Wow! Thanks everyone! I got more reviews than I'd thought! You made me very happy! I'm giving you the next chapter, not as short as the prologue but not long enough to become annoying, I hope. Now I'm getting really excited about this! Truth is, I can't wait to write the next chapter. You'll understand why!

In this chapter, we focus on the Shinigami - this is the start of the adventure.

I hope everyone enjoys it! Thank you for your feedback! It makes me so happy! Please excuse possible grammatical errors! I'll check it again as soon as I have the chance!

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"Hey Kaosu…did you see my notebook anywhere?"

Probably not, Ryuuku thought monotonously as he sat on a nearby abandoned boulder. His brow was furrowed in a skeptical expression as he listlessly – and extremely unenthusiastically – chewed on a shriveled apple. Apples from the Reaper world were truly so unlike the juicy ones of the human dimension.

"I swear I left it here a few moments ago…" the other Shinigami, Manku, kept muttering in a slightly worried tone.

"Oh man…if this goes on, at this rate, I might…"

This kind of situation had become a regular occurrence in the world of the Reapers. It seems that their idle gambling and bored degeneration had caught up with them, at last. In the past few centuries after the entire "Kira" ordeal, since Ryuuku had returned to the Shinigami world, more than fifteen Shinigami had perished. This was an alarming number, considering that the accustomed Shinigami fatality rate was less than three per one thousand years.

The Shinigamis' world and rules were an ancient matter. In the good old times, when the Gods of Death had still been eager for bloodshed, they'd spend days and nights toying with humans, writing names down. Kind of like what Raito's Kira had done, only the ancient Shinigami did it better. But nowadays…well, the world wasn't what it used to be. Even the Reaper King was bored of all these idle matters. 'Oh man…life and death…aren't you sick of all this crap? Who cares what humans are doing? Card games have more fun!' everyone said.

But it seems that the ancient traditions of their soul-eating lives did not cooperate with their passion for gambling. It was a fact that if you didn't write a human's name once in a while, you'd die! And Ryuuku's current friends, absorbed in the lethargy that their absolute power had to offer, usually couldn't be bothered to write even that one name.

"Ryuuku…that's right! Ryuuku will know for sure! Have you seen my notebook anywhere?!" Manku approached, the patched up rotten skin of her head dangling, and her swollen eyes glowing green as she spoke.

"Sorry Manku…can't say I have." Ryuuku responded, clown-like smile always stuck on his face, like that of a puppet in the night. "Why don't you search by the rocks near the Titans?"

The Titans. Disgusting creatures. They were the most ancient Shinigami – the equivalent of what dinosaurs are to humans. The Titans hadn't used notebooks back then. They would kill their humans very creatively – either create earthquakes or erruptions of volcanos… even lethal storms! Real havoc. No one really knew how the Titans died – some say that after they'd destroyed millions of humans, they'd killed each other. In any case, now they were dead and their gigantic corpses had been left in the Shinigami world for millions of years, fallen and rotting. Most of them were in advanced stages of decomposition – bones showing, innards melted. But the mass of their bodies was so huge, it was estimated that it would take approximately another 15 million years for them to fully decompose and disappear. Ryuuku was so bored at the prospect of sticking around for that long.

"Oh jeez…it's so troublesome to go down to the Graveyard now…urgh…" Manku was muttering, and Ryuuku admired the fact that, even though she was practically on the verge of death, she was still reluctant to take much action. What was their world coming to!

"Hey Manku…" a third Shinigami, Kyuubu, floated toward them. He had long, fuzzy white hair, but they were all bleeding at the roots, making his head have an interesting colour scheme. "Why don't you just take one of the notebooks of the Shinigami that recently died?"

"It's no use" Ryuuku said, his permanently smiling face, combined with his vaguely amused tone, making him sound as though he was rather entertained by the entire ordeal "Have you forgotten that a Shinigami cannot claim the ownership of a dead Shinigami's Death Note? Only a human can."

