AN: Let me explain how this plotline came to be. I was tossing random characters around in my head, trying to think of some sort of plot worthy of being on this site. Eventually, I thought of Mello and what a good shinigami he'd be. (Actually, I must confess, Mello is almost all I think about anyway. My friends can attest to that.) Then the more I thought about it, the more sense Light made in being a shinigami, so I decided to use him instead. If you want me to make Mello a shinigami too, tell me and that'll be my next story. Deal?

I own volumes 1-13 of Death Note, LABB Murder Cases, Death Note Fatally Fun Facts, several DVDs of the anime, and an account on in which I can write stories about Death Note, but I don't own Death Note itself. That belongs to some rich Japanese guy.

Anyway, here's the story:

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"All humans will, without exception, eventually die."

"After they die, the place they go to is MU."

Yeah, right. Ryuk has always been a liar, but I never expected this sort of lie to come from him.

Maybe all the other people I've known who died have gone to MU, but I guess not me.

Let me back up.

Ryuk killed me, obviously knowing that my fate would lie where it does now. I was in a black world of nothingness for a few brief seconds, then in some barren wasteland filled with orbs and rocks and pretty much nothing else.

Except the shinigami. They were everywhere.

Even an idiot could've figured out by then that he was in the Shinigami Realm. It wasn't that difficult.

But that made no sense to me. I had read and memorized all of the rules as soon as I knew that the Death Note wasn't a joke. I knew that humans couldn't go to the Shinigami Realm. Only a Shinigami could.

"Surprised, Light?" A voice asked from behind me. I spun around, frantically searching for the body belonging to the voice.

Oh. It was Ryuk. I relaxed only the tiniest bit. After all, he had killed me just minutes ago.

"What? You look…confused. That's not like you, Light. You honestly don't know what's going on? Just take a look at yourself. I think you'll figure it out," He cackled.

I looked down. Suddenly, everything fell into place.

What I saw was some kind of bony, skinny, out of proportion, black stomach descending to a large belt with a brand new Death Note hanging off of my waist. My hands were huge, with nails closer to claws hanging off of them. My lower body was nothing especially out of the ordinary, just black pants and black boots.

Ryuk saw that I had realized what had happened and laughed his strange, cackling laugh. "You get it, Light? You're a shinigami now." He drew up a mirror out of nowhere and showed me my face. It was long and thin, coming to almost a point at the chin. The eyes were upside down compared to a "normal" shinigami. My lips were nearly nonexistent, two lines barely coming outward. My human hair was gone, replaced by a head of downward facing brown spikes. My skin was dark, almost gray, and tight against my newly formed features.

I stared in disbelief for a few seconds, then mustered a single word.

"…Wow…"

Ryuk laughed again. "I was telling the truth before. Humans who use the Death Note can neither go to Heaven nor Hell. They become a Shinigami. How do you think shinigami came to be?" To be honest, I had never really thought about that. "I simply put the rule about MU into my Death Note so you'd know what happened to your victims. I guess you took that the wrong way, didn't you?"

I realized something at that point. "The eyes…"

"Oh yeah. The eye deal just helps speed up the process of being a shinigami, while adding some lifespan to the shingami's life. There's really no downside to it. That's why we shinigami kind of push for the human to accept it." He said simply, not really caring. Then again, he never really did care for anything. He paused for a moment, analyzing my reaction. "Heh heh. Don't worry. The initial shock goes away pretty quickly. You have to remember, all shinigami, excluding the King, have been in the same position you are in now."

"This…is great. Absolutely perfect." I said happily. It was now Ryuk's turn to look confused, so I explained for him. "Don't you get it? I can continue to be Kira from above, with no need to worry about Near or anyone else catching me. I have no worries now. It's perfect."

Ryuk smiled (well, he's always smiling, but he looked happy). "Oh sure. You can do whatever you want with that. Just remember to keep killing to increase your lifespan. You only start out with one year of life. The rest is up to how much you kill. Those eyes sure will come in handy, especially for you." I nodded, beaming. "Well, I guess that's about it. If you have any questions, ask anyone. I've got some major gambling to make up for after missing the past six years."

I nodded again, and with that, Ryuk turned and left. I had one thing to do before I went to explore the Shinigami Realm a little bit.

I pulled out my crisp, new Death Note and turned to first page. I also pulled out the pen that every Shinigami is equipped with and slowly, neatly, wrote down a name. The name of the one that had been pestering me for so long.

"Nate River." I said it aloud as I wrote it down. I wrote the time as a few minutes later, as I wanted to watch from the orbs that filled the Shinigami Realm as Near fell.

I found an orb with a perfect view of Near and smiled as he suddenly clutched his chest, turned blue, dropped his Transformers, and slumped to the ground. Lidner, Rester, and Gevanni all rushed to help him, but it was too late. I laughed.

I could get used to this life. I thought happily, smiling both inwardly and outwardly.

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AN: Yay!! Near died!! Happy day!! Chapter 2 should be up shortly. I'm warning you now; this won't be a very long story. Okay, that's about it. I'll go get started on chapter 2 now.