Authoress Note: WOW! Over 90 reviews now guys! Thanks so much! We're almost at 100! We're almost done with the story…or maybe we're not. Teehee. I'll never tell, aww! Thanks guys!
Reviewer Acknowledgement:
Jillian Jiggs: Well, if you were any smart person, would you want your boyfriend or girlfriend getting shinigami eyes? Wouldn't you want t hem to live a long life? (flails arms in panic) Don't trade for them! I don't recommend it. Owo; I think I need to go lie down. I'm sugar
High today. Glad you liked the 'Kuro pwns Kira' asset I added. I like that part too. I can't say I hate Mikami, but I won't say I like him. Thanks though!
PiScEs-BlOsSoM69: I decided it would be best to not put Mello into the story because I have no idea how to work his character. I thought I would know how but he's an enigma in himself. At least with Near, I can work with because he has a bit of a personality. Mello's attitude is like an angry brick wall and I didn't want to mess him up. So I described his and Takada's deaths very discretely because 1. I hate Takada because she's a useless whore that the Death Note series didn't really need. 2. I didn't want to major mess up Mello's characterization if I put him in the story. So my apologies on that part. Thanks though.
Sahxyel: I think you may take interest in this chapter and some criticism of it too. Either way I thought I'd give you something to sink your teeth into because I think this chapter IS quite adventurous. You'll have to read for yourself to find out. Muahah. Ah, yes. Light being the last criminal left. It's like a paradox, you know? Light being that paradox if he's a criminal in himself getting rid of all the criminal sin the world. Aww. (pets) I love you as my little grammar mole; I think it's rather helpful of you. So far you've helped me watch my grammar more carefully than usual. So I'm enjoying the fact I'm re-reading the chapters over again before I put them in. I think I'm getting better at this! Thanks.
Sharnii Brooke: I don't know if baby-making between these two should even happen. I mean, I think it would be interesting but I think I still want to stick to that one little rule in the Death Note about shinigamis and no sex. Oh! Oh! It could be like in the '40 Year-old-Virgin'! "Well…instead of intercourse…you can have…outer course." Lol. Yeah, that's it. All though not nearly as satisfying. Hmm…Oh well.
KakaIru-luver: Ooh! You do fanart? I'd love to see your deviantart account, I have one too. I still have to post the Life Script up…In fact I think I'll go do that now. Oooh! (excitedly jumps up and down) Fan art alert! Fan art alert folks! We have a fan artist in the house! (applauds) I'd love you forever if you would!
Enjoy Chapter 22 guys.
--
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) and others, belong to me. Thanks.
--
She was staring at the screen with her gaze fiery and all Keegan could do was sit there fuming and looking red in the face. For about a good few minutes she sat there in silence. When Ryuk cleared his throat though Keegan slammed her laptop shut. "AGH! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!" She screamed until Ryuk had to hit her in the back of the head to calm her down.
"HEY! Get hold of yourself, it's okay." He tried to assure her. "Stop letting him get under your skin every time he-"
Keegan scowled down at the floor. "He has no regard for life whatsoever Ryuk, he acts so inhumane…"
"Well…tch. Shinigami do that too but-"
She gave him this look as if to tell him to shut up before she bowed her head in silence when he closed his mouth. "But…that's your nature. You guys don't have anything else to do but that."
"Nah. Well, I've got plenty of things to do; I don't HAVE to take life. I haven't been for a long time, even before I gave Light the Death Note. Have you seen me kill any humans?" He was trying to justify his behavior. "You're not acting like yourself today Keegan, what's wrong?"
There was a long pause of silence before she answered: "…Today's the day my parents died." She mumbled.
It didn't take much to figure out then that Keegan wasn't only trying to avoid things today, she was trying to forget about things too. "…I'm sorry Keegan." Ryuk apologized. Wow, this was awkward. What more do you say when today's a practical death anniversary? "…I really am, and I'm not one that likes to apologize."
"It's not your fault. You didn't have anything to do with them dying." Keegan sighed. "I don't think any shinigami did." Keegan sighed. "It's all right. There's nothing I can do. They're dead. It's going to stay that way." She picked up the Life Script again and stared at a clean page she would have to write on soon. "I can't help it. I miss them, but if they weren't dead, I wouldn't be who I am today."