"In other words," Kyuubu said, a slow beam of dawning realization lighting his minuscule, black lenses "If a Shinigami dies then we can't use their notebook? Oh man…then all those wasted notebooks"

"You're naïve, aren't you Kyuubu" Ryuuku said in a half-sympathetic, half-drawling tone "You may end up like Manku if you don't remember the Rules."

After a small pause, the silence was broken once more "I have to go." Manku sounded truly panicked now, probably having realized that she would actually die if she didn't find that notebook soon enough. They were talking about her as though she was already dead.

As Manku floated away to the direction of the Titanic bones that were protruding from the ground, Kyuubu turned to Ryuuku. They stared at each other briefly, and Ryuuku grinned even wider than he usually did. It was obvious from the fierce, slightly bloodthirsty narrowing of his eyes, that he found this situation entirely too entertaining.

"And what about you, Ryuuku…?" Kyuubu non-committally asked, bony red finger pointing toward Ryuuku's leather belts and silver cross accessories "Do you have your Death Note in a safe place?"

Ryuuku chuckled heartily, as though he were truly enjoying the situation. A break from the boring everyday routine was always welcome, even though it was to the disadvantage of his fellow kin.

"Hehehe…Kyuubu…" he let his usual drawling tone become even more derisive "I always take my own advice."

And like lightning, a thought passed through his mind – an image he had not recalled for a long, long, long time.

Yagami Raito, writhing on the floor in his bloodstained blue suit. Hoping that the Reaper would pity him.

He he he…

Wrong Reaper.

-

Every species has a distinguishing characteristic, which makes it special and facilitates its basic living requirements. In this way, the piranhas' sharp teeth can chew through the carbon-based compounds of an entire mammal within minutes - if not seconds. The long necks of giraffes allow them to reach the highest of the jungle trees, and receive their food safely and easily. When it comes to humans, their precious brains are the leading force. Without his brain, a human is nothing – he can't even find food.

Shinigami, creatures as they are, also have a powerful characteristic, which helps them better adapt to their physical environment. No, it's not the hunches on their backs. It's their eyes.

Ah…their eyes. Wonderful contraptions. Without the powers of their eyes, the Shinigami would be completely crippled. Not only would they be unable to feed on humans, but they would be unable to function in the Shinigami world, where everything is adapted to their divinely 'perceptive' eyesight. Their eyes have multiple abilities, most of which they naturally never reveal to humans. The predator never informs the prey.

Therefore, the most important and potent of these abilites can only function when Shinigami eyes are placed in Shinigami sockets. In other words, the ability cannot be used by a human who has conducted the 'eyeball trade deal' with a Shinigami. When a human acquires the eyes of a Shinigami through the trade, the human can see the lifespans and names of all other humans, except himself and users of other Death Notes. This doesn't stand for the Shinigami themselves, who can see the lifespans and names of all humans indiscriminantly –including Death Note users. Therefore, always in correlation to the basic purpose of the Reapers' eyes, the Shinigami always retain an advantage in relation to human prey, even after conducting the 'Covenant of the Eyes'.

In order to understand the wonderful and extraordinary mechanism of these eyes, it is integral we first understand their purpose of existence. This way, we can later discuss and assess the reasons why the mechanism has been created the way it has.

Safe to say that the eyes of the Shinigami have only one purpose: to give the God of Death an advantage in relation to the prey. The eyes will produce information on any creature, as long as it relates to the creature's Death. In this way, no matter what the human prey attempts to do, the Shinigami can always summon information and keep his advantage.

Now that using Death Notes has become the official procedure, the eyes of the Gods of Death have adapted to showing only the basic required characteristics of the prey: the name, the face, the lifespan. Out of all these elements, the lifespan is most useful to the Reaper, since he can see how many years of life he will be adding to his own lifespan, if he decides to kill the human in question. A Shinigami can see his own lifespan, and that of other Shinigami.

