~Six hours before Kira's arrest~

Hiding the halfling has become more tedious than the Shinigami King had imagined when he broke his rule and created Light in the first place. He knew of the incoming threat the first would pose should he find out another was born, and the King had hoped sending Light into his younger body incorrectly would stop the development of his powers and prevent the other Shinigamis from finding out. He'd been wrong. At first, Light's younger body had rejected his soul after essentially destroying its previous inhabitant; bodily functions had started shutting down until only the bare necessities to keep his body functioning were running even at a limited capacity. What the Shinigami King hadn't considered was what would happen when Light's body accepted his soul. The second the soul starts rejuvenating, Light's dying or dead organs, his powers would emerge, and everyone would know of his crime.

Everything the king did to prevent this, including pulling Light from his body on three separate occasions and hiding behind the excuse of providing him with 'much needed' information, had failed. The night at Sakura TV, Light's powers emerged. He'd never imagined that by pulling Light's soul, each time it returned to his body, it adapted quicker, so now that the King couldn't hide Light's existence anymore. He severed the Shinigami Realm from the human one, sealing the spheres so no Shinigami could look into the world below. By luck, the power emanating from Light didn't reach them, and his fellow Shinigami remained unaware of the halfling he'd created.

The only sphere he'd left open was the one beside him; he needed to keep up-to-date with Light's investigation, and it would seem they were close to catching Kira. Only hours away until Ryuk's entertainment would be over, not that the Shinigami would be there to see it. The King had adequately punished Ryuk for his part in destroying the balance. Now, the only thing that remained was what he should do with the halfling once the threat of Kira was gone.

When Light's powers emerged, the other would've sensed it; he would come for Light. The King can only fear how his power has grown in the millenniums that have passed since his exile. The Halflings were wild and savage creatures; he couldn't let two roam the human world. No, Light has played his part. Once Kira was arrested and, his power over the balance was gone. Light Yagami shall die.


Everything felt slow: the walk to the headquarters exit. Light's legs felt heavy, like something had turned them to stone. Each step felt sluggish, and the doors weren't getting any closer. Were they getting further away? It's like every step he takes forward, he's, in fact, moving six steps backwards. His legs get heavier as each second passes, and then they're gone. His feet disappear from underneath him as if his legs vanished altogether, his face plummeting to the floor. Light only barely remembers to cover his face as he hits the floor, his mind elsewhere. Light feels arms wrap around him, yet he's miles away; someone is asking no, begging him to wake up, but Light can't make out who all he sees, all he feels is the darkness.

The arms fade away, everything disappears, and all that remains is the darkness. To his left, to his right, front, back, up and down - everything is black. He can't move, feel, or think; it's just the darkness, the neverending void that surrounds him and encompasses him inside and out. Everything he once knew, everything he once was - it's gone. Nothing remains for all eternity, only the dark. Then he's someone, a person with thoughts and feelings and everything. It overwhelms him - Light, his name was Light; Light something? He can't remember everything was so faded. He's human, no, he wasn't; he died, then lived and was sent back to stop something. It's on the tip of his tongue, but Light can't quite remember. Light remembers people, but no faces - L he cares for a person named L? L what?

The darkness disappears, giving way to a barren world—a dead wasteland with nothing. No, that wasn't right. There's something. A creature suspended in the air by chains, its skull head stared down at him—a monster - no a Shinigami. He knows this creature, the king - it's the Shinigami King.

"We meet again, Light Yagami," the King said. "This is your afterlife, confined to the Shinigami Realm for eternity—a side effect of your deal with me. You will have your own area of the Shinigami Realm away from the others to coexist. The Shinigamis won't interfere with your afterlife; this will be the last time we speak."

Light didn't have the chance to utter a word before the King disappeared, and the darkness returned.


Light's memories returned slowly as the months went by. He couldn't be sure time was even passing in the Shinigami Realm; there was no day or night, nothing that would signal a human day had passed, yet Light was confident that he'd been trapped here for at least two months, maybe more. He wasn't sure how long he'd been surrounded by darkness. The Shinigami King had kept his word; Light hadn't seen him since, and no other Shinigamis had found him. He was trapped and alone, so very alone. Light missed L, Sayu, Misa, Naomi and Raye. He'd even take the company of Rem or Ryuk over this constant loneliness.