"You'd be just as boring as every other human on this planet." Ryuk responded, unenthusiastically.
"Exactly." Keegan said, leaning back against the couch. "…How many countries did he strike?"
"If it's Light, I only assume big ones." Ryuk tried to divulge what he knew.
"The U.K, America, Japan, Russia…Big nations?" She stared at the white ceiling in contemplation. She saw the texture of it differently before she sat up.
"You can't just sit around and do nothing Keegan. You've got a job to do." He reminded her, throwing the Life Script into her lap. "Why did you tell Light you had the Life Script, anyways?" Ryuk asked out of curiosity. "I mean, you could have possibly written yourself a Death Sentence."
"To mess with him, to make him realize that he's up against big competition. He can't beat me. It doesn't matter what he does because-"
"You're a diabolical genius?" He poked her in the arm with a chuckle. "Come oooon. Come oooon. Genius?"
Keegan shook her head with a small smile. "I'm not a genius Ryuk. That's just you being too nice to me." She brushed him off.
"Well, if you're not a genius, then how come it's taken Light so long to find you?" Ryuk stared up at the ceiling with disinterest before glancing at Keegan.
"Because he's an idiot." Keegan giggled. "He's an absolute and complete idiot…and I'm making him look even stupider by making him hopelessly search for me and figure me out in a wild goose chase."
"…I really wish we weren't stuck in here today. It's boring in this damn house. I wanna ride my bike." Ryuk sighed, picking up the remote control before turning the t.v on to the channel Keegan last had it on.
"You mean the bike you STOLE." She pointed out. "That guy's gonna find out eventually."
"Hey…CNN's on. You want me to get the names of those guys for you?" Ryuk asked, pointing at the t.v to change the subject.
It was a tough call. But staring at the screen she realized that it would be kind of easy. Ryuk was willing to use the Shinigami eyes himself to get the names off the faces of these guys. "…Yeah." Keegan murmured. "That sounds good."
Ryuk pressed the pause button and she saw the light of his eyes turn a bright red. "You ready?"
Keegan picked up her pen and started to write down the names Ryuk told her in the Life Script. "I'm sure Mr. Yagami is in for a rude awakening…in my own personal words, he can suck it, "
--
The next hour was crucial because Light had finally thought he was going to get some sleep. After just settling into bed, he had just awoken to a horrible screeching and spurting noise from in his dresser drawer. Light hopped out of bed and wrenched the drawer open to reveal his Death Note thrashing around violently before it flew out of the drawer and lay sprawled out on the floor. Light beheld it beginning to drag itself around like a wild animal and thrash around on the floor. Red sparks began flying off the pages that Light had written the names on and ink began exploding rapidly from the book. A short distance away he could hear Misa screaming.
In the other room, her own Death Note looked like it was having a literal seizure on the floor. She had started throwing several objects at the screeching notebook and hiding from it.
The notebook threw itself at the wall and began spinning around on the floor before ink began seeping out all over the floor violently.
Light took one look at his own Death Note before rushing into the other room to look at Misa's spouting ink all over the place like his own was.
"Mikami…" He whispered. "Yours is probably…"
--
Something had awoken him and he didn't like the awful sound it was making. The notebook was beating itself against his ceiling while ink began erupting out if it like a volcano. He watched bright red crackles pop like fireworks while black ink became smeared all over his ceiling as it dragged itself above him.
"AAH! What is this?!" Mikami sat up in his bed and yelled at the top of his lungs while looking at this strange sight with both horror and fascination. "This challenger's power is true then." Mikami watched his Death Note drop lifelessly to the floor. "My God. What are we up against?"
When he was sure it was safe to pick up, Mikami stared at it before getting out of bed to retrieve it. "I have to put this back in the safety deposit box tomorrow. It's not safe here if it's going to act like that. First I need to clean up this mess."
--
He wouldn't get any sleep over this and Misa was in a state of shock because her notebook still lay twitching on the floor. All Light could do now was get that steam cleaner from the closet and set to work again for the 3rd time cleaning up the mess Kuro had made here for him.
'Kuro's going to pay for this. PAY!'
