Authoress Note: Aw come on guys! Did you think I was gonna end the story without an epilogue? That's no fun! Haha.
You knew there had to be more than just the end of the story. So I'll have you guys let your minds wander on possibilities of the epilogue. Teehee.
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Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note. Death Note belongs to Tsugumi Ohba and Takashi Obata.
Disclaimer 2: The idea of the Life Script belongs to me. Please do not steal. Thank you. Any Original characters, Keegan Phelps (no relation to Michael Phelps) and others, belong to me. Thanks.
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He was a fledgling. His brash attitude, his distinguishable outfit and how he had little respect for the other shinigamis. This particular shinigami was giving the others lip about something they didn't really feel like talking about. He was about the height of a normal human with what looked to be an outfit similar to that of the infamous Red Baron from the 1940s fighter plane that went down. Any human could have literally mistaken this shinigami as his ghost if one saw him, but he didn't really care what anybody thought what he looked like.
His little red pupils glowed brightly as he hissed. "I heard there was a shinigami that went to the human world and did something interesting…"
The group of shinigamis he was questioning had been in the middle of a game when he interrupted them. They all seemed clearly displeased and annoyed that this 'boy' was looking for trouble to start while they clearly had been enjoying their game.
"You don't want to go to the human world."
"Yeah, it's not worth it."
He was getting frustrated with their behavior towards him, they seemed to be ignoring every question he asked or dismissed it as though he was nothing more than an animal bothering them. He yanked off the bony weapon on his back and slammed it down in front of them, breaking their gambling bowl in half with a snarl. "I said, I want to see the shinigami who went to the human world! Tell me where he is!"
"What do you want to go see him for?"
"That's the stupidest idea ever."
"Yeah, he's no fun."
"I'm not leaving until I get answers…" The antagonizing shinigami growled.
All the turmoil in this situation seemed to stop between the arguing shinigamis because a calm had suddenly washed over the area and a figure in a white cloak had suddenly approached the group, carrying a ferry pole and a lantern attached to it with a blue flame.
As if frightened by the sight, the gambling shinigamis drew back slightly at the sight of this mysterious figure before the cloaked person spoke in an aged feminine voice. "I hear you seek the one that came to the human world."
"The Keeper..." One of the shinigamis in the back whispered.
The pole slammed into the dusty ground and the figure suddenly swung it at the other shinigamis with great ferocity until they fled, leaving the fledgling alone with the stranger.
The interested shinigami that had been demanding answers only moments ago turned his attention to this strange being standing in front of him without hesitation to speak to him nonchalantly about the event. "Yes. Who are you?"
"Whom I am is not important." Said the person in the white cloak, beckoning him to follow. "If it is he that you seek, please follow me. I shall lead you to him."
'Huh?' Wait, this mysterious stranger knew where to find the shinigami he was searching for? Odd. How was hat possible? He had been told that this particular shinigami was a loner and often liked being off alone without any questions asked by the other shinigamis. But, how could he not follow when the offer to be taken to this special shinigami was so willingly given?
"So, what's your name?" He asked curiously.
"I've told you before, who I am is not of any importance. It will only cause you to turn back." The figure informed. "I appreciate your asking though. Shows you have spunk and personality." The figure chuckled.
He walked along behind the stranger without much thought and only followed because he believed this one knew where they were going. He was led through a series of bone yards and finally to an aged stairway and an alcove overhanging down onto scenery below that showed yet a larger bone yard.
In the dusky breeze, a clearly aged Ryuk slowly turned his head. "Hm?"
The figure in white moved aside to gesture with a long sleeve to the shinigami next to them calmly before setting up the lantern in the center of the alcove before taking a seat off to a side corner to watch the two converse. "This one has heard of your adventures. He wants to hear your story."
"I think you'll find it's worth your time." The younger fledgling tossed a withered apple at Ryuk, who easily caught it.
"Huh…" He mumbled. "I'd prefer a juicy one."
Without being asked, the one in the white cloak approached Ryuk and touched the withered apple.
As if by magic the apple turned a bright red and was juicy.
"Eh?" The fledgling said, greatly troubled by this.
Ryuk ate the apple slowly, without the same ravenous behavior he experienced when he was a young shinigami once.
"Very well, what do you want to know?"
"…Everything." The other shinigami asked, trying to get the image of the apple returning to life out of his head.
"The human world is interesting…a man who tired to change the world was interesting…and so was the woman who stopped him." Ryuk spoke.
