an: ...Did that ending surprise anyone else? Because it surprised me, and I'm the one who wrote it, lol. But I honestly had no idea how this story was going to end, and then I wrote that chapter, and I just stood there staring at the screen for a while, feeling really, really strange, because the story had up and ended on me. With absolutely no warning. There was just... nowhere to go, from there, and I got the feeling that the entire story had been leading up to that one moment, and I just didn't know it till it happened.

It was especially weird, because I'd been planning for them to run into some Shinigami at some point, and had plans concerning that, so I was kinda disappointed they didn't. But at the same time, I actually really like the ending, and felt that I couldn't have them meet Shinigami after that, since I want those events to take place before they've kind of started to bridge the gap between them at all.

So I was just like, You know what? Why do I have to choose one? I'll just do both! #obviousdecisionisobvious

So I'm actually writing a spin-off to this story where they actually do encounter some Shinigami, and get up to trouble. The spin-off branches off from this one after chapter xviii: uncertainty, and then goes in a different direction from there.

I hope, if you enjoyed this story, that you will join me over on the spin-off, as well :3 It's entitled rot, and I've started posting it, so you can find it on my profile if you're interested. (I have a lot of plans for that story, bwahaha.)

In the meantime, however, here's an (evilly small) abridged teaser trailer, so to speak (did I mention that it's abridged? it's really just to give you the basic idea of what to expect, circumstances-wise):

sneak peek: rot

'You found something that makes you certain that Shinigami do exist here,' realized Lawliet.

Light reached one hand into his pocket, taking out something gray and misshapen, tossing it to Lawliet. 'Explain that to me, L.'

Lawliet carefully held the object before his face, examining the tooth marks. '...Shinigami love apples, huh.'

Light's smile was disquieting. 'What do you say we go trick them out of their Death Notes?'

Lawliet looked over at him. 'I can't let you do that, Kira.'

Light's smiled widened, eyes gleaming. 'Just try to stop me, L.'