STORY SUMMARY: Being reborn into a Japanese story was bad enough. Being reborn as the twin sister to a certain notorious mass murderer, was another thing entirely. Told in a series of drabbles. Warning: Mild incest themes.

Rating: T (Subject to change)

GENERAL DISCLAIMER: It's not my sandbox. I'm just playing in it.

AN: I know I've become a slow updater, but guys, come on. You really thought that was the end? In all seriousness, your amazing feedback always encourages me to come back to this fic. Thank you all for your support. Enjoy!

DESTROY SHE SAID

Chapter Twenty-Four : Back

"That's unusual."

My eyes snapped open to find myself sprawled out on my bedroom floor, cold, clammy…and very much alive. Above me, Ryuk stared down with an expression that could only be read as gobsmacked.

"Yer not dead." Pause. "This has never happened to me before." He looked almost embarrassed as he said it. A second pause. "Maybe I'll try again."

I lurched. Wha—!?

Blank.

Black.

—and back.

I jolted, my mind and body reeling. Air hitting my lungs like a freight train, nearly sending me hurtling over the edge once more. Unfortunately Ryuk beat me to it.

Blank.

Black.

-and back.

This continued until finally there was a break in his pattern and I just barely managed to throw a hand out, fingers splayed.

"Stop—" wheeze "stop—doing that!" Was as far as I got before bile came rushing up my esophagus. Anything else I had to say was put on temporary hold as I clamped both palms over my mouth to prevent soiling the rug. Rolling onto my side and I tried to focus on one inanimate object at a time. It wasn't helping.

"This has never happened to me before." The shinigami was ignoring me. And repeating himself apparently.

My horizontal vantage point wasn't improving the vertigo, so I moved again. This time in a clumsy effort to reach my knees. I managed by bracing both elbows on my bed frame, finding balance for all of eight seconds before my vision turned sideways. Up was down, and I was snorting carpet fibers again.

Meanwhile, my attempted murderer was having an existential crisis. Amidst my lackluster attempts to regain any semblance of equilibrium, Ryuk had paled. His complexion dropped from a cadavra grey to an eggshell white. Under his breath, he was mumbling things too low for me to hear.

"I'd better check on this." He wasn't talking to me anymore. Not really. And that was fine, I wasn't listening. I was curled into the fetal position, head trapped between both knees.

There was whisper, like a curtain rustle, but that was it. No window opened, no door slammed, but I knew I was alone. Just me and the pounding in my head. Or it may have been the rain which had yet to let up. Either way, I found comfort in the rhythmic tempo and I used it to tether myself to reality, one beat after another.

Letting out an exhale I retreated inwardly and waited. Whether for the nausea to subside or for Ryuk to return and finish the job was unclear. But before I could figure it out, the temperature of the room lowered by a degree and I knew he was back.

"Well human, I have good news and terrible news. Which would'ya like to hear first?"

I lifted my head like a drunk person and fixed the shinigami with a blank stare.

"Do I want to know where you just went?"

"Not far. Just outside the front gate. I had to test it." Was it possible for a shinigami to look relieved?

"Test it?" I repeated slowly, sounding out each syllable as if to make sure I heard him right. And then dots were connected and my wooziness was replaced by horror. "On who?!"

"The neighbor lady. She was walking her four-legged creature but I didn't think it'd be polite to eat it."

"Oh my god." My tone was deadpan but my eyes had doubled in size. Poor Mrs. Kobayashi. The sweet older woman from next door who used to babysit Light and I.

Ryuk let out that sound again, the snort that wasn't a snort. "You humans are all so sensitive. Well, I'm not gonna repeat myself so I'll just tell you. The good news is, it's not broken."

I didn't have a tough time figuring out what he was referring to. The horrible little notebook was highly visible between gnarled fingers. He was tilting it this way and that. Inspecting the fanned pages from every angle, even giving it a few jerky shakes for good measure.

My expression must have spoken volumes because Ryuk immediately followed that up with, "I never said it was good news for you."

Somehow I maneuvered myself into an upright position, leaning the majority of my weight against the wall.

"Will you try again?" I knew it probably wasn't in my best interest to ask but the uncertainty was almost somehow worse.

There was a pause—but then skeletal shoulders shrugged and the death note was snapped shut.

"Even I'd get bored after writing the same person's name so many times." The notebook was holstered back to his waist and I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "Hope this doesn't make things weird between us, girly," he added before turning to leave.

I nearly fell back over.

"W-wait, wait! What? That's it?"

He turned back towards me with mock curiosity. "Were you hoping I would?"

"Of course not!" My earlier fear was slowly ebbing away to instead be replaced by outrage. The temptation to howl and scream and shake answers out of him was intense, but the walls were thin, and my family was most likely asleep. So I kept my voice low but did nothing to hide my mounting anger.

"You seemed awfully determined a minute ago to see me dead. Was this some sort of scare tactic? There's no way I'd still be alive if that thing was real. You owe me answers! Also—" I mumbled in a smaller tone, "you left out the terrible news."

Was I stupid? I had to be. Only an idiot would look a gift horse in the mouth. A blind person could see the smartest thing to do right then was to keep mine shut. But sadly I'd always been terrible at taking my own advice.

"Owe you? I don't owe you anything. I followed the rules and did my part. Yer only alive out of sheer luck. Or maybe something worse. I don't know. As for the terrible news, well, that requires some explaining and I don't know if I'm in the mood." Again he shifted towards the exit, this time I lurched forward.

"Stop. right. there, you giant insect. You do owe me. And if you don't start talking I'll-I'll" my brain scrambled for something, anything, to threaten him with. I could tell from the lift of his nonexistent eyebrow that he knew I was coming up empty; for what could a shinigami, a God of Death, possibly have to lose? He didn't have possessions or interests. He didn't even belong on this plain of existence. What could I possibly offer that may sway his attitude. And just like that, a lightbulb appeared.

Straightening my shoulders and folding my arms, I performed my best Light Yagami impression. Though Ryuk dwarfed me by several feet, I somehow still managed to look down my nose at him.

"If you don't fill me in on everything you know, and I mean everything, I'll develop a tragic allergy to apples. Sachiko will make sure they never come in within a 50 meter radius of this house again."

His panic was instant. "Ack!? You can't! You don't know what apples are to a shinigami!"

I arched a brow of my own. "What are you going to do to stop me, hmm? Kill me? You tried that already, remember? Several times." My face was blank, and my voice condescending. Brother would have been proud. I knew I had him beat but I still had to wrestle the corners of my mouth from lifting.

"Fine, Fine, Fine!" Giant inky wings materialized on his back, and he vanished too fast for my eyes to follow, reappearing on the opposite side of the room, furthest from the door. "But don't blame me if you don't like what you hear."

AN: Light POV on the horizon mateys! Please let me know your thoughts.