Limited Eternity – Prologue

Her fingertips blazed as they made contact with the dusty notebook, carefully turning its old, tatty pages that were slightly torn at the edges. She winced at the sight of the countless names written on its rough surface, even though most of them had gradually grew faint and faded over the years. However, the one she was looking for was still intact, each letter written with perfect clarity in a prideful black ink.

Once her amber irises located the name, she subconsciously gave a squeeze at the rectangular eraser in her right palm.

Ryuk M yz k

Only his last name was blurry, making her unable to read it. However, it didn't really affect her intentions.

"Are you sure you wanna do this?" she asked for a last time, still a bit cautious about the responsibility she would have to bear if anything were to go wrong.

"Yes, Danae," the Shinigami replied, without hesitation.

The clicking sound of his hanging earring would still cause chills to thrive on her body with each movement he made. Danae gazed up at him, inspecting the thrilled look he gave her with those large, yellow eyes of his.

Upon seeing how impatient he was, she made a move to delete the name, the eraser barely touching the first letter when her fingers hesitated again, giving him a last inquiring look.

"And… you're sure that erasing the name does not mean I am actually using the Death Note?"

"You have my word," he reassured in a low and stern tone.

"Alright then…" she sighed heavily, feeling the night breeze soothingly grazing her skin, and with a decisive move she erased the name, each neat and blurry letter. Immediately raising her head to look at the Shinigami, she waited patiently for something to happen.

Ryuk was floating just a little bit above the ground, the edges of his feather-like wings touching several branches of the surrounding trees. Silence was taking over the atmosphere, only the cries of certain nocturnal birds filling the air, as they both anticipated the upcoming change.

Memories of her first encounter with the dreadful Shinigami flashed before her eyes and her absolutely horrified screams that accompanied it echoed once again in her ears. Back then, she thought her heart would stop beating from the terror that had deluged her being. But she was still there; curled up in the corner of her bedroom, body trembling from intense fear, voice caught up in her throat. The strange creature had its ridiculously large, blue lips stretched in a grisly, wide grin as if laughing at her mortal passions.

"I need your help," he had said.

Even though she was unable to grasp the reality behind the situation, the flying demon approached her, only to draw another frightened shriek out of her dried lips. He stopped his movements, deciding it wouldn't get him anywhere by scaring her even more. Of course, that was not his objective in the first place. So he threw a tiny object on the floor, right in front of her crouched form.

She eyed it cautiously, clearly unwilling to even touch it.

"It's yours."

Bewilderment replaced the fear on her characteristics. She reluctantly stretched her hand to get the white piece. Inspecting it closely, she recognized it as a regular eraser, except that the letters "D" and "E" were carved with black ink on its surface in a calligraphic manner, while a peculiar black cross decorated its other side.

"Please, help me."

Oh who would have known that touching those strange papers that had almost magically appeared on her desk that evening would bring her in such a situation? Never in her entire life had she imagined that a god of Death would ask for her help. How in the world could she ever help someone like him?

All those questions had now been answered and the Shinigami's presence had become a habit. Now she knew. She knew how that mass killing phenomenon had been caused 13 years ago in Japan, when she was still just a little kid. It had caused such a ruckus that the news reached every citizen of the US, where she lived. She knew what the infamous Kira's power was and she found it cowardly to say the least.

Ryuk had informed her characteristically that "the human who uses the Death Note can neither go to Heaven nor Hell" but he also reassured her too many times that erasing his name wouldn't affect herself or her alleged afterlife at all.

Therefore, she agreed to help the Shinigami and fulfill his request; bringing him back to life. Yes, the tool she now owned, the Death Eraser, was meant to delete names from any Death Note and bring the victims back to life. Of course, she had a reason for taking such a risk as helping a god of Death; her quest was to prevent the revival of Kira. According to what Ryuk had told her, Kira had found out about the Death Eraser and was craving to claim it and regain his place in this world. But the eraser would only work if a human used it, and Kira had become a Shinigami himself.

As far as she knows, only one Death Eraser exists and she happens to own it. Questions like why did Ryuk choose her to hold the eraser or why didn't he use it earlier in his Shinigami life had yet to be answered. But she figured those things didn't matter as much right now. As long as she has the Death Eraser, she bears the responsibility to prevent Kira from obtaining it and using it to come back to human life. In order to get the eraser now, Kira would have to wait for her death, except if she conveys the ownership to someone else. But such an ignominious act was not in her plans.

