CHAPTER 35:
"Conversing With The Enemy"
Alone, Demetre leaned back into his pillow. He gently felt the bandage over his left eye and sighed deeply. He never thought something so surreal would happen to him. It was an accident, but still, he had lost half his sight today.
He closed his one good eye and tried to get some sleep. Light's bed was very comfortable.
"Demmy," came a quiet but gruff voice, almost apologetic in nature.
Demetre opened his eye and looked up at Geist. His face made Demetre flinch from the sight, his boney grotesque face, like death itself was staring down at him. He had gotten used to Geist's appearance over the years, but for that split moment, it startled him. Geist rose, to straight up, when Demetre reacted such.
Demetre lifted himself up on the pillow. "Geist? What are you doing here?"
"I apologize. I didn't want that to happen. I didn't mean to hurt you. It was unexpected."
"Yes, I agree, and unforeseen," Demetre replied. "And yet, I'm still alive, and that's the main thing. I must have a guardian angel, or something else on my side." He smiled thinly.
"I am your Shinigami, we have a contract, but you have never mistreated me, or made me feel any less than a friend. I have also come to know you're a good hearted person, killing only when it was needed to save others or yourself. Originally, I came to the Human World because I wanted to find someone not unlike Kira, but then you picked up the Death Note, and I become attached to you. I was disappointed at first, but then came to enjoy our time together, and the adventures we've shared. You've entertained me much over the years, and I want to thank you."
Demetre eyed him, literally. "Get to the point, Geist," he said.
"For my part in what happened to you, I'm here to offer you a special offer, very rarely given to humans in relation to the Death Note. I can restore your sight, but for a price. And I'm not talking apples."
"You sound like a used car salesman, Geist. What are you trying to say?"
"The Shinigami Eye Deal can restore the sight in your left eye, but it will not affect your right eye. Hence, it will only cost you a quarter of your remaining lifespan."
"So, I would be able to see a person's lifespan with my left eye, but see normally only with my right? That's not a reason deal, Geist, and you know it. Thank you, but I'll pass. And on a side note, stop feeling guilty. While I appreciate the offer, and even the sentiment to help me, I would rather keep my humanity."
Geist nodded, smiling the best he could. "I had a feeling you would not take the deal, and that's what makes you so good-hearted. If the same deal was offered to Light Yagami, I'm certain he would jump at the chance."
"Another one of the unwritten rules not told to human handlers, huh?"
Geist snorted. "Don't mock me, Demmy. I offered it in good faith because we've been together for so long."
"And our friendship means a lot to you?"
Geist didn't respond, but Demetre knew it did. A Shinigami who grew attached to their handler was in a poor position just in case they needed to kill them. However, thanks to Morph, Demetre didn't need to fear that with his name in his Life Note, which nullified the Death Note's influence.
"A sentimental Shinigami, now that's a first," came a young, sounding, disembodied voice.
Suddenly, the voice manifested into a human form, and Morph appeared. Neither Geist nor Demetre were startled, knowing Morph's abrupt appearances and disappearances, the supernatural spectral Imp that he was.
Morph stood at the edge of the bed, but something was different about him. Instead of the white clothing he normally wore, he wore all black, but the same ancient Roman style. Demetre never asked Morph why he choose to wear such a style of clothing, but he figured since the being liked it, that was all that mattered.
"Hello Morph," Demetre said. "Hmph, interesting attire, all black. Are you trying a new look?"
Just then, Geist reached for his bone club. "Demmy, watch out, that is not—"
Morph flicked a one fingered hand and stopped Geist in his tracks, his arm frozen in mid-reach for his weapon. The Shinigami was even silenced of speech.
Demetre tensed up, confused. "Geist?"
"Greetings, Demetre Draycott, it's a pleasure to finally meet you. You are, in fact, exactly how I pictured you. Judging by what I see, however…" —he looked at Geist, up and down— "your biography is incomplete from what the others know about you. Geist is in a form of stasis, and I have encased us in a similar bubble, so we can talk freely, and so the others outside in the other room cannot hear us. Our conversion, hence, will be completely private."
