Thanks for the kind words, hopefully I'll come up with some good ideas so I can actually finish this. :)
This chapter and the next are going to be a tad short, so be warned.
Light Yagami finally spoke.
"Why?"
He said it as if it was most obvious and the most undeterminable thing in the world simulataneously.
"Because I want to help you." L said in the same tone of voice. Light was amazed. After all he'd done...
Come to think of it, he wasn't really that surpised at all. If there was one person at all who would be capable of the forgiveness of his wrongdoings, he really did believe it would be L.
"How?"
"The rules of the Death Note state that humans who use it cannot go to Heaven or Hell once they die. However, nothing is said regarding the other three worlds; Colour, Elemental, and Earth."
"Earth?"
"Yes. Deceased souls who choose to inhabit the Human World become a very different kind of being than a person. They become very ephemeral, almost always invisible. They watch what is happening to Earth as an outsider. A ghost. I used that world to watch you occasionally, and when I saw that you were near death I came here."
Light was confused. This didn't add up.
"That didn't take two weeks."
"Time flows at a different speed in this world. During the time it has taken us to have this conversation, about three seconds have passed since your death on Earth."
More silence, then L spoke once more.
"I have spoken to several Shinigami, most of whom, like your old friend Ryuk, have refused to tell me very much. The older a Shinigami gets - the more it stays here, the more its mind is deformed, along with its body. Some of the younger Shinigami, only one or two decades 'old', however, have shared some information with me. They found that once transported here, they could not go to any other world than this one. In fact, they only knew of the other worlds because of stories, and wandering spirits from the other worlds. There are tales of Shinigami who have disappeared, and so I intend to help you do the same."
"Wh-" Light started, but L cut him off.
"I'm afraid I have spent much too long talking. My freedom to leave this world is almost up, and yours is getting close, since you, being confined to this world, have a shorter amount of time until you are fully inhabited in this world."
"How long?"
"About ten minutes."