Misa chatted with the other girls in the changing room as she took off her costume, hung it neatly on the hangers marked with her name, and got dressed again in her own clothes. It was not a good job, she was a day player on a foreign TV show, playing the date of a supporting character. But lately she had been telling her manager she would accept anything. She didn't need the money—maybe soon she would, she didn't really want to think about that—she just wanted to be busy.

It had not been a bad day. There was nobody here who knew her well, the main actors were polite but kept to themselves, they didn't seem to know much Japanese. Between takes she chatted with the crew and danced with some of the extras, helping them practice for another production they were booked on.

After work she joined some friends for dinner. Moto, Aoike and Hisaya were already sitting at a table in the restaurant when Misa showed up. They were chatting animatedly and laughing. Misa put on a bright smile and hurried over to join them.

"Hi everyone!" she said, waving with both hands as she sat down.

"Hi Misa!" Moto said.

"Misa, how are you doing?" Hisaya asked.

Misa's smile didn't drop but she couldn't deny the feeling of dread that suddenly went through her. "Misa's doing just fine," she said.

"You sure about that?" Aoike said.

Misa bit the inside of her lip and nodded. The other girls looked at Aoike.

"Aoi, don't say that," Hisaya said, hitting the other girl on the arm.

"Why? It hasn't been long since-"

"Excuse me," Misa said, getting up from the table. She grabbed her purse and ran off to the bathroom.

Resting her purse on the counter, she took a breath and blinked the tears from her eyes. Was she just being overly sensitive, or had her friends been treating her differently since her parents passed? They were trying to help, she was sure, but she didn't want to be reminded of it every second of the day.

When she got back to the table, her friends were laughing raucously, but when they saw her they suddenly stopped.

"We should decide what to order," Hisaya said.

"We got you a soda," said Aoike.

"Oh, thanks," Misa said, taking a sip through the straw.

The four of them looked at the menu. Misa wasn't really paying attention. Her friends were so quiet and serious all of a sudden, like they thought they weren't allowed to laugh when she was there. It was sad. She wondered if it would always be like this from now on.

"I don't know, maybe a salad," she said when asked what she planned to order.

"They don't do salads here, silly," Moto said.

The other girls smiled and played with their hair when a smartly dressed young man came over to take their order. When he turned to Misa, she found herself shaking her head. "Nothing for me, thank you. I- I have to go."

"Misa!" Hisaya said as Misa got up from the table.

"It's okay, I just forgot about… something," Misa said, waving and hurrying off.

As soon as Misa sat down on the train home, tears started streaming down her face. The crowd of other commuters didn't know her, and if they noticed her crying they didn't care.

"I'm home," she said quietly to no-one as she took off her shoes and put on her slippers.

On the journey home she realised she actually was hungry, it had been many hours since the lunch she had on set. She went into the kitchen and made herself a bowl of rice, then she stood and looked at the dining room table for a full minute, before going upstairs to eat in her room.

In the shinigami realm, Rem watched Misa. Since Gelus had sacrificed his own life to save her, Rem had taken an interest in the blonde human girl. At first she wasn't sure what was so fascinating about her. She supposed she wanted to know why a shinigami would consider a human so important.

Misa did seem to live an interesting life for a human. Many humans toiled endlessly, plodding the same path through life every day, going to the same places, carrying out the same motions, endlessly endlessly endlessly until their deaths. But Misa was constantly going to new places, dressing up in different clothes, sometimes pretending to be other people. Was this what Gelus liked about her? Was this why he fell in love with her?

Today Misa lay in bed for a long time. The time when she usually got up had long passed. Misa seemed so lethargic lately. She used to be so vibrant and full of life. Now she only expressed that vitality when she was dressed up as someone else. When she was alone she looked… well, Rem was concerned, Misa reminded Rem of the shinigami who had lost all interest in their continued existence and just ceased to be.

Misa seemed popular among humans. She was regularly mobbed by groups of fans obsessed with the mere idea of her. She always had people around her, yet she seemed so lonely. Rem didn't understand what parents were to humans, but she could tell they were important to Misa. It seemed they couldn't be replaced. And nobody could take away the loneliness in Misa's heart.