The figure shifted slightly after returning to their previous seat. "Humans are interesting."
"Tch. Yeah, got that right." Ryuk mumbled, looking out onto the bone yard below. From there. Ryuk began his tale of Light Yagami and how he had acquired the Death Note.
"You dropped a Death Note? By accident?" The young shinigami asked, skeptical.
"More like on purpose." Said the cloaked figure.
Ryuk's faded vision, gave a small glare at the other before turning his attention back to the young fledgling. "Now, it's been said that…if there are books of death, shouldn't there be one of life as well?"
Ryuk chuckled softly, and then he began laughing. "Ahahah. Well, yes. That's what they say. There's always been talk of a book of Life. There's always a book of Life in stories of Death." He said the last part sarcastically. "Then again, in this story…there is."
He stood up and turned to face the other shinigami with a grin. "The man who tried to change the world with the Death Note was in for a rude awakening, for he did not realize there was also a book of Life. This book of Life of course was an enigma in itself. It was almost as though it had a personality to begin with. It grew like a human child does, with immaturity then into something potentially successful." Ryuk was pacing. "I stole it once." He explained.
"I've heard tale of the Script of Life. I hear it's still not back where it belongs. Do you still have it? Are you saving humans with it?" The young shinigami asked.
"What shinigami gives life?" The figure in white asked, standing up. "That would be hypocritical of any shinigami to do so…" Now the stranger was pacing in Ryuk's place. "The Life Script, as some say is a certain notebook that was made to counteract Death Notes. There is only one, and the stories with it vary."
"How? Where did it come from?" The shinigami asked.
"The versions change. Some say that the Shinigami King acquired it because he made a deal with an angel to let a soul in Mu go to heaven, another story says the shinigami king was given it as a gift, then of course there is the age-old tale that a shinigami made it as a love token to a human." The white figure stopped in front of the young shinigami, and lifted up an arm, covered by the long sleeves of the cloak, which the hand could not visibly be seen.
"Of course, as they say: the stories change. The tales are retold and no one really knows the true story."
The stranger moved away from the two shinigamis calmly before Ryuk snorted in discomfort, obviously strained from standing straight up instead of hunched over, as he usually would be now. He crouched back down and chuckled. "The origins of the notebook of Life are complex and none truly know where it divulged from. In fact, I don't even think the Shinigami King himself can even begin to fathom how it was made."
Ryuk turned his head back to the bone yard and chuckled. "The man who tried to change the world wasn't as interesting as the woman was. Humans are interesting and boring at the same time." He explained. "They're hypocrites and paradoxical in a sense but the human woman that tried to stop the man was rare event." He sighed.
Ryuk looked up, recalling the events of when he first dropped the Life Script.
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"…Oh, yeah…Uh…boo?"
"Boo? Oh, that's original. So, Mr. Poltergeist. You like apples huh?"
"Hm? Oh. Yeah. Call it my personal drug."
"Apples? A drug? So, they're like your crack basically? Nice notebook you gave me by the way."
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"What's you're name?"
"You can call me Ryuk."
"Well Ryuk, it's nice to meet you. I'm Keegan."
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"This doesn't belong to you? You stole this from your own kind? That's stealing."
"Hey! Look, if you don't want it, all you gotta do is hand it back to me and we can be done with this little game we're playing here. Make your choice all ready kid, because your pissing me off."
"Tell me Ryuk…do you know Kira?"
"What makes you think I'll tell you?"
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"All right, well if you don't care about me, when's my birthday?"
"October 12, 1987. Ooh..."
"Don't care about me, huh?"
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He couldn't help but reminisce on fond memories, Ryuk looked up briefly at the fledgling
He couldn't help but look a little bored. "Is this going somewhere?"
The cloaked stranger snarled suddenly, jumping to their feet. "You wanted to hear the story, so listen!" This being was clearly angry and bothered by something, but the behavior was off and threatening to the fledgling.
He was caught off guard and drew back, looking at the stranger funny before he saw down. "Fine."
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The rest of the story was told in a perspective that showed Ryuk had been there to see it all. Ryuk was there when the criminals died, Ryuk was there when he met the man who found his Death Note and Ryuk had stolen the Life Script. "I saw it all." He looked back at the fledgling with a grin. "You know something? I'd do it all again."
The fledgling gave him a funny look. "You would? Why?"