--
She put the Life Script down before she got too excited about what she had done. "Hmm…" She counted the names over before she closed the notebook. "That's about 100 or so criminals." Keegan read. "Wow."
They were sitting there on her couch in silence before Ryuk took the Life Script from her. Back in his human façade form, he had the notebook open on his lap. He double checked to make sure those numbers were correct. "Light had about 10 whole pages almost filled with criminals' names when he first found my Death Note, that was before I said he could use it though. I think I should have taken it back from him, maybe. Then again…I think you've done a great job in righting that mistake." He chuckled.
"…I feel like we're getting closer to making him come out in the public." He heard Keegan say. Ryuk glanced over at her before he murmured something unintelligible.
"Hm? Did you say something?" Keegan said, looking at Ryuk.
"…You wanna rent a movie?" He muttered.
Aw. Listening to how horribly awkward it must have been to ask that, the poor thing. His reluctance to ask sounded kind of sweet in a sense when Keegan looked at him funny before she shrugged. "We don't need to rent a crappy movie when I still have the set from you-know-who."
Ryuk's head snapped to look at her directly with that same dangerous scowl on his face when she had mentioned him the night before, despite the fact she hadn't said his name she still made reference to him. "What did we talk about when mentioning him?"
Keegan closed her mouth and held up a different movie to him. "Relax, I was kidding. I sold the set he gave me to the video store down the street. I've got my own stock anyways."
"Of crappy 80s movies, Keegan?" Ryuk looked at her skeptically. "What is your fascination with stupid movies like that?"
"I was born in the 80s. Gimme a break." She popped the movie she had picked out into the Playstation and pushed play.
"So…what are we watching?" Ryuk asked curiously, merely stretching his arms out carefully trying to avoid putting an arm around her but temptation was too much. The title came up: "Oh. Alien invaders huh?"
"James Cameron's Aliens." Keegan nodded.
"Is this a crappy horror movie too?" He asked.
"Actually…I think this might scare the hell out of anybody." Keegan warned. "Even you."
"…If it gets too scary…do you want me to hold you?" Ryuk smirked.
"Don't push it pal." Keegan warned when she saw where his arms were behind he couch. "Put them in your lap."
Ryuk begrudgingly obliged as the movie began. Just the beginning of it proved better than the other crappy movie they had watched over a month ago. This one was actually pretty decent. It got even better though when he realized that this movie was pretty scary. "Damn, Keegan. This is some pretty gory stuff. This is an 80s movie?"
"Pretty good special effects huh?" She turned to him with a smile. "I love Sigourney Weaver. She's such a good actress. It's depressing, the Alien genre went downhill when they made Alien versus Predator. It wasn't too bad, but I heard Requiem was a disaster."
"You're a movie dork aren't you Keegan?" Ryuk teased.
"…Yeah. I guess I am. I always have been. I'm a sucker for 2-D animation in Disney Movies and rare occasion 3-D animation with Pixar in Disney movies. It's kind of sad. I feel pathetic." She continued to watch the movie.
"Was…he your only boyfriend, Keegan?" Ryuk asked, angry to even think about Joe.
She turned to him and stayed rather quiet. It was kind of embarrassing to admit, but Ryuk hadn't judged her, he was judging Joe. "…Yeah. Joe was my first and only boyfriend." She assured.
"I'm glad he can't hurt you anymore." Ryuk mumbled, obviously unused to such soft-spoken interaction with Keegan, he seemed a little embarrassed by it.
"It's all in the past Ryuk. I'm willing to start over again." She wasn't really interested in talking about Joe anymore, which suited Ryuk just fine.
"Well, if you said you didn't have time for a relationship before, why do you have time now?" Ryuk stared at the screen where the monstrosities were starting to come out of the walls and pick off the Marines one by one.
Keegan paused the movie before she turned to give Ryuk a smile. "Remember how you told me I wasn't Light?"
"Yeah?" Ryuk chuckled. "So?"
"Same here, you're not Joe." She said softly.
Ryuk scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I'm glad I'm not either. Hey…ah…thanks, you know. For putting up with me the way you do. I don't think anybody's ever liked having me around this long before."
