Authoress Note: 5 more reviews people and we are at 50 reviews! We really should get someone to do a doujinishi of this. I'd pay for that…if I had the money. I'm dirt poor; :( I blew all my money at Otakon this summer, now I am broke. Wahhh. Oh well, that's unimportant news. What's news is that this last Chapter seemed to be quite popular with Ryuk and Keegan's relationship in the fanfiction. Whoo Shinigami x Human snugglies!
Haha. Okay folks it's Reviewer recognition time again. Let's line up some of our usual suspects, but first a new one. Ooohh…
NekoDoodle: Thanks for reviewing on this chapter. I love your hopefulness about my story. I will reassure you that I do plan to continue this story until I run out of steam. I doubt I will any time soon, but for now The Life Script will continue it's story. Thanks for reviewing.
Now moving on: (The Usual Suspects).
Sharnii Brooke: I don't know if a hug will come around yet but…I'll surprise you. It will be a definite surprise for you in this next chapter. I promise. So just keep your eyes open and watch for awkward Ryuk behavior. Teehee.
Jillian Jiggs: First of all I'd like to welcome you back; I haven't seen your reviews in a while. Wah. It's been so long. I appreciate you stopping back again to confirm that you are still here and that life does exist outside of the Internet world. Haha. Yes, at some point Ryuk might try…something that's unlike him other than his usual odd behavior. I don't know about making out with her but he's definitely much more interested in her life than he had been before. So keep an eye out. Thanks, glad to have you back!
PiScEs-BlOsSoM69: Thanks for providing the interesting question about where you go when you use the Life Script. We'll find that out this chapter. Thanks.
And to the others whom will eventually review again: Syrupdrip and Sahxyel. Thanks for the support of the story guys!
Enjoy Chapter 15!
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.
--
He couldn't get into the room. Keegan wouldn't let him. Ryuk wasn't quite sure why he didn't feel like invading her privacy but his back was to the door with his head against it. He could hear Keegan munching quietly on the rest of the pizza in the room. "…Will you at least say something?"
There was a loud thump on the door that made him jump slightly. Keegan had thrown her shoe at the door in anger. "Go away!" She snapped.
"At least watch the rest of the movie, it was your idea." He insisted. "Remember?"
"I don't care to speak with you right now Ryuk. You had no right to ask me about that. NONE."
"It was just a question Keegan, I didn't realize you'd react so strongly to it." Ryuk scratched the top of his head while Lucil slinked by him cautiously. "Stupid cat."
"My parents have been dead for 12 years now. If that helps, I hope you're happy. And stay away from my cat!" Keegan shouted through the wood of the door.
Ryuk watched Lucil's tail swish rapidly back and forth when Ryuk cracked his neck to get a better look at the cat. "…I wasn't trying to insult you Keegan." Lucil hissed at Ryuk and his tail puffed out into a long black fluff. "Oh shut up." He groaned.
"You didn't insult me Ryuk. I just don't like talking about my parents." Keegan sighed. "It's a touchy subject because they've been dead for so long."
Ryuk's arm was hanging over his knee as he watched Lucil hiss at him, without provocation. "Been that long since you were upset over them?"
Keegan muttered something unintelligible from behind the door.
"I take that as a 'yes'?"
There was a knock on the door downstairs. "I'm not answering it." Keegan said.
The knocking continued until Ryuk stood up. "…What if it's Joe? You gonna cry to him?"
The knocking downstairs stopped.
She threw another shoe at the door. "Shut up! You have no right!"
"You're the one getting a temper, girl. You're a hypocrite Keegan. You know that. You save people's lives and get upset about them dying but not about your own family. What's that like for a human? Shinigamis can handle being hypocrites very well. I'm infamous for it." He grumbled.
Keegan's silence was his answer.
"Fess up stupid human, why are you hypocritical?"
More silence.
Ryuk turned on his heel by the door and started to skulk away from the room. "Suit yourself."
"Why…do you need to know Ryuk?" Keegan asked, her voice muffled into a pillow.
He stopped, ears pricking at the sound of her faint voice. "It's natural. You'd ask the same thing of me."
He was given another round of silence before the door opened, her eyes were watery and she looked like she wanted to start crying, but she was working hard not to. Really hard, Keegan despised crying of all things. Made her feel weak and vulnerable. "I'm a damn hypocrite because I didn't think my mother would accept me mourning over them for 12 fricking years."
Ryuk didn't turn to look at her as he stood by the staircase. "So this is all about mommy dearest?"