In this way, if the Shinigami sees a human whose life will end in fifty years, then, by killing this human, the Shinigami will gain fourty-five years of life. If the human has two years left, then, by killing him, the Shinigami will gain twenty one and a half months of life. It's hard work detecting the human who is most fitted to the Shinigami's needs, seeing as the Shinigami will always gain ten per cent of life less than the human lifespan he has taken. 'Income taxes' they call them - the procedure is always troublesome.

The eyes are designed in the way which best facilitates the God of Death in finding suitable prey. Therefore, when a Shinigami approaches the prey, the eyes will tint everything in relation to the prey with a distinctive red tinge. In other words, the Shinigami know when they are near humans, because their eyes begin showing things in red. There are glands in Reapers' eyes which instigate this pleasant and extremely useful reaction, which helps alert the God of Death about the existence of potential nutrients in close vicinity.

This reaction has one last application. When objects in the environment have been used in the past or are being currently used to plot a process of Death, the Shinigami can see it. If a man walks by who is holding a knife, and the knife is glowing red in the Reaper's eyes, this means that the man is intending to provoke Death using this knife in the near future, or has already caused Death using this knife in the past. This ability may imply under certain circumstances, that the Reaper can distinguish the less moral humans from the more ethical ones. But this is the least important part, since the Shinigami rarely discriminate based on the moral disposition of their prey.

The main and most potent use of the 'red glow' ability is in stealth and secrecy. Death Notes are instruments intended to provoke Death in the future and the past. As such, they glow red in a Shinigami's eyes. Not only that, but because Death Notes are the Shinigamis' weapons, there are rules written on each notebook, glowing in red, which can be read only by the Shinigami and not by mere human eyes.

In this way, when Yagami Raito holds the Death Note for the very first time, he can read rules written in crass English with white, bonedust ink.

"How to use it: Rule 1", Yagami reads, "the human whose name is written in this notebook shall die."

But in Ryuuku's eyes, there are different things scratched on the blackness there, tinted with an attractive, glowing red tinge.

"Rule 1" Ryuuku reads "the human who uses this Death Note shall die by another Death Note."

"How to use it: Rule 2." Yagami reads "This notebook will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected."

"Rule 2" Ryuuku reads "if the human who is holding this notebook condones to the ownership and utilization of the Death Note, he has been Marked for Death. The human who instigates use of the properties of this Death Note is doomed to suffering and misery."

"Rule 3. The time and cause of death for the user of this Death Note are unspecified, except for the fact that he shall die from another Death Note."

Ryuuku smiles. His life has gotten more interesting already.

"Rule 4. The soul of the user of this Death Note is unable to enter Heaven or Hell, and will simply cease to exist after the time of Death. It shall become a Lost Soul, and can be used by the Reapers at their own volition."

"Rule 5. The lifespan of a Lost Soul is divided and added to the lifespan of all Reapers who are currently owners of Death Notes, not only of the Reaper whose Death Note actually kills the human. The lifespan of the user of this Death Note is not subject to the rule of ten per cent decrease and can be used at leisure."

"Rule 6. If the human user of this Death Note acquiesces to the Covenant of the Eyes, then the human's original lifespan is decreased by fifty per cent. The removed fifty per cent of the lifespan is added to the lifespan of the Reaper who has conducted the Covenant of the Eyes, regardless of the Reaper who is the true owner of the Death Note."

Ryuuku's face is always stuck in a permanent smile. It's kinda creepy, Raito thinks.

"Rule 7. After disintegration, the Lost Soul of the user of this Death Note can be reassembled by more than two Reapers in the Ceremony Nomenklatura to create another Reaper."

"Ha, Raito…you know, one day I'll write your name in my notebook! That will be interesting, eh?"

"Yeah…yeah I know Ryuuku, I know."

But the truth is, he didn't know.

-

"This situation is serious, Shi-ou! We're all going to die!" they were shouting rather loudly by now, harsh voices echoing in the barren, bleak landscape "First Manku and Seedu, now this!"