"We're dating, what do you expect?" Keegan chuckled.
"Slow progress." Ryuk laughed humorously.
Keegan did laugh at that. "Okay, that's true. I can't help that. I like to take my time with things."
"Wouldn't blame you." Ryuk sighed, staring at the screen as they sat there, listening to the pulse rifle fire like a machine gun when the main character went down into the lower levels of the colony complex to rescue the little girl. "What's the point in this part? She's saving a kid that's probably dead."
"She's saving her because the little girl was about the same age as her daughter was before she went into hyper sleep. Over 50 some years had passed and her daughter died, remember?" Keegan reminded him near the beginning of the movie.
"Oh. Right. So…"
"Little girl reminds her of her daughter." Keegan explained.
"You know more about this movie than you let on before." He frowned.
"I grew up in the 80s, Ryuk. I've seen almost every 80s movie possible." She was bragging a little bit now, but stopped herself before she got a little out of hand. Now that she thought about it…Ryuk didn't have any friends in the shinigami realm. Did shinigamis have other past times? "Hey, Ryuk. What do shinigamis do for fun?"
"There's not much to do in the shinigami realm, Keegan. It's a wasteland." He told her. "A desert almost. There's not much we can do. We don't sleep because that would make us seem lazy, and what little we do involves gambling parts of our life spans with other shinigamis. There's not much else."
"Wait. You guys have nothing to lose except your life spans, but you gamble them away anyways?" She paused the movie. "Did you gamble?"
"I find gambling boring and pointless." Ryuk waved the topic off. "Besides, you don't wanna go there. The shinigami realm's not much fun anyways."
"The shinigami realm…Could I see it for myself?" Keegan asked. "Would you take me there?"
Oh no. No. She hadn't asked that. Please, no. She couldn't have. Keegan wouldn't be that stupid. What the hell was she thinking? He had to do a double take to make sure that he had heard her right. Was she crazy? "Keegan, why the HELL would you want to take a field trip to a place like that?"
"I don't know, I'm bored and I don't want to do anything else, it's cold out, we can't ride your bike, and Aunt Carol's not gonna be home for a few hours. How many movies have we watched together since you've been here?" She pondered.
"You can't even remember can you? It wasn't that many." Ryuk started the movie from where they left off before thoughts of the shinigami realm could get back on her mind. "Let's just keep watching the movie. I wanna see how it ends." He made up an excuse.
"Yeah, you're right." Keegan sighed. "But I still wanna see it. You know?"
He dropped the remote suddenly. "Keegan, I'm NOT taking you to see the Shinigami Realm. Even if I did, do you know how many other shinigamis would try to kill you with their Death Notes?"
Keegan looked down at the Life Script before giving him a serious look. "Look, we can just pop there and come right back. I just want to take some pictures. Besides, this could be a 'first date' thing for us, you know?"
"You want our first 'date' to be in the shinigami realm?" Ryuk snapped. "You've lost it."
"You take me there or-"
"Or what?" Ryuk stood up, making Keegan realize just how much smaller she was by height standards. "What are you gonna do Keegan? I've figured a way out around the apple system. You deprive me of any apples, it'll put you in a guilt trip and because you care so much you'll have to feed me." He was good. Oh, that was probably the best way to get out of this.
Keegan crossed her arms in front of her. "You want this relationship to go further?" She asked.
"Hm?" Ryuk's brow cocked. "What are you up to?"
"Unless you want me to take back what I said about us dating yesterday." She said smugly.
So much for the guilt trip plan, Keegan had him hammered down there. He didn't want to give up that opportunity. Also other opportunities would be closed if he didn't cave in. "You REALLY wanna go there?" He asked warily. "I mean, if I take you there…everybody will be pissed."
"It was you that said: 'They can all go fuck themselves.'" Keegan quoted with a frowned. "So, yes. I still do, no I don't care about what they think or could do, and yes you do care about us dating." She grinned.
"…I hate you." Ryuk scowled.
"You could never hate me." She said, pinching his cheek in a joking manner.
--
It was a dark and desolate place. From the looks of it, it really did look like a desert and it smelled funny. Not that it was overbearing, but she felt like she'd seen worse. The trip here had not been so grand and Keegan didn't want to go through any details of mentally explaining how the trip was. Here, Ryuk could not maintain his human form and thus had to get them there as his normal self. It was fine though; Keegan didn't argue about it. It was normal.