Escaping had been useless; Light had tried; he didn't want to believe he was dead. He couldn't be dead because what was the point of going back and stopping Kira? Had he known that he wouldn't have lived past Kira's arrest, he wouldn't have agreed to the Shinigami King's offer. Maybe had he known, he would've still gone through with it because it would clear his name; Light probably wouldn't have gotten closer to Raye, Naomi or even L had he known that hours after they arrested Kira, Light would've died. Had past Light Yagami known what present Light Yagami knew now, he wouldn't have made the deal; he'd seen the future, and he knew L and his friends would find and arrest Kira. Light being sent back meant nothing because Kira was still arrested, charged and executed for his crimes. Light might've saved Naomi and Raye's lives but at the sacrifice of many others.

The part of the Shinigami Realm that the king had dumped him in was nothing special. As barren as the rest of the realm, the few trees that had grown were long dead, with rotten apples covering the ground around the shrunken trunk. The barren wasteland stretched out in every direction for miles, yet no matter how far Light walked, he never came across any Shinigami. Light suspected that the Shinigami King was involved, keeping Light contained in his area and away from everyone else. Light wouldn't give up; he wouldn't be sidelined like this after everything he's been through. No, like hell, would Light sit here, twiddling his thumbs for the rest of eternity. He didn't care what the Shinigami King wanted because Light Yagami was nothing if not stubborn, and he would get out of here, no matter the cost.


Days had passed, maybe even months. Light still couldn't tell. If he had to guess how long he'd been here, he'd assume four to five months. It didn't feel long, but without a way to properly measure time, Light couldn't be sure with his estimate. What had happened on earth after he died? Did people mourn him? Did L? Or even Naomi and Raye? Had his mother and sister been told how he'd fought to find Kira, or was he another name to Kira's long list of victims? It hurt not having answers; the longer he thought about it, the more questions would arise. Questions that Light would never have answers to.

Being trapped here, Light finally understood why Ryuk had dropped his notebook into the human world. How bored the Shinigami must've been sitting doing nothing for aeons or for however long Ryuk had been in… existence? How did Shinigami come to exist anyway? There were so many questions, and no one was around to answer them. Light had always believed that he could survive being alone, that he'd never meet anyone who could understand him. Now he's met Raye, Naomi, L and even Misa; he was surrounded by people who knew the real Light Yagami; being trapped here, the loneliness Light once thrived in was now suffocating.

Then, the loneliness ended when two Shinigamis found him in their realm. The last two Shinigami's Light expected to see - Rem and Ryuk. The three stared at each other; they seemed as surprised to see Light as he was to see them.

"Hi, Light-o. You're the last person I was expecting to see here," Ryuk said. After the long and slightly awkward silence as, the three stared at each other.

"You are dead, Light. You shouldn't be here," Rem said.

"The Shinigami King said that this was my afterlife, a side effect of making a deal with him. What do you mean I shouldn't be here?" Light said. Were they going to give him the answers he'd been craving or more questions that he didn't know the answer to?

"That's not how it works, Light-o. You were already dead; your natural lifespan had ended. That old fart couldn't kill you again; your deal with him linked you. If he killed you, then it would've severed your connection to this time, and everything you did to stop Kira would be undone," Ryuk said. What was that supposed to mean? He remembered dying again. What was Ryuk talking about?

"Ryuk means that after Kira was arrested, you wouldn't have died again. You shouldn't have collapsed; your life wasn't connected to whether Kira was in custody or still free. I was there that day you 'died'. I saw what happened; you were suffering from the illusion of dying, probably so you would accept being stuck here rather than what actually happened, which was the Shinigami King pulling your soul from your body, something you've experienced before," Rem said. Light froze, so if he hadn't died, then why did the Shinigami King want him trapped here?

"Then why did the Shinigami King make it seem like I'd died? Why go through all the effort to lie?" Light said. His head hurt; he wasn't sure what to believe.

"Because of you dipshit. The old fart is extremely paranoid right now, and that's because he doesn't want anyone to find out you exist; he even sealed the Shinigami realm off when you came into your power that night at Sakura TV. He doesn't want the other Shinigamis to know that he created another Halfling," Ryuk said.

