Chapter 5

Raito decided to transform from human to Shinigami for a few reasons. One, he would be able to dish out justice for a very long time (forever was a possibility), two, he wouldn't have to worry about L tracking him down and throwing him in jail before he could say "Whoops", three, if he felt particularly ambitious, he could have people worship him and do his bidding, and four, there was the matter of Ryuk.

So on that night, after enjoying a piggyback ride on Ryuk's back through an apple orchard, he and Raito made their way back to his dorm. Everything had to look typical.

"Pen?" Raito looked at his...boyfriend for affirmation.

"Check."

"Spellbook?"

Ryuk dropped the spellbook on the floor, making a noise somewhat like a nuclear warhead going off in hurricane force winds. "Check. Messy desk?"

"Check." Raito rummaged through his drawers until he found the Death Note, handed it to Ryuk, then flopped down on the bed. "Check, and our work is done!"

"Hyuk hyuk, you're too eager Raito. I gotta cast the spell on you, wait for your mind and body to seperate, and then write your name in the Death Note. It won't do anything if we just leave it here." Ryuk opened the spellbook.

Raito looked around the room, side to side, then at Ryuk. "Will it hurt?"

"Don't you remember the first time, while in class? It'll hurt like a four-alarm bitch and last a long time, like having a seizure in a volcano. But look on the bright side. Instead of doing it sitting in a desk while wearing a tight suit and scrutinized by 30 law students, you get to have it done while you're on a bed, naked, and the only other being in the room is your boyfriend," said Ryuk as he tapped the weird runes with his index finger and opened his Death Note to the first blank page.

"Ok. Then let's get this fucking over with!" Raito pumped his arm, blissfully unaware of the lexical ambiguity of his adrenaline-fueled bravado.

"Legally damned to legally screwed..." Ryuk tittered as he searched the page for the spell, found it, and began chanting.

"Elekanahmennahmenahtumahtumelekanahmenelekanahmennahmenahtumahtumelekanahmen..."

Then the tingling sensation reappeared.

"I call to the mind and spirit of this human!" Ryuk gestured at Raito mysteriously.

"Fu-fuck!" Just like last time, the tingling entered every pore and every vein, and it turned Raito's blood into liquid fire, melting the arteries and electrocuting the nerves, and slammed his eyes in some direction, feeling like he was in a defective private car in Space Mountain, as his stomach and heart collided with each other until they were stuck together and shot around his body like a pinball.

"Form into a new agent of death and shuffle off this mortal coil!"

Raito then felt the heat melting his limbs, and twisted, screaming for what was left of his life as he felt his body expand. Limbs lengthened and filled with muscle, nails painfully shot out into claws, and his mouth filled with blood (he knew it because he tasted it) as his gums pulled back and glittering silver fangs pushed his human teeth away, which he spat out. Two shimmering wings bursted out of his back, and he reflexively stretched them.

At that moment, Ryuk pulled out his pen, and with jittering hands, carved "Yagami Raito" into the paper. Exactly 40 seconds later, Raito felt all the pain compress into the middle of his chest. Ryuk saw the new god smile as he whispered, "Thank you."

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"Oi, Raito." Ryuk poked the former human with the blunt edge of a claw, and Raito blinked exactly eight times before his eyes stayed open.

"Hm? Where am I?"

"In the Shinigami realm." Ryuk pulled Raito up from the soft black bed and pointed at his reflection in the mirror.

After a few moments remembering what had happened, Raito looked at the mirror. He was much taller than he was as a human, now on level with Ryuk, with golden skin hugged by a tight white outfit. Raito's head now held bulbous eyes as blue as window cleaner, and purple-red lips that barely covered his fangs. He now had a martial artist-like physique (he still didn't know why he needed it if he killed people with calligraphy) topped off with bronze bat-wings.

"Hyuk hyuk, I like what I see." Ryuk licked his lips.

"So do I. But what about my body on Earth?"

"It's the same as it was before you transformed, just no longer operating. What you felt transforming was your spirit, which now serves the purpose of your body. Some passerby heard screaming from your room, and called the police. When they arrived, they saw you dead in your bed of a heart attack. And that was that." Ryuk reached for an apple he had cached under the pillow. "Your family is devastated, but your father now can convince L that you weren't Kira, so they're also relieved. Got it?"

"Yeah, I se-" Raito's eyes widened as he looked at Ryuk's hand. "O-oh..."

"Is everything all Raito, Raito?"

"Ye-yeah...I...just...want...the..."

"Oh, you want the apple? Very well. A toast to the reborn!" Ryuk tossed the apple directly into Raito's mouth.

Raito held his mouth open, and when the fruit dropped inside, it was impaled on his lower teeth and leaked its sweet juice all over his tongue. It was like the morphine he took in the hospital when he broke his femur, except this only hit his mouth, making his taste buds beg for more. He bit down, splitting the apple in half with his upper teeth, and both halves of it slipped onto his tongue. Then Raito tipped his head back and chewed some more, crushing the halves into quarters and the quarters into eighths, each crunch releasing more and more juice until it made his whole mouth tingle with delight.

"Awh mah go'! Dis is SO good!" Raito gushed while swallowing the apple slowly, savoring the taste even as it slithered down his esophagus. "I see why you always asked me for them! It's like there's a party in my mouth and everyone's invited!"

Ryuk just looked on adoringly.