Ryūk was bored. Really bored. Bored like Bored himself. The real bored. Real, really bored. Ahh, was that a fly? No. 'Twas a greyed leaf falling from the tree canopy overhead.

Bored.

There is no flies here, anyway, only skeletal bees that made honey that could poison a human.

Bored.

Maybe he should try getting a third Death Note? Ugh..

B

O

R

E

D

To boil it all down, he was very bored. Why did their realm not have anything interesting? Like cars? Oh, we have wings.. great. Ryūk would have liked learning how to drive. Books? Light was obsessed with them, even that was better than nothing. More importantly, Mario Cart? Light had introduced him to the game, giving the shinigami a taste of electronic entertainment, it was addictive. But he could do with any game right now, even chess, which he despised because he always lost. There was absolutely nothing to do here... except gamble. Ryūk was sick of it, and to top it all, Ryūk was the one who had taught them to play - after one time he had gone down to earth (that time he had really accidentally dropped his Note). Ahhh, this was boring. Boring.

The boredom was now a thousand times worse than before, now that he knew what it was like to NOT be caught up in an episode of epic boredness.

'Boredness is not a word, Ryūku,' a gratifying voice said, echoing soothingly in his head. 'I will give you an apple if you stop thinking about playing video games, you know we can't play with the surveillance they put in my house.'

Light. A source of grand entertainment. And apples.

This boredom will kill him, he was already going insane, if Light's voice was ringing in his head.

'Sane?' Light's voice said, again. 'Is there anyone sane in this world, Ryūku?'

He was itching to see the kid. Eat an apple from Earth. And maybe hear Light try to pronounce his name without adding an imperceptible "u" sound at the end.

Ryūk glanced down at the blue rose bushes growing and thought about how he could go back down to the Earth. It was fun over there, unlike Death Row (their realm, if you couldn't guess). Maybe he could surprise the humans by planting a genuine blue rose? Humans were fun. Especially Light Yagami, he wanted one of those apple pies again, before the Yagami he never even knew that apples could taste so good. Another bad thing about their realm: no one ever tried cooking something, or tried to make anything remotely better for anyone. The lazy creatures only lay around lazily. Ryūk, he himself, had also once believed that cooking was a futile waste of time, he used to even join other fellow shinigami when they mocked apron-ed men steaming over a boiling pot (which happened when they were too broke to gamble). Had being a key word. Now, after candied apples, apple chewing gum (flying pigs! who ever knew a piece of chewy material could taste like sweetened apples?), apple juice and so on, Ryūk was a happy convert, strongly believing that mankind should never stop improving their cuisine skills - especially if it involved apples.

He missed that place.

And Light... slightly.

Ryūk wanted to go back.

The Old Boss had yelled at him for a whole day (or was it two hours?) straight, though.. something about too many people dying, too fast, and about how the Yagami should never be allowed a Death Note. Aww, man. Ryūk had been planning to fly down, give the boy a good scare, and demand apples, after giving him a Note.

Ryūk's bulging eyes bulged more with sudden realization.

The boss had yelled and yelled about Light Yagami never being allowed access to a Note, but he hadn't said anything about Ryūk's access to Earth being blocked. . .

Ahaha, hah, haha, Ryūk thought as he stood up resolutely. Hawhaw. I am such a genius, Light would have been so proud.

Or not.

That guy was inhumanely clever.

Now, it would be easy to keep a Death Note from the boy's hands. So the Boss could rest his crooked bones and feathers. He was a kid, after all. But if he didn't remember or see Ryūk, the shinigami would have to find someone else to feed him apples. Which was unlikely, the previous Death Note owners had never given him any apples, either they went crazy with madness or ignored him. Before Light, Ryūk had easily killed them off before returning home for some of those nasty apples. Which always occured when he'd curiously touched humans with the book, whenever he was down there. But dropping it had been the real deal, Light was the way. Seriously. That boy was strangely generous with his apples, and Ryūk couldn't afford to go into withdrawal before he got back to the boy and his lush apples.

Ohh, apples. Did anyone know that there was more than one way of saying apple? And Ryūk knew how to say it all, he'd taken an effort to learn the other shinigami languages, to kill off boredom. The most popular language up here was Nihongo, though, because the Old Boss had defeated all the other tribes. Back when warring over dominance was popular.

Back to the subject...

He could return the kid his memories. Without details on the Death Note.

Yes. He could do that, Ryūk (unlike his stupid and backwards comrades) knew how to cultivate the power of his Notes, manipulating the gaining of memories was easy play for him. The Boss might get angry, though. . Nah, he should see this as favour instead - what was the purpose of cursing the kid for punishment if he had no idea what had happened to him? But how could he explain all this dilemma to the kid? Easy. Ryūk could easily play the part of an otherworldly guardian (Hehe, the kid'll surely find a way to kill him if he ever found out the truth, in such a situation) to the boy. But his transformation? Even more easy. He'll have him believe Kira cursed him.

All for the entertainment and food. Ryūk spread his wings dramatically, feathers fluttering to the ground.

Apples! here comes Ryūk, the vigilant apple taster of justice!

Miiuuhuhuhuhuhuuuwuh!

'Kid.'

Ryūk yelled and glanced behind him at the owner of the voice. It was the Shinigami King. Hurray.

'Aaahahahaaa!' the laugh was fake, even to his ears. 'Boss!'

Dead eyes with dried purple veins in them stared at him impatiently. 'Where are you going?'

'No place! Just stretching it out, you know, trying to improve my health.'

'You have been eating too much food in the world of the living creatures, Ryūk. Be careful,' he warned. 'Now tell me where exactly you are going, before I cut off your wings and banish you to Mu.'

'Aw, Boss, don't be like that,' he whined. 'I was just planning to go to Earth, for a little vacation.'

A long, rattling sigh blew out of its lungs. 'I never knoe what to do with you, boy.'

Ryūk dancing inwardly with impatience. Apple, apple, apple. 'I can leave?'

Shadows creeped over the king, his body disappearing. 'Just tell Rem that if he follows you and clings to that girl, I'll turn him into fine poison ash.'

'Yes, sir,' Ryūk grinned, watching as the shinigami faded into the shadows completely.

Ryūk flapped his wings, petals flying off the roses. 'Light-o. Here I come. Maybe if I threaten him with telling people that he likes pouting, he'll give me more apples?'

Nah, threatening the boy was a great way to set up his back and make yourself a target of his. But it sounded like great dirt on the perfect boy.

Anyways, he'd better survive until Ryūk made it to him.