include:

`Rule VI.1`

> The conditions for death will not be realized unless it is physically
> possible for that human or it is reasonably assumed to be carried out by
> that human.

`Rule X.2`

> Whether the cause of the individual's death is either a suicide or accident,
> if the death leads to the death of more than the intended, the person will
> simply die of a heart attack. This is to ensure that other lives are not
> influenced.

`Rule XXVI.2`

> Even though only one name is written in the Death Note, if it influences and
> causes other humans that are not written in it to die, the victim's cause of
> death will be a heart attack.

`Rule XLII.1`

> The use of the Death Note in the human world sometimes affects other humans'
> lives or shortens their original life span, even though their names are not
> actually written in the Death Note itself. In these cases, no matter the
> cause, the god of death sees only the original lifespan and not the
> shortened lifespan.

`Rule LV.1`

> In occasions where the cause and situation of death is written before the
> victim's name, multiple names can be written as long as they are written
> within 40 seconds and the causes and situations of death are not impossible
> to occur.

`Rule LV.2`

> In the occasion where the cause of death is possible but the situation is
> not, only the cause of death will take effect for that victim. If both the
> cause and the situation are impossible, that victim will die of heart
> attack.

`Rule LVIII.1`

> By manipulating the death of a human that has influence over another human's
> life, that human's original life span can sometimes be lengthened.

`Rule LVIII.2`

> If a god of death intentionally does the above manipulation to effectively
> lengthen a human's life span, the god of death will die, but even if a human
> does the same, the human will not die.

`Rule LIX.1`

> A human death caused by Death Note will indirectly lengthen some other
> human's original life even without a specific intention to lengthen a
> particular person's original life span in the human world.

* * *

### Basic rules precluding death

So let us assume a couple things:

  * Bob Schneider isn't going to die otherwise within the next 12 minutes
  * "" hasn't been targeted with a different death scenario from another Death Note.
  * "" is older than 780 days (~2 years) and is younger than 124 years old.
  * "" does not own a Death Note.

If any of the above are false, additional rules preventing the death would
kick in.

* * *

### General feasibility w/ example from the source material

Now the Death Note allows people to write in a situation, perhaps even with
familiar characters (this aspect is somewhat unclear). A good example is the
death of [Matsushiro
Nakaokaji](http://deathnote.wikia.com/wiki/Matsushiro_Nakaokaji), a robber and
murderer who is killed by Light who writes that the target bleeds to death at
1:30 p.m. He was stabbed by a store employee and winds up dying at the
prescribed time.

[![Death of Matsushiro
Nakaokaji](https://i.stack.imgur.com/M5fIS.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/M5fIS.jpg)

This establishes that, yes, assuming the conditions are feasible (see in
particular LV.1-2), you can use the Death Note to manipulate someone other
than the victim into killing them.

* * *

### Death by a best friend stabbing

So what does this mean in practice?

Well, likely Bob's best friend has to have considered stabbing him, which
seems fairly likely, based on the lose definition of potential outlined in the
rules regarding suicide. Also, the friend likely has to be physically present
and have an accessible knife to ensure feasibility (most homes would meet this
criteria as they have knives in the kitchen).

If it is feasible, the next question is whether the attack will somehow result
in the friend dying as well. If so, Rules X.2 and XVI.2 clearly state Bob will
instead die of a heart attack, to prevent additional deaths. Note that Rule
XLLII.1 state that it's fine to short the characters lifespan (let's say Bob
fights back and stabs the friend with a non-life ending injury that
nonetheless shortens his life, i.e. laceration of the spleen or kidney).

Now let's assume that it's not feasible for that best friend, either because
they're not capable of harboring such thoughts, are physical incapable (maybe
they're paralyzed), or would die in the process of the attack. Then that
friend will definitely not commit the attack.

Does Bob have multiple best friends?

If so, likely the above criteria repeats. If one best friend would die from
the stabbing, perhaps the situation will pass to a friend that meets the
feasibility criteria and wouldn't die. So maybe best friend 1 is a nerd and
best friend 2 is a gym rat... the note would likely avoid the nerdy friend who
would die of the counterattack, and instead pick the gym rat, who could carry
out the deed without dying himself.

Unknowns include which best friend is chosen first and how/why, assuming
there's multiple "best friends" of Bob capable of killing him.

* * *

### Death by someone else stabbing him or some accident causing bleeding

Now if no friends are capable of killing him, than the next question, per
LV.1-2 is whether someone else would be capable of stabbing him. Say he's at
the store at 13:30 p.m. and no friends are around, but other people are and
one of them has a knife.

Again, assuming no one else but Bob will die as a result of the attack and the
attacker has considered stabbing a random stranger (or casual acquaintance if
they happen to know Bob), then the stabbing may still occur, just not the
written situation.

Or something else will happen to Bob (i.e. a piano falling on his leg) that
causes him to bleed out at the specified time. The requirement of no
additional deaths, however, would precluding many accidents that might satisfy
this end, though (think massive highway crash, etc., which would likely
produce multiple fatalities).

If there's multiple possibilities to fulfill the cause of death, if the
situation was deemed infeasible or would lead to additional deaths, it's
unclear which would be picked (as with the question of which best friend would
kill him if multiple are capable). Perhaps it's random. Perhaps there's some
unknown rule.

* * *

### Final fall-through: death by heart attack

If there's no way he's going to get stabbed or otherwise maimed in such a way
to bleed out (say Bob is in an underground bunker, far from friends and other
dangers) -- or if ALL such circumstances would lead to additional deaths --
then he will die from a heart attack at the ascribed time.

