A/N: Here's the first chapter of my new story, which tells the tale of Beyond Birthday, however he's not going to be in it for a while, because there's a bit of back-story I want to build up first (B arrives around chapter 5ish). So this first chapter focus's on certain events in the shinigami realm. Enjoy!

(Oh, and reviews would be nice, I curious to know what people think of this idea before I carry on)

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note.


Ryuk had always told Natrat he was too soft for a shinigami. That his policy on which human's he should kill to gain lifespan would be the death of him. And yet he persisted, killing only those who would imminently take life and thus most likely shorten their own by gaining a death sentence of human origin. He said he would only take lives that would otherwise be squandered in a stupid manner, and only when he needed to. Ryuk thought that was stupid, what if he lost his Death Note for a couple of dozen years as some shinigami were wont to do, he would run out of life that's what. Ryuk thought his behaviour was altogether too human-like for a supposed god of death and so had little to do with him, up to the point his existence to a more interesting turn when he got a little too involved with humanity.

Natrat was of small stature for a shinigami, and he did look as soft as his personality was described. He had big ragged ears, and his head was covered by a layer of brown-black fur, which was thinner over his face, which frequently bore an optimistic smile, in contrast with the creepy grins the rest of the shinigami sporadically wore. His body had a human like frame, but with very long arms and fingers, which made his legs look disproportionately short. He wore a pendant of some form around his neck, his right ear was pierced and on his left arm he wore what appeared to be one manacle from a pair of handcuffs, with part of the chain still dangling. His wings were mammalian, and he held them folded close to his back when they weren't in use. Like many shinigami he wore his Death Note in a holster on his right hip.

Ryuk watched as the shinigami crouched at the human-world viewing-hole, death note held open in his hand pen poised, as his eyes followed whatever was going on with interest. He crept over and peered over the smaller Death God's shoulder at the scene going on somewhere in the human world. He watched as a dark haired man appeared at the mouth of an alley, his eyes focused on the woman who was walking along it, facing away from him, unaware.

"Are you gonna kill that guy?" asked Ryuk.

Natrat glanced up briefly, acknowledging the presence of the other shinigami, but didn't speak in answer to Ryuk's query. Instead, after another brief glance at the human realm, he scratched the man's name into his notebook, and then flipped to the back adding a number to a list at the back. Like a few others Natrat liked to keep track of the lifespan he was gaining from his victims, in his case probably due to his desire to take as few lives as possible, and only when needed. Unsurprisingly Ryuk wasn't one of those. His laziness meant he preferred to go by guesswork. Natrat flipped the notebook shut and watched as down in the human realm the man approached the female, calling out in a drunken slur and raising his knife threateningly. The woman screamed and called out for someone to save her. Just then the man dropped the knife and grasped at his chest, meeting the woman's eyes with an expression of shock, before falling at her feet. The woman backed away from the man's body slowly then turned and ran from the scene.

"Nice," said Ryuk. "I always thought you were a bit dull, but now it turns out you have an inclination towards dramatic events."

"It's not that," murmured the shinigami. "It's the fact that I only want to take lives that would otherwise be squandered. That guy… if he'd carried on with what he was going to do, he'd have been locked up by the other humans for the rest of his life, so I don't feel bad for taking what he would have wasted anyway."

"But won't you get in trouble. You did save the live of that human female, I saw her lifespan it was about to end."

"I didn't do it for her so I can't be punished. Out interference always affects the lives of other humans, just not always so dramatically."

"Wonder what she'll do now," pondered Ryuk, "with her extra lifespan…"

"I'm not bothered" said Natrat. "I'm done with the human realm for another few years." He stood, stretching out his wings. "See you later Ryuk." He added before he flew off.

"Could be interesting." Ryuk muttered to himself, sparing the scene one last glance before he also flew off to find one of the shinigami realm's pathetic excuse for an apple.


