Author's Note: Wow! I hadn't expected to get a review this week on Chapter 2. Lucky me. Haha, Well, I'm certainly grateful for it. So, I'd like to extend my special thanks to Syrupdrip for her interesting questions, ideas, and helpful review to further my continuation on this fanfiction. Much thanks to you. I hope that other reviewers will extend the same courtesy. Don't be afraid to ask questions folks! I will not eat your soul!
Anyways, aha. Enjoy Chapter 4.
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note. Death Note belongs to Tsugumi Ohba and Takashi Obata.
Disclaimer 2: The idea of the Life Script belongs to me. Please do not steal. Thank you. Any Original characters, Keegan Phelps (no relation to Michael Phelps), belong to me. Thanks.
"Ryuk, huh?" She tested his name out on her tongue, seeing if she could pronounce it correctly. "Well Ryuk, it's nice to meet you. I'm Keegan." She extended her hand for him to shake, but he didn't return the gesture. Instead, he chose to languidly wave his claws in the air.
"Pleasure, I suppose. Got any more of those apples? I've been deprived of them for a while." He sat up, remembering the sweet taste from those little pieces. "Oooh…gotta have 'em. Gotta have 'em.." He began to twist this way and that, fidgeting from his deprivation once more.
"Yeah, there's some in the fridge. Here." She got up from her seat and opened the refrigerator to get a few more packs. She opened them all for him and set them on the table. "Sorry if they're not a whole apple, but they're pretty good huh?"
"These are the sweet and sour kind, they ain't half bad, but I prefer the red juicy ones." Ryuk proclaimed, scarfing down each of the little packets. He munched obnoxiously as Keegan picked up the notebook again. He was a messy eater.
"Well, you certainly don't have any table manners. Didn't anybody ever teach you to chew with your mouth closed?" A piece of apple crumble settled on her sweatpants and she flicked off each piece. "Seriously, you're making a mess on my floor."
As she scolded him for eating like a wild animal, he countered with a smug grin. There were bits of apple in his sharp teeth. "Hey, I'm not human. I don't need to act like one."
"Well, I'd really appreciate it if you could. Please." She politely expressed her feelings on the matter, before returning to read the rules. Pointing to the notebook, she tapped the cover with her index finger. "Okay. So, I get the concept of this Life Script, but what about that Death Note you were talking about earlier?" Curiously, she began to pry more into what he was on about moments ago.
He licked his fingers from the sweet juices, smacking his lips. "Hm? Oh. Well, The Life Script is a book of life, so what does a Death Note sound like to you?" He thought the titles were pretty obvious, given by his slightly irritated expression. "Don't tell me I gotta explain everything to you humans."
"It sounds like a book of death…so how do both of these books work exactly?" She stated, frowning at his behaviour. It was about 2:00 a.m. Keegan had been conversing with this guy for about a good hour now and she wasn't about to give up yet. "You know, as a God of Death, I really shouldn't have accepted this as a trade from you. I mean, I don't know where this notebook has been, I don't know if you're lying or telling the truth, or if you're just trying to stall me so it gives you more time to think of ways of how I'm supposed to die." She held up the Life Script and waved it in the air at him. "So, fess up. What exactly are you doing in America if you're all the way from Japan?"
He gnashed his teeth together while sitting on the table in a crouched position. "Escaping another atomic bomb…" He cracked his neck, speaking to her in a sarcastic manner. Most of the apple packets were empty by now and he was staring at them like he had lost something precious. "About how many of those would you say you've got, girl?"
The sass was strong with this one, Keegan noted as he answered her previous question. "Haha, atomic bomb. That's cute. Is that what radiation does to guys like you?" The grin that split across his face unnerved her slightly but she didn't relent, obviously he found her retort funny. "If you want more you'll have to be a little bit nicer and a little more cooperative than that." She slid back into her chair and crossed one leg over the other. "Tell me about that Death Note you were talking about a few minutes ago, we'll talk apples after you do." She ordered. "I don't mean to treat you like a dog, but I'm really not as stupid as you might think."
He grew tired of these games, but she caught on a lot quicker than Light. He was too far in now. "So you got a brain, big deal." He tilted his head to the side. "You're a little smarter than most humans. Fine. I'll give you credit for that. What makes you think I should tell you about the Death Note?" He leered at her and she gestured for him to come closer.
She held up the empty packets to him and smiled pleasantly. "Because, if you don't I'm not giving you any more of these." Ah, bribery never was a sweeter way to tempt a shinigami.
"Hmm…" He scratched the underside of his chin while contemplating her offer. Finally, Ryuk relented. "Eh. All right, all right. All right. Apples first though. I'll follow through afterwards."
"Not so fast, information first. Then apples." Her tone was insistent.
At this point, Ryuk was pretty perturbed and dug his fingers into the table, crouching in front of her. He gritted his sharp, jagged, teeth. "So, you wanna know about the Death Note? Fine. I'll tell you. It's obviously exactly what it is. A book of Death. It's got about 55 rules pertaining to it and basically I'm just gonna give you the short version if that helps."
Quirking a brow at him, she crossed her arms before nodding. Pleased at this small amount of information. "All right, that'll suffice. Continue. "Rising from her chair, she searched the fridge before finding a whole apple. "Don't ask why I have an insane amount of fruit in the house; my Aunt likes to make sure I eat healthy." She tossed it to him and he easily caught it.