It was probably not wanted. It would probably not help. But nonetheless, Rem wanted to find a way to say I'm here.

Rem went to the place she had hidden Gelus's Death Note. Extra notebooks were hard to come by in the shinigami realm, so she had hidden it away just in case. Rem had heard from other shinigami about Ryuk dropping a notebook in the human world. He hadn't been seen in some time. Perhaps now was the time for her to use the extra notebook.


Misa was walking back from the store with a bag of groceries. The sun was shining, but even that couldn't cheer her up today.

She heard a noise behind her and looked around. A black notebook was lying on the grass.

Huh, someone must have dropped it, she thought, looking around. But there's no-one around.

Misa picked it up and flipped it open, thinking that perhaps the owner had written their name and contact details inside the cover.

"The human whose name is written in this note shall die?" she read.

Misa smiled to herself. Whoever owned this notebook obviously liked creepy things, like she did. She looked through the pages. There was more of this sort of stuff, then a bunch of names, but none of them that looked like it was clearly the owner's name. She put the notebook under her arm, deciding to look after it until she found out who it belonged to. Maybe when she did, she might make a new friend.

Later, Misa sat on her bed watching TV and painting her nails. The notebook she had found was on top of a cabinet, along with an empty bowl and glass that she hadn't yet taken downstairs.

"Aren't you going to try it out?" an unfamiliar voice said.

"Huh?" Misa said, looking up at a giant monster seemingly made of bones. She screamed and dropped the pot of black nail polish and the brush. "W-what are you? How did you get in?"

"I am Rem, a shinigami."

Misa blinked, staring. Now she looked at the shinigami properly, she was that she was kinda cute, in a creepy way. If Rem was a plushie, Misa would buy her, she decided. "You're a girl?"

"Yes."

"I'm Misa," she said, picking up the nail polish bottle and returning the lid to it. "Are you here to kill me?"

"No."

"That's disappointing."

"Disappointing?"

Misa nodded. "I'm ready. I want to see my parents again," she said, her eyes filling with tears.

"I'm not here to kill you. You found my Death Note."

"Oh! It's yours?" Misa jumped off her bed and grabbed the notebook, then held it out to Rem. "Here. I'm glad I picked it up. Let's be friends."

"Friends?" Rem said. She pushed the notebook back to Misa. "You should keep it."

"Oh wow, thanks!" Misa said, hugging the notebook to her chest. She sat down on the rug and opened the Death Note to read the first page. "I thought this was a joke, but it's real? Does it really kill people?"

Rem nodded. "Anyone whose name you write in the Death Note with their face in your mind will die."

Misa grinned widely. "That's so cool!" she said, hopping up and down on the spot.

Rem watched Misa lay down on her stomach on the floor to read the rules. "Hmm, okay, I think I get it," she said. She looked up at Rem. "So, who do I write in it?"

Rem looked at her strangely. "Anyone you like."

"You mean, there aren't rules? Like, I can only kill bad people?"

Rem tilted her head to the side. "What makes someone a bad person?"

"Well, that's easy. Everyone knows what bad people are like." Misa frowned. "Ooh, this is hard actually. I know what a bad person is, I just can't find the words."

"Apart from the rules that are written, there are no restrictions. You may kill humans you consider bad. You may kill humans you do not consider bad."

Misa smirked. "So I can kill people I just don't like?"

"If you want to."

"And I won't get in trouble with the law?"

"That is not something shinigami have any influence over."

"Oh. So I need to be careful. Hmm, this is harder than I thought." Misa rested her chin on her hands and looked down at the notebook, deep in thought. "So I can't kill him, otherwise people might know it was me. But I can kill other people who murdered and hurt others. Right, Rem?"

"You may do as you please."

Misa frowned. "I'm asking for some support here."

"And you have my support, to do as you please."

"So you won't help me decide?"

"No. If you need me to explain anything, I will, but I gave you the Death Note so that you may decide for yourself."

"Okay Rem, I won't let you down!" Misa said with a grin.