Chapter 6

It turned out that Shinigami life was very easy.

Raito had to learn one thing, though. He didn't have a problem getting names as a human, with the internet, TV and radio, but now with his eyes he could get the names simply by looking at them. But as Raito found out, simple did not always equal easy.

"How do you tell which person has which name, especially if you look them in a crowd?"

"Like I said," sighed Ryuk, "if you focus, or fly over them, you can see a ray of light coming from that person. You zoom in and..."

"Got it. Thanks." Raito scribbled down the name that popped up over a scruffy looking guy who was holding a gun to a woman's head.

Ha ha, Shizuko.

That's a pretty funny name for a male.

But who in their right mind would name their daughter Akira?

Oh, fuck.

He wrote down the woman's name instead!

Damn, he might as well make it non-suspicious.

He added "gunshot", and waited the agonizingly long remaining seconds until it came true. Then he nearly tore the paper while jotting down "Ukyamama Akira".

The rest of that day, Raito made 5-minute trips to Earth while triple-checking that he hadn't written down a victim's name instead of a criminal's name. At about 11 PM, Ryuk convinced Raito to train his vision to follow lines like a native Shinigami. It took a lot of books of mazes and trips through high-security prisons playing what might be called "Death Darts", but Raito eventually became confident enough in his eyes at about 3 AM the next day.

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To combat the boredom that Raito realized plagued Shinigami, he and Ryuk would take trips to the human world because a lot more happened there. They flew around the world, Raito acting as Ryuk's personal tour guide. They had a lot of fun flying around and taking stupid pictures. One had them hanging from the noses of Mt. Rushmore, another featured them playing catch with the Imperial Regalia of Japan, yet another showcased their breakdancing abilities on top of the Paris Opera's infamous chandelier, and Ryuk's favorite was his graffiti on the top of some Egyptian pyramid, "Shinigami were here, hyuk hyuk". Raito even persuaded Ryuk to go to Tokyo Disneyland, but they both screamed in pain and flew away after they went near "It's a Small World".

After they decided to take a break from Earth for a bit to evade any little singing zombie children, Raito was thumbing through Ryuk's spellbook one night, after learning to turn pages without ripping holes in them with his claws. Most offensive spells followed one of two formats-either they directed energy at an enemy, or exploited an enemy's weaknesses from within. There were defensive spells that guarded against the energy based spells with a sort of rock-paper-scissors system, but your weaknesses couldn't be protected by magic, you had to pray that they couldn't figure them out. The book stated in a rare moment of humor that, if by chance, a foe knew your mortal weakness, smile a lot and run like hell.

The energy spells reminded Raito of magic in Dragon Warrior III-not very creative but fun-sounding. His eyes focused on the entry for "Firebolt".

"In the air, draw the kanji for fire with a finger and punch where you drew it, and a stream of fire will shoot in that direction. Its intensity will be determined by how hard you punch."

Sounded easy enough.

Raito jumped to an empty space and moved his hand in quick defined strokes. His fingertips crackled with heat, and a brilliant blaze erupted from his hand, blasting across the area at the speed of lightning.

Awesome! He grinned, and noted that his grin was becoming more like a proper Shinigami's. That thought made him grin harder.

Raito continued to paw through. The energy spells were mostly kanji-punching, while the weakness-hitters were kanji-throwing-draw a kanji and mime tossing it at your enemy. One spell with a name that was ripped out had really funny instructions. You had to dance a dance like the hokey cokey while snapping your fingers and clicking your tongue. What kind of spell could that be? He turned the page again.

"Is it a good read, Harry Potter?"

"Keh!?"

"Don't worry Raito, it's me." Ryuk dropped a barrel on the ground. "It's full of a bunch of Fujis from the apple orchard we flew across. The foreman saw it levitating 5 feet off the ground, but it was worth it."

Raito breathed a sigh of relief (it was a human habit he hadn't stopped yet). "Nice. Did you look at the whole thing when you got it? The spells are fucking awesome." He grabbed two apples and started gnawing on both, spitting out the stems and seeds onto the floor. "There's one that'll unleash pent-up feelings in someone all at once, paralyzing them and hurting them if there's enough of it. Sounds like something the Shinigami king could use to weed out guys like you."

"Yeah. A long time ago when things were active around here, if someone was acting suspicious, the king-not the one now-could summon you to his throne and have one of his flunkies use that spell on you. If it did nothing, your name was cleared and you were let go. If something was detected, he'd throw your ass in one of the hells before you could say 'Whoops'. A friendship landed you in level five, but loving someone got you roasting in level three. His intentions were good-no one wanted to fight over lives like in the plague years, but it harmed those who were only trying to be good. The Shinigami who might actually do harm were undetectable, because if they were in an actual relationship with another, their emotions weren't being squeezed inside them." Saying this made Ryuk grumble something about stupid rulers not knowing how to protect their lands and reached for an apple himself. "No one knows how to do it now except us, of course. Enough emotional Shinigami were destroyed that the king no longer needed the magic-users."

"So where did you find the book? At a flea market or something?"

"As a matter of fact, I did!" Ryuk snickered. "Just kidding. I was flying around Japan one night, looking for something to do, and I saw a library. Being bored out of my mind, I entered the spirituality section, wanting to see what the humans said about my kind and have a good laugh or two. In the middle of one of them was a big book that reminded me of an English dictionary. I pulled it out, only to have it not pass through me as it smashed my toe." He winced at the memory, which made Raito's foot twitch in sympathy pain. "Then I opened the book, realized what it had inside, picked it up somehow, and flew back to my place."

"Nice one!" Raito high-fived Ryuk, and their claws clicked together and made a sound like a typewriter. "It's all very easy to do, I don't see why they couldn't memorize it!"

"Not everyone back then was as dexterous as we are, Raito. Plenty of Shinigami don't even have hands. I'm one of the human-shaped ones, but most from that time were armless wonders that wrote in their Death Notes by dripping water or bodily fluids."

Raito bent down and kissed Ryuk, taking care not to cut his tongue on his boyfriend's fangs. He slid around for a few seconds, pulled out, licked the kanji for water on Ryuk's hand, and shrugged. "Perhaps a few had to do that."

"I'd imagine. An actual kiss of death!" Ryuk smiled a genuine smile of relaxation as he returned the kiss with a little extra, getting a feel for Raito's back while he was at it, stroking the soft wings and topping it off with a squeeze to the ass, which made both Shinigami shiver.

"Do the same to me or I'll try to bring you back to life."

"Yes master," laughed Raito. He stroked Ryuk's wings first, enjoying the fluffy-smooth feel that reminded him of a penguin chick. Tingles came to Raito's fingers (not the transforming kind, the good kind) as he gently gripped each joint. Then he hoisted himself onto Ryuk's broad shoulders and began to pat his back like a xylophone.

"Fuck Rule 36. I'm not trying to come back to life. A little death will do." Raito began to laugh like every crazy villain in every movie, but with a titillating undertone.

"Right-o, Raito." They hopped onto the squishy bed as Ryuk unscrewed the lightbulb.