The Imp smiled, and gave a small bow, as if he was about to give a performance. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Menace, and I'm Morph's twin brother. What would you call this, a pre-emptive assault? But don't worry, hurting you is not my intention. Tangling with two of the others appears to have already caused you issues." Menace gestured to Demetre's eye. "As a token of my sincerity here, allow me to bestow you with a gift…"
Menace waved a hand across Demetre. At first, Demetre felt nothing, but then he put a hand to his left eye as he felt what he could only describe as a heavy pulse within his eye socket. He unwrapped his bandages and when he opened his left eye, he could see again. He blinked several times to gain clarity.
"Phenomenal," he said admirably. "With your powers you could cure cancer."
"Humans are their own cancer," Menace said darkly. In a way, Demetre could not counteract that remark. "I merely regenerated the tissue and repaired the damage," the Imp explained. "I was watching, secretly, when Raye Penber and Jasper Yuta infiltrated this building, as they fought with your Shinigami, and how the last shot from that boy's gun ricocheted off Geist's bone club, and hit you in the eye, scaring your eye as it passed your pupil."
"Ah, so that's what happened. Thanks for the clarification." As if he hadn't already figured that out.
Menace eyed him acutely. "Don't be facetious, Demetre Draycott. I'm here of my own accord, no one else knows. Morph has been up to too much mischief playing with humanity. He should not have helped Light Yagami escape from Quindecim, nor given either of you weaponized versions of the Death Note. He has also aided in resurrecting several other people who should have remained dead, associated with the previous Kira Case."
Demetre swallowed nervously, then he gave Menace a straight stare, leaning back against the pillow. "I'm listening, Menace. You appear to know a great deal for someone I just met. Tell me, how do you know all that you know, and who are the others you speak of? We, meaning Light and I, are already aware of Raye Penber and Jasper Yuta, and if you have been watching us, then you are also aware of some, if not all of the rest."
"Yes, I am familiar with everything that had occurred since Light Yagami's resurrection, past and present, and Morph's manipulation and altering of the timeline to suit Light Yagami's needs to become Shinto Izanagi. But I have refrained from telling the others I align with about your side of this conflict, because, with all due honesty, I find it all very…entertaining." He smiled. "L thinks he's so smart, so I'm allowing him to figure things out."
Demetre gasped. "L's alive? And is he aligned with Near?"
Menace said, "Yes."
"Ah, then that explains a few things; not everything, but a lot."
"Morph has made some grave mistakes. His error in judgment allowed rips in the space-time continuum to allow those who should not come back to return to the Human World. I have done my best to repair the damage. I have also liberated Matt, or Mail Jeevus, from that sick and perverted boy's sexual dungeon in this building, and sent him to L. So, if you learn he has disappeared, then that is where he is, and why."
Demetre nodded. "He served his purpose here anyhow, I have no problem with your action," he said, with a pause before he spoke again. "So, getting back to the issue at hand. What is your reason for coming here?"
"I fear something very grievous is about to happen and I wish to establish a truce. I will allow all those who have been resurrected to remain here, but in exchange, I want Morph. The Life Note in mine and I want it back!"
"The Life Note is yours?"
Menace nodded.
Demetre then listened to the Imp's tale of his brother Morph and "The Great Death Note War" with the Shinigami versus The Brigade of Life. Demetre knew about The Brigade of Life from Morph.
"I came to you, because I believe you to be reasonable," Menace then said. "Light Yagami would never listen to me, nor would he wish to give up the power Morph has granted him. He is too arrogant and selfish. I find you to be more down-to-earth, as you humans say."
Demetre looked at him. He folded his arms across his chest. "You haven't offered me any incentive to help you, but I will thank you for restoring my sight. Other than that, I will not betray Light. He is my best friend. Since his resurrection, he has helped more people in the world than he's killed as Kira previously. If you have been watching us, then you know how difficult it has been to reign in Light from aimlessly murdering people like he did before. I know he can be mentally unstable sometimes, but that is why I watch him closely. I calm him down when he gets angry, and when he gets angry he wants to use the Death Note. I stop him. I killed one such person in recent weeks when he learned about Light's true identity and about our plans. However, I killed to protect Light."