"My mom loved me but…she was a little too big on the whole Catholic religion."
"Did she teach you that crying was a sin?" Ryuk snorted. "What a stupid mother."
The Life Script hit him in the back of the head. "YOU have no room to talk Ryuk, you don't even have a mother!"
He glanced down at the white notebook laying half open on the floor. Keegan's breath was heavy and she was gritting her teeth in anger. "Heaven." He said randomly.
"What?" Keegan asked, perplexed by what he meant.
"Depending on how you use the Life Script…most humans go to heaven when using it." He answered. "There's no way the book can be used for evil…it's not really possible. So if you miss them that much you could bring them back with it…Even after 12 years."
Keegan didn't get what he meant. "I'm going to Heaven? That's all you have to say?"
"Would you rather go to Mu?" He asked.
"What's Mu?"
"It's nothingness. It's where users of a Death Note go when they die. They go to neither heaven nor hell."
She sniffled, rubbing her hand on her nose. "Why have you been prying so much into my personal life? Do you get off on torturing people or something? Because we can call off this whole damn thing right now and you can get the hell out of my life."
Ryuk's mouth twitched and he slowly turned to face her, hunching over and getting closer to her. "I usually don't concern myself with human affairs. I personally find your kind rather stupid, like cattle in a sense. I wonder sometimes why you ever came to be but I can't question the great universe since I don't know the answer to that myself."
"You're hiding something Ryuk. You're up to something." Keegan said, a little more than annoyed that he wasn't just giving her attitude; he was being sneaky about his intentions.
"You're not like other humans Keegan. Let's pit it that way. Light's just like the other stupid humans on this planet. Somehow you're different and I hate not knowing why." He cocked a brow. "What's your secret Keegan?"
"I don't have one. I'm just Agnostic and have a profound sense of righteousness in righting the wrongs that have been done to this world." She answered, kind of creeped out by his behavior. "Again: Why do you care that I'm so different than everybody else? People are different Ryuk. I'm guessing shinigamis are the same way…just like the one that made The Life Script."
Ryuk moved away from her and leaned against her railing. "Yeah? So."
"Answer my question Ryuk." Keegan demanded. "I'm not going to let you keep pushing it away."
He clicked his tongue in annoyance. "You resonate a weird aura. It's kind of ridiculous to say but…it's definitely caught my interest."
"Does it bother you that I'm so different?" She asked.
"Does it bother you that your mother told you crying was a sin?" Ryuk asked, avoiding her question.
"Yes." Keegan said suddenly. "I loved my mother but I didn't love the religion being forced upon me."
"You wanted to choose your own religion?"
"I grew up thinking that God was not a benevolent being by the way my mother taught me and from the church we went to. I slowly grew to hate the concept of incarnation, Jesus, and the fact that some ethereal entity so big out there could let so many bad things happen and do nothing to stop them. I did want to choose my own religion: but I didn't want to be Christian." Keegan explained in full detail. "With the short time my mom was alive when I was younger I asked a lot of questions which were often directed back at me with some harsh tone of voice that God might keep me in purgatory for asking such questions."
"Your mother should have been beaten with an oar if she was that bad."
Keegan shook her head. "It was the way she was raised, I guess she wanted to raise me the same way her parent had. I had different beliefs though. So after she and dad died I didn't think much of it. I decided that I shouldn't cry over them because I knew she wouldn't want me to."
Ryuk spat. "I hate the sound of her all ready. Stupid religious fu-"
"I told TJ about the language in the house, you'll abide by the same rules." She cut him off before he could even finish that last word. "You wouldn't have liked her much if she was alive today anyways." She shrugged, leaning down to pick up the Life Script.
"She'd probably try to have the whole house exorcised huh?" He asked.
Keegan nodded. "Yeah. Pretty much. How my dad married her I will never know."
"Luck of the Irish?" Ryuk grinned.
"Haha." Keegan laughed sarcastically. "Now, getting back on topic you're going to answer my question."
Damn it. She was relentless. "You have a vivid memory, don't you?"
"I have that kind of mind." She explained. "What are your interests in my behavior Ryuk?"
"…You're not Light." He said suddenly. "You're just…not Light. That's all. I'm challenged by you." He chuckled. "Never had that kind of issue before. So I'm more than entertained by the way you act." Ryuk of course didn't want to admit that there was definitely something more than odd about why he was so fascinated with Keegan. She was just…He didn't know the word. He could think of it but…She was just so…so shrewd and intelligent and overall she had some emotion to show for it. Light had nothing on Keegan.
