December 3rd

A shadow of a man sat hunched at a desk, face half-illuminated by the soft glow of his television and computer. He wrote furiously, pen flying across the page. He murmured softly under his breath as he wrote, his unoccupied hand clicking from news site to news site. The room was filled with the whispered names of criminals, prayers, and the occasional chuckle of delete.

"You've taken quite a liking to it."

The shadow let out a short yell, jumping up and knocking over his chair. He spun around wildly, searching the room for the intruder, and found a monster instead. Bulging yellow eyes stared ever so slightly in opposite directions from a flattened bluish face, attached to a skeletal, oddly proportioned body. It was oddly black, with its hair and joints sticking out at odd directions, and it hovered above the floor. The human shadow shuddered, whipping up his notebook and holding it in a threatening manner.

"Who are you?" He demanded. His dark eyes slid manically over the room behind his glasses, as if searching for more such creatures.

The creature looked amused. "No reason to be so defensive. I am the Shinigami Ryuk, and that notebook you're holding there used to be mine."

"Lies!" The shadow snarled. Ryuk tilted his head, confused at this odd behavior. He couldn't remember ever hearing about the Death Note driving humans crazy... or at least, not this quickly. Maybe he was already crazy. Ryuk nodded to himself, that seemed plausible. At least he'd be interesting, he thought, and was proven correct when the man continued, "There is only one true God! You are a false god, making false claims! This notebook is a gift from my God, and I will use it to purify the world, so that it is suitable for his presence! It is his will!"

Ryuk waved his arms in what he hoped was a placating manner. Perhaps he should have been just a touch more careful with who he gave his notebook to... "Uuh, right. Well, I suppose you've noticed that that's no ordinary notebook..."

"How can you exist?... Where do you come from?" The man demanded, ignoring Ryuk's words.

Ryuk sighed, rolling his eyes. "I come from the Shinigami realm, a rotten world that-"

"Rotten!" The man shouted, and Ryuk jerked in irritation. He hated being ignored, and being interrupted was exactly the same as being ignored- except with more shouting. "Of course," the man breathed, seeming to forget that Ryuk was there altogether. "Of course. The realm of gods is rotting, just like this world. My new God has been sent to replace the rotting gods, and to be the saviour of this rotting world. And I am his servant." The man nodded, as if this was obvious fact, and not something he had just made up.

His brain's rotten, Ryuk thought sceptically. "...Right. Of course you are... So, Teru Mikami, who is this 'god' of yours?"

"He is God," Mikami said defiantly, glaring at the shinigami in his bedroom. He didn't seem at all surprised that Ryuk knew his name. "You are not to approach him. He is the most pure thing in the world, and cannot be corrupted by your rot."

Ryuk rolled his eyes and floated over to the desk. It wasn't hard to guess who this 'god' of his was- pictures of him were scattered everywhere, along with articles and what looked like old schoolwork. "Is this him? Moon Yagami?" It was just some human kid.

"Light Yagami," Mikami said, reverently. "God."

It was then that Ryuk caught sight of the notebook in Mikami's hands. He would have been impressed, if he wasn't so annoyed. Still, he said, "You're an interesting human. Several death notes have made their way into the human world in the past, but you're the first to have written this many names. Look at how many people you've killed in only five days... Most are reluctant to write this much."

"I have not been killing people," Mikami said dismissively, waving a hand at the shinigami.

Ryuk frowned. Stared. "You must know what this notebook does by now."

"I have not been killing people," the man insisted, gazing at the names with a hungry look in his eyes. "I have been ridding the world of garbage and filth, so that it might flourish under the reign of my God. Soon, he will be able to have an ideal world. I understand, now, why I am the one who was chosen for this..."

"You weren't chosen," Ryuk pointed out. "I just dropped the note, and you just happened to be the one to find it."

Mikami ignored him. Ryuk was getting pretty tired of being ignored, and his hands itched to write the human's name in his Death Note right there, but he refrained. "God bestowed this gift upon me so that I might redeem myself in his eyes, and also because he is too good and merciful to be the hand that takes the life from vermin. So I must carry out his will in his stead, so that he might rule guiltlessly over a perfect world!..."

"Not that you've been listening to anything I've said," Ryuk said, irritably, "but you might wanna know that any human who's used a Death Note can never go to heaven or hell, and that you're the only person who can see or hear me. Hey! Are you even listening?"

"This is my gift... my curse... my burden... my duty... God... it's all for you, God!"

"Teru Mikami," Ryuk finally growled, out of patience. Mikami froze, turning his glazed gaze to the shinigami. Ryuk sighed a little. As annoying as the man was, he couldn't deny that this promised to be interesting. "If you don't want to die, you'll bring me apples every day." Those should take away the bitterness of dealing with this maniac. If Ryuk could feel anything close to sympathy for a human, he thought that he might feel sorry for Light Yagami.

He glanced at the numbers floating above Teru Mikami's head, and smiled maliciously.