"Yes, the Grand Agenda, and I also know about your ring and the mouthguard's. The Grand Agenda is not a Kira thing, but it involves ruling over the world in a phelora of ways, and through trade and commerce. Give people what they desperately need and then they eventually they can't live without it, like drugs and alcohol. It is a less lethal control mechanism than using the Death Note directly, like ruling as a god with fear. Light Yagami uses his new persona to do so. Weaponizing your Death Notes' is just a means to an end to manipulate others."
"Why are you even here if you already know everything? Why don't you just take the Life Note from Morph? If you're this all-powerful being, why do you need my help?"
Menace didn't answer. "Know this, I restored the memories of both Touta Matsuda and Shuichi Aizawa, so L and Near both know about you and Light Yagami working together. And since Raye Penber and Jasper Yuta were chased off, I gather your association has been thoroughly confirmed by now. Be warned, Morph is using you."
"Yes, Light isn't stupid. He figured out what Morph was trying to do a long time ago. Morph is a leech, and acts very much like a Shinigami, and we both, Light and I, have made contracts with him, signing our names in the Life Note. Therefore, anyone with a Death Note can't kill us. Like you, for example. And yet, just in case, we are betrayed, using the Infinity Rule Geist informed us of, and we wrote our names down in our Death Notes as a safeguard."
"Very clever," Menace said. "But allow me to show you something that may change your mind, to see my side of things, to help me…"
Menace extended his arms out, and he suddenly beamed, and was enveloped in a bright, white, angelic light.
When the brightness faded, Demetre looked around. He thought he had been engulfed in a heavenly light, almost godly, but when he saw where he was, he lost all sense of reality. He was no longer in the bedroom, but in some barren land, of burnt ash and sand. There was no vegetation and nothing to indicate any signs of life.
He stood in his briefs, then took a moment to rub his eyes. Menace stood next to him. "What is this place?"
Menace extended an arm and gestured around. "You have never been here before, but Light Yagami has, but in another era of time. This is where Ryuk, Geist, and every Shinigami come from: the Shinigami Realm. There is no oxygen here, so I have encased us in a protective barrier to stave off the harsh elements of this world."
Still dazed and confused, Demetre asked why he had been brought here.
"I have the power to delve into a person's mind," Menace said. "I can help people ward off illness or other such ailments, such as mind manipulation, hence restoring Matsuda and Aizawa's memories from the influence of your Death Ring. But this is not fantasy. I wish to give you a little history lesson."
"Dear God, how far back in time are we?"
"As far back and long before your world began to measure time. I have brought you back to show you something very important. But while the bulk of The Great Death Note War has surpassed, and The Brigade of Life is on the brink of complete annihilation due to General Anonl's army—the Shinigami who would later become the Shinigami King—there is still one more important battle to take place.
"Morph began the war against the Shinigami, accidentally, murdering a high ranking Shinigami, Anonl's sister when she attempted to take the lifespans of thousands of human's all at once, long before he stole my Life Note, and fled this realm; Morph was a good person once. We have ways to kill Shinigami other the Love Option, if you understand my meaning? My realm and the Shinigami Realm reside side-by-side with each other, and is accessible easily by the other, but most of the fighting happened here in the Shinigami Realm. And until the Shinigami began to become ravenous with death, they were a peaceful race.
"It was only Anonl's lust for power and his hungry for human soul's to increase his own lifespan did the Shinigami fall into a gluttonous, murderous people, who eventually ended up killing their own 'humanitarian' essence.
