A/N: There aren't enough Misa stories out there. Completely inspired by Nickelback's 'Savin Me' video. At least watch it once if not obsessively while reading this.
Misa's Eyes
1
So with the shinigami eyes, I'll be able to see people's names and lifespans just like you, Rem?
That's right, Misa. But remember, it costs half of your remaining lifespan to get the eyes.
That's okay! Misa wants to be useful to Kira, and Misa bets Kira doesn't have the eyes yet.
Okay, Misa. If you're sure. A word of warning, though: The eyes can take some time to get used to.
What do you mean, Rem?
You'll see soon enough, Misa. You'll see soon enough.
2
"Umm... two apples and a head of lettuce," Misa said, looking at the street vendor's cart thoughtfully.
"That'll be 260 yen," he said, reaching for the wares.
Misa handed over the money as he handed her her bad with her groceries. She took it from him, smiling.
"Thanks, Satsumina-san," she said unthinkingly.
The man paused, looking at her oddly. Misa looked at him curiously, uncomprehending.
"How do you know my name?" he asked, his eyes narrowed.
Misa's eyes widened in realization of her mistake.
"Umm... lucky guess?" she offered timidly, backing up slowly before scampering off and vanishing into the crowds.
She'd have to remember not to go back to that fruit stand again.
3
Numbers were weird, Misa decided.
Names were simple enough to understand, and although Rem had explained that the lifespans she would see would only make sense to shinigami, it hadn't stopped her from trying to make sense of the numbers she kept seeing. The numbers themselves were the Arabic numerals that they had learned in English class; zero, one, two three, and so on.
Misa wandered around on the first day she had the eyes, eating an apple, pausing to look at the old man who was always sitting in the park, feeding the pigeons. Her eyes flicked up to his lifespan, which read 4 17.
That was odd, Misa noted. From those she had seen so far, most people had four or five numbers. Never three.
Determined to figure out the secret of the shinigami lifespans and numbers Misa wrote down the numbers as well as the date, figuring it couldn't hurt.
3.25
The next day, though, the old man's number read 4 18, which was confusing. Were the shinigami numbers measuring something else besides time left? Why had the figure gone up instead of down?
Nevertheless, Misa wrote the number and the date down before departing, determined to keep up her little experiment.
3.5
The next day, the old man's number read 4 12, and Misa was ready to scream.
What was going on? Rem had told her that you could change the lifespans of humans into human time, so there had to be a secret! But then why were the numbers jumping all over the place? Lifespans didn't change! The old man's number should be going down one by one!
An idea hit Misa, then.
What if it was going down one by one? Just, maybe, the numerals had different values to the shinigami?
Her face expressionless, but satisfied that she had figured it out, Misa wrote down the new figure and tucked her little notebook away.
3.75
More numbers followed with the next few days. A five, a three, a nine, a one, a four, a six, and a zero, before the old man's number changed to 4 07, and Misa knew she had all the numbers she needed.
Setting up a table in her notebook, the normal numbers on top, the shinigami figures on the bottom, Misa could now figure out just how much time the old man had left.
Let's see... seven's a nine... zeros are the same... four's a two...
Misa stopped.
She turned to look at the old man, who was feeding the pigeons serenely, as he did every day.
He had exactly two years and nine days left to live.
Misa felt ill with her own success.
4
Misa trudged along the sidewalk, try sky overcast and cloudy, the air heavy with the coming threat of rain. All around her, names and lifespans flashed by.
Rumiko Namikama. 39 482.
Kaoru Takahashi. 56 049.
Nate River. 609 393.
Ryuuga Hideki. 18 677.
So many people. So many lifespans. So much time, tick, tick, ticking by. None of them knowing when or how their life would be cut short or when or how they would die.
What would it be life, Misa mused, if they did know? Would they go about their lives any differently? Should they? Would they even want to know? Would she?
Misa paused, watching as an ambulance pulled up outside a bank in front of her and two paramedics leapt out. They pulled out a wheeled bed and rushed inside. Misa watched, wide-eyed, as they came rushing out a moment later with an elderly woman on the bed, her eyes closed, who looked to be in pain.
But that's not what Misa noticed.
Her lifespan...
Instead of days and years remaining static like most people's, the woman's was moving. A set of four numbers, the rightmost two racing down to zeros over and over again, the leftmost two lowering one by one every time the right ones reached zero.