'Not…Light? What's that supposed to mean?' "All right, it'll do for now."
"Are we gonna finish watching that stupid movie or not?" Ryuk jabbed his thumb in the direction downstairs.
"…Depends, you going to keep bombarding me with questions about my mom all night?" She asked.
"You're right. We should finish the movie. I still have apples left in my bowl."
"All right, but I have to respond to the SPK first."
--
"Dear Mr. N,
I unfortunately cannot accept your alliance proposal. It would simply be unbefitting of me. Also the fact that my mother always taught me: Never take candy from strangers. So the chance of us meeting in person to discuss this is absolutely at a zero level. My apologies. I do hope you will understand though…that I tend to work alone on a matter such as this.
It's my good intention though that as I continue my effort in luring Kira out of hiding that you will be able to pinpoint him, try him, and arrest him to do whatever with him. Until then please do let me know if you have any plans and I may just help you; however I cannot work with you together. We must work as separate parties on this.
'Til then, I'll expect a response from you at any time."
"Kuro responded well." Miss Lidner said with a pondering tone. "Kuro's definitely no stranger to being offered handouts that's for sure."
Near was stacking his dice into a miniature city with the Kuro cat chess piece on the tallest tower with the Kira piece a little lower than it. "Hm. Well then, I wouldn't expect Kuro to just accept the fact that we'd like to assist he or she. But Kuro's voice doubts our intentions slightly. Kuro seems conflicted on this choice. I suppose Kuro's only human if they feel that they have to work alone on something like this."
"Kuro's playing a scary and dangerous game with Kira though, it would have been in Kuro's best interest if he just-"
"Kuro could be female, remember that. The behavior pattern of Kuro's miracles seems to be directed at mostly people with loved ones lost, killed, or dead from accidents that shouldn't have happened. I would imagine only a woman would and could feel so strongly about death." Near cut Gevanni off as Miss Lidner crossed her arms with a frown.
"Exactly. I'd digress that Kuro was a woman any day."
"I concur. The question is…is when Miss Kuro will strike next."
"I think she all ready did." Gevanni explained, holding up a newspaper: 'Another blow to Kira's ego by the infamous 'Kuro'.' He opened to the article and laid it out in front of Near.
"Hmm…I see. He tried to kill that little girl she had healed from her cancers and in response Kuro hit him back harder than he had tried to hit her. I wonder why the Task Force in Japan isn't as concerned about Kira getting struck at by Kuro as we are?"
"Because we have an idea who Kira is?" Miss Lidner asked.
"Well, I do. I don't know about you. Then again, Kuro can just lure Kira out for us. And in the end we can publicly credit Kuro for the hard work." He flicked the Kira piece off the dice buildings and watched it fall to the floor as the blank eyes of the black cat Kuro piece stare straight at Near's face.
"Who are you Kuro?" He asked softly.
--
The movie wasn't too horrible to watch. Despite the fact it was terribly clichéd and ridiculous to watch. "Typical 80s." Keegan shook her head, sipping on a can of grape soda.
Ryuk was drinking another carton of apple juice. He had at least 20 sitting in front of him as the film played out. They were still relatively in the beginning of the film when another knock came at the door. "Damn. We just started watching this again and another interruption."
Keegan got up from her seat ad looked out through the peephole in the door. Lo and behold: Joe.
"Keegan…are you home?"
Keegan smacked her hand against the door. "Damn it, Joe. I thought I told you-"
"I just wanted to talk." Her ex's voice said with worry behind the door.
"You want to talk about our relationship. You only came back because of me."
"Of course I did, I really think we have something special together."
"I'm not even done school yet and you're on break! How does that even work?" Keegan asked in agitation.
Ryuk sat up from the seat on the couch and looked at the Life Script on the coffee table before getting an idea. Obviously if Joe wasn't going to listen to Keegan and just interrupt her life periodically he'd have to do something about it. He opened the Life Script and turned to the back of the notebook before he tore a piece of it off.
"This is going to be fun." He got up from the sofa and walked towards the front door. "He's out there?"
Keegan rolled her eyes, glancing at Ryuk before she nodded. "He won't go away." She mouthed.
"I can take care of that."
"How?"
He held up a piece of Life Script ripped out of the notebook. "This…you can rip out pages and use them without using the book. You can conceal the fact that you have the notebook if you don't want to take it with you."
She looked at the piece of notebook paper in his hand. "What are you going to do with that exactly?"