Some hours later Ryuk's curiosity had dragged him back to the viewing hole and he was focusing on the woman he'd seen earlier. Having memorised her name and face earlier he was able to find her with ease. He watched, rather bored as she met up with another human and went out for dinner. He was vaguely amused when she recounted the story of what happened to her earlier, especially when she told her companion that she must have an angel watching over her, who had protected her from the bad man, which had Ryuk howling with laughter, whilst her companion smiled fondly.

Wanting to share his amusing discovery, Ryuk flew off to find Natrat, who was engaged in one of the shinigami's most frequent past-times, gambling, or at least playing cards, not having much to gamble, with Jealous, a shinigami possibly even more worthless than Natrat himself in Ryuk's eyes.

"Hey, Natrat" called Ryuk, pausing to give one of his characteristic hyuk-hyuk's, whilst waiting for the other to pay attention. "You have to come and see this."

Natrat gave the cackling shinigami a plaintive stare, before sighing and standing up to follow. Jealous gave Ryuk a nervous look, before following on some distance behind. "What is it Ryuk?"

"You'll see."

Natrat followed in baffled silence as they approached the viewing pool. "What've you seen Ryuk?"

The three shinigami settled in front of the pool before Ryuk answered. "It's the human you saved earlier. Beatrice Boeingfield was her name I think."

"I didn't 'save' her. She just happened to get rescued…" said Natrat, somewhat unconvincingly.

"Well whatever you did, it's making her act very amusingly."

"Great," muttered Jealous "it's not more of your human circus is it?"

"Nah," said Ryuk, "just watch."

The three shinigami waited as the murky surface of the pool cleared to show a view into the woman's bedroom. She was knelt by her bed, dressed for sleep, her head bowed and her palms pressed firmly together, in the stereotypical image of prayer. Her long blonde hair had been released and fell in a cascade over her shoulders and partway down her back. Her eyes, which would have been a greyish green, were softly closed.

"She's pretty." said Jealous earning him a sharp look from Ryuk, who secretly believed that the small shinigami's infatuation with humans, females in particular, would probably lead him into getting too involved and doing something stupid. Although at present it wasn't Jealous he had to worry about.

"What's she doing?" asked Natrat, peering down at the woman with intrigue.

"She's praying" said Ryuk with a brief chuckle. "Foolish human past-time. They believe they'll be heard by their god, and if he likes 'em he'll help them out with their silly mortal problems. Think it'll get them into heaven or something."

"How stupid" said Jealous, "don't they know that they only have their time on Earth and then it's Nothingness for them?"

"Ssh!" hissed Natrat, "I'm trying to listen."

As the others fell silent, and he craned forward slightly, Natrat was finally able to hear the voice of the woman in the pool.

"…and be sure to thank most graciously whichever of your angels was watching over me earlier, for without them hearing my cry for help, I would surely not be here now."

"Ya hear that Natty!" cried Ryuk "she's thinks you're an angel" the shinigami descended into raucous peals of laughter, whilst Jealous gave him a faint look of despair.

"I heard" said Natrat quietly, staring in shock at the woman in the pool below.

"That's kinda sweet" said Jealous.

"It's hilarious. Natrat don't look anything like an angel. I've seen what humans think they look like, they're all white and gold and shiny. All he's got in common with them is a set of wings and that might be pushing it."

Natrat stared down in silence as the woman climbed into the bed and fell asleep. Ryuk, annoyed that he couldn't get more of a response out of the shinigami, shrugged, already bored, and flew off to spread the amusing new story amongst the other shinigami. Jealous sat with the stupefied shinigami for a little while, before he too left to do something less dull than watch a mortal woman sleeping.


It was a short while later, by shinigami standards at any rate, and Ryuk was sitting playing cards with a couple of other death gods, namely Gukku and Deridovely. His mind appeared to be elsewhere.

"Oi," started Ryuk, looking up from his cards at the other two. "You seen Natrat lately?"

"Why?" replied the cow-skulled shinigami. "He owe ya money?"

"Nah, I just haven't seen him 'round lately."