The implication hit Misa just as the four numbers dropped to three.
She watched on in stark horror as the paramedics loaded the woman into the ambulance, oblivious to the woman's quickly dwindling time. Misa stood there, frozen, as the woman's time ticked on.
3... 9... 1... 4... 6...
0.
The zeros blinked above the woman's head for a moment before vanishing, going out like a light.
"No!" Misa yelled, surging forward to help the woman, to try to bring her back, to try to help, to try to do something, but Rem's strong arms held her back, holding her close, hugging her despite the busy street and whispering soothing words into her hair.
"No!" Misa told Rem frantically. "No! No!"
The paramedics closed the ambulance doors and drove away as girl and death god watched on.
And Misa cried.
5
"Can I help you, Miss?"
Misa looked at the cheery saleslady blankly, wondering what she was doing in a gothic clothing shop.
"I'm looking for some dark clothes," she said flatly. "Nothing happy or cheery. I want to change my image."
The lady peered at her closely, before squealing energetically.
"Aren't you Misa Misa?" she gushed. "Oh, my! You are! Why on earth do you want gothic things?"
"A girl can wear different things depending on her mood, can't she?" Misa said shortly, annoyed, while Rem floated behind her, silent as always.
The salesgirl considered this.
"You're absolutely right!" she said, smiling. "It'd go great with your image! A cutesy girl like you needs an icy, untouchable side too, to show all her fans that there's more to her than meets the eye! I'm so glad I get to help! Right this way, Misa Misa!"
Misa followed her, and for the next hour, tried on a variety of gothic outfits, skirts, fishnets, eyeliner, boots, tops, halters, hair accessories, a pack of tarot cards, and everything else she would need play the Mysterious Misa image the salesgirl seemed to have in mind.
Silently, Misa handed over her credit card while the girl rang it all up.
"This is great!" the girl exclaimed again. "I'm so glad I got to help! You'll be able to pull it off, no problem!"
Misa glanced up.
"If you say so," she said, taking her bags demurely. "And thanks for all the help, Yura-san."
Misa turned to go as the salesgirl paused.
"Wait!" she called after her. "How'd you know my name?"
Misa turned, a strange glint in her eyes.
"Maybe I'm more mysterious than you thought," she said.
6
Misa walked home with her new purchases, car tires hissing by on the wet pavement from the rain. Names and lifespans flashing by, Misa was more accustomed to it now.
Masako Shimizu. 19 064
Kiyoshi Ban. 86 146
Sayaka Neijaryu. 53
Yoichi Neijaryu. 53
Misa paused, turning to look.
An obviously pregnant woman sat on a bench, reading a book. As if sensing Misa's stare, she looked up, smiling. The second name and lifespan sat overtop her belly, while the first resided over her head.
Misa mentally translated the figures to sixty-five days. Both mother and child were to die in childbirth.
Misa turned and walked on.
7
"Is this seat taken?"
Glancing up, Misa saw a young man asking to sit down across the table from her of an outdoor café as she sipped her smoothie. Mentally wondering why he would want to sit with a young girl dressed in obviously gothic clothing who was shuffling tarot cards, she shook her head, and he sat down.
"Nice weather we're having, isn't it?" He smiled at her, and she rolled her eyes.
"I suppose."
He seemed insistent on talking to her, and Misa couldn't tell why until...
"You have tarot cards with you."
Ah.
"I suppose you want a reading?" Misa asked, raising an eyebrow. The man smiled.
"I don't actually believe they work, but I find people's faith in them amusing," he said. "How about you tell me as much as you can about myself from the cards, and we see how close you come?"
Misa's eyes narrowed.
"Why should I?"
He laughed. "Let's make it a game. If you're wrong, you buy me a drink. If you're right, I buy you a drink."
"Get out your wallet."
He laughed again, and Misa shuffled the cards and dealt them out.
"You're a clever girl, with a quick wit," he remarked. "It's too bad you place your faith in silly things like tarot cards."
She turned over the first card.
"Your name is Raye Penber," she said, glancing at it. "Your mother's Japanese, but your father's American, and you're in Japan for work, as well as to meet your fiancé's family."
The man went white.
"Let's see what else," she said, turning over the next card. "Your fiancé's name is Naomi Misora, and she used to work for the same agency as you did, the FBI, but she doesn't anymore. It says here that she's going to kill herself in about a month because of a great sadness, but I hardly think you want to hear about that, now, do you?"
