It's More About Looks Than Skill | Ryuk

Chapter II

"S-Shinigami..."

Ryuk blinked at the wide-eyed girl. This wasn't how he'd expected things to happen. Of course, an outcome similar to this one had crossed his mind, but he'd hoped it would have turned out more... Well, romantic.

Though it wasn't normal for him to think this way. Shinigami weren't taught how to form relationships, let alone how to love. It was foreign to them, something they could not understand the worth of. They observed humans from above when the boredom becomes too much to bare and wondered why humans would grieve over something so petty and useless, only for them to walk back up the stairs and return to their gambling game or rotten dinner. Love was a dangerous case, a Shinigami's despair to save the one they desire could lead to suicide.

When another had told him that Shinigami are the fiercest when it comes to loving someone, he thought nothing of it and had simply chuckled a bit. He now realized he had massively underestimated it.

She hadn't moved for quite a while now. A part of him wondered if she was going to smack him in her state of shock; though he could easily dodge the blow due to his dematerializing skills, perhaps he'd just let her. Perhaps that would make him come to his senses.

"So they are real..."

"His name is Ryuk. You can only see him if you touch this notebook. He's been keeping me company ever since I became Kira," Light explained.

"So... Why is he here?" (Y/N) asked.

"The way I seek justice is through the notebook, it's also known as a Death Note. If I write someone's name down in it, they die within forty seconds of a heart attack. I also have the option to specifically chose how they die, but it takes a little longer for it to actually happen. Before I had found it, Ryuk was the original owner of the Death Note. Now he follows me around until I decide to return it to him."

"Or until I get bored of you," Ryuk commented.

The girl moved a little bit closer to the Shinigami and inspected him further. She'd never seen anything like him before and it both frightened and excited her. He was something you could specify as the stuff of nightmares, though she found him to have a pleasant voice and seemingly harmless (for now).

"How did you know he was a Shinigami?" Light asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"I remember having discussed the subject in school a few times, it was for a mythology project we had to do."

Light hummed in response, his eyes following his friend's fingers as they reached out towards the god of death. They traced across the curves of Ryuk's features, and he swore he'd seen the Shinigami shiver.

"Hyuk!" Suddenly, Ryuk jumped up, nearly knocking (Y/N) over, and latched upsidedown onto the ceiling. She looked up at him in confusion.

After an awkward silence that could've lasted a few minutes, the Shinigami apologized. "I'm shy around girls."

(Y/N) smiled. She actually smiled. Light hadn't seen her do that since the first grade. From that point on in time, she hadn't been the same for some reason. She no longer noticed the bright things in life, instead focusing on everything that's wrong with her and the world around. It's why she didn't stop Light from using the Death Note. She simply knew that he was doing this for the greater good, it's what she'd told him when the Kira-case went public.

"You don't have to be shy around me. I don't bite, I promise. Unless you want me to," she winked.

The shinigami chuckled before he leaped back down again, a slight blush dusting his pale cheeks. Light wouldn't have guessed he was even capable of blushing. But it turns out that while being in the possession of the Death Note, he learns new things every day.

THE FOLLOWING DAY

"How's it going? I don't think anyone else is in the house right now. Do you wanna play some video games?" Ryuk greeted as Light stepped into his room and sank down on his bed, sighing slightly. "Ah, come on, it's been a while!"

The teenager paid him no mind whatsoever, and it managed to annoy Ryuk to the fullest. The Shinigami was in no mood to be ignored, he was far too energized by the fact that (Y/N) was able to see him now and that they had hung out for the entire evening, even if it was just to study.

"Are you listening?" For a moment he had hope when Light moved, but all he did was simply walk past the God of death towards his closet. "Hey, Light!"

"Where exactly are we going?"

"Light, don't ignore me when I'm talking to you or I'll get mad!"

"HELLOOOOOOO! YOOHOOOOO!"

"Listen to me!" Light finally snapped, making Ryuk's crazy antics falter. "there's a very strong possibility that there are wiretaps and maybe surveillance cameras hidden throughout my house."

"Really? But that piece of paper was still in your door, wasn't it?" Ryuk asked.

"That's true, but... I left the paper in the door in a way that it would be obvious to anyone entering the room. The real test is the handle."

"It is?"

"When that door is closed, the door handle automatically returns to a horizontal position and it won't go any higher than that. But whenever I close the door I adjust it slightly, instead of letting it sit horizontally, I lower it by about 5 millimeters. When I get home and I try to open the door, if the handle is all the way up, I can be fairly certain that someone was in my room. That method alone doesn't tell me if my door was actually opened, so I put a mechanical pencil lead in place as well," the teenager explained.

"So what do you do with it?"

"It goes on the hinge; after I close the door I take the pencil lead and rest it on the hinge in such a way that it will break if the door happens to be opened by anyone. Normally I'd take it out myself when I get back home. When I get home from school today, I noticed that the pencil lead was broken."

"Now that you mention it, I do remember that."

"First, the door handle, then the lead. I know someone was in there today."

"You know," someone from behind them starts, making Light tense up and stop dead in his tracks. "I've been in your room plenty of times without you noticing."

Light sighed and turned to face the person. "If that were the case, Ryuk would've told me, wouldn't you have?" When he looked at the Shinigami in question, however, he found the God of death attempting to avoid eye contact, slightly turned away from him. "Ryuk?"

"I'm sorry, Light," (Y/N) laughed, "but I thought you were smarter than that. You know Shinigami don't tell the humans everything. It would ruin their fun. As for the pencil lead, you learned that trick from me."

Ryuk burst out into a fit of laughter, as Light glared at the girl, his cheeks reddening in embarrassment.

"Come, I think I've teased you enough for today," she chuckled, "Let's go to the city. I might have an idea that will help you get out of this mess."