It was a bone-dry world, void of any vegetation other than the dead trees that reached up from the stony ground like a skeleton's creeping fingers. Buried deep in the dust were bits and pieces of random rubble—a wheel here, a cog there—which built up the terrain. Chains that seemed to reach up into the sky swayed back and forth, adding to the ambience of the land. Bones in the curved shape of ribs rose up out of the soil, making it appear as if giant beings died there, and their remains are the only proof they existed. There were no bright colors, only various shades of brown and gray, and whatever light the beings that lived in this had was obscured by giant clouds overhead.
The Shinigami realm was a rotting mess, and it sent Ryuk's blood boiling.
It's like a junkyard, the God of Death thought, casually rolling a shard of rusted metal between two, long, crooked fingers. A junkyard mashed with a decrepit graveyard.
He adjusted his posture, resting his lanky arms on his knee, looking out across the Shinigami Realm. The cliff that he was sitting on allowed him to overlook most of the realm, and he took it in, disgust flickering in his eyes and turning in his gut.
"What? A pair of sleeping skulls?"
Ryuk's yellow eyes flicked down to the voice. Two other Shinigamis, Gook and Deridovely, gambled below him. Gook rubbed his animal-like skull as he realized he'd lost.
"Hehe, I win again!" Deridovely announced, running his hands up the jagged scythe he held. "No hard feelings, right?"
Noticing that Ryuk was watching the pair, Gook looked up at him, waving a hand. "Hey there, Ryuk, would it kill you to join us? You should come play with us for a change!"
The God of Death thought about it, taking another look across the Shinigami realm. "No," he growled in a raspy voice. "I'll pass."
Ryuk slowly climbed to his feet and walked down the side of the cliff, hunched over and sighing.
"This is all so ridiculous," he muttered to himself, clenching his clawed hands. He passed by Shinigami after Shinigami as he walked with no set destination in mind. Ryuk had explored every inch of the realm, and knew there was nothing interesting about it at all. His feet patted against the colorless sand, crunching through the most desolate part of the world. Looking back behind him, he uttered a single phrase with hate:
"This world is rotten."
"Listen for the voice of God, then follow it, and know that in time you will find your salvation."
Around the classroom, people were whispering away, their ears diverted from the teacher's reading, and instead listening to juicy gossip coming from their peer's mouths.
Only one student was listening: honor student, Light Yagami. However, even he was tired of his English teacher's monotone voice. He rubbed his temples with his hands, trying to get his mind to focus.
"I know! I didn't even do anything wrong! He just totally snapped at me!"
"Really?"
"Yeah, really!"
Light wished that the girls next to him would shut up, and he gave them an annoyed glance.
"Yagami? Are you still with us?"
Light diverted his focus back to the front, where his teacher was staring at him expectantly.
"Can you please translate the following sentence into English?" the professor asked, speaking over the multiple conversations going on in the classroom.
Sighing, Light stood up, textbook in hand. "Follow the teachings of God and receive his blessings and so it shall be that the seas will again become bountiful and the raging storms will subside."
As he spoke, the rest of the students quieted down and listened to his words. By the time he was done, the class was silent as all eyes watched as Light sat down.
Light ignored the stares he was receiving, and instead turned his gaze to the window, looking over at the city of Yokohama, Japan.
The rest of the day was uneventful, just boring classes and useless banter. Light ran through the usual motions without batting an eye. It was the same routine, over and over again.
It's like I'm caught in a never-ending loop, Light thought as he walked home, folding his arms as he looked down at the ground, watching his shadow.
To anyone looking at him, it would have seemed like he was reading out of a small, yellow book. But Light's focus was on the news feeds that played over TV screens, radios, and speakers along his route.
"Today, at approximately eleven am a thirty-two-year-old man was found stabbed to death in his apartment in the city of Yokohama Kanagawa Prefecture. Kanagawa police are treating this case as a homicide."
"In other news, today, suspected murderer Naoki Tokuji was arrested in the district of Shibuya, Tokyo. He is being held in custody facing murder charges for the brutal slaying of his common-law partner, who was only twenty-five at the time of her death."
As he stood at a traffic light surrounded by dozens of other people, Light turned his gaze to the pavement, the broadcasts making him feel sick with anger. He wished for a moment that he was deaf, so he wouldn't have to hear all the terrible things happening in the world.
Day in and day out, he thought. The same news on permanent repeat.
Passing by the skyscrapers, Light looked up into the fading, sun-lit sky, his caramel eyes reflecting everything above him. He clenched his fists and muttered under his breath:
"This world is rotten."