Ryuuku had never been really famous or friendly with other Shinigami. He was always a bit of a black sheep, seeing as he was one of the few still interested in things except gambling and lying around. The other Shinigami often scorned his actions, mocking him. Just as they had when he'd been living with the humans, begging for apples like a pet.

But this time, he had to agree with their protests. Life wouldn't be as interesting if he was left as the last Shinigami alive, after all! He was always careful to keep his own Death Note safe and never lend it or leave it out of his sight. After all, he was still alive, and another Shinigami could easily claim the ownership of his notebook. It seemed as though he was the only one with half a mind to do so. But still, was he going to be the only Shinigami left?

"Shi-ou, you're the king, aren't you?! Well do something!" Kyuubu's voice was heard, and Ryuuku remembered that day a hundred-and-two years ago, when Manku had finally died, not having found her Death Note in the Titan Graveyard. A few years later, about half a century ago now, another Shinigami had died. And today yet another! This was getting ridiculous!

Ryuuku was amazed. Where did they leave their notebooks? How could they lose them so easily? Although he had to admit that these days, ignorance and naivety weren't the only things to look out for. The Shinigami that were left alive – approximately two hundred in number – were growing desperate in search of new Death Notes. They'd started stealing from each other while they were still alive and could gain the ownership of notebooks!

The world wasn't a safe – or sane - place anymore, Ryuuku concluded.

"Silence! Silence I tell you!" Shi-ou's voice sounded, and Ryuuku thought that even he himself could make a better King of the Dead if he tried. Shi-ou was exactly like the rest of them, corrupt and degenerated. He was a pushover! He had stopped been able to take substantial decisions a long time ago, his mind of mould too occupied with card games and the futility of existence to care about matters of organization.

"We shall find the solution!" he started a harangue "The realm of Death has overcome crises much worse than this! This is nothing compared to the draught of a few years ago! Remember when the humans were killing each other with their World Wars and we couldn't find food anywhere?! This is nothing compared to that! Nothing! We'll make ends meet now as we did then!"

"Shi-ou" Ryuuku dared to speak, despite the anger that was hiding in Shi-ou's empty skeleton sockets "I beg to differ. If we don't do something now our race will be wiped out, right? Best if you tried finding everyone new notebooks since they can't do it on their own, eh?" he finished with his customary drawl, smiling face gaining a look of amusement combined with petulance.

"Shut up, Ryuuku!" someone shouted from the back of the council, and Ryuuku lethargically turned around, vaguely entertained and not at all disgruntled.

"Yeah, shut up! Humans' pets don't have a right to speak amongst real Shinigami!"

"You twisted, disgrace for a Reaper!"

Ryuuku immediately raised is hands in a gesture of mock-surrender, his smiling face becoming genuinely clown-like as he comically hopped from one foot to another "Fine, fine! I just made a suggestion!"

"Well we don't need your suggestions! Go find humans to talk to, you pervert!"

"We'll steal your Death Note and then we'll see who's laughing!"

"Okay, okay! Jeez, I got it! Don't be so pissed!"

"Back to the matter at hand." Marisu, one of the older and wiser Reapers, Shi-ou's personal counselor and honourary member of the Council, started saying "Shi-ou, I too agree that the situation can be overcome. I believe, in fact, that such a crisis was even necessary to reignite the sparks of creativity in our world."

Yes, that was the only problem with Marisu and the other elders, Ryuuku thought. They took a long time to get to the point, possibly because they were always trying not to provoke Shi-ou's anger. If you talk a lot to Shi-ou, he'll stop paying attention eventually. This was common knowledge, and the senators exploited it.

"It is a fact that our population is in danger." Marisu said, with a very finite and decisive look in his wide, unblinking black eyes. His body was extremely hunched as a sign of ancient age, and the filthy mane of his black hair, which was covered with drying vomit, fell over his buggy eyes in tufts. Marisu sometimes reminded Ryuuku of a human he thought he'd met, although he could never remember exactly who. "If we don't take precipitate action, our species shall become extinct."

