The disclaimer will die momentarily, but before it does it just wants to say that I do not own Death No-
Rem closed her eyes, and pondered what she was about to do. Doubt was creeping in- a rare thing for a Shinigami.
Was it really a good idea? To give Misa Amane Gelus' former notebook? Rem was certain he would have wanted it that way, for the girl he had sacrificed himself for to have something by which to protect herself. But dropped Death Notes rarely, if ever, had positive results, at least by most human standards. Would such a girl really even want to own it, let alone use it? In addition, Rem herself would be tied to the human world until Misa's death, as she was technically the current owner of Gelus' Death Note.
Was this truly worth the consequences?
The Shinigami came to a decision and took flight, the sound of leathery, skeletal wings echoing off the vast emptiness.
"Hey Ryuk, what have you been looking at?"
Ryuk didn't immediately react to the question. He was too surprised that someone in this realm actually even cared enough to wonder what he was doing, let alone walk over to ask. Even he probably wouldn't have done that.
Slowly, he turned. It was Deridovely, which meant he was probably just so bored of gambling with only Gook that he was now going to try to drag Ryuk back over there. That he had actually bothered to walk over here meant he was probably pretty desperate.
"I'm a little busy, Deridovely, so no, I'm not going to be coming back to gambling right now." Ryuk drawled.
Deridovely gave what may have been some sort of laugh, but sounded more like he was just coughing on dry air. As if he even needed to breathe. "No Ryuk, I'm actually wondering what you're doing. You've been sitting here watching the human world for so long that I'm actually a little curious. What could possibly be down there that so thoroughly occupies your attention?"
Ryuk grinned. That was two surprises in one day; in the Shinigami realm that was practically akin to the probability of planetary alignment. "I'm planning to relieve a little boredom down there. I just need to find the right person to do it... you'll see."
The other Shinigami stared at Ryuk, and said nothing, but grinned.
The model sensation known as Misa Amane was reclining in her current dressing room when the notebook fell out of the air and sprawled itself in the middle of the floor. Starting at the noise, she turned to stare at the black piece of stationary that was suddenly lying in the dead center of the room.
"Wha...?" Walking over, she picked the notebook off the ground. "Death...Note?"
A shadow fell over her. Misa looked up and shrieked, flinging the notebook across the room as she screamed in terror at the looming... thing currently looking right at her.
"Miss Amane?!" Security guards burst through the door. "What happened?! Are you injured?!"
Misa scrambled to a corner of the room, her breathing coming in panicked gasps. "H-help! That thing, it's going to eat me!" she got out, pointing a finger at the creature. It was still just standing and staring at her, an indescribable look on its face.
The guards stared at the direction her finger pointed, seeing nothing to be concerned about. "...are you certain you're alright, Miss Amane? You're on in ten."
"What?! No I'm not alright, can't you see that thing?!"
"My name is Rem..."
"It just talked! Can't you hear it?!"
The guards looked at each other. Apparently their star model was having some sort of backstage breakdown. Miss Amane," one of them began, "can't you do this after the shoot? We're a little short on time right now."
Misa's breathing hitched, but she began to calm down. Apparently she was the only one who could see or hear the... woman? standing in plain sight. It wasn't making any movement towards her though... maybe it wasn't going to hurt her? "Y-yeah, never mind, you can go, I'll be ready in a minute..."
The guards nodded, and closed the door, muttering audibly about models, lack of food, and hallucinations, which Misa couldn't help but pout at despite the monster in the room. She did not starve herself or hallucinate, how dare they!
The creature took a step forward, drawing Misa's attention back to it and causing her fear to come rushing back. It was only a few feet from her, and she was backed into a corner-!
Then it smiled.
"Hello, Misa Amane. As I told you, my name is Rem..."
-Shortly after the model shoot-
"...so, I just write a person's name in here, picture their face, and they die? Just like that?" Misa held the Death Note between fingers that were not quite trembling, a little scared of the supposed power she held before her. She imagined sending a specter flying out of a pen, an invisible entity which would glide across the world until it found its intended target, bury itself inside their chest, and cut off the flow of blood, killing them instantly...
"Yes, that is correct." Rem replied. "You may also write the cause of death, if you do not wish it to be by a heart attack, and the time you wish them to die, if you would prefer they not die within 40 seconds of writing their name. You may also manipulate their actions before death, to a certain degree, if you write out further details."
Misa turned to face the skeletal creature she was quickly becoming more and more comfortable around. "Sooo... why give this to me then? I'm a model, you can't have thought there's that many people I really want to kill."
Rem lowered her upper body and raised it again, which Misa had figured out by this point was the Shinigami's version of a nod. "Indeed, I do not believe you to have much use for this notebook. However, there is someone who would have wanted you to have it... to protect yourself, as he no longer can."
Misa blinked at that. What did that mean?
Rem turned away, staring at something only she could see, which Misa took as a sign that perhaps she should ask the Shinigami some other time.