Ryuk shrugged. "Because. Good things came out of it. I know many shinigamis were pissed off about the whole ordeal…but for the record, humans can adapt to almost anything given the circumstances." Ryuk cracked his neck.
"So, what ever happened to the man that tried to change the world?" He was asked.
Ryuk shrugged. "The man? Oh, he died a long time ago. It was a while before he did die though. There's any different circumstances involving humans who acquire Death Notes. The man was supposed to be killed by me, so I killed him, the woman though brought him back in the end so that he would get what was coming to him. It all worked out in the end. The contract between the man and the Death Note were severed."
The stranger said nothing for several moments before speaking again from behind them, "The Life Script has a contract too you know."
The young shinigami glanced behind him at the cloaked figure and turned his head with a growl. "Oh? How does that work?"
"The Life Script has 20 rules pertaining to it that counteract any Death Note rules as well, depending on the circumstances. The last rule states…" The stranger trailed off.
"Should the human user and shinigami in the binding contract share more than just the contract, the human will die when the shinigami dies." Ryuk finished.
The fledgling jumped to his feet suddenly. "W-What? So…that would mean, the human would live on? Immortally?"
"Everything has to die at some point…except, my time isn't up yet." The stranger reached up a hand to draw back the hood of the cloak to reveal a thoroughly aged woman that appeared to be around 70, but must have been much older than her visage showed. Her once red hair had gone white with age and her green eyes were faded in color but still full of life. This old woman of course was once Keegan Allison Phelps.
Ryuk couldn't help but shake his head. "I was wondering when you were going to take that thing off your head? I hate it when you where it."
The young shinigami was horribly confused by this. "A human? In the shinigami realm? How is this possible?"
"It's not like I haven't been here before. After all, I am the Keeper of the Life Script, 'til I die." Keegan pulled out the white notebook from underneath the cloak. "…I'm Keegan, it's nice to meet you. Sorry to have this come as a shock, but I'm not able to go anywhere else too much anymore."
Ryuk held out a hand towards her. "I told you, good things happen to bad shinigamis like me." He chuckled.
Keegan shook her head at him, and strode over towards him to sit beside him, which her wrapped an arm around her. "You should visit the human world, it's quite…an adventure. You go there and you'll experience something you may never forget for the rest of your existence."
When Keegan had looked up to look for the young shinigami, she found him gone. "Hm. He's gone. I guess I scared him off."
"You could scare anybody off even if you weren't old." Ryuk snickered.
She frowned and elbowed him in the gut. "Hey."
"Oh. Careful. I'm a whole lot older than you are. I'm starting to feel the age difference affecting me here." Ryuk grumbled.
The old woman leaned back into Ryuk's chest and stared out onto the bleak world around her. "I think the world is happy now." She said softly. "And if I try to fix it again because some idiot messes it up…they can't catch me now." Keegan laughed.
Ryuk pulled her closer and rested his head on her shoulder. "Did I ever tell you how much I love you?" He chuckled.
"You have, you're only saying it now because we're alone together most of the time and no one cares anymore." Keegan shook her head.
"You know. Getting you to stay here wasn't absolutely easy for me to do. Tricking the shinigami king again wasn't working…how did you do it when I couldn't?" Ryuk asked.
Keegan held up the Life Script to show the book had significantly grown slightly worn from being in her possession, but it had aged like a fine wine and was still just as good. "He knew that if he sent you through any sort of punishment…I think he felt threatened because if we were killed here he knew I'd come back as an angel seeking vengeance. I think that's why, I scared him, Ryuk."
"I told you, you have a knack for being scary sometimes. I'm surprised it worked so well on the Shinigami King. The King." He said, voice muffled into her shoulder, and held his hands around her waist. "I knew you'd come for me if I was convicted."
"They almost got you for running over Joe." Keegan laughed.
"But Joe's dead now." Ryuk chuckled.
"A lot of my friends and family are dead now Ryuk…You're all I have left."
"You're the only thing I've got." Ryuk scoffed. "Don't say things like that. It makes you sound all sappy and then I'll get all sappy and then you'll cry and…"
She silenced him by placing a finger over his blackened lips. "Ryuk."
"Yeah?"
"Just shut up and Kiss me."
His jagged grin returned to his face and he pressed his forehead against hers.
"'Til Death."
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Authoress: And I leave you to go on with whatever theories or ideas you like. Thanks for enjoying the Life Script as much as I have. It's been a pleasure writing it.
