Creep back to your dark tents in the valley.
Slouch back to your haunts of crime.
Ye do not know me, neither do ye see me.
It would be all too easy to die, and she knew it. The world wasn't as kind as all the stories had made it; the world was cruel, the world was merciless, and she did not belong to the world at all. She stood beside him because she would die otherwise; she had no doubt the moment she left his life, the moment she explored this new world, that she would take his place on those rusted stairs, blood pumping from her chest.
But he was dangerous as well—a word out of place, one single mistake and she was lost to his illusion. Lost in the spell he was weaving. She amused him, but he did not need her; she was a threat, but she could be ignored. He was a patient god. Pen in hand, he studied her, deciding he could wait.
She knew about his world, but she did not know her place in it. When a butterfly flaps its wings, they say it causes a hurricane on the other side of the world. One insignificant action would be all it took for the world to be changed irrevocably, to the point where she could no longer recognize its twists and turns, to the point where she became lost in its labyrinth.
It had all seemed so easy in the manga, to twist the cords of fate—and yet each string had consequence. She hadn't realized how delicate his reality was, how intricately woven, and how adaptable he was. He could outwit her if he had to, he could outmaneuver her with ease. She only survived because of his pride, because she knew what he did not. To change the future would be to lose what power she had, and to fall victim to his ink stained hand.
So she became his third shadow, waiting behind Ryuk, watching as he ascended those golden stairs into divinity—an unstoppable force, like the sun rising above the earth… none could hide from his gaze. The masses bowed before his accumulating power, fear upon their faces, and she was crying as she stood beside him.
Because it was horrible, because she knew they were going to die, and because there was nothing she could do about it. Her survival came before all else; she had nothing left to choose.