Death Note: MU

Death Note: MU

Light Yagami opened his eyes. Where was he? He could see… nothing. At all. He got up from the ground, fighting down the urge to shout for anyone nearby and noticed he'd been led in sand. There was an imprint of his body there and a smaller rectangle left by… what? A book, maybe? He bent down and ran the sand through his fingers-

It flashed before his eyes. Light fell to the ground, his head in his hands, writhing in pain. He remembered what happened- with Near, and Matsuda, and… Ryuk! Damn! Light stopped writhing. It was obvious that he was still in pain, but he didn't move. As though he… deserved it. Like he'd done something horrible, and maybe this was, in some obscure way, putting things right. If he hurt enough, could he be forgiven?

'No,' said Light, getting to his feet. 'I can't.'

After a while the pain subsided, and his head started filling in the details. The death note. Ryuk. Raye Penbar. L. Then Misa, and Rem. Then that short while that he and L were friends. Then L died. Then Light killed Ryuzaki. 'No,' breathed Light. 'I'd never…' Death Note. It was difficult to hear what Light said next, but the words were spoken nonetheless.

'I'm sorry, Ryuzaki… Really… I am…'

It must have been caused by the death note. That's the only reason he acted that way. He'd never be so… Evil. That's what Kira was. Evil, because of the death note.

Then came Near and Mello. Nate Rivers and Mihael Keehl. Then that other shinigami and… his dad… Light remembered. 'Write his name', he'd said. 'Write his name!' not 'You're gonna be okay dad.' Damnit, you monster.

Then Takada, and Mikami. Then all the events that led to the warehouse. Then Mikami failed. And Near got him, and he was going to- then Matsuda betrayed him. 'Wrong,' said Light, shaking his head and starting off walking. 'Matsuda did the right thing.' Then Ryuk was going to- then Ryuk betrayed him too. Well, Ryuk was on nobody's side to begin with, but…

Ryuk's words echoed in Light's head.

'There is no Heaven or Hell.

No matter what you do while you're alive, everybody goes to the same place when they die.

Death is Equal.'

So… This was Mu. Nothingness. 'Heh,' said Light, his eyes reverting to the way they were before he'd found the death note. 'Certainly looks that way.' He kept on walking for a while, then stopped with a frown on his face. He thought about his death- 40 seconds on the floor, then the words 'damn it'. Nice. But, he turned and looked in the direction he'd come from, thinking back to the silhouette on the sand where he'd woken up, and the patch of sand that had given him his memories. It was well out of sight by now. That little rectangle of sand. He didn't die with the death note on him. So why had it left an imprint? Never mind. He knew who he was back then, and he knew who he was now. And, he thought happily, they were two completely different people. Light carried on walking with a smile on his face. He didn't have a particular direction to head in, but in his mind, he didn't need one.

Above the spot where Light had woken up, the shinigami known as Ryuk flew back towards the shinigami realm, brushing specks of sand from his death note…

Chapter two

Light walked, and walked. And walked. And stopped, and took a breath. Then set off walking again. Then stopped. Again.

Where was he going? If this was Mu, then surely there'd be nothing here. Or anywhere. But still. Light looked at his surroundings. The sky was black, but it was well lit around him, without any visible source of light. There was grey sand, and dead trees. Light squinted. It was pretty clear, and he could see… mountains in the distance. And… a tower pretty close, as well. Light frowned- why would there be a tower? Who would have built it? It was clearly made of stone. Where did the stone come from? There was nothing but sand for miles. Or was there? He thought about it. The best thing to do would be to get to grips with his surroundings. It was clear, and with a vantage point like the tower, he'd be able to see for miles, and find out if it really was just sand.

Light sat at the top of the tower. There had been a ladder leading up to where he was sat, but Light still knew far too little to reach any conclusions about where it came from. At first he'd been reluctant to use it, but there probably wasn't any other way up, and besides, what would be the point in a trap? There was nobody around.

The tower was climbed without incident, and now Light sat at the top. He could see, in the distance… nothing. He looked in all directions, but nothing caught his eye. 'Well, obviously,' he thought. 'This is Mu. Nothingness. Why would there be anything here?' he sighed, and leaned over the tower's edge. 'What the?' he said. There were footprints in the sand, leading from the tower. 'Who could have..?' then it clicked. They were his footprints. Light shook his head. 'This place must be getting to me,' he sighed. But… in the distance, past his footprints and presumably past where he'd woken up… was the huge shadowy shape of a building. It was massive. Light wondered how he hadn't noticed it. It had been behind him the whole time? He doubted that it was real, to be honest, but still… he'd set off that way. It'd give him an aim. Light knew that if you're stranded in the desert or something, you're much less likely to survive if you wander around aimlessly. You end up walking in circles, because you take a slightly bigger step on your dominant side. So he'd go towards the 'building', and that way make some progress.