Ryuk had been highly reluctant to bring her here; he hated this place enough as it was. There was a lot he had to be on the look out for. He was on edge while he kept looking around to make sure the coast was clear. No sign of any shinigamis yet. "You need to stay very quiet here." He pointed out with his jagged teeth scowling. "This is the ONLY time I do this."
She pulled the Life Script out from underneath her sweatshirt with a smile. "I've got it covered." She whispered. "Don't worry."
He recalled when they had first arrived, Keegan acquired motion sickness because she hated heights and puked when they arrived. Ryuk could tell that it wasn't a pretty sight at all.
"All right, let's go." He gestured for her to follow along.
"Why don't you show me where you first stole this thing from?" Keegan suggested, holding out the Life Script to him.
"Good idea, there's nobody around there." They walked, well Keegan did. Ryuk was pretty good at floating when it suited him. He didn't have to walk.
"I'm gonna assume this place has been around here forever?" She stated, looking down at the dusty ground and gray sand. "Gross. Desert sand has more appeal than this stuff."
"Like I said before: Why the HELL did you want to come here?" He reminded her, begrudgingly making sure to look around carefully.
They came upon the altar where Ryuk had first encountered the Life Script and Keegan stared at it. "And they just left it here?"
"Yep." He nodded.
"Under this nasty tree, with a bunch of shriveled up fruits as the 'guard' method?" She looked at it skeptically. "Come on, this book must have been more important than that to leave it lying around."
"Exactly what I say." Ryuk shrugged. "Can you blame me for taking it?"
"No…" Keegan said, looking at the Life Script in her hands. "But I'm glad you did." She looked over at him with a smile.
"Yeah, yeah. I hear ya. Just keep it down."
"So…how was the Life Script made?" She asked, flipping it open to look for any sort of answer in the notebook.
"There's a bunch of variations to the story. Some say it was made by a shinigami as a love token to a human,"
Keegan gave him a flat look with a shake of her head smiling. "Thanks for my present Ryuk." She laughed.
"Shut up. Don't say that here…" He shushed her. "Others say that The Shinigami King acquired it in a bargain with an angel. Don't know how that would work, but the Shinigami King can get anything if he wanted to. He thinks I'm pretty damn smart. I was able to trick him into getting TWO Death Notes."
Keegan frowned at him. "So you've always been a thief."
"Yeah, and a cheat. I cheat at a lot of things." He scratched the top of his head.
"Not in this relationship you won't. I'll kick your ass." She warned. Keegand stopped briefly because she heard voices and Ryuk had to act fast.
"Hide."
"Where?" She asked, her tone of voice explaining that her options were limited.
He pushed her behind the altar before the voices got louder.
--
"So somebody took it? Just like that?"
"Yeah. I mean, I sure as hell wouldn't use it. Whoever took it must have had a good reason for it or destroyed it. Don't need any humans coming back to life on us. We lose the added on life spans."
"But that's the thing! Our life spans HAVE been coming off. People HAVE been coming back to life. I think the Shinigami King's mad…Yeah, especially since everybody's in a bit of a frenzy now. I just wanna know who took the damn thing so I can get my Life spans back."
Keegan looked down at the Life Script in her hands and Ryuk looked back at her.
'So wait…' She thought, opening the Life Script and scrolling through the list of rules. Rule # 17 was sitting there etching itself into the notebook just as Keegan had opened it. 'All humans killed by shinigamis with a Death Note have the life spans added on by the death of the human lives are null and void after a person is brought back with the Life Script.' She had a panicked look on her face. 'Oh, shoot! It's just NOW telling me this?!'
"Hey! Look who it is!" She heard one of the shinigamis shout at Ryuk. "Mr. I Dropped my Death Note."
They were making fun of him, no big deal. Ryuk could take it. "Oh, yeah. Hey."
"What brings you back here?" It was two of them. These shinigamis sure were a bit more decrepit looking than Ryuk though. One could have almost looked like one of the aliens from the movie they were just watching with his face the way it was, and he was hunched over carrying a scythe.
