"Dry thoughts"
Series: Death Note
POV: Raito/Light
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note
It was daytime again, and he can see Ryuk's pulse, steady and regular. He coughs, his thought is dry and his back aches…
The sand is everywhere in this world, and it is achingly cold, everyone seems to have the same problems getting up as humans do. Dusk is settling a layer of light, and the fine dusty sand is skimming over the dunes in the blue light.
He stretches, eyeing the gaping cavity there in, it's actually the body of a shikigami, almost as old as time, and one of the reasons humanity had to struggle for millions of years to survive, but Ryuk doesn't know that, and neither does he. It shaded them during the scorching night and its toxic moon.
Ryuk sleeps with his eyes open, quite unnerving, but really it's easy to ignore. But how do his eyes stay moist, even in the dry shikigami world?
And Ryuk is awake now, thinking that the kid is thinking too much…with his eyes open, staring ahead as always, he had forgotten to look aside a long time ago.
The sand is everywhere, rubbing away his humanity again, his hands are nearly claws, and his face feels like it's melting every night, and hardening in the morning sunlight. It seems that they'd died a million years ago, Father, Son, Mother, Daughter and everyone still has little sense.
He's waited for them, the other shikigami for so long, the day and night lasting too far, the sands killing his mind already…
But Kira is too strong, and only two days have passed in the human realm and his family is gone. Ryuk has forgotten too, he had lost it too...
Ryuk helps, shredding Kira's face, before its finished setting (some new shikigami wait afterwards to peel off the human flesh) but that just ends in a bare-faced skull.
His new face is soft and pink, the flesh naked and open to the harsh winds. Kira is a child, a young shikigami, he's short and has memories, but Ryuk doesn't want him to grow up.
It isn't easy to see at first, his eyes are closed behind the melted flesh, but he can feel a muzzle, even as his sharp, dry hands tear through his new nose, Ryuk pulls his hands away.
Sand, and he can feel it in the wounds, already drying out, and Ryuk peels away the skin till it's raw. His clothing is ruined already, and he wants to keep it on, but it hurts him as he's growing.
Later, and they sit down, Kira is dying and he needs to kill fast. And he does, Ryuk asking him faces and names to go with them. Their handwriting is sloppy, but it's all right and Kira's safe again.
The day before a new shikigami had been born. Mello wakes in the desert, and does the one thing he shouldn't do, walk in the cold day, its agony, sand drizzling down like heavy rain, imbedding in his skin, his flesh, his face.
He wanders for what seems like years and years until finally, he sees something in the sands…
He'd thought this was the afterlife, sort of like Marco Polo.
Kira and Ryuk had seen the boy, and Kira immediately recognized him, "Is there any rule against killing a shikigami without a notebook?"
Ryuk is tickled by the question "Ya know, I'm not sure"
The blind shikigami smiles "let's find out" and his jaws have found Matt's shoulder soon enough.
He bites and bites hard to tear, the skin rips but the flesh falls apart like muddy clay, and before Mello has his wits back, he's dead.
Kira smiles, and picks up the abandoned notebook.