Disclaimer: The story and characters of Death Note were created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.
Rust
4. Diamond
Below us, Misa is standing in various poses, displaying a coquettish smile. Flashes of white light illuminate the girl and her surroundings, reflecting off the sparkling jewels she wears as the people around her take dozens of photographs. I do not believe any two-dimensional picture could capture and preserve the elegant sway of her hair or the lively shine of her eyes. She appears as beautiful as she did seven months ago, before sorrow entered her life.
It seems fitting that she has chosen a career that exhibits her beauty and charm. Perhaps when she is immersed in her work as a model, surrounded by admirers, she can begin to feel loved again, pretend that she does not carry a burden of grief. Those who know her seem to have forgotten the pain she has endured, and she does not allow sadness to etch itself across her face.
When there are only forty days left of Misa's life, something happens to return some of the vitality of spirit that she has lost. It suddenly does not matter now that neither Gelus nor I dared to write one name in the Death Note; someone else has avenged Misa's parents. What is strange is that he was not fated to die for another twenty-six years, five months, and nineteen days; his remaining life was taken by a shinigami.
The strangest thing is that Gelus and I have no idea which shinigami could have done it. A short span of human years is barely any time in our realm, and when Gelus first became preoccupied with Misa, no shinigami I know of had written a name in aeons.
Misa seems to know the name of her avenger. "Kira is my savior," she sighs to any human who will listen.
"Is Kira the name of a human deity?" I ask Gelus. I know it is not the name of a shinigami.
He shakes his head. "I have never heard of it before..."
For the first time in quite a while, I look across the desert to where the few others of our kind gather to gamble. They seem to be discussing something with more interest and animation than are usually present in shinigami conversation; I briefly leave Gelus to find out what they are talking about.
"Have you seen what Ryuk's pet human has been up to lately?" Zellogi asks. "I haven't seen anyone write that many names since the humans were still building empires!"
Gukku tosses the dice. "I'm surprised Ryuk hasn't killed the human by now. How long do you think he's going to stay there?" He shoves a pile of bone shards toward Deridovely.
Deridovely takes his winnings and laughs. "Ryuk's always been a strange one. Oh, hello, Rem. Haven't seen you in a while."
I alight beside the three shinigami and address Deridovely. "What is happening? Why is Ryuk in the human world?" Deridovely has always been closer to Ryuk than I. The last time I saw Ryuk was thousands of years ago in human time; I am not a shinigami inclined to socialize.
"Idiot somehow got another notebook. Dropped it through a portal like he was some rank-thirteen numbskull. Then a human boy picked it up and started killing dozens of other humans with it—"
"I think it's hundreds by now," says Zellogi.
"What is the name of this human boy?" I ask Gukku.
He clicks his teeth and points to a nearby rift. "See for yourself. His name is Light Yagami, written like this—" He gestures with his fingers to show the shape of the boy's name. I peer down and quickly locate the human in the country of Japan—Misa's homeland. "The other humans don't know who he is," Gukku adds. "Some want to hunt him down and kill him, some want to worship him. It's hilarious."
It is likely that this human boy, Light Yagami, is the mysterious one who killed Misa's enemy with a shinigami's powers. "Do the humans call him by another name?"
Zellogi answers me. "How are we supposed to know? It's not our problem if humans are too stupid to call each other by their true names. Anyway, Ryuk's the one who's down there..."
I take my leave of them as Deridovely calls for the dice again. I am curious of the human boy who has used the Death Note to such a great extent, seemingly without consequence. As I watch him through another rift, I see that he has no particular connection to Misa or to any of the humans he kills. He gleans his victims' identities often without ever encountering them. The acquitted murderer's death greatly eased the burden on Misa's life... but that man was merely one of the dozens of people that Light Yagami must have wiped out on that day.
This human boy is slightly younger than Misa, but does not act at all like an adolescent. He seems coldly detached from his own world; it puzzles me that he would want to eliminate so many of the humans in it. What is his purpose?
Perhaps his purpose does not matter, like the unknown purpose of the shinigami. Perhaps this boy is killing in sport as we shinigami used to do. How strange that Misa Amane should consider him her savior, when the act of vengeance she thanks him for was merely an everyday task to him.
Even though Gelus and I have watched over Misa for most of her life, we have done far less for her than this human boy has done. I feel a strange irritation when I ponder how Misa feels gratitude toward someone who exerts his stolen power on a whim, someone who does not even know or care about her existence. My annoyance surprises me, for in all the ages I have been a shinigami, I have never felt angry before.