hubris

They were walking again, and their footsteps made no sound in the ash, their breaths no sound in the air.

'You said that you believe yourself to be partly responsible,' said Light, seemingly just to say something. 'Is that why you're here, then? In the same place I am?'

'I suppose that makes sense,' said Lawliet, slouching along with his hands in his pockets. 'It is curious, after all, that we have not encountered any other of the dead aside from these skeletons.' He carefully stepped over a spine, as if it were a snake. 'If we are truly dead and in the afterlife, it does not seem that there should be bones.'

'The human who uses the notebook can neither go to Heaven nor Hell,' recited Light. His lips quirked. 'I took that to mean that there was no Heaven or Hell, and Ryuk's reaction seemed to confirm the theory.'

The ash fell like dead rain into dead puddles, in which the dead bodies around them slowly and silently drowned.

'Do you believe in Purgatory, Kira?' asked Lawliet.

'No,' said Light.

Lawliet looked upwards, watching the ash settle in his bangs like dying moths. 'Me neither.'

'The only other world which we know has to exist is the Shinigami Realm,' noted Light, words too seamless.

'Even if this is the Shinigami Realm,' said Lawliet, tilting his head to glance at him, 'it would not explain how we ended up here.'

'It would explain the ash, though,' said Light, meeting his gaze. 'And the bones.'

Lawliet's gaze shifted back to the dead precipitation. 'If we did find a Shinigami, what would Kira do?'

'Try to trick them out of their Death Note, of course,' said Light, too fluidly. 'What else is there to do?'

Lawliet glanced at him again. 'That does not seem wise.'

'It does beg the question, though,' continued Light, 'of what we even are, if we're in the Shinigami world. Shinigami have lives, after all, and must kill humans in order to live. Is this a kind of life, then?' The skeletons glowed softly in the half-light. 'Do we also have to kill to keep on existing?'

'I do not think that a Shinigami is something one can become,' said Lawliet, a thumb at his lips, gaze intent on Light's face. 'And even if it were, it does not seem likely that we would simply become Shinigami after dying.'

'No, that's true,' agreed Light, crouching down to pick up a human skull with one hand. 'And Ryuk did tell me that I would not become a Shinigami after I died.'

Lawliet watched Light toss the skull up into the air, catch it; toss it again, catch it again. 'It would be just like Kira to assume something of that nature.'

'How do you explain this, though?' asked Light, gesturing with the skull to their surroundings. 'You said, after all, that you had a way of watching me. Shinigami, also, have ways of watching humans without leaving the Shinigami Realm.'

Lawliet's thumb brushed along his lip. 'Does Kira wish to be a Shinigami?'

'No,' said Light, immediately. 'The Shinigami are empty beings in an empty world, killing only to extend their own lives.' He watched Lawliet from the corner of his eye, lips curving upwards. 'I long ago surpassed them. I was even able to kill a Shinigami, after all.' His eyes were bright. 'Most Shinigami don't even know how to do that.'

'How did Kira do that?' asked Lawliet, not looking away from him.

Light turned to him, skull still in his hands, smiling an unkind smile. 'You get a Shinigami to care about a human, and then you force their hand so that they must use their notebook to kill someone in order to save that human. Shinigami are not allowed to use their notebooks to extend the lives of humans who are meant to die.'

'So you had Rem kill me and Watari to prevent Misa from being convicted again,' said Lawliet, looking away. There was a skeletal hand, still miraculously attached to its arm, sticking up out of the ash. 'And you got rid of Rem in the process.' He glanced back up at Light's face. 'Rem had threatened you.'

'Rem was too attached to Misa,' said Light, turning away again, unkind smile still twisting his lips as he regarded the skull. 'I knew Rem would have to kill you, but I didn't know Rem would go so far as to kill Watari.' His eyes glinted, smile growing wider and no kinder. 'That was a pleasant surprise to me.'

Lawliet watched him with dark, hieroglyphic eyes. 'Kira is truly cruel.'

'You say that,' said Light, tilting his head to look at him, 'and yet you still pity me.'

The thumb moved away from Lawliet's lips, hand lowering to slip back into its pocket, shoulders hunching further. 'It's a shame nobody realized your potential.'

'Yes, L,' said Light, glancing at him with glinting eyes as he set the skull down, deliberate but irreverent. 'When searching for successors you and Wammy should have been looking at more than just orphans.' He straightened, his eyes narrowing slightly, lips curling, 'In fact, L, I think you have a more inflated opinion of yourself than you realize. Did you really think your position in the world was so important that you needed someone to replace you when you were gone?'

Lawliet glanced at him, before shifting his gaze upwards, watching the dehydrated precipitation. 'Would Kira have looked for a successor, if he'd lived long enough?'

'There's nobody who could have replaced me,' said Light.

The ash continued to descend softly, collecting like petals in Lawliet's hair. 'Then Kira's reign was always going to end with your death.'

The mists curled around them.

'Not if I lived forever,' said Light.

Lawliet glanced at him again, head tilted. 'You could not have truly believed that you would, Kira.'

Light met his gaze and smiled. 'And yet I'm still here, aren't I?'