"Yeah Ryuk, last we heard you were somebody's 'pet'." They were laughing at him.
'Assholes.' Keegan thought to herself as she continued to listen.
The other just looked like a body with some kind of bovine skull with antlers on it. "So, get your Death Note back yet?"
"No. I'm just waiting around for it from the guy I'm lending it to. It's fun to watch. He's going crazy from it." Ryuk shrugged, he sounded bored. Like he didn't want to be here.
"Say…What are you doing by the Life Script's altar?"
"Hm?" Ryuk glanced at the altar and Keegan held her breath so nobody would hear her. "Oh, nothing really. I just got here. Where'd the book go anyways? Isn't it supposed to be here?"
"Tch. You didn't hear?" The one with the scythe pointed at the altar.
"Somebody stole it, was it you Ryuk?"
"How could I have? I've been in the Human world for so long I haven't been back here since I first dropped my Death Note." He growled. "Don't go pointing at me because I got two notebooks out of sheer wit by tricking the Shinigami King."
'That's right; make a good plausible lie, Ryuk. That's the way to prove your innocence.' Keegan clutched the Life Script to her.
"But, you have heard right?" The shinigami with the scythe asked.
"Heard what?" Ryuk said suspiciously.
"That the humans that we kill, the life spans that are added on to our own…They get taken back because those humans come back to life." He was told at a whisper.
"So?" Ryuk shrugged. "That just goes to show, we shouldn't leave important things lying about."
Something stunk really awful at that moment, Keegan almost gagged at it and she started coughing from the dust that had suddenly kicked up from the gust of wind that had just started to blow. She didn't know where that awful stench had come from but she had a feeling it was from one of the shinigamis standing there with Ryuk.
"HEY! What the hell was that?!"
Ryuk's attention snapped to Keegan, who couldn't stop coughing from the stench before the other shinigamis peered over the altar at her.
Keegan was met with the two ugly faces while holding the Life Script tightly in her fingers. "Oh, gross...Ever heard of hygiene fellas?" She groaned.
"Hey…What's a human doing here?"
"Ohh…I'm not a human." Keegan tried to explain. "I'm with the Spirit Court Association. I'm here on a survey errand from the archangels. I'm a poltergeist. I'm stuck in a parallel dimension." The Life Script was glowing in her hands.
They were looking right at it. The Life Script was right in front of them and couldn't tell whether it was it or not because the light around it was too bright. The two shingamis looked at each other and then at Ryuk. "Say what?" They said, not knowing what she was talking about.
"Oh…no…They sent another one." Ryuk grumbled. 'Whatever you've got going Keegan, I'll try to play along. That excuse didn't sound convincing.'
"Another what?"
She stood to her feet, the notebook glowing in her hands, shielding the title of it from the other shinigamis. "Yes, yes. I know. Your kind hate it when the Spirit Court sends one of us down here to this…ugh…nasty place to do some work. It's mandatory. I couldn't get out of it. Sorry."
"If you're with this 'Spirit Court', how come we've never heard of it."
"They told me you shinigamis wouldn't know anything about us. We're strictly here on business, not for playtime." Keegan waved a hand at them, obviously annoyed by their presence as it is. Thank goodness for playing good side roles in her high school performances. "Mr. Ryuk here is my personal guide in this god forsaken, wasteland and I've still got a lot of landscaping survey to do…"
The shinigamis were scratching their heads in confusion. "What?"
"I have to test this place for any thing that's out of place besides myself…" She tried to say it with simpler vocabulary.
"Wait a minute, sister. If you're with this Spirit Court, why do you look so human?" She had that sharp and pointy scythe directed at her and Ryuk suddenly pushed it out of the way.
"The Spirit Court's filled with human souls. Don't you idiots know anything?" He grumbled.
"Well what about Mu?" She was asked.
"Oh, that? We had to have maintenance sent there. It's closed off. So the Spirit Society took over. Don't you know that not every soul HAS to go to Mu?"
"Not really…I mean, how are we supposed to know this stuff? We just stick around here and not much anywhere else. Ryuk is the one that travels a lot." The two shinigamis looked at each other strangely.