The Council chamber, with looming huge bone-made Gothic Arches as its walls, had become silent. The two hundred remaining Shinigami, all assembled to take decisions for the first time in millenniums, were carefully listening to the calm orator. Ryuuku rather liked Marisu. He was slightly more interesting that the others.

"This crisis is the result of an increase in Shinigami fatality. This increase, in turn, is the result of the naivety of Shinigami as of late: while we're out gambling, we leave our Death Notes lying in groves and rocks, where they can be stolen, or worse, destroyed. Then, in the last minute, when we see our lifespan decreasing, we rush to find our notebooks, but by then it's too late!"

Various calls of agreement were heard. Ryuuku looked at Shi-ou's face, which had a grimace of barely-restrained skeletal anxiety carved on it. Seems like the King wasn't looking forward to taking decisions any time soon, when faced with this feisty crowd.

"The situation has reached very severe status. Because of the increasing desperation among us, many of us have resorted to larceny of another Shinigami's Death Note. This kind of conduct is positively unacceptable. It must be stopped!"

"But what are we supposed to do!?" A Shinigami from a few rows in front of Ryuuku and Kyuubu erupted "If we see our time approaching, and we don't have a Death Note, we can only resort to stealing!" a brief silence by everyone, and a raised fuzzy eyebrow from Marisu "…uh…not that I've ever stolen, or anything, of course…eh-heh…"

Marisu seemed to ponder for a few moments. Then, when he finally opened his mouth to speak, Shi-ou took his queue to make his own statement. Marisu looked decidedly put off at having been interrupted.

"It's true that the situation is bad! But you can always come to us if you have a problem!" the King suddenly stated, with the air of someone who thinks he's solved the Eastern Question. The golden cranium of his skeleton face was rather funny in its attempt to smile. The golden trinkets and jewels, which adorned his Indian feathery crown, were jingling as he moved his skull.

"Come to you? Come to you?!!" enraged voices echoed from all over the Council room, even from the darkest corner. Marisu and Leeru, the two most important senators, tried to silence the crowd.

"What good have you done us so far?!"

"Yeah! Shi-ou, you should have helped us!!"

"SILENCE!!" Leeru, the second high-couselor shouted, the jello-like, fluorescent green material that composed his body kept making disgusting squelching sounds as he raised and waved his hands. The unanimous non-breathing silence of two hundred walking corpses simultaneously filled the huge room. Even Shi-ou looked a bit intimidated, and Ryuuku shook his smiling head in inappropriate disapproval. And since the room was designed to host many more Shinigami than a mere two hundred, and since the world of the dead generally didn't have any insects or animals to make small sounds, the silence was extremely amplified.

"Good" Leeru continued, voice much more subdued now that he'd made his point. "The fact of the matter is that there are two primary solutions for our problem." He stated, and Ryuuku could practically, almost comically, feel the entire chamber – including the King – strain their ears to listen carefully.

"We must either find a way to acquire new Death Notes, or we must find a way to raise the general population. These are our two solutions. And since we can't procreate, I'd say the first solution is the best. We have to find new notebooks." Leeru concluded, with a look of determination in his beady red eyes, which seemed to float within his green, greasy skin.

"I concur" Marisu declared, wide black eyes widening and stilling impossibly more, as he made his statement. Many shouts of agreement sounded around Ryuuku, but he just sat there, curious and sensing that they had not yet seen the resolution of this problem.

And indeed, to everyone's surprise, Shi-ou, the great King of the Dead, became animated. Just like the dancing skeleton with crackling joints that he was, he stood up from his great throne of bones and walked forward restlessly. He raised his hands and the room immediately became silent – probably out of respect for his royal disposition than for Shi-ou himself, Ryuuku thought. The King's fully decomposed skeleton face appeared troubled.

"This option is not open to us." He started, and at once disappointed mutters floated around the room. The two high-counselors, Marisu and Leeru, seemed taken aback. "We all know that we don't get these notebooks for free. The last shipment, about three thousand years ago with the fall of Hades, cost us a good one hundred years of lifespan from the Lost Souls! Who knows what those leeches in Heaven will ask for this time!"