"You see, the Shinigami looked like much like you, many, many, many years ago. And they used their Death Notes only out of necessarily, and only took what they needed to expand their own lifespans—energy from other beings. But they didn't kill. In fact, they gave back more than they took. The Shinigami Realm was not a barren wasteland back then, as you see it here. It was a lush garden world bursting with life. It was only when General Anonl who decimated it when he used a Death Bomb to kill most of my people in one final swoop, gathering the rest of the Shinigami to his side, did it turn into such. It's a destructive method using a Death Note, altering its form, weaponizing it, to kill multiple beings at once, much like the bomb that destroy Hiroshima in your Second Great War. And I wager, this is how Morph was able to weaponize your Death Notes, using this method. He learned and stole of our from history.
"But after that, death became the Shinigami way of life, and it changed the Shinigami forever—their way of thinking and their forms, The Shinigami King controlling every action and appearance of a Shinigami after that, turning them into grotesque beings of death. Telling them, they need to kill to survive.
"Before the Death Bomb, The Brigade of Life saw what General Anonl was doing, and tried to stop him—he would have murdered your entire race if he wasn't stopped. Suffice to say, The Brigade of Life was defeated by the Shinigami under the leadership of then General Anonl. But, we are with you humans in spirit. You think of them as ghosts, but they are the part of our essence that you can't see on your world, that surround your people on a daily bases staving off Shinigami influence, a former spectral protection. Spectral Guardians, if you will."
"So death fighting death?" Demetre commented. "I see the irony. Grim Reapers warded off by Spectral Guardians."
"Without them protecting you, your entire race would've been gone a long time ago. Morph protects the last of our sentient, and most powerful people inside him, feeding them, until one day we can rise again. I suppose you could call him their guardian. But it's not the first time he has visited the Human World—and neither have I. Before my incarceration to The Void in Quindecim. Morph and I have fought on several occasions over the centuries, sibling rivalry runs rampant with brothers. We both took a liking to your Ancient Roman period, hence the clothing."
"I wondered about that. Nice to finally know the reason. You said the Life Note belongs to you, and that Death Note you have belong's to Morph, why the difference in books? Why not just two Life Note's?"
"Because there can only be one Life Note and one Death Note. The notebooks that the Shinigami possess derive from a stolen page from the original Death Note. The one I have currently is that first Death Note, and it was locked up in Quindecim for eons to keep it from beings like Morph. Like I said, General Anonl's lust for power drove him mad, and he stole a page from the Death Note, and duplicated its power, and gave it to his people. They had an ability to obtain energy from beings before, but it was not by way of the Death Note. Our father originally gave the Life Note to me and the Death Note to Morph, because we are the two royal princes of The Brigade of Life Royal Family. Life and Death is what drives the universe, but you cannot have one without the other and they must remain in balance or chaos erupts. I am the younger, I was the more responsible one, so that is why I was endowed with the power of the Life Note by our father, so if Morph err'd, I could fix his mistakes. As I am attempting to do now."
"So, the Shinigami are actually our enemies? Well, they are god's of death."
"Yes, and more and more Shinigami have taken notice of your realm since the original Kira Incident. The Shinigami King has temporarily placed a ban on visitation. But that hasn't stopped some from coming, namely Geist."
Demetre nodded. He encountered many more Shinigami who had come to the Human World, witnessing them in the Savant Society and the League of Darkness. Some had come after Geist, but most had come before Ryuk, and settled in the Human World, coming through what Geist as some sort of spiral whirlpool gateway. (Ref: to my Death Note Novel: The Draycott Factor)
"And with every Shinigami that comes here, the power of the Spectre Guardians dwindle, weakens. That's why there is so much death on your world: disease, fire, floods, even strange climate phenomenon. Shinigami want to be entertained, so they enact things to happen to see how humans will react. And when they have satisfied their boredom and taken the remaining lifespans of humans, killing them, their deaths attributed to tragedy, they move on to something else. This is why your defeat of the Savant Society and the League of Darkness was so important. You, in essence, with others, helped preserve the Human Race. You'd make a great Brigade of Lifer."
Demetre smirked.
"But this isn't what I wish to show you, call it a little background information," Menace said. "Allow me to explain more…"
To be continued...