His eyes widened at the sight and he held the apple in front of him as though it was a piece of treasure. Ryuk was vaguely reminding her of Gollum from Lord of the Rings. "Ooohhhh. A whole one, that's even better." With a cackle, he bit into the piece of fruit and chewed ravenously. "All right, all right. Long story short, you wanna kill someone with this book, you can. All you have to do is write the name of the person you wanna kill while knowing their face, who they are, specifying how they die, and the time of death. If you don't specify how they die it'll just be an immediate heart attack. Yadda, yadda, yadda."
'Maybe that would explain how all of those attacks are happening. It's a hunch but…nah. It can't be.' She thought to herself. Snapping out of her theories, Keegan focused back on the conversation at hand. "Well, that's certainly an interesting." She gave him a smirk. "Now tell me about the Life Script."
He had just gotten to the apple core before he nearly choked on it. He swallowed it hard before coughing. "Gah! Seriously? Jeez! You wanna know everything!" His complaint was only a mild one, seeing as how she was keeping to her end of the bargain. This was the most apples he had within…well…months.
"Detail counts." Giving a chuckle, she wagged a finger in the air. "Besides, poking Death with a stick is rather entertaining."
He was briefly reminded of what it was like to be tormented by Light. The fond memories caused a scowl to cross his features. Such pleasant times those were…"I'd be careful if I were you. I can easily use a Death Note to kill you." His warning was slightly cold, off putting.
There was a brief silence before Keegan glanced at him. Sighing, she waved a hand deciding she didn't feel like pissing him off. "All right, fine. You can just give me the short version of the Life Script."
"Opposite of the Death Note, with fewer rules. There, happy?" He snarled, digging his hands into the table. Keegan's pestering was giving him enough incentive to keep at it at this rate.
"Calm down, you got your apple didn't you? I might as well give you another one if you're gonna be pissy about it, and stop clawing the table, sit down!" Once more, she reprimanded him. Her expression was livid at his attitude as she passed from the table to the fridge again. She set the other apple down in front of him, watching as he slid into a sitting position and picked up the piece of fruit. "Don't eat my aunt out of house and home. She'll think I'm a bulimic because of your apple binge."
It wasn't his fault. The apples in the shinigami realm sucked and there was something about these delicious things in the human world. They just tasted so damn good. He bit into it again, inhaling deeply before settling down. "Gimme a break, I get really bad withdrawal symptoms."
Around 4:00 a.m. Keegan grew tired of talking to him. He became less aggressive with her questions and more content from the apples. Ryuk had decided to be annoying and harass her cat by floating upside down when he pleased. He hissed clawing at Lucil from the table. "Meeeowrrrrrr! Nyeorwrrrrrr…."
She passed through the kitchen and back towards the staircase. "I'm gonna have ask you get out if you don't leave my cat alone. I know animals have that sixth sense, but come on. Now you're just being mean." She protectively picked Lucil up and took him into the living room. Ryuk followed, like an obnoxious little kid wanting attention. Having enough of this, Keegan sighed and turned to face him. "Look, do you sleep or what? Because I've gotten nowhere with any of my research papers, I've been up for 3 hours talking with you, and I'm quite frankly tired. I would love to sleep, preferably, til noon.. So if you don't mind-"
He interrupted her to answer her first question. "No. My body doesn't require necessary human functions like you." He poked at poor Lucil on the couch as the black cat brushed his tail out. This prompted Keegan to take him back into her arms again to 'protect' him from any more taunts and glare at the shinigami. "Aww…come on. The little guy was so close to leaping at me."
"Yeah, and if he bites you on your ass or your face, I'm gonna pee myself with laughter." She warned, setting the cat on the steps so he could flee from the 'monster.' "I'm not even gonna get him off because then you'll have learned your lesson."
"Yeah, yeah. You humans are all talk." Ryuk mocked, floating upside down in front of her.
"Oh really? You have room to open your big fat mouth? Mister Death God? All right, you said you could easily kill me with a Death Note. Let's see you try it." Keegan taunted, placing her hands on her hips.
He pursed his lips, realizing he was powerless without his notebook and honestly he didn't know if he wanted to kill this girl. She was now a part of his original idea, whether he wanted her or not. "I would…If I could find a Death Note around in America somewhere." Ryuk scratched the back of his head, embarrassed by defeat. "And as a personal law I'm not allowed of use my bare hands to kill you."
"They have laws in The Shinigami Realm?" She sounded surprised by this as she walked up the stairs with the cat growling from the end of the hallway.
"Heeyyyyy….Come on. I haven't had interesting conversation in forever. Besides, that Kira guy, you're probably the only logical individual to make conversation with." He followed her, swinging around to settle on his feet in front of her.
"Conversation? Hardly. You're just sticking around to pester me until I give the Life Script…" Something clicked in her head from his last statement. It was a name. What did he say? Kira? THE KIRA? "Wait." She took a step back, her hunch may have been right after all. Ryuk wasn't Kira but… "You know that Kira serial killer?" She gazed at him intensely, inhaling short breaths. Her mouth set into a thin line and her fists clenched at her side.
Ryuk briefly floated upside down before he landed in front of her, closing he space between them again before floating backwards. A dark chuckle escaped him."I fear I may have said too much, heheheheh…"
Author's Note: I hope you all enjoyed the cliffhanger I left behind. Some of you I will guess not, but then again I think that it's best to leave it that way. This chapter is all ready about 7 pages long. Lol. Anyways, Read and Review. Thanks very much.