Ahh…the eternal problem of both the living and the dead: fiscal trade revenues.

"This is not the time to be stingy, though" a Shinigami near Ryuuku's left exclaimed, not with an aggressive but a skeptical tone "We need those notebooks more than we need the pool of lifespan from the Lost Souls."

"Hey! I have a better idea!" Kyuubu erupted, and Ryuuku braced himself –just as every other Reaper who knew Kyuubu - for the insanity they would undoubtedly hear this time "Why can't we use all the lifespan we have from the Lost Souls to extend our lives?" he asked. Marisu was the one to answer that, with a rather bored sentiment.

"We are already using it. When a Lost Soul is disintegrated, the remaining lifespan is divided and added to all of us. If a Lost Soul has fifty years of life, then each of the two hundred of us who has a Death Note gains 1:200 of fifty years. Compared to other sources of lifespan, it's an insignificant number. If more Shinigami existed who were using Death Notes, we'd have even less lifespan to share. But, put together, the Lost Souls are a worthwhile contribution. It's not wise to waste them." Marisu concluded, and Kyuubu appeared more confused than any other time. Marisu probably detected this, but did not bother to elaborate. Shi-ou, however, in a prodigal show of thoughtfulness, thought it fit to make his former argument clear. Shi-ou's main characteristic was that, at times, despite his obvious carelessness and incompetence, he came up with some distinctly good ideas. Which was probably why he was still the King. That and heritage issues.

"These Death Notes come to us from those filthy merchants in Heaven." Shi-ou started "And in return for the notebooks with the power to kill, they ask for Lost Souls, a.k.a. lifespan. Sure, they care about the salvation of the souls themselves – we care about the lifespan. If they asked for one or two Souls, then that's fine – no big waste. But seeing as they usually ask for a lot more than that, and seeing as we don't have that many anyway, it would be catastrophic to surrender what few we have for backup!"

"Indeed, your highness." Leeru commented, in a tone which implied he was reluctant to admit his previous suggestion was erroneous, and that he'd been rebutted by Shi-ou of all Reapers.

"However, we can take our second option" a pensive Marisu broke the silence once again, this time his speech directed mostly towards the King, who was standing upstage in the chamber, rather than the audience. "We can try to augment the Shinigami population. This also involves using the Lost Souls. However, by creating new Shinigami out of the Lost Souls, we decrease our chances of extinction for certain. If, on the other hand, we trade the Souls for new Death Notes, then our survival is not guaranteed. We may have more Death Notes, but we still don't increase the population."

"But Marisu" Leeru started, his hands crossed and sniffing indignantly, probably having found a loophole to dismantle Marisu's suggestion. Ah, political rivalries… The audience was completely silent. "When a Shinigami is first made, they don't have a new Death Note, do they?"

"Of course they do!" Shi-ou unexpectedly exploded in a bout of self-indulgent brilliance "Did you really think I'd let those Heaven bastards one-up us once again? No, I made a specific deal about that: new Shinigami are given new Death Notes for free." After a small pause of apparent thinking "You're right, Marisu. This seems to be the best option." The King concluded.

"True." Leeru said, seeming more than a little aggravated at admitting it hadn't been his idea. Apparently, he rushed to find a defect in Marisu's argument once again: "But have you forgotten? It is not guaranteed that the Lost Soul will become a Shinigami."

Oops. Many displeased and disillusioned murmurs were heard from the audience, and Shi-ou appeared slightly nervous. He turned to Leeru decisively. "What are you talking about, Leeru? That shoddy Trial? As if a human can be victorious in something like that! Less than two or three humans have actually won the Trial in the whole expanse of history! Not to fear my fellow Shinigami! We're talking about humans here, not innocent souls. They'll fail for sure."

The audience erupted in derisive laughs and catcalls at the expense of all humans. In the meantime, Kyuubu, on Ryuuku's side, appeared slightly confused. He turned to Ryuuku and whispered urgently "What is the 'Trial'?"