-Misa's Apartment-
"...so, you are going to use the Death Note to kill the criminal who killed your parents?"
Misa nodded. "If there's anyone I want to test this on, it's him. He killed my parents, and he got away with it with no punishment whatsoever. He deserves it more than anyone else I can think of."
She opened the notebook. Aside from the rules that looked like they'd been scratched by a claw on to the inside cover, it looked like any other notebook... hard to believe this thing could kill so easily. Not that she really doubted that it worked, given the Shinigami looking over her shoulder.
Steeling herself, Misa quickly wrote down the name of the criminal whose crimes, trial, and punishment (or total lack thereof) she had personally witnessed. Picturing his face as she wrote the name made her expression involuntarily twist itself into a guttural snarl. With a flourish, she finished, and set the pen back down.
The hands of a clock ticked in the silence.
Misa tapped her foot. "...so, how will I know if it worked?"
Rem paused a moment before answering. "I'm afraid that without any way to see him, there is no way of knowing. I cannot go too far from your side, now that you own the notebook, so I cannot confirm it for you. Do you know his current whereabouts?"
Misa frowned. "No..." A pout began to form on the young teen's face. "Well, that's stupid. Guess there's nothing I can do except wait until tomorrow..."
"Rem, look, look!"
The Shinigami "woke" from her resting position near the window, and walked over to the desk to look over Misa's shoulder at the screen of her laptop. It was opened to a social security website, showing all Japanese deaths within the past several days. Misa was gesturing at a particular one, which Rem assumed was the man she had killed last night. Why Misa was quite so surprised and excited about this, Rem was not sure.
"It worked! It worked! I did it! Justice came through in the end!" Misa twirled in a circle, elated beyond belief. She had never thought a solution to the problem that had haunted her for years would just present itself out of the blue.
Though, now that that was taken care of, she had little use for this notebook. Misa had no idea what to do with it. She had no desire to kill anyone... well, she could figure it out later. For now, she had a day off, so... maybe she could get to know her suddenly existent companion a little better.
"So, Rem, now that that's done with, what about you?"
Rem raised her head. "What about... me?"
Misa nodded. "Uh huh! I wanna know more about you! What do you like, dislike, favorite foods, you know!"
The Shinigami simply stared. She was fairly certain this was not typical of humans in possession of a Death Note. Most were less than inquisitive about anything besides the workings of the notebook. She certainly had not been expecting this girl to ask her about herself.
There was a long pause before Rem responded. "I... I am afraid there is little to say about myself... as a Shinigami, there is little for any of us to like or dislike. We do not have the same morals or standards as humans, and as we do not need anything to survive, we simply... exist. I have never truly thought about what I like, nor what I dislike... but I do know that I wish to see you safe, Misa. It is why I gave you that notebook. So I suppose that that is what I like."
At that, Misa jumped out of her chair and hugged Rem as best she could. "Aww, thank you! That's so sweet of you Rem."
Rem looked at the human attempting to encircle her arms around her body with no idea what to think. Misa truly was an odd one, at least compared to others who had held the Death Note before her. "As for favorite foods... Shinigami tend to enjoy fresh fruits, particularly ones that are heavily filled with liquid or juice. Indeed, many of my kind believe such foods to be one of the only good things about the human world. Apples seem to be the most valued, though I am unsure why as I have never had much taste for them. Indeed, I have found I am not fond of most foods, even fruits, in general, and as Shinigami do not need them I have not eaten anything for centuries."
"Oh... well, I'll just have to find something you do like then!" Misa smiled and looked up at her much taller companion before moving back to her chair. "So, anything else?"
Rem closed her eyes. "I am sorry, Misa, but there is very little I can tell you about myself besides what I have already said. There simply isn't much to say."
"Aww..." the girl sighed. "Alright, I understand..." The model put a finger to her cheek and shifted her face into a quizzical expression. "Well... if you can't tell me about yourself, then..."
"Tell me more about Shinigami."
Light Yagami turned and stared out his classroom window, wondering if anything was ever going to come along and break the monotony that was his life.
Of course, nothing happened. Nothing ever did.
AN: Hoo hoo hoooo, boy, I finished Death Note a few days ago, was all excited to read some fanfics, and then came here to find out it was filled with nothing but Light/L, crack, and OC-focused stories, none of which held the elements from the show that I was actually looking for. Wow. Yeah. I decided I should do something about that. It doesn't look it yet, but welcome to a fic where the only romance is false, several roles are reversed, and everything goes about as well as you would expect a Death Note fanfiction to go if it tried its best to emulate canon style wit-matching and the subsequent results of that. Don't worry, most, if not all major characters will be involved in this (though I'm not sure if or how Near and Mello will be getting involved at the end), so if you thought Light or L were going to miss out on this you thought wrong. Prepare yourselves, this might get confusing...
About half of this is already planned out. Here's to hoping for a year full of nothing but updates!