A cracking sound snapped her out of her thoughts. It was finally happening.

"Uh-oh," said the Shinigami as he realized his structure gaining unexpected weight.

Indigo smoke began emitting from Ryuk's body and collapsing sounds filled the air as his bones started to crumble. Danae stood up in awe and agony and took a few steps back as his form was now breaking into bits and pieces, though the smoke made her unable to watch the complete procedure. The myriads small pieces of his bones melted on the ground and became sand and dirt.

The pile of dirt began swelling in several places as strange bubbles of mud were forming on its surface, like the sand was boiling from underneath. Strangely, the mud began evaporating and her vision was blocked by the steam. Speechless as she stood, with her eyes wide open, she silently prayed that nobody would witness this craziness, this supernatural rebirth of a Death god. Of course, she had chosen a dark and isolated forest to carry out her plans, but you never quite knew what could go wrong.

By the time the steam was gone she found herself staring at a man who was looking back at her in complete confusion, like a fish out of the water. They both stood aghast for a few seconds unable to decide on a proper reaction.

She meticulously scrutinized Ryuk's new form, still trying to comprehend the reality behind the absurdity. The man born from sand was tall and slim, though he had broad shoulders and a powerful presence despite his thin frame. That extremely stretched, creepy mouth was now replaced by a pair of -still noticeable- lips in the color of healthy pink, which made contrast with his creamy beige skin. Heavy-lidded eyes were making her unable to distinguish the color of his irises, even though it seemed like a hazy brown, she would have to inspect it closely later. Sand was still pouring from his short, kinda spiky black hair, flowing on his body till it reached the ground. Under the faint light of their small lantern the distinctive shade of dark blue was still evident on his hair which reassured her that the man in front of her was indeed the Shinigami that brought her life upside down.

And another thing she noticed about him was that…

He was completely naked.

"P-put some clothes on!"

She threw him her dark brown knee-length coat while turning around to cover her eyes, after leaving the old Death Note and the eraser next to the lantern, on the top of her car, which she had messily parked nearby.

The man barely caught the piece of clothing. He lifted it in front of him and gave it the once over, a bit skeptical.

"It doesn't fit me," he said while trying to pull the left sleeve up his arm.

She would have responded right away with a new solution if she hadn't been shocked by his human voice. It was nothing magical, but compared to the depraved and cunning one he had as a Shinigami, one would at least characterize it as "manly".

"Just wrap it around you or something!" she suggested, hands and hair still covering her face. A few seconds later, the shuffle of the clothing stopped. "Did you put it on?"

"Uhh… yes."

She hesitantly uncovered her eyes and turned to face the Shini- … the man.

He had tried to wrap the coat around his waist by tying the sleeves together, which resulted to the rest of the coat reaching the dirty ground. At least, his private parts were no longer visible.

"It's okay… let's just leave this place," she encouraged and opened the car's door, signaling him to enter the vehicle. Ryuk approached her with a peculiar pace as if trying to get used to walking again, his toes sinking in the dirty grass of the small forest. Once he reached the car he made a move to get in but stopped halfway. He straightened his back again and looked her in the eyes with a cautious expression on his features.

"What's wrong?" she asked, impatiently tapping her fingers on the car door, which she kept holding open.

"Someone's watching us."

She felt a wave of dread reaching her as she hastily looked around. Nothing seemed out of place and no one was in sight.

"How do you know that?" she whispered to him.

"I saw them."

Maybe he thought he was still having Shinigami abilities or maybe he was hallucinating, though the young woman didn't want to just brush off his warning. It wouldn't be surprising if someone was indeed following them. Danae was partly prepared for this kind of mysterious lifestyle since she decided to keep the Death Eraser.

"Whatever we should just… leave."

With that last statement the man got in the car and she closed the door after him, like he was a little child who needed help with anything and everything. After sitting on the driver's seat and activating the car, she carefully drove out of the forest, insisting on checking the mirrors for someone that might have been watching them.

"Danae?"

"Yes, Ryuk?"

"Are we going to have dinner?"

"Haha, yes we are…"

His silly question unchained her from the tension that had taken over. She laughed slightly, as she felt clearly calmer than before while the car reached civilization once again, city lights pouring over them.

Now wait till she notices that she had revived a sinner, a demon of the past.