"You're not supposed to know this 'stuff'. Only higher up shinigami are supposed to know. You guys need to get an announcement system." She pointed out, opening the Life Script and pretended to write down a 'violation'. "That's a code violation." She hummed.
"Violation!?" They sounded outraged. "Look, missy. If you haven't noticed. This place isn't the nicest place. And…Ryuk's not a higher up shinigami…"
Keegan tapped her foot in annoyance. "Wow…I'm not surprised…" She said sarcastically. "You guys aren't blind either. I know he's not, but I demanded a lower level shinigami for a guide because lower level shinigami scour this place out more than higher up ones. Right?"
How Keegan managed to hit the nail on the head without knowing what she was talking about, Ryuk would never know, but they seemed to believe her. "Hey, lady. You're not gonna write a violation for the Life Script being missing, are you?"
Keegan opened the Life Script before looking over at the altar. "Oh…that. Yeah, well…it's not in the code of conduct book, so I'll have to look into it. I mean, losing an ancient valuable artifact SHOULD be a violation-"
"Is that why you're here? Because of the Life Script?"
Keegan frowned. "No…" She said sarcastically. "I'm just here because your fuse box blew. YES I'M HERE BECAUSE OF THAT!" She snarled.
"Man…whoever took that thing is gonna get us all in big trouble and we'll have to go through the 9 levels of punishment to figure out who did it…" They were grumbling before Ryuk nudged her.
"Let's go…" He hissed through gritted teeth.
"Very well, I have to get on with the rest of my work. So, get out of my way before I write up more violations for 'disturbance of a Spirit Court member's work'." She pointed a pencil at them with a scowl.
As she and Ryuk turned away, he hissed at them. "Thanks a lot guys. We're screwed for sure now."
"Hey…wait a minute…" The shinigami with the scythe said suspiciously, inhaling.
"That smell…it smells like…human."
Keegan and Ryuk froze and she clutched the Life Script tighter in her hands. 'Fudge!'
"Whatever you do, don't let go of the Script." Ryuk warned through gritted teeth.
"You do surveys in the Human Realm too? You reek of it!" Whew, false alarm.
Keegan sighed in relief. "Yeah, it's kind of hard to do. Though, the surveys there are strictly observation. Sorry, violation codes apply here not there." She apologized before turning back to Ryuk.
"You get me the hell out of here, right now."
"Right, didn't think you'd want to stay after such a close call."
--
Near continued to listen to the argument over and over again between Kuro and Kira until Kuro abruptly stopped the message after Kira seemed to be getting too aggravated for continuation of the conversation. "She's good, she's testing his patience to the limit."
"If Mr. Aizawa's suspicions are the same as ours, we have a substantial amount of evidence against who is Kira." Gevanni pointed out. "That and the fact Mr. Mikami went to the bank today…twice."
Near perked up. "Ah. Yes. That. He went to take out money and then went back a second time…unusual behavior." He hummed to himself. The Kuro-Cat chess piece had a little button built into the back of it now. When Near picked it up, he pressed it and it started meowing. "Miss Kuro's getting closer and closer to helping us catch Kira…and I think she knows just who Kira is."
His gaze fell upon the Kuro-cat chess piece before he turned the button off on it and placed it on the chessboard, moving it closer to the Kira piece, which now had a little mouse shaped hat atop its head.
"The game of cat versus rat is almost up. Kuro's going to pounce on Kira this time, but when Kuro catches the rat…she won't play with it anymore."
--
The return back to the Human World wasn't any better. Just as quickly as they had gone and come back Keegan bolted for the hallway bathroom to throw up again. Ryuk winced, sitting back on the couch in his 'Roy' persona once again before he heard the toilet flush and the water running in the sink. Keegan returned and threw the Life Script down on the coffee table in front of them.
"Okay…so…that was…interesting." She said awkwardly.
"Keegan…" Ryuk sighed. "DON'T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" He snapped, standing to his feet, making Keegan feel short again when he stood in front of her. "You could have gotten yourself killed at any second. Do you know what could have happened to you if they found out you're the one taking away their added on life spans?"
She drew back and looked down at the floor. "…I didn't know that's what the Life Script did. See?" She pulled it up and showed the glowing of Rule # 17. "…It just came up while we were in there. I had no idea."