Ryuuku rolled his eyes and shrugged his black feather-covered shoulders "Oh maaan…" he started "You really don't know anything do you?". Kyuubu seemed lightly embarrassed, but didn't say anything and waited for an explanation. Luckily for him, Ryuuku had a streak for explaining things, which is a part of why he liked fraternizing with humans so much.

"The Trial is something of an incubation period." Ryuuku whispered in amusement, as various Shinigami from the audience asked questions about the whole procedure and how the Ceremony Nomenklatura would take place "When we decide to turn a Lost Soul into a Shinigami, the Lost Soul is recreated, right?"

"Right." Kyuubu said, the dullness of his eyes implying that perhaps he didn't understand even that. Ryuuku shrugged and continued, frozen in smiling as ever.

"Well, when the Soul is recreated, it doesn't immediately become a Reaper. Heaven still gives them a chance – mighty generous if you ask me. They're not that worth it, eh?" he paused briefly, since a flash of glowing amber eyes flashed in his timeless memory. But he recovered almost immediately, not really knowing what he'd remembered. He'd lived for thousands of years, after all.

"But Heaven still gives them a chance. They are sent to Hell, where they must face the Trial – don't really know what it is. Nobody does. It's supposed to be their worst nightmare, in the form of some kind of tournament they have to overcome. If they persevere without wishing to die, or wishing to become Reapers…then they are Pardoned. If they fail…guess they become Shinigami like us, eh? We may get some knew friends."

Kyuubu smiled, the action making his skinless lips stretch, causing blood to ooze between his yellow, rotting teeth "I guess we're worse even then their worst nightmare, then?" he asked, and Ryuuku's frozen smile seemed to display teeth that were a bit sharper than usual.

"I guess, eh?" he drawled in return, and a new image flashed behind his eyes, the image of a slim wrist cracking murderously, as it slipped over cream-coloured pages. Guess humans didn't know, eh? That the pages of the Death Note are made from human skin. They can't see it, with their useless small eyes, but the Reapers can. When they look at the pages of the notebook, they can see fibers of vein and artery. With each heart that is written down, the skin of the page becomes thicker, more complex. They can see.

"Well, then." Leeru seemed more than a tad disgruntled " The first thing we should do is vote. All those in favour of reanimating the Lost Souls! Raise your hands!"

'Oh…Raito…would that be you?' Ryuuku thought in drawling notes, the smile etched on his face gaining new meaning. 'A Shinigami, eh? Look how far you've come…eh?"

And so, for the first time in millenniums, Ryuuku cared enough to actively participate in a decision taken by the Shinigami council, interested as he was in the outcome of the situation.

"In order to make sure that the Lost Soul doesn't win the Trial, we must choose carefully who we shall reanimate." Marisu was wisely instructing, after the decision had been approved and they were scrolling through the nomenklatura lists of Lost Souls "We can't afford to lose Lost Soul lifespan without gaining something in return. We must make sure that the souls we pick shall become Shinigami."

«Also,» Marisu continued, as the lists of names were passed around the audience «In an effort to stop the population from decreasing further, we will all aid the ones who still haven't found or used their notebooks. If need be, as a last resort, although it is definitely not advisible, we shall lend each other Death Notes in order to remain alive.»

A small silence passed, in which everyone probably wondered where these new efforts would lead. There were very few left alive who didn't have a Death Note, most of them having died already by now.

«Therefore» Shi-ou the Incompetent picked up from Marisu's former speech, his cavernous eyes almost glowing red «We must choose the blackest, the most rotten, degenerate souls we can find. The souls that have used the Death Notes to provoke Death worse than any Shinigami has ever provoked, the souls that those straight-laced suckers in Heaven would never agree to accommodate, under any circumnstances.» he let his speech sink in for a few moments «We need the souls that would never win the Trial.»

