Alright, enter Ryuku. Yes it's a bit odd, bear with me.
I wanted to put all of Ryuku into one chapter, half way through I realized something. That
wasn't going to happen.
So here's part four, enjoy.

Also-- D I S C L A I M E R
I do not own Ryuku, Rem, Armonia Justin, Gukku, Deridovely, Nu, or any of the other death gods. These beings are property of Ohba and Obata.

--

When the undead apple enthusiast left his former possession of a human in a small ten by six foot cell, he'd never expected this to happen. Nonetheless here he sat, slumped in a ridiculously hyped up chair. A chair that had been carelessly given the title 'Throne,' when in his opinion it was just a pile of bones and rocks, a couple dozen diamonds. It was, in his mind, just a bunch of high quality junk thrown together to look like a chair -or throne if you'd like- just like everything else in the Realm of the Dead.

King of Death, no god thought a C grade Death God had a chance in the world of pulling it off. They had thought that in the King's absence perhaps Nu or Justin would take over, but never Ryuku. It was amazing what boredom and luck could make possible. But Ryuku had had more then just years of his life to bet; fortunate for him he also had apples. The addict had procured these apples from an orchard whose name will be kept confidential due to irrelevancy and lack of information, although they were obviously of the juicy human variety.

Obviously this wasn't completely allowed, not that Ryuku had cared, until he was caught of course. Technically bringing objects from the Human Realm to the Realm of the Dead was about as permitted as dropping one's Death Note into the Human Realm. It was kosher but frowned upon by most other gods, messing with the lesser realms, causing demise and destruction and whatnot. But this prophesized Armageddon of a lesser realm had never stopped a rogue Shinigami beforehand.

There was a rule among Death Gods, referred to most commonly as the eighty two hour rule. This particularly numbered rule stated as follows, "When a God of Death does not possess a human they may not be present in the Shinigami Realm for any amount of time longer than eighty two hours or consequences will ensue." As for these so called consequences not many were sure of what level of punishment they referred to, and even less were willing to find out. The god population in general was based solely upon self preservation it seemed.

Ryuku did not feel that this rule was any threat to him; he'd even consulted Armonia Justin at one point, though even so it was troublesome. If he had had his way at that time he would have simply loitered in the Human Realm until Raito regained his memories, this was just not the case. Upon his return to the higher realm he was struck with a massive pang of withdrawal. Free of bond to Raito he did not see why he couldn't return to stalk a random human and after expiring said human retrieving some apples to bring back to his own Realm, within the time limit of course.

That is exactly what the apple addict did. Quite frequently he would travel down after being hit with the spasms of craving and kill a human. After doing this he would always return to the same orchard, containing those beautiful blood red apples he adored and obtain a few, then swiftly travel back. This ritual was unseen by most and ignored by the few that knew, of course until it became trouble.

He wasn't seen, more accurate would be an apple was eaten in plain sight of a human; the owner of the orchard. Somehow this fact remained unknown to Ryuku until a later time. Apparently the offending human had turned and fled the other way upon seeing apples vanish in large chunks into thin air.

By the time Nu overheard what was going on below whilst peering through an observatory pit the frantic man was raving about some sort of invisible being devouring his harvest to anyone who would listen. Nu had been one of the few to know about Ryuku recurrent endeavors, and his side trips to acquire the fruit and word stretched as quickly as it could through such a thinly spread out community. One thing had led to another and, well, you'll soon be informed.

When living on the barren lands of the Shinigami Realm it is much like a desolate tract version of ancient earth, possibly less civilized. There are no crops to be grown with hardly any need for food at all and again rock and bone are used for houses if one even bothers to make them at all. There were no high-rises, no factories and no wars. The gods lived in packs, small groups. They did this not because they like the others of their group but more just to have someone to gamble with.

There was nothing better to do but sit, eat apples, and sit some more for the new king, and he was left to entertain himself. He would gladly gamble, but Nu wasn't one for gambling, she was the only one besides Daril and Justin who even visited him and to be frank he was a bit afraid of them. They had been of higher rank until recently after all. He hadn't even seen Gukku or Deridovely since the incident, and it wasn't like they would wander all the way up here for him anyway.

The incident, it was almost laughable -actually completely so as he chuckled at the thought- how it was only, on a linear scale, no less than one month ago.

Only a month ago.

--

"I win again." The goat-like being reached up with a skeletal hand, fiddling with the long horns poking from the animal skull placed over his likened own; there were minute traces of joy in his voice, yes he always won, but he had also always been easily amused.

"G-Gah! I really need to write some names before you kill me," panted the other, who'd just lost another ten years of his life. He had actually felt the reduction this time, which could only mean he did not have an abundant amount to spare. "If you never wrote another name Gukku, you'd still outlive us all."

"I don't know Deri. Ryuku never bets his lifespan anymore, he might live longer if he never loses them."

At this they both looked away from their game, up toward the outlandish rock structure that loomed over them. Ryuku sat at the very top, slumped slightly, staring out desolate horizon. His two friends joked that he'd changed since his first trip to the human realm, but they all knew it was an understatement.

Now back in this perpetual eventide he had nothing to do, and was feeling rather sorry for himself. He felt like so much had happened in one timeframe, the memories of the twelve FBI agents and the female with the alias, L and Amane the second Kira, even Rem all haunted his mind, reminding him of how much more pointless his existence was up here. Up here he was nothing; down there he was just a little more.

"Ryuku come down here! Gamble with us, stop being so weird." Cackled Gukku, Ryuku had tried to explain the situation, but he just didn't seem to understand what was so amusing about the Human Realm.

Before he had time to contemplate on how he would tell off the Shinigami this time an element arose that would soon change his dull and uneventful existence dramatically. The sand-colored stagnant wisp of clouds suddenly became much less still, swirling out of the path of something. This something manifested itself as a fast approaching, shape shifting ink black mass, though if one were to look closely -but of course no one had- the outer portions were slightly translucent.

All self pity left the apple addict immediately at the sight of this. He'd seen that flight pattern only once before; and only one being from this realm could possibly fly so morphemically. This melancholy he'd felt was replaced by what one could accurately call fear. Last time he'd seen this Shinigami it had not been the happiest of occasions.

The blackness flailed outward.

Unseen hands grasped at the dusted rock.

It began to recede, shrinking into itself.

An obscure form stood, looming over the lesser being.

Black material not of this world suctioned around a certain god.

King of gods, King of Death.