Looking back the way he'd come, towards the building- though it was more like a castle, or a palace due to it's size- Light wondered what he was going to do about surviving. He was dead, so he shouldn't be getting hungry. But he was. He was thirsty, too. Some water and something to eat. Anything to eat. A bag of crisps would do. Light climbed down the tower, lost in thought. Crisps, yeah. What flavour? Heh, Barbecue. With a mini TV inside. That would be nice, he could pass the time. 'What was I thinking?' said Light. 'How much did that cost?' he reached the bottom and set off walking, cracking a smile. 'All to catch out L,' he said, and the smile drained from his face. 'Damn it…' said Light, shaking his head again. 'Wait. Won't Ryuzaki be here? He died, so… He'll be here. I have to find him. I have to find him and apologise. And make it up to him.' He'll never forgive you. Not after what you did to him. You murdered him, remember? 'No. Kira killed him. And I'm not Kira any more.'

Light began walking faster. The castle, or palace, or whatever wasn't getting any closer. 'I'll find Ryuzaki, and apologise, and together we'll find a way of surviving here. That's right.' Light wondered where L would be. 'Maybe he'll be there. That'd be ironic.' Smiled Light, and regretted it instantly. Now thanks to those words, a tiny little glimmer of hope appeared in the back of his mind. A tiny hope that L- that Ryuzaki would be there, and that Light would have a friend to help him through all this. But that was too unlikely. Damn it. Never mind. Don't think about it. Just keep walking, Light. Keep walking.

The shinigami Ryuk landed in the realm of the shinigami, and retracted his black, crow-like wings. He looked around him, and, when he saw that nobody was around, pulled an apple from his stash behind a rock. Hiding them here at the entrance to the realm was a good idea, he thought, because nobody ever came here really. Just the odd shinigami that needed to use their death note. Apples from the human world had become… popular in the shinigami realm, what with Ryuk bringing some back from his first trip there. Now pretty much the entire race of shinigami was hooked. Even the shinigami king. Ryuk looked at the three death notes he had on his belt. 'It's one thing finding a note and going from there, but to be able to get two more from the king by giving him apples…' said Ryuk, grinning.

'Anyway…' He turned and looked down at Light walking through the sand with his head down. 'Looks like he picked a good direction,' said Ryuk, looking at the huge palace towards which light was heading and taking a bite of the apple. Light had reached the spot where he woke up, and Ryuk laughed as Light noticed that the death note imprint was gone. 'Yeah, Light,' said Ryuk. 'There was a note buried there. You touched it when you woke up- it'd be no fun if you didn't remember what you'd done as Kira, would it?' Light started off walking again. 'Of course,' said Ryuk, looking down at the third death note on his belt. 'That makes you the owner of this. But let's just say I'm your hiding place for it. It can't be helped if your hiding place is so good that even you can't find it.' Ryuk laughed, and made himself comfortable.

Chapter the Third

L crouched in the sand, hugging his knees. He had a small plate with a piece of cake on it balanced on the top of his knee. It had pink icing. In front of him was a chessboard. He reached down and delicately picked up a pawn between his finger and thumb, holding it for a moment before moving it two squares forwards. 'Checkmate,' he said, and began eating the cake. Mello, sat at the other side of the board, stared at his king for a while. Then said 'Fine' and unwrapped a bar of chocolate. The two of them sat eating for a while. 'Why do we always play chess, L?'

'Because you have yet to beat me, Mello-kun.'

Mello shot him a look, and said 'But it's a boring game.'

'I enjoy playing chess. It requires thought, not skill. I like that.'

'Well, I'm not sure I want to play anymore.' Said Mello, sulkily. 'I'll bet I can find something better to do.'

'Don't be like that, Mello-kun. How about if next time I give you a handicap? I'll sit normally if you like.'

Mello's face changed. 'Well-'

Before he could answer, Matt appeared, and ran up to them. 'Hey,' he said, clearly out of breath. 'I just heard that… Kira's dead.'

L looked up. 'Yagami? Light Yagami?'

'Yeah.'

Mello raised an eyebrow. 'Wow. Near actually got him.'

L finished his cake and stood up, the plate falling to the ground. 'How long did it take? From after Mello-kun died?'

'Err…' said Matt. 'About three days, I think.'

'Hmm. Well done, near,' said L. 'I wonder-'

'Only three days?!' said Mello. 'God, it seems like an eternity since we arrived here, eh, Matt?'

Matt adjusted his goggles. 'Yeah. But I think time passes differently here.'

L waited a moment to make sure they'd finished talking, then said 'Please don't interrupt me Mello-kun. Let's get inside. It's best if we're there when he arrives.' And with that he set off into the huge palace-type building, leaving Matt and Mello to follow him.