The memory flashes were becoming almost overwhelming now. Ryuuku found it strange. Though he had thought he'd forgotten all the details, Raito's face still remained in his memory, etched with perfect clarity, as though his straight nose and almond Asian eyes refused to go away. He could remember Raito's sharp cheekbones, the pulsing jaw. His fingers, filled with bony joints: the hands of a reaper more cruel than any Reaper. Come to think of it, there had been another human. That other one...what was his name? Ryuuku could never remember. The only thing he could recall on that aspect were the almost spastic convulsions of thin fingers and an ecstatic passion for confectionaries, perhaps in parity with his own obsession about apples. He could, rather vaguely, even remember a kind of...of…

Well imagine that.

Humans are so interesting!

«...a soul as black as the midnight sky. Heaven is trying to work against us, but Hell is on our side, since we bring them treats all the time! It shouldn't be so hard!» 'Shi-ou's getting rather psyched about being a demagogue', Ryuuku thought. 'Perhaps Marisu was right and this crisis really was what our world needed. Bah...we'll get through it. Perhaps something interesting may even happen in the meantime.'

Shi-ou was impassioned: «I want you to find me a soul of a Reaper! Filled to the brim with blood! 'If you had a soul what would it be like?' that's what you must be thinking. I want you to find me something worse than that! A killer! Do you understand? A real killer, who kills for the joy of it! A bloodthirsty animal, whose goal in life is to kill! We need this to work. We can't afford to lose these souls without making them one of us! We need-«

«Oi! Shi-ou» a voice was suddenly heard, and Marisu, who'd almost fallen asleep listening to Shi-ou, turned his fathomless black eyes toward the Shinigami who had dared interrupt the King's speech. He immediately recognized Ryuuku's distinctive, haunting smile and yellow, unblinking eyes.

«What is it Ryuuku?» Leeru asked from Shi-ou's side, struggling to gather his melting green flesh enough to speak loudly.

«Hehe...he...I think I might have what you're looking for, eh? Hehehe...» Ryuuku cackled « A 'killer of a hundred thousand men', eh? Hehehe! That's what you're asking for, eh? I know one. » he stated, and everyone present turned to see the unusual sight of Ryuuku's eyes glowing the distinctive Shinigami red, as though he were reliving some basic, elemental pleasure. Marisu had seen Ryuuku get so excited on very rare occassions. He shook his black hair out of his wide, black eyes to pay better attention. Perhaps…

«I'll give him to you, oi.» Ryuuku said, his face becoming darker, somehow.

The yellow glow of his sharp teeth was coming in sharp contrast with his shadowy skin, making his glowing smile reveal its much more honest, satanic nature.

«The killer of a hundred thousand men.»

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a/n: yes, I made up some stuff about the Death Note and the Shinigami's eyes. When writing the 'new Rules of the Death Note', I thought the whole thing was kinda creepy. But of course, that's just me, being too absorbed in what I'm writing. I hope the action in this chapter was interesting, and the original characters not too annoying (a.ka. Manku, Kyuubu, Marisu, Leeru). I was really trying to give them some personality. Hence the disgusting evocations of their appearance. I was also trying to restrain my obsession with descriptions and focus on the flow of the action. Everyone bare with it, the bishies will show up pretty soon! Hope I made you happy! In the next chapter...da-da-dum!

Oh, sidenotes:

nomenklatura lists were used by Stalin in 1924-1941 in the Soviet Union in order to bureaucratically arrange the political posts within the country. Apparently, 'nomenklatura' means a list where the name, occupation and other information of a person is written. If anyone knows Russian, please tell us the exact meaning of the word. Stalin used his post as General Secretary of the Communist party and his access to these lists to juggle people around in political posts. Thus, he put his supporters in high positions while relegating his rivals. The result? One great dictator and lots of purges.

Shi-ou. Shi means death in japanese. Ou means king in japanese. Yup, I know. It's the best I could come up with. I don't remember if this guy had an actual name in the manga. Anyway, I'm sorry if his real name is the name I've used here. I didn't mean it.