"Remember when you touched the notebook, you could see me. Same goes with the paper."
"No." Her mouth opened wide to silently point out the fact that Joe would be able to see him permanently if he did that. "You can't. Then Joe will think I'm being visited by a demon trying to possess me."
"Your ex-boyfriend seems like a bigger threat than Light right now Keegan. What other options do you have if you want to get your miracle working done in peace?"
"Keegan, baby, open the door."
Keegan's face was livid. "Ah. Baby?"
Ryuk held up the notebook paper again. "Shall I dispose of him for you?"
Keegan frowned at the door and Joe's voice on the other side. "I'm serious, you're the only girl that would make me fly all the way from Ireland just to get back together with you."
As loyal and faithful as that sounded: "Do it."
Ryuk easily passed through the door to find a rather well built young man standing on her front doorstep looking desperate to try and get his girlfriend back. Ryuk could see why Keegan must have been with Joe for so long. His emotions were written all over his face. He was one of those crying men. "Seriously Keegan? This is the guy that
He made faces at Joe, knowing that the man couldn't see him, before taking the notebook piece and crumpling it up and threw it at the back of his head. Joe spun quickly to figure out what had just hit him and he found Ryuk waving at him. "….!"
"Oh hey, how's it goin'?" He asked.
"J…J…Jesus Christ!" Joe fell flat on his behind, staring up at Ryuk in horror.
The shinigami gave him a bored stare and scoffed. "Man are you a pansy or what?
"What the hell is this?!"
"Call me a premonition. You get the hell out of here and you won't see your death." Ryuk got in his face and hissed in anger/
Beads of sweat were rolling from Joe's forehead before he scrambled off screaming like a crazy person about a monster or a demon or whatever he was calling Ryuk.
Keegan opened the door to look down the street as she watched Joe run. "When I say we're done, we're done!" She yelled after him. Looking down at the ground she picked up the crumpled piece of Life Script paper and stuffed it into her pocket. "Again, you're being nicer than usual."
"Just shut up and let's watch the movie." Ryuk scoffed, walking back inside before Keegan closed the door behind him. "Thanks."
"Again, 'nother one time thing."
"I'm sure it is."
--
11:00pm at night in Japan, Light was wide awake and staring at the computer screen on his own laptop before recording his 'Kira' message.
"You…You of all people would dare to challenge Death and deny it with Life. What is your agenda Kuro? As a fellow, 'God', if you can cal yourself that, I ask you: Why would you wish to stop world peace from occurring? Don't you see what you're doing here? You're upsetting the utopia I'm creating by getting rid of every criminal in this world. Why do you torture the world with bringing loved ones back to life? Why do you have to attack me with your 'righteous' blows when I am doing so much good for this world?"
Light scowled. "Yes, I'd love to know Kuro. Now, I've got a riddle for you."
"What do you call yourself if you are dead yet alive at the same time? I bet this will certainly have you thinking. It seems to me Kuro…that as you keep challenging me with bringing people back to life…You yourself must be quite dead inside to do so.
So you think that just because I can't kill the people you bring back to life doesn't make me any less dangerous? How wrong you are. I assure you, keep toying with me it will be the last thing you ever do."
"Try me again Kuro…I dare you."
--
As the movie progress on, Keegan found herself laughing at the horrible affects of blood and how the zombies moved. "The skeletal ones are all animatronics." She explained. "It's like Night of the Living Dead mixed with Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Aliens (the facehugger theme)."
"Never seen any of those movies."
"I think even you'd be scared out of your skin if you watched Aliens. I know I was." She was eating a coffee cup filled with ice cream.
Ryuk grew silent as the young couple going to some sort of homecoming dance were shooting and flaming at the zombies' heads with a shotgun and a flamethrower. "Keegan…why do you keep me around? It's not just for the apples or for my help."
She put her spoon down into the cup of coffee. "…I don't know. Guess you're just one of a kind thing in my existence that I've ever stumbled upon."
Ryuk stared at the T.V screen again. "Oh…Do you really think we're friends?" He asked skeptically.
"If we weren't friends we wouldn't be sitting here on my couch watching crappy horror movies just for kicks and giggles." She explained logically. "It's as simple as that."
"…You sure are a strange little human Keegan."
"Yeah, I know I am."
--
Authoress note: Aww…wasn't that nice? Sorry no real action this time guys, but wasn't it great just to see Keegan and Ryuk spend some quality time together? Haha. Hope you all enjoyed. Stick around for chapter 16.