"But why? What have I done?" Light said, feeling even more confused.

"It's not you. Remember when Misa told you that a halfling came before you and disappeared alongside the old Shinigami King," Rem said. Light nodded. "Well, we're not entirely sure what happened; it's been forbidden to talk about the halfling by the new King, but after their disappearance, the King instated a rule that no Shinigami was allowed under any circumstance to create another halfling. It was also assumed that the Old King and the First Halfling didn't disappear but were exiled from the Shinigami Realm, which is why we haven't seen them in centuries."

"I remember hundreds of Shinigamis leaving the Shinigami Realm and going to the human world to search for the old king; they didn't believe a new one should be instated until they had absolute proof that the old king was dead. Not one returned. When the old coot noticed, he forbade us to search for the old King. Centuries have passed, and memories faded that even I don't fully remember what happened, probably the old farts way of controlling us," Ryuk said. "Wouldn't be the first time he's tried to manipulate us to get his way."

"What does that mean?" Light said. If the Shinigami King forbade creating a new halfling (and it would seem that any Shinigami could do it, not just limited to the King like Light had first thought), then why would the King suddenly break his rule to bring Light back, especially now Light knew Kira was captured in his original timeline. Had Kira remained at large without getting caught by L or any other detective on the case, then why bring Light back?

"After I gave Yamamoto the Shinigami eyes, I realised how neglectful I'd been. A Shinigami's job is to maintain the balance between life and death, and ever since I dropped the death note into your world for entertainment, I haven't noticed how messed up the balance was. I planned to find you and tell you everything I knew. I could've written his name in my death note to end Kira's reign, but I knew it wouldn't help," Ryuk said. "The old coot didn't like that idea because he dragged me back here, and I've been trapped here ever since. When he sealed this realm, he made sure that Shinigamis in the human world could get in but not out. The others won't notice because they don't care about the human world unless it's to expand their lifespan, but both Rem and I have tried to return, and every portal leading to the human world that we know of is closed."

"Well, that explains why you weren't with Kira the day we arrested him, but sealing this realm from the human world just because he doesn't want other Shinigamis to know I exist but pulls me here, which increases the chance they find me out about me makes no sense. When you look at me, can you instantly tell I'm a halfling?" Light said. Ryuk and Rem nodded. "Then keeping me a secret while in the same realm with the people he doesn't want to know about me seems pointless. He sealed off the Shinigami Realm; if you can't get into or even look into the human world, then you wouldn't find out about me. His secret was safe,"

"What are you saying?" Rem said. Light looked at them.

"Something is about to happen in the human world, and I suspect it involves the first halfling. If Shinigamis could figure out I existed when I came into my powers, then I bet the first halfling could sense me, too," Light said.

"The old fart doesn't want you meeting the first Halfling. So, something happened when the old king and first halfling disappeared, and now the old coot is trying to prevent it from happening again with you," Ryuk said. Light nodded.

"I don't care about the first Halfling. I finally had my life back together, and the king messed with it. I've had enough people choose my fate and make decisions for me. I'm taking control of my life back, and I refuse to play along with his little scheme. We all know I have powers I've yet to learn to control, so I'm betting he's relaying on me believing his white lie and that I won't see the point of learning to control these powers," Light said. "I know you weren't, or at least don't remember being around the first halfling, but you're all I have to help me learn how to use them outside of small outbursts. Then I'm finding a way to return to my body and live the life I deserve."

"You are aware that your soul is no longer tied to your body; it will have started decomposing now. It's been at least five to six months since you died," Rem said.

"I know. During the last month of my life, I noticed that I seemed more in tune with my body; I ate and slept more than I needed when I first was sent back. I guess that was the Shinigami King's fault. It doesn't matter now; I know what I want, and nothing, not the king or this first halfling will stand in my way of getting it," Light said. He's getting his old life back, finding Raye, Naomi, Misa, his mother and sister, and finally being honest to them about what he's been through, which includes him dying and coming back to life; he'll even convince his mother to leave his abusive father had she not already because if he was getting a new chance at life then so was she. Then, when everything is settled, he will find L and get the date L owes him.

Ryuk looked at him amused and said, "You, Light Yagami, continue to be so interesting."