Dazai stares almost unseeingly into the viewing portals that lead to the human world.
Unlike his dull brethren in the Shinigami Realm, Dazai is more than a little curious about the world below: the world of those weak, pathetic creatures with too short lifespans. Usually, Dazai is more of the slothful sort, but on days where the gambling gets too bothersome, the noise of his brethren's chattering too noisy, he just wants to be left alone.
And thus, he finds one of the viewing portals.
At first, the Shinigami aimlessly looks at different humans. Some of them are fairly interesting; others are so disgustingly boring and trivial that they have Dazai in fits of uncontrollable laughter.
Who cares about politics? Who cares about the state of the economy? Wars? Disease? Hunger? Why did humans care so much and so little for others? There are so many controversies; so many different paradoxes littering the human race. Dazai despairs of ever truly understanding what it means to be human.
And then, Dazai finds him.
Oda Sakunosuke is a strange human at best, ridiculously impractical at worst. Back when he was a teenager, he had been a professional hitman—a profession that this human had been more than proficient. Even Dazai is impressed by the kill streak on this guy. Dazai spends a few days watching Osamu Sakunosuke, but when he was just about to quit and start looking at some other human, Sakunosuke finds someone equally as interesting.
The strange man introduces the hitman to a life that is free from the killing. He talks of writing novels, of living by the sea and writing for the sake of writing. These words are meaningless, dreams that are forgotten, but Sakunosuke wants to pursue this old man's words. Soon, he joins the Port Mafia and resolves that he would never again take another human life.
Dazai's interest expands exponentially. For years, Dazai sits next to that viewing portal, his gaze never leaving the young man with the honor of a samurai. All is well.
And yet, nothing is.
Being a Shinigami, Dazai knows from the start that Sakunosuke's life would end much shorter than most humans. At first, Dazai is disappointed. He knew that his temporary entertainment would be short. Now that Dazai is seeing a man who willingly gave up killing and took in the orphans from an operation, there is just something...growing. Blossoming.
Something stirs inside Dazai's brain that both hurts and warms himself deep inside.
Dazai doesn't know what it is.
All he knows is that the idea of Sakunosuke's dying brings too much pain to his nonexistent heart.
And so, Dazai brings fate into his own hands.
He takes his only Death Note, a dark black notebook, into the human world. He flies with a grace and elegance that would have stunned anyone who could have had the ability to see him. However, one can not deny that he also flies with an urgency that was quite the opposite of Dazai's usual slothful behavior.
He drops the Death Note onto Sakunosuke's lap, careful to stay away from the human's vision until the young man gets himself acquainted with the notebook.
Dazai could not have found a better human.
Sakunosuke takes the revelation that Shinigami were in fact real quite well. In fact, if Dazai remembers correctly, Sakunosuke even allowed him to greet him as, "Odasaku".
It is the start of a beautiful friendship.
