Prologue, Relight

(As seen in Death Note: Relight part 1)

     Three shinigami sat gambling amidst the fragmented bones that lay scattered across the ground and buried in the cracked dusty soil. Hearing footsteps approaching, they looked up from their game to see an unfamiliar face; a new shinigami whom Gook, Dellidublly, and Zerhogie had never seen before. He limped forward, carrying a scythe and using it as a cane to help support his weight.

     "Where is Ryuk?" The newcomer asked, his hollow eyes glowing red from beneath the silver goggles on his forehead.

     "What did you say? You want to see him?" Gook asked incredulously.

     "Yes"

     "But what do you want with him?" replied Zerhogi.

     "Nothing interesting about meeting him." said Gook.

     "Yeah, it's a waste of time!" Dellidublly added in agreement.

      "Just tell me!" The newcomer demanded, swinging his scythe and striking the ground impatiently. "I heard he's here; the death god who went to the human world and did something interesting."

     Not wanting to create a stir and risk further interrupting their game, the shinigami told the newcomer where to find Ryuk. He left without another word to the lazy gods of death and at length he found himself climbing uphill through a dark passage until he came upon a wide cave over looking the barren landscape and one of the many gateways to the human world. Ryuk turned from where he was sitting at the edge of the overlook to see the newcomer.

     "Who are you?" he asked

     "I came to see you. I have something to ask you," the newcomer replied.

     "Something...?"

     "You'll find it worth your time." The newcomer tossed him a shriveled apple. Ryuk looked at it and scoffed.

     "I'd prefer one that's juicier," he said before eating the emaciated fruit whole as the newcomer continued.

     "I want to go to the human world. I'm sick of this boring world. I heard that the human world is interesting.

     "It's a boring world, full of boring people doing boring things," he replied as he finished eating the apple. "But the man who tried to change the world was interesting. Anyway, I'm bored now. I'll tell you about it as payment for that unpalatable apple. Right, this is the story of the man who tried to change the world and become a god."

     The newcomer stood listening attentively as Ryuk told his tale and memories came flooding back to him as he listened to the story of his own rise to power and how it was all stripped away from him by a man he just couldn't truly seem to kill. A man whose memory and successors had haunted him at every turn, standing between him and the perfect world he was trying to create. But nothing was stopping him now.

     "You were not a god. You were just..." Ryuk trailed off, realizing that as he had neared the end of his story, his audience had silently disappeared.

     "Gone already?" He asked with a chuckle. "You should go and take a look. Someone might pick up your notebook if you're lucky and you'll get to see something you won't forget for the rest of your life. Isn't that right, Light?"