CHAPTER 6: THE RETURN OF X-KIRA

No sun shown in this gloomy world. Not now, nor did it ever. The Shinigami Realm was always dreary. Grey. Full of bones. Lazy. Rotten. Those are all words that describe the Shinigami Realm. Teru Mikami knew this. He's been in the Shinigami Realm for a couple of days now, but he lost of track of time hours ago. It didn't matter in the Death God's Realm. All that mattered was staying alive by killing other humans.

Mikami had no idea why he was even here. Or what this place was, but he guessed that this was the Shinigami Realm. He had heard things from Ryuk when he was with Mikami for a while when he gave him his Death Note. But, he didn't know WHY he was here, because he knows that he died. He knows that for a fact. He killed himself even. The people around him tried to save him; Matsuda, Mogi, the members of the SPK…they tried to stop the bleeding when Mikami stabbed himself with his pen. But it was for selfish reasons. They wanted him alive so they could interrogate him. Try him as a serial killer and sentence him to either life imprisonment or death. He killed himself to give Light time to escape.

He told Mikami to do something, so he did something. He stabbed himself in the heart with his pen. He saw Light escape. So he did what he was told to do…except, he was the reason Light's plan had failed. He knows this. Light knows this. Light told him not to do anything until he gives him a signal. But he did do something. He killed Takada when she was in a tough situation; as did Light. Mikami betrayed the location of the real Death Note when he killed Takada.

He was tricking the SPK with a fake one, when, in reality, Takada was the one killing criminals. The plan would have worked, but Mikami used the real Death Note to kill Takada, so the SPK replaced that one with a fake so when Mikami confronted the SPK, it wouldn't work. Light was thwarted, and it was Mikami's fault. Mikami has been thinking about that for a long time. And he decided that if he could make it up to Light and earn his trust again, he would do it. But first…he had to find out why the hell he was here.

Mikami's been walking for quite some time now. He's seen a couple Shinigami gambling and many bones scattered here and there. How the bones got here, Mikami didn't know because Shinigami didn't die, so how did bones end up here? That didn't matter right now to Mikami, though. He was on a mission. He had to find out why he's in this strange world and not dead. Finally, he decided to ask a Shinigami why he was here. After a couple more minutes of walking, he found a group of Shinigami; the biggest group he's ever seen. It must have numbered in the triple digits. In front of this horde of Death Gods, there was a lone figure, facing four other figures. There were some other Shinigami further away from the group, watching the situation. Mikami approached the small group. There were about five of them total.

"Um…excuse me," Mikami said. "What's going on here?" One of the Shinigami turned toward Mikami. He was short in stature, a white-tan color, and resembled a slug-like creature.

"The Cause is confronting some of their enemies," the short Shinigami said.

"The Cause?" Mikami asked.

"Yah, The Cause. There a group of Shinigami, led by a human named Higuchi who want to cleanse the Shinigami Realm."

"Higuchi?" Mikami thought to himself. "I've heard that name before…"

The Shinigami continued, "There are even some rumors that they are going to try to kill the Shinigami King and take the Shinigami Realm by force."

"Yah, it's a pretty bold move on their part, considering that the Shinigami King in all-powerful and whatnot," another Shinigami in the group said. He turned to face Mikami. This Shinigami had bone looking strands of hair, almost like they were made of bamboo and was shoulder length and messy. He had a cool, collected look on his face that resembled confidence. The Shinigami also had snake looking eyes and a forked tongue. His face was relatively humanoid; as was his body. He had a deeper voice than most Shinigami and had a sword strapped to his back. Mikami wasn't a weapons expert, so he couldn't tell for sure what kind of sword it was, but it was longer than a normal katana. The Shinigami was tall and lanky and his entire body seemed to be covered in this spandex-like clothing on his arms and legs, but the cloth had a rough looking texture.

"Hey, don't call the Shinigami King 'all powerful'! He's the enemy!" stated another Shinigami in the group. This one was of normal height, had long earrings with beads on them, extended fingernails, at least six inches in length, had baggy clothes on that were mostly black but had some white splotches on it and the Shinigami had a tiger skull for a head.

"He might be YOUR enemy, but I'm not part of The Cause and you know that," The tall Shinigami said.

"Oh, yeah Gonzo? Well, if you WERE part of The Cause, you might not be so grumpy and depressing," said the medium height Shinigami.

"Shut up, Treppa. Like I would want to join that dumb rebellion," said the tall Shinigami named Gonzo. "We've had this argument before, now stop pestering me. Why aren't you with your Cause friends right now, anyway? If you believe in their cause so much, go and stand with them."

"Maybe I will!" said Treppa. He stomped off toward the giant group of Shinigami that were part of The Cause.

"That Shinigami annoys the hell out of me," said Gonzo. "So, human, what do you want?"

"Well, I was wondering why I'm even in the Shinigami Realm," Mikami said to Gonzo.

"Did you use the Death Note?"

"Yes."

"Then you're serving out a punishment for using the Death Note. Every person that you killed with that notebook, you will feel the pain they felt when they died. The Shinigami King writes your name in his Death Note and you feel the pain of someone that you killed. The Shinigami King can write your name in his Death Note multiple times. Once you have felt every person's pain they felt, you will turn to nothingness. Disappear from existence. That is the punishment for using the Death Note," Gonzo explained.

"Well, I have a lot of deaths to go then. I've only died six times. I wrote multiple pages in the Death Note. So I have plenty of time in this world. Wait…if this is the punishment for every Death Note user then… God has to be here!" Mikami thought to himself. Mikami has called Light "God" ever since he first met him.

"What are you going to do now, human?" Gonzo asked Mikami.

"I'm going to find Kira."

"Kira! He's here? Why do you want to find him?"

"We're…partners. I have to find him. I'm sure he is here."

"Okay, then, I'm going with you human."

"That's fine with me, Gonzo. And, my name is Mikami."