"What the hell is this?" the man demanded. "How do you know all this?"
Misa turned over the next card.
"Apparently, you're here to investigate the family's of the NPA to see if any of them are Kira on L's orders as part of the FBI," Misa said. "Let's see how that'll turn out for you, shall we?"
She turned over the last card.
A grim figure in black with a scythe faced them.
"Oh dear," Misa said. "It appears Kira is going to find out about you and kill you. Too bad."
She swept up the cards and shuffled them once more.
"Another reading?" she asked.
The man stumbled backwards, his face pale.
"What the hell are you?" he demanded. "How do you know all these things?"
Misa shrugged.
Disconcerted, the man tossed a bill to the table and walked off, throwing frightened looks back at her every few feet while Misa nonchalantly sipped her smoothie.
"That wasn't very nice," Rem said from behind her.
"He was bothering me," Misa said simply. "It's not very nice to bother people."
8
"Hey, you."
Misa raised an eyebrow, indicating she was listening to the shinigami as they walked down the street.
"This wasn't what I gave you that Death Note for," Rem said. Misa could hear the concern in her voice. "How about using it more for yourself?"
"I am using it for myself," Misa said simply. At the shinigami's odd expression, she elaborated.
"I'm totally in favor of what Kira's doing, and I want to know what he's like," she explained. "I want to meet him, and get to talk to him. That's the reason I moved to Tokyo in the first place. And sent those videos to Sakura TV. Because I want him to know about me."
"I bet that got his attention." She smiled. "Maybe he even wants to meet me, too."
"You're playing a dangerous game, Misa," Rem warned. "You might get killed. Do you realize that?"
"I'll be fine. I'm sure Kira's really nice to people who support him," Misa remarked. "And anyway, if push comes to shove, I've got the eyes, so I'm stronger."
Rem shook her head.
"You've changed, Misa," she said quietly. "I don't know quite how or when, but you've changed somehow."
Misa stopped.
"I know when I changed, Rem," she said quietly. She paused, watching the people in the street go by, their names and life spans floating about them.
"It was when I got the eyes."
9
"So what do I have to do, Light-kun?"
"I'll arrange for you or Rem to see L so you can write his name down in your Death Note. Then you and I can be together."
"Oh, Light..."
Misa held Light's hand happily as they walked down the street together, Rem and Ryuuk floating along silently behind them, and Misa was proud to be seen with such a perfect boyfriend. It was their first date, and they were going to the park.
Names and lifespans flashed by as always, but Misa tried to ignore them. This was her special day with Light, and she didn't want anything to ruin it. Not when things were going so well.
She looked adoringly up at Light. His name floated above his head, but no lifespan. No need to worry for him. It was just one of the many things she loved about him. It made them special, unique from the rest of the world.
Misa hugged Light's arm as they walked along, watching the people walk by, before she stopped. Light paused, raising an eyebrow.
"What is it?"
Misa watched as a woman reading the paper made her way down the sidewalk.
"Misa, what is it?"
Looking down the road, Misa saw the bus coming, and realized what was going to happen.
"Misa, I command you to tell me what is going on-"
"I'll be right back!"
Running as fast as she could, Misa ran and grabbed the back of the woman, hugging her waist and pulling her back from walking into the street just as the bus roared by, beeping the horn and whooshing past dangerously close. Misa closed her eyes and sighed in relief.
The woman turned and looked at Misa, astonished and clearly shaken. Misa looked above her head, smiling as the numbers raced upwards, allotting her more time.
"But- how did you?" The woman stumbled over her words, too stunned to comprehend the magnitude of what had just happened.
Misa just smiled and shook her head before skipping off to rejoin Light, who had witnessed the entire exchange.
"You saved her," he said flatly, as Misa reattached herself to his arm.
"Mmhmm," Misa said, nuzzling up to him.
"I suppose you saw her life expectancy was about to run out."
"Mmhmm."
"I thought that life expectancies are written in shinigami numbers."
"They are."
Light fixed her with a piercing look.
"Then how did you know that woman was about to die?" he demanded.
Misa smiled.
"Maybe there's more to me than meets the eye," she said, her eyes sparkling.
10
Rem?
Yes, Misa?
You know you said that the shinigami eyes take some getting used to?
Yes?
I think I've gotten used to them now.
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