"Well I ain't seen him since ya got him watching the human world." said Deridovely, twining his bandages between his fingers impatiently.

"Ya reckon he's still doing that?" asked Ryuk. "It's been nearly a month."

"If ya that bothered why don't ya go find out" said Gukku

"Yeah, if you're losing to Gukku then I'd give up anyway" said Deridovely.

Ignoring Gukku's protests that he wasn't that bad, Ryuk nodded to his fellow shinigami and stood to leave. "Maybe I will," he said as he stretched out his wings and took to the air.

Ryuk flew away from the gambling shinigami towards the human viewing pools. If he was honest, which in general he wasn't, he would have admitted the only reason he'd asked was because he was bored, bored of playing endless games of cards with the same boring company with the same boring small talk. Thus he'd decided to search out for amusement elsewhere. Since Natrat had somehow unwittingly provided this only a short time ago, Ryuk figured he might be worth trying again.

As expected Ryuk spotted Natrat crouched in front of a viewing pool. He flew overhead, purposefully casting his shadow across Natrat as he descended, to signal his approach. Natrat glanced up to acknowledge the other shinigami, and sat back from the pool, as if he didn't want Ryuk to watch what was going on.

"Hey Natty,"

"Hello Ryuk"

"You still watching that human woman? Not bored yet."

"Yes and no."

"And to think you used to tell me off for deriving entertainment from humans. You're looking a bit of a hypocrite now." snickered Ryuk.

"I'm not, 'deriving entertainment' from her." Natrat glared at Ryuk "Not all of us find every action that goes on down there ridiculous or amusing. Some of us actual have the capacity to be serious once in a while."

"Don't be offended with me. I just thought it was funny."

"That's your problem Ryuk, you never take anything seriously."

"I do! If I didn't take some things seriously my life span would've run out years ago."

"Ok, so you take killing seriously. You're a shinigami! What would you be if you didn't?"

"That's not all! I take apples very seriously. Even if the ones up here aren't very nice…" he trailed off, seeing the incredulous look on Natrat's face.

"Death and apples. That's it, that's all you have Ryuk. And the other shinigami round here aren't much better. We all live our lives without any sort of purpose, and I'm fed up of just existing like that."

"We haven't had a purpose for thousands of years Natrat, and we've got on just fine without it. I don't understand what's brought this on. Is this because of your human?"

"She's not 'my' human!"

"You are stalking her though."

"I'm not! I'm just watching over her…"

"…" Ryuk stared open-mouthed at the other death god. "'Watching over her'? Now you sound like you think your one of her angels" he cackled.

"I don't see why I can't be if that's what she wants to believe."

"I'm not gonna even tell you how stupid that is. How are you supposed to watch over her? You know it's against the rules to intentionally save the life of a human. No-one even knows what the punishment is for breaking that rule, because so far no-ones been stupid enough to try it."

"I'm not going to save her life. I've already done that much unintentionally and I know that doing it again would not be smart. I don't need you to tell me that."

"So, why are you 'watching over' her? If you can't do anything to help her, not that I know why you'd want to in the first place, I don't get what the point is."

"I'm not sure… it's something to do anyway, it's not like there's anything better to do up here…" Natrat's answer sounded uncertain, as if his was trying to make up a believable lie, not wanting to reveal or perhaps not yet understanding his true motives.

"Right," replied Ryuk, bemused by the shinigami's nervous response. "Just so long as you stay up here. Travelling to the human realm may not be against the rules, but there's nothing down there that you can't see from up here." At least, he thought, I can watch you up here, but if you go down there, it won't be as fun since you can't hear me teasing you.

"I guess that's true…" said Natrat, somewhat wistfully. "But still I can't help but think I'd get a better understanding of humans if I could see them up close."

"It's not worth it." said Ryuk standing, "well I'll leave you to your 'watching' then. See ya around buddy!" and with that Ryuk promptly left the other shinigami to resume his own devices, not sure if it was a good idea to leave him without supervision.