"Yeah, well neither did I." Ryuk snapped, snatching the notebook from her. "They could have put YOU through the 9 Levels of Punishment instead of me for that. Do you know what could have happened to you-"
"I'm sorry I made you take me to the Shinigami Realm, all right?!" She yelled at him suddenly. "I just…I wanted to know more about you." She trailed off, looking down at the floor again. There was silence and she felt her cheeks get hot. "I'm sorry, okay? I made a stupid decision and could have gotten us both into danger."
"Keegan…you have no idea." Ryuk growled at her. "Once they find out it was all a lie. I think we're gonna be on more than just the chopping block."
"Well it's their fault! They left the Life Script lying around! It's not our fault that we took it! It's their fault because they didn't protect it well enough."
'Did she just say…'we'?" Ryuk thought as he watched Keegan get angry over the whole ordeal.
"You did nothing wrong, Ryuk. I made you take me there. So if anyone should be punished it should be me. Not you!"
There was silence again. "…Why you Keegan? Why not me?" He asked, feeling sort of guilty.
"…Because I was the one to use it, not you."
He looked at her; Keegan looked angry and sad at the same time. Her arms crossed in front of her and she stood there as if trying to defy the gods themselves. What was that word humans used when they described nice things?
For a moment she looked…breathtaking with that defiant scowl on her pretty face. He looked down at the floor then back up at her. "You can't put the weight of the world on your shoulders just for me Keegan. I stole it."
"Well, if I don't protect you, who will?" Keegan cried. "WHO?!" It became apparent then that she seemed distraught over the thought of something horrible happening to Ryuk should he have to be 'punished'. What kind of horrible punishment did they put shinigamis through anyways? She all ready knew that shinigamis could die at some point, but never how they died in general.
She felt the hot tears coming again. It didn't matter how hard she tried, Keegan started crying again. If there was one thing Ryuk hated more than Joe or Light, it was Keegan crying. It made him feel guilty when he watched her get upset. Maybe he felt that way because it had something to do with the fact that he had feelings for Keegan, or maybe because when she got upset it sparked some kind of need to protect her in a sense, or perhaps it was just because…
He dropped the Life Script on the table and pulled her into a hug. "Don't cry…"
It wouldn't help to say that much, but he didn't know what else to say. "Don't let them take you away, Ryuk!" She sobbed. "I don't want to lose anyone else…"
'Oh…if somebody shot me right now, I don't think I'd feel it.' He thought with some form of regret. "Hey, if you keep crying you might flood the house."
Her grip tightened around his neck and Ryuk felt the wrath of how tight human hugs could be. "Erk. Keegan…you're crushing me."
She was shivering in his grasp before she leaned up to whisper in his ear. "…I love you."
Oh…why did she have to go and say those words? Those damn words that she just said. There was just that tiny hidden plea in there that he couldn't ignore. 'I could kick myself every time you get all needy, Keegan.' He wished somebody would shoot him to make sure that this was just a hallucination or that Keegan had just garbled her words through her tears but the words went through his head again and Ryuk heard a guttural grumble in his head. Wait…there was a window that just opened (though not in the literal sense).
"Hey…does this mean that I can kiss you now?" He asked, though he was only joking.
His response was completely unexpected because that's what it was. She pulled away and suddenly did the unexpected. His chuckle was muffled and he found himself in the same awkward position he had Keegan in the night before. Lips locked and face in obvious shock. He felt his brain freeze over.
When Ryuk pulled her away from him, he found her cheeks were still wet with tears. His hand lifted up to wipe some of them away. "I was kidding." He said, breathlessly, a little surprised at her response. "What was that for?"
She sniffled while rubbing her face on her sleeves before she looked at him in silence before she gave him a peck on the cheek.
"It's a step forward."
--
Authoress Note: There's more flame for your crack pipes folks. Enjoy. Haha. I decided to try this type of idea where, 'what would it be like if a human saw the shinigami realm?' kind of thing, I think it turned out rather well, but then again we'll have to see if Ryuk and Keegan get in trouble for what they did when they got to the shinigami realm. Stay Tuned for chapter 23.